1st June 2024 post

 The Welcome Center

I had to drive to Chicago on Saturday for a funeral and on the way back I stopped at the Welcome Center in northern Jasper County to take some pictures. The building has a strange shape.

Outside is an Indiana sign that people can use as a backdrop of a photo.

There is a picnic area to the north of the building that I did not investigate.

There were some funny windmills outside the building.

Inside the building were a number of exhibits, such as these buffalo.

High above there were butterflies.

Don Quixote was in the building

with a windmill.

A sign explained why Quixote was there and gave information on the wind turbines that the traveler would see as he went further south on i-65.

I was in a hurry to get home and did not spend time exploring the grounds, but did see a big mural as I drove off. I do wonder if the way things were presented will do much to increase visits to specific sites in Indiana.

A note on Indiana rest stops: going from Rensselaer to Indianapolis there are two rest stops and both are closed. Going north from Indianapolis to Chicago, there are three rest stops and one is open for trucks and none for cars. 

Traffic on my way into Chicago early on Saturday morning was light but coming home there were two stretches in which it was stop and go. The trip once again told me how lucky I am to not live in Chicago.

Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met Monday morning. After the preliminaries, they heard a request from the County Recorder to lease a plat printer. The old printer is about twenty years old and only does black and white. They then had a public hearing about reducing the speed limit to 35 mph for seven stretches of road in northern Jasper County and reducing the speed limit to 45 mph for three other stretches of County roads, also in northern Jasper County. There was one comment from the public and he was in favor of the reductions. There was also some discussion of stop signs and there may be a public hearing on that as well as some additional speed reductions at the continued meeting that will take place on June 17. The changes were approved.The Commissioners then turned to recommendations from the Plan Commission. First up was an ordinance on geological test wells. This had been recommended by the Plan Commission even though they thought the ordinance needed improvement because at present there is nothing on the books about test wells. Companies drilling them need a State permit but do not have to tell the County that they are drilling them. The thought of the Plan Commission was to at least make the County aware of any drilling and that the ordinance could then be modified. The Commissioners passed the ordinance. The second item was a rezone from residential to agricultural for a lot on the Newton County line that the petitioners want to use for showing animals and animal education. It also passed. The third was an amended solar ordinance that the Plan Commission had sent to the Commissioners with no recommendation but some suggestions for further changes. The Commissioners took this under advisement and may have a revised ordinance on the agenda at the next meeting.

Last year the Commissioners approved a economic-development, road-use, and decommissioning agreement with a company called SolarPak to build a 60 megawatt solar farm in Walker Township. That agreement contained provisions for a tax abatement. However, the County Council refused the abatement. SolarPak was back with a new proposed agreement that would have much smaller economic development payments. The project has already been approved by the BZA. The project will generate about $360,000 in County taxes once it is completed. The Commissioners approved the agreement.

EDP Renewables is planning a wind farm in Carpenter Township and has agreed to pay the County for construction compliance monitoring. Some of what they may build will be in the buffer zone of Remington and Remington would like to piggy-back on the construction compliance monitoring that the County has. The Commissioners approved Remington's request.

Early in the meeting two bids were opened to do the road work that will be done as the result of a Community Crossings grant of $1.5 million that the County received. During the meeting the bids were examined by the County's attorney and engineering consultant. They decided there were no problems with the low bid of $1,839,873 from Town and Country Paving and it was accepted.

There is a bridge in Remington that has been awarded a Federal 80-20 matching grant for repair. The Commissioners approved a contract with BF&S to oversee the project. Construction will probably start in October. The average time between getting a Federal matching grant for bridge repair and the start of construction is five years.

The floor was then open to public comments and Mr Bontreger invited people to read the comments that they had submitted on-line. Few did so. Rather they had new comments and concerns that had not been submitted. Most of what was said has been said at previous meetings. There were two items that struck me. One speaker said that there are developers interested in new or expanding businesses in northern Jasper County but they are worried that the solar farms will discourage the expansion of subdivisions.. He noted that population growth brings in more money but neglected to mention that it also increases the cost of services. I wonder how ever-expanding subdivisions meshes with the oft-stated desire to preserve the rural heritage of the County. Another speaker mentioned that the reason there is so much interest in solar development in our area is that the transmission lines are in place and that interest will continue until the capacity of those lines is filled.

The meeting lasted about two and a half hours. I was thankful that there was no agenda for a Drainage Board meeting.

Park Board meeting

At Monday's Park Board meeting, there was a quorum for the Park Corporation but not for the Park Board. (For an explanation of the difference between the Park Corporation and the Park Board, see here.) A guest was interested in starting travel teams for 11U baseball and 12U softball starting in August and would like to use the Blacker Fields for  practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was no problem seen for that in the fall but if the teams continue into Spring of 2025 there may be conflicts on those days, so the guest was encouraged to use the fields this year but to come back in the Spring to discuss scheduling.

There are people who would like the lights to be restored to the old tennis courts on the northside of Brookside Park. The new tennis courts are heavily used and there is a big demand for pickleball. There was a suggestion that the old courts be redesigned as pickle-ball courts with four or six courts.There was also discussion of the fencing to funnel people into the tournament games and also discussion of parking. The LaRue Pool was filled with water several days ago but it was leaking out, so the water was drawn down until the leak was discovered and repaired. There will be no July meeting unless there are items that arise that need to be discussed and acted on.

Odds & ends

I finally got a picture of the new water tower with its painting finished.

Work has resumed on the fountain in Filson Park. There will be a pool of water at the bottom of the fountain and the forms for creating the wall for that pool are in place.

Not Your Typical Wingz made this announcement on Facebook:

To our valued customers, we have made the difficult decision to close our Rensselaer location permanently. We are excited to announce that we will be moving to a new location and will keep you updated on our progress.