City Council July 25, 2016

The most interesting items from Monday’s City Council meeting were not on the agenda.

The meeting began with an approval of a street closing: Susan Street next to St. Augustine’s School for the Fall Frolic on Sept 17. Later in the meeting the Council approved another road closure, Angelica between Weston and Cullen for some kind of lunch on August 28 from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Project Manager Jerry Lockridge gave a list of street improvements that will be included in a grant applications to the State. The total cost is a bit more than $853,000 and if the all applications are funded, one half would be picked up by the State. (County officials have been busy working on a similar grant for County roads, but they are hoping for a million dollars in matching funds.) There was a reporter from the Lafayette Journal and Courier and after the meeting he sat down with Mr Lockridge for more info. He is apparently working on a story of how counties and cities are approaching this grant opportunity.

The Council approved purchasing MS Office software for the new laptops that the Council members have. The cost is about $1400 and will be paid by the four city utilities.

In Administrative comments, the mayor reported that he had been in contact with INDOT about their abandoned site that is in the north part of town (bounded by Scott, Oak, Webster, and Maple Streets). There are still few things that have to be worked out but it seems likely that the property may soon be handed over to the city.

Below is a picture of the property. It has almost a square block of pavement and three old buildings that are falling apart.

The City’s payment for Hoosier State rail service will be larger by $93.63 each month. The service is subsidized by the cities along the route and the State of Indiana.

A question was asked about the status of the appraisal of the SJC land on which the water well was drilled. The City thought they had an agreement in which they would buy the land if the well came in to desired specifications, but SJC decided that they wanted another appraisal. It seems highly likely that the delays will make it impossible for the City to apply for an OCRA grant that would have paid about half of the cost of running the water main from the well to the city treatment plant. (I recall when the new president of SJC came into office, there was a promise of better town-gown relations. That possibility is now gone. This incident has created a lot of ill-will.)

The police department is still looking at ways the old fire station can be used. Trace Bowles, manager of operations for the electric utility, reported on the IMPA meeting he and the mayor attended. The city is not allowed to generate power for the community. It is under contract to purchase 100% of its power from IMPA. When it generates, it sells the power to IMPA at the contracted price. The power plant has been generating for most of July.

The gas department will have its roof inspected. It has some leaks. The High Rate Treatment Plant has had some flooding problems with recent rains. Construction of the control building continues.

Comfort Suites has been open for about a month and is doing well. The other motels do not notice declines in business, so the market seems to have expanded. (People like to get off the Interstate when there are choices, so this is not too surprising.) Jasper the Bison will be at Rock the Arts on Saturday. (Monday’s Rensselaer Republican had two good articles about our bison.)

In an unrelated topic, earlier this month NICHES showed a video about their biggest Jasper County property, the Fisher Oak Savannah. It is now on-line and can be viewed here. Below is an attempt to embed it in this post.

NICHES news

NICHES has added a third property in Jasper County, a ten-acre tract south of the Jasper-Pulastk Fish and Wildlife area. They purchased it on September 1 from the Jasper County Soil and Water Conservation District. I had a chance meeting with someone who knew the back story and discovered that the property had been given to JCSW some years ago. JCSW thought NICHES would fulfill the wishes of the donor.

The two other NICHES tracts in Jasper County are the Fisher Oak Savanna and Shepard Swamp. Also close to Rensselaer is the Holley Savannah in Newton County

NICHES is planning a public tour the property on Wednesday, November 16:

Join us at The Ranch, one of the properties that we are currently raising funds for its long term protection, for a tour of the black oak sand savannas, wet prairies and buttonbush swamp. The Ranch is located 1 1/4 mile east of the intersection of 300 E and 750 N in Jasper County, a half mile south of Jasper Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. Tour at the Ranch will begin at 4:45 PM ET. After the tour we will drive over to the observation platform at Jasper Pulaski, meeting at 6 PM, to take in the cranes returning from their foraging foray in the countryside. Afterwards we will have a 7:30 PM dinner at The Whistle Stop (participants cover their own dinner) in Monon, IN.

Please RSVP to NICHES office by November 9th if you will be attending the dinner portion of the evening. Bring a friend and introduce someone to NICHES.

There is a mistake in the directions; the property is only 1/4 to 1/2 miles from the intersection of 300E and 750N. You can see where it is on the property map of Jasper County at jasper.in.wthgis.com/.

Wednesdays in the wild

Last Wednesday I attended the Wednesdays in the Wild program that was held at Fisher Oak Savanna. I am not sure who sponsors the Wednesdays in the Wild programs, but they are usually in the Lafayette area. About eight people showed up in addition to Brad, a NICHES stewardship manager. We walked a trail that I had not previously been on, one that goes out to an area of the preserve that was purchased only a few years ago.

