Goodbye 2023

Meetings

I spent some time out of town visiting family for several days around Christmas and missed the last City Council meeting of the year. 

The agenda did not look very exciting. It was the last meeting for Mayor Stephen Wood and for Councilman George Cover. Mr. Cover was given Sagamore of the Wabash achievement award for his 36 years on the Council and his many years teaching. He started the Washington DC trip for 8th graders.

I expected to miss the Commissioner's meeting held on the 28th because I was not scheduled to be back in Rensselaer but I was able to catch most of it on Zoom. As I joined the meeting the Commissioners were approving some buried cable requests. They appointed Kayla DeYoung to the Jasper County Library Board. The Sheriff then requested a replacement for a custodian who is retiring. He had a name and the Commissioners approved his suggestion. He asked for permission, which was granted, to replace a corrections officer. He noted that the pool of candidates has improved since last year and he said he was impressed with the younger people he has recently hired. He needed a contract signed to upgrade computers at the jail and the Commissioners approved the contract pending legal review. Finally, he wanted to encumber funds to replace a vehicle. Normally the vehicle being replaced is either given to another County department or sold at auction. The Commissioners okayed his request to trade it to a dealer for a newer used vehicle.

The Commissioners passed two resolutions needed to obtain a line of credit for reconstructing the R.E. Davis Ditch and made an appointment to the Airport Authority Board. Next they heard a presentation from a person associated with Adventure Cycling who is working to establish a bike route from Gary to Indianapolis that will pass through Jasper County. Unfortunately he could not share his screen to show maps but the Commissioners had a copy of what he was proposing. He mentioned that there are several routes in Indiana with about 500 miles. He said the Commissioners had approved a route in March of 2020 that took the trail through the County via US 231 and SR 16. As planning has progressed, they have realized that is a poor route and want now to put it on County roads. I could not see exactly what the route looked like, but it includes only one mile of gravel road and that is where it leaves Jasper and enters White County. The Commissioners approved the changes. 

The Commissioners next heard from the contractor who had helped waterproof the Courthouse basement. He had a bid to fix the roof of the Prosecutor's annex using a spray-on product. It would have a 20 year warranty and would increase the insulation of the building. His estimated cost was $80,610, which was cheaper than the bid that had been received earlier. The Commissioners gave this bid a preliminary approval, with a final approval waiting for the finished contract. Because of temperature requirements for applying this roofing, it will not be done until April or May.

Commissioner Walstra agreed to serve another term on the KIRPC Board and he was appointed. The Commissioners signed a memorandum of understanding with the Health Department and a contract with Purdue for Extension, which is done annually.

Animal Shelter had two requests. They wanted approval to purchase new software that will shorten time to process new animals and also a second phone line. Currently there is only one line serving several phones, so there are complaints about problems getting calls through. Both were approved.  

The Coroner needed to update a document and to encumber some funds. Commissioner DeYoung reported on a proposal he had received to wash the Courthouse windows and also mentioned a quote to update the kitchen at Community Corrections. Both were put on the agenda for the January meeting. It was almost time for public comments but I had to get ready to drive back to Rensselaer so I left the meeting and shut down my computer.

Notes



Jasper County EMS has moved to its new location north of the Fairgrounds.  Their old location on Walnut Street is now empty.

Demolition of the old Soesbe Building has been completed and all the excavators and other equipment are gone. There are lots of puddles of water from the recent rain.

On Thursday evening the Fire Department received an award for using the jaws of life to extract the driver of a school bus several months ago. The award ceremoney was open to the public but I did not go because I was still catching up after a lot of travel. (I like being other places, but do not like the process of getting there.)

This is probably the last post of 2023.

Merry Christmas

 Meetings

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.

Some rezoning

And then it was gone

Below are two pictures of the Soesbe Building taken on Wednesday.

On Thursday only a tiny bit of the building remained and it was being torn down.

On Friday morning all that was left was on the ground and being cleaned up.

On the topic of demolition, the Catholic Church in Goodland is being demolished. It was closed after Sacred Heart Church in Remington reopened after being repaired. One priest served Rensselaer, Remington, and Goodland and there were just not enough parishioners in Goodland to keep that parish as a separate entity.

