The tower arrives

Fire training tower

The long-awaited fire training tower has been put together behind the fire station. It is composed of shipping containers and will be used to train with fire. Below is a picture showing all the crates assembled.

Below is the tower from the opposite side.

The erection of the tower began on Monday.

The picture below, taken on Tuesday, shows the almost-completed tower. There was still one layer left to install.

The picture below shows a worker welding. The intensity of the light cannot be captured in a picture.

There will be an open house and a ribbon cutting for the tower on October 24.

Some downtown news

On Tuesday workers were almost finished with laying bricks for the Brick Street Project.

On Wednesday workers were putting down the asphalt and still had not completely finished the bricks.

The owner of Busy Bee left the ice-cream business and started a dog-grooming business. Now the owner of Biscuit & a Bath is leaving the dog-grooming business and starting an ice-cream business, the Brick Street ice cream shop. The dog-grooming business will not shut but has a new owner, Smoochie Pooch.

The ice cream shop will open this weekend.

City Council meeting

Mayor Phillips was absent for the City Council meeting on Monday evening, so the President of the Council, Mrs Weishaar, led the meeting. (It was the first Noelle led meeting.) The first order of business was a public hearing on the 2025 budget. Miss Keyes read the numbers for each of the funds. There were no comments so the regular meeting resumed. The vote on the budget will be at the next meeting.

The electric tracker for the final quarter will be an increase of $142 per 1000 kilowatt hours, or about $1.00 on the average monthly bill. 

The American Legion will be hosting its 36th annual Thanksgiving dinner. Last year they served 720 meals, about one half delivered. Last year the Council approved a grant of $500 for this event. This year the amount was raised to $600 to account for inflation.

Grimmer pay request #6 of $326,430.54 for its work on the Brick Street Project was approved. Left to be finished is striping, some brick work, landscaping, and asphalt at the ends of the bricks.  The Council also approved signing a contract with First Group for paperwork and various other tasks need for the CCMG grant of almost a million dollars to fund road repair in the City. The Council then approved another contract, with Mr Armold voting against, for work in design, permitting, construction monitoring for work around the Amtrak Station. Money for this will come from Amtrak and CSX but only if the City closes the Scott Street crossing.

In comments from the superintendents, Police Chief Anderson said he is preparing a revised golf-cart ordinance for the next meeting. Mr Davis said the meeting on the 14th will have a public hearing for the closing of the railroad crossing. The Redevelopment Commission will meet on September 30 for a hearing on a residential TIFF and hold a regular meeting on October 7. Fire Chief Haun said that the containers for the fire tower are arriving and will be assembled this week. He asked the Council to approve a $9240 claim for concrete work needed before the tower was erected and it was approved. He had attended a class on EV fires and said that when they burn, they emit toxic fumes and the area around the fire should be evacuated, perhaps for days. The recommended action was to cool the vehicles enough so they can be moved out of town and allowed to burn out. Letting them burn was cheaper than attempting to put out the fire. He also suggested that the City create an ordinance requiring a cut-off switch for charging stations.  There will be a hazardous waste collection event on Saturday, September 28 from 8:00 to noon at the Jasper County Highway Garage.

Plans are being developed for the extension of water and sewer to the west of I-65. The final 2024 tournament for the Blacker fields will be a girls softball tournament on October 5-6.

Odds and ends

A proposed development in Newton County may affect Rensselaer.  The Marvella sports complex (Mavella was the wife of Birch Bayh) will offer facilities for girls sports at Fair Oaks Farms in Newton County. The entire complex will cost an estimated $98 million, with the first phase costing about $38.8 million. Construction is expected to start this fall. Because it is in Newton County, the project has not come before any County boards and so I do not know more about it than what I can find on the Internet. It might put some guests into Jasper County hotels.

The Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery event took place this past weekend. Below a group hears about the life and times of Truitt Parker Wright, who was the County Coroner long, long ago from the present County Coroner, and in the background another group hears about Emmet Kannal.

The program for this year's Walk can be found here. This year the Walk focused on people buried in the easternmost part of Weston Cemetery. (This week's Rensselaer Republican has an excellent summary of the event.) Next year the Walk will move west to the middle part of the Cemetery.

Have you seen the two trucks sitting in front of the SJC Fieldhouse? They will soon be decorated. They are used for the CDL Academy.

The sidewalk in front of the old power plant is being replaced. It was heavily damaged when the generators were removed.

Saint Augustine has ambitious plans for the future.

Many corn fields look ready for harvest, though the recent rains may delay field work.



