Pictures and a very short meeting

 Park pictures

Rensselaer Parks had its annual Fall Fest last week at Brookside Park. Participants could carve pumpkins, listen to a Riley Read, or get their faces painted.

There were also hay wagon rides available and a bounce house, which you can see in the background of the picture below.

The Rotary Porkmobile was there for those who wanted food.

Potawotomie Park now has a chess table.  You have to bring your own chess pieces. Or checker pieces. Or lunch.

Below is a view of the table from the pedestrian bridge.

More trees

The view of Weston Cemetery from the Talbert Bridge shows that some of the maples are past their fall prime and are losing their leaves. (The same view with the tree in the center in full color is here.)

Most oaks turn brown or golden brown in the fall. An oak in Weston Cemetery, shown on the left below, has a pretty reddish brown color.

Tulip trees are turning yellow. 

I noticed this beautiful hickory with its golden brown leaves on the corner of College and Lincoln.

Halloween

I was not planning to post pictures of Halloween decorations this year because they are at their best when it is dark and my camera does not do a good job in the dark. But then I stumbled on this display in the south part of town. The tall figure caught my attention and when I got closer I saw it was part of a display of skeletons. One was raking, a mother skeleton was sprinkling her child with water, and there was a dog skeleton barking up a tree at a cat skeleton

There was also a skeleton mowing and apparently mowing another skeleton and a skeleton hanging from the eaves like a bat.

However, the funniest part of the display was a lineman skeleton climbing a utility pole.

Odds and ends

Last week there was a directional drilling machine at the north end of Mattheson Street. That indicates that work extending sewer lines has begun.

Below is the lift station over the weekend.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council had a short agenda on Monday evening. They approved a salary ordinance for 2023 that reflects the raises passed earlier and approved a public relations request of $750 to fund a City Christmas tree in Potawatomi Park, a City float in the Christmas parade on Saturday, December 3, and some lobby and window decoration for City Hall. The Mayor appointed a committee of seven (Cover, Watson, J. Lockridge, C Lockridge, B Black, Larson, and Keyes) to update policies and procedures. 

City Offices will be closed on November 11 (Memorial Veterans Day). The City has filed a complaint against a property in Kelly Green that was brought to the attention of the Council in July. The Electric Department will start its tree cutting season in November. 

The meeting lasted a mere 15 minutes.

Other things

Last week we had a frost that killed most of the frost-sensitive plants in my garden.

The cross-country semistate was held on Saturday and the Rensselaer boys team came in tenth in a field of 20. However, much more impressive was the winner of the girls sectional held at Rensselaer a couple weeks ago. Morgan Township, which is quite a small school, placed second and will compete at the state meet. It is very rare for a small school to make it to the state meet because cross country does not have a class system; all schools, big and small, compete together. (In 2009 the Tri-County girls made it to state. Some info here and here.)

Francesville is getting another mural. It will be on the wall of the Circle S Farm Solutions building that was constructed in 1908 as the Myers Opera House Block. (The picture at the link shows what the finished product will look like. It is not a picture of the actual mural.) The muralist previously did the sandhill crane mural on Main Street Bakery in Medaryville. 

I found this listing of the Jasper County Chamber of Commerce while looking for something else on microfilm in the Library. I recognize most of the businesses though a few were no longer in existence when I came to Rensselaer in 1974, but only a few are still active.