Spring, turbines, & bricks

 Signs of spring

Crocuses are blooming!

On Sunday I saw a turkey vulture soaring overhead. Walmart is preparing their garden section in their parking lot. My rhubarb thinks it is time to start poking above ground.

For our area this has been a very mild winter and you can see that in the plot of ice cover of the Great Lakes. (From the website at https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/glicd/timeseries/2024.png )

JC BZA and Plan Commission meetings

I had to make a choice on Monday evening, should I go to the Rensselaer City Council meeting or the Jasper County Board of Public Works and Plan Commission meetings. They both were meeting at 6:00. I decided to skip the City Council meeting because the agenda looked routine but the Plan Commission had an item about a proposed wind farm in Carpenter Township that had attracted a lot of attention.

The BZA and Plan Commission had been holding their meetings in the Court House but moved these meetings to the Sparling Annex because they expected a large crowd. They were not disappointed. It was standing room only, and the number of people standing seemed to me to exceed those seated. This was the first meeting of the year for the BZA and it began with the Board re-electing its officers: Scott Walstra as president and Kent Korniak as vice president. It then approved the November minutes for its last meeting. The only cause before it was a request for a special exception to use an existing house in Jordan Township for short-term rentals as an Airbnb. The owners thought that there was an opportunity to serve work crews and agri-tourism. The house is very isolated. The request was approved with the condition that the special exception not transfer if the property is sold.

The Plan Commission met next and those attending for the wind-farm conversation had to wait until other business was conducted. The Commission had a new member, Summer Brown from the Extension Office, replacing Brian Overstreet. It reelected its officers, Kent Korniak as President, Vince Urbano as VP, and Justin Rodibaugh as Secretary. It approved minutes from its last meeting, from September 23, 2023.

The first cause was a rezone from A1 to A2 in Union Township so a person could purchase the land to build a house. This had been on the January agenda, but that meeting was canceled because of weather. The second and third causes were for the same property, a change in zoning from A1 to A2 and approval of a two-lot subdivision. The property is near the southern limit of Marion Township and if I heard right, the purpose of the rezoning was to avoid the road-frontage requirements of A1 zoning. Both requests were approved. The final preliminary cause was another two-lot subdivision, this one in Wheatfield Township along SR 10. The property is one acre and is zoned general business, so it will not be used for housing. It was also approved.

Finally the meeting was ready for its long consideration of a request for a wind-farm overlay district in Carpenter Township. The Commissioners in 2019 approved an ordinance that prohibits wind farms from most of Jasper County with the exception of Carpenter Township and a sliver of Jordan Township. A designation of an overlay district is a step toward establishing a wind farm; actual placement of wind turbines would still need approval from the BZA.

The proposed wind farm is a project of EDP Renewables. It would have 45 turbines and produce at capacity 200 megawatts of electricity, which NIPSCO has agreed to purchase. The company has signed up 80 landowners with 20,000 acres. (They have also signed up 60 people with neighbor agreements. They will not have anything built on their land but are paid for being near a windmill.) Remington has passed an ordinance modeled on the County ordinance that has areas in which wind turbines are not allowed and areas in which they are. The pitch from EDP Renewables stressed the economic benefits of the proposed farm. Over the course of the lifetime of the project, it would pay $70 million to landowners and $35 million in taxes, with half of that going to schools. The road-use agreement it has would have the company spend $25 million in improving roads. The company says it plans to build a maintenance building in Carpenter Township. 

Whatever the Plan Commission decides will only be a recommendation to the Commissioners, who have final say. Only the parcels that have an agreement with EDP Renewables were included in the proposed overlay district.

Then it was time for public comment. Most of the speakers were opposed to the wind farm. Several wanted to slow the process down. Some were concerned about the agreements already in place, the road-use and decommissioning agreements. There were concerns about what would happen to the blades of the windmills; they do not seem to be recyclable. There were concerns about noise and a feeling that they were not right for our County. One lady seemed to mostly concerned about the CO2 pipeline. One speaker pointed out that the only reason that wind and solar projects were happening was because of federal tax incentives, and he thought that implied that they should be opposed locally. A couple people thought that the windmills would prevent medical evacuation helicopters from landing so there was a safety issue. One person expressed concern that if they were allowed in Carpenter Township, they would inevitably spread north all the way to the Kankakee. 

