Pictures to end the month of June

 The Rensselaer Advisory Planning Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Advisory Planning Commission met Thursday evening. It appointed a new secretary, the administrative assistant in the Building Department and then had a discussion of various fees and other budget items. They approved the per diem allowance for members of the Plan Commission and the BZA from $35 to $50. 

A local realtor had questions about what could be done with a 20-acre parcel north of Bunkum Road. It is landlocked but has access through two easements. It has always been used for agriculture but is zoned residential suburban as are other parcels in that area. She had two interested buyers, one who wanted to farm it and another who wanted to build a house on part of the parcel and farm the rest. She was told that as long as the land was kept in farming, no changes were needed. However, building on it would cause it to be treated as residential and farming would no longer be allowed unless variances were obtained. Further, putting a house on the land would need a variance because the parcel has no road frontage. 

There were a few comments about Saint Joe's. They have a surveyor working on a development plan for a subdivision on the land that was recently rezoned as residential from residential suburban. The plan is to start building a house along Daugherty Road in August. The plan for the development may come before the Plan Commission for its July 18 meeting. There was also mention of the demolition of the press box at the football field, something that several of the members did not know was happening. Apparently the bleachers have been sold to a school in Lafayette and they will be disassembled and moved.  (If the people in charge of SJC would tell the public what they are doing, there would still be complaints, but maybe they would not be as strident.)

Below is a picture of the press box being removed taken from Sparling Ave.

The picture below, showing the removal of the last bit of the PUMAS sign, was taken from near the bowling alley. Both pictures were taken last Wednesday.

Ribbon cutting at Brookside

On Friday the Rensselaer Parks had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the HYPER Center at Brookside Park. The HYPER Center is a building that was delivered in August of 2021 and meant to help with programming in the Park, especially during the summer. It has taken several years to get the interior into final shape. Below is a picture looking to the north of the building.

On the opposite wall is a deer head.

Below is what the south end of the building looks like. There is a refrigerator but no stove, microwave, or sink.

At a bit after 11:00 the dedication speeches began with a sizeable crowd of onlookers.

Finally the actual ribbon cutting took place. Because most of the people behind the ribbon were in the shade, I knew that the picture would not turn out well.

A bit of playing with the picture on my computer made it look better, but there are still a few people next to the building that are almost invisible.

The ribbon cutting was supposed to be accompanied by people setting off confetti guns but most of the people had problems getting them to work. So instead of one big display of confetti there were about a dozen small displays, one after another.

A lot of pictures

The Carnegie Players presented "An Evening with George Ade" on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Below is the curtain call.

The Carnegie Players now own what was formerly the Apostolic Bible Church at 220 N Franklin. However, the building needs repairs and deferred maintenance. Hopefully it will be ready for the next performance of the Players.

The doors were open last week at the light plant so I peeked in and took pictures of the new floors. Below is the view from the north door.

And this second picture shows the view from the south door.

Last week was sidewalk week for the Brick Street Project. Most of the sidewalk along the east side of Harrison is finished.

The southwest corner of Harrison and Van Rensselaer was mostly finished.

Early in the week the workers were preparing part of the sidewalk between the highway and alley on Van Rensselaer.

Below cement is being poured at the corner of Van Rensselaer and Harrison. Notice that some of the east Harrison sidewalk was still not finished.

By the end of the week almost all of the sidewalk along the south side of Van Rensselaer was finished. There was a sort bit near the alley that still needs concrete.

More concrete work was underway at Filson Park, beginning with sidewalks nearest the shelter.

I stopped by when concrete was being poured for the sidewalk around the fountain.

Most of the interiour sidewalks were finished by the weekend. The sidewalks along the streets still must be removed and replaced.

The new Mexican grocery looks like it is ready to open but when I stopped by on Monday afternoon the door was locked.

This sign is along US 231 opposite Walgreens. I have not heard of any plans to put housing in this part of the campus, but in the long run this area may be converted to housing.

