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.