There were several speakers in favor of the project. A person from White County representing relatives who had signed agreements with EDP Renewables said that hundreds of wind turbines co-exist nicely with farming in White and Benton Counties and provide substantial economic benefits. 

The discussion then returned to the Board. There were questions about the airport and wildlife. Turbine placement must be approved by the FAA and wind farms need to get approval from State and Federal wildlife agencies. Finally Vince Urbano made a motion to table the matter until an independent consultant had reviewed all the agreements, noting that this was a big project and the County had made mistakes handling the big solar park projects. However, that motion did not fit the recommendation categories that were allowed. So he changed his motion to an unfavorable recommendation with the suggestion that the whole matter be reviewed before it was again considered.  (The actual motion was quite long.) That passed on a six to one vote.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30. The next meeting will be on March 18 if there is an agenda. 

Busy crews

On Monday a large crew began removing bricks from the intersection of Van Rensselaer and Harrison.The bricks are being cleaned and then will be stored until they are replaced on the streets.

The bricks are lifted from the street with this machine that scoops them up.

Driving in downtown Rensselaer on Monday was a challenge. In addition to parts of Harrison and VanRensselaer Streets being closed for the Brick Streets Project, There were holes being dug in Front Street and another part of VanRensselaer. I think they were attaching shut-off valves on water mains. 

Another crew was busy removing the hackberry tree next to the LaRue Pool. 

They did not finish by Monday evening and were back on the site Tuesday morning.

Finally, work has begun developing Filson Park, though I did not see any activity on Monday.

Brick Streets Project starts

Ceremonial Groundbreaking

The Brick Streets Project had its ceremonial groundbreaking on Tuesday morning. People involved in the project posed with a shovelful of dirt from plastic buckets.

Before the posed picture, there were short addresses by Mayor Phillips, Emily Albaugh the Community Development Planner for KIRPC, Brandon Schreeg from Kimley Horn, remarks read from State Representative Kendell Culp who is attending the legislative session in Indianapolis, and Stace Pickering from Rensselaer Main Street. KIRPC writes grant applications and administers grants for Rensselaer and Kimley Horn designed the project. Below you can see Ms Albaugh addressing the crowd with Jeff Phillips behind her and former Mayor Wood, former Councilman George Cover, and Stace Pickering in front of the shovels.

There was a decent sized crowd attending.

Here are two sketches of what the completed project will look like.

As part of the project, utilities will be replaced beneath the streets. Also sidewalks will be widened. Here is a sketch showing wider sidewalks and changed parking.

The grant that is funding the project is from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. A requirement is that a percentage of old bricks (I think it is at least 50%) be reused. 

Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Advisory Planning Commission met Thursday afternoon with two items of new business. The first was several zoning changes in the Sunnyside Addition (which is on the northeast side of Rensselaer). They are shown on the map below. Part of one block was changed from I-1 (light industrial) to R1 (residential) because that part of the block consists of residences. The block on which The State Highway Department formerly had buildings and part of another block were changed from R1 to I-1. The reason for the change was again to make the zoning consistent with the way the land is being used. The former State Highway lot has chemical pollution and can not be used for residences. There is currently a warehouse on the lot and another is planned.

The second item was a change of zoning for what used to be a gas station on the Corner of McKinley and Cherry (a bit north of St. Augustine School). The reason the owner wanted the change was that he wants to sell the property and it will be easier to sell with Business zoning. The lot is small and nothing bigger than the existing building can be placed on the lot. Both of the rezones were approved and now need City Council approval to be final.


The next meeting will be on March 21 at 5:30. On the agenda will be a proposal to rezone the Pizza King lot. The business has a variance to have a business in an area zoned residential, but changing the zoning to match what is actually there eliminates the need for the variance.