 Rensselaer Plan Commission


The Rensselaer Plan Commission met Thursday evening with both old and new business on their agenda. It approved the ordinance that the Council returned to them with one of the paragraphs deleted. The revised ordinance will again go to the Council for approval. A rezoning request for a property along Melville has been discussed at two previous meetings. At this meeting a new map was presented, rezoning the parts of the block in question that are being used for residences to R1. The map also rezoned several parcels that are being used for industrial to light industrial. Included in the change to light industrial is the block that was previously used by the State Highway Department. It has chemical contamination and cannot be used for housing. The Commission approved the Building Commissioner to proceed with notifying people about the proposal. A public hearing will be necessary before these lots are rezoned.

The first item in new business was a request from Saint Joseph's College to rezone a parcel that includes the parking lot west of the Halleck Center and the former softball field from residential suburban to residential. The major change is that the RS zoning requires one-acre lots and the R1 zoning only 0.17 acres. With RS zoning fewer than 15 houses could be build but the College thinks it can get 28 houses built with the R1 zoning. The College wants to start a building trades program and constructing houses will be part of that program. The College would like to start the program in the fall of 2024. The Commission approved a recommendation of approval to the City Council.

The next rezoning request was for a rezone from R-1 to B-1 (Neighborhood business) for the property that has been Busy Bee. The owner tried to sell the business, but found no buyers and now wants to convert it to a dog-grooming business. To make the new business legal, the property must be rezoned. There will be no additions to the building but the inside will be remodeled. The Commission supported the change in zoning.

There was a short discussion of a petition to vacate the undeveloped parts of Prairie Street, which lies north of the very large warehouse north of Merritt Street between Cullen and Weston Streets. No action was taken at this meeting. There was another short discussion of a proposal to update the Zoning Ordinance and the Subdivision Control Ordinance. Finally, the requirements for membership on the Plan Commission were reviewed. The Council appoints three who are officials or employees of the City and the mayor appoints four citizen members, only two of whom can be from the same political party.


BZA meeting

The main item on the Rensselaer BZA agenda was a conditional use variance for a church building in a B-3 zoning district. The petitioners represent a church of about 150 members that is currently meeting in the Church of the Nazarene. They would like to remodel the former R&M building on Kellner Blvd. They do not know how much, if any, of the current building they will keep; that decision will be made by contractors or people who are engineers or architects. Two people from the DeMotte area who have many years of building experience are supporting their efforts. An area of concern was that applicants for liquor licenses within 600 feet of a church property need church approval. The members of the BZA did not like this requirement so they made one of the conditions for approval of the variance that the church cannot impede liquor business in the R-3 district (which includes all of downtown). The petitioners thought remodeling would take about a year. They have not yet purchased the property; they were waiting for the variance before they bought.

Below is an architect's rendition of what the completed church will look like. It was taken from the handout at the BZA meeting.

The Board then discussed the requirements for membership. No one who is an elected official may serve on the Board, so this was the last meeting for Jeff Rayburn, who will become a member of the City Council in January.


Notes

On the way home from the Rensselaer BZA meeting I stopped in the Library to pick up a book. A meeting of the Republican caucus was just getting out and I saw several people I knew. I asked one who they had selected to replace Bret Risner for the County Council and they told me that they had selected Jacob Misch who lives near Wheatfield.

I took a picture of water-towere construction on Thursday. I was disappointed that this picture is not a lot more different from the one I took two weeks ago. The section of the stem that will be between the base and the top is longer.

The Park Department is putting out new trash cans. Their purchase was approved by the City Council in September.

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.

The Christmas parade and more

Christmas parade

On Friday evening the City had a Christmas parade. This year the lineup was on Harrison Street. From there the vehicles went northeast to McKinley and then onto Washington Street, ending at Potawatomi Park.  I decided that I would get better pictures if I took them of the lineup because the light was better. The pictures below are not in the order that the vehicles were in for the parade.

D-1 had several of its large tow trucks in the parade.

The County Fair Queen and her court had a float.

Grace Pentacostal Church of God.

