The tower arrives

Fire training tower

The long-awaited fire training tower has been put together behind the fire station. It is composed of shipping containers and will be used to train with fire. Below is a picture showing all the crates assembled.

Below is the tower from the opposite side.

The erection of the tower began on Monday.

The picture below, taken on Tuesday, shows the almost-completed tower. There was still one layer left to install.

The picture below shows a worker welding. The intensity of the light cannot be captured in a picture.

There will be an open house and a ribbon cutting for the tower on October 24.

Some downtown news

On Tuesday workers were almost finished with laying bricks for the Brick Street Project.

On Wednesday workers were putting down the asphalt and still had not completely finished the bricks.

The owner of Busy Bee left the ice-cream business and started a dog-grooming business. Now the owner of Biscuit & a Bath is leaving the dog-grooming business and starting an ice-cream business, the Brick Street ice cream shop. The dog-grooming business will not shut but has a new owner, Smoochie Pooch.

The ice cream shop will open this weekend.

City Council meeting

Mayor Phillips was absent for the City Council meeting on Monday evening, so the President of the Council, Mrs Weishaar, led the meeting. (It was the first Noelle led meeting.) The first order of business was a public hearing on the 2025 budget. Miss Keyes read the numbers for each of the funds. There were no comments so the regular meeting resumed. The vote on the budget will be at the next meeting.

The electric tracker for the final quarter will be an increase of $142 per 1000 kilowatt hours, or about $1.00 on the average monthly bill. 

The American Legion will be hosting its 36th annual Thanksgiving dinner. Last year they served 720 meals, about one half delivered. Last year the Council approved a grant of $500 for this event. This year the amount was raised to $600 to account for inflation.

Grimmer pay request #6 of $326,430.54 for its work on the Brick Street Project was approved. Left to be finished is striping, some brick work, landscaping, and asphalt at the ends of the bricks.  The Council also approved signing a contract with First Group for paperwork and various other tasks need for the CCMG grant of almost a million dollars to fund road repair in the City. The Council then approved another contract, with Mr Armold voting against, for work in design, permitting, construction monitoring for work around the Amtrak Station. Money for this will come from Amtrak and CSX but only if the City closes the Scott Street crossing.

In comments from the superintendents, Police Chief Anderson said he is preparing a revised golf-cart ordinance for the next meeting. Mr Davis said the meeting on the 14th will have a public hearing for the closing of the railroad crossing. The Redevelopment Commission will meet on September 30 for a hearing on a residential TIFF and hold a regular meeting on October 7. Fire Chief Haun said that the containers for the fire tower are arriving and will be assembled this week. He asked the Council to approve a $9240 claim for concrete work needed before the tower was erected and it was approved. He had attended a class on EV fires and said that when they burn, they emit toxic fumes and the area around the fire should be evacuated, perhaps for days. The recommended action was to cool the vehicles enough so they can be moved out of town and allowed to burn out. Letting them burn was cheaper than attempting to put out the fire. He also suggested that the City create an ordinance requiring a cut-off switch for charging stations.  There will be a hazardous waste collection event on Saturday, September 28 from 8:00 to noon at the Jasper County Highway Garage.

Plans are being developed for the extension of water and sewer to the west of I-65. The final 2024 tournament for the Blacker fields will be a girls softball tournament on October 5-6.

Odds and ends

A proposed development in Newton County may affect Rensselaer.  The Marvella sports complex (Mavella was the wife of Birch Bayh) will offer facilities for girls sports at Fair Oaks Farms in Newton County. The entire complex will cost an estimated $98 million, with the first phase costing about $38.8 million. Construction is expected to start this fall. Because it is in Newton County, the project has not come before any County boards and so I do not know more about it than what I can find on the Internet. It might put some guests into Jasper County hotels.

The Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery event took place this past weekend. Below a group hears about the life and times of Truitt Parker Wright, who was the County Coroner long, long ago from the present County Coroner, and in the background another group hears about Emmet Kannal.

The program for this year's Walk can be found here. This year the Walk focused on people buried in the easternmost part of Weston Cemetery. (This week's Rensselaer Republican has an excellent summary of the event.) Next year the Walk will move west to the middle part of the Cemetery.

Have you seen the two trucks sitting in front of the SJC Fieldhouse? They will soon be decorated. They are used for the CDL Academy.

The sidewalk in front of the old power plant is being replaced. It was heavily damaged when the generators were removed.

Saint Augustine has ambitious plans for the future.

Many corn fields look ready for harvest, though the recent rains may delay field work.



I found a tree with leaves that are starting to turn. They should be common in a week or two.

