Mostly May meetings

Have you noticed that tulip trees are blooming?

The flowers are large, but usually high in the tree where they blend in.

Northern lights

On Friday night and Saturday morning many people in our area saw the Northern Lights. The display was caused by strong solar storms that ejected ionized particles in Earth's direction. They are caught in the Earth's magnetic field and funneled into the upper atmosphere, especially near the poles. 

Some of the people commented that the pictures that they took with their phones showed a lot more than what they could see with their eyes. Human eyes have two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. Cones see color and are concentrated in one small area of the back of the eye. They turn off when in low light conditions and rods take over. Rods see only black and white and are not abundant where the cones are concentrated. That is why if you are looking for a faint object in the sky, you will see it better if you focus a little to the side of the object.  If you did not see the color in the Northern Lights that the pictures captured, it is because your cones were inactive. Modern smartphones have much greater sensitivity to low light than human eyes.

I did not see the aurora but did see a number of pictures on Facebook, including some from family living in Kentucky. Here is a link to pictures taken from Fountain Park Chautauqua 

By the way, if the solar storms get too strong, they can cause a lot of damage here on Earth to electrical systems. We do not need another Carrington Event, but sooner or later Earth will experience one.

Board of Public Works meeting

The BPW meeting on Monday afternoon was short, lasting only ten minutes. It approved invoices for water utility improvements from Commonwealth Engineering for $9,087 and from Maguire Iron for $359,575. This  project is now 76% complete. They also approved an applicant for the Fire Department. The fire tower construction has been pushed back ten to twelve weeks and the Fall training class has been canceled.

City Council meeting

After the usual preliminaries, the City Council considered an extension for a sewer hook-up along SR 114. The applicant has had trouble getting her contractor to install the hook-up because of the extensive rain this Spring. She was granted a 60 day extension. There are several other people in that area that are supposed to be hooking up to the City sewer and they apparently have not done so yet.

Rein Bontreger requested closing a block of Front Street on Thursday evenings from May 23 to September 26 for his weekly Cylinders-and-Snacks car show. This will be the fifth year for the event. His request was granted. He said that next year he may move the event to the new bricks of Harrison Street. The old power lines on that section of Harrison Street were removed on Saturday as the Electric Department switched power from the overhead lines to newly installed underground lines. The power to the Court House had to be turned off during the transfer.

The Council acknowledged an apprenticeship graduation from the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water. The Alliance helps pay the costs of completing the program and I believe there is another City employee in the program. Licensed operators for utility operations are in short supply nationally as well as locally and the program is trying to improve the situation.

The Council then turned to renewing several tax abatements. ConAgra had two, one personal property and the other real estate, as did National Gypsum. IMPA had two, one for each solar park. Indiana Facemasks had two, both for personal property, and Geyer American Melt Blown had one. There was another Geyer company that had had an abatement, but it has closed and the employees folded into the other Geyer businesses. Indiana Facemasks no longer produces as many face masks, but it has added other products. Finally, Genova had a real-estate abatement reapproved.

The Council approved a payment claim for the Brick Street Redevelopment for $208K. I asked before the meeting why these claims came to the Council rather than the Board of Public Works and was told because the source of funding was different from those that go to the BPW. The gas tracker for May will reflect a 33¢ decrease per hundred cubic feet. The Council moved the next Council meeting to Tuesday, May 28 because the 27th is Memorial Day.  (There will be a Memorial Day Ceremony on May 27 at Weston Cemetery at 11:00.)

Four people have submitted applications for the open School Board Position. There will be no BZA or Plan Commission meetings this month. For clean-up week, five cars were towed. Ten loads of metal were collected as well as 55.4 tons of yard waste, 11 gaylord boxes of electronics, 98 tires, 37.1 tons of brush, and 218.4 tons of trash.

Below is a picture taken last week as the City's electric utility was installing a transformer on the corner of the Courthouse square.

Tourism Commission

The Tourism Commission met Tuesday morning and approved three funding or sponsorship requests. They approved $5000 to both the Touch of Dutch Festival and the Little Cousin Jasper Festival and $1700 to the DAR for Wreaths Across America. 

The members were told to expect lower tax receipts for May and June. Higher interest rates have depressed construction and thus the demand for housing for construction workers. There was mention that a lot of people who schedule job interviews do not show; apparently the ease of scheduling with some of the Internet sites is a cause.

