Miscellany, mid January

 County Council meeting

The County Council met on Tuesday with a different look from that of 2022. There were two new Councilmen, Eric Kidwell (who began in December) and Jason Armold, who was elected to replace Rein Bontreger. The Council reorganized by electing Steve Jordan as president and kept Gary Fritts as Vice President.

The first item on the agenda was the pay for the new SRO officer for the Kankakee Valley School System. The person hired has over twenty years of law enforcement experience in Benton County, and the Sheriff's Department has a matrix that ties pay to years of experience. The Council was asked to determine where they wanted to start the new officer. The County will pay 25% of the salary and the KV school district will pick up the other 25%. After some discussion, the Council decided to start him at 7 years, which is as high as the matrix goes. (The three SRO officers for the KV schools live in Wolcott, Rensselaer, and Benton County.) 

Next the Council supported the prosecutor seeking a new car for his investigator priced below $40,000. If he finds a suitable vehicle, the spending for it will have to be advertised before the Council can put it on the agenda for approval.

The Sheriff requested several additional appropriations that were needed because of errors in this year's budget. One was tabled for clarification and the others were approved. The Council approved moving some dormant funds, accounts from which no expenditures have been made for at least a year, back to the general fund. The Health Department has been trying for several meetings to pay employees for extra work involved with Covid shots. At this meeting all the requirements to have the money transferred were met and the payments were approved.

The Council changed the meeting schedule for July, moving its meeting to July 11. In the original schedule the meeting had been scheduled during fair week. Finally the Council approved appointments to about ten boards. Only three seemed to be new appointments rather than reappointments.

Special BPW meeting

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works had a special meeting on Thursday morning to open bids for the Elevated Water Storage & Water Main Replacement Project. The bidding was split into two parts, one for a water tank near the Interstate and the other for water main and feeder line replacement. The first part received three bids, from firms in Indiana, Kentucky, and South Dakota. Each bid had a base price and then a price that included mandatory alternatives. As I understand it, the firm had to include a bid for these alternatives, but the City can choose which, if any, it wants included. The base bids had a high of $4,568,428 and a low of $3,867,500. The water-main replacement part had only one bid, for $982,450. All bids were taken under consideration and Commonwealth Engineering will make a recommendation after it reviews them.

Other things

Work has begun on extending sewer lines on Owen Street and John Deere Road. 

The pipe has been positioned along Owen Street.

John Deere Road will be reduced to a single lane between Owen and Matheson Streets as the pavement is ripped up. The sewer line will go south on Matheson for a few hundred feet.

The Evans, Finney, and Taylor Eye Care Group has moved into its new quarters, the former Jordan's Floral Building. They have a lot more space than they had in their old building.

Strack and Van Til has built a roof for one of its entrances.

Update: A comment on Facebook noted: "Strack and van Till has had a roof over the outside entrance you showed. Perhaps they just repaired it?"

The Carnegie Center is hosting the first of its four school displays. This one is for K-2 and will close on Jan 29.

There is a new business next to the Main Street Bakery in a space that I did not realize existed. It is a beauty parlor, The Beauty Oasis Salon, which a Facebook page Beauty by Ash.

Appleseed seem to be getting ready to open its Appletree Center because they now have a director. She has been the director of the Growing Patch Learning Center in Remington, which is also run by Right Steps.