Summer begins

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone. Many people consider Memorial Day as the beginning of summer. 

There was a decent crowd for the Memorial Day ceremony in Weston Cemetery.

In the 1946 edition of Chaos, the Rensselaer High School yearbook, there are pictures of the nine RHS alums who died in World War II. That seems a lot for a small city like Rensselaer.

Rensselaer Revelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met on May 25 in City Hall. The members heard via Zoom from a person from KIRPC who explained a community development block grant that could be used to purchase and remove a blighted building. The grants can be as large as $500,000 and have a 10% match requirement. There are two grant cycles per year and the next one would be in October. The property that is cleared cannot be developed for five years, which some members thought a strange provision. The property that the Commission is interested in is the R&M property. Apparently the party that was interested in purchasing it is no longer interested. In the discussion members voiced a number of concerns, including total cost, the possibility of asbestos increasing removal costs, and what environmental problems might be encountered on the site. No action was taken and the Mayor will try to get more information.

At a previous meeting the Commission passed a declaratory resolution that would allow TIF funds to be used for art. At this meeting it passed the confirmatory resolution that is the last step to complete the resolution. 

The State Legislature has passed changes to TIF regulations and now TIFs can be used for residential developments such as subdivisions. There are no projects in the works for Rensselaer that could use this, so no action was taken at this meeting.

Other things

Fountain Stone Theaters has announced its summer of free movies for children. They will show on Thursdays at 10:30.

Here is a video of the rest area/Welcome center that is nearing completion on I-65.

The LaRue Pool is scheduled to open on June 5. There is water in it, so maybe it will not be bone-chilling cold when it opens.

The hobbies and collectibles store, P&P, on North McKinley is closing at the end of June and maybe earlier. It is sad to see a business close, but they are looking for another location, possibly in DeMotte. The business in the back of the building, a cabinet maker, wants to expand into the entire space.

I think the moving of dirt at the new lift station is almost finished. The hill along Lincoln Street has been expanded to the south. 

I found an interesting site that looks at how income is moving in and out of counties. This is income, not population, so a few rich people moving offset many poor people moving. Jasper County on net gains from movement from Lake, Porter, and Newton counties in Indiana and Cook and Will counties in Illinois. We lose income to Tippecanoe, Marion, White, Pulaski, and LaPorte counties in Indiana.

We need rain. The grass has stopped growing.

Construction and a meeting

 Some construction notes

The skeleton for the new EMS building is up. There was no activity on the site Monday morning.

Deere Road between Matheson and Owen was torn up for a sewer line. The work is finished and the road has been patched.

The same is true for the work on West Washington. Other roads south of the river have been milled, and some roads in the east part of Rensselaer have been paved.

The road into the new lift station has been prepared. The temporary road extending from Elza has been cut down. Stone was then trucked in and spread. Below is what the road looked like last Wednesday.

Later in the day it was being paved.

On Thursday the first coat of asphalt was complete.

Work has begun on the new water tower by the Interstate. 

City Council meeting

Monday's City Council meeting began with a public hearing for the tax abatement for White Castle. No one spoke. The Council then passed a confirmatory resolution affirming it. The electric tracker for the third quarter will be a $3.55 increase per gigawatt hour of usage. (The average customer use is about 700 kilowatt hours per month, so the average bill will see about a $2.50 increase.) 

A change in State law made new appointments to the City's Plan Commission necessary. The Council's appointees must be Council members or work for the City. The three new Commission members are Bryce Black, Joe Effinger, and Justin Wilson. The Council had two applicants for the  position it fills on the Rensselaer School Board. It voted to select Courtney Wilcox, who is a deputy auditor for the County. (She has been attending all Commissioner and County Council meetings with the Auditor. She will no longer be able to attend County Council meetings because the School Board and County Council meet on the same evening.)

