Pictures from the end of September

 Ribbon cutting for new tennis courts

On Tuesday afternoon there was a dedication ceremony with a ribbon cutting for the new tennis courts at the high school. The event started with several short speeches by the superintendent, chairman of the School board, and several others involved in the planning and building of the courts. The school board had to choose between asphalt and concrete for the courts and chose concrete because it will last longer. There are six courts, the same as before, but they have been shifted to the east so there will be fewer foul balls landing in the courts from the adjacent baseball field.

The boys tennis team this year is very large, with 19 members. 

After the ribbon cutting, the team served a ceremonial first serve.

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest had very nice weather on Saturday and a respectable crowd. The number of people was probably larger later after I left.

There were two bands scheduled, a German band early and a pop band later.

OctoberFest is a fundraiser for Main Street Rensselaer, which uses the money raised for community improvements.

Some park news

Arriving at the Walk for a Doc event on Tuesday, I noticed someone painting the concrete pad that formerly held bleachers for the soccer field.

There are two hopscotch courts, one with words and the other that will be traditional with numbers. The words on the one were hand painted and I was impressed with the precision of the lettering.

Below you can see the start of a heron alongside a series of blocks that will have the alphabet.

Below is the completed heron.

The artist has done some other work in Rensselaer: at the dog park, at Mount Hood Pizza, and most recently at Browns Garden Shop. 

I will post more pictures when this work is finished.

Iroquois Park now has a permanent corn-hole court.

The new lights in Potawatomie Park are LED and they project all their light to the ground, with none going to the sky.

Odds & ends

Improv at the Ritz returns this year with performances on three Thursday evenings: October 6, 13, and 20. The performances begin at 7:00 and the cost is $7.

The Urban Forestry Council has been planting trees on McKinley and Cullen Streets.

Below is what the new lift station looked like over the weekend.

Work continues to remove engines from the power plant.

Dismantling a second engine has begun.

Below is a closer look at the second engine.

The Doc part of Walk with a Doc was a talk about overuse of antibiotics. Bacteria eventually develop resistance to any antibiotics, so when it is used when not necessary, that resistance can be hastened and the useful life of the antibiotic is reduced. Also, the drug companies have not been doing a lot of development of new antibiotics because the payoff for meds that people take to maintain health are a lot more profitable than meds that are only used to cure a disease.

Most fields around Rensselaer are ready to harvest and many have already been harvested.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met for its second September meeting Monday evening. In Citizen's Comments Stace Pickering said that the construction plans are finished and bids are in for the development of Filson Park. There will be a small stage area, a central fountain, a shelter with restrooms, and an archway over an entrance. The new shelter will be like the shelter in Foundation Park. The sidewalks around the exterior will be redone and six new street lights will be installed. There will be art works in the park and the Filsons will work with the Prairie Arts Council to find art. The Council was not asked for money because the Filsons and other private groups are funding the project. The Council approved the plan and gave permission to move forward with one no vote. Mrs Weishaar had previously opposed using this site for a park, saying a better use would be commercial use.

The lot to the south of the park was sold this year and the new owner would like to develop it for retail and or office use.

The Council then had an open hearing for an ordinance to rename the Superintendent of Weston Cemetery as the Caretaker of Weston Cemetery. This change was prompted by a new State law. Afterwards they passed the ordinance that appointed Tony Baltes as the Caretaker.

After the Clerk/Treasurer read the budget for 2023, the Council approved it. The public hearing for the budget was held at the previous Council meeting. Later in the meeting the Mayor announced that this was the last meeting for Clerk/Treasurer Frieda Bretzinger. She will retire on October 8. The Clerk/Treasurer is an elected official. I assume we will learn at the next meeting how the vacancy will be filled.

The electric tracker for the fourth quarter will be a 77¢ increase per thousand kilowatt hours. The Council approved a donation of $500 to the American Legion for their annual Thanksgiving dinner that is open to all. The Legion expects to serve 600 to 650 meals. The project coordinator had two quotes for a new truck for the water and sewer departments. The Council approved the purchase of the truck for a bit over $48,000 with Mrs Weishaar abstaining because her husband works for one of the departments affected.

The Council decided that Trick-and-Treat hours will be 5:00 to 7:00 on Saturday, October 29.