Airport Authority meeting

I missed the past two Airport Authority meetings but did remember the May meeting. I was thinking of attending in person but the weather looked iffy so I attended via Zoom.

There is interest in a couple properties that the Airport owns along SR 114. Time will tell if anything develops. The Board approved a lease of a hangar. Fuel sales in April were surprisingly good. There was a discussion of maintenance issues with the rental plane and the Board approved an amendment to the rental contract. The Board approved sending the Airport's bobcat to the County auction; it has not been used recently. Helicopter rides are scheduled this summer but biplane rides are uncertain. One of the people renting hangar space would like to build a private hangar and there was a discussion about that. The Airport has an area west of Excel Air designated for private-hangar development but that land is currently in a hay lease. The Board is interested in pursuing this but needs more information. There was a discussion of the airport class offered to high school students and the Board approved an estimate for removing a line of trees. 

The Airport has a redesigned website and you can find minutes of past meetings there.

Solar Ordinance amendments

One of the items on the May 20 Plan Commission meeting will be amendments to the County solar ordinance. I obtained a copy of the changes from the Planning office to see what was proposed because I suspect there will be many interested citizens at the meeting.

The changes add utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) to the ordinance that are capable of releasing more than one megawatt of electricity for an hour. Setbacks for solar farms are proposed to be 300 feet from non-participating land owners unless the non-participating owner owns land on more than one side, and then they are increased. The setbacks for a BESS are 900 feet. A Solar energy facility must be larger than 10 acres but a BESS cannot be larger than ten acres. Fencing is required for both types of facilities. "Any CESS must be buffered by planting, farming, production agriculture and maintained in good husbandry." A BESS must have a three-foot berm. Exterior lighting is limited to the amount needed for security. There are provisions for fire control, wetlands and erosion control, and several paragraphs about insurance.

Another picture

There has been movement forward at Filson Park.

I am curious to see how they will hook up the water.

Lots of good info

Park news

The first tournament at the Blacker fields was held this past weekend. The teams lucked out with some good weather. There was rain, but it was overnight on late Saturday and the fields were OK for Sunday. There were 30 teams participating.

New this year was an admission charge. Rensselaer had been the only venue used by the organizers of these tournaments that did not charge an admission fee.

There will be more tournaments for the next two or three weekends.

At the Park Board meeting on Monday evening, Mr Effinger explained that without the admission fee the teams had to pay a higher entrance fee, and that deterred some teams from coming to Rensselaer to play. There was concern that locals might complain about the fee if they only wanted to stop by and watch a game or a partial game and the fee might depress concession sales (which is where the Parks make money--the fees to use the fields cover the cost of preparing the fields). But with more teams coming for each tournament, the extra number of parents and players should more than offset the lost sales to those who are deterred by the entrance fee.

The Park Board also approved buying a sprinkler for the ball fields. Brianne Hooker from the Jasper-Newton Foundation said that she had donors who want to replace some of the playground equipment at Foundation Park and the Board encouraged her to support these efforts. The Board reviewed the accountant's report that showed that the Parks have operated in the black for the past four years. Softball should be getting started soon. Younger people seem to be uninterested in the sport. Pickleball has become popular at the new tennis courts.

Last week Brookside Park hosted a large group of students from the Kankakee Valley School system.

When I took the photo above I wondered what the purpose of the fencing was. I figured it out on Saturday when I stopped by to look at the baseball games.

Commissioners meeting

Near the beginning of the Commissioners meeting on Monday morning, Mr Bontreger mentioned the proposed carbon sequestration project. BP is apparently planning a test well to explore the rocks that lie beneath us. Newton County did not have the seismic testing that was done in Jasper County not because of something that their County government did but because there was data from the testing done before the landfill was put in and it apparently showed that the rock structures were too thin for significant CO2 storage. The Commissioners continue talking with BP and think that respectful dialogue is best at this point. All three commissioners oppose the project.

The meeting then proceeded with routine business. Two buried cable permits were approved for Carpenter Township and Remington,. The Commissioners approved lease contracts for postage machines for the Courthouse, Sheriff's Department, and the annex. New employee hours in the Health Department were approved as well as two new vehicles financed from a fund that the State wants the Department to spend down. A request from EMS to hire a full-time administrative assistant was approved. The Director is part-time (he has a full-time job in Valparaiso) and the salary for the Director is budgeted for a full-time director. Most of the money for the administrative assistant will come from unused funds for the director. The new EMS building will have an open house on May 23 from 4:00 until 6:00.

