Ribbon cuttings
Franciscan WorkingWell had a ribbon cutting Tuesday afternoon to celebrate its move into a larger building, the former Clinic of Family Medicine. Two groups posed by the ribbon. In the first group were those who helped make the move.
The second group included local people and staff of the new clinic. They got to watch the ribbon being cut.
After the ribbon cutting there was a short program and then a blessing of the building. Giving a prayer was Father Buckles who is Director of Spiritual Care at Franciscan Health at Lafayette.
It is a very attractive space and can seat at least 80.
Commissioners continued meeting
The County Commissioners met in a continued meeting on Monday morning, and although the agenda was very short, the meeting still lasted an hour and 45 minutes.
The first item on the agenda was approval of a wind-farm overlay, which identifies property where placement of wind turbines and the work needed to erect them can take place. The Plan Commission had voted an unfavorable recommendation for this item in its February meeting due to concerns about a variety of issues. and the Commissioners had not acted on the recommendation in their March meeting, but had decided to work through the concerns of the Plan Commission. The Commissioners believed that those issues had been addressed so the item was back on the agenda. In particular, the Commissioners had found a construction compliance monitor that would report to the County but the cost of which would be borne by the contractor. The Commissioners had received about twenty letters supporting the district from people or groups, including the Town of Remington and the Tri-County Schools.
Because the meeting had attracted a substantial number of citizens, Mr. Bontreger let people voice their concerns before the Commissioners voted on the overlay district. He also said that in June the Commissioners would have a pilot program to allow citizens to submit comments and concerns via the Internet so that those who could not attend the meetings could have their voices heard.
One person gave the Commissioners the result of a survey he had conducted. The Commissioners asked how he found people to respond and he said many came from Facebook and others from door-to-door canvassing. There were questions about the CO2 pipeline. At the first meeting of the month someone suggested the County could do more to resist the proposed pipeline. The County is working on an ordinance but it is not clear yet what it can control. A county in Iowa passed a restrictive ordinance but it has been challenged in court and the case is on appeal. The County does not want to pass something that will result in high legal bills and be rejected by Courts. One person suggested that the County establish districts for solar and wind and was told that the wind ordinance does that for wind: they are only allowed in Carpenter Township and a mile strip of Jordan Township. After hearing the comments, the Commissioners approved the wind-farm overlay district.
Next on the agenda was an agreement between the County and the City of Rensselaer to extend water and sewer to the west side of I-65. This project should encourage development west of the Interstate and tax revenues from improvements would go to the County. The County has agreed to help fund this project with surplus ARPA money (the federal stimulus money). However, extending the sewer to Sherwood Forest and Kelley Green would require a sewage plant and this might be funded with a TIF district, something for the future. The Commissioners approved the agreement.
In other business the Commissioners approved purchase of a refrigerator, approved finishing the floors of the first floor of the Courthouse to match those on the second floor, and noted that there was a need for a notary public in the Courthouse for County business. Recently requirements for notaries have increased so there are fewer people becoming notaries. They also approved a gas card for the Coroner's van.
Then it was time for more public comments. One person gave an update on the Connection Center in DeMotte and the Commissioners recommended to the Council to appropriate $50,000 to help get the recreational part up and running. Somewhere in the comments someone at the table gave a list of payments that the various energy projects will provide the County and I think the total was $18.5 million. Much of that would come from the proposed Carpenter Township wind farm and includes rebuilding the roads used during construction.
One thing I noticed is that some of the people commenting want to solve national problems at the local level. For example, if a person thinks that federal energy policy with its subsidies for solar and wind and increasing regulations on fossil fuel is a bad energy policy, does it follow that one should oppose the County taking advantage of those subsidies as a way of opposing the federal policies? Or are local and federal two separable issues? Even if the federal policy is bad, should the local level take advantage of the dollars the policy makes available to local levels?
After the meeting adjourned, there was a short (five minute) meeting of the Regional Water and Sewer District, which is composed of the three Commissioners. This group has authority over providing water and sewer to all the unincorporated parts of Jasper County. They approved the County-City agreement to extend water and sewer west of I-65 and also transferred the authority to provide sewer and water to that area to Rensselaer.
Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission meetings
The Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission met Monday evening. There was one item on the agenda of the BZA and that item contained two parts, a request from Rose Acre Farms for a special exception for a confined feeding operation and requests for variances for setback from neighbors. In March Rose Acre had appeared before the Plan Commission requesting their land be rezoned from A1 to A3 and that request had been granted. However, the code requires a special exception be granted for any confined feeding operation. Rose Acre is converting to cage-free flocks and needs to rebuild its buildings on the corner of SR 16 and US 231 to do that. It is replacing three buildings with two that are larger. The new buildings will hold a bit over 200,000 birds each while the previous barns held a total of somewhat over 500,000. The special exception was granted.
The code says that the buildings should be 1320 feet away from residential dwellings. There are three residences near the proposed buildings that are slightly less than that, with the closest at 1200 feet. There were no complaints from neighbors and the variance was granted. Rose Acres also wanted a variance from the requirement that a shelter belt of trees be planted around the buildings. Trees attract birds and those birds may carry disease that can destroy the flock of birds in a barn. This has happened to Rose Acres in one of their Iowa facilities. The Board also gave them a variance on the shelter-belt issue.
The Plan Commission met after the BZA adjourned. Their first item was a rezone from R1 to A1. The property is an 8.66 acre lot in Keener Township adjacent to Newton County. The property is currently used as a horse facility but two people who would like to buy it want it zoned properly so they can continue using it for agricultural purposes with the proper zoning. They want to operate animal educational programs involving farm animals and reptiles. Their request was sent on to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation.
The second items were revisions to the solar ordinance, which were summarized in a previous post. The ordinance was read and then both members of the Commission and the public picked at it with a variety of questions and suggestions for changes. The most hostile comments were directed at the battery storage provisions and concerned safety in case of a fire. Eventually the Commission sent it to the Commissioners with no recommendation in hopes that the Commissioners will make changes and send back an improved revision to the Plan Commission. (The Plan Commission cannot amend what is presented to them as written amendments to ordinances, though they can amend proposed changes to the ordinance maps.) The revisions impose more cost on developers and it will be interesting to see if the additional costs will cause developers to abandon Jasper County for solar farms. Also, someone commented that the County would like any battery storage systems to be confined to the NIPSCO property east of Wheatfield.
The last item on the agenda was an amendment to the UDO that adds requirements for special-purpose (or test) wells. At present there is nothing in the UDO about test wells, wells drilled to examine the underlying geology and rock strata, so if a company obtains a permit from the State to drill, they do not even have to tell the County that they are drilling a well. The proposed amendment establishes a requirement to tell the County about any such well as well as provide setbacks and fencing requirements. There was general consensus that the proposed amendment needed changes but that something needed to be put in place immediately, so the Commission sent it to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation and the hope that there would be further development of the ordinance.
The next meeting will be on June 24 if there is an agenda. The meeting adjourned at about 10:00, three hours after the BZA meeting started and shortly after the thunderstorms moved in.
Jasper County Coucil meeting
The County Council met Tuesday evening for its May meeting with a list of additional appropriations on its agenda. It approved money for an administrative assistant/evidence based practice coordinator for Community Corrections and funds for Valley Oaks Health. Valley Oaks had not requested a payment last year that it should have so it was paid this year and the funds needed to be appropriated. Some funds that were supposed to be in the budget for the 100th year anniversary for the Fair were not, so they were appropriated. The Sheriff's Department is upgrading computer equipment and an appropriation was made for that.
After a confusing discussion of moving money from the EMS director to an administrative assistant, the transfer was approved. Then the Council was very happy to make a budget reduction of over $4 million in the Highway budget.
The Council changed its meeting time for future meetings from 7:00 Central to 6:00 Central. They reappointed a member of the Library Board. The State is releasing a large block of money that it had collected for and not previously returned to local governments and the County share is $2.4 million. The Coroner gave the Council plans for a new annex he would like to be built. In some of the discussion among members there was mention that NIPSCO plans to build a gas-fueled peaking plant when it shuts down its coal-fired generators.
Odd and ends
Saint Joseph's College announced the appointment of a new CEO.
Fountain Stone Theaters announced their free summer movie schedule.
Work has started on a water main to the planned fire tower at the Fire Station.
On Tuesday morning workers were starting to erect the fountain in Filson Park. The finished fountain will be taller than this. The workers were having problems getting everything level.
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