Public Power week is October 2 - 6 and the Council approved $100 for a display for the City Hall lobby. The company removing asbestos from the power plant found more asbestos in the basement and said they could remove it for an additional $7500, which the Council approved. New lights have been installed at Potawatomie Park. The City has hired a CDL driver who does not live in Rensselaer or within 10 miles of the City. The Council waived that residency requirement. The Council approved $56,500 for Town & Country Paving to resurface Cullen Street from Clark to the railroad. The street is in bad shape and the City does not want to wait for CCMG funding next year to do the project. Finally, the Council approved the Police Department advertising for a new officer.

Sacred Heart Church in Remington, an update

At the end of December in 2020, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Remington had a fire that, despite being discovered quite early, did extensive damage. A post in April, 2021 showed some of the damage. The parish is now restoring the building and below is a picture of the interior of the church taken on September 18.

Obviously there is a lot of work to be done. For more on the restoring project, see here.

Happy autumnal equinox 2022

 JC Plan Commission meeting

The September meeting of the Jasper County Plan Commission was very brief. There were two causes on the agenda, both seeking a rezone from A1 to A2. The first was in Milroy Township and also included a second request, approval of a 2-lot subdivision. The second was in Walker Township and was requested to allow a future building site. All three requests were approved, with the subdivision approval contingent on the Commissioners approving the zoning change. There was no BZA meeting

County Council meeting

The County Council met Tuesday evening. The first item on the agenda, an update about EMS did not happen. The Sheriff told the Council he would need an additional appropriation of $75,000 in his food budget to finish out the year. The jail census has rebounded from the low levels of 2020 and 2021 and is now averaging in the 80s. In 2020 it was in the 40s and in 2021 it was in the 60s. Also, food prices have risen. No action was taken on this request because it needs to be advertised and will be on the October agenda.

Three additional appropriations were approved. One was for Circuit Court Renovations, a second for the Sheriff's Department to allow a new hire to be paid with seven years experience credited, and a third for something called pictometry. The Council then held a public hearing on its budget, with the president of the Council reading the budget, which you can find here. There were no public comments. The Council approved the first reading of the budget. Next month it will have to approve it again to make it official.

The Council then reviewed and approved the budget of three taxing units. The Rensselaer Central School Corporation must have its budget approved by the Council because the Board is appointed, not elected. You can find its budget and the other three it approved here.

The budget of the Airport Authority was little changed from last year. If I heard correctly, the career day event that had hundreds of school kids visiting the airport will be resumed next year. The Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District has its budget approved by Jasper County because Jasper County has the highest assessed valuation of the Counties it serves. Its budget is completely funded with tip fees from Newton and White County landfills. The Iroquois Conservancy removes logjams  from the Iroquois River. One this year by a bridge near Brook filled 27 trucks.

Other things

Kentland Bank celebrated its 90th anniversary with a free lunch on Wednesday  for people who stopped by the Rensselaer branch. The bank was founded in 1932, in the pits of the Great Depression. The Newton State Bank failed in 1931 and two citizens of Kentland thought Kentland needed a bank, pooled their resources, and started the Kentland Bank. It could succeed where the previous bank failed because it did not have a portfolio of bad loans.

When the huge wave of bank consolidations took place in the 1980s, the Rensselaer banks looked attractive to the bigger banks and were bought out. The small banks of Kentland, Francesville, DeMotte, and Wolcott apparently did not look appetizing to the big banks, so continued with local ownership. Now they all have multiple branches and seem to be doing very well.

I got a notice from Verizon that the cell phone companies will abandon the 3g networks at the end of the year and that I needed to upgrade my service to 4g. Will that affect you?

Early this week the City was installing new lights at Pottawatomie Park. Some of the lights had broken and either the company that made them was no longer in business or else there were no parts available to repair them. 

Most of the restroom at Foundation Park has been painted red to match the color of other Staddon Field structures.

Work continues on the lift station. Last week an excavator was removed, leaving only one.

The bowling alley has new floors and new lanes. Progress may be very slow, but there is some.

The Rensselaer School Corporation will dedicate its new tennis courts on the 27th at 4:00.

Walk with A Doc heard from Dr Randy Lehman on Tuesday explaining surgery for skin cancer. There are three types and the challenge of the surgery can be figuring out how best to close the opening in the skin. 