The Fisher Oak Savanna is a great place for people who like native plants. If you do not care for native plants, there is not much there for you. I enjoyed the chance to have someone who knows a lot more than I do about plants answer questions.

There were several beautiful examples of cardinal flowers not too far from the parking lot.

There was a lot of wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) blooming. This plant looks like a purple daisy with sloppy petals.

A closer look shows that what appear to be petals are actually the flowers. It is in the mint family. It is apparently quite easy to grow and often appears in flower gardens.

Out in the prairie section there were some blazing stars blooming. They stood out.

I would have never noticed this milkweed if it had not been pointed out. It is a blunt-leaf milkweed, or Asclepias amplexicaulis. Too bad it did not have flowers.

In the woods were a number of flowering plants that were new to me. Below is some kind of St. Johns wort.

This prairie flower that we found in the woods has a funny name: Monkey flower. Its Latin name is Mimulus ringens.

The flower below we also found in the woods, though its name is Meadow Beauty (Rhexia virginica).

On the way back we saw this flower, which looks a lot like a boneset. It is one of the Joe Pye weeds. (There are three different species and I do not know which of the three this one is.) I have been looking for this flower ever since I helped transplant seedlings of it for Nature Conservancy.

Here is a closer look.

In the back of the property was a yellow fringed orchid (Platanthera ciliaris). It is more common in the southeast than in our area.

The plant I was most surprised to see was a little patch of hemp or ditchweed (Cannabis sativa). I know that it grows in abundance in our area because it was grown for fiber production during World War II and has become invasive, but in all the years of living in Rensselaer, and that includes a number of years in which I jogged most of the roads within four or five miles of town, I had never seen it in the wild. Fifteen or twenty years ago there used to be frequent articles in the paper this time of the year about arrests of people harvesting it, but I have not seen any mention of that that lately.

I am told that the wild plants that grow here have little of the ingredients that make other varieties of this species a popular illegal drug.

One last thing I noticed was that ruins of the old potato field across the road, which was once an Obermyer farm, are more ruined than they were a couple years ago. This building, in particular, was standing a couple years ago.

I see from their newsletter that NICHES is in the process of acquiring another Jasper County Property, a ten-acre plot known as the Ranch half a mile south of the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. They describe it as a "black oak sand ridge and buttonbush slough."

Shepard Swamp

I had read about Shepard Swamp in some of NICHES publications, though it is not listed as a NICHES property on their website. On my trip back from Medaryville's Potato Fest, I passed through Bailey's Corner and found it just to the west of the houses, on the south side of the road.

I was running late and did not have time to explore. It is about ten acres and there is water behind the tall weeds. The aerial view for google maps shows a parking lot, but it has been overgrown with weeds.

I know little else about this property. If you know more, please tell us what you know in the comments.

Downtown odds and ends

The Smallest Art Gallery in Indiana at 102 W. Washington Street has a picture by Doris Myers that was the cover picture of the brochure for the recent NICHES art show held in Lafayette. The show ended May 9.

That was the happy news. A couple of doors down is the sad news. The store that was once Bags, Bangles, & Baskets is again empty and for rent. They had opened last July.

Holley Savanna

The Holley Savanna in Newton County has been one of the spots I have wanted to see for about year, and during the weekend after Easter I finally got a chance to visit it. I was a bit concerned about what I would find after reading this description online:

Mixed woodland and savanna with a stream; supposed to harbor wildlife. Probably good for wildflowers through spring and fall because of the different habitats. 79 acres, no trails, and none too easy to walk through. A large area in front of the savanna is apparently farmed, although it has Nature Conservancy signs around it. Frankly, I'd take a pass on this and visit Stoutsburg Savanna or Tefft Savanna.

At one time this was a property owned by the Nature Conservancy, and they still have a web page for it, which tells what you can see here:

A diverse selection of plants and animals, some which are endangered or threatened, make their home at the Holley. In the seasonal, vernal pools the freshwater fairy shrimp lives his whole life there while the tiger salamander makes it their breeding ground along with the chorus frogs, spring peepers and leopard & gray tree frogs. If you're lucky, you may spot the slender grass lizard - a special concern specie in Indiana - or the primrose-leaved violet, a state-threatened plant.

As the sign now indicates, the property is now part of NICHES Land Trust. It was transferred in December, 2005. (The white fence behind the sign separates the nature preserve from the North Star Cemetery.)

The part along Newton County Road 100S looks like it is being restored to prairie. This was probably the cornfield mentioned in the first passage above.

I am not sure what this grass is, but I think it is one that NICHES uses in their prairie restorations. It is eventually disappears as the plants that they want there come into their own.

The picture below, like the picture above, was taken by my daughter-in-law, who likes to take these kind of pictures and has a camera that can do it.

