Inauguration day 2025

 A ribbon cutting

On Friday morning Brick Built Real Estate Cafe and Coworking had its ribbon cutting. While I waited for more people to arrive, I took pictures of their menu.

In the picture below the owner of the cafe, Kylie Black, is holding the scissors to the right of Mayor Phillips. Next to her is the owner of the Brick Built Realty company, which is headquartered in the South Bend area.. Mrs Black began doing marketing for Brick Built several years ago and that eventually led her to becoming a realtor.

Below is a very short video of the ribbon being cut. (My camera adds these to the pictures I take.)

Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Plan Commission met Thursday evening. It elected Kevin Armold as President, Stan Haines as Vice President, and Krystal Bassett as Secretary. After discussion, it approved the preliminary plat for the St. Joseph's Building & Trades Subdivision. The requirements for curbs and gutters along Sparling and Daugherty Roads were waived and a decision on sidewalks was deferred until phase Four. The approval was contingent on completion of a few minor changes. The assistant street superintendent will inspect water and sewer installation for the first phase. A final plat of the first phase must be completed in three years, of the second phase in 5 years, of the third phase in 14 years, and of phase four in 23 years. Brice Black abstained because as Street Superintendent his department must approve inspections.

The Commission recommended to the City Council a new fee schedule for zoning and subdivision control. I did not see the schedule. It discussed changing the subdivision ordinance so that simple two- or three-lot subdivisions have a simpler process for approval than large subdivisions. This matter will be taken up again in a January 27 meeting at 5:00 before the City Council meeting. The Commission approved the 2025 meeting schedule, with meetings on the third Thursday of the month at 5:30 (and BZA meetings at 6:30). The schedule also has filing deadlines on Tuesdays preceding the meeting at 3:00 pm and a public notice date 14 days prior to the meeting.

I did not stay for the BZA meeting because the agenda only had election of officers and approval of the meeting schedule.

A map of the subdivision is in this post. The only difference between the updated map and this one is that the lot numbers of phase one have been reversed.

Open Houses

On Saturday both Saint Augustine School and the newly-forming Harvest Christian Academy had open houses. I stopped by both.

Saint Augustine School opened in 1903, though not in its present building. The original building was located in the corner of what is now the parking lot. The people visiting while I was there were interested in enrolling in the kindergarten. The announcement of the open house mentioned that the parish was 140 years old. I checked the Hoosier State Chronicles and found these notes in the Rensselaer Republican for 1884 and 1885:

3 Jan 1894 In a long list of improvements in Rensselaer for 1883 and their values:  Additional work on Catholic Church, $1400.

17 April 1884: Last Monday was a great day with our Catholic fellow citizens. Their “rattle'’ came off and the new bell was christened and hoisted to its place in the belfry of their neat little church where it now warns the faithful of their duty three times a day, morning noon and night.

31 July 1884 Mr. Alfred McCoy propounded the question to this pastor of the Catholic congregation, “Why don't you finish your church building?” The pastor replied that they lacked the means. “How much will it take?” said McCoy. The reply was, about $400. “Well,” said McCoy, “go ahead and finish it, put me down for $25. I want to see the boards pulled out of those windows.” Mr. McCoy had already made a donation of $100 towards the building. 

27 Nov 1884 The windows of the new Catholic church are at last being put in place, the furniture of the church will soon arrive, and, we are glad to announce, the building is soon to be dedicated. Bishop Dwenger will be present at the dedication, we understand.

18 Dec 1884  The fine brick church building of our Catholic brethren is now almost completed and furnished. The gallery is now in process of erection, and when that is completed the building will be ready for dedication. The dedication services will take place as soon as Bishop Dwenger can spare a Sunday for the purpose. 

8 Jan 1885 The Dedication of the new Catholic church will take place on Sunday, January 18th, 1885, Bishop Dwenger officiating.

That first church building was demolished long ago to make room for the current building. However, the open house was exactly 140 years after the dedication of the first St. Augustine church.

The Harvest Christian Academy is planning to open this fall in one wing of the Core Building. Their slogan is already on their entrance to their wing of the Core Building.

Both Saint Augustine's and Harvest Academy were telling parents of the vouchers available in Indiana that can be used for students in private schools. The cost for many students attending a private school is about the same as attending a public school.