Attendance is much lower than it was in previous walks. I wonder if the forced inactivity from Covid has changed habits and people are not getting back to doing things that they did in the past. In any case, Franciscan promised to bring some goodies for people who attend next week.

Attendance was very good for the morning program of the Memories Alive event on Saturday, but disappointing for the afternoon walk. The presenters were very good. Below is a picture of them. The program for this year's event (and also for previous years) can be found here.

The equinox is Thursday. The late summer flowers, such as the perennial sunflowers and goldenrod, are blooming. And daylight is getting shorter and shorter.

Lots of meetings

Rensselaer Board of Public Works

The September meeting of the Rensselaer Board of Public Works approved payment of three invoices. The largest was to Thieneman Construction for work on the new lift station. The payment was for $500,036.85 and with the three previous payments, the City has paid 22% of the roughly $7 million that the project will cost. The construction of the buildings continues as does digging to place sewer lines.

The two other invoices were for Commonwealth Engineering, a payment of $26374.28 for their work on the Lift-station project, and $43,688.75 for their work on the elevated water storage and water-main replacement project.

The Board also approved an applicant for an internship at the Fire Department for an individual who will soon be leaving for a military assignment overseas. He will be able to do some of the training while he is out of the country. It also approved use of the Fire Station for a meeting of the Indiana Volunteer Firefighters Association on October 1.

Between meetings I asked Mr. Lockridge how much brush, tree branches, and other debris the City had hauled after the July storm. He said that the City had hauled about 370 truckloads weighing 780 tons. That is much more than the City hauls during the annual clean up week in May.

City Council meeting

At the beginning of Monday's City Council meeting, the Council held a public hearing on its budget. Since there were no members of the public attending (other than me), there were no comments. Nevertheless, the Clerk-Treasurer read the budget. You can find it and the budgets of other Jasper County entities here. (Take a guess: what Jasper County public agency has the largest budget? My guess would have been wrong.) The Council will vote to adopt the budget at its next meeting.

The gas tracker for September will be a 5¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council voted to renew the various health and other insurance policies affecting employees with one change. It switched options for the dental plan.

The City will hold a public auction in the near future. It needs to first determine a date.

Councilman Noelle Weishaar noted that a constituent who was over 65 who is on auto pay did not realize that a smaller can and trash fee was available and he wanted to be reimbursed for the higher fees that he had paid. His argument was that he had not been notified that the lower fee was available to those over 65 who generate only small amounts of trash. After some discussion, the Council decided to refuse his request because the option had been well publicized and members thought it would open a can of worms.

The City is behind on collecting yard waste because three employees have recently moved on to other jobs.

Airport Authority meeting

I attended the start of the Airport Authority meeting on Tuesday evening via Zoom. The members conditionally approved, pending attorney review, a contract with a consultant to work on a five-year capital improvement plan. The plan, when finished, will need INDOT approval. The contract was submitted earlier in the day, which is why the attorney could not review it before the meeting. 

A new hangar rental was approved. Fuel sales for the year to date are almost $180,000. After the members approved a contractor to seal-coat the aprons of the old hangar building, I left the meeting because I wanted to go to another event.

Open-house discussion of Rensselaer's Comprehensive Plan.

Rensselaer is in the process of developing a new comprehensive development plan. The current plan was adopted in 2007, so is probably out of date. (You can find it here.) It has had a survey that citizens can use to provide input. (It is here.) The City has hired a company that specializes in developing these plans and on Tuesday two representatives of the company were at the open house to listen and answer questions. 

There was no presentation, which some attendees expected. There was conversation and while I was there I heard mention of the importance of health care and the hospital, the desire to have a sidewalk/walkway along SR 114 extending at least to the Fairgrounds, possibilities of other sidewalks or trails, the desirability of a truck route to take garbage truck traffic out of town, housing, and some discussion of addiction, mental health, and homelessness. The Coworking Center that SJC is starting was mentioned and it has apparently drawn a lot of interest. Other people attending would have heard a different list of topics.

I took a couple of pictures. The first shows the City's boundaries and also its exclusion zone, where it controls land use (zoning and building permits). The other shows themes, some of which seem to be outdated.

Other things

The first Walk with A Doc session of the Fall was held on Tuesday and attendance was light. It is held each Tuesday at noon beginning at the Hall Shelter in Brookside Park.

The RENARTWK has a new sign near the City parking lot south of Front Street.