Contrary to the articles I read, there was a path into the woods and it continued in the woods. It starts near the north east corner of the North Star Cemetery.

The path goes through many brambles, so it might have a lot of berries in a couple of months. Also along the trail were patches of mustard garlic, one of the invasive species that the naturalists hate. (But it is edible.)

The trail may be an animal trail because I doubt if many people use it. It eventually ends at a seasonal pond that had croaking frogs or toads. It was possible to bushwhack to a road just beyond the pond.

The little ponds in the area were full of life. My daughter-in-law had a polarizing filter that allowed her to take pictures of what was in them. There were a lot of mosquito larvae, so this place may be a lot less inviting in a month.

These flowers were in the cemetery next to the preserve. (The cemetery will be the subject of some future post.)

If you have the right kind of camera, you can take pictures of ladybugs that look professional.

This beetle was hiding under some bark that came off a log as we lifted it to see what, if anything, was living underneath. Even if you do not like bugs, you have to admit that this beetle is pretty, don't you?

To reach Holley Savannah from Rensselaer, go west on SR114 until you reach SR55. Turn north toward Mt Ayr, and follow SR55 until you reach Newton County road 100S. Turn west and continue until you reach the North Star Cemetery.
Alternatively, go north on US 231 until you reach Jasper County Road 200S. Turn west and go about ten miles. When you will go over the Interstate and past the Burr Oak Mennonite Church, you are over half way there.

A walk in the woods

On Saturday, July 25, Kevin Tungesvick Vice President of the Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society (INPAWS) led a tour at the Fisher Oaks Savanna Preserve to highlight prairie restoration efforts. A group of about a dozen people showed up, most from the Indianapolis area. The walk started from the parking area near the old house on the last sand dune. To the south the black-soil prairie stretched as far as the eye could see, most planted in corn and soybeans. The tour leader said it is rare that land this fertile is restored to prairie. Usually restorations are of disturbed land that has poor soil.

We walked back into the woods, past the places we were burning brush last spring. There were a lot of pokeweed, sassafras shoots, and blackberry canes along this part of the trail, but no blackberry fruit. The area had been burned, destroying the second-year blackberry canes that would be bearing fruit this year. The purpose of the burning and the destruction of cherry, mulberry, and sassafras trees was to restore an oak savanna habitat, one that would let red-headed woodpeckers thrive. It is interesting that without fire, both prairie and oak savanna, and pretty much all of Jasper County if cultivation stopped, would rather quickly become dense woods. The Indians used fire to manage habitat for food long before European settlers arrived, so the early settlers did not see a landscape that would have existed without man's interference.
We walked through the woods to a small bit of restored prairie north of the house. Along the border of the woods and the prairie the blackberries did have fruit, and it was tasty. Next year there should be a lot of blackberries along this trail.
In terms of being able to identify plants, I was out of my league in this group. It was not just the leader who knew a lot, but most of the participants also knew a lot. They kept tossing the Latin names for plants back and forth, discussing which species of the genus it was. I still am trying to learn the easy plants, like the Rattle Snake Master, a native prairie plant that is sometimes grown in flower gardens.
There was big patch of partridge peas near the woods. This was not one of the plants that they had restored, but had crept in from the woods and they were happy to see it. It is a native prairie plant that is an important food source for quail.
We went back to the parking area to get ready for an excursion into the wet and muddy prairie area south of the house. The field was full of flowers, but unfortunately, I had another commitment for the day, so I left and missed this part of the walk.
Driving along I-65, I noticed that there were a lot of wind turbines north west of Brookston. Checking the Internet, that project is the Meadow Lake Wind Farm. It will ultimately have about 600 towers, though only 121 are being installed in the first phase of the project. To the west of I-65 I could see two other wind farms. My guess is that they were the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm and the Hoosier Wind Project. I think the Benton County Wind Farm near Earl Park is too far west to be visible from I-65.

If I got down in the wind corridor more often, I would be posting frequently about the wind farms--it is a big story for the region. (Tip to the Rensselaer Republican--you should do more on this topic.) However, my limited travel does not often take me that way.

The house at the Fisher Oak Savanna

In February I wrote about burning brush at the Fisher Oak Savanna. While I was there, I had the opportunity to visit the large house that is on the property. It is one (and the best) of only five listings for Milroy township in the Jasper County Interim Report, which lists it as an American foursquare, c 1910. I was allowed inside because I went to the brush burning--it is not open to the public. So if you want to see it, you should look for volunteer opportunities at the Fisher Oak Savanna, and maybe you will get lucky.

What surprised me the most about this house is that it has not been lived in regularly for about fifty years. During that time it has been used as a summer residence. There is a much smaller house immediately behind it that is currently occupied. Why occupy the little house and not the big one? Because the little house has heat.

