A ribbon cutting and some meetings

 Ribbon cutting for EV1

On Monday afternoon the Rensselaer Central School Corporation had a ribboncutting for its new bus. This bus is special because it is an electric bus, the first in the fleet. It was purchased with much of the funding (over $200,000)  coming from the Volkwagen Environmental Mitigation Trust. There were three groups that posed for a photograph. The first included all those who were part of the Corporation's transportation department.

The second group were people from companies that manufactured, sold, or in some way contributed to making the acquisition possible. The lady to the left of Mr Odle represented Collins Bus Company of Hutchinson, Kansas, the manufacturer of the bus. On the other side of Mr. Odle is S. Jordan representing REMC, which supplied the charging station in the bus barn.

The final group were school employees and members of the community and this is when the ribbon was cut. Mr Odle was the person who pushed to get this bus purchased.

I did not get a good picture of the bus. Below is the best I have, taken when the Superintendent Craig was addressing the crowd.

The bus has seven seats and appears to be able to comfortably seat 14. It has a wheel chair lift and is the only orange bus in the fleet that has a wheel chair lift. It will be used primarily to pick up special needs students, including any with wheel chairs.

The range is abou 100 miles per charge. A bit more is here.

Classes start at the local school this Thursday.

August Commissioners meeting

The Jasper County Commissioners met Monday for their August meeting with lots of little items on the agenda. There was a proposal to provide CPR training for County employees and it was approved.

 Apparently Community Corrections was not recognized by Reliable Exterminators as being on the contract and there was a discussion about what was included on the contract. The Health Department received approval for a contract hiring translators when needed and the Recorder's Office had a supplier contract approved. There was a discussion of a proposal to register all County contractors. No action was taken at this meeting; the commissioners want a sample form before they approve it. The recommendations from the July plan commission meeting were approved. One parcel was changed from A1 to A3 for a fertilizer plant and another parcel was changed for A1 to A2 for a future subdivision. There were two amendments to ordinances, one allowing rebuilding of a residence in the business district and the other updating the county flood ordinance to conform to the model State ordinance.

A citizen living in the buffer zone of DeMotte wanted to strip the buffer zone from Demotte. She said that the town does not want growth. The DeMotte plan commission had ruled that she could not operate her food truck at her residence. Later in the meeting a citizen said that he wanted no change in the buffer zone and he wanted to keep businesses out of the buffer zone.

The sheriff was on the agenda to discuss resealing the jail parking lot but was told that he needs to go to the County Council to release the funds. He mentioned an issue with an irrigation rig that is shooting water onto the road. The Commissioners will have their attorney write a letter to the landowner.

The EMS building is on schedule and should open before the end of the year.

The question of whether the County should hire a grant writer continues as is the discussion concerning some spacing issues in the courthouse involving the Clerk's office. Perhaps there will be a plan by the next meeting. The flagpole in front of the Health department has had a new concrete base poured and the bricks are being refinished and will be replaced soon. 

REMC wanted a letter to support a grant they are writing to provide for fiber optic throughout the county. The head of the Jasper County Economic Development Organization will write the letter. Little Cousin Jasper wanted permission to put a sign in the Courthouse gazebo directing people to Potawatomi Park for Little Cousin Jasper. The request was granted. Josh Davis from the Rensselaer Planning Department asked about lights for the courthouse. He was told that the County does not want cables reaching to the top of the courthouse. The County Surveyor wants stipends for public use of private phones. The matter was not resolved. Two buried cable permits were approved. The meeting was continued until Monday, August 14 at 8:30 when there will be a public hearing for Health Department ordinances.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting followed. The Board quickly approved the drainage plan for an expansion of a parking lot that involved some dairies. The discussion of a citizen's complaint about a dam in a ditch in the north of the County took more time. Apparently the farmers have many dams to retain water and keep the water table high and without them, farming would not be possible. However, now houses are being built near some of them and because the northern part of the County is mostly flood plain, the dams can cause problems if they are not lowered when there are heavy rains. The Board decided to tell the dam owner to maintain it properly or it will be removed.

