Park dedication and Christmas parade

Dedication and parade

On Saturday evening Filson Park was dedicated with speeches by Heather Hall, Stace Pickering, Brienne Hooker, Mayor Jeff Phillips, and Barb Michals followed by a ribbon cutting. The lighting was poor, so I adjusted the exposure so the ribbon could be seen. (This week's Rensselaer Republican will almost certainly have a much better picture and also an article with more details.)

The picture below is more like what the event looked like to me.

Before the park dedication and other events of the evening, there was a parade. The crowd waited until it got dark, with kids excited by the prospect of picking up lots of candy.

The parade started with a lot of noise with fire trucks and tow trucks, all with horns honking and sirens screaming.

One of the highway department trucks had a decoration that I remember was in last year's parade.

The snow plows were intimidating.

I am not sure what group these were with.

Teen Mission

No horses this year, but giant tractors.

The Rensselaer High School band played on.

The City of Rensselaer had several entries, including their recycling trailer.

Bomber softball.

Probably ConAgra. Someone gave me popcorn,

The kids on either side of me got plenty of candy, though some of it was not thrown well and was left on the street. (See picture above.)

There were many more entries than those shown above. My camera malfunctioned before Santa came by to end the parade.

City meetings

There was a very short Board of Public Works meeting Monday afternoon. It approved a pay request from Commonwealth Engineers for $6740 for work on the water-tower project. There remain several items on the water towers that have unfixed problems.

The City Council meeting that followed had two public hearings. The first was about the sewer-rate increase. A person from Baker Tilly explained that the City is under an unfunded mandate to fix problems with its combined sewer system by 2028. The fix will be expensive but the first part will be financed with a $19 million loan at a zero interest rate and the second part will be financed with about a $9 million loan with a below-market rate. The pay off these loans, sewage rates, which are determined by how much water a household uses, will rise 30% next year, another 23% the year after, and a final 13% the next year. One member of the public asked if the rates could be phased in over four or five years rather than three and he was told that the State wants the full rate in place when payments start, so three is the maximum.  Below is a handout provided at the meeting showing how Rensselaer rates will compare to other communities. We go from quite low to very high.

(How much water do you use? I am no where near the 4000 gallons a month level.)

The second public hearing was on a petition to abandon parts of Prairie Street and unnamed road that are north of the large Presidio warehouse on Merritt Street. Some of these streets seem to have been previously vacated but no one could find a record of the vacation. Presidio would like the streets vacated to improve truck flow for the renters of space in the warehouse. One adjoining property owner objected and said he wanted some of the land if the streets were vacated. 

Two bids were opened for Community Crossings paving grant, one from Milestone for $1,169,000 and the other from Town & Country Paving for $1,077,498. They were given to a consultant and a person from the Street Department to review for a recommendation.

The Council then passed the sewer-rate increase. Next on the agenda was an ordinance on the collecting and writing off debt owed to the City. The Council suspended rules so it could be passed with one reading, which was done. There were several transfers of funds passed, and the gas tracker for December will be a one-half cent increase per 100 cubic feet of usage. There was a discussion of replacing clocking in with time cards to using a software system. The Council voted to have the clerk/treasurer pursue the matter. On Thursday and Friday the front entrance to City Hall will be closed for upgrades to the doors to make them ADA compliant.

The two people examining the paving bids returned with a recommendation that Town & Country be awarded the bid. However, they recommended that the work proposed for Milroy Avenue be postponed to bring the project down to the budget even though that will result in a somewhat smaller grant from the State. The Council accepted their recommendation.

The Street Department said it would like to switch mapping vendors, but other departments were happy with the status quo. No action was taken.

Odds & ends

Wreaths Across America Day will be Saturday, December 14. Opening ceremonies will be at 10:00 at the Jasper County Fairgrounds.

On Monday Rensselaer School Corporation schools canceled classes because the computer network was down. Things have changed a lot since I went to school. We had no computers, much less a computer network.

Sblended has announced that it is closing. Dec 22 will be their last day.  The owner says, "There will be another business taking over in the building where we are located now, I think it’s going to make an incredible addition to the lovely Rensselaer Community and I hope that you all will love and support it."

The organ that was in the Ritz Theater has been moved to the building that the Carnegie Players recently purchased and will renovate. The picture below was provided.

The Tourism Commission meeting scheduled for December 10 was canceled because a quorum could not be assembled. It will be rescheduled.

The Airport Authority Commission meeting scheduled for December 10 has been moved to December 19 and the December 30 meeting canceled.

The Carnegie Players production of Saving Christmas is scheduled for the 12th, 13th, and 14th.

The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce has its annual meeting with civic awards on Tuesday (Dec 10) evening. Update: the Presidents Award went to Denise Espino, the artist who designed and painted the Christmas windows.