At the end of April the Council opened bids for upgrading electric meters. The existing meters (current meters?) are no longer supported and are beginning to fail. The electrical engineer for the utility had obtained four bids from three companies and recommended one that cost about half a million dollars to purchase 1400 meters. The funding will be from the utility's depreciation fund. The Council approved the proposal. Eventually gas and water meters will also be upgraded to advanced metering.

The Council approved having the Mayor sign an agreement with Baker-Tilley for work on an upcoming sewer project. The City Attorney had reached out to Kimberly Horn, the planners of the brick street project about the parking issues raised at the last Council meeting. He was told that to change the parking would be a major change that could end the grant needed for the project. The railroad has promised to fix crossings on Cullen and US 231. The City Attorney said that he asked the City's bond lawyers about waiving tap fees for the new EMS building and was told the City could not do that because those fees are pledged to the bond payments. The Council approved a bid of $33,000 from Titan Construction to get the power plant ready for its next use. The large engine in the plant still has not been moved out. Next week work will begin burying cables under the brick streets. Grinding and paving have begun with the Community Crossings grant project. The new lift station was declared substantially complete on May 15. Landscaping and punch-list items remain unfinished. Sealing of the Cemetery roads west of the ditch is finished and work will continue on the roads east of the ditch.

Odds and ends

Saint Joseph's College had a small art show on Saturday. The paintings were from students at Rensselaer and KV high schools. 

There were two food trucks on the premises. They had no customers during the short time I was there. I am not sure what the goal of the art show was.

Rensselaer High School will be offering some aviation classes this fall. More info here.

The Walk with A Doc event is being replaced with a new event, the Jasper County Wellness Walk. It will meet in the Hall Shelter at Brookside Park Tuesdays at noon. More info here.

The LaRue Pool is scheduled to open on June 5.

The third of six scheduled tournaments at the Blacker Fields took place last weekend. There are two more scheduled for June and on for July.

Next Monday is Memorial Day and lots of stuff will be closed. There will be the usual ceremony at Weston Cemetery at 11:00.

Appleseed Childhood Education was mentioned in an article about childhood education in rural areas. You can read it here.

Demolition and meetings

 Demolition continued

The previous post showed the beginning of the demolition of the old lift station adjacent to Weston Cemetery. On Thursday the walls were gone and the concrete foundation was being removed.

On Friday the base had been smashed into pieces with lots of rebar extruding.

On Monday the pieces and rebar had been removed, still leaving some concrete with rebar in the ground.

On Tuesday dirt had partially filled the hole. In the backgound you can see a dump truck delivering topsoil and bales of hay behind it. There has been lots of dirt moving in the past week. I assume that the project is in landscaping mode to finish up.

On West Washington the cuts in the road needed to install the sewer line were being paved. 

Some of the roads in Weston Cemetery were closed on Tuesday for seal coating. Perhaps more will be closed this week to finish the job.

Last week City workers removed the tunnel beneath Harrison Street. Below is a picture of the tunnel extending under Halleck Park.

Closings

The Little Coffee Shop on 231 announced that they were closing on May 16.

IVY Tech is discontinuing classes in Monticello. Monticello was a satelite campus of the Lafayette IVY Tech.

Rensselaer BZA

The Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met on Thursday evening. The announced agenda had only one item, but the revised agenda available with the meeting packet had several more items.

The announced item was for a variance of use. The applicant lives on Fairview Drive (west of the golf course), which is not in City limits but is in the City's exclusion zone, so the matter is subject to City rather than County approval. The applicant would like to get a federal firearms license (FFL) to be able to buy and sell firearms as a licensed dealer. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) told him to obtain the license, he would need a variance of use because he lives in a subdivision. If he lived in the country, he would not need this. He is presently buying and selling firearms, but must process the transactions through licensed dealers, which adds expense and inconvenience. He buys and sells using on-line platforms that are for the gun market and does not plan to have his own website. He will not buy and sell from his residence. The BZA had received one written complaint, but it was based on the assumption that he would be doing retail business from his residence. One of the members of the Board said that there were at least two other people in the County doing what the applicant wanted to do.The Board approved the variance of use with several conditions. The variance will lapse if the applicant does not get his FFL. Any changes to his LLC or any change in his business model will cause the variance to lapse. No commodities of any kind can be bought or sold at the residence; the applicant is not even allowed to have a garage sale. No business signage is allowed. The business must be registered with the City. 