Harvest Academy had one classroom staged to show what a Kindergarten or first-grade classroom might look like.

Odds & ends

Aydas purchased a building next to the Ritz some time ago and their plans did not work out. Here is their explanation of what happened.

JCEDO announed two more façade grants.

The new façade at Short Cuts looks like it is finished except for signage. It was done without a façade grant.

Adam Alson has resigned from the board of Apple Seed and refers questions to the new director, Anthony Butler. Appletree would not have happened if not for the dedication and persistence of Mr Alson.

Bazz's roller rink is now offering breakfasts.

I had planned to publish this post after two County meetings on Tuesday, but decided waiting would make this post too long. The County meetings will wait for the next post.

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.

Brick streets and more

 Brick Streets

Work continued on the Brick Street Project this week. Even the half bricks were being saved.

The bricks on the streets were made in Brazil, Indiana. Here is an article I found about the company. The bricks are in remarkable shape given that they are over a century old.

On the Johnny Rusk lot a variety of materials are being assembled, such as these fire hydrants.

With most of the bricks gone from Van Renssealer Street, Grimmer Construction has begun working on replacing the water line. The red spot in the trench is the helmet of a worker.

On Tuesday an evacuator was filling a dump truck. Notice that the sidewalk has been removed.

On Tuesday the workers had begun removing the bricks on Harrison Street.

Candidate Forum

The Jasper County Republican Women sponsored a candidate forum for the upcoming Republican primary election on Saturday morning. There are five races that are contested: Circuit Court Judge, Auditor, County Council at large, Commissioners district 1 and Commissioners district 2. There was a decent sized crowd despite limited publicity. The event was live-streamed on Facebook and you can find the recordings here and here. (There were technical issues which resulted in the posting of the event in two parts.) The rules for candidates were they were given three minutes to introduce themselves and then were asked three questions that they could respond to.

The first candidates to speak were those for Circuit Court Judge. Judge John Potter is the current judge. He stressed that the judge must be everyone's judge and has to treat each case seriously because each case is important to those involved. Emily Waddle is from DeMotte where she has been an attorney for 20 years. She has been head public defender and is the attorney for DeMotte. She said she wants to repair communication.

There are three candidates for Auditor. Diana Boersma spent many years as a teacher. Her husband is the County Coroner and she says they get calls for bills that have not been paid and suspects other County departments have had the same experience. She has done the accounting for the funeral home she and her husband operate. 

Treasure Gilbert is currently a deputy auditor in the Auditor's Office and she stressed her experience in that office. She is the secretary for the Commissioners meeting. She believes the office could work better with more reliance on electronic record keeping.

Christina Tryon is a deputy clerk in the Clerk's Office. She has been active in 4-H and with the Fair Board. She has had a variety of jobs and has a real-estate license. She thinks more automation would improve the office.

There are five candidates running for three at-large Council seats. Jacob Misch was appointed in December 2023 to replace Brett Risner, who resigned. He farms near Wheatfield and like many of the candidates, he stressed his roots in Jasper County. He said that preserving the County's agricultural heritage was important.

Brian Moore, who spoke next, is another farmer and in addition to farming he runs a trucking company. He was elected as a Councilman in the 2020 election and has been a member of the EMS Board, which has established the County-run ambulance service.

The last Council candidate to speak was Barbara Neihouser. She lives in Gillam Township where she and her husband farm. She also works as a labor and delivery nurse in Lafayette. She does not want any tax abatements for renewable energy and is opposed to the C02 pipeline.

Scott Walstra  and Eric Kidwell, who joined the Council when Jeff DeYoung replaced Kendell Culp when Culp was elected as a State Representative in 2022, did not speak.

Two of the candidates for Commissioner from district 1 gave presentations. James Walstra is the current District 1 Commissioner but is not seeking re-election. Ryan Hilton did not attend but his wife read a prepared statement. He works for Belstra and has been active promoting FFA, 4-H, and agriculture. He is against wind, solar, and the CO2 pipeline.

Mike Johnson moved to DeMotte in 1996. He is on the DeMotte Christian School Board. He has a business background with experience in drainage and road construction, two topics that occupy a lot of attention from Commissioners. He was encouraged to run by former Commissioners.

