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.