The Board then heard a case of an expired building permit issued to build an extension to an existing garage. The existing garage straddles the property line. It was built when there was one owner of two adjacent houses and the two residents shared the garage. About three years ago the resident of one of the properties who had been renting bought their house. Construction took longer than they expected, and after two years it is still not completed. Further, the new construction is over their gas line, which the gas utility finds unacceptable. The Building Commissioner ordered them to stop further construction and to remove what they had built. There was much discussion and the Commissioner stayed the removal order to let the BZA decide what should happen next.  Action could not be taken at this meeting because the item had not been advertised.

The Building Commissioner then reviewed a number of cases that were not in compliance with the building codes. Accessory buildings are not supposed to be more than twelve feet high but one very recently constructed was 16. A privacy fence in a front yard was higher than allowed. Downtown is zoned B3 and this does not allow residential uses. I know that the City has objected to residences on the first floor of what were retail shops, but does the ordinance really prohibit apartments on the second floor? There were a couple of issues with the business selling storage sheds and gazebos on North McKinley. They were too close to the street and the ordinance says they should have a concrete foundation. Pizza King recently changed ownership and the use variance that the old owners had did not transfer, so the new owners need to reapply. There were a couple of residential properties that had permanent storage of construction equipment. The Building Department is changing software and going to the cloud for most of the paperwork.The meeting ended with a preview of some of the items that may be on the June agenda: A small in-house daycare would like a conditional use, one of the very narrow businesses downtown would like to rent out the back of the building as a short-term rental, a church from DeMotte seems to be interested in purchasing the R&M property and making it a branch church. The next meeting is scheduled for June 8.

JC Plan Commission

The Jasper County Plan Commission met on Monday evening with only one item on the agenda, a rezone request from A1 to A2 in Wheatfield Township. The owner wants the property rezoned for a future buildable site. The property may have some elevation problems so the applicant was warned that when he built, he should make sure that the house is high enough so he will not have to pay high flood insurance premiums. The rezone was approved and now goes to the Commissioners for final consideration.The Board managed to get a quorum but it has at least one vacancy so there was a discussion of what might be done to make sure that quorums are available at future meetings. The idea of having alternate members was mentioned but it may not be permitted by State law. The next meeting will be June 19 if there is an agenda.

County Council

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening with a fairly short agenda. The Council approved an expenditure of about $15K for fencing of new dog runs at the animal shelter. Presently only two dogs can be outside at a time and new runs will increase the number. The funding will come from the donation fund. Sheriff Williamson had three quotes for an x-ray machine. It will be used to search for drugs. Most of the prisoners at the County jail are addicted to drugs and incoming prisoners can swallow drugs and retrieve them when they defecate. The cost of the machine will be about $160,000 with maintenance extra. The Sheriff suggested that he could spend $80K from his budget and get the rest from opioids funds but there were questions if that would be an allowed use of the opioids fund. The spending had not been advertised so the Council could not approve it at this meeting.

The Sheriff also reported that he had submitted a Cops grant that, if funded, would provide the County with funds for 36 months to partially fund one or two new deputies. The Department should learn in August if the grant is approved. He also reported that despite a rise in utility rates at the beginning of the year, the jail's utility bill was lower this year for the first four months than last year. The Jail has made efforts to become more energy efficient with the solar array, LED bulbs, insulation, and water restrictions.