Jasper County Highway Department

There were a couple of horses near the rear of the parade.

Mayor Wood and Mrs Wood in a picture that came out unusually well.

Trinity United Methodists had a Nativity scene, but no live animals this year.

WorkOne or the Chamber of Commerce

I do not remember what this group was.

REMC. The people in the inflatable costumes walked and it looked like it was uncomforable walking in the costumes.

Santa made the parade. He was delivered to his house at Potawatomi Park and heard requests from kids.

Another vehicle from Jasper County Highway Department.

The parade had over thirty entrants. There was a lot of lights and the kids were happy with the abundance of candy.

 More windows and trees

I missed the Baked Bean window in previous posts, but maybe it was one of the later paintings.

Not all of the window painting was downtown and I found some of those below only because I was told where they were. This next one is at Brookside Florists on Vine Street.

Knights of Columbus Hall

The Rensselaer Care Center. I never would have found this one by myself.

Arni's

Gallina Insurance. The others on this street were done earlier than this one.

I am confident that I am still missing some of them.

White Castle

The White Castle expansion has begun. A bit of the old Soesbe Building has been demolished. Also, stone has been spread for what I think will be a large parking lot. I believe that a detention pond will go where the Soesbe Building is. I will have to get to the site more frequently if I want to watch the demolition.

Commissioner's meeting

The Commissioners first December meeting was short, lasting just a bit over an hour. There were four buried cable permits, three of which were simple bores under a road. The other seemed not to have been a bore but a changing of above-ground cables necessitated by a State Highway bridge replacement and now these also need to fill out a permit form. All were approved. 

The REMC broadband manager addressed the Commissioners, telling them that REMC wants to start Phase Two of its plans to provide broadband to the County. Phase One, which was building a ring of towers, has been completed. Phase Two will connect homes to fiber optics in the northeast part of the County. (There will be phases three and four to provide fiber optics to the remainder of the County.) This part of the County is the least well served part of the County. The project will be funded by REMC and by State and Federal grants. It will include about 135 miles of cable, with about 108 on existing poles and 27.4 underground. About 1400 homes will be served. All phases will use about 400 miles of cable. There was no approval of this plan at this meeting because the required paperwork has not been finished. The goal of REMC and County officials (Highway and Surveyor) is to have the plan ready for approval at the end-of-the-year meeting on December 28, REMC hopes to complete this phase in 80 working days once it is started.

There was a public hearing at which no one spoke for an ordinance to put stop signs at one intersection and to put speed limits on sections of CR 900W and CR 1000W. The ordinance was approved. The Commissioners also approved an ordinance that increased the cost of highway culvert delivery from $50 to $150. County Treasurer McEwan had a case of repeatedly trying to have a property owner make good on a check with insufficient funds. The Commissioners approved something that will allow the property to go to the tax sale if payment on what is owed is not paid.

The Commissioners approved a proposal of the Sheriff to pay for accumulated vacation pay of an employee. They also approved filling several current or upcoming vacancies. The Commissioners told the Sheriff that they appreciated the good relations that they have with his department; at a recent meeting with other commissioners they heard horror stories about counties that had bad relationships between commissioners and sheriffs. The Sheriff was asked about license-plate readers. The cameras on the I65/SR10 intersection have worked well and have resulted in several arrests. The others in various other places were provided by a different vendor and the Sheriff is opting out of that contract because of poor service. He will seek a different vendor. He mentioned that there is a lot of Covid in the jail. 

The Commissioners had no suggestions to fill a vacancy on the Library Board but did approve Diva Rish for the Tourism Board. A member of the Animal Control Board sent a letter saying that he did not want to be reappointed and they approved a replacement for him. The County currently houses juvenile defenders in Porter County but Porter County has notified the judges that they will not be renewing that agreement. The County will have to find another County for juvenile offenders and the cost will probably be higher. 

In public comments a woman asked what was happening with the tax cliff that was expected as the result of NIPSCO abandoning the Schahfer plant. She was told that the cliff will largely be averted because of the Dunn's Bridge solar farms built and being built in the northeast part of the County. 

