July has arrived

 Filson Park construction

The last two weeks have been busy at Filson Park.  At the start of the week, most of the interiour sidewalks were in place. On Tuesday this was the view through the shelter house.

Also on Tuesday, City workers were removing the sidewalk along Kellner Street.

On Wednesday they had finished removing the sidewalk along Kellner.

On Saturday I took a picture of new sidewalk along part of Kellner. The new sidewalk did not reach the end of the block. On Monday workers were preparing the north part for concrete.

I was surprised to find the there was a concrete floor where a small stage area will be located.

The plans from about three years ago are being realized.

Odds and ends

The Prairie Arts Council holds special programs on some of the last Thursdays of the month. On June 27 they hosted the Yolotzin Dance Troupe from Lafayette. I was unsure what to expect, but it was young girls performing dances from various parts of Mexico. I did not take a picture of the first dance because I expected the dresses that the two girls were wearing would be the same as the dresses the other dancers would wear, but I was wrong so I missed getting a picture of the most elaborate of the costumes used. The second dance had younger girls waving pineapples.

The conference room in the basement is not an ideal space for a dance performance because there is a column in the middle of the room that blocks the view. Each of the first three dances was from a different part of Mexico and the costumes were from the part of Mexico that the dance was from.

In the fourth and final dance the dancers invited locals in the audience to join them. One of the locals told me not not use pictures from that part of the evening on the blog.

It was an entertaining performance, in part because several of the youngest dancers had not mastered the dances and were sometimes completely out of step.

 The new Mexican grocery on Washington St across from the Court House is open. The name of this new business is Super Tiendita Ideal. I could not find a website or Facebook page for it, but Google knows that it is there.

SJC has its summer newsletter on-line. The building and trades program now has an instructor and plans a ribbon cutting and ground breaking on July 26. The College is starting what it calls a CDL Academy that will help people get the commercial driver's license.

On Monday the LaRue Pool had a dollar day and a 75th birthday celebration. At the first break (adult swim) a 1:45 Mayor Phillips handed out little cupcakes to the patrons of the pool.

In addition to cupcakes, kids celebrated with party hats, funny cardboard glasses, and very loud noisemakers.

Several times in the past couple of weeks I have heard the music of an ice cream truck in my neighborhood. Below is a picture of the vehicle. I wonder if this is a sustainable business.

I have no pictures from the Brick Street Project because I did not notice any work being done there last week.

JCEDO has an intern for a few more weeks who has been writing articles about things happening in Jasper County. Check out what she has been writing here. Also, Jasper County Tourism is looking for sponsors for the mural project and will host a catered buffet for them on July 11. For more info, contact the JCEDO office. (Or see here.)

Have a safe Fourth.

Commissioners meeting

The County Commissioners met on the morning of July 1 with a long agenda of routine items. There were no buried cable permits to consider. The Council approved some conference and vacation-extension requests and a preliminary agenda for department head training on September 11. The County Clerk said that the political parties have until July 3 to add candidates for positions that had no primary. The Commissioners approved the replacement of a part-time recycling employee in Wheatfield and approved a covered-bridge certification that confirms that Jasper County has no covered bridges. It approved the use of part of the CourtHouse lawn for Mainstreet's Oktoberfest to be held on September 28 (if the Brick Street Project is finished). It considered two options for problems with lighting for Community Services in Rensselaer, one to fix the broken parts and the other to install new lighting, and chose the second option. At previous meetings the Sheriff has proposed to move the jail's chiller from the roof of the jail to the ground. The Commissioners made an appropriation request to the Council and will be discussed at their joint meeting later this month. The Auditor and the Commissioners want the paperwork done before vehicles are purchased. If it is not done before the purchase, there can be delays in getting the vehicles licensed.

The Commissioners then heard a rather long presentation about insurance renewal. Because insurance companies are losing money, rates and deductibles are increasing. The presentation was hard to follow because it kept referring to a handout that the Commissioners had and the audience did not. Overall the increase for the County will be 7%. A random fact thrown out was that the County has 158 vehicles.