The new concession stand/restrooms for the baseball field and the other fields in the part of the campus is almost finished.

Most of this spring's goslings are almost fully grown and many were enjoying a swim in the Donaldson's retention pond last week.

Purple coneflowers are blooming.

As are milkweeds.

Jasper County BZA & Plan Commission meetings

The Jasper County BZA met on Monday evening with one cause on their agenda, a request for a lot width variance. The owners of 80 acres in Barley Township want to separate out 20 acres that are wooded and want a frontage of 100 feet rather than the 400 feet the ordinance requires. They do not have immediate plans to build on the 20 acres but want the variance to make the lot a buildable lot. The reduced frontage will preserve farmland. The variance was approved.

The Jasper County Advisory Plan Commission met after the BZA meeting. The first item on its agenda was a request from Patel Hospitality Group for a rezone from A2 to HC for land in Keener Township near the I-65/SR 10 interchange. The plan is to build a 75 room hotel that will be similar to the Remington Holiday Inn Express. Currently there are no hotels at the Demotte exit of I-65. The new hotel will provide about 25 jobs, provide approximately $100,000 in annual inns-keeper tax, about $50,000 in property tax, and about $25,000 in revenue for sewer and water. (DeMotte extended water and sewer to the Interstate in hopes of attracting more development.) Mr Patel said that the County is losing room rentals to Lake and Porter County by not having a hotel near DeMotte. There was one citizen who expressed concerns about the traffic at the intersection. The Commissioners are aware of that problem and have been urging INDOT to address the problem and they may be slowly working on it. The Commission sent the requested zoning change to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation.

The second item was an amendment to the ordinance that the Commissioners had approved in June about special purpose wells. Few other counties have anything about test wells because the issue is new, so the County cannot use their experience to help set Jasper County's rules. The Commission recommended to the Commissioners to extend the set back for these wells to 1320 feet (a quarter mile). 

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council had a very short meeting with a short agenda on Monday evening. One citizen wanted an alley off Angelica Street between 9th and 10th streets extended for the whole block. The City will examine the alley and get back to him.

Greg Whaley requested that the City reconsider an ordnance that sets the minimum size of a new house at 1120 square feet. He argued that this results in expensive housing that is unnecessarily large for some people. Instead of a minimum size, he suggested an architectural committee to approve designs of new housing to prevent new buildings that degrade the quality of a neighborhood. The Mayor said the City will consider his suggestion.

The Council approved a gas tracker for the quarter that represents a small decrease in rates. (I did not catch the exact number.) It also honored an employee for 40 years of service.

The light plant has a new floor but diesel fuel remains in tanks and that results in a fuel odor inside the building. As of July 1 of 2025 the Council will have to live-stream its meetings (new State law) and the City is beginning to investigate how best to do that. (Audio is the hard part.) Cruise night is less than two weeks away and several City Departments are getting ready for it. The Street Department has begun a 22-day project of fixing potholes.

A couple of extra meetings

 Continued Commissioners meeting

The County Commissioners met in a continuation of their June meeting on Monday at 8:30 am. They approved the signing of a letter of commitment for FMLA training for department heads that will be done by outside consultants and will review Federal regulations. It may be scheduled for August. The Commissioners announced that BF&S will be appointed construction compliance monitor for the proposed SolarPac solar farm and they approved a conference request from the County Clerk. Community Corrections had some fee increases that the Commissioners approved. The Commissioners also approved a printer lease agreement that they had discussed early in June but had neglected to vote on the matter.