The autumnal equinox occurred on Sunday so we are offically in Fall.

A few last days of summer

 More pictures from downtown

On Thursday evening the Harrison Street/Van Rensselaer Street intersection was almost finished. It needs to be finished in a week for Oktoberfest. Notice how the use of differet colored bricks outlines the crosswalk.

Work continues in Filson Park. New pillars at the entrance on Kellner match the brick pillars in the downtown parking lots. I believe there will be an entrance arch over these pillars.

New street signs match those being installed for the brick streets.

The bases for light poles are ready.

Jasper County Council meeting

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening. The September meeting is the meeting in which the Council reviews budgets for several taxing units and then approves them in the October meeting. First up was the Rensselaer Central School Corporation. The Council reviews this budget because the School Board is appointed, not elected.

Mr Craig, the superintendent of the School Corporation, read a budget summary and commented on parts of it. (Some of those numbers might be available on the Indiana Gateway site, here.) He noted that assessed valuation was up 12% and that should lead to a lower tax rate. The School Board had scheduled a vote on a new bond issue at its meeting later Tuesday night that would fund new doors and windows at the highs school, new light poles for the football field, gutters for Van Rensselaer, new bleachers for the middle school gym, and new auditorium lighting at the high school. In addition to tax revenues, the schools are funded by the State, which gives $8000 for each student enrolled. That money is used to pay teachers. He said that enrollment was up this year, but the trend for recent years is smaller enrollments. The peak number of students was in the 1970s. The rise in enrollments this year was in the grade and middle school. High school was down and he attributed that to kids choosing on-line schools. The school officials then left to get to the School Board meeting.

Next the Council considered the County budget. Again a bunch of numbers were read. Most County employees will be getting a $2500 pay increase for next year. A flat increase of this sort benefits lower-income employees more than higher-income employees. A new public defender system will change the 2025 budget. The Sheriff is changing the pay schedule of his employees to a percentage of his salary, which in turn is a percentage of the Prosecutor's salary. The vote on the budget will take place at the October meeting.

The Council next reviewed the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District budget. This budget had not been approved by the District's Board because the last meeting did not have a quorum. To help it meet future quorums, the Council appointed Jason Armold to serve on the board. The District is completely funded by tipping fees at the landfills in Newton and White Counties. The Jasper County Council reviews the budget because Jasper County has the highest assessed valuation of the counties served by the district.

The Council then reviewed the budget of the Iroquois Conservancy, which clears log jams from the Iroquois River. This year the Conservancy has added those parts of Benton County that are in the watershed of the Iroquois River.

Before approving the August minutes of three sessions of the Council, the Council approved the budget of Walker Township. It could not approve its own budget because two of the Board members were firemen (and presumably had a conflict of interest).  Other townships were instructed to stay within the 4% growth factor.

The Council then approved two transfers. At a previous meeting they had approved appropriation for the Recorders Perpetuation Fund but it had been put into the wrong fund. At this meeting they reduced the wrong fund and made an additional appropriation to the correct fund. They also approved spending from a donation fund for maintenance on sirens, an additional appropriation for law books and research for the Courts, and an appropriation for a cleaning lady for the Surveyor/Extension office. 

Sara DeYoung from Jasper County Economics Development Organization gave a presentation about JCEDO that was similar to the presentation that she gave to the Commissioners the day before. She stressed that we need to create communities that people want to live in so that when opportunities come our way, we can take advantage of them.

The review of the Airport budget had been advertised for 7:00 so it did not take place with the other reviews. The Airport was established in 1933 but was closed during WWII. Fuel sales, a major source of Airport revenue, have been good this year. The Airport has averaged about 500 takeoffs and 500 landings per month. Last year the high-school class at the Airport, which has the goal of getting students ready to pursue aviation careers, finished with four students. This year the class has seven students, three from RCHS, three from KVHS, and one from SNHS. Priorities for the future are finishing the master plan and designing a new hangar building. There is a wait list for hangar space. When the Airport makes capital improvements, 90% of the cost is funded by the FAA. 

The County has a local income tax (LIT) of 2.864% and the revenue is split to fund various categories. Currently the rate that goes to fund ambulance services is .02 and the Council would like to increase it but to do that without raising the overall tax rate, something else must be reduced. After some discussion, they decided to come back to the issue in October.

The County is under a burn ban because the dry weather has increased the changes of field fires. White and Pulaski have also announced burn bans. (Rensselaer got a couple of showers Friday, but the rain was very localized so the burn ban continues for the County.)

The Commissioners established a committee to plan for a new forensics center and one of the positions on that committee is assigned to a Council member. The Council appointed Jacob Misch.

