Have a happy Easter

Mostly pictures

The annual Easter Egg Hunt in Brookside Park attracted a lot of kids.

Below are more pictures of recently painted windows. Brookside Florist.

Three windows at Sorrel & Rye Mercantile

Fase Kaluf

McDonalds

The watermain work on Van Rensselaer is finished. Notice how far the fire hydrant is from the existing sidewalk. The plan calls for wider sidewalks.

On Tuesday there were still bricks on Harrison.

Work began on the water main for Harrison on Tuesday.

The concrete piers that will support the fire tower have been poured.

The Carnegie Players will be presenting "An Evening with George Ade" in June and are inviting people to audition for parts.

SR 114 in Newton County will be closing for resurfacing at the end of the month.

I could complain about the weather, but where I went to school in Minnesota just canceled classes for two days because of heavy snow.

Have a happy and holy Easter. 

 PTABOA

The Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals met on Thursday morning. It was the first meeting of 2023 so the three members were sworn in and Jacob Misch was elected president of the Board. There were two requests for tax exemption. The Carnegie Players own a couple of lots on Walnut Street, one with a building used for storage. The second request was from the DeMotte Christian Schools. They had purchased a lot with a church next to the high school that was tax exempt and wanted it to remain tax exempt.

There was a brief discussion of someone who was contesting an appraisal but he could not make the meeting so they will consider it at another meeting. PTABOA meets as needed so there is no scheduled next meeting.

The meeting lasted only about ten minutes.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met Monday evening for its second March meeting. During Citizens' Comments a woman asked to have her sewage bill reduced, She said a child had turned on a hose and did not turn it off and she only discovered this when she got her water and sewage bill. Mr Rayburn moved to adjust her bill but there was no second to his motion so her request was not approved.

Next was a public hearing on a preliminary engineering report from Commonwealth Engineering for a wastewater proposal to the State Revolving Fund Loan Program. Last year a similar report had been submitted but it did not score well so no funding was offered. This year's report was amended to expand the scope of work in hopes that it would score better. The  City is required by an unfunded Federal mandate to make changes in its sewage system, and those changes are very expensive. The goal of this report is to see if grants and cheap loans can be obtained. There are two parts to the proposal, to make changes at the sewage plant and to make changes in the collection system. The total cost was estimated at $27,531,000. The Council approved a resolution to submit the report and another resolution to authorize the Mayor to sign it. Submitting the report does not commit the City to do anything.

The electric tracker for the second quarter will reflect a 75¢ reduction per 1000 kilowatt hours of usage. (The average home uses less than that per month.) The Council repealed and replaced the Salary Ordinance; there was a change for people who were on-call. The Council acknowledged receiving the TIF Management Report. (The Redevelopment Commission meeting is next Monday at 5:00.) 

The Little Cousin Jasper Festival asked for permission to use Potawatomie, Iroquois, and perhaps Filson Parks as well as having portions of College Avenue and Front Street closed from Thursday through Sunday for the Festival. The Council approved closing the streets and the City will continue working with the Festival. The Council also approved $500 for a scholarship the Festival offers each year.

The Council approved moving forward with the Water Meter AMI program. (AMI = Advanced Metering Infrastructure.) As I heard the discussion, there are 2443 meters that are ready for the program but 367 services will need to be updated, including 130 that are inside residences or businesses. Many of these probably have lead service lines.

The City received two bids to mulch their brush pile and accepted the lower bid of $7500. The Council approved a public relations request for $1300 for the annual Gas Department's Customer Appreciation (and pipeline awareness) day. It features a lunch at the Gas Department on April 26 from 11:00 until 1:00. This year other City utilities and first responders are invited to participate. The Gas Department will seek a grant to cover the expenses and if granted, the public relations account will be reimbursed. 

The Council approved the Building Department getting quotes for a proposal for a revised zoning ordinance. The repeated power interruptions on Monday afternoon were caused by the feeder lines from NIPSCO. The Council approved replacing the roof for the Electric Department roof, which has serious leakage. It accepted a bid of $56243. It also gave the Electric Department approval to order a new digger truck. The parts for the existing truck are no longer being made. The wait time for a new truck is two to three years and the cost is $317,492.

A lot of pictures

Brick Streets

This week workers are removing the bricks from the last bit of Harrison Street. 

On VanRensselaer it seems the water main is finished and now the workers are installing storm sewers.

The street is lined with concrete sections of storm-sewer pipe.

On Wednesday the first bit of the storm sewer was finished.

There are a lot more supplies near the intersection of VanRensselaer and Harrison. I think the blue pipe is water main but do not know what the black pipes are for.

Art Show

The Fendig Gallery is currently showing the last of their regional art shows, this one of art by middle-school students. An assignment for students from one school was to do a picture of their names done in sign language. 

The ever-popular zantangle art was another assignment.

This happy meal is done in clay.

My favorite picture in the exhibit used a medium that I had not realized was an art medium: coffee.

The exhibit runs until April 4.

Window Art

Downtown businesses are feeling Spring. Again this year spring art is being painted on the windows. Cup of Joy has a busy bee.

Earth Magic

The Rensselaer Library

First Merchants Bank

Sblended Nutrition

Unique Finds

Below the artists are at work.

Notes

Gutwein Seed Services moved into its new location at the end of January. The new sign appeared this week.

The vernal equinox this year was on March 19. The sun is now north of the equator. Do you notice the difference in sun angle? 

Despite some cold nights and a lot of wind, shrubs are sprouting leaves and the magnolias are starting to bloom.

Jasper County Plan Commission meeting

The Jasper County Plan Commission met Monday evening with one cause on their agenda, a rezone from A1 to A3 for Rose Acre Farms. The land is at the intersection of US 231 and SR 16 where they have their hatchery. Rose Acres wants to move to providing cage-free eggs, and to do that, they need even the hatchery to be cage free. They want to tear down two of the buildings and replace them with larger buildings. In the process of obtaining the permits, they discovered that the land was not zoned properly for what they are doing. So this request for a rezone is a correction for actions that should have been taken by the County in the 1980s when that facility was constructed.

There are three buildings presently used for chickens. The plan is to tear down two of them and replace them. The third will be converted to other uses. Presently the facility has State approval for up to 520,000 birds (if I heard the numbers right) and the new facility will be able to house up to 390,000. They sent the request on to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation. The next meeting will be on April 15.

Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Plan Commission met on Tuesday evening rather than the usual Thursday so there would be a quorum. The first item on the agenda was a request for advice from attorney Ned Tonner. He has clients who are doing estate planning and want to establish a trust to divide property among three sons after they die. They own land west of the Interstate but it is in Rensselaer's exclusion zone, so the matter falls to Rensselaer, not the County. The question they had was what was the best way to divide the land and one way to divide land is to create a subdivision. Some of the land they planned to sell to a farmer. There was no application at this meeting. The discussion was hard to follow because Mr Tonner kept pointing to various lots from A to F on a map that was facing the Commission. One of the lots would not have road frontage. The Commission told the family to come back with a new survey, combine two lots, create an easement to the lot that has no road frontage, and ask for a split.

The next item was a rezone request from Mayor Phillips for a property just to the west of the Interstate owned by the Molenaars. The City wants to extend water and sewer west of the Interstate but does not want to use State right-of-ways because if the State decides to expand or change the intersection, the City could bear the cost of rerouting these lines. Instead, the City would like to cross a bit north of the intersection and place the lines under the privately owned Molenaar land. That land is farmed, but it is zoned B2. The Molenaars would like it zoned A1. The Commission moved to set a public hearing for the rezone.

The next item was a review of height requirements for new buildings. There was a motion passed that I think was to review the whole zoning code.

