The longest days

    Current art show

The current art exhibit at the Fendig Gallery features art mostly from Southeast Asia that is in the permanent collection of the Gallery. It was donated a while back by Father William Stang who for quite a few years taught biology at SJC.

The exhibit runs until July 17 and the gallery is open Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. (See here for more.) I had no idea that things like this were in the permanent collection. I wonder what else is there. It would be nice if the Gallery would post a couple items from the collection, and change them each month.)

Odds & ends

Tuesday was the summer solstice, the day with the most daylight in the northern hemisphere. For the next six months daylight will slowly lessen.

I saw this robotic lawnmower busily mowing grass recently. 

There are several construction projects underway. New dugouts are being constructed for the Roth Field in Brookside Park.

The High School is getting a new roof.

The foundation of the old Fletcher Monnett home is being removed. It is next to the REMC building and eventually REMC will probably build something there. I was told that the house was a disaster inside when people from REMC inspected it.

Lots of dirt is still being moved in preparation for a new lift station just to the east of Weston Cemetery. It is hard to see exactly what they are doing because visitors are not welcome at the construction site.

The former Clinic of Family Medicine is now the Liberty Clinic. Last week the Rensselaer Republican had an article about the new garden on the grounds.

There will be a Mural Week this summer, from July 18 to the 23rd. The focus will be in surrounding communities, especially Remington.

The Little Library in front of the Court House sign on the corner of US 231 and SR 114 now has books in it. 

There are lots of tadpoles in Weston Pond. With the hot days in the forecast, the pond may dry up quickly. 

Long ago

I found this article while reviewing microfilm in the Rensselaer Library.

I am pretty sure that this Howard Clark is the Howard Clark that later became the editor of the Rensselaer Republican. At the time this was written his father was an editor and Howard was working at the paper. I could not find anything about Lloyd Parks. 

I like the last paragraph. At the time the Washington Street Bridge was an iron truss bridge so the top was 15 to 20 feet above the river. The Creamery Bridge is now the College Avenue Bridge.

July of 1915 must have been a very wet month. In the next issue of the Republican there was a report that the onion crop was a total loss because of too much water in the fields. (At one time onions were an important crop in Jasper County.) And then a bit more than two weeks later a young boy who fell into the River did drown. It would take another drowning thirty one years later to move Rensselaer to build a swimming pool. I wonder how many drownings the public pool has prevented.

County Council

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening in what was supposed to be a hybrid meeting, in person with a Zoom option. I am glad I decided to attend in person because the Zoom part never happened. 

Mark Sinclair from Animal Control told the Council he would like to fill a full-time position that has been vacant for several years. The money for that position is no longer in his budget so he wants the Council to restore it. The Council took no action at this meeting and Mr Sinclair did not expect them to.

The County Clerk wants to move part of her office, that part that works for the Superior Court, so she will have room to store new election equipment. She would like to upgrade the office furniture of the three employees who will move and thinks the move time is an ideal time to make the upgrade. The cost is about $5400. The Council voted to support the request but needs to advertise for an additional appropriation and pass it at the next meeting to allow the purchase to take place.

The Sheriff recently lost an officer who took a job with the Federal Marshals program. He has hired a replacement, a man who was a deputy in the Department from 2013 to 2016 and then was deployed to Afghanistan. After his return he worked as a police officer in Houston so he has nine years of experience in law enforcement. The Sheriff would like to hire him at the pay grade of a deputy with seven years of experience and needs an additional appropriation to do that. The Council supported his request but will need to advertise and approve an additional appropriation at its next meeting.  The Sheriff also wants to make some changes for merit retirement, raising the death benefit and allowing those without wives to have beneficiaries. The Council is one of the bodies that must act to make these changes.

The Council passed four additional appropriations. Two were for the Sheriff's Department, allowing officers to start at pay with several years of experience. One was for the absentee voter board and the fourth was for software and a computer for warning siren maintenance.

The Council approved the last year of an abatement for Wilson Chemical. The company continues having problems hiring drivers. A future abatement in the works is a seven-year abatement for a methane pipeline connecting three dairies with the natural gas trunk line that runs through the County. This is a $15 million dollar project. The Council approved a motion to have its attorney start working on the abatement and whatever else needs to be done to get the project started.

The final item was a discussion of whether a dedicated funding source can be found for County EMS service. There is a new State law taking effect on July 1 that allows for a county income tax to be dedicated to EMS, but for a county to pass that tax, it must meet conditions. It is not quite clear what hoops the County needs to jump through to meet those conditions. This topic may be discussed further at the joint Commissioner/Council meeting in July. There was a bit of concern that a new tax might not be well received if it is not offset elsewhere with a tax reduction.