Only one candidate for the District 2 Commissioner slot spoke: Craig Standish. He is a fifth generation Jasper County resident. He heads the division of a small business. He wants to see Jasper County develop by expanding in agricultural areas and businesses.

There was a lot of emphasis on farms and farming. That perhaps should be expected. For those who live in Rensselaer and towns of Jasper County, county government is not as immediate as it is to those living in the rural areas. The County spends a lot of its resources on drainage and roads, which are of little importance to those living in towns.

The question that seemed to give the candidates the most trouble was the one asking what their vision of Jasper County was. Even the later candidates seemed unprepared for it even though they should have known it was coming. One reason for the difficulty in answering it was that  some of the offices have very limited range in what they can do, so it is difficult to connect that to a broad vision of the future of Jasper County.

Most of the candidates thought that Jasper County was a good place to live but thought it could be a bit better. No one mentioned the County's problem with drug addiction, which is the source of many of the County's woes.

I looked for Facebook pages of the candidates and found these: Emily Waddle, Judge John Potter, Jennifer Grynovich, Ryan Hilton. and Jeff Spurgeon II.

The primary election may be more important than the general election for County races. The winners of the contested primary races will probably win in November because Republican voters outnumber Democratic voters.

BPW and City Council meetings

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works and City Council met Monday evening. The BPW meeting was short but approved six items. Four were for the Lift Station & Unsewered Areas Project. Two of these were pay requests from Thieneman, one was a change order that reduced the cost of the project, and one was an invoice from Commonwealth Engineering. The Water Utilities Improvement project had an invoice from Commonwealth Engineering and a pay request from Maguire Iron. The Lift Station project is almost entirely complete. For the Water Utilities project tower erection has been completed and the contractors are waiting for good weather to sandblast and paint the tower. Bills for the Brick Street Project have not started arriving.

The City Council heard a presentation from Sarah DeYoung explaining what the Jasper County Economic Development organization does and how it helps Rensselaer. She had been at the last meeting but the Council wanted more information before it approved her request for a contribution. At this meeting they approved a contribution of $10,000. (I did not attend the previous meeting because I chose to attend a Jasper County Plan Commission meeting that was held at the same time. Minutes of the Council meeting are here.)

There was a short discussion of utility budgets. This year will be a practice year to discover and iron out problems. The Council approved a motion to move forward with them

The gas tracker for April will reflect a decrease of 10¢ per hundred cubic feet of usage. The Council approved a second reading of a flood damage prevention ordinance. It also approved a zoning change recommended by the Rensselaer Plan Commission for a lot at 405 N McKinley from R2 to B1. Rensselaer purchases gas through a natural gas manager that is increasing fees from 6¢ to 8¢ per dekatherm. (I had never heard that term.) The Council approved signing the agreement.  (The last month's fee was $3669.66.)

The rest of the meeting contained administrative comments and superintendents' reports.  Planning to convert the light plant for use by the Park Department continues. Baker Tilly is working on a TIF report. There is concern about properties with too much trash and letters are being sent out telling people to use Clean-up Week. One Council member received a complaint from a citizen about the work stringing fiber optic. There will be some boring after the overhead lines are finished. The Police Department has made a new hire and he may be sworn in at the next Council meeting. Electric meter switch-outs are coming. The meetings of the Rensselaer Plan Commission and the BZA have been moved from March 21 to March 19. Because of Spring Break in the local schools, a quorum would not have been available on the 21. On the agenda for the BZA are three variances. The food pantry is relocating behind Pizza King in a residential zone, so it needs a variance. The owner of the Forsythe House on the corner of Washington and McKinley has not been able to find a business to rent space, so would like to rent the space as housing. The Fire Department needs a variance for its proposed fire-tower because it exceeds height limits. (The new date and time makes it conflict with the County Council meeting.)

The company Decorative Bricks is completing removal of bricks from Van Rensselaer Street and will begin removing them from Harrison. Grimmer Construction has begun water-line replacement on Van Rensselaer. The Street Department received a $10,000 grant to work on planning more lead service lines. The Gas, Street, and Cemetery Departments received approval to hire summer help. The Park Department hopes to have water turned on in the Parks before the Easter Egg Hunt on the 23rd. Mr Haun was not at the meeting so there was no update on the fire tower.

