Some rezoning

And then it was gone

Below are two pictures of the Soesbe Building taken on Wednesday.

On Thursday only a tiny bit of the building remained and it was being torn down.

On Friday morning all that was left was on the ground and being cleaned up.

On the topic of demolition, the Catholic Church in Goodland is being demolished. It was closed after Sacred Heart Church in Remington reopened after being repaired. One priest served Rensselaer, Remington, and Goodland and there were just not enough parishioners in Goodland to keep that parish as a separate entity.

 Rensselaer Plan Commission


The Rensselaer Plan Commission met Thursday evening with both old and new business on their agenda. It approved the ordinance that the Council returned to them with one of the paragraphs deleted. The revised ordinance will again go to the Council for approval. A rezoning request for a property along Melville has been discussed at two previous meetings. At this meeting a new map was presented, rezoning the parts of the block in question that are being used for residences to R1. The map also rezoned several parcels that are being used for industrial to light industrial. Included in the change to light industrial is the block that was previously used by the State Highway Department. It has chemical contamination and cannot be used for housing. The Commission approved the Building Commissioner to proceed with notifying people about the proposal. A public hearing will be necessary before these lots are rezoned.

The first item in new business was a request from Saint Joseph's College to rezone a parcel that includes the parking lot west of the Halleck Center and the former softball field from residential suburban to residential. The major change is that the RS zoning requires one-acre lots and the R1 zoning only 0.17 acres. With RS zoning fewer than 15 houses could be build but the College thinks it can get 28 houses built with the R1 zoning. The College wants to start a building trades program and constructing houses will be part of that program. The College would like to start the program in the fall of 2024. The Commission approved a recommendation of approval to the City Council.

The next rezoning request was for a rezone from R-1 to B-1 (Neighborhood business) for the property that has been Busy Bee. The owner tried to sell the business, but found no buyers and now wants to convert it to a dog-grooming business. To make the new business legal, the property must be rezoned. There will be no additions to the building but the inside will be remodeled. The Commission supported the change in zoning.

There was a short discussion of a petition to vacate the undeveloped parts of Prairie Street, which lies north of the very large warehouse north of Merritt Street between Cullen and Weston Streets. No action was taken at this meeting. There was another short discussion of a proposal to update the Zoning Ordinance and the Subdivision Control Ordinance. Finally, the requirements for membership on the Plan Commission were reviewed. The Council appoints three who are officials or employees of the City and the mayor appoints four citizen members, only two of whom can be from the same political party.


BZA meeting

The main item on the Rensselaer BZA agenda was a conditional use variance for a church building in a B-3 zoning district. The petitioners represent a church of about 150 members that is currently meeting in the Church of the Nazarene. They would like to remodel the former R&M building on Kellner Blvd. They do not know how much, if any, of the current building they will keep; that decision will be made by contractors or people who are engineers or architects. Two people from the DeMotte area who have many years of building experience are supporting their efforts. An area of concern was that applicants for liquor licenses within 600 feet of a church property need church approval. The members of the BZA did not like this requirement so they made one of the conditions for approval of the variance that the church cannot impede liquor business in the R-3 district (which includes all of downtown). The petitioners thought remodeling would take about a year. They have not yet purchased the property; they were waiting for the variance before they bought.

Below is an architect's rendition of what the completed church will look like. It was taken from the handout at the BZA meeting.

The Board then discussed the requirements for membership. No one who is an elected official may serve on the Board, so this was the last meeting for Jeff Rayburn, who will become a member of the City Council in January.


Notes

On the way home from the Rensselaer BZA meeting I stopped in the Library to pick up a book. A meeting of the Republican caucus was just getting out and I saw several people I knew. I asked one who they had selected to replace Bret Risner for the County Council and they told me that they had selected Jacob Misch who lives near Wheatfield.

I took a picture of water-towere construction on Thursday. I was disappointed that this picture is not a lot more different from the one I took two weeks ago. The section of the stem that will be between the base and the top is longer.

The Park Department is putting out new trash cans. Their purchase was approved by the City Council in September.

A tour of a mansion

On Saturday as I was leaving the farmers market, the owner of what is known as the Forsythe-McMahon house asked if I would like a tour of the house. Of course I said, "Yes". This large and imposing house on the corner of Washington and McKinley has been vacant for as long as I can remember and news that it might be rehabilitated was welcomed by many people.

