Lots happening in April

New downtown

A new sign was being installed on Friday.

The Clinic of Family Medicine is no longer on Grace Street across the highway from the hospital but is now in downtown Rensselaer.  There will be a ribbon cutting in May for a new clinic in what was the Clinic of Family Medicine. I do not know the details of what is happening.

Ayda's has finished recoating its Harrison-Street wall. They have also been busy working on outdoor seating to the east of the building. There were a couple of concrete trucks on site last week for a new floor. Their goal is to open this seating for Cinco de Mayo.

There will be a new fountain in the center of Filson Park. This is the base and it seems to have come with the water already in it ;-)

The fountain will go in the middle of this ring. I am not sure what the purpose of the ring is.

The Brick Street project continues with installation of various underground utilities. This picture was taken near the eastern end of the Harrison-Street section.

The workers dig holes, put something in them, cover the hole up, and dig another hole.

The Alliance Bank Blog has an article on what is happening to the former Walter's building on the corner of Harrison and VanRensselaer.

Art show

The Annual PAC Member Show is on exhibit at the Fendig Gallery from April 15 till June 2

This last item is unusual because it is made of paper.

Gallery hours are Tuesdays noon until 4:00 and Thursdays 2:00 until 6:00. The closing reception is on June 2 at 2:00.

Rensselaer Advisory Planning Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Planning Commission held a meeting on the evening of Thursday, April 18. The first item was a public hearing to change the zoning of a lot of land west of the Interstate and north of Burger King from B2 to A1. The land is currently farmed. The City of Rensselaer would like to have an easement through some of this lot to run the proposed water and sewer line and this was discussed at the Plan Commission in March. I am not sure what the advantage of having the zoning A1, but it was passed and will now go to the City Council for approval.

There was a discussion of having the fees that the Building Department collects go into an account that the Planning Commission could access. They currently go into the City's general fund. The City Council would need to approve this change.

Prairie Street is the name of an undeveloped Street north of Merritt Street and partially between Owen and McKinley Streets. The area in which this undeveloped street is located is on the boundary of three additions to Rensselaer, which confuses things. Also, the petitioner was not able to find records of what had been done in the past. Apparently part of the street had been abandoned, but instead of the property being split between adjacent property owners, only the northern neighbor received land. The petitioner would like the rest of the street vacated with all of it going to him. He would like to run semi-trailer trucks on it, but cannot presently because his northern neighbor stores stuff on the property. Nothing was done at this meeting but it will probably resurface at a future meeting.

Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting.

The Plan Commission meeting ended about a half hour before the scheduled start of the BZA meeting. The first item was old business, a property on South Airport Road that the neighbors have complained about. The home has been under construction for several years and the neighbors say it is an eyesore. The Board gave the owner 90 days to make significant progress and will review the situation in July. (The property is not in City limits but in the City's buffer zone.)

The first item under new business was a request for a variance for a property on North McKinley Avenue. The house is used for two residences but is in an area zoned B2. It recently was sold and now it needs a variance to keep it the use it has always been in. The variance passed.

The second item was a conditional use variance for the Truth Bible Church, which is a new church meeting in the Ritz Theater. Churches can be located in any zoning district, but all need a conditional use variance. The variance was granted with the condition that it waive the right to contest any liquor license being granted within 300 feet.

The third item was a variance of use for Paul's Auto Repair & Towing. It is located in a B2 district that allows auto repair but towing is not on the list of the permitted uses. The towing company keeps towed vehicles behind the buildings where they are not easily visible. One member was hostile, saying he did not want another junk yard in town. The owners responded that 90% of the vehicles they store are abandoned vehicles that the City, County, and State asks them to tow. They cannot dispose of the vehicles until they get title to them, which can take the State up to 6 months to grant. They are then hauled and sold to a junk yard in DeMotte. The variance was approved with conditions that the maximum number of unclaimed vehicles allowed is 75, that no parts be sold, that no unclaimed vehicles be left on the front of the lot, and the part of the lot containing unclaimed vehicles be fenced.

