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.

A graveyard mystery

Gas Utility work

The Gas Department continues work replacing the regulator next to McDonalds on South College. The old regulator has been dismantled and some temporary lines are feeding gas into the distribution network. At the regulator station the gas pressure for residences is lowered from 100 psi to 30 psi. Some gas continues at 100 psi and goes on to the regulator station on Lincoln Avenue. The 100-psi line at one time also fed the power plant.

The old regulator is gone but there is still equipment lowering the pressure. 

I find it amazing that they can do this kind of work without interrupting the gas supply.

A mystery

I talked briefly last week to a woman who probably knows more about local cemeteries than anyone else. I asked her for the name of the Indian boy who died at the Indian School and is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery. His name was Frank Hendricks and I found a notice of his death by searching the Hoosier State Chronicles. I attached the notice to his findagrave memorial.

Doing a bit more digging, I found two other death notices of pupils at the Indian School who the paper reported were buried at Mount Calvary. However, they are not recorded in the records that I have access to. The first is from the Rensselaer Republican of April 26, 1894 and the second from the same paper of October 11, 1894.

There seem to be three possibilities. The paper may have been wrong and they were not buried in Mount Calvary. The paper may have been right and they were buried there, but are not in the records that I found. Or they may have been buried there but were later disinterred and were reburied elsewhere. I suspect there is no way to find out which is correct.

Plaques

The post reporting the ribbon cutting at Blacker Fields had pictures of some of the new plaques in the parks. There are more, including two at Foundation Park.

Back to the Blacker Fields, here are the two plaques showing the names of small donors.

Three new benches have been added to the parks. Below is the new bench in memory of Jared Valentine, who was murdered in 2018 at Arby's.

In front of the bench is a stone with an engraving that is hard to read unless the light is just right.

Another bench has been installed by Roth Field in memory of Michelle Effinger. I am not sure where the third one is, but I will find it.

Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission meetings

On Monday evening the Jasper County BZA met in the Circuit Court room. The Commissioners room was, in the words of one person there, full of junk. The County is having the floor on the second floor smoothed and polished, and the various things that were there were moved into the Commissioners room. 

The BZA had only one item on its agenda, a request for a variance for a lot width on a parcel in Keener Township. The required frontage is 250 feet but the owner wanted to split the lot, with a 50 foot access road to the back half. He had no plans to build but wanted that option for the future. There were several people in the audience who spoke on the matter, some for and some against. Concerns were that the road already had too much traffic and adding another driveway would only increase it, potential for groundwater contamination and effects on wildlife. The variance was granted with one member of the BZA opposed.

After a short break, the Plan Commission met. The first item on the agenda was a matter continued from the August meeting in which the applicant had requested a two-lot subdivision. The Commission had continued the matter because the applicant had built without a building permit even though he knew he needed it. The Commission had imposed a $2500 fine and mandated that the owner hire an inspector to make sure the building was up to code. At this meeting the Planning officer reported that all the conditions had been met and the two-lot subdivision was approved.

There were two more two-lot subdivisions approved. The first was in Walker Township where two two-acre lots were being carved from a larger plot, and the second was for the person who had requested the lot-width variance in the BZA meeting. The last item was a rezone of some land in Jordan Township from A1 to A2, The land is a flood plain and not buildable. The owner wants to use it for hunting, which apparently is not an approved use for land zoned A1.

Jasper County Council

The Jasper County Council meeting on Tuesday was long but not especially interesting. The Sheriff had made a job offer to a person who decided not to accept the day before he was to begin. The Sheriff has found another person for the position, but wanted input from the Council about starting pay because the new person has several years of experience in law enforcement. 

The Council approved several additional appropriations. One was for Community Corrections Renovations and was listed on the agenda for $500,000.00. The Council decided that an extra zero had been added and approved it for $50,000. 

The Budget was then read and approved on first reading. There will need to be an approval for a second reading before it is adopted. If you would like to see the budget, you can find it at the Indiana gateway here.

Next on the agenda was a review of non-binding reviews. No reviews were done. Rather the message to whatever units of government that are included here was to stay within the state growth factor.

There were four reviews of binding taxing units: Rensselaer Central School Corporation, Airport Authority, Northwest Indiana Solid Waste, and Iroquois Conservancy. There were presentations for each and the approval of the budgets will be voted in the October meeting. The Airport Authority budget is slightly lower this year and it was a busy year for crop dusters. The solid waste district has a slight increase in its budget, but it has no taxes. Its revenues come from the tipping fees at the landfills.