We entered on the southwest side, the entry for the renters who will be on the second and third floors, but we first looked at the main floor. It is unfinished and will remain that way until a renter is found. It will then be finished for the renter's needs. 

There are two fireplaces that are in reasonable condition on this floor.

The second fireplace needs a bit of work

The ceiling and walls are unfinished and the studs are visible. Some of them are original and others are recent additions. Because of the long period in which this building was vacant, the whole interior had to be stripped down to the studs.

The basement has walls made of field stone from Ohio. It has windows and could be made into rentable space.

The second floor is one apartment and it will have tenants moving in soon. The large windows make for very nice views, including this view of the Courthouse.

Some finishing work needs to be completed but the main work is finished.

This floor has some circular walls that I thought were very appealing. My pictures, by the way, do not do justice to the interior of this building.

The third floor was once open, with no walls and people have told me it was used as a ballroom. If you look at the exterior, you can see its space will reflect the roof lines. The ceilings are not horizontal but sloping, and in the middle they reach up to the very peak of the house. Under the peak a loft has been built that will be reachable by a ladder that will slide on a track.

The third-floor kitchen still needs countertops. Though it is higher than the second floor, the views from the third floor are less impressive because the windows are smaller.

On the back of the house is a door that was once the maid's entrance and near it is what was the maid's bedroom. This door has been lowered and will get a ramp to make the main floor handicapped accessible.

This house was built in about 1895 by Benton or Benjamin Forsythe. He and his wife also built the Forsythe Building on the corner of Washington and Van Rensselaer. It burned in 1996 and its site is now a parking lot. Benton Forsythe lost his father when he was three and his mother six years later. He and his sister were then raised by an uncle. At 16 he began teaching school and then entered the business world. In Rensselaer he ran a dry-goods store called "The Chicago Bargain Store" and advertised frequently in the newspapers. In 1909 he and his wife decided to retire, but he could not sell his inventory in a bulk sale and decided to retail it in Winamac. While there his wife died and she is buried with family in Ohio. In the fall he had a sickly niece move in and she died a few weeks later. In 1912 he remarried, and this wife long outlived him and is buried with her second husband in Weston Cemetery. 

Benton Forsythe died in 1920 and left his Rensselaer assets to his wife and his farm assets to his three nephews provided that they pay his debts. They came to Rensselaer, inspected things, and decided they did not want the inheritance because they were not sure that selling the property he left them would yield enough to pay the debts. He owed $13,000 on the store, $2600 on his house, and $3500 on land. He looked a lot richer to his contemporaries than he was.

Below is a picture of the Forsythe Building from The People's Pilot of July 30, 1896. The Chicago Bargain Store opened in this building in October, 1896. 

Forsythe is buried in Weston Cemetery, the only person buried in his lot. If you want to learn more about him, you can search the Hoosier State Chronicles and see what the Rensselaer papers wrote about him.

Happenings

The Eagles had a motorcycle ride on Saturday. 

The tiny building that was a coffee shop across from the Courthouse has sold. I am pretty sure that the new business will be this one.

The sign below is in the window of the building that was Gutwein-Risner Insurance on Washington Street. (The insurance business moved to what was a law office on Harrison.)

In May the Park Board approved a request to use Milroy Park for a fashion show. I did not mark the date (June 17) in my calendar, so I missed it, but apparently it went well. It was not aimed at a local audience.

There is now a fence around the new lift station. Both it and the high-water treatment plant are in the same enclosure. A new fence is also being built in front of the Hyper Center in Brookside Park. It is intended to keep small children away from cars.

The Carnegie Players will be performing Sherlock Holmes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:00 pm at 116 W Washington. Tickets are $8 at the door.

LaRue Pool has its first dollar day of the season on Friday, June 23. Attendance this year seems to me to be up from last year. There were very few individual season passes sold. Almost all of the admittances via pass are with the family pass.

Gutwein Pop Corn in Francesville has an open house on Friday from 10:30 am until 1:30 pm to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

Wednesday is the summer solstice. For the next six months daylight will decrease.

Rensselaer still needs rain.