There are a number of properties that are not in conformity with current zoning, in part because when a property changes ownership, the new owner is supposed to conform even if the old owner did not have that requirement. The Building Commissioner reviewed a number of situations, asking what the Commission thought. The first was the possibility of an elementary school called Harvest Christian Academy opening on the SJC campus. The Board did not think it would need a variance.

Two towing companies are out of variance with the zoning and the Commission thought they should ask for a variance. There is a new church, Truth Bible, meeting in the Ritz Theater and the Commission thought they should apply for a permit. Someone noted that the old Pub sold recently and a new business there might want a liquor license, which a church could block. The next meeting is scheduled for April 18.

The room was filling up for a BZA meeting that followed the Plan Commission meeting, but I did not stay for it. Instead I left and went to the County Council meeting. I did grab the agenda packet before I left. There were three requests for variances and I learned on Wednesday that all were approved. The Good Samaritan Food Pantry is moving from their current location on the corner of Harrison and VanRensselaer to the building behind Pizza King on College Avenue. They requested a variance of use to operate a charitable institution open to the public in a single-family residential district. (The Food Pantry plans to open in the new location on April 2.)

Shan Shan LLC has been remodeling the old house on 226 E Washington. The two upper floors are rented as apartments but the owner has not been able to find a business to rent the main floor. He now wants to rent the first floor and basements as apartments, but the building is in a B-3 district that does not permit residential units on the first floor.

The final request was from the Rensselaer Fire Department for a variance from developmental standards. They plan to erect a fire-training tower that may exceed the 40-foot height limit. In addition, their previously approved conditional use was for a building that resembled a house or a commercial building. The tower will be constructed from shipping containers.

Zoning locks property into limited uses but sometimes flexibility is needed. Some of the land along highways, for example, is useful for commercial uses, but there is more land than commercial uses need. The rest can be used for housing. However, over time the mix of commercial and housing will change as a town grows or contracts and the types of businesses change. It would be nice if there was a zoning classification that gave developers flexibility without having to always go before a board to get permissions.

County Council meeting

After the usual preliminaries, the County Council heard a presentation from Judge Potter about the problems the public-defender program is having and some suggestions to improve the situation. Jasper County pays public defenders considerably less than some neighboring counties and there is a shortage of lawyers in Northwest Indiana, partially caused by the recent closing of Valpo University's law school. In the past three years five public defenders have decided to work as public defenders in other counties to take advantage of higher pay. Most of the costs of public defenders are reimbursed by the State at 40%, but the Judge thinks that the County has not billed everything that can be billed. There is a public-defender board that is not as active as it is required to be and that has a hard time finding people to serve on it. The Judge would like a public-defender office to manage the program and he gave a binder of documents to the members of the Council with his suggestions. He will give the same documents the the Commissioners. The changes he would like to see made must be made by the Commissioners and financed by the Council.

Most of the rest of the meeting reviewed and approved a variety of additional appropriations. Some, like an additional for Part-Time Annex, were the result of mistakes in the budget. Money should have been encumbered from the 2023 budget for finishing the EMS budget, but was not, so it will be paid from this year's budget. The IT Department wanted to move the telephone/Cell/Internet expenses out of its budget to the Commissioner's budget. It was deleted from the IT Department but not included in the Commissioner's budget, so there was a $200,000 additional appropriation. The Sheriff's Department is down four dispatchers so there is move overtime and training costs, so an additional appropriation of $20,000 was made to cover it. At its last meeting, the Commissioners agreed to give the Jasper County Recovery House and the House of Grace each $30,000 from the Opioid Restricted Fund and the Council approved an appropriation for that purpose.

Brick streets and more

 Brick Streets

Work continued on the Brick Street Project this week. Even the half bricks were being saved.

The bricks on the streets were made in Brazil, Indiana. Here is an article I found about the company. The bricks are in remarkable shape given that they are over a century old.

On the Johnny Rusk lot a variety of materials are being assembled, such as these fire hydrants.

With most of the bricks gone from Van Renssealer Street, Grimmer Construction has begun working on replacing the water line. The red spot in the trench is the helmet of a worker.