The Commissioners approved some conference requests and a vacation-extension request. The Sheriff received permission to replace two jailers and an officer who is leaving the Department after 20 years to work at Purdue. The leak in the jail roof was found under one of the condensers. There was a discussion of whether it would be better to put the air-conditioning equipment on the ground rather than have it on the roof and the Sheriff was told to proceed with planning for that change. The Commissioners approved a new application for a COPS grant. Last year the application was not funded because other departments were judged to have greater need for the funding. The Corrections Department received permission to replace a correctional officer. 

Two bids for outside contractor services were opened and both accepted. They allow the Highway Department to outsource work when the Department cannot perform it. The Commissioners accepted a bid of $2000 from Rensselaer Monuments to repair damage done by vandals in Makeever Cemetery. The County wants to transfer ownership to Newton Township and paperwork needs to be finished. The Commissioners also accepted proposals from Reliable Exterminators to service Corrections, EMS, and Animal Control.

In other business, it was noted that DeMotte is considering a speed limit for its buffer zone. The County Attorney said that they do not have the authority to do that, but they can make a request to the Commissioners. The Commissioners approved purchase of updated GPS equipment for the Surveyor's Office that will automate updating records. 

Changes to the Solar Ordinance will be discussed in the May Plan Commission meeting. Among the many changes will be the elimination of the requirement to plant trees or bushes for screening. Instead the setbacks will be increased and the land in the setback will be used for crops. There is currently no provision for battery storage facilities; the changes add some.

At a previous meeting the County Coroner expressed concerns about the speed limits on SR-10 as it approaches and goes through Wheatfield He said the State had been unresponsive to his request and Wheatfield's request for change and wanted the Commissioners to add their support for changes. He also gave the Commissioners updated and improved plans for a new building he would like built to house the mortuary. EMA Director Karen Wilson wanted a vehicle for EMA and the Commissioners approved transferring one from the Sheriff;s Department.

A number of citizens sat through a couple of hours of the meeting waiting to make public comments and most were about the proposed carbon sequestration project that BP has proposed. One speaker said that her communication with State officials said that the County had considerable authority to regulate both a CO2 pipeline and wells. Another speaker suggested that the Commissioners draft a resolution stating that the Commissioners were opposed to carbon sequestration. Mr DeYoung then made a motion to have the Attorney Beaver draft to that effect. Mr Bontreger then asked what effect that would have on IBEC, which is currently sequestering CO2. They were apparently told that they had to do this or they would be shut down. Further, IBEC provides a major market for the corn grown in Jasper County, so what happens to them may affect the farmers. The motion was then tabled until May 20 and Mr Beaver was asked to determine exactly what the County can and cannot do with the issue of carbon sequestration. After almost 3 hours, the meeting was continued to May 20 at 8:30.

Other meetings

I was not paying attention to the time on Monday afternoon so arrived at the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting fifteen minutes late. The meeting was over by the time I got there. I learned that the Commission had approved $60,000 for Apple Seed. The cost of running the Appletree Center is a bit over $600,000 and the revenues are a bit under $400,000, so a bit more than $200,000 must be raised each year to keep the Center open. The money from the Redevelopment Commission fills about a quarter of the gap.

The other item on the agenda was the building on the corner of Clark and Cullen that was once a bottling plant. The Commission would like it demolished.

The Drainage Board met after the Commissioners meeting. They decided to reject a request for a variance that would allow a garage to be built on the right-of-way of a ditch. The Surveyor needs the right-of-way if the ditch is cleaned. This issue had been discussed at previous meetings. They approved a request for a culvert placement and approved a fiber-cable request to cross County drains in Remington. A homeowner wanted three 18-inch culverts removed from a neighbor's driveway because she said the runoff was threatening the foundation of her house. After some discussion, Mr DeYoung told her to arrange a meeting with the adjoining property owner or owners and  together with him, the Surveyor, and the Highway Department, a solution would be worked out. A woman had a question about her drainage bill and was told that the overcharge was due to the computer program used by the Auditor and Treasurer. She was told to take the matter to their offices.

