A few highlights from 2022

2022 brought some openings and closings. There were ribbon cuttings for All Aligned Chiropractic Clinic and Freida's. S-blended Nutrition had a ribbon cutting to celebrate changed ownership, and then a few months later moved down the street.  New on Washington Street was the Baked Bean. Biscuit & A Bath, a pet supply store, opened on Cullen north of the railroad tracks. Browns Garden Shoppe changed ownership and had a ribbon cutting. The Country Bumpkin, Schmidy's Pizza Palace, Jordan's Floral, and Steffen's Jewelry all closed. Help at Home closed its office and day services in the College Mall and now provides services from its Valpo office. Walgreens closed its large store and moved into a much smaller building. Rensselaer Parks redid the basketball court and constructed new tennis courts in Brookside Park. The high school demolished its old tennis courts and built new ones and also renovated its swimming pool. CDC Resources changed its name to Lirio Resources.

A few businesses moved. Walgreens was mentioned above. Sage Bridal Studio moved to a building on McKinley south of Jackson's Funeral Home. S-blended Nutrition moved into the space Sage vacated. Risner Insurance moved to the building that was once the Dumas Law office. The local optician, Nancy Bayly, sold her business and retired and the new owners are moving to what was Jordan Floral. 

County meetings will look different in 2023. Kendell Culp was elected to the State legislature and was replaced as commissioner by Jeff DeYoung, whose seat on the County Council was filled by Eric Kidwell. Richard Maxwell did not seek reelection and Rein Bontreger won the seat. He will be replaced on the Council by Jason Armold. The City will have elections in 2023 but in 2022 Frieda Bretzinger retired as Clerk-Treasurer and was replaced by Shelby Keys. The County and Marion Township spent many hours getting a new EMS service up and running, which will happen starting in January. (Much of the difficulty was due to State and Federal red tape.)

Early in the year the new Walgreens building was under construction. In the middle of the year Fenwick Farms built a roof for their outdoor patio. Construction continues on a new lift station for the City's sewer utility and renovation of the old admin building at the hospital to make it ready for the Apple Seed early childhood education center. Removal of the old electrical generation equipment from the City Power Plant took many months and is still not finished.

Mural week this year saw only three new murals, but one was a spectacular picture on Ayda's.

During the summer Rensselaer had a major storm that took down dozens and perhaps hundreds of trees. Rensselaer had a white and bitterly cold winter that shut down many businesses for a few days.  (I meant to mention in the last post that the drifting snow was unusually dirty. The wind blew not just snow but also topsoil from fields that had been tilled after the harvest.)

I am sure I have missed some highlights. Feel free to add them in the comments.

Have a Happy New Year!

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Here is a schedule of normal monthly meeting times, with time and place:

First Monday: 

Commissioners, 8:15 Sparling Annex
Drainage 1:00 Sparling Annex
Park Board 6:00 various

Second Monday

Rensselaer BZA 5:30 City Hall
City Council 6:00 City Hall
Animal Control Board 6:00 Sparling Annex
Jasper County Library Board meeting, 6:00 various

Second Tuesday

Tourism Commission 10:00 Sparling Annex
Airport Authority 6:00 Airport

Third Monday

Plan Commission and BZA, Court House 7:00

Third Tuesday

Historical Society 6:30 Museum
County Council 7:00 Sparling Annex
Rensselaer Central School Board 7:00 Van Rensselaer School

Fourth Monday

City Council 6:00 City Hall