The Council approved additional appropriations for the Surveyor's office. Some were to replenish budget lines that were used to purchase a new truck liner and others for a study of corner markers. The Commissioners had asked for additional funds to pay for the audit of County books by the State Board of Accounts. Last year the audit lasted for weeks. This year the audit was much quicker and the expected bill is smaller, so the Council approved only $40,000 of the $63,000 request. There were comments that it did not seem right that the State charges counties for the audits, but that is the way it is.

The County Clerk had two quotes for the Council, one for additional voting machines and another to replace the existing voting machines. The existing machines date from 2003 and new models have improvements. The request for additional machines is to cut waiting times on busy election days. The State is funding the purchase of new booths and something that I think is called BB pads. There was some discussion of how to fund this, whether to do an additional appropriation for this budget year or put it into next year's budget, or do a bit of both. The appropriation had not been advertised, so it could not be approved at this meeting, but the Council did approve her pursuing both proposals and something may be appropriated at the next meeting.

The Auditor said that two part-time deputies who came out of retirement to help train new deputies were upset that they were being paid the same as the new people they were training. The matter was taken under advisement. In public comments a new resident of the County who had come from Cook County, Illinois asked if the County would consider going to paper ballots for voting. The Clerk and the people she brought with her explained that voting machines in Indiana are required to also print a paper ballot that can be checked against the electronic tally and that paper ballots are not fraud-proof. She was invited to become a poll worker and seemed interested.

Lots of pictures, May 2023

Demolition

Last week demolition of the old lift station began. The new lift station is operational, though work on the landscaping around the building continues. The picture below was taken on May 4.

On Friday the building was being knocked down.

The work was not finished by Saturday and so far this week nothing more has been done.

Also last week, one of the excavators was loaded up and hauled away.

This week work continues at the site with a large concrete pour.

In the parks

The first Blacker tournament took place over the weekend. Rain may have delayed the start of games on Sunday, but I believe that some games at locations to our south were completely canceled by the rain on Sunday. There are tournaments scheduled for the next two weekends.

Dugouts are being built at the Columbia Park field. This field is used by the Rensselaer Softball Association Inc and that organization raised the funds for this construction.

Work has begun on Filson Park. Below a trencher is digging to install electrical conduit around the perimeter of the park.

City meetings

The Board of Public Works met for their May meeting on Monday afternoon. Before approving bills, it approved the promotion of a police officer to master patrolman.

The Board approved two change orders for the sewer project. One was for demolition of the old lift station, which has begun now that the new lift station is operational. Pay order #12 for Thieneman was for $849,107.15. There were several invoices approved for Commonwealth Engineering, including for the wastewater asset management plan and the phosphorus removal.

In the City Council meeting that followed the BPW meeting, three downtown merchants with businesses on Van Rensselaer voiced concerns about the upcoming Brick Streets project. Their major concern was the project's plan to flip the parking on Van Rensselaer, moving the parallel parking from the Courthouse side to the business side and the angle parking to the Courthouse side. This would increase the number of people who would cross the street, and this could cause problems for the elderly and the handicapped. The Mayor said the City would check with the planners if a change could be made.

The Council approved another amendment to the salary ordinance, this one to incorporate a salary raise approved at the previous meeting. It re-approved a resolution for a preliminary engineering report that had been approved the previous meeting, but this new resolution had a number, something needed by the State. The Council approved a resolution that allows the Mayor to sign documents for the State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan. The gas tracker for May reflects a 9¾ cent decrease per hundred cubic feet. The Council started a process to get the White Castle tax abatement done so it meets all the State requirements, which will take several Council meetings. It approved $18,000 for Weston Cemetery road crack sealing and repairs where two fallen trees damaged the road.

Fire Chief Haun reported that new emission requirements from the EPA that will go into effect for heavy-duty trucks purchased in 2027 will increase the cost of new fire trucks by 40% to 45%. He wondered if the Council would be interested in putting in an order for a new truck now to replace a 26-year-old truck to avoid that increase. He said that the wait time for new equipment is about three years. The Council did not seem interested.

