Fall colors 2022

Fall colors

Fall colors seem to peak around mid October. There are some beautiful trees in Rensselaer, though their beauty is short-lived and some of these trees shown below are already losing many leaves.

These trees are on the east side of the highway by Saint Joe's. There may be some hickories here.

I had a picture of this tree two weeks ago. It had a lot less color then.

The maples in Weston Cemetery are very colorful.

Cottonwoods are among a number of species that have yellow leaves in the fall.

I noticed the tree below a few days ago. It looks like a Bradford pear with unusually large fruit. It probably is the result of a cross between a Bradford pear and another ornamental pear. (I tasted it and it has a pear flavor but with an awful aftertaste.)

Leaves are turning faster this year then last year. Last year at this time I published a post showing that trees were still green. It was not until the start of November that I posted pictures like those above.

Continued Commissioners' meeting

The County Commissioners continued their monthly meeting on Monday morning at 7:00 in the Court House. They heard options for 2023 health insurance for County employees and accepted a renewal of the existing policy with minor changes. The rates went down from this year, so both the County and employees will be paying slightly less.

The Courthouse annex (former PNC Bank building) needs changes to five doors to meet ADA requirements. The Commissioners heard ways to do this and will have the item back on the November agenda. They approved extending the for-sale listing for the former annex with Jenkins Realty for six months. The new EMS service is still waiting for state certification and that is needed before it can replace Phoenix. The contract with Phoenix expires at the end of the year and if it appears that the new service will be able to take over at the start of the year, the Commissioners approved giving Phoenix notice. If it looks like the new service will not be able to start at the beginning of the new year, the County may have to advertise for bids.

The Commissioners approved an appointment for the BZA for 2023. Lance Strange will resign because he will be elected as Hanging Grove Township trustee. (He is unopposed in the election.) Matt Sheafer will replace him. 

One of the part-time custodians wants a pay raise of $1.00 otherwise she said it is not worth driving to the job for the few hours she works. The pay raise that the Council approved would give her about an 80¢ raise. The Commissioners decided to raise the wage of all part-time custodians by $1.00. 

Something called Operation Green Light intended to honor veterans is being supported by some local veterans group. It encourages counties and others to display green lights during the week of November 7-13 to highlight issues veterans have. The Commissioners approved a resolution to display a green light during that week at the Courthouse. There was a question from the audience of whether the announced windmill project would follow the wind ordinance for setbacks or if variances will be requested. Mr Culp replied that the company had agreed to follow the ordinance and that the proposed farm may need approval from Remington because some of the site will be within Remington's two-mile exclusion zone. (I heard from a reliable source that the proposed wind farm is a second part of an expansion of the existing Meadow Lake farm. The first part of the expansion will be in White County. If you travel east on US 24 from Remington to Monon, you will notice there are no windmills on the north side of the highway. That apparently is where new windmills will go first.) Finally, the County Highway Department has filled one of the two positions approved on October 3 and would like permission to fill a third vacant position because private contractors have not not shown interest in plowing subdivisions. The request was approved.

County BZA and Plan Commission meetings

On Monday evening both the County BZA and Plan Commission met. The BZA had one item, a special exception for a retreat and vacation rental in Wheatfield Township. The house on the property has four bedrooms and there is a detached building that can be used for workshops. Although primarily intended for artists, it will be rented for other purposes. The Board approved the special exception for three years and it is limited to the current owner.

The Plan Commission had two requests for changes in zoning. The first was for a change from I2 to A2 in Kankakee Township, from industrial to agricultural. The property has a house that was built before it was zoned industrial. The owner has a prospective buyer, but the buyer's mortgage company will not give him a mortgage unless the zoning is changed. With I2 zoning he would not be able to rebuild if something happened to the house. The other case request was from a person who owns an 80 acre parcel in Union Township zoned A1 who would like to give two acres to his brother-in-law for a house. The brother-in-law is escaping Illinois. To build a house on land zoned A1 requires a lot of at least ten acres while only two acres are required for land zoned A2. Both changes were recommended to the Commissioners and should be on their agenda for their November 7th meeting.

After the meeting I voted. The meetings were in the Courthouse and absentee voting was open until 8:00 pm at the Clerk's office. I may have been the only person to vote in their last hour or two.

County Council meeting




The County Council meeting on Tuesday evening was long, about an hour and a half, but not especially interesting. It began with a series of additional appropriations. Rensselaer Central Schools borrowed about $6 million for new tennis courts, swimming pool renovation, and new air handlers and the estimates of what the bond financing would cost came in less in the future but more this year. Since the Council approves the RCSC budget, it needed to approve the change in spending even though none of it comes from County funding. 

The election board needed some additional funds to maintain equipment and the jail needed an additional appropriation because the cost of feeding inmates has risen. The Health Department shifted some positions and needed funding to pay for a new position. EMS is planning a new building and to pay for the planning, an additional appropriation was needed. There were also approvals of several transfers within department budgets.

The Council received a presentation about a proposed wind farm in the far south of Jasper County that was similar to what the Commissioners heard at their meeting earlier in the month. The company planning the project has signed up landowners of about 17,000 acres. Some of those will have towers and others are within the setbacks. The company will make what are called economic development payments for five years totaling $6.5 million that the County will be able to spend in any way it wants. Over the life of the project an estimated $32 million will flow to the County as taxes. There were two votes taken and both were preliminary resolutions. One was, I believe, to accept the economic development agreement and the other was a motion that sets the stage to declare the area an Economic Redevelopment area (ERA), needed before a tax abatement can be granted. Both passed with one negative vote, that by Brian Moore. 

The Council then passed the 2023 budget and approved budgets of the Rensselaer Central School Corporation, the Airport Authority, the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District and the Iroquois Conservancy.

Other things

The Fire Department open house on October 13 drew a large crowd with many children.

Before the open house, I went to the free dinner that Lirio (formerly CDC Resources) offered and saw a lot of familiar faces. The closing of Help-at-Home's day services, which happened several months ago, has given Lirio eight to twelve new clients for their day services, which is open Monday through Thursday. Their day services no longer has a sheltered workshop that does contract work. Contract work in Monticello stopped a few years ago when I was on the CDC Resources Board because the people there no longer wanted to do it. I am not sure why the work stopped at Rensselaer, though the Covid lockdowns may have contributed to the decision. All of the sheltered workshops were aware that contract work would not continue in the future if the sub-minimum wage provision for sheltered workshops was eliminated and that provision was under attack. (The true minimum wage is always zero.) (Help at Home continues to help at home, that is, to provide services at residences.)

A few late scarecrows have been added at Milroy Park.

Rotary had a presentation from a SJC administrator about what is happening at SJC that was interesting and informative. The offices that they are renting for their Core 3 spaces are the faculty offices on the second floor of the Core Building. Perhaps my old office will be someone's business office.

The Jasper County Historical Society had an interesting presentaton at its meeting on Tuesday evening about historical photography. The lecture focused on George Eastman who founded the Eastman Kodak company and Jessie Bartoo, a Rensselaer photographer at the end of the 19th century.  (The presentation starts at about 20 minutes into this video.) The Society recently received a collection of photographs by Bartoo and she will be the subject of an upcoming exhibit at the Society's museum.