Drainage Board

The Drainage Board, meeting a few minutes after the end of the Commissioners meeting, had several items on its agenda. A person living next to the South Bailey Ditch asked for a variance so he could build an attached garage onto his house. The right of way for the ditch is 75 feet and the edge of the garage would be only 42 feet away. In the past the Drainage Board would have rejected this variance, but the fact that the house is at the very start of the ditch was important to the current members. They approved the variance with the conditions that the landowner take care of the maintenance of his part of the ditch and that he sign a hold-harmless agreement saying he will not sue the County if he suffers any damage as the result of being closer than 75 feet to the ditch.

The Board approved a drainage plan for phase B of the Briarwood subdivision. The drainage plan had been approved in 1993 but DeMotte did something that required it to be re-approved for the undeveloped part of the subdivision.

NIPSCO received approval to cross a regulated drain as part of a bridge replacement project of INDOT.

A citizen noted that there were two beaver dams on ditches near her in northern Jasper County. The Surveyor commented that there had been a lot of beaver dams this year, over 35.

Notes

Former Indiana Representative Douglas Gutwein died on December 1. His obituary is here.

Brookside Park has a new bench in honor of Corey Sanders. It is located near the south entrance to the Park.

Days are almost as short as they will be this year. We only lose another ten minutes of daylight before the solstice and all of it will be in the morning. Starting on the 11th sunset times get later.

Not Your Typical Wingz passed their health inspection and is now open for business. 

Addendum

The Commissioners met on November 20th in a continued meeting. I did not attend. The minutes of the meeting are here. The main business was approval of an economic development agreement for the Walker Township Solar Park. 

It's beginning to feel a lot like winter

Near I-65

The water tower that is being constructed behind KFC is starting to take shape.

The Dairy Queen across SR 114 is being remodeled.

It's beginning to feel a lot like winter

Last week we had a day with light snow during most of the day and then a morning when the temperature got down to 12º. It was cold enough to put some ice on the Iroquois River.

Below are a few more painted windows. The first is at the Rensselaer Library.

The next two are Estel George's State Farm Office.

The final two are at A.S.G. Staffing.

I may have missed a few, but I have now posted pictures of all the decorated windows that I have found.

The trees are arriving for the Christmas Tree Walk in Potawatomi Park. The light was not right for a good picture of this entry from Brushwood Church.

This next one is from the Rensselaer Fire Department.

Santa's house has arrived. 

I am not sure who sponsored the next three trees.

The grinch comes from Chief Industries.

White Castle Bakery and Donaldsons have trees near the River.

I forget who did these trees.

The City of Rensselaer did this closer tree. It may be a permanent tree of the park.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council meeting on Monday evening was short, lasting only about 25 minutes. It approved a change to the Responsible Building Ordinance that was not explained but it has something to do with apprentices. Several transfers of funds were approved before the Council approved the electric tracker that raises electrical rates for the next quarter by $2.18 for 1000 kilowatt hours of usage. The Council approved a budget for the sewer department that must be submitted to USDA-Rural Development because that agency is funding improvements to the sewer utility. In administrative comments Mr Watson mentioned that the American Legion had served 759 Thanksgiving dinners. The work being done on the streets that have been torn up to replace lead service lines is to prepare the streets ready for patching.

Notes

The last art exhibit of 2023 is now on display at the Fendig Gallery. It is the annual Photography exhibit.

I had heard that the Steffen Jewelry Building had sold and on Thursday I noted an "Open" sign in the window. The store is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings and is selling odds and ends, much like a flea market. The new owners are remodeling the second floor to make it into a residence. It has not had people living there for many years. They specialize in remodeling homes and this is their first venture with a commercial property. They hope eventually to rent the downstairs to a business.

Not Your Typical Wingz wrote on their Facebook page that they have a health department inspection on Friday and hope to be able to open after that. 

Only about 40% of the students attending Saint Augustine's School are Catholic. Few if any of them pay tuition because of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program.  I think SJC ended up with about the same percentage of Catholic students.

Events this weekend include the Carnegie Players presenting A Christmas Carol, the Christmas parade, and Frosty Fest.