County Council meeting

The agenda of the County Council meeting on Tuesday evening had two pages of additional appropriations, most involving salaries. The County is now factoring in longevity in salaries and the changes were to make the budgets compatible with this change. There was little discussion of most of the changes and almost all passed. Those that did not were tabled for more information. A potential tax abatement was also tabled for more information.

Construction of a new horse barn at the Fairgrounds has been held up by red tape, some but not all from the State. There was a lengthy discussion of a proposal to increase pay to two part-time workers in the Auditor's office who came out of retirement to train new employees. There was a concern that the increase might set an undesirable precedent, but a motion to increase the pay passed with one nay vote. The Council was warned that changes are coming to the County's use of GIS and Beacon for tracking property ownership; the current software is no longer supported and cannot be updated. The data will be migrated to a new system and the cost will have to be included in next year's budget.

Update: Left on the Facebook link to this post: "The fashion show was amazing, sorry you missed it!!! So many locals were there to support Preston and her beautiful collection. There were also models, who were local, that walked the runway in her designer pieces."

Ash Wednesday

 Redevelopment Commission

Last week I saw a meeting notice on the door of City Hall for the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission. The main item on the agenda was "Amendment to Permit Local Art Work." That sounded cryptic, so I decided I should go and find out what they were doing.The Redevelopment Commission controls the proceeds from property taxes in TIF districts, so they have money to spend, but they can only spend it on things that will improve the district, such as roads and utilities. The amendment would allow them to also pay for art work, such as murals, that could increase economic activity for those in the TIF district. No money was requested at this meeting. The amendment passed, with the Board adding the provision that they will want to know exactly what will be done with the money when a request is made.

There is art work planned for this July in Rensselaer and it will be paid from City funds. I suspect the City decided to seek other sources for funding, and the Redevelopment Commission has a lot of money, though when they do spend it, it is often on very expensive projects.

There will be a March meeting and Appleseed will be on the agenda. 

There was a discussion of facade grants as a way other communities have improved the look of their downtowns, and then a discussion of two buildings that some consider eyesores. The old R&M building may be beyond repair. The site was once a Ford-Mercury dealership. It was noted that the cost of demolishing Grandma's Kitchen by the Interstate was about $40,000.

Continued Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met on Tuesday morning, February 21 to tidy up a few loose ends. They had previously approved a memorandum of understanding to submit to NextEra about the Dunns Bridge project, but a date on the document was incorrect so they re-approved it with a new date. They accepted a bid of $84,320 to pave the south entrance of the Fairgrounds. Expanded parking for the Sparling Annex is in process, with quotes being obtained. They approved a replacement hire for Animal Control; the position is part-time. They approved a quote of $4123 for plumbing at the Fase Center. It will be for high-rise toilets and new kitchen faucets. They approved a newly amended holiday schedule, perhaps the fourth version. This change moves the Christmas holiday for County employees from the two days of Friday and Monday to the two days of Monday and Tuesday. (Christmas is on a Monday.)

The health insurance policy for County employees has a new set of regulatory changes. The agent for the County explained that these changes were forced on the County by State and Federal regulations and employees should not see much change. The Commissioners approved the new documents. The Commissioners approved moving forward with new sidewalks on the north and east of the Courthouse that will coordinate with the City of Rensselaer's Brick Street project. The Prosecutor's building has a roof leak and the Commissioners approved a bid from Century Roofing of slightly more than $2000 to repair it. BP still wants to move forward with their project of sequestering carbon dioxide deep underground in Jasper, Newton, Benton, and White Counties. Mr Walstra suggested that Jasper County find out what the other counties are doing and thinking. The Commissioner's attorney said that individual commissioners could reach out to individual commissioners in other counties without violating the open-meetings regulations, and the Commissioners decided to do that. The meeting was adjourned thirty five or forty minutes after it began.

Odds and ends

Stephen Eastridge has announced that he is leaving the Jasper County Economic Development Organization as of March 17. The press release can be found here.

I saw six turkey vultures circling overhead on Monday. Many people look for robins to announce the coming of spring. I wait for the turkey vultures.

Lent has started. I have searched for the schedule of Lenten luncheons for this year and have found that St. Augustine's will host on March 8. There is apparently one other church that will host, but I do not know who or when. (See the comments for the schedule.)

On Monday new bollards were installed by the Post Office. 

As of the weekend, the work on the sewer line in north Rensselaer was still moving up Owen Street.