State Representative and former Commissioner Culp asked if the Council could waive the tap fees for the new ambulance building that is under construction. The Council was not clear if they could do that and will have the City Attorney review the ordinance.

In administrative comments, there was praise for the cleanup crew. There are two applicants for an upcoming vacancy on the Rensselaer School Board and interviews will be arranged. In superintendents' comments, the Police Chief reported that 41 vehicles had been identified as abandoned and all but one had been moved or brought into compliance. Nineteen employees worked clean-up week and they collected 13 loads of metal and 191.8 tons of trash. Over 20 teams participated in the Blacker tournaments last weekend and there are tournaments scheduled for the next two weekends.

Other meetings

The Tourism Commission meeting for May was canceled because not enough members could attend to have a quorum. The agenda was short and did not look very interesting. The Alcohol Beverage Review Board meets at the same time the Tourism Commission meets, so I went to see if their meetings were still as short as they used to be. The May meeting lasted about one minute and approved a renewal of the license for Compass Travel Center doing business as the Empire Bar and Grill.

The Airport Authority Board met on Tuesday evening and because sunset is after 7:00 and the weather was nice, I decided to attend in person rather than attend via Zoom. I am glad I did because the Zoom link did not seem to work very well.

The Board approved a lease agreement with American Crop Care, a crop duster, for a hangar rental. They discussed proposals for fuel charges for all crop dusters. Fuel sales are a large source of income for the Airport, but crop dusters, who use large amounts of fuel, usually bring their own fuel, so the Airport gets little or no revenue from their use of the airport. They thought that making a change this year might be too disruptive, but are considering changes for next year. There was a lengthy discussion of what to do with a hangar lessee who was in violation of the lease agreement but is difficult or impossible to reach.

The Airport has made an offer for the summer internship and has two applicants for the assistant manager position. There was a discussion of to what extent, if any, an effort should be made to increase the applicant pool. The meeting adjourned a little before 7:00.

More pictures

Work to remove the tunnel under Harrison Street has resumed. On Monday a City crew was repairing a water line barely visible below.

Then on Tuesday a contractor began removing the asbestos from the pipes.

There were several County meetings in the past few months about security for the prosecutor's office. I noticed the bollards had been installed, probably quite a while ago.

Three flower pots on the southeast side of the building protect the windows.

The 2023 farmers market season began on May 6. There were eleven vendors, though I did not see any offering garden-grown produce. I like the arrangement in the parking lot better than what had been on Harrison Street.

Demolition at the power plant is finished and the lot that once had cooling towers and then lots of scrap during the demolition is now clean.

I noticed a goose family in Weston Cemetery last week. They would not pose for me but ran down into the river. You can see the goslings staying very close to their mother.

Finally, here are some May flowers.

April leaves, May enters (updated with primary election results.)

 Commissioners meeting 

The County  Commissioners met for their May meeting on Monday morning. There were no buried cable commit permits. First on the agenda was a request from animal control to construct fenced-in dog runs. The request was approved. Rein Bontreger agreed to represent the Commissioners on the newly formed Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council. The Health Department had a vacancy on its board and recommended that Dan Perkins fill the vacancy. The commissioners approved. The Health Department also wanted landscaping done and the Commissioners approved landscaping for the east side of the building.

The Commissioners approved the County Clerk's request to fill a vacancy in the microfilm records department. The Surveyor's office had a quote to begin work in locating and replacing lost section corner markers. The Commissioners approved the request, which is not to exceed $11,380.

Sheriff Williamson received permission to fill the position of a correctional officer. The position had just been filled but the new employee lasted only three days. He also had three quotes for purchasing an x-ray machine. The purpose is to check inmates and people coming into the jail for things hidden inside their bodies. Drugs are smuggled into the jail in the stomach or other body cavities. The commissioners approved one of the quotes. Before the machine is ordered, the Council will have to make an appropriation.

