Mural week is here

Murals

Mural week has begun. One of the new murals will replace the bird on the back of Embers.

Mid-day the bird was still visible.

By the evening the bird was gone.

The flamingos on the back of the Republican building have been covered over but not new mural has started.

The back of the Horton.Yallaly building had a sketch early on Monday.

In early afternoon the new mural had a promising beginning.

But in the evening it appeared that some patching to the wall had been necessary.

The octopus on the side of Anders Water will be replaced with a dog.

It will be a very colorful dog.

The back of City has been changing colors.

Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission met Monday evening at 6:00 to have a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan and to vote to recommend passage by the City Council. At the public hearing the project manager for the plan said that it was funded by an OCRA (Office of Community and Rural Affairs) grant of $50,000 with a City match of $5560 and the grant had been managed by KIRPC. No members of the public spoke. The meeting lasted about ten minutes.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met on Monday evening at 6:30. Its first order of business was to swear in Kevin Armold who is replacing Bill Hollerman, who resigned as of July 1. In Citizens' Comments a gentleman with concerns about swimming pools made a return visit to point out that many existing pools did not abide by regulations. 

The first numbered item on the agenda was the swearing in of two members of the Redevelopment Authority, Avery Douglas and Loren Berenda. The Council then passed the Comprehensive Plan approved at the earlier meeting of the Plan Commission. 

Next on the agenda were five items of tax abatement. Apparently the Council had not done all the steps correctly in passing them earlier, so at this meeting it began the process again. At this meeting they passed declaratory resolutions and at future meetings will have public hearings and pass final resolutions. 

The Council passed an ordinance to establish a fund for a community development block grant and it ratified a telephone poll that approved paying its grant matching share for the OCRA grant that funded the comprehensive plan. The Council approved two Council appointments to the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission, Jeff Webb and Kevin Smith. The Council approved $9150 to remove 15 trees along the bank of the River in Pottawatomie Park. The stumps will be left in place to make IDEM happy. 

The Council had no problem with some redoing of the mural on the retaining wall along the River; no funds were requested. The Mayor said preliminary work on the budget had begun and there will be a 3% increase (in wages and salaries, I believe). Work on lead line replacement has begun. All the streets that were being redone with the Community Crossings grant money have been finished except part of Weston, which will be finished when utility work is completed.

Jasper County Plan Commission meeting

After the meeting I went to the CourtHouse to hear the end of the Jasper County Plan Commission meeting. I missed the discussion of the first item on the agenda, which was a rezone from A1 to A2 to allow for a subdivision along McCoysburg Road. I asked about the item earlier in the day and found it was not the usual two-lot subdivision but had more parcels. The owner only wants to develop one or two, but thought that if he was going to go through the process, he might as well do more in case he wants to develop more in the future. I arrived just as the discussion of the second item, a rezone from A1 to A3 to allow for a fertilizer plant, was finishing. This plant will use the cow manure from Windy Ridge Dairy, which is along the Interstate, and one other dairy. The location will be very near the SR 14 and I-65 intersection. The rezone was approved contingent on drainage board approval of the plans.

The next item was an amendment to solve a problem. People can build residences in highway commercial and general commercial zones if they get a variance. However, if their house is destroyed, they would need another variance to rebuild. This need for a second variance bothers mortgage companies, who will not loan money for purchasing existing houses in these zones. The amendment will allow for homes to be rebuilt without a second variance. A member of the public who was being affected by this problem brought this to the Commission.

The Commission then approved an update to its flood hazard ordinance bringing it in line with the revised State model ordinance. The next meeting will be August 21.

Notes

EDP Renewables had a booth at the Fair. They are the company that wants to build a wind farm in Carpenter Township. I think they are responsible for the turbines that you see along US 24 as you travel east. 

Paving on College Avenue was completed on Saturday.

High school seniors are painting their parking spots at the high school. When I stopped by on Sunday there were several students busy painting but only two or three of the spaces had been finished.