The Jasper County Historical Society met on Tuesday evening. The program was about an early Rensselaer photographer, Jessie Bartoo. The Museum recently was give a large collection of her photographs. You can watch the meeting here. (Skip ahead to 36 minutes for the program.)

Sacred Heart Church Remington

Repairs on Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Remington are almost finished, though the pictures of the interior do not clearly show that. The interior is full of scaffolding, but the scaffolding is being used for painting. 

Looking up, one cannot see the ceiling because of the scaffolding.

Painting includes using stencil for decoration.

The subfloor has been installed. After the painting is finished and the scaffolding is removed, the floor will be finished and the pews returned.

County Council meeting

The County Council meeting on Tuesday evening had an agenda that stretched to the fourth page, but given that length, the meeting was quite short. Almost all of the items were about the budget. There were things that should have been included in the budget but were not for some reason, changes in wages and salaries that had been approved but were not correct in the budget, and items that had moved from one place in the budget to another. Most of the items were for Community Corrections or the Sheriff's Department. By far the largest items were for EMS. There was an additional appropriation of $250,000 for the Jasper County EMS. This had been in the budget but had been dropped because of delays in getting the JCEMS certified. There was an additional appropriation of $1.5 million for the new ambulance building. Both of these were from ARPA funds. There was a transfer of $70,000 from Southern Ambulance to JCEMS because JCEMS has absorbed Southern. And there was a budget reduction of $350,000 for Phoenix Ambulance because they no longer are in business in Jasper County.

First snow and a lot more

 We woke up Sunday morning to our first snow of the season. Fortunately most of it melted fairly quickly.

The cold, rain, and wind brought down a lot of leaves over the weekend. 

The final event celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Court House took place Friday. Hundreds of students from Kankakee Valley, Demotte Christian, Saint Augustine, and the Rensselaer Middle School came to tour the Court House. Their visit began with a guide telling them about the history and architecture of the building. They then entered the Court House and were told about Court-House security.

The students were then divided into ten groups with guides that would escort them to nine different offices in the building. I was asked to help and I became the guide for one of the afternoon tours. My group of RCMS eighth graders began our tour on the third floor in the Circuit Court and then went to the Superior Court. Judge Bailey explained that the Indiana Constitution establishes one court in each county, and that is the circuit court. If the case load is too much for the one court, the State legislature can establish additional courts, and they are the superior courts.

We then headed down to the first floor where we visited the assessors office, IT and Planning and Development, and the Veterans' Affairs office. When we got to the second floor, we were backed up a bit so we took a look at Jasper, the County bison. We talked to the auditor, had a short visit in the Recorder's office where we saw the first record book of the hundreds that the office has. It was damaged in a fire of the previous Court House in 1865. That fire was set to hide malfeasance. 

We had an even shorter visit to the Treasurer's office and we did not visit the last office on our schedule, the County Clerk, because time ran out and the students had to leave. They walked back to the Middle School.

The doors of most of the Court-House offices lists previous officeholders. The Commissioners Room, which used to hold many County meetings until they moved to the Sparling Annex, has a list of previous county commissioners. From the list, it appears that there is a lot of uncertainty about the terms of early commissioners. 

The list becomes certain in the late 19th century.

Christmas shopping has begun. On Saturday the Fairgrounds hosted the annual Mistletoe Magic Show. It was cold and rainy so I opted not to go. I did visit the annual Prairie Arts Council Holiday Art Show and Sale.

On Thursday the Veterans Day ceremonies were moved from Weston Cemetery to the American Legion Hall.

I hate the shortness of daylight in the winter. According to this site, there will be 9 hours, 54 minutes, and 32 seconds of daylight on Tuesday the 16th. We are losing about two minutes of daylight each day and will lose about 40 more minutes until December 21, when we have only nine hours and seventeeen minutes of daylight. However, the earliest sunset will happen on December 8 at 4:21:58 and then the sunset will slowly get later.  It could be worse. When I lived in central Minnesota the shortest day of the year had only eight hours and forty-two minutes of daylight.

On Monday evening both the Jasper County Plan Commission and the BZA met. It was standing-room only with over 40 people in the audience. The Plan Commission met first and was a bit late starting because it took a while to get the Zoom audio working. The Plan Commission approved a rezone from A1 to A2 and approved a 2-lot subdivision that will allow a son to build a house next to his father's house in Barkley Township. Their vote is not final; the Commissioners will have to agree at their December 6 meeting.