They then held a public hearing for an ordinance to make the intersection of CR 800N and CR 400W a four-way stop. It currently has stop signs only on CR 800N. On May 22 an accident at this intersection left one young man dead and two others severely injured. About fifteen people spoke, all in favor of adding stop signs on CR 400W. Some had close relatives involved in the accident and were emotional. The intersection is apparently a blind intersection with bushes obscuring the view of those who stop on 800N. Some of the speakers said that there have been numerous accidents at this intersection and many people considered it dangerous. When everyone who wanted to speak had spoken, the Commissioners approved the ordinance. A stop sign will be put up immediately along with stop-ahead signs. When signs with solar-powered lights arrive, they will replace the conventional stop signs. Also, the County will remove obstructing bushes at no cost to the landowners if the landowners are willing to have them removed.

Before the people who had come for the public hearing left, Mr Bontreger told them if residents think there is a dangerous intersection, they should get a petition and have as many people as possible sign it. A petition is much more effective than a solo complaint. Most of the room cleared out but remained outside talking. The hearing and the aftermath seemed to be therapeutic for some of the people who came to the meeting.

The Sheriff was next on the agenda. He said he has a report showing where accidents have happened and will share it with the Commissioners and the Highway Department. He noted that traffic patterns are changing as the north of the County suburbanizes. The County has narrow right-of-ways along some roads that were originally lightly traveled.

The leak in the jail roof was due to the chiller on the roof. It is old and will soon need to be replaced and the Sheriff would like the new chiller to be on the ground where it would not cause roof damage. Trane has sought quotes for the project and it will cost about $725,000. The new chiller should have a life expectancy of 20 years. The best time to install it would be in the winter and the goal is to have it ready for next summer. There was a brief discussion of what fund to tap to make the change. The Commissioners passed a motion to proceed but the project needs the Council to appropriate the funds.

There was a discussion of how best to maintain the x-ray machine at the jail. One option is to pay for maintenance and repairs as needed and the other was to sign a five-year maintenance agreement for $50,000. The Commissioners passed a motion to sign the five-year contract pending Council approval.

To end the meeting the comments were read that had been submitted via the Internet but not read earlier in the month because that meeting had lasted so long. Most of the comments opposed solar and wind projects.

Tourism Commission meeting

The  Tourism Commission held a second June meeting to discuss the proposed mural on the Rensselaer water tower at the SR-114/I-65 intersection. Some of the questions that had been raised at the first meeting were answered in an email that had been sent to members and the members had received a letter of support for the project from the City of Rensselaer. The project will be using special paint that is the same kind of paint used to paint the water tower. It is important to paint the mural while the tank is empty to avoid condensation issues and it is also important to paint it before the paint on the tower ages. The City of Rensselaer will help with funding. The members, most of whom were on Zoom, approved the proposal to spend $40,000 for this project.

Before the meeting adjourned there was a brief discussion of Placer AI. There was uncertainty of how it could be used given that there were legal constraints in the contract that do not allow the data to aid private businesses unless the data is in some kind of report. There were also questions if other companies could provide a similar service.

County Council meeting

The Jasper County Council met for its June meeting on Tuesday evening. They will use the same public comment form that the Commissioners are using for those who cannot attend a meeting but want to comment on some matter.

The Council had several additional appropriations on its agenda. It approved $16,000 to purchase kitchen appliances for Community Corrections and $60,000 for an account used when the State Board of Accounts audits Jasper County government units. Much of the money paid out of this account will be reimbursed. An appropriation of $6,922.15 for equipment for the Surveyor was approved, as was $50,000 for start-up costs for the Convention Connection Center. The Convention Center appropriation raised concerns that it might invite other organizations to be requesting money for similar purposes. The big additional appropriation of the evening was $2,993,421.32 to help the City of Rensselaer extend sewer and water west of I-65. This funding comes from ARP funds that the County received and there is a time limit on when they must be spent. 

The Council amended the Salary Ordinance to include a salary of a recently hired Deputy Sheriff. The next meeting will be on July 16, with a joint Commissioner/Council meeting before the regular Council meeting. Before adjournment there was a discussion of a need to tweak tax rates so that the money goes to funds that need more and away from funds that need less.

