Early November 2023

 Commissioners meeting

The November Commissioners meeting had an agenda of routine matters and was fairly short for a Commissioners meeting. As I arrived, I noticed that work had begun on expanding the parking lot of what I call the Sparling Annex and work on spreading stone and compacting it continued for most of the meeting.

There were buried cable permits approved for some simple bores, for work on a United Telephone project near Fair Oaks, and three bores for manure lines. The Commissioners decided to wait another month before accepting a bid for fixing the roof on the Prosecutor's annex. The 2024 meeting schedule was approved, with all but two of the monthly meetings to be held on the first Monday at 8:15. The exceptions are for January and September, when the first Monday is a holiday so the meeting will be the first Tuesday at 8:30. There is also a second meeting in December on the 23rd. Joint sessions with the Council are scheduled for July 16 and November 19.

The commissioners approved $200 for the Veteran's Office to host a quarterly training session for veteran service officers. They approved a final agreement with the DNR to close a section of 400E at the shooting range at Jasper-Pulaski. A signed agreement is required by statute. The Sheriff was granted permission to fill two vacant positions, a full-time 911 dispatcher and a part-time controller. The Commissioners again approved a carpet cleaning request from the Extension Office; it had approved this request some time ago but nothing was done. 

There was a short discussion of W-2 forms. 126 County employees have not logged onto the doc delivery system the County has begun using that will allow the employees to download their W-2. The HR department will send reminders but in the end some W-2s will have to be printed. The Commissioners approved spending $21,611.06 to replace the fire-alarm system in the Sparling Annex. The old system is 26 years old, no longer works, and parts are no longer available to fix it. The extension office reports that some of its windows are leaking air and the blinds need to be repaired. They will be inspected to see what the best course of action is.

Animal Control was given permission to fill a vacancy. In the public comments a citizen read a statement urging the Commissioners to revisit the solar ordinance and to put a moratorium on new solar projects until the revision is finished. The meeting was continued until November 20 at 8:30 if needed.

Drainage Board meeting

After a short break, the Drainage Board, which is composed of the three Commissioners, met. They approved a proposal from NIPSC to install gas and electric to a new subdivision in the DeMotte buffer zone. The subdivision is an extension of an existing subdivision and will have 92 lots. Mr DeYoung abstained because he and his brother own the subdivision.

White Castle's drainage plan for its planned expansion was approved. At the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting in the evening there was mention that the old Soebe building would be demolished and that a new building would be built next to the existing factory, doubling its size.

The Walker Township solar farm submitted a preliminary drainage plan. This is a 60 megawatt project. The Board received the plan and gave them permission to move forward but no vote was taken. The Board will wait for the final plan before voting on approval.

Genova wants to add a 33,000 square foot parking lot for material storage. It will also be seeking to have an undeveloped section of Cherry Street vacated at the next Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting (Nov 9 at 5:30). The Board approved their drainage plans. 

White County wants to clean a ditch that extends into Jasper County. The Board agreed to waive its rights, which is customary in cases like this. Jasper County will collect the ditch assessments and turn them over to White County.

The Board accepted maintenance certifications for the R. E. Davis and Sands ditches so maintenance collections can begin.

At 10:30 bids were opened on three projects, the R. E. Davis main ditch, the Davis laterals, and the Sands ditch. On the first two only Gutwein Evacuation bid and its bids were well under the Surveyor's estimate. The Gutwein bid on the Sands ditch was $21,500 and the other bid was $230,000.

In public comments a citizen suggested that the best way to deal with the problem of private and mutual drains in a solar development would be to have the development install a perimeter drain. Otherwise there is the risk of tiles being broken and not discovered until the project is completed and then repair is difficult and expensive.

Rensselaer Redevelopment meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission held a short meeting late on Thursday afternoon.They briefly discussed the former R&M property. Titan is working on estimates for demolition and a party that previously had expressed interest in purchasing the building is again showing interest. The Park Department would like a new headquarters building and the Redevelopment Commission may be able to help. It is planned for the old tennis courts and will be a multipurpose building.  At the next City Council meeting a committee may be formed to plan for the building.

The City is working with the County to get City water and sewer west of I-65. The next meeting will be December 4.

Chamber of Commerce lunch

The November Chamber of Commerce lunch was at the hospital and featured Carlos Vasquez as the speaker. It was lightly attended.

Mr Vasquez said that planning for improvements began in 2020. Initially the plan was to modernize the interior with no new additions. Covid delayed everything, and in 2022 the plan had changed to adding to the building behind the emergency room, though this would eliminate the helipad. This updated plan was put out for bid and the bids came back $5 million over the $28 million approved for the project. The reason the bids were high is because construction costs have increased, in part because there has been a lot of health-care construction in Indiana. It is back to the drawing boards. The people involved are considering what might be done with the second floor, which is currently not being used. The problem with rehabilitating it is that the current regulations for hospitals are far more restrictive than they were when the hospital was built in 1963, so exemption may be needed.

He briefly mentioned Medicare Advantage plans, which hospitals hate. The plans make their money by restricting care. Regulations have made it unfeasible for Rensselaer Franciscan and most other rural hospitals to have maternity and delivery services. Mental health services are an increasing need. There are shortages of every type of health-care worker. No one wants to share a hospital room anymore; everyone wants a private room. Finally he passed around an award that the hospital and Appleseed received from the State. The State would like to see other rural hospitals find nontraditional ways to serve their communities as Franciscan-Rensselaer did by partnering with Appleseed.

Notes

We not only got our first freeze as October ended, but we got our first snow. It did not last very long; by afternoon it was mostly gone.

There were three contested races in the Rensselaer municipal elections on Tuesday and a Republican won one, a Democrat won one, and an independent won one. Jeff Phillips easily defeated incumbent Mayor Stephen Wood, Jeff Rayburn narrowly beat Zyan Miller who had defeated George Cover in the primary, and Ernest Watson retained his seat by narrowly beating Richard Comingore. All other races were uncontested and the incumbent was reelected. Less than one third of registered voters cast ballots. Complete results are here.

On the way to take a picture of the Soesbe building, I noticed a new building on Maple Street east of the ambulance building. The lot is owned by the Carnegie Players so I assume this is the storage building that they were hoping to build.

This coming weekend is a big shopping weekend, with Mistletoe Magic at the Fairgrounds, Shop and Stroll in Rensselaer, and the annual craft show at the Carnegie Center.

There are five baseball tournaments scheduled for the Blacker Fields in 2024, three in May and two in June.

The annual St. Augustine Bazaar takes place Thursday.

We have been getting a spam (or scam) call repeatedly. The caller asserts that we owe extra on something that we supposedly purchased (A Keto diet) and I think they want a credit card number. At least it provides a break from all the calls trying to pitch Medicare Advantage plans.