The first item on the BZA agenda was for a special exception for a confined feeding operation in Jordan Township. The property had been given a special exception in August of 2019 but it was not until this summer that the property was finally transferred. The 2019 special exception allowed the new owners to build on the old foundations but upon inspection they found that was not possible. So they had a new plan that needed BZA approval. The new plan was for two buildings,  each 101' by 277' and housing 3200 pigs. The total pig count would be less than what IDEM had approved for the site. There were no public comments and the special exception was approved. Construction is planned to begin in early spring.

The second item was a special exception for Phase II of the Dunns Bridge Solar Project in Kankakee Township. (Phase I is currently being constructed.) NextEra had several people attending who addressed the Board. They noted that this was a $335 million investment that complied with the provisions of the County's solar ordinance. The special exception being sought (which is required for any solar project) was for the new properties in the project, which will use about 4400 acres. The project will have a capacity of 291 megawatts. The output is direct current and it will be converted to alternating current by inverters that will be located toward the centers of the solar arrays. There will be a battery component that will allow some of the power generated to be stored and fed to the grid when it is needed. The projected timeline is for construction to begin in April of 2022 with construction finished and testing beginning in August of 2023 and the project to be fully online in December of 2023. NextEra had a property-value specialist who argued that studies showed that solar fields have no measurable impact on property values. NextEra will not operate the project but will sell it to NIPSCO when it is finished. 

My notes count 16 people who commented on the project when the floor was opened to public comments, ten who opposed the project and six who favored it. The main arguments of those who favored it were financial. The project will bring millions of dollars to the County and will help offset the decline in property tax revenue when the Schahfer plant stops generating using coal. It will also provide steady income for the farmers who are leasing their land to the project. One speaker noted that economic development is a challenge in rural areas and rural areas need to take advantage of the opportunities that exist.

Those speaking in opposition made a variety of arguments. Two were farmers who leased the land that they farmed and they said that they would be harmed if land that they currently lease is diverted to solar. A couple speakers suggested that the construction activities are bringing up sand and that the land will not be able to return to agricultural uses when the solar farms are decommissioned. Several speakers did not like the extra traffic on the County roads resulting from Phase I. There was concern about the safety of the batteries and also about the impact on deer and sandhill cranes. There were some who argued against solar power in general. A couple speakers thought that the companies were not paying enough for the leases compared to the revenue that they would collect per acre and one speaker implied that those who signed up with NextEra where too stupid to know what they were doing and that the BZA had the duty to protect them from their poor decisions.

Members of the BZA thought they needed to reflect on the matter so decided not to act at this meeting but postponed the vote to the December 20th meeting. At that meeting there will be no public comment. The Board members will be able to ask questions of NextEra if they need to. Until then the Board members cannot directly contact NextEra or each other. Any questions they have must be funneled through the Planning and Development office.

The meeting ended about 10:10 pm.

(There are two separate questions about solar farms. One is whether the federal government should be promoting them and the other is, given federal policy, should local governments encourage them. A person's position on the first issue does not necessarily determine a person's position on the second issue. And I wonder about how the contracts deal with inflation. I believe most people underestimate the possibility of severe inflation in the future.) 

Hazelden and George Ade

On Saturday Newton County had an open house for Hazelden, the home of George Ade, perhaps the most famous person to come out of Newton County. (The contender is Sam Rice, a hall of Fame Baseball player. Read about him here.) Hazelden is a mile or two east of Brook and on its grounds are a golf course and a care center that used to be a hospital.

 In front of the house was the Newton County Bicentennial Bison. It featured the Punkin Vine Fair and George Ade.

 Below is a closer look at Ade and his house.

 There is a portrait of Ade in the entrance hallway. He was born in Kentland in 1866. His father was one of the original settlers in the area. George was not interested in farming and enrolled at Purdue in 1883, one of about 200 students at the college. He graduated in 1887, one of eight in his class. He worked briefly for a couple of Lafayette newspapers and in 1889 moved to Chicago to write for a Chicago paper. He writing ability was noticed and by 1893 he had his own column.