At the Commissioners meeting there was a discussion of how to account for fees that the Coroner pays for transporting bodies. The Commissioners decided that was an issue for the Council. The Council and Auditor had a confusing discussion on the issue and I am not sure if agreement was reached. The Council did agree to raise the transfer fee from $125 to $175 retroactively to January 1.

The meeting lasted almost 2.5 hours and thankfully there were no public comments.

Networking event

On Thursday the Jasper Newton Foundation and United Way of Northwest Indiana hosted a lunch and networking event at the Carnegie Center. This was one of several such events that the United Way has had in the region it serves, primarily Porter and Lake Counties but also Starke, Jasper, and Newton. After a quick lunch and some remarks from United Way (I regret not getting a tour of their mobile van that they brought), the people attending introduced themselves and told what they did. Here are the organizations that I caught and some highlights.

Level Up works with United Way to help people get certifications and jobs or better jobs. They provide conseling and teach financial skills. To get into their program, one needs to have the desire to improve.

Meals on Wheels delivers meals and as a byproduct also provides wellness checks. Like many of the organizations represented, they are headquartered in Lake or Porter Counties.

Girls on the Run of Northwest Indiana has a site in DeMotte and would like to see one established in Rensselaer.

Alzheimer's Association sponsors walks in Porter and Lake Counties and would like to see one established in Newton or Jasper County.

WorkOne has a Rensselaer office and helps people get training to advance in the job market.

KIRPC Head Start is underenrolled in all of their locations except Rensselaer.

Newton County Community Services provides similar services to those provided by Jasper County Community Services. This past year they started a community garden.

Northshore Health Center has a location in DeMotte.

New Vistas High School is an alternative charter school in Portage. 

The Connection Center in DeMotte has been expanding their programs.

Catholic Charities-Diocese of Gary looks to partner with other organizations.

I did not catch the name of an adult education group that helped people get their GEDs.

The American Heart Association is putting blood-pressure hubs in various locations to help find people with very high blood pressure and who are unaware that they have a problem.

Scouting, which used to be Boy Scouts before they opened to girls, has several programs.

Birthright of Rensselaer supports pregnant women and women with young children.

Right Steps staffs eight child care centers including Appletree in Rensselaer.

Indiana Department of Health-Health Equity Council was represented as was Franciscan Health Hospice care.

Anew Ministries provides support for young, mostly teen mothers who face challenges. They have a chapter in DeMotte.

Finally, Saint Joseph's College announced that they had purchased two semis for the CDL Academy and that they would be restarting the hoop house with the Indiana Agriculture and Technology charter school, which now lists SJC as their regional home instead of the Jasper County Fairgrounds. 

Rensselaer Plan Commission

The Rensselaer Plan Commission met on Thursday evening. At a previous meeting they did not give approval to the SJC Building Trades subdivision because some details still needed to be worked out. Apparently they were not all worked out because Commission tabled the item to the October 17 meeting.

The next item also concerned SJC. There was no zoning for the SJC property. The proposal sent to the City Council with a favorable recommendation would make the campus between Sparling and the highway as well as the bowling alley, the field south of Justin Hall which SJC no longer owns, and Mount Calvary Cemetery zoned as B2, which is a business zoning. The College Woods will be zoned RS, which is the least restrictive residential zoning, if the Council concurs. Since the Council asked the Commission to deal with this issue, it is highly likely that they will concur.

A second matter that the Council wanted the Commission to address was the need to get variances when a residence in a zone classified for business changed hands. The original variance does not transfer. The Commission voted to change the policy to allow non-conforming residences in business zoning to continue being used as residences when there is a change in ownership. It also allows, with some restrictions, a non-conforming residence to be repaired if it is damaged.

The State says that redevelopment commissions should have a seal so the Commission adopted one. I did not see what it looked like.

Finally, on August 21 the members agreed via telephone to change the lot on which the SJC building trades program would build from lot 5 to lot 1. They affirmed this change with a vote. (I was wondering why the construction was happening on what I thought was the wrong lot.)

Odds and ends

There was a death in the County that has attracted media attention. It is the subject of the lead article in this week's Rensselaer Republican.

Also in the Republican are stories about change in ownership of the Ritz and the change in leadership at the Jasper County Library.

As one theater becomes a church, a church becomes a theater. The is a former church that is becoming a theater and the Carnegie Players are raising money to help repair the building.

Milroy Park has been prepared for the ScareCrow Trail.

The County Clerk has posted the candidates for the general election on Facebook but I cannot find the list on the County website.

Maybe next week the Fire Tower at the Fire Station will be put together.

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: