Ash Wednesday

 Redevelopment Commission

Last week I saw a meeting notice on the door of City Hall for the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission. The main item on the agenda was "Amendment to Permit Local Art Work." That sounded cryptic, so I decided I should go and find out what they were doing.The Redevelopment Commission controls the proceeds from property taxes in TIF districts, so they have money to spend, but they can only spend it on things that will improve the district, such as roads and utilities. The amendment would allow them to also pay for art work, such as murals, that could increase economic activity for those in the TIF district. No money was requested at this meeting. The amendment passed, with the Board adding the provision that they will want to know exactly what will be done with the money when a request is made.

There is art work planned for this July in Rensselaer and it will be paid from City funds. I suspect the City decided to seek other sources for funding, and the Redevelopment Commission has a lot of money, though when they do spend it, it is often on very expensive projects.

There will be a March meeting and Appleseed will be on the agenda. 

There was a discussion of facade grants as a way other communities have improved the look of their downtowns, and then a discussion of two buildings that some consider eyesores. The old R&M building may be beyond repair. The site was once a Ford-Mercury dealership. It was noted that the cost of demolishing Grandma's Kitchen by the Interstate was about $40,000.

Continued Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met on Tuesday morning, February 21 to tidy up a few loose ends. They had previously approved a memorandum of understanding to submit to NextEra about the Dunns Bridge project, but a date on the document was incorrect so they re-approved it with a new date. They accepted a bid of $84,320 to pave the south entrance of the Fairgrounds. Expanded parking for the Sparling Annex is in process, with quotes being obtained. They approved a replacement hire for Animal Control; the position is part-time. They approved a quote of $4123 for plumbing at the Fase Center. It will be for high-rise toilets and new kitchen faucets. They approved a newly amended holiday schedule, perhaps the fourth version. This change moves the Christmas holiday for County employees from the two days of Friday and Monday to the two days of Monday and Tuesday. (Christmas is on a Monday.)

The health insurance policy for County employees has a new set of regulatory changes. The agent for the County explained that these changes were forced on the County by State and Federal regulations and employees should not see much change. The Commissioners approved the new documents. The Commissioners approved moving forward with new sidewalks on the north and east of the Courthouse that will coordinate with the City of Rensselaer's Brick Street project. The Prosecutor's building has a roof leak and the Commissioners approved a bid from Century Roofing of slightly more than $2000 to repair it. BP still wants to move forward with their project of sequestering carbon dioxide deep underground in Jasper, Newton, Benton, and White Counties. Mr Walstra suggested that Jasper County find out what the other counties are doing and thinking. The Commissioner's attorney said that individual commissioners could reach out to individual commissioners in other counties without violating the open-meetings regulations, and the Commissioners decided to do that. The meeting was adjourned thirty five or forty minutes after it began.

Odds and ends

Stephen Eastridge has announced that he is leaving the Jasper County Economic Development Organization as of March 17. The press release can be found here.

I saw six turkey vultures circling overhead on Monday. Many people look for robins to announce the coming of spring. I wait for the turkey vultures.

Lent has started. I have searched for the schedule of Lenten luncheons for this year and have found that St. Augustine's will host on March 8. There is apparently one other church that will host, but I do not know who or when. (See the comments for the schedule.)

On Monday new bollards were installed by the Post Office. 

As of the weekend, the work on the sewer line in north Rensselaer was still moving up Owen Street.

The Jasper County Historical Society met on Tuesday evening. The program was about an early Rensselaer photographer, Jessie Bartoo. The Museum recently was give a large collection of her photographs. You can watch the meeting here. (Skip ahead to 36 minutes for the program.)

Sacred Heart Church Remington

Repairs on Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Remington are almost finished, though the pictures of the interior do not clearly show that. The interior is full of scaffolding, but the scaffolding is being used for painting. 

Looking up, one cannot see the ceiling because of the scaffolding.

Painting includes using stencil for decoration.

The subfloor has been installed. After the painting is finished and the scaffolding is removed, the floor will be finished and the pews returned.

County Council meeting

The County Council meeting on Tuesday evening had an agenda that stretched to the fourth page, but given that length, the meeting was quite short. Almost all of the items were about the budget. There were things that should have been included in the budget but were not for some reason, changes in wages and salaries that had been approved but were not correct in the budget, and items that had moved from one place in the budget to another. Most of the items were for Community Corrections or the Sheriff's Department. By far the largest items were for EMS. There was an additional appropriation of $250,000 for the Jasper County EMS. This had been in the budget but had been dropped because of delays in getting the JCEMS certified. There was an additional appropriation of $1.5 million for the new ambulance building. Both of these were from ARPA funds. There was a transfer of $70,000 from Southern Ambulance to JCEMS because JCEMS has absorbed Southern. And there was a budget reduction of $350,000 for Phoenix Ambulance because they no longer are in business in Jasper County.