Two items from the Plan Commission were approved, a rezone from A2 to HC (Highway Commercial) for 5.88 acres that will be used for a new hotel near DeMotte and an increase in the setbacks for test wells from 300 feet to 1320 feet. 

There was a concern about speeding in the Prairie Ridge Estates Subdivision. The Commissioners can place a 30 mph speed limit sign at the entrance to the Subdivision without having a public hearing and that will be done. The Commissioners approved replacing a person leaving Soil & Water and approved a vacation extension so the time off will come when the new person is hired.

The Commissioners approved going forward to hiring a website vendor to take over the County website. They also approved the scope deductibles letter from Baker Tilley for County financial analytics and forecasting. They approved a memorandum of understanding with VS Engineering for construction compliance monitoring for the proposed SolarPack project. 

The Highway Engineer said that they needed signatures for Town and Country Paving to do work on the road work funded by the $1.5 million CCMG grant. The County Attorney said that they needed to first approve Town and Country as the contractor, which they did. They approved an agreement with BF&S as the construction compliance monitor for the proposed wind farm in Carpenter Township. Andrew Boersma had questions about plans for a new morgue and County building for the Northern part of the County and also announced that he would be play a role in September's Weston Cemetery Walk (Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery.) He will play a former funeral home director and County Coroner, Truett Wright.

The commissioners approved the replacement of a person in the child-support area of the Prosecutor's Office. The current person is taking a new job. In public comments, a person expressed concern about ATVs and minibikes racing on CR 100 S at all hours of the day and night. The meeting was continued until July 15 at 8:30 if necessary.

Drainage Board

There was a short Drainage Board meeting following the Commissioners meeting. The first item was a drainage plan from NIPSCO that I did not completely understand. NIPSCO is expanding either gas generation or storage and this somehow involves land that Georgia Pacific Gypsum owns. The current drainage basin is sufficient for what they are doing but the Surveyor wanted to get the plan on record.

The second item involved the Christian School in DeMotte which recently purchased some adjacent land. They want to build pedestrian bridges over the ditch that separates the two parcels so students will not have to walk along the road to access the new parcel that will eventually have athletic fields. The plan was approved.

The contracted spraying of ditches was finished early and the Surveyor is happy with the results.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting

I was not keeping track of the time on Monday afternoon and arrived at the Rensselaer Redevelopment meeting late. When I arrived the Commission was discussing the possibility of the City purchasing a lot downtown for an EV charging station. Currently the closest charging station is at Fair Oaks Farms. No action was taken and the matter will probably be discussed further by the City Council. 

There was a discussion of developing 7th Street immediately to the north of Van Rensselaer School. Presently it looks like an alley. The City owns two blocks of land in this area and one that fronts on the unfinished 7th Street. The possibility of creating a residential TIF district to help finance the development of the street was discussed but no action was taken.

Greg Whaley requested $4500 to pay for a complete set of drawings and plans for a miniature train display. He would like to purchase one of the miniature trains that was built in Rensselaer in the 1950s and have it displayed in Foundation Park. These trains come on the market from time to time and he has been trying to arrange funding so he could purchase one for the Rensselaer Parks. He has support for this project from the Park Board, the Jasper County Historical Society, and several community organizations. Some other organizations want a complete set of plans before they pledge or commit dollars. The Commission approved an amount not to exceed $4500.

Before I arrived at the meeting, the Commission discussed doing an environmental study of the former laundry on the corner of Clark and Cullen. I think they are considering purchasing the property but want to know if there are dry-cleaning chemicals on the site. They also approved $25,000 to help fund the mural on the water tank near I-65. The Tourism Commission will pay the artists but additional money was needed to rent the lift (surprisingly expensive) and for the clear coat finish. Finally, the Rensselaer Gas Department serves customers west of I-65 but that service depends on a single link along Bunkum Road. The Department would like to add another link, thereby looping their pipeline, when the water and sewer lines are bored under the Interstate. I believe the Commission approved some money for this.