Commissioners meeting
The October Commissioners meeting had a standing-room-only crowd on Monday morning. The meeting began with the usual routine matters: approval of minutes, claims, payroll and three simple buried cable requests. The Commissioners then approved filling a vacancy in the Clerk's office and a holiday schedule. The Juneteenth holiday will be moved to July 5 to prolong that weekend, a change some other counties are also making. Then the meeting got to the item that had attracted the crowd, the BP road use agreement.
The Commissioners had held a special meeting in September to iron out details of the agreement. (See here.)
The major concern at that meeting was that either BP repair any damage caused by their testing or that County be compensated for any damage and BP agreed to provide a $3 million guarantee to satisfy the County. There were other provisions that were agreed on, and the final details were to be ironed out by the lawyers. The finished agreement was to be approved and signed at this October meeting.
The crowd was uniformly hostile to BP's plan of carbon sequestering in Jasper County and wanted to prevent BP from continuing testing in hopes of derailing any future development of this project. There were suggestions that the County revoked its approval of road use that was made on September 12, though this might result in a lawsuit that could cost the County a large amount of money. Many in the crowd did not care about this possibility. Some complained that a special meeting should have been held to discuss the road agreement and when told that there was a special meeting, they said it should have been publicized. (I could tell a lot of the audience does not read this blog, which is the only source of news of much that is happening in County government.) One speaker said that BP was not abiding by the agreement and it was testing too close to culverts. There was the suggestion that BP thought that they only had to maintain distance from concrete culverts, not all culverts. There was concern about what the effect would be of punching holes in the cap rock that overlays the sandstone that BP wants to use for holding CO2, and concerns about possible effects on groundwater and wells. Some citizens said that the Commissioners should have taken the approach of Newton County, which seems to have blocked the testing. And several speakers said that the testing should not have started under a verbal agreement. BP did not have a spokesman at the meeting; their point man on this had a serious health issue in the past few days and was in the hospital.
The audience seemed to be aware that the County will have a limited ability to fight this project if BP decides to move forward because by the Feds and the State in favor of carbon sequestering and the State legislature passed legislation that takes regulation away from the Counties and puts it with the State. The Federal Government has incentivized these programs with financial rewards and it was reported at the meeting that some large landowners had approached BP saying they wanted to sign up to get the carbon capture credits. The Commissioners then explored options for about half an hour. At first they were leaning towards signing the agreement and then trying to watch for violations and perhaps trying to shut them down based on violations. However, in the end they decided that because BP was not able to sign that day, neither would they. They tabled the matter and will continue the meeting to October 16 at 8:30 when BP can be present and will then vote on approving the agreement. This decision received applause from the audience.
Some of the audience then left and the Commissioners returned to more typical items. The Treasurer wanted an ordinance increasing the fees for checks that bounce because of not sufficient funds from $12 to $25. She said that the banks charge the County $15 and then there are expenses sending certified letters. The ordinance passed. The Commissioners approved hiring a part-time worker in the Recorder's Office to replace an employee who is retiring.
Rensselaer Fire Chief Kenny Haun requested financial help to finance the local expenses of a new fire tower that is being built by the State behind the fire station. He estimates the cost will be about $250,000 and stressed that the training would be for all first responders, not just firemen. He was asked what amount he was thinking and said $50,000 to $75.000. The Commissioners took no action but said they would include the request for the joint Commissioners/Council meeting in November.
The Commissioners approved a rezone from A1 to A2 that had been passed in the September Plan Commission meeting. I think I misunderstood what the purpose of the rezone was at that meeting. As presented to the Commissioners, the owner wanted to rezone so he could split off a four-acre parcel with a house. If the land is A1, the lot size would have needed to be ten acres.
As mentioned in the previous post, Mark Sinclair has resigned as head of Animal Control. The Commissioners appointed Tori Stroup, who works for Animal Control, as interim director. The structure of the department is not changing at this time.
