End of July pictures

Two new murals

While at the Art-in-the-Alley festival on Saturday I noticed work on a mural.

It was being painted by Ryan Preston and Cameron Moberg.

It was replacing a mural that had severely deteriorated. I mentioned that the wall did not hold paint and they said it was because of the water coming off the roof. Below is what the back of the building looked like in April. Notice the new mural keeps one bit of the old mural, the "I'm OK" bubble.

The mural in its prime can be seen here.

Rein Bontreger's mural on the back of Unwind Massage seems to be complete because he has signed it.

More County Fair pictures

In a post last week I had some pictures from the County Fair. Here are more.

This exhibit had pig races. A couple of my granddaughters watched a race and thought they were amusing.

I have always liked Ferris wheels.

This is a picture of one of the two funny little people who were roaming around the Fair.

A view toward the barns from outside the Commercial Building.

ConAgra was giving away popcorn.

One of the booths that was scheduled for the Commercial building but did not show was for the Tri-County Bible school. I asked one of the people at the Tri-County Bible Church booth about it and was told the plan is to open in the Fall of 2025 in the Core Building at SJC.

EDP Renewables, which plans to start construction of a wind farm in Carpenter Township in 2025, was giving away a variety of items. The cow stuffed animals were a big hit with my young granddaughters.

Bob's Bumpy Barrels were back again this year.

On Friday evening 4-Hers were taking their goats to the livestock auction.

Below is a picture of what the Fair Board would like to build, an enclosed show arena.

Here is a video of the steam engine in action.

It had a belt connected to a large saw that was cutting planks from logs.

The Fair ended on Saturday night with fireworks. A video is here.

Art in The Alley

The annual Art in The Alley was the first event to be held in the almost completed Filson Park. The fountain was operating and as far as I know, no one waded in. This year the event overlapped the last day of the Fair, which probably hurt attendance.

One of the scheduled events was an improv performance by members of the Carnegie Players.

Unscheduled was a few minutes of dance by a local line-dance group.

While I was there, the biplane and helicopter rides that the Airport had were almost constantly in the air.

Miscellaneous pictures

Bricks are being placed on Van Rensseler. It will take a while to finish this part of the project.

On one of my trips to the Fair, I saw a deer in a soybean field.

Last Thursday workers were beginning to install batting cages near Staddon Field.

County Fair, murals, and a lot of pictures

At the Fair

For the 100th anniversary the Jasper County Fair sought out some new activities. One of them was called Foam Play. A foam cannon shot foam into the parking lot and the kids waded in, getting soaked. I had several grandkids visiting and they enjoyed it. I do not know if four of them enjoyed their wet ride back to Indianapolis.

Also on Sunday there were tethered balloon rides. 

The balloon did not go very high, but there was a long line of people waiting for a ride.

I noticed an antique steam engine west of the Retired Iron barn. My interest in steam engines is explained here.

As I was leaving the balloon area, the fair queen and her court drove up in their queen-mobile. I did not wait to see if they took a balloon ride.

The Health Department had its mobile health clinic on display. I do not know if anyone ever was in it.

The carnival area seemed to be bigger this year than in recent years.

The Shake Barn is always popular.

I have not visited most of the animal barns yet. I stopped by the sheep barn to take a picture.

On Tuesday afternoon bingo was a popular event in the Community Building.

Below are a few of the many food booths at the fair.

Sunset at the Fair.

Murals

On Wednesday morning the City held a dedication ceremony for the water tower mural. First there were short talks by Cameron Mobery and Mayor Jeff Phillips talking about how the project came to be, the obstacles that had to be overcome, and the people who helped make the mural possible. In the picture below are Rein Bontrager, Mayor Phillips, Cameron Moberg, and Ryan Preston.

Behind them is a banner that lists the artists and sponsors. The name of the mural is "Autumn Caught 'Em". The leaves represented to Mr Moberg memories of his times in Rensselaer.

There was no ribbon to cut, but there were confetti guns to shoot.

Here is a short video of the confetti.

After the confetti had fallen, everyone went inside the fence for a picture by the base of the tower. There was a rather large crowd of people who attended this event.