Jasper County Tourism Commission meeting

Reviewing the Innkeepers tax report, Mr Patel said that the Remington motels were doing a brisk business because of construction (I heard solar but it may be wind) near Wolcott. In April the Commission will hear a presentation from a company called Placer AI. It uses tracking software to see how many people visit various locations and where they come from. (You trade privacy for convenience when you use a smartphone.) Consultants from Ball State have completed a draft of a strategic plan and it will be fine tuned in the upcoming weeks.

There were two funding requests. The first on the agenda was from the Rec at the Connection Center. This group had presented in February but no action was taken because the Commission wanted more information. A very long discussion followed. The concern of most of the members of the Commission was to what extent it would promote tourism. Some saw it as a great community center, but did not think that is something the Tourism Commission should be funding. The Connection Center people predict it will bring in tournaments, but the Center will not be open on Sundays. The ask was for $187,000. The capital assets funding for the Commission is only $100,000 and it has committed $20,000 for Remington murals. It can go to the County Council for an additional appropriation if needed, but the members seemed reluctant to do so. Eventually they approved $25,000 for fitness equipment, with two supporting and one not voting.

The other request was also a return visit, this by Greg Whaley who has a vision of one of the miniature trains that was manufactured in Rensselaer from 1946 to 1956 being installed in a park. The train would be a non-working train because it would be too expensive to buy and maintain a working train. The problem is that these come up for sale at unpredictable times and they are now being snapped up by collectors. Hence, it is not clear what the cost would be. He argued that once a train was obtained, the money for restoring it and mounting it would be easy to raise. The Commission suggested that he raise the money to purchase a train and then come to the Commission to fund the restoration and mounting of it. No action was taken.

Notes

There is a new swing next to the Zorich Shelter in Brookside Park.

TOP ribboncutting and a bunch of meetings

 TOP 

On Thursday there was a ribbon cutting for the opening of TOP.

TOP is The Other Place Workspace, a professional shared workspace. It makes up the eastern part of the old REMC/County Annex building and contains 3000 square feet of space. There are six offices that people can rent and one is already rented. The first rental is for a financial consultant whose main office is in Lafayette and this office serves as a satellite office for meeting local clients. The offices range from 100 square feet to 212 square feet and all rent for the same amount. They rent for $500 to $600 depending on how long the rental term is, with a minimum of three months. Until August 1 there is a discount for rentals.

There is an alternative to renting offices. A person can rent access to the facilities for $55 a month with a three month minimum. That will give access to the lobby, conference room (shown below), restrooms, a kitchen, and an area that will have a couple of computers connected to the Internet. 

Below is the area that will have computers. It was set up on this day for a Chamber of Commerce lunch.

Everything is very attractive. This is the kitchen.

Below is the largest office. It was not the first claimed. That was the office in front with large windows.

The rest of the building is called TOPLink Business Center and it has an almost unused Facebook page here. The building was built about 1964 for REMC and no one at the luncheon remembered what was on the site before then. In about 1985 REMC moved and it became an annex to the Courthouse, housing a number of offices, most prominently the Health Department, the Prosecutor's Office, and a Court room. After the County purchased the former PNC Bank building and moved some offices there, the building sat empty until 2022 when the four Fleming brothers purchased it.

After the Chamber lunch, there were tours of the whole building. The 8000 square feet that are not part of the TOP workspace are mostly unfinished. There is room for about ten offices or retail spaces, and the area will be remodeled to suit the needs of whoever wants to rent space. One space will be rented starting in October. Rent includes utilities.

There are reminders of what used to be in this space.

The Facebook page for the workspace is here and you can find more pictures there.

(An earlier post on this building is here.)

Other things

We got hours of sprinkles on Sunday that never accumulated enough to get streets wet under trees and we got a better rain on Tuesday, with about a third of an inch. It was not enough to lift the burn ban in the County. 

The dry weather has created interesting patterns in the grass at Weston Cemetery. One can see where people were buried, and these are not new graves, but graves that are more than half a century old. Apparently the dirt used to fill the holes does not retain water as well as the undisturbed soil does.

Work continues on the utility replacement on Harrison Street.