Odd and ends

The summer solstice is Thursday.

On Tuesday a concrete floor was being poured in the old light plant. 

Over the weekend it appeared that the Brick Street project was ready to pour the sidewalk on Van Rensselaer next to the Court House.

But the first bit of sidewalk poured was on the other side of the street.

This week the Rensselaer Regional Soccer Club has a camp with out-of-town instructors.

The LaRue Pool is open and is planning its first dollar day on June 19. The Parks are planning a dedication ceremony on June 21 at 11:00 for the HYPER Center.

The Carnegie Players are presenting "An Evening with George Ade" on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:00 pm in the basement of St. Augustine Church. Tickets are $8 and sold at the door.

Arts and Theater

Carnegie Players to present three short George Ade plays

On June 20, 21, and 22 at 7:00 pm the Carnegie Players will present three short George Ade plays in the basement of St. Augustine Church. Tickets will cost $8.00 and will be sold at the door.

George Ade was an enormously successful writer, becoming quite wealthy from his many books, plays, and articles. He built a mansion east of Brook, which is now owned by Newton County. He was a graduate from Purdue University and was a generous donor to his alma mater, with his name on the football stadium. (He is the Ade of Ross Ade.)

Ade died 80 years ago in 1944 so this may be a good year to pay a tribute to a person who came from our corner of Indiana. Like most authors who were very popular during their lives, many fewer people read him now than when he was alive. In Ade's case, that may be because a lot of his humor was prompted by the popular culture of his time.

I was invited to a rehearsal on Thursday evening. The first play performed was Mrs. Peckham's Carouse. This play's humor comes from poking fun at the temperance movement that led to Prohibition in the 1920s. Mr Peckham is a lawyer who receives a bottle of whiskey from his brother-in-law. His wife is a temperance crusader. There are deceptions and misunderstandings that lead to poor decisions and ultimately to a twist at the end.

The second play, The Mayor and the Manicure, is about a mayor dealing with a woman trying to blackmail him because of poor judgement by his son. The two telephones play an important role in this play.

The last of the three plays, Nettie, was my favorite because it was the least tied to the times in which it was written (and also because it needed the least amount of tweaking before the actual performances). It is a twist on mistaken identities. Ade never married or had children and perhaps this play also reveals a bit of what he thought about women. 

While I was there, the lights and sound system were being wired.

The plays have a cast of 13. Most are in only one play, but several have roles in two of the plays.

I look forward to seeing the finished production, in part to see how much change there will be from this rehearsal to the finished product.  If you like theater, comedy, or tributes to Indiana history, you will enjoy An Evening with George Ade.

Honoring Hispanic Heritage at the Fendig Gallery

The current exhibit at the Fendig Gallery is Honoring Hispanic Heritage and it runs until July 7. It features art,  artifacts, and objects that exemplify and showcase Hispanic heritage.

The paintings on the right above are by Doris Myers from a trip she took to Mexico.
 

Much of the exhibit is made up of small items that are numbered, with a short explanation of what each is on a placard. 

These crocheted pieces are from a very large exhibit from Mexico.

Here is the explanation. Searching for "Etzatian" on the Internet should show you what the whole construction looked like.

There were only a few paintings in the exhibit. This one was for sale.

Gallery Hours areTuesdays: 12pm - 4pm; Thursdays: 2pm - 6pm; Saturdays: 12pm - 2pm

Odds and Ends

The LaRue Pool opened on Monday and despite very cold water and cool temperatures, it had swimmers all afternoon. On Thursday the temperature was warm and there were a lot of swimmers even though the water was still cold.

On Wednesday the Chamber of Commerce had a luncheon at Autumn Trace. After the lunch, there were tours of the facility. It has not changed much since it opened.

Workers have finished pouring curbs on Harrison Street.

There are forms for some of the sidewalks at Filson Park.

Thursday night into very early on Friday Rensselaer received about an inch of much needed rain. 