On Tuesday an evacuator was filling a dump truck. Notice that the sidewalk has been removed.

On Tuesday the workers had begun removing the bricks on Harrison Street.

Candidate Forum

The Jasper County Republican Women sponsored a candidate forum for the upcoming Republican primary election on Saturday morning. There are five races that are contested: Circuit Court Judge, Auditor, County Council at large, Commissioners district 1 and Commissioners district 2. There was a decent sized crowd despite limited publicity. The event was live-streamed on Facebook and you can find the recordings here and here. (There were technical issues which resulted in the posting of the event in two parts.) The rules for candidates were they were given three minutes to introduce themselves and then were asked three questions that they could respond to.

The first candidates to speak were those for Circuit Court Judge. Judge John Potter is the current judge. He stressed that the judge must be everyone's judge and has to treat each case seriously because each case is important to those involved. Emily Waddle is from DeMotte where she has been an attorney for 20 years. She has been head public defender and is the attorney for DeMotte. She said she wants to repair communication.

There are three candidates for Auditor. Diana Boersma spent many years as a teacher. Her husband is the County Coroner and she says they get calls for bills that have not been paid and suspects other County departments have had the same experience. She has done the accounting for the funeral home she and her husband operate. 

Treasure Gilbert is currently a deputy auditor in the Auditor's Office and she stressed her experience in that office. She is the secretary for the Commissioners meeting. She believes the office could work better with more reliance on electronic record keeping.

Christina Tryon is a deputy clerk in the Clerk's Office. She has been active in 4-H and with the Fair Board. She has had a variety of jobs and has a real-estate license. She thinks more automation would improve the office.

There are five candidates running for three at-large Council seats. Jacob Misch was appointed in December 2023 to replace Brett Risner, who resigned. He farms near Wheatfield and like many of the candidates, he stressed his roots in Jasper County. He said that preserving the County's agricultural heritage was important.

Brian Moore, who spoke next, is another farmer and in addition to farming he runs a trucking company. He was elected as a Councilman in the 2020 election and has been a member of the EMS Board, which has established the County-run ambulance service.

The last Council candidate to speak was Barbara Neihouser. She lives in Gillam Township where she and her husband farm. She also works as a labor and delivery nurse in Lafayette. She does not want any tax abatements for renewable energy and is opposed to the C02 pipeline.

Scott Walstra  and Eric Kidwell, who joined the Council when Jeff DeYoung replaced Kendell Culp when Culp was elected as a State Representative in 2022, did not speak.

Two of the candidates for Commissioner from district 1 gave presentations. James Walstra is the current District 1 Commissioner but is not seeking re-election. Ryan Hilton did not attend but his wife read a prepared statement. He works for Belstra and has been active promoting FFA, 4-H, and agriculture. He is against wind, solar, and the CO2 pipeline.

Mike Johnson moved to DeMotte in 1996. He is on the DeMotte Christian School Board. He has a business background with experience in drainage and road construction, two topics that occupy a lot of attention from Commissioners. He was encouraged to run by former Commissioners.

Only one candidate for the District 2 Commissioner slot spoke: Craig Standish. He is a fifth generation Jasper County resident. He heads the division of a small business. He wants to see Jasper County develop by expanding in agricultural areas and businesses.

There was a lot of emphasis on farms and farming. That perhaps should be expected. For those who live in Rensselaer and towns of Jasper County, county government is not as immediate as it is to those living in the rural areas. The County spends a lot of its resources on drainage and roads, which are of little importance to those living in towns.

The question that seemed to give the candidates the most trouble was the one asking what their vision of Jasper County was. Even the later candidates seemed unprepared for it even though they should have known it was coming. One reason for the difficulty in answering it was that  some of the offices have very limited range in what they can do, so it is difficult to connect that to a broad vision of the future of Jasper County.

Most of the candidates thought that Jasper County was a good place to live but thought it could be a bit better. No one mentioned the County's problem with drug addiction, which is the source of many of the County's woes.