Then to my delight the door at the base of the tower was opened and people could go inside and look up. This is what they saw.

The large gray pipe contains the water main that fills the tank and also releases water from the tank. It is insulated. There is a white pipe to its left and that is an overflow pipe. A ladder goes up to the very top of the tower; there is a passage through the water at the top. A wire alongside is for a safety harness. There are several platforms on the way up so a climber can rest.

I looked at the back of the base to see where the overflow pipe outletted. 

It took Cameron and Ryan seven days to paint this mural and one more day to clear coat it. Here is the finished result. (The best time to take a picture probably is at sunset in the summer.)

Cameron Moberg is now working on a mural in Remington.

I thought downtown Rensselaer was not getting a mural this summer, but I was wrong. Rein Bontreger is painting the back wall of the building owned by Unwind Massage, located next to the City Parking lot. It is best viewed from the bowstring-arch bridge.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council had a very short meeting on Monday evening. It approved two transfers of funds and a burial rights request for four lots. There were two quotes for a new recycling truck and the Council approved the low bid of $62,640 from Gutwein Motors. The purchase will be funded from monies from the Solid Waste District.

The City employee picnic will be this Friday. The audit of the City has been completed. The Redevelopment Commission will meet on August 5. Two employees have passed their CDL tests and two more will be starting the process. 99 lead sewer lines have been identified. Perhaps by the end of the week blacktopping at the ends of the brick streets will start. The gas department has been moving the gas meter at the high school to the outside of the building.

Brick Streets

This week the work on the Brick Streets has been preparing a foundation for the bricks.

Underneath the gravel is a mesh layer that is meant to keep layers separate and to keep the top layer smooth.

Also this week landscaping was underway.

On Tuesday City Hall got a new flagpole, replacing one on the roof.

Some people may not realize it, but there are bricks under the pavement of Washington Street.

On Wednesday a sand layer was added to a bit of Van Rensselaer and the first bricks were laid down.

Filson Park

The last bit of sidewalk along Kellner Street was finished on Wednesday. There is still sidewalk along Van Rensselaer that needs to be removed.

On Saturday the Art-in-The-Alley event is scheduled for Filson Park. It will be interesting to see how the event turns out in a not-yet-finished park.  Here is the schedule of events:

12:00PM Art in the Alley Opens w/Carnegie Players Improv

2:00PM Free Downtown Mural Tour

3:00PM World Music Special ♫

5:00PM Greg James & the Peaches ♫

7:00PM Art in the Alley Closes!

A tour of the new EMS building

 A tour of the new EMS building

On Thursday evening last week Jasper County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had an open house so the community could see its new building. The building is directly north of the main entrance to the Fairgrounds with the County Highway Department to its west, Animal Control to its north, and Community Corrections to its east.

Entering the building at the main entrance, one finds two hallways, one going to the north and the other to the west. On the southeast corner of the building is the office of emergency management that is occupied by Karen Wilson.

To the north of this office is an office for an administrative assistant for EMS. At present there is no one in this position, but the position has been approved and either a search is on or will soon start.

The next room to the north is the office for the EMS director.

When we reach the end of the hallway we find a classroom.

All the rooms above are on the exterior wall. The four hallways surround an interior block that has two restrooms, storage closets, and I assume the utility room for a furnace and similar items.

Going back to the entrance, there is a hallway toward the west and at its end is a door to the area in which the vehicles are kept. Along this hallway are storage rooms.

One of the doors was open so I took a picture. I have no idea what is stored here.

Near the end of this hallway is a hallway that leads north. Along it are four small bedrooms. There are two people who staff the building around the clock, working 24-hour shifts. One is a paramedic and one an EMT. When they sleep depends on when the calls come in.

On the north side of the building is a large room that on one side has a couch and chairs and a large TV screen.

The other end of the room is a kitchen.

The west end of the building has three bays, each with doors on both ends. The Commissioners considered both two and three-bay designs and chose the three bays to provide for the possibility of expansion in the future. 

