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.