News from mid September

 Downtown news

At the end of last week new paving bricks were beginning to appear in the Harrison/Van Rensselaer intersection.

Brick work was also being done in Filson Park, both around the fountain and behind the stage area.

In other downtown news, the Ritz Theater is changing ownership. I have heard no details.

Continued Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met Monday morning in a meeting that was continued from the September 2 meeting. An item on the agenda for Animal Control was postponed until the October meeting. The Extension Office had a request for a new storage shed and it was decided that if it needed external storage, the Office could use some of the existing Community Garden shed and that other storage needs could be met with new shelving and internal reorganization. A conference request from Human Resources was approved. Also approved was a request from the Highway Department to replace two employees, for road work and a part-time cleaning position. 

A series of quotes to improve a storage barn at the Highway Department were approved, including $22,2904 for 2 inches of spray foam for the walls and 4 inches for the ceiling, $5660 to rough in plumbing, and $10,568 for electrical work in a maintenance area and $15,540 for electrical work in the rest of the building. Part of the space will be used by the Surveyor's Department and part by the Highway Department.

There was a long discussion of the fee schedule of the Coroner. Currently the Office pays a case fee for deputies who respond to a call and a separate transport fee when they transport a body to the morgue. The problem is not the amounts but rather the accounting for these fees and here the issue was bounced to the County Council, which needs to amend the salary ordinance so both fees are included. There needs to be a separation of compensation for services and reimbursement of expenses.


A committee of five has been selected to work on planning a new forensics center: Jeff DeYoung, Craig Standish, Andrew Boersma, the Sheriff or his representative, and someone from the Council.

Sara DeYoung gave a presentation of what the Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JCEDO) does. The organization is a non-profit organization with a 20 member board. It has an office staff of 2.5 persons. Much of what she said is on the JCEDO website. JCEDO has an inventory of properties that might be of interest for companies seeking to expand into Jasper County. They usually are interested in availability of utilities, supplies, labor and transportation. Today jobs often follow people rather than people following jobs. The key to attracting people is quality of life, which includes such things as schools and other amenities. 

The Commissioners agreed to hire Baker Tilly to prepare two financial plans, one for the current state of the County and another looking forward. Their payments are not to exceed $20,000 for one and $30,000 for the other. 

NIPSCO has proposed putting a gas-fired peaking plant on its Wheatfield site. It would like Baker Tilly to prepare an impact study and a possible tax abatement plan. The cost would not exceed $17,500 and NIPSCO has agreed to pay for that study. The Commissioners approved the language of the agreement pending NIPSCO also agreeing to the language. 


EDP Renewables is planning a wind farm in Carpenter Township. A road use agreement for that farm was approved for Meadow Lake Wind Farm Eight LLC. However, the project has a new name, Carpenter Wind Farm LLC. The request to the Commissioners was to assign the previously granted road-use agreement to Carpenter Wind Farm. That was granted. EDP also wanted to amend the agreement with an updated list of roads and several other amendments. It will improve the roads that it uses. The Commissioners also heard from their construction compliance monitor, a firm hired by the County to provide expertise that the County does not have internally. (The County decided that they needed this expertise after its experience with the Dunns Bridge One Solar Park.) The amendments were accepted.

In public comments, Craig Standish asked if there was any progress in moving forward with a 4-H shooting range at the Fairgrounds. The range will need a site plan approved from the City of Rensselaer. Another citizen complained that the meeting was sloppy in following Robert's Rules of order. One example he gave is that in County meetings people often say, "I motion that...." instead of "I move that...." He also said that the presiding officer should repeat the motion before a vote. Finally, a citizen asked for an update on a CO2 ordinance. She was told that nothing is being done until a court case in Iowa is decided. It will set the limits on what a county can do.


It seems every month there is a continued meeting that lasts as long or almost as long as the original meeting. Maybe it is time for the Commissioners to schedule two meetings each month.

Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission

The Jasper County BZA met Monday evening with one cause on its agenda, a special exception to allow for a cell tower near Fair Oaks. The company building the tower is Southern Tower and Verizon is the first and so far the only carrier signed up to use the tower. For Verizon this tower will fill in a gap in coverage and will provide network resiliency for traffic on I-65 in case of disruptions to other towers. There is another tower a mile to the south that is used by AT&T and T-Mobile. The tower will be 195 feet tall, which is what is allowed in the County ordinance. The company will lease a 100 by 100 foot patch in a wooded lot near the railroad tracks


There was one person who opposed the plan, arguing electromagnetic fields from cell phones and cell towers was dangerous, especially for children. Despite his comment, the Board approved the special exception.