The most interesting part of the meeting came at the end when the two commissioners who were attending the meeting were asked for comments. They are working with the City of Rensselaer to attempt to get City utilities west of the Interstate. The State controls the process for carbon capture, so the commissioners are telling people with concerns that they should share those concerns with their state legislators. The commissioners cannot stop the project, but it will need 70% of the landowners involved to agree. Rein Bontreger said that the landowners should hold out for top dollar and if the project ever moves forward, the County will try to extract as much money from BP as possible.

Notes

The dome for the arena at the Connection Center in Demotte has been installed.

Dollar Tree had its grand opening in its new location on Thursday. A lot of people were in the store shopping. Most prices are $1.25, but there are a couple of aisles of things from $2 to $5.

The Jasper County Historical Society paid to restore the monument to George Spitler in Weston Cemetery. It was leaning and in danger of falling over. It is located at the east edge of Weston Cemetery and is the tallest monument in that area.

There is no surviving obituary for him; the papers from those years were destroyed in a fire. However, you can read about him here. (Start at the bottom of the page.)

This week's Rensselaer Republican has an excellent article about the Memories Alive Cemetery Walk. It also has the press release from Jasper County Economic Development about the upcoming façade grant program.

If you are a fan of maps, you may enjoy browsing this site.

Little Cousin Jasper and more

Festival and parade

One of the attractions at the Little Cousin Jasper Festival this year was a zip line that was advertised as going across the Iroquois River. It did not. It went down the alley that runs along the river. The line was at the festival only on Friday night and below you can see one of the first people to try it.

A few seconds later she was dangling at the end of the run.

The festival was held at Potawotomi Park this year because the brick streets on Van Rensselaer and Harrison were expected to be torn up. That project has been delayed, but that was not known when planning took place. The food court was in the parking lot across the Iroquois River from the park.

Most of the booths were along the walking paths but a few were in the grass at the west side of the park.

The grand marshalls of the parade were the owners of the local McDonalds franchiese and McDonalds had space along the path. I could not resist taking the picture below.

In the center of the park, behind most of the booths, were inflatables and this strange game(?). Kids were inside the giant balls. I am not sure if there was a goal or it was just to have fun rolling around in a giant ball.

The stage for the music acts was behind Mount Hood Pizza.

The pony rides were back this year and were on Front Street. The area still stunk on Monday afternoon.

The theme of the Festival for this year was Potawotomi Pirates. I guess that is the reason for the alligator in the River.

Some people liked the new venue and others did not. 

The parade featured just about every vehicle in Rensselaer that has a loud siren. It also included fire trucks from the Keener Township Fire Department and the Goodland Fire Department.

The new King and Queen rode in a convertable without seat belts.

The only band in the parade was the Rensselaer High School band.

The horses were in the middle of the parade, not at the end.

Of course we had some tractors.

The float with the most people was from the Rensselaer Regional Soccer group. The float was followed by dozens of young soccer kids.

I am not sure why these two cars were in the parade.

A variety of businesses had vehicles in the parade.

I would have enjoyed the parade more if the people on the floats and marching had not been throwing things at the spectators. I kept trying to figure out what they were throwing, but swarms of kids would immediately descend on whatever they threw so I could not see what it was. **

BPW and City Council meetings

The September Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting approved paying five invoices. Three were for Commonwealth Engineering:, one was the closeout Thieneman pay request, and one was for Grimmer Plumbing. They totaled about $850,000.

The Rensselaer Urban Forestry addressed the City Council with an annual report. The Council was formed in 2008 and Rensselaer has been recognized as a Tree City USA for 15 years. The Council would like the City to update its tree ordinance. It would like the City to plant a new tree for every tree removed, hire an arborist as a consultant, and update zoning to specify trees for landscaping.

The gas tracker for September will reflect a 28¢ decrease per 100 cubic feet of usage.

Bids for the Brick Street Project were opened at a previous meeting. The engineering consultants recommended the low bid of $2,421,420 from Grimmer and the Council approved the award.

The Fire Department was recently notified that it was one of four departments selected for a training tower. The Fire Chief said that he was very surprised by this award because about 100 departments applied. The Department will not receive any money in this award. Rather the State will bid all four towers and pay to have them built. However, the local department must pay for a foundation for the tower and Rensselaer will also have to expand water service to the site. The cost of these two items will be about $200,000 and the Department is reaching out to various organizations and groups for funds. The City Council supports the project but will not commit any money until it sees what the Department can raise from others. The groundbreaking is set for October 26 at 5:00 pm. The tower should be completed by March and the expansion of water supply should be finished by the end of 2024.

Trick and treat hours for this year will be on Saturday, October 28 from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm.

