Have a wonderful Thanksgiving

The entire staff of Rensselaer Adventures hopes you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

More Christmas decorations

See here for the first batch.

Samantha Joslyn's Law Office.

One of the empty spaces across from the Court House.

Earth Magic Body Potions.

Balvich Dental building.

The Rensselaer Republican office.

Sorrel and Rye Mercantile.

Gutwein-Risner Insurance.

The Police Department.

The newer State Farm Insurance office.

There are still more windows being decorated.

 The Court House has some lights in its trees.

Notes

A Mexican bakery, La Trinidad Bakery, is planning to open in the Ayda's Restaurant building. It will be a separate business.

A few days ago someone posted a link to a long (almost 2 hours) video that the Jasper County Historical Society produced in the 1990s. The video contains a collection of older videos and pictures. It is a digitization of what was a VCR tape and the quality is often quite poor. Included are a short film produced in 1940 that includes scenes from several Rensselaer businesses, video of the fire that destroyed the Wright's furniture store in 1948, and President Eisenhower's visit to Rensselaer in 1962 for Charlie Halleck Day.

I remember seeing a different video of Rensselaer many years ago. I think it might have been done in the 1930s and it featured many of the businesses operating at the time. Does anyone know if that film still exists?

Congratulations to the RCHS girl's basketball team that won the IU Health Hoops Classic title. The field included the big schools from Lafayette and West Lafayette. The Republican story here.

The Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeals met for about five minutes Monday evening and approved a variance for road frontage. The owners of the property want to put in a 50-foot driveway to provide access to the back of the property where a new home will be built. 

Joint Council Commissioners meeting

The County Council and Commissioners met in a joint session on Monday evening at 6:00. There was a full house, with many of the people there because they were interested in the abatement vote in the Council meeting that was to follow. The joint session began with the announcement that Brett Risner had resigned from the Council, with no reason given. His replacement will be appointed by the County Republican caucus.

First on the agenda was a presentation by Kenny Haun, fire chief of the Rensselaer Fire Department. He gave an update on the planned fire tower for the training center. It has been upgraded to a five-story tower and plans are still evolving. In his update on financing, he said that several governmental units have told him to wait until 2024 when they will be in a new budget year. His goal is to raise $250,000 and he is tentatively scheduling training classes to start in May. The new tower will allow live fire training. He would like to receive $75,000 from the County.

Karen Wilson said her office wanted to donate $5,000 to the fire tower and that money was appropriated in the Council meeting that followed. The Sheriff said he was looking for a new correctional officer to replace one that was let go. He was told to get started and approval will be given at the December Commissioners meeting. Rein Bontreger, who was attending via Zoom, said that a committee to write on a new solar ordinance would begin working in January. It will probably also include regulations for battery storage facilities. 

In public comments one person had suggestions for safety regulations for any carbon sequestration project. Another person had a rant on tax abatement that suggested he did not understand how abatements worked. The most interesting comment was by a woman who said that the rail line used to carry coal to the NIPSCO plant was having ties replaced. She asked why there was work on this line if NIPSCO was going to cease using coal in a couple of years and no one had an answer. The meeting lasted until 7:00 and there was a ten-minute break before the County Council meeting started.

County Council meeting

The County Council began with a public hearing on a proposed tax abatement for Solarpack, the company planning a 60 megawatt solar park in Walker township. The hearing began with a lengthy explanation of the proposed tax-abatement agreement. The company was requesting a ten-year 100% abatement, not the usual abatement that declines over time. In return it would give the County four economic development payments in four years totaling $2,267,000, which captures 71% of the abated value. The attraction of these payments to the Council is that these payments give the Council and County more flexibility in using the fund than they have with funds that come through normal tax collection. The increase in the value of land cannot be abated and the land will rise in value according to State rules from its current value of about $2000 per acre to about $13,000. The abatement agreement sets that value higher than the State value, at about $16,000 and the company would make a payment that captures that higher value. If the State value continues at $13,000, the County would gain revenues but if the State value rises in future years above $16,000, the County would lose because it would then have to make a refund to the company. The abatement agreement would also provide a floor value for the project past the ten years of the abatement of about $27 million.

There were a number of public comments, most of which said that they did not want another solar farm. One threatened those who supported the abatement with election defeat. After about two hours of discussion, the matter was put to a vote, the results of which were predictable given the vote at the last meeting for the preliminary resolution, which resulted in a tie, with the tie broken by the president of the Council. Without Brett Risner, who had voted for the preliminary resolution, the vote was three against and two in favor. So the abatement was not granted.

I will be surprised if the denial of the abatement causes the project to be abandoned. The company had made a lot of concessions which greatly reduced the value of the abatement. However, the denial may affect future development if the message received is that the County is not a friendly place to invest.

The Council passed its 2024 calendar and I could not hear some of what was discussed because of the noise from the audience. The Council then passed several additional appropriations and approved a long series of transfers. The Sheriff and the Surveyor each had changes that they wanted in the salary ordinance that will be approved in the December meeting. The meeting finally ended a bit before 10:00.