A busy few days

BPW

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works met Monday afternoon and approved paying a number of invoices. There were four connected to the new main-lift-station-and-unsewered-areas project:  Thieneman Construction pay invoice #11 for $239,808.50, Commonwealth Engineering for $27,668.25, Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors for $19,884, and Bose McKinney & Evans for $5000. The last two were connected to arranging financing. The construction on the lift station is nearing completion and testing and training are beginning.

There were several other payments to Commonwealth. They received $6362 for design work on the waterworks improvement project and $28381.35 for work on preparing a wastewater asset management plan that is needed to apply for a SRF loan. Finally they received $5158.78 for design work for chemical phosphorus and removal improvements. This is to meet new requirements for phosphorus removal from wastewater treatment.

The final item on the agenda was approval of a fireworks application for the last day of the County Fair, July 22.

City Council meeting

The Board of Public Works meeting lasted about ten minutes. The City Council meeting that followed lasted twice as long. First up was an amendment to the salary ordinance that reflected the changes made recently to policies and procedures. (There were some bonuses added for length of service.) The Council approved three transfers of funds. The gas tracker for April will reflect a 5¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet.

An employee of the Gas Department was honored for 30 years of service. As he left the meeting, most of the audience that included six of his grandchildren also left. The Council approved giving $500 to the Little Cousin Jasper organization for their scholarship fund. It also approved closing half a block of Front Street on Thursdays from 5:00 to 7:30 for a mini-car show, Cylinders and Snacks. The weekly event will begin on May 25 and last until September 28. An item on the agenda about water and wastewater field data collection was tabled. The Council acknowledged receipt of the 2022 TIF management report.

Two Family medical leave requests were approved. The Council approved a request for up to $150 for flowers in planters in front of the Police Department and $700 for snacks and a Friday meal for those working cleanup week. The Council is taking applications for an upcoming vacancy on the Rensselaer School Board. The Police Department has begun tagging vehicles that appear inoperable. April 22 is electronics recycling day. Expect a groundbreaking soon for the new water tower. Planning and preparatory work is progressing on the brick-street project.

Jasper County Tourism Board meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Board had a long and interesting meeting on Tuesday morning. The receipts from the innskeepers tax were down slightly from last year. The buildings and artists for mural week (July 24-28) are locked in. An unnamed local artist would like to participate and the Board said the matter should be left to the group that is organizing mural week. The farm-trail brochure is ready to print and there was a discussion of how many to print and where they can be distributed. There was another discussion about commissioning videos to highlight County attractions.

There were five funding requests on the agenda. First up was a request from Main Street Rensselaer for $20,000 to help cover the increasing costs of developing Filson Park. The park will have a shelter and an amphitheater and will focus on art. The Prairie Arts Council is working on finding sculptures for the park. The Filson family has donated $385,000 but since the initial plans the construction costs have risen. The Board does not have enough in its capital-improvements budget to grant the requested amount so will need to go back to the County Council for an additional appropriation or transfer. The Board also wanted more details on how this park will bring in tourists. The item was tabled.

The DeMotte Chamber of Commerce asked the Board to become a sponsor at the $5000 level for the Touch of Dutch Festival, which will be held on August 12. The Touch of Dutch may be the County's biggest festival, drawing about 7000 people, many from other counties. It features a parade, car show, fireworks, many vendors, some performances and lots of activities. This year's theme will be "The Fabulous Fifties." The festival also tries to have activities that require community involvement. This year it will have a Dutch baking contest. The Festival would like to update its signage this year. The Board approved the sponsorship, which comes with a booth entry that the Tourism director says she will man.

The Prairie Arts Council (PAC) requested $5000 for its Arts in The Alley event on July 28. This is meant as a family-friendly event so will not have a beer tent. It will take place in Filson Park (no discussion of whether construction will be a problem). New this year and what prompted the funding request will be a mural-artists contest. It will feature Indiana muralists each painting an eight-foot square of plywood. When they are finished, they will be judged and prizes awarded. The PAC will keep the finished murals and they will be displayed at places yet to be determined. This contest was the idea of Cameron Moberg who will help organize it. The funding request was approved.