The final item on the agenda was a variance of use for D1 Towing and Recovery. They are located to the west of the Amtrak station in an area zoned residential. Amtrak and the City would like to pave the access road to the station and Amtrak was concerned that the heavy trucks would destroy the road. D1 does not haul heavy trucks to this location; their storage yard is on Walnut Street. They also said that they would like to move to a location closer to the Interstate. Their variance was approved.

While the discussion of the towing was underway, about five people came into the meeting. They were residents of South Airport Road and wanted to comment on the first item in the meeting but had gotten the time wrong. They received a summary of what had happened and expressed their concerns.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met for its second April meeting on Monday night. Barb Michal, representing the Art-in-the-Alley event, requested that the section of Van Rensselaer Street between the alley and Kellner be closed on July 27 if the event is held in Filson Park. If the Park is not finished enough, the alternative site would be Foundation Park. The request was approved.

The next item on the agenda, an apprenticeship graduation, was postponed until the next meeting because the person making the presentation was not able to attend.

Two ordinances involving accounting changes were then passed to allow the Street Department to purchase a new garbage truck for $257,065. One established a Sanitation Depreciation Fund and the second approved a loan from the Water Depreciation Fund to this new Sanitation Depreciation Fund. The new truck should arrive in early May.

The Council approved the acceptance of several roads as City roads. Parts of Daugherty, Schuster, and Sparling were added to the City road map as well as part of Melville. Some of the 2.39 miles were previously SJC roads and others were County roads. I believe that all were being maintained by the City.

The Council approved changing Sanitation accounting from a cash basis to an accrual basis. The change is connected to the change of Sanitation from a City department to a City utility. The Council also approved a public relations request of up to $150 for potting soil and flowers for the front of the Police Station.

The meeting then ended with a series of announcements and reports. The Police Department has begun tagging abandoned vehicles. The annual fish-fry dinner for the Fire Department will be on May 3 from 4:00 until 7:00. The new roof on the Electric Department building has been installed. In the first week of May Amtrak may be working on the depot. On May 7 the City will be zooming with Amtrak to discuss closing some rail crossings. The first tournament at the Blacker fields will be on May 4-5. There is an 811-awareness open house with lunch at the Gas Department on Friday from 11 to 1.

I missed the first April meeting. The official minutes are on the City website here.

Odds and ends

A company from England is testing drones at the Jasper County Airport.

Bazz's Roller Rink is changing owership. It opened in 1953.

The Fendig Summer Theater will be presenting Seussical this July.

Warmer weather

 Spring

We had the first hot days of the year over the weekend, with temperatures into the 80s. The longer days, the trees getting leaves, and the many flowers tell us that spring really is here.

The trees below are on the SJC campus.

Some beautiful tulips, but not mine.

I was surprised last week to see that the geese already have goslings.

On Friday I attended the first of the wellness walks, which are being held on Fridays from 10:40 until noon from April 12 to May 17 at Brookside Park. They replace the old Walk-with-a-Doc Walks and are sponsored by the Extension office. As the very small group of walkers assembled, we watched the City and the Urban Forest Ministry unload trees that will be planted in Rensselaer this spring.

Spring is a good time to flush hydrants. 

It is also a good time to patch streets where utility work has been done. 

(I noticed that there is a new dumpster by the old R&M Store.)

There are frogs croaking in Weston Pond. I saw a turtle on the road on Sunday and helped it over the curb. And not necessarily a sign of spring, but something I had never seen before during 50 years of living in Rensselaer: I saw a motorboat speeding downstream on the Iroquois River. I did not have time to snap a picture.

Not a lot of planting has begun because the fields are still too wet from the recent rains.

AppleTree is one

Appletree celebrated is first birthday on Saturday with an open house.

There were tiny cupcakes available for those who came. Kids could get their faces decorataed or get balloon sculptures.