Work continues on the removal of engines from the power plant. There is now a very large machine inside the building.

A new opening has been created a bit to the north.

The City of Monticello is considering replacing its swimming pool with a new one. The current one is considered too old—it was constructed way back in 1969 and is 53 years old. (What does that make the LaRue Pool?)

Celebrating 50 years

The Jasper County Art League was founded fifty years ago and it is celebrating its half century mark with an exhibit in the Fendig Gallery of the Carnegie Center.

 One of the paintings in the exhibit has been moved up from the basement where it normally resides. It is a picture of the old Jasper County Hospital and was painted by Dorothy Scipio.

Judy Kanne was one of the founders and her water color of the Jasper County Courthouse is on display.

Another founding member was Carol Beaver. She made this stained glass window decoration.

I was surprised to learn that Rein Bontreger was an early member. He is represented in the show with this tee shirt.

Paintings by early members of the League are in the northern part of the gallery and more recent work, often expressing the theme of "celebration" in some way are in the southern part of the gallery. In the middle is an early basket by Bonnie Zimmer, who was an early member but who is still very actively creating art.

Probably no one in the exhibit has painted more than Doris Meyers, who is still painting. She would have been older than 50 when the League was started.

I do not remember either Hudsons or Reflections.

I can avoid more typing by including this picture.

A recent painting celebrates the exhibit.

This quilt is by current member Connie Timm and is titled "Celebrating Autumn Splendor".

Another example of textile art is by Mary Van Soest, an early to current member, and titled "Central Park."

Current member Gail Woolever created these glass panels titled "Brilliant Beauties".

The gallery is open on Tuesdays from noon till 4:00 and on Thursdays from 2:00 till 6:00. The exhibit runs until September 29.

Little Cousin Jasper Festival 2022

The Little Cousin Jasper Festival enjoyed great weather on Friday and Saturday and was rained out on Sunday. This year they had a wood carving of Little Cousin Jasper.

 On Friday evening a movie was a featured attraction once it got dark. I enjoyed watching the volunteers setting up the screen.

Below it is almost set up. There is a lot of work needed to put on an event like this.

While the volunteers were setting up the screen, Olga the concert violinist performed on the stage.

The featured attraction for Saturday was a Beatles tribute band, British Mania. They played for over two hours and had several changes of costume. Apparently the band is not made up of a constant group of four but has a group of musicians so the group that is on stage at one event may be different from the group at their next performance.

There were a lot of food vendors. One that caught my eye was making the ice cream that they sold at  the festival.

The big attraction of the festival, judged by the crowd, was the parade on Saturday.

The Rensselaer/Marion Township Fire Department had several of its trucks in the parade, including its new ladder truck.

The ambulance service from Remington was represented. Southern Jasper County Ambulance will be part of Jasper County EMS.

The parade had two Jasper County EMS vehicles. This ambulance is now housed in Remington but will be moved up to Rensselaer when the Jasper County EMS takes over from Phoenix. If you follow this blog, you know that EMS service is frequently discussed at County meetings.

Below is a second Jasper County EMS vehicle.

The Rensselaer Central High School Marching Band was in the parade. It is smaller than when my children were part of it.

There were several tractors from the Retired Iron group. These seemed to be the oldest.

D1 had three vehicles, including its huge tow truck.

Most of the entries were business. I do not recall Sage Bridal being in a previous parade.

There were three of these vehicles that I think were race cars. Or maybe they were for demolition derbies.

At the end of the parade was the grand marshal, Shorty. 

There was much candy for the kids to pick up, which is the major attraction of the parade for many of the onlookers.

A couple of other notes

The Walk with a Doc events sponsored by Franciscan Health will start Tuesday, September 13. Each of the six events starts with a short presentation from a medical person and then participants walk about a mile through Weston Cemetery. Registration starts at 11:45 with the talk starting at noon. Everyone is welcome and there is no entry fee.

Speaking of Weston Cemetery, the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery will take place next weekend. The dress rehearsal was held on Sunday and there were many excellent performances. Almost all of the presenters have had considerable theatrical experience. There will be two performances, one in the Hall Shelter at 11:00 and the other the walking tour at 2:00. Tickets can be purchased at Willow Switch or Browns Garden Shoppe. I suspect this week's edition of the Rensselaer Republican will have a listing of the people being featured.

Intrigued?