The big storm

Storm damage 

Saturday morning began with a strong storm that moved through Rensselaer, followed by rain most of the day. The damage done by the storm was impressive, with trees and branches down thoughout the City. One of the places hardest hit was Weston Cemetery. In the pictures below you can see two hickory trees that were snapped off at ground level and another tree with its top snapped.

On the west end of the Cemetery the road was blocked with a large branch.

One of the pine trees along Lincoln also was broken apart.

Along College a large branch fell on a couple of cars. The black car, barely visible, had a big dent in the roof and a window broken.

A tree at Saint Augustine's was split and dropped over lines.

On the south side of Rensselaer a large tree fell in front of a house.

Some of the trees that the storm broke were rotten inside.

A big pine tree on the Court House lawn was toppled. It was mostly cleaned up by mid-day, leaving only the trunk.

Some roofing from across Washington Street blew into the Court House lawn and was lodged against one of the trees.

The only other damage that I saw downtown was to the awning of the fitness center.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met for an hour on Monday night. In the Citizens' Comments section of the meeting, the Council heard from Ryan Preston who read a letter from Cameron Moberg. The letter reviewed the benefits that Rensselaer has received from its murals and asked the Council to consider financial support for additional murals and possibly other public art in the future. No action was taken but there will be follow-up discussion. 

The Council approved closing a block of Van Rensselaer Street for Oktoberfest (Sept 24). It was mentioned that the City received a grant to redo the brick streets, but actual construction is probably a year away, so that will not be an issue this year. (The City had applied for this grant a year or two ago but had been turned down. However, it was encouraged to resubmit and this time it was funded.)

The Council amended the Salary Ordinance to reflect the increased pay for the Police Department that was approved at the previous meeting. It also agreed to add some categories to the Salary Ordinance for 2023 that will include the apprenticeship program for the water and waste water utilities. It then heard about how these apprenticeship programs work from the organization that is helping with these programs. 

Next it heard a presentation from someone selling insurance for water loss. As I understood what he was proposing, the City would add the insurance fee to customer's water bills but customers could opt out. Because the Utility Office Manager was not at the meeting, no action was taken.

The Council approved a certificate of burial right. I do not recall the Council ever doing this in the past, though it frequently approves deeds in Weston Cemetery. My guess is that this allows a person to be buried in a lot that was deeded to a long-dead relative. (Update: My speculation was wrong. This is a new name for the cemetery deed request. Some State guideline or regulation caused the change in name.)

There was some discussion of the City's response to the damage caused by the storm. The Police Department said it was overwhelmed with calls, many asking when power would be restored and some of those came on the 911 line, which is not what that line is for. The head of the line department said that six poles were down behind Rensselaer Pet Care and they carried a main feed. This was the cause of some of the more lengthy outages. Power to the water plant was off for seven hours but fortunately the towers were full so there was no disruption in water service. The priority of City workers on Saturday was getting trees and branches off streets. 

Art

The Saturday storm canceled Art in the Alley. The only bit of it that survived was a car painting in front of Markit Arts. For $3 a person could spray paint a car and some people really enjoyed that.

The three Rensselaer murals for Mural Week 2023 are finished and signed. The final part of the mural on the front of Ayda's to be finished was the man.

I will now have to update my Rensselaer Art guide.

Other stuff

Some of the SJC alums were excited last week with the induction of Gil Hodges into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The baseball field at SJC was named after him, but when he was a student, the ball field was to the east of the Science Hall. An old post found traces of it.

I have not posted a picture of the quarry for some time. It continues to slowly fill. Compare to the picture taken in April.

The new tennis courts at the high school look almost complete. They do not yet have nets.