Mostly meetings, June 2024

 Airport Authority meeting

The Jasper County Airport Authority met Tuesday evening and I attended in person rather than via Zoom. While the meeting was in progress, a large, strange aircraft landed. I was told that it was on the way to the UK. The company that owns it is developing hydrogen-electric engines but this plane runs on regular fuel.

At the meeting the Board heard from its engineers that a couple of reports had been submitted to the FAA and saw an updated plan for a new hangar. It is for a 214' by 60' building that will house eight planes. They heard a report about their investments in money-market funds and Treasury notes and bills. Someone is interested in land that the Airport owns along SR 114 but another estimate must be made before a sale can take place.

The Board approved a new lease for a tenant in the old hangar building. Fuel sales were strong in May. The rental aircraft was damaged during a training flight and there was a long discussion of whether the rental policy needs to be modified. No action was taken but the airport manager will see how other airports handle damage by renters. The damage was light, only a bit more than $1000, and the Airport will cover it. There was a discussion of stumps from a line of trees that were removed; the ground is rocky and the stumps cannot be ground without damage to the grinder. Three insurance policy renewals were approved. There are eight students signed up for an airport class in the next school semester, four from RCHS, three from KVHS, and one from SNHS. The meeting ended with a discussion of maintenance on the rental plane.

On the way to the meeting I noticed that the roads in the Fairgrounds had recently been seal coated.

Board of Public Works meeting

The Rensselaer BPW met Monday afternoon and approved paying several bills from Commonwealth Engineering for work it has done:  $10,335 on the water project, $20,000 for a preliminary engineering report required for SRF financing, and to bills of $5671 and 470.80 for work on the sewer project. The new water tower does not yet have its electrical work done and there is still work to be done on the existing water towers. The only other action it took was to approve fireworks at the Fair on July 27.

City Council meeting

On Monday evening the Rensselaer City Council approved a request from Jasper County Tourism to paint a mural on the new water tower at the SR 114 and I-65 interchange. There was one member of the public who said that she preferred the water tower to remain without a mural. The project still needs some additional money to pay for the rental of the lift and for the clear coat layer.

The Council then had a second reading and approved three ordinances that were introduced at its previous meeting: ordinances establishing a redevelopment non-reverting fund, a Plan Commission non-reverting fund, and a fund for extending water and sewer to the west of I-65.

The gas tracker for June will reflect a 16¢ increase per hundred cubic feet of use. The Council passed a resolution to document  forgiving under-billed charges, a resolution that the State Board of Accounts wanted passed. The Council approved a pay request from Grimmer Construction of $295,863.85 for work on the Brick Street project and a request from Commonwealth Engineering of $32,448.25 for its work on this project. The Council approved a public relations request of $2000 for a City employee picnic at the end of July.

Some time this week concrete will be poured at the old light plant for a new floor. The space is being rehabilitated to become a new Park Department headquarters. There was a brief discussion about planning for the long-run future of the pool, but no action was taken.

This week work on the Brick Streets Project is construction of curbs and next week it should be on replacing sidewalks. There were five baseball tournaments scheduled for the Blacker Fields but the last two, scheduled for June, have been canceled. The new water main at the Fire Department has passed its tests. The Council approved having the Fair use a City garbage truck; this approval has been granted the last few years. The Council approved the Street Superintendent seeking bids for a new truck to pull the recycling trailer. Finally, the Council approved $8178 for a new flag pole to be installed in front of City Hall.

Below are pictures of new the curbs taken on Tuesday. The corner of Van Rensselaer and Harrison will have a bump out.

The view from US 231.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Tourism Commission met on Tuesday morning. They approved a sponsorship the the Jasper County Historical Society's Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery, which will be held on September 21. This will be the seventh annual performance of this event. This year the focus will be on the eastern part of Weston Cemetery and as in the past few years will feature a morning program in the Hall Shelter of Brookside Park and an afternoon program in the Cemetery. An unofficial website for the event with past programs is here. (I am on the committee that plans this event.)

