A tour of the new EMS building

 A tour of the new EMS building

On Thursday evening last week Jasper County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had an open house so the community could see its new building. The building is directly north of the main entrance to the Fairgrounds with the County Highway Department to its west, Animal Control to its north, and Community Corrections to its east.

Entering the building at the main entrance, one finds two hallways, one going to the north and the other to the west. On the southeast corner of the building is the office of emergency management that is occupied by Karen Wilson.

To the north of this office is an office for an administrative assistant for EMS. At present there is no one in this position, but the position has been approved and either a search is on or will soon start.

The next room to the north is the office for the EMS director.

When we reach the end of the hallway we find a classroom.

All the rooms above are on the exterior wall. The four hallways surround an interior block that has two restrooms, storage closets, and I assume the utility room for a furnace and similar items.

Going back to the entrance, there is a hallway toward the west and at its end is a door to the area in which the vehicles are kept. Along this hallway are storage rooms.

One of the doors was open so I took a picture. I have no idea what is stored here.

Near the end of this hallway is a hallway that leads north. Along it are four small bedrooms. There are two people who staff the building around the clock, working 24-hour shifts. One is a paramedic and one an EMT. When they sleep depends on when the calls come in.

On the north side of the building is a large room that on one side has a couch and chairs and a large TV screen.

The other end of the room is a kitchen.

The west end of the building has three bays, each with doors on both ends. The Commissioners considered both two and three-bay designs and chose the three bays to provide for the possibility of expansion in the future. 

The Rensselaer location is one of four EMS locations in the County. There is an EMS center in Remington that is part of Jasper County EMS. There are two other EMS providers in the north of the County that are run by townships, the Keener Township EMS and the Wheatfield Township EMS. They may in the future join with the Jasper County EMS but that decision is with those townships. Both are given County funding to help them operate.

There were two vehicles in the bays during the open house, an ambulance and a chase vehicle. There is also a back-up ambulance that is usually here, but it was being repaired. The Southern or Remington station has one ambulance that was parked outside but I did not take a picture of it. I was surprised to see both of these vehicles plugged into an electrical cable. They have equipment such as refrigeration for some medical supplies that runs on electricity so I suspect that they are kept plugged into the electrical supply when they are in the bays.

Below is a look inside the ambulance.

I did not get a good picture of the bay area. It looks a lot like a smaller version of the bay area of the Fire Station. Along the east wall was a washing machine and a dryer. The tables were for the open house.

It is a very nice facility but I hope I do not need their services.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The final City Council meeting of May was moved from a Monday to a Tuesday because of the Memorial Day holiday. In Citizens' Comments a lady told how a pit bull attacked her dog. It severely injured her dog and she has had $6000 in vet bills as a result. There had been multiple complaints about the dog and it has since been euthanized. She was bringing the incident to the Council's attention to see if the ordinances can be changed to make such attacks less common. The Mayor invited her to discuss the matter with him and the City Attorney to see what can be done.

There were four applicants for the school board position that the Council appoints and the Council interviewed the four in an executive session. Mr Watson nominated George Cover to the four-year position and his motion was approved on a 4 to 1 vote.

There were three ordinances introduced. The first was to establish a redevelopment non-reverting fund that would be a pot of money that the Redevelopment Commission would control instead of having its expenditures coming from the City's general fund. The second would do the same for the Plan Commission. Both of these were introduced at this meeting but will be voted on in the next meeting. The third was a change in zoning that had been recommended by the Plan Commission. It would change the zoning of some land west of I-65 from business to agriculture. The City plans to run water and sewer lines through this property in the future and the owners wanted the zoning change. It was approved.

The City had sought a grant from the Indiana Finance Authority and had been granted $50,000 to use to identify water service lines that are made of lead. The Council approved accepting the grant.

At their last meeting the County Commissioners approved an agreement with the City to extend water and sewer lines to the west side of I-65. The City Council approved the agreement at this meeting. It has an agreement with Commonwealth Engineering to do planning for the extension.

Sara DeYoung from the Jasper County Economic Development Organization said the Jasper County Tourism Commission would like to put a mural on the new water tower by I-65. Rensselaer and Jasper County have received attention for our murals and this placement of a mural would help advertise what we have. The Council members were in agreement that this would be a good idea but one suggested that the matter should not be approved until the public has a chance to give input, so the matter will be on the agenda for the next meeting. JCEDO has hired a new tourism director and a summer intern who will help with publicity.

Tony Baltes the Weston Cemetery Caretaker is resigning as of mid June and Mayor Phillips appointed Joe Effinger as interim Caretaker until a replacement is hired. 

During Superintendents' Reports there was a discussion of going to an elected school board and of putting a flag pole in front of City Hall. One of the tanker trucks of the Fire Department has some problems. 812 feet of the water line for the new training tower are finished and 196 feet are left to finish. Several feet of the sidewalk in front of City Hall have been removed and on Tuesday a company was lining the sewer under Harrison Street.

Odds & ends

 There was a large crowd for the Memorial Day Ceremony at Weston Cemetery on Monday morning.

Below is a picture of the assembled fountain at Filson Park. No water yet.

On Tuesday workers were cutting the sidewalk in front of City Hall. In the late afternoon when the City Council met, the sidewalk the right of the red line closest to the street had been removed. Notice the stone in the street. It covers plastic drain tile that connects the storm sewers along the street.

As the Council met on Tuesday evening, workers from Visu-Sewer of Illinois were installing a lining in the sewer on Harrison between Van Rensselaer and SR 114. You probably cannot see the steam that was coming from the pipe near the left side of the picture.