The storm-sewer replacement under College Avenue seems to be finished because now the sidewalks are being ripped up.

The Rensselaer Republican had an update on the Project Ribeye meat processing plant that was planned for south of DeMotte. An agreement with DeMotte to hook up water and sewer needs to be finalized before construction can begin.

The weekly car show, Cylinders and Snacks started a few weeks ago. Today (Thursday) there were a lot of cars participating.

Last week I went to the Business-After-Hours event at the Chamber of Commerce and when I was writing the previous post, I did not remember some of the tidbits I heard while there. There was mention that the owner of Walters Auto Electric had retired. The building no longer has its sign and the note on the door reads, "Closed. We have retired. It has been a pleasure serving you."

There was mention of a new food provider who delivers a limited menu and does not yet have a physical location for dining. It is called "Not Your Typical Wings" and the Facebook page is here.  The owners left this message on another page: "we are a restaurant in a temporary location until a building is ready for us to move in! that’s why we are doing deliveries only at the moment! but hoping in the next month or so we can move to a store front in town!"

Finally, there was discussion of a Facebook page that links to many events that are going on locally. It is called Destination Rensselaer.

Board of Public Works meeting

The June Board of Public Works meeting on Monday began with approval of change order #5 for the main lift-station and unsewered areas project. It added an additional grinder station on West Clark, additional trees, changes to roads and walkways, and some other things. The cost is $99,126.85 and it adds an extra 93 days to the project, which was substantially completed on May 15. The Board also approved Thieneman Pay Request #13 for $941,498.43. Thieneman expects to be finished by Friday and be out of here. (I assume that means that any additional work will be done by subcontractors.) Two invoices from Commonwealth for the lift-station and unsewered-areas project were also approved, one for $20,054.78 and the other for $611.22.

Maguire Iron, the company that is building the new water tower by the Interstate, made its first pay request and it was approved. The amount was $206,754.31. When it finishes getting the foundation in, there will be a lag of about a month before it starts building the tower. Commonwealth Engineering had three invoices related to this project that totaled $11,372.

Baker Tilly had an invoice for $20,000 for work on the asset management plan for the sewage department. It was approved. Assistant Street Superintendent Bryce Black recommended to the Board that the City enter into an agreement that would make it open to getting financing from a Federal grant. The concern is PFAS contamination in drinking water and right now it is not regulated but may be in the future. The money that the City might obtain would give the City additional testing. The Board accepted his recommendation.

City Council meetings

After the usual preliminaries, the Council approved an ordinance to write off uncollectible utility accounts. They are accounts that are over seven years old or where the person has died or has declared bankruptcy. The gas tracker for June will reflect a 15 cent decrease per hundred cubic feet. 

Sharon Colee from Community Services gave a presentation about public transportation in Rensselaer. The Community Service vans are the only public transportation in Rensselaer. In the first five months of this year they made 3750 one-way trips, with 85% of their trips originating in Rensselaer. The cost per trip is a dollar. Her presentation was to introduce the Council to the idea that the City should provide some money for this transportation in its budget and she left documents with the Council members. When pressed on what she was after, she said she would like the City to provide $1000 per month. The item will be on the agenda for the next meeting. (This week's Rensselaer Republican has more details about her presentation.)

The Council approved a Police Department request for public relations funds for $82.28 for hosting lunch for some school kids. It also approved an amendment to the Community Crossings project to spend $14,360 to repave Augusta Street. The Council granted permission to the Assistant Street Superintendent to apply for a recycling grant that could pay 50% of the cost of replacing the leaf vac, which has frequent breakdowns.

The Mayor is looking for people who would be willing to serve on the Redevelopment Authority, which rarely meets except when bond funding is needed. The appointees must live within the City limits. 

Work on Filson Park started and now is stalled because the plans need approval from some State department or board and also because the Park needs BZA approval. There was a brief discussion of backyard pools, an issue a citizen raised at the last Plan Board or BZA meeting. The matter was tabled.

The Fire Department responded to 21 calls since June 6, all but one grass fires. The Council granted a request from the Fair Board for the use of a garbage truck during the County Fair. The gas department will totally rebuild the regulator station next to McDonalds at the south side of Rensselaer. All City gas goes through it. There was a question about the many reports of gas leaks recently. The problem was not gas leaks but rather too much odorant was being added due to a failure of a sensor on the trunk line. Natural gas is odorless so an odor is added so leaks can be recognized. 

