Beryl arrived

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl arrived Tuesday and have given us three or four inches of rain. The Iroquois River is rising.

Sidewalk updates

The sidewalks on the southwestern part of Filson Park are finished. Below is a stretch of the sidewalk along Kellner Street as it was on July 2.

On that date there was still a bit missing leading to the fountain.

And by the shelter.

On July 3 the two sections that were ready for concrete on the Second had been poured.

The completed sidewalk on the Courthouse side of Van Rensselaer taken on the Third.

There were workers spraying white stuff on the new sidewalk.

On Monday, July 8 there was what appeared to be a second curb along Van Rensselaer. I asked a City employee what it was for and was told that there will be a strip of bricks that will permeable to water along the edges so there will not be pools of water after rain.

The Fourth weekend and now rain have slowed progress on these projects.

City meetings

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works met Monday afternoon and approved paying three claims all for work on the water-tower project: Commonwealth Engineering $42,555, Maguire Iron $162,806, and Grimmer Construction $56,600. They approved an update to the water project that will shift some funds around allowing Commonwealth Engineering to complete its work. Finally, they approved a 700-page Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) document for the Police Department. This update will not result in any substantial changes in the way the Department operates but brings their SOP up to date with changes in State Law and recent court decisions.

The Rensselaer City Council also met on Monday evening for an unusually long meeting. The first item on the agenda was a lengthy presentation from Baker Tilly of utility financial reports. The Baker-Tilly representative gave the Council members a lengthy handout which contained the information he presented on the computer monitors. He summarized the status of the five City utilities and was especially interested in how the projected case cash reserves of each utility would compare to the minimum recommended cash reserves. If cash reserves were projected to fall below the minimum recommended, that might indicate that a rate adjustment was needed.

The first utility he presented was the water utility. Currently its cash reserves are above the minimum recommended, but the projections showed it falling below that minimum in less than two years if costs keep rising. The top ten water users account for 13% of water revenue. There are three bonds outstanding and the bond payments are $670,000 annually and that level will continue for 15 more years. Well #9 will need an upgrade in 2028 and that is projected to cost more than a million. The consultant expected that the Council would need to raise rates in a year or two.

The cash reserves for the Sewer Utility are already below the minimum recommended level and the consultant said this was the utility that needs the earliest rate adjustment. The ten largest users account for 20% of revenues. There are four bonds outstanding but in 2030 there will be a drop in payments. The City is currently reducing costs in the Sewer utility by paying some of the workers from the Water utility. He mentioned several options to cut costs but expects the City to need at least a 20% increase in fees.

The gas utility is in good financial shape. 65% of its costs are from the purchase of natural gas but the monthly rate tracker adjusts the customer bill for changes in the cost of gas. the ten largest customers account for 27% of revenue. The bond payments are level until 2038.

The electric utility is also in good financial shape. 72% of its cost is for the purchase of power and like the gas utility the tracker (quarterly in the case of electricity) adjusts bills to reflect this cost. The top ten users account for 47% of revenue. Some of the bond payments will end in 2028. However, there are several smaller capital projects on the horizon (a new transformer, substation, and power line) that are projected to cost about $4 million. How these will be financed is uncertain and the details of that financing will determine if a future rate hike is necessary.

The last utility discussed is the newest, the sanitation utility. Rensselaer's fee of $19 per month is on the high side but other Indiana communities are catching up. The main problem facing the sanitation utility is the need to purchase a new garbage truck. Some ways of financing that purchase might need a rate hike. An option would be to have the purchase funded from City funds, but that may cause other problems. The City has little or no control over its revenues from income and property taxes but it can control utility fees, so it may not be a good idea to fund utility items from tax funds,

The rest of the meeting went quickly. The Council approved closing a block of Van Rensselaer Street for OktoberFest on September 28. If the Brick Street Project is not substantially complete by then, the backup plan is to use Filson Park. The gas tracker for July reflects a three cent increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council approved Grimmer Brick Street pay request #4 and also approved an update that allows Commonwealth Engineering more flexibility in monitoring the project. The City attorney is working on an agreement between the Electric Department and Park Department for use of part of the light plant. The Police Department was busy with traffic stops on Cruise Night. There was a crash, a car fire and a tree fire. The Mayor asked the Council to think about purchasing a parking lot for an EV charging station. The erection of the fire tower should happen in the first part of August. The Council approved a quote of $3500 to fix a roof leak in City Hall.

Tourism Board meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Board had a short and uneventful meeting on Tuesday morning. It approved $3000 for drone footage of the water tower mural. There were two quotes and the choice of which to use was not decided in the vote. The Tourism director would like to have full rights to the footage, allowing her to use it in future promotional materials and it is not clear if one of the companies will allow that. Jasper County Tourism is now a member of the Indiana Tourism Association. One of the members mentioned that DeMotte will be getting a Wendy's Restaurant. The next meeting is scheduled for August 13.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Jasper County Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening and because of the rain I attended via Zoom. One of the Airport engineers said that the FAA had only minor comments of the last chapter of the Master Plan that was submitted and work will continue on the next chapter. Some Airport property that was of interest to a private buyer has been appraised and there is a chance that it could be swapped for land that the Airport wants. The Finance Committee will probably meet next month before the regular meeting. There was a rather long discussion whether renters of the Airport's plane should be required to have renter's insurance but no action was taken. There was shorter discussion of issues involved in maintaining the rental aircraft and the Board approved going to inspections every 100 hours of use. 32 kids got to fly in the Young Eagles event. There are two hangar vacancies, both in the old hangar. 

Helicopter rides are scheduled for July 20-21 and July 27-28 and Biplane rides on July 25-28.

Odds and ends

On June 27th, Appleseed's Adam Alson spoke at the National Child Care Innovation Summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Video of the panel he was on is here.

The Clinic of Family Medicine has moved into their new Washington Street quarters.

Saint Augustine's parish had a visiting priest last weekend and why he was visiting was unusual. The priest, who served many years in the military, is a pilot and his plane needed repairs. He said the best place for those repairs was here in Rensselaer at Excel-Air. He flew in from Vermont but customers from this distance are not unusual at Excel-Air. I believe it is recognized as one of the best shops to service Grumman planes. See their website here.