The Plan Commission met after the BZA meeting with one cause on its agenda, a rezone from A1 to A2 for a future subdivision in Walker. The owner said that some of the land was wooded and that the parts that he farmed were poor land, so he thought housing would be a better use of the land than farming. He gave the Commission members maps of what he was proposing. He said that the lots would be four or five acres in size. He also said that the land was next to a solar farm and he liked it because it was peaceful. The Commission voted to send his request to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation.

The next meetings of these two groups are on the schedule for October 21 but several of the members said that they were doubtful about attending because they might be in the fields harvesting. There will be items on both agendas, including items about the Carpenter Wind Farm. The meeting might be moved to 6:00 at the Fairground. Or the meetings might not happen at all. The BZA is more doubtful than the Plan Commission.


Getting ready for the Cemetery Walk

The Weston Cemetery Walk held its dress rehearsal on Sunday and seems ready for the Saturday performances. The list of people portrayed and the actors was in last week's Rensselaer Republican and you can find the article on-line here. One of the graves that will be visited has this iconography which is quite common in Catholic Cemeteries but unusual for Weston.

The IHS are the Latin letters equivalent to the first three Greek letters in the name "Jesus". The family buried here (Healy, not Healey, a completely different family) were Catholic. I do not know why they chose Weston rather than Mount Calvary, but some members of the family are in Mount Calvary. 

Another grave visited is that of Emmet  Kannal, for whom Emmet Street is named.

Performances are at 11:00 (in the Hall Shelter) and 2:00 (walking through the Cemetery). Tickets are available at Cup of Joy and Brown's Garden Shoppe.

SJC Homecoming

I stopped by the SJC Homecoming on Saturday and did not see any alumni that I recognized, though if I knew any of them, I probably would not recognize them because many people change so much in appearance just a few years after they leave college. There seemed to be a good-sized crowd there and I was told that the graduating classes of 1984 and 1974 were especially well represented.

There was entertainment in the form of a baseball scrimmage by players from Ca;ument College of Saint Joseph. There was a brat tent (shown) and a beer tent (not shown).

Odds & ends

Days are getting shorter as we approach the autumnal equinox. There are a few fields that have been harvested and some of the corn fields look ready for harvest. There are some bean fields that are still totally green. The trees in my neighborhood still have not started changing color.

Big plans

Chamber lunch and plans for a new Show Arena


The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce held its monthly luncheon at Filson Park. The main speaker was from Express Employment Professionals, who talked about how the labor market has changed.  Employers looking for new locations are very concerned about supply of labor and water. The days in which employers and employees had loyalty to each other are mostly gone. Employees jump from job to job to take advantage of better wages and conditions. A lot of people use Indeed.com to upload resumes and search for applicants, but often a personal touch, such as that Express provides, produces better results.


For me, totally out of the labor market, the more interesting presentation was from the Fair Board about their plans for a new show arena. The plan is to demolish the old arena and build a much bigger building where it sits. The proposed arena will be about double the size. It will have retractable bleachers that can seat up to 1200 and if chairs are put on the arena floor, seating could be 3000.

The arena will be open all year for rental. Potential renters would include livestock shows, trade shows, and machinery shows. Currently there are potential exhibitors who do not use the Fairgrounds because there is no building big enough for their needs. The estimated cost is currently $3 million to $3.5 million. The rentals are not expected to be enough to pay for the arena but should be enough to pay the operating expenses (mostly utilities and labor).

The Fair Board is looking for grants and donations. The first step will be to hire design services to get engineering designs. The expectation is this will be a five-year project because it will take that long to raise enough money. The first regulatory step will probably be an appearance before the Drainage Board in October. Donations to the project can be made to a Show Arena fund at Alliance Bank.

Above is the view from the east and the front of the building. Below is the view from the west and the back of the building.

While the lunch was finishing up, a worker was tilling the grounds of Filson Park getting it ready for a new seeding of grass. Workers have also been working on the bases of the future light fixtures.


More pictures

The permeable pavers have been installed along both sides of Harrison Street and one side of Van Rensselaer. It takes only about a day to do one side of a street. The big task still ahead is to finish the intersection of Harrison and Van Rensselaer.

On Tuesday workers were pressure washing the outside of the Drexel water tower. There will be work done inside the tank in the upcoming days.