The Council had a special meeting on Wednesday to open bids for the Brick Street Project. I entered the wrong day on my calendar and missed the meeting.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Tourism could not get a quorum for its scheduled Tuesday meeting so postponed the meeting until Thursday.  It began the meeting with the question of whether the County was receiving the inns-keeper tax from the AirBNBs. The matter will be investigated.

The staff of JECDO and Tourism proposed hiring consultants from Ball State to review the resources of the County and what is being done to promote tourism to determine if some adjustments could be made to improve results. The cost of the study will be $12,500 and the Board approved it.

There was a discussion of the need for a community calendar and an application called whatsup247. Jasper County Tourism no longer partners with South Shore and is looking for a way to let people know what is going on locally. Benton County uses this and you can see what they do with this product here. The matter was tabled until the next month as members investigate further.

Businesses are being encouraged to do things that tie into Art Week and a form is available to help. Tourism has recently published brochures on murals, the farm trail, and a listing of attractions and tourism related businesses. There was another discussion of using a marketing company for a range of services. The Commission approved spending up to $5000 to have a Tourism website constructed.

The Commission approved spending $2500 for an event at the end of Mural Week that will feature dueling pianos. The planned site is the lot that once had Long's gifts.

At the last meeting there was mention of a local artist who wanted to be included in Mural Week. The Commission approved $2500 for supplies but did not like the proposed location, the back wall of the Barnes Shelter in Iroquois Park. The comments were that no one uses the park. The Commission approved a sponsorship of $300 for the Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery event sponsored by the Jasper County Historical Society and $5000 for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday July 10.

Jasper County Tourism is giving information about mural artists who will be participating in Mural Week on its RenArtWlk Facebook page.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Airport Authority Board meeting on Tuesday evening discussed routine airport matters. There was a brief discussion at the beginning of an Illinois woman who did five big donuts on airport farmland. She had been at a dog show at the Fairgrounds and alcohol was involved. The case is in the Court system and the Board members discussed what damages they might seek.

The Airport passed INDOT inspection. Both flight instructors have left for other opportunities but a new one will start soon. There are five candidates for the position of assistant manager. 32 young people got airplane rides in the Young Eagles program. Five planes, all from Lafayette, participated. 

February pictures and meetings 2023

Construction and demolition

The installation of drainage tiles around the courthouse was finishing up on Tuesday. Below is a picture from Friday. 

A picure from Satuday shows the remains of sidewalks ready to be hauled away.

On Saturday I took this picture of a pile of dirt on the southwest side of the Courthouse. What interested me were all the bricks in the pile. I suspect they were from the Courthouse that was on the site before the current Courthouse was built in the 1890s.

On Monday the last stretch of trench had been dug. Notice that the downspouts of the Courthouse are tied into the pipe. Too much water from the roof was causing the water leakage into the basement of the Courthouse and this project, by taking that water away from the Courthouse, is meant to solve the problem.

On Tuesday all the trenches had been filled and the last pile of dirt was being put into a dump truck 

   

It will take a while for the grass to grow back to what it was before this project.

Across SR 114 from the Fairgrounds the site for the new EMS building is being prepared. You can see Airport buildings and community Corrections in the background.

Last week workers were working along Owen Street installing a new sewer line.

Do you recognize where this is? Until recently there was a house and trees on this lot. It looked completely different in June.

For no special reason, another picture taken Sunday of lift station construction.

The demolishers working at the power plant filled this dumpster with scrap metal and hauled it away. There is now an empty one in its place. 

BPW 2-13-23

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works met on Monday with an unusually long agenda. It approved an update of the pursuit policy for the Police Department. It was a policy that the State introduced to bring uniformity among police departments and will not result in changes in the way the Rensselaer Department conducts pursuits. The Board also approved a promotion in the Police Department.

The Board then approved two task orders for Commonwealth Engineering. The first was for chemical phosphorus removal. This was required by IDEM and will cost $72,000. The second was for wastewater asset management and is a study needed to get funds from the Indiana State Revolving Fund (SRF). It was for $59,800.