Below is a bubble machine and if you look carefully you might see some of the bubbles on the right side of the pictures. Some of the kids had fun chasing them.

Inside the building was a cake that was served at the celebration at 1:00, which I did not attend.

Everyone who was there when I stopped by seemed to having a good time.

Brick Streets

Work continues with installing utility lines and pipes beneath where the brick streets were. New water lines crossed the sidewalk last week, so access to the businesses on Van Rensselaer has been difficult. 

There are still lots of pipes and materials left to install.

Continued Commissioners meeting

On Monday morning the Commissioners met in a continuation of their April 1 meeting. I decided to attend via Zoom, which I immediately regretted because the audio did not work at the start of the meeting. About five minutes in the people attending live realized there was a problem and discovered that a wire was not connected properly. Fortunately Mr Bontreger gave a summary of what had happened while there was no audio.

Mr Phillips, presumably acting as head of the Jasper County Republicans, had thanked Mr Walstra and Mrs. Jordan for their years of service to the County. Neither are seeking reelection. The Commissioners had approved contracts for 100 day of housing juvenile offenders in other county jails. Community Corrections will provide people to mow grass at the new EMS building.

With the audio problem fixed, the Commissioners continued with what was probably the most important item. They had met on Thursday in executive session to interview five firms to serve as construction compliance monitor for the proposed wind-farm project in Carpenter Township if the project becomes a reality. They had decided to use BF&S, a company that has done a lot of work for the County in the past. They also said that they appreciated learning about the other companies and may use them in the future if there are projects that fit their expertise. EDS, the company that is proposing the wind farm, has agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it will pay for the services of construction monitoring. They will provide an initial  deposit of $200,000, from which the County will make payments, and there is a soft cap of $400.000 in the agreement. This MOU should satisfy the concerns that the Advisory Plan Commission had in their February meeting.

The Commissioners formally approved the agreement with BF&S. They also said that they are close to finishing an agreement with the City of Rensselaer to extend water and sewage lines west of I-65.

Jasper County BZA meeting

The Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeals met Monday evening with one cause on their agenda, a request for a lot-width variance for a property in Walker Township. The owner wants to split a 4.8 acre lot into two 2.4 acre lots that would be long and thin and not have the road frontage that the zoning code requires. However, it is in the area that is full of lots that are of similar size. The hearing took longer than I expected because the petitioners had not provided enough detail on their application. The variance was granted with the condition that the new lot lines preserved required setbacks for the existing buildings. The purpose of the split was to provide a lot for a new house. This is not the final step the owners must take. They will need to have the Plan Commission approve a two-lot subdivision.

The last bit of the meeting had a discussion of how to get applicants to file better organized and complete forms to streamline the meetings.

Joint Council/Commissioners meeting

There are two joint Council/Commissioners meetings scheduled each year, in July and December. However, the Council and Commissioners decided that two issues were important enough to hold an extra one in April,

The first issue concerned public defenders. Judge Potter had made a case to both Commissioners and Council that the current system needed to be changed. At Tuesday's meeting Todd Sammons and a person from Indianapolis who is part of the State Public Defender Commission explained the case for change and what it might look like. In the years since public defenders were introduced, the County has gone from having an abundance of applicants for the positions to a shortage. Public-defender expenses are reimbursed 40% by the State but it is not clear that the County is getting all the reimbursement that it could get. Many counties have already moved to establishing a chief public defender position and that is what Jasper County is now considering. Some of them have full-time positions and others part-time, and it is unclear which would be better for Jasper County. Many of the details of how the change would happen and what the final result would be were discussed and the discussion took about 50 minutes. The next step is for the local public defender board to set up a plan and to figure out a budget. They can base their plan on existing plans from other counties and the State Commission is available to help them.

The second issue was the request from the Coroner to provide him with more space. The County morgue is located next to the Fase Center east of DeMotte and it shares space with the Sheriff's Department. The Coroner had taken some public officials to Fulton County to view their recently-built morgue and he had a handout showing what he would like in a new building. There is an upcoming meeting with Baker Tilly and perhaps at that meeting questions of how a new building might be financed can be answered.