 When I arrived a George Ade re-enactor was telling a filled room about his life.

 Ade never married. He dated a woman while in Lafayette for several years but she eventually rejected him and married another. After he constructed Hazelden, he filled it with objects he found on his travels. Its collection of Japanese and Chinese items is impressive.

 Below is another example of the objects that decorate much of the house.

 The house has fourteen rooms and is done in the Tudor Revival style. It was designed by a Chicago architect and built in 1904, at the peak of Ade's career.

After Ade's death in 1944, the residence remained vacant. Eventually it was given to Newton County and there have been at least two rounds of renovation and repair. The bathroom fixtures appear to be old enough to be what was there when he died.

 Below is Ade's office. I liked the old telephone, something popular before my time.

 He wrote quite a few books, and they were mostly humous stories and fables. Not many people read them anymore but they are available in reprinted form on Amazon.

Some of his columns that appeared in the newspaper were on display on the second floor of the residence. Some of these were later combined into books.

Ade also wrote plays. The Sultan of Sulu was inspired by the Philippine Insurrection, one of America's lesser known (and less noble) wars. (My grandfather who died in 1919 served in it.) You can find some of the songs on Youtube. It was popular in its day and then was forgotten for decades until revived in 2009.

 Ade had several big hits on Broadway but in 1905 he wrote three plays that bombed. His writing slowed and in 1908 he turned his attention to Purdue University (he is the Ade in Ross Ade Stadium) and politics. He lived summers at Hazelden and wintered in Florida. His wealth came from his writing and also shrewd investment by his brother, who bought 2500 acres of Newton farmland for him.

Although Ade's career as a writer tapered off after 1908, Hazelden was visited by many celebrities and most of the big-name Republicans of the era.

I have lived in Rensselaer for over 40 years but this is the first time I have been inside Hazelden. When I saw that it was open to the public, I knew I had to go.

While on the topic of Newton County, CPX Incorporated is closing, laying off many workers. The plant made parts for GE appliances and GE said that the parts were not of high enough quality or quantity so they were seeking alternative suppliers.

A visit to Monon

Recently I was in Monon for a meeting. I arrived a bit early, so I walked around the downtown and took pictures.

At the north end of the downtown is their public library. It is a Carnegie Library, constructed in 1914 and renovated in 1993.

I peeked inside. It had a friendly, old-fashion feel to it.

On the other side of the street is the town hall. The old Monon high school has been torn down and is now the site of a gas station and convenience store. The old school building was used for only about thirty years, from 1926 to 1957. I am not sure if the bell was from the school.

A bit further south is a large building the identifies itself as the Horner Block. There is a variety store of some kind in the ground floor with signs mostly in Spanish. In fact, many of the signs in downtown Monon are in Spanish. According the article about Monon in Wikipedia, in 2010 28.4% of the population of 1777 was Hispanic, with almost half of that percentage coming from El Salvador. In 2000 17.25% were Hispanic. (In contrast, in 2010 5.4% of the residents of Rensselaer were Hispanic or Latino.)

Opposite the building above on the east side of the street is the old Monon Theater, which years ago had $1.00 movies. There is a building permit in the window for remodeling. There is a group that would like to restore the building.

A bit further south at the stop light is another large building with Nancy's Mexican Grocery and the Crazy Taco Restaurant. The inscription on the top of the building identifies it as the Fred Thomas Block, 1912.

A bit further south and on the west side of the highway is an old bank building.

It was once the State Bank of Monon.

In the middle of the car lot for Gutwein Motors (Monon has a new car dealership, something Rensselaer no longer has) is a building with a sign for Selz Royal Blue Shoes. I have seen this sign many times and thought that it was for a local shoe store. But above the shoe advertisement is hard to read lettering that I think contains the work "creamery." Searching the Internet for "Selz Royal Blue Shoes" I discovered that signs similar to the one in Monon were once quite common. Some of them have been restored to former glory. The Selz shoe company started in Chicago and by the 1920s had a number of factories in Illinois. It did not do well in the Great Depression and apparently closed in the 1940s. From looking at other signs, my guess is that the company offered to paint the name of the business (in this case some creamery) on the side of the building if it was also allowed to print an advertisement for its shoes. When I spent a couple years in West Virginia, there were many "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco" signs and the company got them on barns by offering to paint the barns.