The commissioners heard a presentation for 12 new microphones for the meeting room. Hopefully the new microphones will make the Zoom sessions work better. Two bids were open for road construction materials. Both were accepted and the county will use the cheaper source unless it is not available. The County received notice that it will receive $1 million for the crossroads road construction grants and would like to open bids for the project in June. The commissioners approved two contracts, one for services that will aid the auditor and the other for help with tax sales.

The highway department found a quote of $54,455 for repairing the roof of its salt storage building in the northern part of the County. The commissioners approved it. At the last Airport Authority Commission meeting, the Commission recommended against putting a shooting range on airport property and the Commissioners agreed with that recommendation.

The most interesting part of the meeting came in the public-comment section. An individual from Indianapolis wants to build a new business producing biochar from animal waste. He said he needed about 20 acres of land for the project and had already signed up two farms for cow manure. Eventually he said the biochar may be used to produce hydrogen. It seemed to me that the whole project is geared to collect carbon credits and offsets much like the bp proposal to sequester CO2 underground.

The meeting was recessed until May 15 at 8:30 if needed.

Drainage Board

The agenda of the Drainage Board was very short so instead of waiting until the afternoon for its meeting, the Board met a few minutes after the Commissioners meeting recessed. The Board approved the April minutes, changed the date for the public hearing on various ditch projects from June 29 to Jun 21 starting at 9:00, and approved an easement variance request in the DeMotte industrial park so Kalma Cabinets can connect to the sewer line.

Rensselaer Park Board

The Rensselaer Park Board meeting began with an interesting and unusual request. Preston Buck, who was mentioned in a post last year about an art show at the Fendig Gallery, has started a fashion company and would like to have a fashion show in Milroy Park on June 17. The show would have a theme related to mythology, would charge admission, and be held in the evening. The Board approved her request but told her she should also run the idea past the City Council next Monday. 

A basketball backboard at Foundation Park was destroyed and the Board discussed options to replace it. They considered going to a metal backboard rather than a glass one, but ultimately decided to replace it with a glass one. They reviewed 2022 finances and decided to increase most concession prices at the Blacker Fields. They voted to create a budget committee that will put together a budget in January. Finally, they increased pool admittance fees. The family pass will be $80, the single pass $35, and the daily pass $5. For some reason the number of family passes has fallen sharply from the 2019 levels. 

PAC art show

The Fendig Gallery is hosting the 30th Anniversary PAC Members Show until June 1. The show features original work by members of the Prairie Art Council. This year artists were encouraged to enter works inspired by the work of Lillian Fendig. Below is a sample of the many impressive works on display.

This is a carved gourd.

It is impressive that this small community has as many talented artists as it has.

The Gallery is open on Tuesdays from noon till four and on Thursdays from two to six.

Other things

I stopped by the construction site of the new ambulance building on Thursday. No walls up yet but the floor has been poured.

On the way there I noticed that the south entrance to the Fairgrounds has been paved. At one of the meetings I attended I heard mention that the paving was scheduled, but it was still a surprise to see the result.

The construction trailers have been removed from the site of the new lift station on Lincoln Street. The heavy machinery is still there and there is still some construction activity going on.

The Fendig Children's Theater will be presenting The Music Man this July 13-15. 

The Briar Patch finished its going-out-of-business sale and has vacated the building. There will be a new business, the Sorrel & Rye Mercantile, moving into the space. The owner had run the business for 17 years, though not always at the Rutsen Street location. She said that it was time to retire so she could spend more time with her six grandchildren.

Today is primary election day for municipal offices. Perhaps I will post an update tomorrow with results.

Update: 

Primary Election results are here.

Jeff Phillips defeated Scott Barton to become the Republican candidate for Mayor. In Council District 1 Kevin Armold defeated Frieda Bretzinger and in Council district 3 Zyan Miller defeated incumbent George Cover. All the other races were uncontested.