The Rensselaer location is one of four EMS locations in the County. There is an EMS center in Remington that is part of Jasper County EMS. There are two other EMS providers in the north of the County that are run by townships, the Keener Township EMS and the Wheatfield Township EMS. They may in the future join with the Jasper County EMS but that decision is with those townships. Both are given County funding to help them operate.

There were two vehicles in the bays during the open house, an ambulance and a chase vehicle. There is also a back-up ambulance that is usually here, but it was being repaired. The Southern or Remington station has one ambulance that was parked outside but I did not take a picture of it. I was surprised to see both of these vehicles plugged into an electrical cable. They have equipment such as refrigeration for some medical supplies that runs on electricity so I suspect that they are kept plugged into the electrical supply when they are in the bays.

Below is a look inside the ambulance.

I did not get a good picture of the bay area. It looks a lot like a smaller version of the bay area of the Fire Station. Along the east wall was a washing machine and a dryer. The tables were for the open house.

It is a very nice facility but I hope I do not need their services.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The final City Council meeting of May was moved from a Monday to a Tuesday because of the Memorial Day holiday. In Citizens' Comments a lady told how a pit bull attacked her dog. It severely injured her dog and she has had $6000 in vet bills as a result. There had been multiple complaints about the dog and it has since been euthanized. She was bringing the incident to the Council's attention to see if the ordinances can be changed to make such attacks less common. The Mayor invited her to discuss the matter with him and the City Attorney to see what can be done.

There were four applicants for the school board position that the Council appoints and the Council interviewed the four in an executive session. Mr Watson nominated George Cover to the four-year position and his motion was approved on a 4 to 1 vote.

There were three ordinances introduced. The first was to establish a redevelopment non-reverting fund that would be a pot of money that the Redevelopment Commission would control instead of having its expenditures coming from the City's general fund. The second would do the same for the Plan Commission. Both of these were introduced at this meeting but will be voted on in the next meeting. The third was a change in zoning that had been recommended by the Plan Commission. It would change the zoning of some land west of I-65 from business to agriculture. The City plans to run water and sewer lines through this property in the future and the owners wanted the zoning change. It was approved.

The City had sought a grant from the Indiana Finance Authority and had been granted $50,000 to use to identify water service lines that are made of lead. The Council approved accepting the grant.

At their last meeting the County Commissioners approved an agreement with the City to extend water and sewer lines to the west side of I-65. The City Council approved the agreement at this meeting. It has an agreement with Commonwealth Engineering to do planning for the extension.

Sara DeYoung from the Jasper County Economic Development Organization said the Jasper County Tourism Commission would like to put a mural on the new water tower by I-65. Rensselaer and Jasper County have received attention for our murals and this placement of a mural would help advertise what we have. The Council members were in agreement that this would be a good idea but one suggested that the matter should not be approved until the public has a chance to give input, so the matter will be on the agenda for the next meeting. JCEDO has hired a new tourism director and a summer intern who will help with publicity.

Tony Baltes the Weston Cemetery Caretaker is resigning as of mid June and Mayor Phillips appointed Joe Effinger as interim Caretaker until a replacement is hired. 

During Superintendents' Reports there was a discussion of going to an elected school board and of putting a flag pole in front of City Hall. One of the tanker trucks of the Fire Department has some problems. 812 feet of the water line for the new training tower are finished and 196 feet are left to finish. Several feet of the sidewalk in front of City Hall have been removed and on Tuesday a company was lining the sewer under Harrison Street.

Odds & ends

 There was a large crowd for the Memorial Day Ceremony at Weston Cemetery on Monday morning.

Below is a picture of the assembled fountain at Filson Park. No water yet.

On Tuesday workers were cutting the sidewalk in front of City Hall. In the late afternoon when the City Council met, the sidewalk the right of the red line closest to the street had been removed. Notice the stone in the street. It covers plastic drain tile that connects the storm sewers along the street.

As the Council met on Tuesday evening, workers from Visu-Sewer of Illinois were installing a lining in the sewer on Harrison between Van Rensselaer and SR 114. You probably cannot see the steam that was coming from the pipe near the left side of the picture.