Rensselaer BZA

The Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals meeting was scheduled for an hour after the Plan Commission meeting, and because the Plan Commission meeting lasted half an hour, there was some waiting for it to start. It had only one item on the agenda, a variance for height for a proposed outbuilding and house that will be built on Bunkum Road immediately to the east of the Iroquois Valley Church. (This lot is outside the City limits but in its exclusion zone, so it needs to meet City regulations, not County regulations.) The lot is a wooded lot and the buildings will be set back from the road so will be screened by trees. The current limit on height is 18 feet for outbuildings and 25 for houses. The petitioners want a garage 23 feet tall so it will be able to hold an RV. They were unsure if the house they will build will exceed 25 feet but it may; the plans are not finalized. The variance was granted with the condition that the garage not exceed 25 feet and the house not exceed 30 feet.


Someone asked about the status of the old R&M property. Plans for remodeling or rebuilding are being developed by Hamstra and will need State approval before work begins.

There was discussion of whether the current height limits are realistic, especially for houses in the exclusion zone on lots zoned suburban residential (which must be at least an acre in size.) The Board passed a recommendation to the Plan Commission to review the current height limits.

The next meeting will be on March 21 at 5:30. On the agenda will be a proposal for a conditional use variance for the Good Samaritan Food Pantry, which is moving from its current location on Van Rensselaer and Harrison to the building behind Pizza King.


County Council

The Jasper County Council met on Tuesday evening and because the agenda did not look very interesting, I decided to attend via Zoom. Unfortunately, the audio quality was poor because some of the mics either were not turned on or the speakers were not speaking into them. If the person writing the minutes uses the recording to determine what was said, she will have a challenge.

The Council approved four sets of additional appropriations: for probation secretary and extradition, for road repair (allowing the highway department to spend up to $1 million on chip and seal and road materials), a donation of $75,000 to the Rensselaer Fire Department fire tower (discussed at the last meeting), and about $30,000 to complete repairs at Community Corrections. They then approved a batch of transfers, an amendment to the salary ordinance that dealt mostly with part-time employees, and finally the salary ordinance itself.

There was a discussion of public defenders that I had a hard time following because of poor audio. The County Courts are having a hard time attracting public defenders and may in the future create a public defender department. Compensation is an issue. The budget has funds for seven defenders but there are only six, so the action the Council took was to split the 7th contract among the six active defenders.

The last action of the Council was to fill their slot on the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council (JRAC). It is a nine member board with the members determined by various offices. The council appoints one member, and last year it was Eric Kidwell, who said that he had a hard time making the meetings because of work conflicts. Nevertheless, he was reappointed with the hopes that the meetings will be Zoomed so he can attend remotely.

Notes

We have had a mild winter this year except for a week in mid January when the temperatures never got above freezing and we had some extremely cold temperatures. At the end of last week we got a reminder that winter is still with us with a couple of inches of snow on Friday and temperatures mostly in the teens on Saturday. You can see the snow on the ground in the picture below of the new fencing around the natural gas regulator station next to McDonalds. The new gas regulators went on-line at the beginning of October.

I missed the meeting at the Fairgrounds that discussed what should be in a new solar ordinance because I attended the Rensselaer BZA and Plan Commission meetings that were held at the same time as the solar meeting. I have not heard anything about what went on at the solar meeting.

I learned a bit more about the phosphorus building pictured in the last post. It does not take phosphorus out of the sewage. Rather it stores chemicals that are added to the sewage and that bind to the phosphorus in the water, helping neutralize it. The State has mandated that Rensselaer (and other communities) add phosphorus control to their sewage plants.

In the previous post I mentioned that the Tourism Commission gave money to Remington Main Street for a mural to be painted this summer. Below is the wall that it will cover. There is a lot of wall and it will be noticed. (The light was all wrong for this picture, but it was the best I could do.)

The Top Link building has a new tenant, 181 Properties. 

The building that previously had Walter's Electric is being remodeled. Some of it will be the future home of Biscuit and a Bath, a dog grooming business north of the railroad on Cullen Street. There are plans to open an ice cream shop in another part.

Jasper County Economic Development has announced that Zyan Miller will be leaving the organization. 

The latest newsletter from Saint Joseph's College is here.

I have not seen any announcements about Lenten Luncheons this year, but a comment on Facebook gave this lineup:

Feb 28th Nazarene Church
Mar 6th Saint Augustine
Mar 13th Trinity United Methodist Church
Mar20th First Christian Church
Mar 27th Brushwood Global Church

Start time seems to be 11:45 with a charge of $6.00.

Lent starts on Valentines Day

 BPW

The Board of Public Works met on Monday to approve paying construction bills. First up were Thieneman pay request #19 and #20 for $239,563.40 and $49,374.11 for work on the phosphorus building, which is a new addition to the sewage plant.

(Below is a picture of the phosphorus building. It sits just inside the gate.)

The rest of the sewage plant is to the north.)

Next were three invoices connected to the new water tower near I-65. One was for $47,700 from Commonwealth Engineering to pay for their work for on-site representative, and the other two, for $360,559 and $38,000 were from Maguire Iron, payments for constructing the water tower. The tower is up and the welding done, but it still needs to be painted.  A change order for Maguire Iron involved a deduction of $79,300 and increases of $66,000 and $110,700 that will add work on existing water towers and the water treatment plant.

A claim of $38,125 was approved from a local builder for work on the phosphorus. The building is now finished. Fire Chief Haun received approval for a wellness insurance policy that provides protection against some of the chemical hazards that firefighters may encounter. The cost of $8611 will be split between the City and Marion Township. Finally the Board approved an amendment to a grant proposal that the City is submitting for more lead-line replacement. The amendment should make the proposal score better.

City Council meeting

After the usual preliminaries, the City Council ratified the appointment of Mayor Phillips to the IMPA board. Police officer Walker was given a letter of commendation for talking down a potential suicide from the I-65 overpass. 


The Council passed an EDA RPR Task Order that will pay up to $110 for inspection to Commonwealth Engineering during the Brick Street Project. The money will come from the water utility, which will be reimbursed at the end of the project if there are project funds remaining. Five inquiries were sent out and two replied, with Commonwealth deemed the best candidate.


The Council approved purchase of a shoring box (used to keep the walls of a ditch from falling in on workers) for $15,543. Two quotes were obtained and the cost will be split between the water and gas utilities. The Council approved an amendment to the salary ordinance. There was a question if this requires two votes, and the City Attorney will investigate. If it does, the second vote will be at the next meeting.. A small transfer of funds was approved as were three requests for burial rights. The Council accepted conflict of interest statements from Kevin Armold and Jeff Rayburn.


The gas tracker for February will reflect a 6¢ increase per hundred cubic feet.  A proposal from Commonwealth Engineering to submit a grant on behalf of the City for additional lead-line removal was approved.

The City''s concerns about a Front-Street property were addressed in a Court hearing on January 12.  The Court issued an order specifying what had to be done with dates. In Administrative Comments the Mayor announced that a committee had been set up to see if the old light plant could be used as a Park Department office. Ceremonial groundbreaking for the Brick Streets project will be on Tuesday, February 20 at 9:00 am. The contractor is ready to get started removing bricks and Van Rensselaer in front of City Hall will be closed starting February 26.  The Council made appointments, apparently with a telephone vote because the second January meeting was canceled, on members of the Plan Commission, Park Board, and Redevelopment Commission.

The Police Chief announced that a candidate had been selected to fill the police department opening. Chrissy Martin is the new secretary in the Building Department. The foundation for the Fire Department training tower will be poured on March 2, weather permitting. The tower itself should be erected in about two weeks. The Fire Department is currently without its rescue truck; it needs repairs.

Cleanup week will be May 6-10 and the Townwide Garage sale will be May 4.


Tourism Commission

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met Tuesday morning with two new members. The Commission agreed to be a sponsor for $5000 for the Jasper County Fair, which will be celebrating its centennial this year. Last year there were approximately 159,000 visits by 49,000 people according to a company that gets its data from the tracking on smartphones.

Ball State has completed a draft of a strategic plan and there will be another meeting in March. The Tourism Office is working with Cameron Moberg planning a marketing piece. Yodel has officially launched in Jasper County.

There were two funding requests. The first was from Main Street Remington asking for $20,000 for a large mural on the Ziolkowski building on 2 S Ohio Street. The total cost is $45,000 and the Town of Remington has pledged $10,000. The request was approved.

The other request was from the Connection Center in DeMotte that is completing a 28,000 square-foot domed facility that will be able to host a variety of sports and recreational activities. This is phase II for the Center that already has a health and wellness building that hosted 63 distinct events in 2023. There is no date set yet when this rec center will open.

The Connection Center Rec Center is owned by the Calvary Assembly of God Church and leased to a separate organization, the Connection Center. The Rec Center cost about $2 million but would have cost double that if not for the volunteer work used in building it. The Connection Center as a 99-year lease and will pay lease payments to the Assembly of God Church until the building loan is paid and then the lease payments stop. The revenue to support the Rec Center will come from a variety of different types of membership, sports camps, rental, and tournaments. The Center is closed on Sunday, partly because it shares parking with the Church, and one of the Commission members pointed out that closing on Sunday would make attracting tournaments difficult because most tournaments like a Saturday-Sunday schedule.

Overall the Commission members liked the idea of the Rec Center. There was no dollar amount requested, but the amount that is granted may be large enough so it would require the County Council to release money from the Tourism Commission Reserve Fund.  The discussion lasted about an hour, perhaps the longest discussion ever by the Tourism Commission. No action was taken at this meeting. The members would like more information about estimates of how much use will be by people from outside the County (tourists) and how much use will be by local residents, and that estimate may determine how much the Commission is willing to grant.

The meeting lasted an hour and a half.


Airport Authority Board


The Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening. A few years ago there was a proposal to put a 4-H shooting range north west of the Airport and the Airport Authority opposed it. The next suggested location for this shooting range was east of the Jail and for some reason that suggestion died. The new location is on the Fairgrounds and the Board was asked if the Airport might be OK with it. The range would be designed so the shooting would be toward the west. The Board passed a motion saying that the Airport had no objection to this location.

Most of the meeting was concerned with the details of running an airport. Fuel sales for January were very low, not just locally but throughout Indiana as the weather kept planes grounded. The Airport will again offer two internships this summer, one for a college student and one for a high school student. There are some people interested in building their own hangars at the Airport and there was a long discussion of what a lease for such a building should contain, (The lease is for the land.) After many ideas were tossed around, the members came to an agreement and passed a motion to approve those terms.

Notes

Temperatures were unseasonably warm last Thursday and Friday. I took advantage of a warm day to take some pictures of the new water tower.

From a different vantage point:

I have heard robins but have not seem them yet. I have heard and seen sandhill cranes flying overhead. And I saw an ant the other day. The sun is getting higher in the sky.

La Trinidad Bakery had a ribbon cutting on Wednesday.

Time is almost up for candidates to file for the May primary. There are a lot of contested races on the Republican side. There are two candidates for US Senate, Jim Banks and John Rust. The incumbent Senator, Mike Braun, is running for governor in a field of six. Congressman Jim Baird has four challengers. Judge Potter has a challenger. Jim Walstra is not running for reelection as Jasper County Commissioners and four people would like to replace him. Jeff DeYoung has three challengers. There are five candidates for Jasper County Council at large including three incumbents and I think the top three will be on the November ballot.

The Democratic ballot has fewer contested races. There are two candidates for governor, for U.S. senator, and US. Congressman. 

The current exhibit at the Historical Society Museum is the Vintage Kitchen. Here are a few pictures of things in it.

Four meetings in one day

Notes

The new Mexican Bakery, La Trinidad, opened on Sunday. I stopped by on Monday and took some pictures.

The bakery is renting space from Ayda's Restaurant and is located behind the restaurant on Harrison Street. Its hours are 8 to 8, but once it finds when customers come and when they do not, it will probably adjust the hours. I asked why it opened and was told that this is the only Mexican bakery between Lafayette and Merrillville. 

I do not do food reviews because I do not have a palette (and for health reasons I avoid bakery products-–too much sugar.) Try their offerings yourself and see what you think.

In other downtown news, Gutwein Seeds is relocating into what was the Gutwein-Risner Insurance Building on Washington Street. I am told that their former space in the building with the purple coneflowers will be occupied by Sharon Johnson, a nurse practitioner located in what was the Clinic of Family Medicine across the highway from the hospital.

Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met Monday with a long agenda and a long meeting. Jeff DeYoung abstained from approving claims because he had a claim for $250 for delivering a load of salt. He said he will take the check, add $750 to it, and donate it to the Park Board. There was one buried cable permit approved, a simple bore under a County road in Union Township to serve a residence. Primary election voting centers were approved. They were the same as in the previous election with one big change. In Rensselaer the Armory replaces the Fire Station.

The Commissioners reappointed Scott Malone to the Airport Authority Board and Holly Eldridge to the Animal Control Board. At a previous meeting there was a question of whether Jacob Misch could serve on the  PTABOA Board after he had been appointed to the County Council, but it was determined that there was no conflict. The Commissions approved the purchase of a used van for the County Coroner.

The Commissioners approved $30,000 for remodeling the kitchen at Community Corrections. The Council will have to re-appropriate the funds because the project was not finished in 2023. The Commissioners approved the annual GUTS Software and Maintenance Agreement. (GUTS = Government Utilities Technology Service, a company based in Lebanon, IN.)

The Rensselaer Urban Forestry Council asked for and received permission to plant a ginkgo tree in the CourtHouse square. It will honor the late James Beaver. Animal Shelter had a request for a strobe-light bar for their vehicles. It was tabled while the Highway Department sees if they have something appropriate in their inventory. The Commissioners approved a software purchase that previously had been funded by the Council. The Commissioners approved spending and estimated $2670 for the Health Department to purchase 90 doses of flu shots for County employees. The full-time food inspector is resigning and the Commissioners approved filling the position. The Health Department needs a new postage machine. There was a brief discussion about other departments that may soon need to renew their machines, but the Health Departments problem was deemed the worse so only its machine replacement was approved at this meeting. The Health Department would like its space to be renovated because its needs have changed since it moved in. There was a discussion of various options and also of the need for new HVAC equipment. The Commissioners approved moving forward with one of the architectural firms that is interested.

The Sheriff received approval to replace three positions, a dispatcher who recently died, a road deputy who is resigning, and a jail correctional officer. He said another road deputy resignation is pending and said these resignations are related to the incentives to retire after 20 years created by the pension system. The Department did not receive a COPS grant it had applied for. The grant had many applications and Jasper County did not have enough crime and was too affluent compared to other applicants. However, he wants to apply again and the Commissioners approved. The grant would fund the addition of one or two new officers for about three years. The jail leaks. The problem is the flat section of roof and he said that flat roofs are prone to leaking. Trane will design a new roof for that section and will also design how to move the HVAC from the roof. Finally, he would like the 911 funds invested. The 911 Board needs to approve this.

The Commissioners approved an agreement with Moolenaar Supreme Professional Lawn Care Services to cut grass at the jail, Courthouse, Health Department, and Surveyor's Office. They approved April 6, 2024 for the next County auction. Sharron Collee from Community Services updated them on various projects and asked for approval to have the Fase Center parking lot striped. It was granted.

The local head of the Jasper County Recovery House gave a short presentation about what the Recovery House does. It has been in operation for eight years and is a first step in a road to recovery for addicts. They spend a first month locally before going to Elkhart to finish the program. The local branch accepts men from all locations but gives preference to locals. The Recovery House would like County support from opioid settlement. The Commissioners were unsure of how much money was in that fund so put the matter on the February agenda. A bit later they heard a similar presentation from the House of Grace, which provides similar services for women, who were invited to the meeting. They currently have a location on the SJC campus and can handle up to four women but usually have only one or two. They have a long list of things they would be able to spend funds on, including moving to a house. They are looking for volunteers. Again, no action was taken at this meeting.

The Commissioners approved a motion to do preliminary work for extending Rensselaer water and sewer west of I-65. March 4 is the date for groundbreaking for the Brick Streets project in downtown Rensselaer. (See update at the end.) The EMS director has resigned as director but will remain as a paramedic. There is an interim director and the leadership positions will be restructured. The Coroner gave a short report and said that a body from Weston Cemetery will be exhumed so that an identification may be found. (See below in notes.) In public comments a woman who has been to previous meetings repeated her concerns about the influence of the World Economic Forum. The Commissioners signed documents needed for work on a bridge over Carpenter Creek that is largely funded by federal dollars. The meeting was adjourned after two and a half hours.

Drainage Board

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting was much shorter, lasting only a bit more than half an hour. Two NIPSCO representatives who sat behind me for the entire Commissioners meeting presented a request to bore under a ditch to serve a subdivision near DeMotte. It was granted. The Board then gave approval for work on the bridge discussed in the Commissioners meeting to work in the County drainage right-of-way. Next it quickly approved a drainage plan from Rensselaer Central Schools, which is building a new concession stand. The drainage will tie into a tile owned by the school corporation and drain into the School House Ditch.There was a discussion about a ditch that has a section with a 48-inch pipe that is failing. The easiest solution seems to be to abandon the pipe and create a ditch on the other side of the road and the landowner is willing to donate the land. There is no maintenance fund for this ditch so the issue is how to finance it. No action was taken at this meeting and the matter will be on next month's agenda.The Board approved the Surveyor's Spray Maintenance Report. The Surveyor'''s office will treat 80 miles of ditch in-house and these are smaller ditches. They only spray one side of the ditch and have to abide by restrictions from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Larger ditches are done by contractors. The meeting adjourned after about half an hour.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met late on Monday afternoon. It began with Mayor Phillips swearing in members. There was one new member, Matt MacAleer (sp?). The Commission then elected officers: Kevin Smith president, Estel George Vice president, and Jeff Webb Secretary. The Commission voted to release $25,000 to the Rensselaer Park Board for various educational programs and camps that the Parks provide. It then accepted a tax increment report from Baker Tilly for 2023. The main item on the agenda was a presentation from Adam Alson for a Appleseed Childcare Educational funding request. For 2023 the Commission had granted Appleseed $130,000. The rationale for giving this money is that child care makes Rensselaer a more attractive place to live and thus encourages workers to locate here, providing local companies with a better workforce. Appleseed has served over 80 families since it opened and currently has about 60 children, aged 6 month to five years, enrolled. Mayor Phillips, who was at the meeting, said he would like to get the funding established through the City budget. The Commission was unsure of how much money they could budget for education (in addition to the Rensselaer Parks that have sought this money, the Rensselaer School Corporation has also asked for funds), so the Commission tabled the request.

The Commission decided that it would hold meetings on the first Monday of the month, as needed.

Rensselaer Park Board

The Rensselaer Park Board also met Monday evening. They heard from a citizen who wanted a special-needs baseball team. Currently DeMotte has such a team and several Rensselaer parents have used this team for their children. Special-needs children cannot compete with normal kids but want to be like other kids and play ball. The team would be open to children from four to 18. The parents behind this request think that they can draw enough kids from the local special-ed classes to fill a roster. They limit games to one hour, which often means one inning. Blacker Fields is the appropriate location because it has the best bathrooms for handicapped accessibility. The only problem foreseen was the problems of scheduling games in an already busy schedule for the fields. The request was approved.The Board also approved an Eagle Scout request to repair the boat launch in Bicentennial Park. The boat launch there was another Eagle Scout project and it had some issues because Bicentennial Parks located above an old garbage dump.

If all goes well, the Blacker Fields will host 13 tournaments this summer. The first girls softball tournament will be on April 20-21.

The Park employees are working on remodeling the restrooms south of Roth Field.