The next item on the agenda was a funding request for painting a mural on the Rensselaer I-65 water tower. This project originated with JCEDO and the cost for painting the tower was estimated at $40,000, not including rental of a lift and applying a clear coat. There are two ways the Commission could fund this. It could come from the marketing budget. The mural is intended to highlight the murals that have been painted throughout Jasper County. JCEDO had been considering renting a billboard at a cost of $15,000 annually and had added money to the marketing budget. Alternatively, it could be funded as a capital project. Only the side of the tower facing the interstate will be painted.There was a discussion of how the costs were computed and eventually the members present decided they needed more information, so no action was taken at this meeting. Instead they plan to have another meeting, which members can attend via Zoom, next Tuesday (June 18) at 10:00.

The Commission approved joining the Indiana Tourism Association. It will provide networking opportunities and information about what other counties are doing. Two new employees were introduced, Angelica Potts-Bramlage who is in charge of Tourism and Community Development and Tori Smith who is an intern focused on publicity. Mrs Potts-Bramlage has previously worked in marketing for Indiana Beach and Fair Oaks Farms. Ms Smith is a recent grad from Ball State and will only be with Tourism until August when she leaves for Arizona to pursue graduate studies.

Finally the Commission heard a presentation from Placer AI, a company that specializes in location analytics. The company uses data from smartphones to track how many people visit just about any location in the US. They do not get the data from the carriers but from some of the apps that ask people to share their locations. They have data from about 30 million phones, which is about 9% of the U.S. population, and extrapolate from where these people are to estimate what everyone is. I was impressed with what they could show. They could select any area and tell how many people had visited that area during any time period in the last seven years. They could also tell where those people lived, where they worked, and what stores they shopped at. Using data from other sources, they could estimate incomes of the visitors and much else. The cost of an annual subscription for Jasper County Tourism would be about $26,000. The members of the Commission need to figure out how they might use the data that this company provides and whether it would be useful enough to justify the cost. No action was taken but the matter will probably be discussed further at their special meeting that the plan for next week.

Ag report

The Farmers market has about as many vendors as it had last summer. I was interested in seeing what vegetables were available and found turnips, beets, onions, and greens in addition to the asparagus that was at the market when I stopped by a couple weeks ago. One vendor had tomatoes and summer squash that were grown in a hoop house in another county.

I have harvested garlic scapes in my garden and I did not see anyone offering that strange vegetable.

The High School FFA had a booth.

A usual item for sale was freeze dried candy. Freeze drying removes the moisture and make chewy candy crunchy and puffs it up in size.

The corn and soybeans in the fields around Rensselaer are up and growing. Hay has been harvested in a couple places I saw. Mulberries are ripening if you can find a use for them.

I am pretty pessimistic about my garden this year. I have a bunny that hangs out in my backyard and there are lots of squirrels. The squirrels keep digging in the garden. I have removed about a dozen little black walnut trees that sprouted from nuts they buried. Tomatoes do not grow well with black walnuts. And a few days ago I found this next to the garden.

Do you recognize what animal left that? It is deer poop. So not only do I have a bunny and squirrels munching on my beets, beans, peas, and sweet potatoes, but I have a deer who may be visiting my garden.

Early in the month I had visitors from out of town and one of them took this picture in Weston Cemetery. Perhaps momma deer is my garden visitor.

Odds and Ends

Fenwicks announced that they will no longer brew beer.

Inside Indiana Business had an article about changes at SJC. (I had no problems seeing the article the first time I looked at it, but after that it wanted me to subscribe.)

The sign shown below is on what used to be the softball field at SJC. The fencing and other structures of that field have been removed and from the road there is no evidence that a softball field was ever there.

The weekly Cylinders and Snacks car shows on Front Street had a lot of cars this past Thursday.