I looked for Facebook pages of the candidates and found these: Emily Waddle, Judge John Potter, Jennifer Grynovich, Ryan Hilton. and Jeff Spurgeon II.

The primary election may be more important than the general election for County races. The winners of the contested primary races will probably win in November because Republican voters outnumber Democratic voters.

BPW and City Council meetings

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works and City Council met Monday evening. The BPW meeting was short but approved six items. Four were for the Lift Station & Unsewered Areas Project. Two of these were pay requests from Thieneman, one was a change order that reduced the cost of the project, and one was an invoice from Commonwealth Engineering. The Water Utilities Improvement project had an invoice from Commonwealth Engineering and a pay request from Maguire Iron. The Lift Station project is almost entirely complete. For the Water Utilities project tower erection has been completed and the contractors are waiting for good weather to sandblast and paint the tower. Bills for the Brick Street Project have not started arriving.

The City Council heard a presentation from Sarah DeYoung explaining what the Jasper County Economic Development organization does and how it helps Rensselaer. She had been at the last meeting but the Council wanted more information before it approved her request for a contribution. At this meeting they approved a contribution of $10,000. (I did not attend the previous meeting because I chose to attend a Jasper County Plan Commission meeting that was held at the same time. Minutes of the Council meeting are here.)

There was a short discussion of utility budgets. This year will be a practice year to discover and iron out problems. The Council approved a motion to move forward with them

The gas tracker for April will reflect a decrease of 10¢ per hundred cubic feet of usage. The Council approved a second reading of a flood damage prevention ordinance. It also approved a zoning change recommended by the Rensselaer Plan Commission for a lot at 405 N McKinley from R2 to B1. Rensselaer purchases gas through a natural gas manager that is increasing fees from 6¢ to 8¢ per dekatherm. (I had never heard that term.) The Council approved signing the agreement.  (The last month's fee was $3669.66.)

The rest of the meeting contained administrative comments and superintendents' reports.  Planning to convert the light plant for use by the Park Department continues. Baker Tilly is working on a TIF report. There is concern about properties with too much trash and letters are being sent out telling people to use Clean-up Week. One Council member received a complaint from a citizen about the work stringing fiber optic. There will be some boring after the overhead lines are finished. The Police Department has made a new hire and he may be sworn in at the next Council meeting. Electric meter switch-outs are coming. The meetings of the Rensselaer Plan Commission and the BZA have been moved from March 21 to March 19. Because of Spring Break in the local schools, a quorum would not have been available on the 21. On the agenda for the BZA are three variances. The food pantry is relocating behind Pizza King in a residential zone, so it needs a variance. The owner of the Forsythe House on the corner of Washington and McKinley has not been able to find a business to rent space, so would like to rent the space as housing. The Fire Department needs a variance for its proposed fire-tower because it exceeds height limits. (The new date and time makes it conflict with the County Council meeting.)

The company Decorative Bricks is completing removal of bricks from Van Rensselaer Street and will begin removing them from Harrison. Grimmer Construction has begun water-line replacement on Van Rensselaer. The Street Department received a $10,000 grant to work on planning more lead service lines. The Gas, Street, and Cemetery Departments received approval to hire summer help. The Park Department hopes to have water turned on in the Parks before the Easter Egg Hunt on the 23rd. Mr Haun was not at the meeting so there was no update on the fire tower.

Jasper County Tourism Commission meeting

Reviewing the Innkeepers tax report, Mr Patel said that the Remington motels were doing a brisk business because of construction (I heard solar but it may be wind) near Wolcott. In April the Commission will hear a presentation from a company called Placer AI. It uses tracking software to see how many people visit various locations and where they come from. (You trade privacy for convenience when you use a smartphone.) Consultants from Ball State have completed a draft of a strategic plan and it will be fine tuned in the upcoming weeks.

There were two funding requests. The first on the agenda was from the Rec at the Connection Center. This group had presented in February but no action was taken because the Commission wanted more information. A very long discussion followed. The concern of most of the members of the Commission was to what extent it would promote tourism. Some saw it as a great community center, but did not think that is something the Tourism Commission should be funding. The Connection Center people predict it will bring in tournaments, but the Center will not be open on Sundays. The ask was for $187,000. The capital assets funding for the Commission is only $100,000 and it has committed $20,000 for Remington murals. It can go to the County Council for an additional appropriation if needed, but the members seemed reluctant to do so. Eventually they approved $25,000 for fitness equipment, with two supporting and one not voting.

The other request was also a return visit, this by Greg Whaley who has a vision of one of the miniature trains that was manufactured in Rensselaer from 1946 to 1956 being installed in a park. The train would be a non-working train because it would be too expensive to buy and maintain a working train. The problem is that these come up for sale at unpredictable times and they are now being snapped up by collectors. Hence, it is not clear what the cost would be. He argued that once a train was obtained, the money for restoring it and mounting it would be easy to raise. The Commission suggested that he raise the money to purchase a train and then come to the Commission to fund the restoration and mounting of it. No action was taken.

Notes

There is a new swing next to the Zorich Shelter in Brookside Park.

Early March 2024 meetings

Notes

Crews from Brightspeed have been stringing cable from the utility poles. Brightspeed has replaced CenturyLink as an Internet provider.

Last week people, presumably belonging to the Church that purchased the former R&M building, were busy filling a couple of dumpsters.

Peeking through the window, I could see that the shelving from the grocery store was still there. I assume it will be sold, either as shelving or as scrap metal. There is a lot of work to be done.

The Fire Department has started getting ready to pour a foundation for its training tower, but as of Tuesday there were only some sticks in the ground.

Work continues on the removal of bricks from Van Rensselaer Street. The removal has reached the alley, so about one fourth of the bricks are gone. Below you can see wrapped palattes of bricks that have not yet been moved to the lot that once held the Johnny Rusk building.  (If I called it the R.P. Carton building, would anyone know what I was talking about?)

There are piles of bricks along the edge of the street. I am not sure if these are just not processed or if they are rejects.

Along the sidewalk, which remains open so people can get to the businesses that remain open, there is something new, a sign in the windows of what was Walter's shop.

Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners meeting on Monday morning had a full house, but it lacked the large crowd of people standing or listening through the windows that the February Plan Commission had. There were two routine buried cable permits, both fiber optics, that were approved.

Mr. Bontreger recognized that most of the people in attendance were interested in the wind-farm item at the end of the agenda so he moved up the Planning and Development items. Two rezones from A1 to A2 that had been recommended by the Plan Commission were quickly approved. The Plan Commission had voted an unfavorable recommendation for the wind-farm overlay in Carpenter Township with some recommendations. Mr Bontreger announced that the Commissioners were taking the matter under advisement and would, at the recommendation of the Plan Commission, begin the process of finding a construction compliance monitor. He asked the Highway Department and the Surveyor's Office to prepare their concerns with the existing road-use and decommissioning agreements. Surprisingly, few people left; they seemed to want to hear the public comments that are given at the end of the meeting.

At the February meeting Animal Control had requested a light bar for a vehicle and at this meeting they reported that the Highway Department had provided one. Animal Control continues to have a problem with mice in their storage shed that they have not been able to contain. The Commissioners will investigate possible solutions including a professional exterminator or a new shed. Community Services had new quotes for seal coating and striping its Rensselaer and DeMotte parking lots and they were approved.

At the previous meeting the Commissioners had discussed donations to theThe Jasper County Recovery House and the House of Grace, which help men and women overcome addictions. They had not acted because they were unsure if funding was available. It is and at this meeting the Commissioners approved $30,000 for each organization.

Sara DeYoung from JCEDO introduced the Yodel website. The Newton Township Trustee reported on the Sayler-Makeever Cemetery west of Rensselaer. It has had some vandalism and she had discovered that the Cemetery is not owned by the Township but by the County. The entrance road was once a County Road that continued to SR 114. There was a discussion of what can be done to improve the Cemetery, and the County will help because it owns the land.

There is an ambulance housed in Remington in a building that the Town of Remington owns. The City of Remington would like to donate the building to the County with the provision that if the ambulance is ever removed, the building will revert back to Remington. The advantage for Remington is that it would no longer be responsible for the upkeep of the building.

The Commissioners decided not to pursue purchase of some grant software that was primarily a database. Rather they would prefer to hire someone to write grants. The Auditor said that White County gets twice as many grants as Jasper. The Commissioners approved mowing contracts for the Surveyor's office, the Fairgrounds, the jail, and the health department. They made appointments to PTABOA and NWICA and approved two conference requests.  The director of Animal Control requested a change in a job description that would eliminate a requirement that the position be a probation officer in order to make the position easier to fill. The Commissioners approved.

The Commissioners approved a software purchase by the auditor and a request for funds from the Veteran's Office for a quarterly training session. Craig Standish asked for their support for a 4-H shooting range at the Fairgrounds. Shooting events will return to the Fair this year with 42 participants. (In the past it once had 132.) The next step will be before the Rensselaer BZA or Plan Commission.

The Commissioners approved ambulance contracts to the Wheatfield, Keener, and Central services. These included the County subsidy to each service. They approved a contract with a construction manager for the planned renovation of the Health Department building. The County would like a new website and a possible website creator was mentioned. The County has received the seismic testing data that BP collected and wants to collaborate with Benton County in analyzing it. The Sheriff received permission to replace a part-time person who is planning on quitting.

The floor was then open to public comments. Most were about the proposed wind farm and some of the speakers had previously spoken at the February Plan Commission. Some were just asking for clarification of an issue. The meeting was continued to March 18 at 8:30 if necessary.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting was short and had an audience of one. Three bids were opened for the annual ditch spraying contract and the low bid of $154,761.82 from Ditchside Management LLC was accepted. There was discussion of a request for a variance allowing a garage to be built into a ditch right-of-way. The construction had approval from DeMotte pending Drainage Board approval. The Commissioners wondered if the location could be shifted to reduce the encroachment and tabled the request to get more information. In a recent meeting the Board had decided to remove a section of tile along a road and replace it with a ditch on the other side. One of the persons who would be affected had a very different cost estimate for replacing the tile and what followed was a discussion of ribbed vs spiral piping.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met Monday evening. They released funds that had previously been approved to the Rensselaer Central School Corporation for a Pre-K program ($25K) and for classroom supplies ($25K). They then heard the request for funds from Appleseed Childcare Education. Adam Alson gave a presentation explaining that childcare is one of the things that people look for when deciding where to live. However, in rural communities licensed childcare centers cannot make a profit. Expenses will be higher than the amount of tuition that parents can pay. Therefore, it must be subsidized. Lack of childcare leads to increased absenteeism, so it impacts business and becomes an economic development issue. Appleseed brought together various groups to make licensed childcare happen. The expertise to run a center did not exist locally, so they brought in Right Steps from Lafayette. Franciscan provided a building that otherwise would have been very expensive. About 20 local employers have supported the endeavor financially. The members of the Commission applauded these efforts and agreed that Appleseed was providing a valuable service.

However, the Board wanted to see a budget before it approved funding and Appleseed did not want to provide one. Apparently Appleseed does not want it on the public record. So the matter was tabled.

I was mystified by this because all nonprofits are required to file a form 990 with the IRS and those forms must be available to the public. For example, here are several years of 990 forms for Saint Joseph's College.  The 990 does not contain as much information as a complete budget, but it includes the most important numbers.