Below is a picture of the foundation for the first house to be constructed by the Building Trades program at SJC.

I mentioned the Winter SJC newsletter in the previous post. The newsletter tells about the new SJC logo, gives an update on the CDL program,  reports on the groundbreaking ceremony for the Building Trades program, gives the schedule for the 2024 homecoming, highlights a recent graduate of their certificate program who now works for WorkOne, discusses the partnership with the Indiana Agriculture and Technology charter School, and announces the hiring of a senior administrative assistant. 

SJC is seeking partnerships that will allow it to continue to develop and expand as a trade school. The number of high school graduates has been dropping year by year and will continue to drop because the Country's fertility rate has dropped below replacement level. Those who do go to college increasingly go to on-line schools or large public universities, so the brunt of the decline in students is felt in smaller schools, especially private schools. These demographics alone are a reason that SJC can never be what it once was.

A positive note for SJC: it has cleared its debt. 

Tourism Commission meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Board met Monday. They approved their July minutes; the August meeting did not have a quorum so there were no minutes to approve. First on the agenda was a request from the Rensselaer Chamber for $3500 to help pay for a mailing to advertise the Holiday Shop and Stroll on November 14-16. This is the first year that the Chamber is running the event. It is continuing with the past practice of mailing out about 17,000 postcards to area communities. Those who attend the event and visit all the participating shops are entered into a drawing for a grand prize. The cost of the mailing is about $300 per retailer and Chamber argues that the event brings in people from outside the County who then spend money not only at the participating shops but at other stores as well.


A big concern from Board members was the lack of data to show how many people respond and thus to show the effectiveness of the mailing. Last year 146 people entered the drawing, showing that they had visited all the shops, but there is no way to know how many other people visited only some of the shops. There were various suggestions on how to get more data on turnout. There were also questions of whether there were most cost effective ways to publicize the event, such as using social media. After discussion, the Board approved a grant of $1500.

Next was a request from Remington MainStreet for $30,000 for seven new signs highlighting points of interest in town. The Board wanted additions to the signs mentioning Discover Jasper County and the Tourism logo. The request was approved with the contingency that a brand mark agreement be reached. Remington has plans for an inclusive playground and will make a formal presentation for that project next year.


 The Board adopted a strategic plan that the Tourism office and Ball State have developed. Revenues from the inn-keeper tax were down in July and August and are expected to below 2023 levels for the rest of the year.

Jasper County Airport Authority Board meeting


I attended the Jasper County Airport Authority Board meeting on Tuesday evening via Zoom. Work continues on their master plan. A property owner to the west of the Airport has agreed to a land swap. The Airport wants the land for an east-west runway expansion and does not need some land it owns along SR 114. Nothing will be done on this until after harvest. There was a long discussion of the rental plane, which will be getting a new engine this fall. The Board adopted a policy for renters of the plane to acknowledge that they may be liable for a deductible if the plane is damaged while they use it. The Airport is finalizing grant papers that will result in $151,899 that will be used to finance the preparation of the master plan. The Airport tentatively plans to do another Scareport event on October 19. The Board accepted a new salary ordinance.

Odds and ends


This week's Rensselaer Republican has the complete list and description of the people who will be featured in this year's Weston Cemetery Walk. It is the front page article. 

Another walk starts Friday. The first of a series of Wellness Walks sponsored by Franciscan Health and Purdue Extension will take place on Friday, September 13 at 10:30 in the Hall Shelter of Brookside Park. After a short talk, the walk will take place in Weston Cemetery. The series will continue on Fridays until October 18. There is no admission charge and is open to all.

More Festival pictures

 Little Cousin Jasper Parade

Many people lined Washington Street on Saturday for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival parade. 

After the very loud fire trucks passed, the Cousin Jasper King and Queen for 2024 rode by.

These marchers were handing out popcorn. They were from ConAgra.

The Rensselaer Care Center had a float with two kids on it.

The Rensselaer marching band was the only band in the parade this year.

The Republicans had a float with lots of signs for its candidates for County, State, and National offices.

I do not remember who sponsored this float, but it commemorated the 50 years that the Little Cousin Jasper Festival has been around.

Youth soccer has a lot of kids in its program and the younger ones were on a float. Some of the older ones were marching behind, throwing out candy. There was a lot of candy this year, and any kid who did not go home with a big bag of it was a slacker.