County Council meeting

The County Council meeting started about a half hour late because the joint meeting had lasted so long. Kristen Louck, head of the Health Department, had had a new nurse position approved by the Commissioners and now needed the salary approved by the Council. The Council approved it but it needs to be advertised so they will need to approve it again at the next meeting. She also requested a pay of $40 per hour for the part-time director of EMS services.

The meeting then moved on to a list of additional appropriations. The Sheriff had a request for a jailer and overtime. The overtime budget had been approved for $2,000 rather than the $20,000 intended, so the $18,000 was added back. The Court needed more for translators. That is an expense that is increasing in most counties and a recent decision by the Supreme Court raised the qualifications for translators, so they have become more expensive. The Animal Shelter needed $3,000 for a new tranquilizer gun. $100,000 was needed for a second payment for new voting machines. They were purchased with the payments spread over three years. Some expenses for the Health Department did not get paid in 2023 so there was an additional appropriation to pay them. Community Corrections is installing new security cameras and there was an additional appropriation of $30,000 to pay for them.

The last item on the agenda was a report about the Connection Center. I believe this was purely an informational report and I left shortly after it started because I could see lightning through the windows and I did not want to get caught in a thunderstorm.

Notes

I got my property tax bill last week and went to the Courthouse to pay it. While there I voted. Voting is on the second floor where the buffalo usually is. Hours are 8:00 till noon and 1:00 till 4:00 with extended hours on Mondays and Wednesdays until 8:00. If you wait until election day, the two places in Rensselaer to vote will be the Fairgrounds and the Armory. 

Eclipse 2024

 Solar Eclipse

I had never seen a total solar eclipse and the eclipse of April 8 was the last chance I would have to see one, so I drove south to Greenwood on Sunday afternoon. I drove a day early because heavy traffic was predicted for Monday. The traffic on Sunday was not bad and the trip down was uneventful.

I stayed at my son's house and he and his family were joined by other relatives from Nevada and Minnesota. I had my eclipse glasses but I would not have needed them. People in the path of totality had multiple opportunities to get pairs. My daughter-in-law prepared an eclipse party featuring foods with a sun or moon theme such as Sun Chips, Eclipse gum, Moon Pies, and Sunkist orange soda.

We eagerly awaited the start of the eclipse. Then we watched as the moon slowly crept across the sun. If we had not known that there was to be an eclipse, I doubt if we would have noticed anything strange until the sun was almost completely covered. Then the sunlight was noticeably less bright. Even then looking at the sun without eclipse glasses would not have shown what was happening. Even a tiny sliver of the sun was blindingly bright. Suddenly we were in total eclipse and one could look at the sun directly. What one saw was a black circle surrounded by bright light. The light was coming from the solar corona, which is normally not visible from earth because of the brightness of the surface of the sun. I took a look through binoculars and saw an orange spot in the circle, which I presume was a solar flare or prominence. I tried to take some pictures but none of them turned out. 

I did get a picture of what the area looked like during the eclipse.

I was surprised to see Venus brightly shining in the sky to the west of the sun. Some people also saw Jupiter but I did not.

The spectacle was over in about four minutes and then a shaft of blindingly bright light appeared and it was time to put on the eclipse glasses again. People around me did not seem to be nearly as interested in watching the sun slowly emerge as they had been watching the solar disk slowly disappear.

I waited until Tuesday morning to drive back to Rensselaer. The traffic was not terrible. There was a delay north of Lebanon due to an accident. I was happy to have seen the total eclipse and also happy to be back home.

Meetings

Because I decided to view the solar eclipse, I missed the Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting and the Rensselaer City Council meeting. The minutes of the BPW meeting are on the City website. The meeting lasted two minutes and had only one pay invoice to approve. The new water tower has been painted. This week's Rensselaer Republican has a couple articles telling what happened at the Council meeting.