When Indiana celebrated its bicentennial, some planters were installed at the entrances to the Courthouse and the Tourism Commission paid for the flowers planted in them. The flowers were changed with the seasons and since that time the bills have been sent to Tourism. In the past few months the Tourism Commission said that they did not like this automatic payment and requested that this be treated as any other funding request. So at this meeting they received a funding request for caring for the planters. The number of planters has increased because someone added four more planters at the Courthouse and planters have been added at the prosecutor's annex for security purposes. However, one of the judges wants the four most recent Courthouse planters removed because they are at the entrance used for prisoners and they may be a security concern. The estimate for caring for all of these planters was almost $10,000. After discussion, the Board said that it did not think this was something that promoted tourism so they refused the request.

The last funding request was for $1000 from the Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce to support Daffodil Days, which will be the same day as Dandelion Days at the Fairgrounds. There were questions about how much tourism this would promote and a discussion of the need to have guidelines about what is needed to qualify as promoting tourism. The Board approved a grant of $500. The meeting lasted almost two hours.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Airport Authority Board meeting Tuesday evening lasted about as long as the Tourism Board meeting. The meeting began with public participation and attending were two people from American Crop Care (ACC). One was attending in person and the other via Zoom. In February ACC had expressed interest in basing operations at the Jasper County Airport and renting hangar space. The airport manager and engineer had pieced together a possible contract but ACC found it unsatisfactory. At this meeting they pointed out items that would not work for them. Many involved insurance requirements. This discussion lasted about an hour. ACC will give a summary of changes that they think are needed and perhaps some kind of agreement can be salvaged.

In other business, the Airport will have $477,000 available for hangars in 2024. Currently some planes that would like to rent cannot fit in existing hangars. There was also a discussion about land acquisition and disposition. The Board voted that it does not want a gun range near the airport, a proposal that surfaced a couple years ago and apparently has re-emerged. The Crown Vic courtesy car that was in the County auction sold for $700. There are three applicants for a summer internship, two college students and one local high school student. The Board told the manager to choose the person with whom she can best work. The Airport may soon advertise for an assistant manager. Finally, the Board approved the airport manager purchasing a laptop and equipment not to exceed $2000.

Chamber meeting at SJC

The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce met at Saint Joseph College Wednesday at noon and heard a presentation of what course offerings are available at the College. Central are six certificate programs in the health sciences that range in length from five to fifteen weeks. There are specialized medical jobs that require these certificates. More information about them is available here. The College is working on meeting the requirements to offer QMA and EMT certificates. The College also offers a CPR certificate that is a one-day training and can be done at an employer's site. A new certificate program is the veterinary assistant program.

The College offers four associate degree programs in partnership with the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas: General Business, General Studies, Cybersecurity, and Network Technology. These are completely on-line and the courses are taught by the St. Thomas faculty. Offered in association with ZSchool are some continuing education certificates.

The new Core Coworking Center is getting some use. The College has a brochure offering its facilities as a conference center. It lists as available facilities the Core Building, the apartments, and Lake Banet.

If you want to visit the campus, there will be an art show on May 20 from 11:00 until 2:00 featuring local high-school artists. The college has recently added an instagram account in addition to its existing Facebook page. Their latest newsletter is here.

I was hoping there might be some information about future plans, but that was not to be.

A ribbon cutting

The new State Farm Insurance office had a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday afternoon. The owner, Dave Long, has a State Farm office in DeMotte and is opening in Rensselaer because agent Cynthia Basham is retiring and he is taking over her clients. He chose the location in the old Charlie Roberts building because it is highly visible.

Other things

The Rensselaer Republican has more information on bp's proposal to sequester CO2.

Early voting for the municipal primary can be done at the Courthouse on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am to noon and 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm. If you wait until election day (May 2), you will have to go to the Fairgrounds to vote.

The Easter Bunny came to Rensselaer on Saturday for the annual Easter Egg hunt in Brookside Park.

Kids were divided into five age groups. The parents helped the youngest, but some of the four year olds were quite quick in picking up eggs.

The older kids cleaned up their fields in less than a minute.

Downtown Rensselaer has a new business. The Facebook page is here.

Over the weekend I visited the construction site of the new ambulance building. It appeared that the site was ready to have floors poured.

The excavators on Wood Road are gone and soon work will begin on the north part of Mattheson.

Spring seems to really be here. We have had some warm days, magnolias and dandelions are blooming, and I found growth in my yard that I have never connected to Spring, mushrooms.

The Jasper County Historical Society has a new webpage.

The windows downtown are decorated with a spring motif. The artist is the same lady who did the winter paintings and they were commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce as part of the Daffodil Days promotion. Here is the third installment of pictures. (I am told there are still more paintings to come.)