Memorial Day

Memorial Day ceremonies were held at Weston Cemetery Monday morning. Mayor Wood was the emcee and Jeff Philllips gave the main address. He talked about the emotional impact that the words of taps and the playing of taps can have on servicemen and how they are appropriate for Memorial Day.

An unusually large crowd attended this year.

Other 

The downsized Walgreens store opened on Thursday, May 26. 

It seems designed mostly to serve customers at the drive-thru window, but it does have shelves inside stocked with heath-related items. 

The Rensselaer Farmers Market opened in early May but I did not stop by until the 28th. I found a vendor with a lot of asparagus that she grows on a third of an acre a few miles northwest of Rensselaer, someone selling radishes as well as a variety of other items, and someone selling two varieties of mushrooms that he grows in a shed in Rensselaer.  I expected to find someone selling rhubarb, one of the other early summer crops, but did not find anyone. Another vegetable that is coming into season is garlic scapes but I do not recall ever seeing them for sale at the Farmers Market.

There were many vendors, most of them selling plants or baked goods. 

The construction site for the new lift station for the City's sewers now has a construction trailer. It also has no-trepassing signs.

Milroy Park has a display honoring this year's graduating seniors. Several area high schools have already had graduation.

Meteorological summer begins on June 1 and there are plenty of signs that summer is here. Geese have hatched their eggs and are now guarding their goslings. These were near CongAgra, an area that geese love.

On Saturday the 28th I crossed the Talbert Bridge and the cottonwood trees were shedding their seeds. Some of them were caught by a spider web on the bridge. 

Who was Gideon C Moody?

 Odds and ends

Last Thursday trucks left with two shipping containers from the Rensselaer power plant.

Below is the other container leaving.

After the crane was used to load the containers onto the trucks, it was loaded on a truck and was gone on Friday.

Fountain Stone Theaters is again showing free movies for children this summer.

The Airport has announced a couple of programs for young people this summer (here and here).

The Park Department has a variety of programs for mostly children this summer.

Two Rensselaerians have recently published books, one on bar keeping and the other about the closing of SJC.

I took in some aluminum cans last week and was surprised that the price the scrap yard was paying was 70¢ a pound. I have never seen it that high. It takes 30 to 35 cans to equal a pound, so the scrap value of an empty can is about 2¢. That takes me back to my boyhood when an empty pop or beer bottle could be returned for 2¢. (Back then most pop and beer came in bottles that were returned and reused.) We did not find many because back then a postage stamp for a letter was 3¢ and a candy bar was 5¢; most people kept their empties. 

I have heard of a couple of local people who were scammed by buying gift cards supposedly for a friend or relative who was in desperate need of money. Scams involving gift cards are quite common; do not fall for them.

Some corn is sprouting.

Walgreens will be moving this week. The shelves in the new store are being stocked.

History: Gideon C Moody

The Library is digitizing old newspapers and has a number of volunteers helping by reviewing old microfilm, finding problems such damaged or duplicate pages. I am one of the volunteers contributing a couple of hours a week. I cannot resist taking a look at the main stories as I scan through the reel and I found this article from 1904 about Gideon C Moody.

I did a quick search on the Internet to see if I could find more about him and found an alternative account of the duel. He has a Wikipedia entry and most items I found have the same information. His name is on the back of the base of the Milroy statue in Milroy Park. If anyone can find more about his Jasper County life, I would like to hear it.

City Council meeting

On Monday evening the Rensselaer City Council met. They approved a request for the Eagles to close part of Harrison Street in front of the Eagles building on Saturday, June 18. The Eagles are having a fundraiser for a girl with Aplastic Anemia. Her body does not produce enough red blood cells and she may need a bone-marrow transplant. They will have a variety of activities during the day and into the evening, starting with a motorcycle ride.

There was a public hearing for additional appropriations and no one from the public spoke. The Council then approved the additional appropriations. Park Superintendent Joe Effinger was recognized for 30 years of service in the Park Department (26 as Park superintendent) and given a watch. The Council ratified two polls, one that approved the purchase of a trencher and trailer for the Gas Department and the other that hired Baker Tilley to revise utility rates. The current trencher is nine years old and is leaking oil. The City needs to eliminate a utility tax and Baker Tilley will figure out how to restructure rates without the tax. 