There was a discussion of disc golf and the possibility of finishing the course with concrete tee pads. Someone noted that the course attracted out-of-towners to Rensselaer and someone mentioned that Mount Ayr has a disc golf course and may be the smallest community in the U.S with its own course.

The meeting finished with a discussion of the problem of getting grass to grow in certain places on athletic fields. The biggest example is where the former Monnett School stood. The next meeting will be on the first Monday in March.

From the Cemetery

After hearing about the plans to exhume a body in Weston Cemetery, I checked with the caretaker of the Cemetery. He said that the idea had been around for about nine months but rules have to be followed. The State must approve digging up bodies. He said that the person of interest was buried in the southeast part of the Cemetery where there are many unmarked graves and quite a few that are only identified as "occupied" on the Cemetery's map. He said the person was killed in a train accident.

Below is a picture of the map showing some of the "occupied" graves. This part of the Cemetery has many County burials. Included are burials from those who died at the County Farm, which was located where the new EMS building and Animal Control are now located. One of "unknown from Newton County" buried in one of these lots may be this one.

This second picture shows the grave of the what may be the person of interest. Click the link and read his story. (Should I have put a trigger warning on these? They are kind of gruesome.)

By the way, this mention was tied to an earlier identication of an unknown burial, the John Doe in Old Settlers' Cemetery. It was solved a couple of years ago and here is the story.

Update: The City has now announced that the groundbreaking for the Brick Streets Project will be February 20 at 9:00 in front of City Hall.

Miscellany to start February

Notes 

On Thursday we saw the sun for the first time in over a week.

Local author Shannon Anderson had a piece on Lakeshore PBS that is now on youtube. The Historical Society had an exhibit highlighting Rensselaer authors in 2020. There are several major authors who have a connection with Rensselaer such as Edison Marshall and Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson and a whole lot of very minor authors (such as me). I do not know where Shannon Anderson ranks in the list of best-selling Rensselaer authors, but she must be near the top of the list.

The Iroquois peaked less than a foot below flood stage. Below is a picture from the Talbert Bridge when the River was near its peak.

Here is a graph from the measuring gauge at Laird's Landing showing the height of the River for the past year.

 The rain in late January was enough to bring back Weston Pond.

Before Christmas I was posting pictures of decorated windows that were downtown and elsewhere. I missed one. I found it a few days ago, It is on a window of M W Insurance on South College.

The first public meeting about revising the Solar Ordinance was held in DeMotte and the Rensselaer Republican wrote about it in this week's edition. There will be a second public meeting to gather input on February 15 at the Jasper County Fairgrounds. If you want to have an impact, you might read the ordinance and suggest changes with reasons for the changes. I doubt if ranting will have any impact. 

I missed the past two Airport Authority Board meetings. The minutes of the December meeting are now on-line (scroll to the bottom for December). It was the last meeting for Sean Yallaly. He is resigning to spend more time with family; his term lasts until the end of this year. There is interest by someone in land that the Airport owns along SR 114. (This is land that was purchased to provide room for an east-west runway. The parts of the parcels along SR 114 are not needed for that purpose.) The Board approved moving the assistant manager position from part-time to full-time.

The former Gutwein-Risner building on Washington recently sold. There have been a lot of downtown buildings that have changed ownership recently: Walters Electric, Willow Switch, Steffen's, R&M, what is now Earth Body Magic Potions, and the former REMC building. Still for sale is the former Pub building on Van Rensselaer.

La Trinidad Bakery is opening Feb 4 in the same building as Aydas, but with a different entrance.

The County Clerk has released an updated list of candidates for the May primary election. (There are still a few days for candidates to file.) A few races of interest: Senator Mike Braun is not running for reelection but is running for governor, along with three others. Jeff DeYoung has three challengers for his Commissioner of District 2 position. There are five candidates for the County Council At Large position, including the three incumbents. 

Art Show

The second of the local school art shows is now on exhibit at the Fendig Gallery. This one is for grades three to five.

It is a short-running exhibit, from February 1 to 18.