Brick street pictures

Work continues on the Brick Street project. Last week the workers were installing a couple of manholes on Harrison Street.

The sidewalks along Harrison Street were removed about a week ago.

This is a view of Van Rensselaer Street taken on Tuesday.

Odds and ends

The first farmers market of the summer took place on May 4. Only one of the booths had garden produce, some asparagus. 

I wonder why there is no rhubarb for sale. Is it because there is no demand for it or is it because no one is growing it?

A tree fell across the Iroquois River along Weston Cemetery. 

Property tax bills are due May 10. 

The primary election held on Tuesday had a number of contested County races on the Republican side. Emily Waddle defeated John Potter 52.61% to 47.39%. Diana Boersma won easily in a three-way race in the County Auditor race with over 50% of the vote. The two Commissioner candidates who will be on the ballot in November are Ryan Hilton (District 1) and Craig Standish (District 2). The race in District 2 was extremely close, with Standish edging Jeff DeYoung by six votes, 1617 to 1611. The three Republican candidates for County Council in November will be Brian Moore, Jacob Misch, and Scott Walstra. Complete results are here.

A short post to start May

 Medical signs

In the previous post I had pictures of a sign for the Clinic of Family Medicine being installed downtown. According to its website, The Clinic of Family Medicine has three medical providers: Dr Robert Darnaby, Family Nurse Practitioner Sharon Johnson, and Nurse Practitioner Debra Drescher. They have not moved yet as the renovation of their downtown office is not finished.

What used to be the Clinic of Family Medicine is now three offices of Franciscan Health: Working Well, Express Care, and HealtheAccess. 

These services have moved from the building to the west, which is now vacant.

It has a sign in one of the windows saying the space is available.

The property tax record from the County says this building has 3142 square feet and the former Clinic of Family Medicine has 5312 square feet.

The Liberty Clinic of Dr. Randy Lehman is now operating out of the Hospital. Dr Lehman posted a video on Facebook that explains what he is doing and why.

The Clinic of Family Medicine is now operating from the building to the south and east of the building Franciscan is using.

It is open four days a week and on the fifth day the building is used by Lafayette Pain Care.

Odds and Ends

The Food Pantry has a sign in front of their building along the highway.

Over the weekend the Chamber of Commerce sponsored Daffodil Days, which featured a scavenger hunt to get people to visit the participating businesses. I picked up the goodie bag but decided I did not want to enter the drawing for the big prizes. (I am too old to want more stuff.) The goodie bag had some pens, some popcorn, a fan that folded up in a funny way, and a coupon for a free cookie at McDonalds. I used the coupon and was surprised that there were no customers inside. I asked the lady who waited on me how much business is through the drive-up and she said over 80%. There always seems to be cars in the drive up.

On Friday the City's Gas Utility hosted an 811-Awareness event with a free lunch.

You can find better pictures here.

I sat by some City officials and some County candidates joined them a bit later. One of the County candidates noted that the issues that concern people in the northern part of the County are completely different from those that concern people in the southern part of the County.

We had a frost on the morning of April 25. Hopefully that will be the last frost of the season. I saw someone on Facebook asking when the peach trees would bloom. Mine bloomed two or three weeks ago and had very few flowers. Apparently the cold snap in January has largely destroyed this year's crop in our area.

We have had a very wet spring and you can see it in the rise and fall of the Iroquois. The graph below is from the gauging station at Laird's Landing.

I do not see much activity in the fields. They are too wet to work. The oak trees are leafing out, which may mean it is time to plant some of the more sensitive plants in the garden.

Work on the Brick Street Project continues. Last week there was a pile of stuff found under the streets. 

The workers keep digging and filling holes.

More large concrete structures are being put in. I believe this is part of a sewer line.

Almost all of the sidewalks on both sides of the brick-streets part of Harrison Street have been removed.

This Saturday we will have the opening of the Farmers Market and the Town-Wide Garage Sale. On Friday is the Fire Department's fish and chicken dinner. Tickets are $14 for adults, which may seem a bit expensive, but it is all you can eat (and some people can eat a lot.)

Next Tuesday is primary election day. If you have not voted early, you can vote at any of the ten voting centers in the County. The two that are most convenient for Rensselaer are at the armory and the Fairgrounds. This week's Rensselaer Republican is devoted to previewing all the contested races.