The roof is leaking on the Street Department building (north of the recycling building) and has other problems. The Mayor appointed a committee to decide what should be done. Money from the public relations fund was approved to begin a beautification campaign starting with flowers in front of City Hall and in Potawatomi Park.  There will be a Memorial Day ceremony in Weston Cemetery on May 30 at 11:00.

The Police Department has taken delivery of a new squad car. On Monday ground was broken for the sewer project. The first step will be to extend Elza Street so equipment can get south of the high rate treatment plant. 

The roof repairs have been completed at the Gas Department. A new backhoe was delivered to the City in the past week or two. Rain canceled games on Saturday at last weekend's baseball tournament at Blacker Fields. The tournament scheduled for next weekend may not happen because not enough teams have signed up.

Suddenly Summer

Odds and ends

Last week we went from cold Spring weather to hot summer weather in just a couple days. 

The new Walgreens store looks like it is ready to open. Last week the parking area and drive through were paved and painted and signs were put up. In a letter to customers, Walgreens said that they would be closing the current store on Wednesday, May 25 and opening at the new location on Thursday, May 26.

I hope some business moves into the old building.

The outdoor patio at Fenwicks is finished.

The Chamber of Commerce had a luncheon on Wednesday that featured a presentation about Appleseed Childhood Education. They are almost ready to start taking applications for enrollment. If they have more children enrolled than the 70 or 72 limit, they will use a lottery to determine which children to enroll. The design work for the building is finished and the renovation of the building should begin in a month or two. Check their website for more information.

Browns Garden Center recently changed ownership and the new owners had a ribbon cutting on Friday.

Maple trees produced a lot of seeds last year and there are hundreds of them sprouting in my yard. Fortunately, mowing gets rid of them.

A librarian told me about Joseph Harkin, a man with an unusual life story who lived for several years in Jasper County, probably only in the summer. What made him unusual? Read it here.

In Theater news, The Carnegie Players will present The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on June 16-18 and the Fendig Theatre for Children will present Beauty and the Beast on July 7-9.

The last Walk-with-A-Doc event took place on Tuesday. The topic before the walk was mammography and I was surprised to learn that Franciscan-Rensselaer has a more capable and newer mammography machine than Franciscan-Lafayette.

The Jasper County Historical Society held its monthly meeting on Tuesday evening. The meeting heard about the Library's project to digitize newspapers from the 1850s to 1920, an update on the planning for September's Cemetery Walk, recent acquisitions of materials about the George Marshall and Bartoo families, and a presentation on Rensselaer murals.

Jasper County Plan Commission

The Jasper County Plan Commission met Monday evening in the Commissioners' Room of the Court House. They had two items on the agenda. The first was a request for a rezone of 15 acres in northern Newton Township from A1 to A2. The reason for the request was that the owners wanted to follow up the rezone with a request for a three-lot subdivision that would allow them to sell five-acre lots for residences. A neighbor strongly objected because he did not want residences there. After discussion, the Commission voted to sent the request on to the Commissioners with an unfavorable recommendation.

The second item on the agenda was architectural standards in the UDO.  They apply to R1 and R2 zoning and specify things like roof pitch and the number of garages required for a house. The question was why should the Commission regulate details of architecture when they already require buildings to meet an international residential code and all the R1 and R2 zoning is in subdivisions that have their own regulations and covenants. The Commission moved to strike that section from the UDO. This probably will also need to go to the Commissioners.

The rest of the meeting was a discussion of how to deal with people who have offensive trash around on their properties.

County Council meeting

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening. It approved some additional appropriations for spending that they had blessed at previous meetings, such as new radios for Community Corrections, license-plate-reading cameras, and spending from the Animal Shelter donation fund. Abatements were on the agenda but that item was moved to June. A grant for the Sheriff was also on the agenda but his grant writer is not available so he needs to find another grant writer. 