The Board then approved the bid recommendations for the water project. (The bids were opened at a special January meeting.) The bid for the water-tower part of the project of $4,341.000 that includes the base bid and several of the alternates was approved, as was the bid of $2,202,865 for the water mains base bid and one of the alternates. The approval was contingent on SRF approval. It was noted that the bids were higher than the estimates, but pretty much everything is coming in on the high side.

The Board approved pay request #9 of $566,723.95 from Thieneman for the lift station construction and also $25,669.90 to Commonwealth for monitoring the construction. Commonwealth also had an invoice of $34,995.12 for the final design of the elevated storage project and for $5,315.24 for bid assistance for that project.

City Council meeting 

The City Council meeting lasted more than an hour, which is unusually long for these meetings. First up was a citizen who was upset with the sewer extension. She maintained that the new sewer hookup would cost her rather than save her money. She will now have to pay a sewer bill and it will cost about $3500 to connect her house to the sewer line. Her septic system was cheaper.

Next up was an ordinance authorizing the City to issue revenue bonds for the waterworks improvement project. The funding will be from the SRF and $2 million will be a forgivable loan (so a grant) and another $5.9 million will have an interest rate of zero percent. Because the closing is scheduled for the 24th, the Council passed the second reading and then passed the third reading of the ordinance. (The first reading had been passed at the previous meeting and this type of ordinance requires three separate votes.)

The process of annexing SJC began at this meeting. There are multiple steps, including a public hearing (scheduled for March 27) and the preparation of a fiscal plan. If all goes as planned, the annexation will be finished in June.

The Council approved an amendment to the salary ordinance affecting the assistant street superintendent. The gas tracker for February will reflect a 5.25¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. There was a presentation of the status of the comprehensive plan that used the same power-point slides as those used at the Plan Commission meeting on the 9th. The presenter noted that the organization of the plan might seem a bit confusing but this organization was used to make it easy for OCRA to review it. 

Two employees were recognized for ten years of service. Two requests for public relations funds, one for flowers for the funeral of an employee's wife, were approved. April 22 will be electronics recycling day, from 8:00 until noon.

Tourism Board meeting

The Tourism Board met on Valentine's Day at the Sparling Annex. Art week will be July 24-28 and the focus for murals will be Wheatfield. The walls that can be painted are more clustered than in DeMotte and that will give the event a more festival feel for the artists.

There was a funding request for a new horse barn at the Fairgrounds. In addition to use for the County Fair, the horse grounds are used for 18 booked events, most of which bring in outsiders to the Fairgrounds. The planned barn will be 62' by 80'. The Board was receptive but wanted to know what other sources of funds will be used because they do not want to approve funding and not have the building completed. It will probably be on the agenda for the March 14 meeting.

A citizen who would like to see one of the miniature trains manufactured in Rensselaer many years ago installed in a park wanted to know if that sort of project could receive Tourism funding. He was told it could. Time will tell if anything develops from this.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The most interesting item from the Airport Authority Board meeting was a discussion with a company called American Crop Care that would like to base its operations at the Jasper County Airport. The company is incorporated in Florida but its main pilot who also seems to be one of the owners lives in Winamac. The company is new and is in the crop dusting business. That business is seasonal and they plan to rent a plane for the crop dusting season and would like to rent a hangar or two for that season. This is new territory for the airport and the Board members had questions about insurance, storage of chemicals, and fuel sales. The company and the airport manager will try to work out a mutually beneficial agreement that can be approved at or before the next meeting.

The Airport has invested their funds in several allowable instruments, all of which are getting about 4% interest. They declared their courtesy car as surplus and will put it in the next County auction. They also discussed a variety of things that needed repairs or replacement and other airport issues that are important to the airport but are not of much public interest.

A few more pictures

Last week I wrote about the Plan Commission and a variance for D-1 Towing. Below is the lot on Walnut Street that they have been using for towed vehicles.

Below you can see the lots that they recently purchased. There were several trucks already on them. In the distance and on the right you can perhaps see the lot shown above.

Backroad Blooms is now open in the former GRG Auto Repair building at 312 South College.  (That is the same address as Rural Bling but Backyard Blooms has the north door.)

For more information, see the website is here and the Facebook page is here.