On Tuesday I got back to Rensselaer in time to go to the Tourism Commission meeting. However, they did not have an quorum so could not vote on anything. They did hear a presentation from one of their consultants from Ball State who are working on a strategic plan. The presentation was recorded so those members who did not attend could view it. A lot of the presentation was focused on things that were discussed in December when a session with many members of the public were asked for input.

72 of the 92 Indiana counties have a tourism tax. The revenue from that tax provides the funds that the Tourism Commission spends. The presentation said that the Commission does not have the resources to do big things by itself. It needs to find ways to add value to what others are doing. The goal is to develop vibrant communities that attract visitors and provide amenities for residents.

On Tuesday evening the Airport Authority Commission met and I intended to attend the meeting via Zoom. However, I got involved in something and forgot to tune in to the meeting.

I will try to do better with meetings next week.

Façade grants

A second round of façade grants has been made and one of the two receiving a grant was Earth Magic. There was a photo opportunity on the morning of April 4.

I did not hear the amount of the grant, but it will help improve the look of the front of the second floor. Earth Magic recently announced that it would be partnering with Frey Catering and starting on April 23 Frey Catering will be providing all the food options.

The space that Earth Magic has is an alley stopper. The two walls are the external walls of the adjoining buildings. There is a second floor over part of the the space, but it can only be reached via a pull-down ladder inside Earth Magic. The owner would like to have a stairs and walkway on the back that would allow this space to be used as an apartment.

Brick Streets pictures

Most of the work on the brick streets is taking place near the intersection of Harrison and Van Rensselaer. The contractor dug a big hole near Ayda's. The line on the bottom is a combined storm and sanitary sewer. 

Two concrete manhole structures were put in.

and then covered up.

I noticed a big ugly concrete thing that had been dug out. I am not sure where it had been.

Notes

Ayda's is adding a layer of insulation to its Harrison Street wall.

The first round of Community Crossing grants has been announced by the Indiana Department of Transportation. Jasper County received $1.5 million and Remington $141,677.23.

The River peaked at about 10.7 feet (flood stage is 12) on April 4 and has been declining. We had a lot of rain early on the 11th that will send the River rising, but it is too early to tell by how much.

We have had some warm days this week and the warmth is making April feel like spring. The grass is growing and people have started mowing. A lot of trees and bushes are flowering.

If you have not filed your 2023 income taxes, you only have a few days left.

April showers

 Ribbon Cutting

The Good Samaritan Food Pantry has moved to a new location on College Avenue behind Pizza King. The new location has about triple the floor space that the old location had. 

In brief remarks before the ribbon was cut, the Food Pantry thanked the Walters for their many years of being landlords who charged below market rates for rent. Also thanks for those who rehabilitated the new quarters and helped with the move.

Commissioners meeting

The Jasper County Commissioners met for their April meeting on Monday. They quickly approved three buried cable permits: one for broadband in the Georgetown Subdivision,  a second for NIPSCO repairing a gas pipeline in Remington, and a third for Farm Builders for extending a water main from Remington.

Judge Potter gave them the same presentation about public defenders that he had given to the County Council in March. He noted that while the $50,000 that Jasper County pays public defenders seems like a lot, other counties are paying more and offering benefits. He mentioned Cass County, which pays $80. He also said that there is a shortage of lawyers, giving some numbers of area counties with Warren County having none. He suggested that a joint meeting of the Commissioners and Council might find a solution and Mr Bontreger suggested that a May meeting might be arranged.

A person from Pulse Technology answered questions about a new postage machine that the Extension/Surveyor would like. Currently they use either the postage machine at the jail or the Courthouse. The Commissioners approved a lease. Corrections received approval to submit its annual grant application to the Department of Corrections. They are asking for $724,003 and if they get that amount would like to hire a recovery counselor, someone who has overcome addiction to help the inmates deal with their additions. They also received approval to replace and add security cameras. The Commissions signed a contract with Phegley Construction for remodeling the Community Corrections kitchen.