Another citizen had a complaint that a neighbor was not cleaning his part of a mutual drain. The Board will have its attorney write a letter. The drainage plan for a proposed fertilizer plant near the SR 14/I-65 interchange was approved with little discussion. The building will be 844 feet long but will have no close neighbors because the dairy owns a large parcel of land and no neighbors will be affected by runoff.

A citizen has a fence that is in the easement of a ditch, but if he gets it off the easement, he will have no back yard. He was told to keep the fence at least 30 feet from the bank of the ditch to allow equipment access to the ditch. There were three ditches that needed reconstruction and the Board offered the landowners the opportunity to do the work themselves. For two of the ditches the landowners organized and proposed cleaning parts of the ditch that needed cleaning and leaving untouched the upper parts of the ditch where landowners wanted no change. The Board accepted those proposals. No one stepped up on the third ditch so the Surveyor's office will plan reconstruction.

Park Board meeting.

The Rensselaer Park Board met Monday evening with a quorum for the Park Board but not for the Park Corporation Board. The meeting heard from the Rensselaer Building Commissioner about what to expect at the BZA meeting on Thursday that will consider a variance that will allow construction in Filson Park. There will be a ribbon cutting for the Blacker Fields on September 15 at 4:00. The last day for public access for the LaRue pool is Sunday, August 13.

Jasper County Tourism Board meeting.

The Jasper County Tourism Board met on Tuesday morning and managed a bare minimum quorum. After discussion they approved, pending legal review, hiring Yodel for two years to provide a community calendar. This matter had been discussed at the previous meeting. This year's Jasper Jaunt bike ride on September 16 will head south to visit at least three farms. There was a discussion of untapped opportunities that mural week provides. A funding request from Little Cousin Jasper to help build a fence in Potawatomi Park was denied because it is not something that will drive tourism. The next meeting will be on September 12.

Jasper County Airport Authority Commission meeting

I managed to attend the August meeting of the Airport Authority Commission in person. As I entered the building I took a picture of one of the crop dusters. Their season can extend into September.

Inside the lobby of the terminal building was the light that once was atop the beacon. The tower was removed in 2017.

At the meeting I met Isaac, the newly-hired assistant manager. He will finish his course work at Purdue in December and for now is part-time. When the meeting started, the two engineers for the airport gave an update on the master plan that has been submitted to the FAA for approval. The Airport needs to update its forecast and resubmit and perhaps this third resubmittal will be accepted by the FAA.

The Board approved a quote to re-mark the runway. There were 15 participants in the Airport summer camp. There are five students enrolled in three airport classes that will be taught at the airport. There was a discussion of a possible memorandum of understanding with a school called Indiana Ag and Tech. I had never heard of this school. It is a charter school headquartered in Carmel and its northern branch meets at the Jasper County Fairgrounds. 

The Board discussed and approved a budget for 2024. It will now be submitted to Gateway. The total expenditures are unchanged from the current year. As the meeting ended, someone mentioned that Brad Cozza, the airport manager from a few years ago, was now in Oregon and had a baby daughter.

Notes

The City of Rensselaer will have an auction of unneeded equipment on August 18 at 11:00 at the Police Station.

The Rensselaer Republican had a nice article about the Wheatfield murals in last week's paper. (See here.) The mural on the town hall of a snake and mouse offended at least one town official. It is by the same artist who painted the birds that grace the header of this blog.

We got rain, and lots of it over the weekend. The river gauge station at Laird's Landing says we got over five inches. Remarkably, it did not cause flooding. The ground was dry and soaked up the moisture. The river only rose a couple of feet.

The rain did reestablish what I call Weston Pond next to Weston Cemetery.

Highway 114 is closed just to the east of Rensselaer. I thought there might be work on the bridge over the Iroquois, but the reason for the closure is the replacement of the culvert that takes the School House ditch under the highway.

I was surprised on Tuesday to see that the carnival rides that were at the County Fair still had not left. I guess they must not have had other engagements.