A Council member said that she had received complaints about a property on North Front Street. The matter was referred to the City's attorney. The annexation of Saint Joseph's College is almost complete. The City needs a response from the County Auditor's office to finish the process. The Gas Department will begin work on the gas regulator next to McDonalds on South College and will be working on replacing it next week.

Special Commissioners meeting

The County Commissioners met in a special meeting on Tuesday morning at the Highway Department''s conference room (shown below before it filled up). The purpose of the meeting was to hammer out the details of a road-use agreement with BP for their seismic testing.

Before the meeting Jeff DeYoung got a call from one of his employees saying he had hit an unmarked gas line. Jeff told him to call 911 and get away from the leak.

The sort of testing that BP is doing has already been done in the County by IBEC, so this is not something completely new for the County. However, the extent of the testing is. PB plans to use 182 miles of County roads. It will have three machines, but only two will be active at a time. The machine with the vibrator will be on the road and the sensors to pick up the echoes will be in the right-of-way. They expect to cover 4.5 to 5 miles per day and will work Monday through Saturday from 8:00 until 5:00. They will start at the south, shoot north into Keener Township, and then work their way south. The Commissioners were surprised at how far north they were planning to go because of the concentration of housing along County roads at the north end of the County. They are not doing Newton County at this time but are doing testing in Benton and White Counties. The entire project is expected to take 83 days, with 43-44 days in Jasper County and the entire process done before any frost laws take effect.

The County is concerned about road damage and safety. The harvest will be underway as they test, which may cause traffic problems. One issue that was settled was bonding, which can be done in several ways and is insurance for the County so that it will not get stuck with paying for road repairs. PB agreed to the sum of $3 million. The County kept referring to what it had done with road agreements for solar farms and what White County had done with its road agreements with wind farms. The Surveyor was concerned about the testing damaging culverts and BP said that they would not test within 200 feet of culverts.

 There were officials from Rensselaer attending and they voiced concerns about what might be done in the buffer zone. The City of Rensselaer gas utility has several miles of gas lines that run in County road right-of-way and BP said that they would not test along those sections of roads. The County wanted permitting fees of $50 per mile and $10 per intersection in addition to $7500 for professional fees that pay for work the Highway and Surveyor's office do in preparing maps and lists of sensitive areas.

I left before the meeting concluded because I wanted to get to the Tourism Commission meeting that was starting at 10:00. The Commissioners did give PB permission to begin once the bond was in place and the final wording of the road agreement will be worked out by the parties' attorneys and approved at the October Commissioners meeting. The options available to the County may be limited becauses the State legislature has passed legislation about carbon sequestering. 

Tourism Commission meeting

The Tourism Commission did not have a quorum so no votes could be taken. The revenue from the innkeeper's tax is about $33,000 higher at the end of August 2023 than it was at the end of August 2022.

The Shop and Stroll program, which supports local businesses, was popular last year and the merchants would like to do it again this year. The dates for this year are November 9-11. Because the meeting lacked a quorum, it could not act on the request of $1000 for support. Businesses pay $300 to participate.

Contracting with Yodel for an event calendar was approved at the last meeting and the contract has been finalized and just needs to be signed.

The Jasper Jaunt bike ride is being canceled for this year. Only two people had signed up.

A December event with carriage rides was popular last year and the organizers, which includes Jasper County Tourism, would like to do it again this year, possibly adding some tractor rides.

A member of the public had questions about how they were spending money. The Tourism Commission expects that they will get a funding request to help finance a dome in DeMotte that will allow indoor sports in the winter. It is being built by the Connection Center.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Jasper County Airport Authority Board met on Tuesday evening and dealt with routine matters. There is a drain tile on the Airport property that is damaged and needs to be repaired. The Board approved the repair. The Board also approved hiring Town and Country to prepare the runway for repainting by removing loose paint. The farm fields that the Airport owns have not been tested for fertility for several years and the Board approved having them tested.

The lease with Excel Air is expiring at the end of the month and the Board approved a new five-year lease. There was discussion of future plans but no actions taken. The aviation classes that the airport is offering in conjunction with the high school are going well.

New businesses

The previous post mentioned that Earth Magic had opened on September 5. It offers coffee, tea, and some food. On Wednesday they had their ribbon cutting.

Another business opened last week, a coffee shop called Cup of Joy. This is their second location, with the first store in DeMotte. It replaces Willow Switch.

Notes

Mail boxes are back in the street next to the post office.

I mentioned a cave rescue in Turkey in the previous post. The injured caver was rescued.

One of the events this weekend is the 6th annual Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery. It would not be possible without the support of its sponsors.

** My attempt at humor

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.