Rensselaer Park Board

The Rensselaer Park Board also met on Monday evening. It heard from Pat Fox about plans for the 2024 Little Cousin Jasper Festival. This year will be the 50th anniversary because the festival started in 1974, though there were some years since then that did not have a festival. Because of the uncertainty caused by the Brick Streets Project, the site for the festival will again be Potawatomie Park. Ms Fox said that the lighting in Potawatomie is poor and that there was vandalism despite having a security guard for the night hours. There was a discussion of various options, including using Filson Park and/or Iroquois Park. If Iroquois Park is used, College Avenue will probably be closed during festival hours.

A contract for a program director for summer programs was signed. It will be a template for future independent contractors. There was a discussion of how to get the summer programs off to a fast start and the Board approved $1500 for that on a 4-2 vote. A soccer contract had been prepared but no one from the soccer program was available to sign it. The Board approved the purchase of two lifeguard chairs for the pool. Someone suggested that the horseshoe pits should be moved to the front of Iroquois Park to increase their visibility and thus their use. The Board approved an improvement on the donor posts in Foundation Park and a proposal to hire someone to fertilize the Blacker and the soccer fields.

March has arrived

 Art Show

The 31st Annual Regional High School Art Show is on exhibit at the Fendig Gallery.  Hours are Tuesdays noon till 4:00, Thursdays 2:00 to 6:00, and Saturdays noon till 2:00.

This picture of a face is made with lines that expand and contract.

The show runs until March 10, when there will be an awards ceremony starting at 1:30.

Candidates

The May primary ballot is set and there are some interesting races. The incumbent U.S. Senator, Mike Braun, is not running for re-election but instead is running for governor. There is only one person running on the Republican side to replace him,  Jim Banks, who is currently the Congressman from the third congressional district. There was a second, but he will not be on the ballot because he did not meet eligibility requirements. There are two candidates for Senate on the Democratic side, Marc Carmichael and Valerie McCray.

The Indiana governor is term-limited, so Eric Holcomb will not be running for re-election. There are six candidates running to replace him on the Republican side but only one on the Democratic side. The Republicans are Senator Mike Braun, Brad Chambers, Suzanne Crouch, Eric Doden, Curtis Hill, and Jamie Reitenour. Suzanne Crouch is currently the Lieutenant Governor and Curtis Hill is a former Indiana Attorney General. I have seen many ads for Eric Doden.

Our Congressman, Jim Baird, has two people seeking to replace him on the November ballot: Charles Bookwalter, and John Piper. There are two candidates on the Democratic ballot: Rimpi Girn and Derrick Holder. 

There are a number of contested local races. all on the Republican side. Emily Waddle is running against incumbent John Potter for Circuit Court Judge. The current auditor, Donya Jordan, is not running for reelection and there are three candidates seeking to replace her: Diana Boersma, Treasure Gilbert, and Christina Tryon. Commissioner James Walstra is retiring and there are four candidates vying for the nomination: Jennifer Grynovich, Ryan Hilton, Mike Johnson, and Jeff Spurgeon II. Jeffrey DeYoung is running for reelection as the Commissioner from District 2, but will have to overcome opposition from three other candidates, Jamie Patrick, Tina Porter, and Craig Standish. There are five candidates running for the Jasper County Council, at large: Eric Kidwell, Jacob Misch, Brian Moore, Barbara Neihouser, and Scott Walstra. I believe the top three will be on the November ballot. Kidwell, Misch, and Moore are currently on the Council.

Also on the ballot are candidates for the Republican and Democratic Conventions. I am not sure how many are elected. You can see the candidates from here.

There will be a meet-the-candidates event on March 9 at the American Legion at 10:00 am.

Notes

Almost half the bricks from Van Rensselaer Street have been removed.

After they are cleaned, they are put on pallets and are stored on the empty lot next to the Post Office. When they are finished, I suspect this lot will be full.

There are a few stray bricks in the street that for some reason they did not pick up.

It is remarkable how durable these bricks are. 

Just when we were starting to enjoy warm spring weather, a cold front moved in and returned winter. At least we did not get the storms that Illinois got. 

I have been working on my taxes. Jasper County remains as the county with the fourth highest county income tax.