I did not quickly recognize what the woman on the right was supposed to be. She was a toothbrush and represented one of our local dentists.

Donaldson's had a colorful float.

The Democrats have fewer candidates running for local offices than the Republicans. Neither Luttringer nor Jeffries ran in the primary election. 

At the end of the parade was a strange three-wheeled vehicle and a car that looked like it had been in a demolition derby.

More Festival pictures

The Carnegie Players put on several performances of what they called "Professor Galen Placebo's Miracle Elixir Medicine Show". Here Professor Galen demonstrated how his miracle elixir was keeping a head without a body alive. 

The show also had a magician trying to perform tricks. Here she is with Ima Lone and her assistant Lotta Tusch. 

The whole thing was very funny but the sound from the main stage was distracting. Hopefully they will be able to perform it again in a better venue.

Two of the actors shown in these pictures will be performing on September 21 at the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery.

The stage show that had the loud sound was a hypnotist.

I paid a last visit as the Festival was closing and was surprised at how many people were still there. I saw a bunch of kids wearing these hats that had bulbs in the legs. When they were squeezed, the ears moved.

Board of Public Works meeting

The Board of Public Works meeting had only one item on its agenda, a payment of $20,572 for Commonwealth Engineering for its work on the Water Project. It was approved.

The fence around the water treatment plant next to Iroquois Park is finished. The City has started filling the I-65 water tower. The generator for the water towers passed their tests. Work has started on the permeable pavers along Harrison Street. The new police cars are still not ready to enter service.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Council passed on a second reading of an ordinance for discontinuation of services. There were a few minor changes and clarifications made to it. The gas tracker for September did not change. The Mayor issued a proclamation for the Knights of Columbus' Blue Light Program. It honors first responders by encouraging people to light a blue light on September 11, which was proclaimed Blue Light Day.

The Council approved starting to prepare for closing the Scott Street rail crossing. There will be a public hearing on October 14.

The Council then heard presentations for Commonwealth Engineering and Baker Tilley about making improvements to the sewage system to comply with a State decree. The City has until 2030 to make these improvements. It had sought financing from the State Revolving Fund (SRF) for zero percent financing, but initially did not make the cut. However, several localities that were above it in the rankings were not ready to begin their projects, so the cut line dropped down until it included Rensselaer. Rensselaer can borrow up to $20 million at the zero interest rate and Commonwealth expects the changes to the sewage plant to be $18.8 million. The City also needs to make changes in its sewers within Rensselaer and that is estimated to cost another $8 or $9 million. The speakers kept making references to a packet that the Council members had so the presentations were hard to follow for someone in the audience.

The Baker Tilley presentation ran through the financing numbers and said that the end result would be almost a doubling of sewage rates. The City will not be able to tap into a second zero-interest rate for the second part of the project. Delaying the project will only increase costs and the size of rate hikes, so the Council voted to move forward to seeking the funding and preparing the many steps needed before construction actually begins. The first step will probably be approving a bond ordinance next month.

The Council will have to have its meetings on-line starting next July. It will keep its current audio system, spend $1945 for new video equipment, and use Youtube to stream the meetings. The Council then approved some changes to health insurance and pay. They will be included in the salary ordinance at a future meeting.

Trick and Treat hours will be from 5:00 to 8:00 on October 31.

The EPA is beginning to regulate a contaminate that I did not catch, though it may be PFAS. The City has the opportunity to have testing for it paid by the Indiana Finance Authority, and the Council approved taking the free testing.

Because the second Monday of November is Veterans Day, the first Council meeting in November will be on Tuesday, November 12. The next Council meeting will have a public hearing on the budget. There is a Plan Commission meeting on September 19 and a public hearing on a proposed TIF district on September 30.

Odd and ends

Fase-Kaluf Appliances has new owners.

The doors of what used to be Not Your Typical Wingz now have "for rent" signs on them.

The Fall newsletter from SJC is available.

At the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting summarized in the previous post, there was mention that a Sanborn Insurance map showed that the property on the corner of Clark and Cullen had once had a gas station. I searched the Internet and found a 1921 map that did not have the building, but a map at the Rensselaer Library showed it.

Part of the building was storage for soft drinks. The gas tanks seem to have been located next to Clark. I suppose that is where the pumps were.