The Sheriff's Department received approval to release a vehicle to EMS. The Commissioners approved the Farmers' Market use of the Court House parking lot on Saturdays from May to October and on Tuesday afternoons after 4:30 during July and August.

The Health Department had several requests. As a result of a change in State funding, they have to spend down an account and would like to use the money to purchase two vehicles. They will look for vehicles and bring the results back to the Commissioners for approval. They want to hire a new nurse to do things that they are not currently doing and the position will be paid by State funding. The Commissioners approved. They also received permission to change some hours. Because most of the State is on Eastern time, the current hours cause some problems. Finally, the Commissioners approved hiring a part-time EMS director.

The Commissioners approved the rezone from A1 to A3 for Rose Acres that the Plan Commission had recommended. They approved an updated contract for the Recorder's Office that allows the public to find documents electronically. They also approved a conflict of interest statement that allows an employee of the Sheriff's Department to sell a K-9 dog to the Department. They adjusted that start time of future Commissioner meetings from 8:15 to 8:30. The old start time seemed to have been set so County employees who arrived at work in the Courthouse had a few minutes to settle in before the Commissioners meeting began. Now that the meetings are no longer in the Court House, 8:30 seems more convenient.

A citizen had relayed concern about speed limits on the roads around DeMotte. The Highway Department is working on a proposal. The Auditor needs to replace a deputy auditor and was given the OK. Early voting at the Courthouse for the primary election will begin April 9. Andrew Boersma expressed concerns about the speed limits on the highways bordering Wheatfield. The meeting was continued until April 15 at 8:30 if needed.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting was short. The request for a variance to locate a garage on a ditch easement that was considered in March and tabled was tabled again. https://rensselaeradventures.blogspot.com/2024/03/early-march-2024-meetings.html

In several recent meetings there was discussion of replacing a tile alongside a road that is failing. At this meeting they opened two bids and accepted the higher bid because the lower bid had stipulations that they believed could not be met. The bid was for $21,400 and materials will cost $38511. The materials could be purchased from the Bridge Cumulative fund but there was a question about how the labor costs could be funded. They approved the bid pending taking money from the Bridge Cumulative fund.

The Surveyor had received a petition to clean a ditch whose name I did not catch. The Board approved having him start the process that will end in a public hearing.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission held a short meeting on Monday afternoon. Left over from the March meeting was a request for funding from Apple Seed that had been tabled. Apparently Apple Seed provided more financial data since that meeting, but the Board decided it was not enough and wanted financial data from Right Steps, the organization that actually runs the Apple Tree center. The request was tabled again.

A woman from Baker Tilly was on Zoom to discuss the TIF Management Report that Baker Tilly had prepared. I could not read the very small print on the screen and did not have a copy of the report. The Commission acknowledged that they had received the report. It then reviewed and approved a contract with Baker Tilly for future reports.

Park Board meeting

The Park Board met later Monday evening. It heard a presentation of summer programming for 2024 and approved it. Most or all of the events from 2023 will return for 2024, though some will be revised. There will be theme days/dollar days at the pool on Fridays in July and on June 19 the pool will celebrate its 75 birthday. There was a discussion of tournaments at Blacker Fields. Not all of the dates for tournaments have confirmed concession workers. The next meeting will be on May 6.

Notes

Below are a few pictures from the Brick Streets project. At the end of last week almost all of the bricks on Harrison had been removed from the street.

At the end of last week and the beginning of this week, workers had dug into Harrison Street south of the brick streets. I think the pipe in the trench is for storm sewers, but it may be something else.

The new water main had been installed under most of Harrison last week. 

The Walgreens in Monticello is scheduled to close on April 3.

Our April showers are causing the River to rise. As I write this on Tuesday evening, the gage at Laird's Landing says it is over ten feet and the level is still rising. Will it hit flood stage at 12 feet?