The Airport Authority Board canceled its December 12th and 29th meetings and added a new meeting for the 19th. I tried to attend via Zoom but was never let in.
Because the agenda was short and the evening cold, I decided to attend the County Council meeting via Zoom. The Council welcomed its new member, Jake Misch, who is a farmer from Wheatfield, before they approved minutes. They then passed the 2024 Salary Ordinance and final amendments to the 2023 Salary Ordinance. The amendment contained several changes that the Council had previously approved but had not been put into the Salary Ordinance. While they were discussing this, the Zoom meeting quit and I missed the next four minutes. When I rejoined the Council was considering an additional appropriation for Court House utilities of $15,000, which passed.
They spend a lot of time discussing an additional appropriation of $137,500 for consultants in the Commissioner's budget. $48,000 of this was for consultants related to the Solar Pak project. These would have been paid by Solar Pak if the tax abatement had been approved, but when the Council rejected the abatement, the pay for the consultants fell to the County. Commissioner Bontreger addressed the Council, saying that it would be helpful if the Commissioners knew what kind of projects the Council was willing to back so they would not be in this position again. During the discussion it was mentioned that progress is being made in getting City water and sewer west of the Interstate and this may happen in 2024. EMS will be moving into its new building before the end of the year. There was some discussion of the LEAP project to build a pipeline to take water from Tippecanoe County to Hamilton County and of the proposed CO2 pipeline. The Council passed the additional appropriation.
The Council then passed three transfers of funds. Mr Norwine noted that at a previous meeting someone had complained that the County did not provide rides for veterans to medical appointments. He pointed out the Jasper County Community Services, which is supported by the County, does in fact provide these kinds of rides. The meeting adjourned after a bit more than an hour.
Notes
What was MacAllister Machinery is now Plevna Implement Company. MacAllister has dropped Rensselaer from the locations where it is located and Plavna has added Rensselaer to its list of locations it serves. The property on SR 114 next to the Airport sold in late October.
The building that held Walters Auto Electric and still holds the Good Samaritan Food Pantry has been sold.
I stopped by a large auction on Milroy Avenue on Saturday mostly because it was in the house that Robert Dwiggens built in about 1875. The Dwiggens family is my candidate for the most interesting of the early Rensselaer families, though a strong case could also be made for the Earl Reynolds family.
Rensselaer got some snow Monday morning, but then the sun came out and melted much of it. I would rather have a brown Christmas than a white Christmas.
The winter solstice is the 21st. After than days start getting longer, though it is hard to notice the change until late January.
Have a Merry Christmas.
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