At the end of September

City Council meeting

After the usual preliminaries, the City Council had a public hearing on the 2024 budget. The budget was read and there were no public comments.

The Council then passed an ordinance allowing advance payment or deposits for goods and services, something the recent State Legislation now allows in some cases. Previously, the City could only pay for goods and services after they had been provided and in a few cases this has caused problems. Mr Watson expressed concern that early payment may be used too often. The Council will decide early payment on a case-by-case basis.

The electric tracker for this quarter will reflect a 15¢ decrease per 1000 kilowatt hours. The Council approved a contract for $28,900 with First Group Engineering to do a road assessment. This assessment is needed to apply for Community Crossings grants, which help pay for repaving City Streets. The City has received five of these grants in the past and most of the paving in the past few years has been done with these grants.

The Electric Department received permission to seek quotes for a new digger truck. The  City has two of these and both are down and in need of repairs. The Department is currently renting one. There may be problems going forward to getting parts for the main truck and the secondary truck is from the 1990s. The delivery time is estimated to be 30 months, so the Department would like to get quotes and place an order for delivery in two to three years.

The Fire Department asked for and received a public relations request of $500. It will be used for an open house on Thursday, October 12 from 6:00 to 8:00 for Fire Prevention week. 

In Administrative Comments Kevin Armold said he would like to see budgets for the five utilities of the City. Discussion followed. Noelle Weishaar said that some people are having difficulty finding contractors to hook them up to the recently installed sewer lines. They have until January 1 to complete the hookup if they want to avoid the tap fee. The Council passed a motion to extend the deadline until April 1.

The Fire Chief reported that 800 feet of hoses had failed inspection and more are approaching end-of-life. He will need to replace them. The Department continues having problems attracting volunteers, as do other volunteer departments in the area. Several linemen from the Electric Department participated in a recent lineman rodeo and did well. The awards will be presented in a future meeting. The Cemetery reported that the very sandy soil in the new addition causes the holes dug for graves to sometimes cave in. The Superintendent requested and was granted permission to spend $4700 for a metal box to prevent the cave-ins. The Park Department received permission to purchase new trash containers for the shelter houses. They will look like the ones around the Blacker Fields. 

On Tuesday the pipes for the gas regulator station near McDonalds were above ground. (The tent is lopsided because the morning rain was coming down at an angle.)

On Wednesday the gas workers were fitting these regulators onto the pipes.

Notes

We have municipal elections in November. I noticed these signs on a yard and I thought them interesting.

The two candidates are running for the same office.

Strack & Van Til has a pretty fall display in front of the store.

I stopped by the Farmers Market on Saturday and noticed a vendor that I had not previously noticed, KJK Family Farm. They sell honey.

They are located along the Interstate south of Remington and the owner says that after he retires from his day job, he wants to devote all this time to expanding his honey business.

Also at the Farmers Market were the FFA from the high school selling mums and other items.

I do not have mums, but my blue asters are blooming, another sign that the warm weather is coming to an end.

Another sign of fall is soccer on Saturday in Foundation Park.

This week the old Dollar Tree store is being cleaned out and a lot of stuff placed into a dumpster. The shelving that is there is plastic shelves that held greeting cards. The metal shelving was removed and I saw it on a trailer near McDonalds.

The doors of the store were open on Tuesday so I snapped a picture of the inside. It will be completely cleaned out soon, perhaps by the time you read this.

Mark Sinclair announced on Facebook that he had resigned as head of Amimal Control. Apparently the Commissioners have decided to take Animal Control in a new direction and Mr. Sinclair did not want to go that way. I expect to hear more at the next Commissioners meeting, but I know there was tension between him and the Commissioners.

I have mentioned the façade grant program in some recent posts. Full details are available here.

In two recent posts I had pictures of plaques of donors to Rensselaer Parks. A purpose of listing donors is to send the message that their donations were important. I have dealt with local organizations that do not have policies and procedures to thank donors and the implicit message is that your donation does not matter. And if your donation does not matter, why should you continue to give to them? Organizations that do a good job of thanking donors do a much better job of raising money than those that do not.

Finally, I had an unexpected house guest early this week. I escorted it out and wished it good hunting.