Several months ago the County had approved a tax exemption for companies installing new broadband, but the Assessor needed Council approval of some forms to meet State requirements. The Council gave that approval. The exemption lasts for five years and has the same effects as a tax abatement but is done in a different way.

Bret Risner began a discussion of County health insurance with the introduction of a couple of spokesmen from a company that works with Benton County on their health insurance. They thought that there were areas in which Jasper County could improve. I could not follow some of the discussion and eventually it became a discussion between the two spokesmen and Commissioner Culp who was on Zoom. Health insurance is something that is the responsibility of the Commissioners, not the Council.

Mostly odds and ends, May 2022

Odd and ends

The Tourism Commission did not meet on Friday because not enough members could attend to have a quorum. There was little on the agenda and no funding requests.

The winner in the only interesting contested race in last week's primary election was Kendell Culp, who is the Republican nominee for state representative. I was disappointed to see that one of the other candidates resorted to misleading attack ads.

There has been no noticeable activity at the power plant for the past week.

The windows of the old bakery downtown are covered in paper. I heard from people who usually know that an eatery of some kind is planned for the space.

I traveled to Kentucky over the weekend. You can find gas for less than $4.00 a gallon there and the trees seem to be fully leafed out. We stopped at a new Buc-ee's south of Richmond. I had never heard of the chain until a few weeks ago and was amazed at what I saw. Buc-ee's started in Texas and now is expanding. The Kentucky Buc-ee's features 100-200 fuel pumps and a huge convenience store that was packed with people. Search for it on the Internet to find more.

On the way home we wanted to stop at the KFC outlet on US 24 at Remington and were surprised that it is no longer open.

Morocco was featured in a film broadcast on WTTW. You can view it online here.

Over the weekend the Blacker Fields hosted another tournament. I think the Friday night games were canceled due to the rain.

The roof over the outdoor seating at Fenwicks is finished and the area is open for dining. The new Walgreens seems ready to have its drive-through and parking areas paved.

As I type this, I can see a tree frog on my window. It is the first frog I have seen this year.

City meetings

The Board of Public Works met Monday evening and approved paying three invoices. In the City Council meeting that followed, the Council approved use of Filson Park on July 23 for an Art in the Alley event. It also approved the Cylinder and Snacks Car event on Front Street for Thursdays starting May 26. (Last year the event was scheduled for Tuesday evenings.) The car events will run from about 5:00 to 7:30. The Council also approved street closings for the Little Cousin Jasper festival in September.

The meeting had a short agenda. There was an additional appropriation and a couple of transfers. The gas tracker for May will reflect a 14¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council approved the Mayor's holiday of September 2, which will add a day to the Labor Day weekend. 

Councilman Cover suggested that the Park Superintendent get some estimates for a new park headquarters. It will likely be located in Brookside Park where the tennis courts are now. 

The Chief of Police announced that a new car ordered in November will be delivered this week. One of the Department's dispatchers received the Indiana EMS Association (IEMSA) award for 2021 dispatcher of the year. She will soon leave the Department and take a job for Courthouse security.  The City has begun work on a new comprehensive plan. The work is funded by a grant obtained through KIRPC. The existing plan dates from 2007. 125 people attended the Gas Department open house and enjoyed the lunch provided. For cleanup week, the Police tagged 37 vehicles but only had to tow 4. The Street Department collected 83 tires, 194 tons of garbage, 16 tons of brush, 38 of yard waste, 12 gaylord boxes of electronics, and 11 truckloads of scrap metal. 

Primary election day

Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met for their May meeting on Monday morning. Back again was the dairy project pipeline to connect the Oak Basin Farm to the Hidden Valley Farm with changes requested last month by the Commissioners. This pipeline will take methane produced from cow manure, refine it, and inject it into the natural gas trunkline that runs through the County. The revised plan put more of the pipeline on private land rather in the County right-of-way and was approved.

Two bids were opened for road construction materials. One was much, much higher than the other and after review by the County attorney, the low bid was accepted.