Notice, by the way, that this house has been kept painted and roofed, so it is in very good shape.
This old wood stove greets the visitor as he or she enters the back porch. Obviously it is no longer used, and you can see a much newer stove in the kitchen on the right of the photograph.
Inside the kitchen is this ancient refrigerator, turned around to face the wall. (Is it a safety hazard because a small child could open it, get in, and lock himself inside?) I have never seen an operating refrigerator with the condenser on the top like this one has. I think these were from the 1920s or 1930s. On the back you can make out lettering (not on the picture shown here) that says, "Refrigerator cabinet manufactured by the Heintz Mfg Co Philadelphia" and I cannot read the state.
The main room on the first floor is huge with a large fireplace. The room has two lighting fixtures, and though the French doors you can see the front door of the house.Below is a much better view of the front door. I love the oval window in the door.
The second floor has a full bath complete with grab bars for the tub (There is a half bath on the first floor.). Clean it up and it would be a decent bathroom. Of course the color of the paint dates it. This bathroom is not as old as the house. When do you think it was installed? 1960s?
Other than the bathroom, the rest of the second floor contains bedrooms. The floor was in excellent shape throughout the house, with a few exceptions, such as in the picture below.
The rooms are almost completely empty, unless you count this telephone in one of the bedrooms as a furnishing. Each bedroom, by the way, had a closet. Not the big closets of today, but the smaller closets of a century ago.
The door to the attic stairs was open, so I went up. The wiring in this building is like wiring in my house (which was built about the same time.) The two strands in the wiring are kept separate, not paired as they are today.
The attic had two chimneys. One was from the old kitchen stove, the other, shown below, was from the fire place. I have no idea why they built it with this slant.
The building has a half basement, and all that was there was a water pump and a hot water heater. Note the lack of a furnace. There are no radiators or heating vents anywhere in the house.
In the back there is an outhouse. Although the door is off the hinge, the paint looks great. I did not check out the interior to learn if it has been recently used. I hope you will forgive me for that oversight. I really should have checked it.
I like old houses, and being able to wander around this old house was a real treat, and payment enough for a couple of hours of pitching branches on an open fire.

(Look at the sidebar for an event coming on Saturday at the Fisher Oak Savanna.)

Fisher Oak Savanna

Rensselaer has a decent system of parks, but Jasper County does not. Fortunately, there are some substitutes. There is the Jasper-Pulaski Reserve, and over in Newton County there is Willow Slough and the Kankakee Sands property owned by the Nature Conservancy. And in southern Jasper County there is the Fisher Oak Savanna, where the brush pile burning shown earlier this week took place.
Perhaps it reflects the agricultural heritage, which involved draining swamps in order to farm, but people in this area seem to be hostile to wilderness areas. They seem to look at wilderness and wonder how many bushels of corn are being sacrificed for the trees or grasses, and never see much benefit from the trees and grasses. (If you disagree, you may politely state your view in the comments.) It is somewhat ironic, then, that much of the funding for the work to restore forest and prairie to this site is funded by the Department of Agriculture.
The preserve is open to the public without a charge. There is a small parking lot and a trail that leads through the woods. I first visited the preserve in June 2005 when there was a public tour. Here is what the parking lot looked like that day. Notice that the field behind the parking lot had not yet been planted in prairie grasses.
It was not well marked, but I was able to stay on the trail with minimal effort. I did not see or hear any birds, and the only animal I saw was a deer.
Speaking of deer, there are two deer-hunting platforms along the trail. Last year part of this trail had standing water until May. This year there was no water on the trail.
The preserve has some small hills twenty or thirty feet high, which I think are the remnants of old glacial moraines.
To the south and east the land is completely flat and until well into the twentieth century was swamp. If you click on the picture below to get a somewhat larger view, you might be able to tell that it is taken from the top of the moraine or ridge and looks down onto a very flat countryside. To the south there is some land that has been agricultural field that will in the next few years be converted to prairie grassland. Originally the preserve was only 133 acres, but with the addition of land to the south of the original holdings, the size is now 220 acres and stretches from 1100S to 1200S, the White County line.
If you want a nice place to take a walk in the woods that is close to Rensselaer, go out and visit it. If I ever hear of a guided tour, I will post it in the coming events list. You can learn quite a bit from the guided tours. For example, do you know the difference between grasses and sedges?
Winter is really not the best time to hike the trail. It will be much more interesting in spring, summer, and fall when there is be a variety of plants and bugs to see.
If you are interested in preserves in Indiana, check out this impressive link. NICHES also has a couple of other sites near Rensselaer that I have not visited, including the Holley Savanna northwest of Mt Ayr.