The second week of Advent

Demolition

Demolition of the old Soesbe Building continues. Below is a view from Tuesday, December 5.

On Friday most of the outer shell was gone. The pieces get put into dumpsters and then are removed.

Here is the view from the north end of the building on Friday.

On Monday the north part of the west building was gone.

On Tuesday the north part of both wings of the building was gone.

Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting

On Monday evening the BPW approved a police officer promotion and an update to the standard operating procedures for the police department. It also approved a change order for the new main lift station and unsewered areas project that results in a decrease of $51,425.89. The changes are related to the new phosphorus building at the sewage plant and involve changes in specifications and work done by the City. The substantial completion date for this part of the project is January 26 with final completion scheduled for February 26.

The Board approved Maguire Iron's partial pay request #6 for $225,150. This involves a SRF disbursement. The payment is for work fabricating the water tank that is being erected near I-65. It also approved Grimmer Partial Payment request #5 for $502,121 for service-line work. 112 service lines have been replaced and the streets that have been dug up as a result have now been patched. Finally, the Board approved a payment to Commonwealth Engineering for $36,123 for construction inspection of both the water tower project and the water service line replacement.

City Council meeting

In public comments there was an announcement that the Rensselaer Area Ministerial Association will be hosting a Night of Peace on December 17 from 6:00 to 7:00 pm at the Hope Community Church on McKinley Avenue

Before the regular agenda there was a public hearing about the vacation of the east end of Cherry Street. This is part of the street that has not been developed and Genova owns both sides of this part of the street. The only member of the public who spoke was the factory manager for Genova. Genova plans to use the area, which is immediately to the south of its existing facilities for parking and storage. It will make it easier for trucks to get to some loading docks. After the public hearing was closed, the Council passed an ordinance vacating part of the street.

The picture, which is taken from the County's GIS site, is not up-to-date. It does not include the newest Genova building.)

The gas tracker for December will reflect a 5¢ decrease per 100 cubic feet of usage. The Council approved five transfers of funds. City supply bids were opened for gasoline and diesel. There was only one bidder, Ceres Solutions. They offered gasoline at $2.009 and diesel at $2.534 and $2.579 (for premium and #2). These prices exclude all taxes. The bids will be taken under consideration and approved at the next Council meeting.

There was discussion of expanding the closed part of the alley behind Fenwick's Brewing. The three businesses affected, Fenwicks, Cup of Joy, and the new owner of the Steffens Building, had been contacted and were OK with the closing. However, it seems that an ordinance needs to be approved and it will be written. The City would like the gas and electric meters along this alley to be outside the buildings. Most are now inside. There was discussion who should pay for moving the meters. No action was taken at this meeting. 

A public relations request for up to $350 for employee recognition was approved. The resignation of Rick Odle from the Rensselaer School Board left a vacancy for the Council to fill. They had five applicants and Mr Watson, after saying that he does not think the Council should be appointing school Board members (Of 353 school districts in Indiana, only about ten have appointed members. The rest have elected members) nominated Nancy Souza. She was approved by a 3 to 2 vote. This is a six month appointment that only fills the remainder of Mr. Odle's term.

The owner of a property on Front Street now has a court date on January 12 at 11:30 because the City is unhappy with how he is maintaining his property. The Police Department is doing background checks on applicants for an open position. The Building Commissioner announced that at the Plan Commission meeting on Thursday evening there will be two rezone requests, one from SJC to rezone a 15 acre parcel from RW to R1 and the other from the owners of Busy Bee to rezone from residential to business. The BZA has a request for a variance that would allow a church to go into the old R&M building. The Rensselaer and Keener fire departments will be getting a Jaws-of-Life Award on December 28 at 6:00 pm.

Tourism

The Tourism Commission did not have a regular meeting for December. Instead it had a special meeting at eMbers Venue that was led by two persons from Ball State who are helping the Tourism Commission develop a strategic plan. About twenty people representing a variety of groups or interests attended.

This was the second meeting the Ball State people have had with the Tourism office. I did not attend the first, which apparently had brainstormed a list of various types of community capital or assets that we have. The first exercise in this session was to write headlines from the future, which seemed to be mostly a warm-up exercise. Then the group was invited to contribute issues and opportunities for tourism. About thirty of them were presented. Next we were each given four dots to place on the issues and opportunities that we thought were most important. The top six were then selected, and we were invited to choose one to discuss in depth, trying to come up with ways to solve the problems involved.

I ended up joining a group discussing the potential of Saint Joseph's College. Since its closing in 2017 the campus has been mostly unused, and there has seemed to be little initiative from those in charge of the college to find new ways to use the buildings and grounds. There was an interesting discussion, mostly focused on how the community might encourage some action from the College. The assets of particular interest were the athletic facilities (field house, recreation center, football field, baseball field, and track) and the Lake Banet area. Few of the Trustees are local and the president of the College spends six months of the year in Virginia and the other six in Asia. 

I picked up a number of interesting news tidbits during the meeting. Remington would like to build a destination playground. Every community wants a splash pad. Downtown Wheatfield seems to be fading away as businesses close and are not replaced. The County has no uber drivers, which is seen as a problem. There is a group in the northern part of the County that is working very hard to have trails developed and three of them attended the meeting. Fair Oaks Farms has plans to build some sort of athletic complex. 

We will see what develops from this meeting.

Notes

The many holes left in Front and Van Rensselaer Streets as the result of removal of the lead water lines were repaired last week. 

Rensselaer Parks announced on its Facebook page: "We are partnering with National Championship Sports to bring in 7 to 9 NEW girls fastpitch weekend softball tournaments! There will be both summer and fall ball events. "

eMbers Station has its domes again this winter.

The City was fixing a water main on McKinley on Monday and Tuesday. At the City Council meeting I saw a video of the leak erupting like a geyser.

I took this picture in my backyard on Friday, December 8. Dandelions are tough. And maybe a bit confused.