A final bit of business was passing a new flood-plain ordinance that makes it consistent with the federal model ordinance. The update was needed to make sure residents can get flood-plain insurance.
Drainage Board meeting
Thankfully the Drainage Board meeting that followed the almost three-hour-long Commissioners meeting was short. They approved two ditch maintenance certificates and transferred some funds. Newton County wants a meeting of the Joint Jasper-Newton Drainage Board and two members volunteered to attend. There will be a pre-bid meeting for cleaning the R.T. Davis and Sands ditches on October 19 at 9:00 at the Surveyor's office.
Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting
In the late afternoon the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met in City Hall. Under old business it was reported that Titan Construction is preparing a report on soil testing and demolition of the former R&M building.
There were three items of new business. Rensselaer Central Schools requested $25,000 to help fund its pre-school program that is held at the primary school. Currently it has two classes and about 30 children are enrolled.The State does not support pre schools and the School Corporation has been using Covid money to help fund it, but now that money is going away, leaving a deficit of about $25,000. The Redevelopment Commission opened the possibility of using TIF money for education when they gave money to Apple Seed, with the justification that child care and early education were important in attracting employees and employers to Rensselaer. The Commission approved the $25,000 for next year. (It had maxed out what it could give this year for education with its grant to Apple Seed.)
The School Corporation then requested another $25,000 to help fund textbooks and device costs. The State Legislature decided to abolish textbook rental fees and in return gives school districts money to help compensate for the lack of those fees. However, Rensselaer Schools will receive about $210,000 from the State but the textbook cost is about $75,000, the cost of student computers is about $175,000 and there are classroom costs of supplies and other things of about $50,000. The Commission agreed to fund this for the next year and the remainder will be funded from the rainy-day fund.
The final request was from the Rensselaer Parks for $25,000 to help fund the summer programs. These programs have grown each year since they began a few years ago and to maintain them and to grow them the Parks need to find funding. The Commission approved the $25,000.
The Commission approved paying Baker Tilly $1750 to prepare the annual TIF Report and there was some preliminary discussion of planning for a new Park headquarters building. Three quotes have been obtained to do the design work and engineering studies and they will be reviewed before the next meeting.
Park Board meeting
The Rensselaer Park Board also met on Monday evening. In the February Tourism Commission meeting Greg Whaley had asked if funding might be available to bring a miniature train that was manufactured in Rensselaer back to Rensselaer.
The Miniature Train Company moved to Rensselaer in about 1947 and was located where Sealy Springs is today. It produced trains used in amusement parks and similar venues. In the mid 1950s the company was sold and the factory was relocated to New York. Mr Whaley believes that bringing one of these trains manufactured in Rensselaer back to Rensselaer would be a tourist draw and would enhance the Parks. What he wanted from the Park Board was their blessing for his project, including permission to locate the train in a park and for the Park Corporation, which is a non-profit organization, to handle finances, most importantly, to accept grant money. The Board endorsed his idea and formed a subcommittee to coordinate planning. Mr Whaley had found a non-working train for sale that includes an engine with four cars and eighty feet of track. The project does not include restoring the train to working condition. If the project is completed, the train will belong to the Park Department. The Tourism Commission is unlikely to approve more than 50% of the cost of the project so money from other sources will also be necessary. (A bit about miniature trains is here.)
Six tournaments are scheduled for the Blacker Fields for 2024. There has been a lot of vandalism in the parks lately and that delays other work the Park Department needs to do. Work has resumed on the Filson Park shelter house.
Scarecrow Trail
The Scarecrow Trail is up in Milroy Park. White Castle welcomes you to the Trail if you enter from the northeast.
Browns continues its tradition of very decorative exhibits.
Notes
Last week the City's Gas Utility completed hooking up the regulators that control the pressure of the gas supply. They still have some finishing up to do, but the new regulators are on-line.
Mainstreet Rensselaer hosted the annual OktoberFest in front of City Hall on Saturday. The first band to perform was the one that played mostly German music.
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