In the past the Weston Cemetery Walk (September 21 this year) has had one presenter for each grave visited. This year we will try something different, a conversation among three sisters who died within two years in the late 19th century. All were between the ages of 16 to 22 and their father was a popular craftsman/shopkeeper. I have seen the script and if the three women do as well as they have in rehearsals, it will be a highlight of this year's walk.

Three years ago we featured Ernest Zea as told from the perspective of his mother. Ernie was blind and confined to a wheelchair, but he made the most of what he had and was admired by the citizens of Rensselaer. This year we initially considered another person who had severe physical handicaps and an eventful life. Ultimately we decided not to portray him because, unlike Ernest, he took a destructive path that caused him and others great pain. Which raises the question, are their lives that are so objectionable or offensive that they should be out-of-bounds for an event like the Cemetery Walk? Does the answer depend on whether they have surviving relatives in Rensselaer?

The organizers appreciate the sponsors who make this event possible, including:

The start of Little Cousin Jasper Festival

 Pictures from downtown

On the way to Wednesday's Redevelopment Commission meeting, I noticed that there were trees ready to be planted at Filson Park.

By Friday they were planted.

Also, the last of the sidewalk around and in the park was finished.

On Friday early afternoon the bricks on Harrison had almost reached the intersection.

Finally I noticed that there were tables and chairs inside what will be Brick Street Ice Cream. Maybe it will open soon.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met Wednesday evening. The Commission would like to buy the property with the vacant building on the corner of Clark and Cullen, tear down the building, and then sell the land so it can be developed. The building there once served as a laundry and apparently before that as a gas station, two uses that can leave polluted soil behind. The Commission considered doing a phase 2 environmental survey that would involve test wells, borings, and ground samples for $13,800. For an added $2,800 they could do ground penetrating radar in hopes of locating underground gas tanks. After discussion, they opted to do the survey without the radar study.

Next on the agenda was a short discussion of a proposed 7th Street Rensselaer TIF area. There will be a public hearing on this proposal on September 30. Finally there was a discussion of upgrades needed for the Rensselaer sewer system. In 2010 IDEM took Rensselaer to court over its combined sewer system that allows sewage to be dumped into the Iroquois River when there are heavy rains. Since then the City has done a number of projects to reduce the problem, but not enough to eliminate it. The waste-water treatment plant needs to be expanded and the estimated cost of that is at least $13 million. The median income in Rensselaer is now too high for the City to be eligible for grants, though it can get loans at zero percent interest. The next City Council meeting will discuss financing options.

Odds and ends

From Facebook I found a link to a page about the proposed Heritage Christian Academy. This is a school that plans to open in August 2025 in one wing of the SJC Core building.  The plan is to initially start with three grades and then add grades until the school has K-12. For more info, search the internet for Heritage Christian Academy Rensselaer.

We are two weeks away from the 7th annual Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery, aka The Weston Cemetery Walk. The walk is a program of the Jasper County Historical Society and it is meant to inform people about history in an entertaining and enjoyable way. Each year it has focused on eight people or families and had actors portray these eight. Some have made a difference locally, some on the State level, and a few have had national significance. Others have been part of some important or interesting historical even. Some just have interesting life or death stories. This year we will be in the eastern part of the Cemetery where some very early settlers are buried. This year two people who will be portrayed or discussed left Rensselaer and made a mark on the wider world. 

Anyone who has worked on an event like this knows how much work goes into the planning and execution. Also, most of these events are dependent on sponsors and the Cemetery Walk is no different. The ticket sales do not cover the costs of the event. The organizers are very thankful for our sponsors, four of whom are highlighted below. (The other four will be shown in a future post.)

My wild sunflowers have started to bloom. They tell me it almost time for the asters to bloom, and the asters are the last flowers of the autumn.

Little Cousin Jasper Festival starts

The LCJF started on Friday. The City parking lot next to the bowstring arch bridge is the food court. Food booths and food trucks are on the edges of the lot and tables are in the center.

A look at the festival from near the bridge.

There are a lot of booths. They line the sidewalks on both sides.

In the middle of Potawatomi Park are attractions for kids, including these bubbles in a pool.

Crossing the bridge one gets a good view of the Eagle mural.

On Friday evening the Hickory Huskers school bus was in the food court. It is a 1939 Chevy and was the bus used in the movie Hoosiers.

Below is the steering wheel and dashboard of the bus. I wonder how many people today could drive it. (Notice the stick shift.)

The food court was a lot busier in the evening than at noon.

The first act on the stage was getting ready to perform as I left.

Saturday will be a busy day with a parade at noon.