A series of short items followed. The County was informed that the Federal Government requires it to put employee health insurance information on its website. A citizen had concerns about traffic at the entrance to the Peaceful Valley subdivision. The Sheriff's Department said it was aware of the problem. A citizen gave a presentation of a plan for bike trails. She said that there are outside funds available for trails and the County presently has none. The probation department was given permission to replace two track phones with iPhones. The new phones will run an app that the Department is introducing. The Commissioners endorsed an annual grant proposal from Community Corrections. This year's proposal will seek funds for a ninth officer because the department is chronically short of staff. After hearing a short presentation about the Comprehensive Plan that the Plan Commission recommended, the Commissioners approved it. Stephen Eastridge of JCDEO asked the Commissioners for a letter of support for a grant that Project Ribeye is seeking from the Department of Agriculture. He also proposed using some of the ARPA funding to establish a revolving loan fund to help small businesses. Commissioner Maxwell was dubious that this was something that the County should be doing and no action was taken.

The Commissioners approved advertising for bids for Court House drainage. Their intent is to open the bids at the June meeting and then decide if they want the work done. They made an appointment to fill a vacancy on the Animal Control Board and also approved filling a vacancy that the Clerk's Department has in the Small Claims office. They approved a road-use agreement for Dunn's Bridge II with the addition that the contractor maintains the roads during construction, not just fixing them after construction. The Commissioners approved allowing Mr Culp to sign acceptance of the $1 million in CCMG funding.

The Sheriff had six vacancies to replace. Five corrections officers have recently resigned or have announced that they will resign. He has three replacements lined up, and one of them is a part-time Court officer, so that position will also need to be replaced. He discussed the grant he wants to submit to hire additional officers; he had given this presentation last month to the Council. He said that the project to reduce water usage at the jail needed some plumbing done and he was getting a quote.

The Commissioners then paused for public comments. Two people who live in the northeast part of the County were concerned that a solar developer was signing up additional land to the west of the currently approved projects. The Commissioners said they had no information, but the normal way the project to proceed is that the developer does not seek County approval unless it can sign up enough land. So something may happen in the future or it may not. Someone commented that rumor has it that Dunn's Bridge I has problems obtaining panels, which is why there are lots of posts in the ground with no panels.  The other person commenting had previously commented at the Council meeting and was concerned about the way the County maintains financial records. I suspect that much of the problem he perceives is due to the actual way that the County pays things is different from what he thinks happens.

The Commissioners were told that the Plan Commission would like to have future meetings at the CourtHouse but did approve or disapprove. The meeting was continued to May 16 at 8:30 if needed.

Park Board

The Rensselaer Park Board met on Monday evening but did not have a quorum. Those attending heard a presentation from a girl scout requesting permission for her troop to place a little library box in a park, preferably Foundation Park. Those attending were favorable to the request.

Odds and ends

Greyhound seems to have changed its bus schedule. It leaves at 8:15 am on the way to Chicago and at 2:50 pm on the way to Indianapolis.

Schmidy's served its last pizza on Saturday. They closed when they ran out of food.

On Friday Brookside Park hosted an Arbor Day ceremony. The mayor spoke, the Browns, former owners of Browns' Garden Shop, were thanked for their help in planting trees around Rensselaer, and some Boy Scouts spread mulch around the newly planted redbud tree

Last week I noticed that Strack and Van Til had a special deal on hand sanitizing gel. They were giving the boxes away.

On Saturday more work was done on the roof over the outdoor dining area at Fenwick Farms.

The second baseball tournament at Blacker Fields took place this past weekend. There were games on Friday afternoon and all day on Saturday and Sunday. I admire the dedication and enthusiasm of the parents and the players. On Saturday they had short periods of light rain but the temperatures were tolerable.

There is a dumpster next to the old Monnett School building. I assume that means that work is being done inside. 

This is cleanup week and City crews are busy taking away awesome piles of stuff that people have set out on the curb.

Today is primary election day. If you live and work in Rensselaer, the Fire Station is probably the closest place to vote.

In the previous post I mentioned Dr Randy Lehman. Here is his website.