I found a tree with leaves that are starting to turn. They should be common in a week or two.

The autumnal equinox occurred on Sunday so we are offically in Fall.

News from mid September

 Downtown news

At the end of last week new paving bricks were beginning to appear in the Harrison/Van Rensselaer intersection.

Brick work was also being done in Filson Park, both around the fountain and behind the stage area.

In other downtown news, the Ritz Theater is changing ownership. I have heard no details.

Continued Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners met Monday morning in a meeting that was continued from the September 2 meeting. An item on the agenda for Animal Control was postponed until the October meeting. The Extension Office had a request for a new storage shed and it was decided that if it needed external storage, the Office could use some of the existing Community Garden shed and that other storage needs could be met with new shelving and internal reorganization. A conference request from Human Resources was approved. Also approved was a request from the Highway Department to replace two employees, for road work and a part-time cleaning position. 

A series of quotes to improve a storage barn at the Highway Department were approved, including $22,2904 for 2 inches of spray foam for the walls and 4 inches for the ceiling, $5660 to rough in plumbing, and $10,568 for electrical work in a maintenance area and $15,540 for electrical work in the rest of the building. Part of the space will be used by the Surveyor's Department and part by the Highway Department.

There was a long discussion of the fee schedule of the Coroner. Currently the Office pays a case fee for deputies who respond to a call and a separate transport fee when they transport a body to the morgue. The problem is not the amounts but rather the accounting for these fees and here the issue was bounced to the County Council, which needs to amend the salary ordinance so both fees are included. There needs to be a separation of compensation for services and reimbursement of expenses.


A committee of five has been selected to work on planning a new forensics center: Jeff DeYoung, Craig Standish, Andrew Boersma, the Sheriff or his representative, and someone from the Council.

Sara DeYoung gave a presentation of what the Jasper County Economic Development Organization (JCEDO) does. The organization is a non-profit organization with a 20 member board. It has an office staff of 2.5 persons. Much of what she said is on the JCEDO website. JCEDO has an inventory of properties that might be of interest for companies seeking to expand into Jasper County. They usually are interested in availability of utilities, supplies, labor and transportation. Today jobs often follow people rather than people following jobs. The key to attracting people is quality of life, which includes such things as schools and other amenities. 

The Commissioners agreed to hire Baker Tilly to prepare two financial plans, one for the current state of the County and another looking forward. Their payments are not to exceed $20,000 for one and $30,000 for the other. 

NIPSCO has proposed putting a gas-fired peaking plant on its Wheatfield site. It would like Baker Tilly to prepare an impact study and a possible tax abatement plan. The cost would not exceed $17,500 and NIPSCO has agreed to pay for that study. The Commissioners approved the language of the agreement pending NIPSCO also agreeing to the language. 


EDP Renewables is planning a wind farm in Carpenter Township. A road use agreement for that farm was approved for Meadow Lake Wind Farm Eight LLC. However, the project has a new name, Carpenter Wind Farm LLC. The request to the Commissioners was to assign the previously granted road-use agreement to Carpenter Wind Farm. That was granted. EDP also wanted to amend the agreement with an updated list of roads and several other amendments. It will improve the roads that it uses. The Commissioners also heard from their construction compliance monitor, a firm hired by the County to provide expertise that the County does not have internally. (The County decided that they needed this expertise after its experience with the Dunns Bridge One Solar Park.) The amendments were accepted.

In public comments, Craig Standish asked if there was any progress in moving forward with a 4-H shooting range at the Fairgrounds. The range will need a site plan approved from the City of Rensselaer. Another citizen complained that the meeting was sloppy in following Robert's Rules of order. One example he gave is that in County meetings people often say, "I motion that...." instead of "I move that...." He also said that the presiding officer should repeat the motion before a vote. Finally, a citizen asked for an update on a CO2 ordinance. She was told that nothing is being done until a court case in Iowa is decided. It will set the limits on what a county can do.


It seems every month there is a continued meeting that lasts as long or almost as long as the original meeting. Maybe it is time for the Commissioners to schedule two meetings each month.

Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission

The Jasper County BZA met Monday evening with one cause on its agenda, a special exception to allow for a cell tower near Fair Oaks. The company building the tower is Southern Tower and Verizon is the first and so far the only carrier signed up to use the tower. For Verizon this tower will fill in a gap in coverage and will provide network resiliency for traffic on I-65 in case of disruptions to other towers. There is another tower a mile to the south that is used by AT&T and T-Mobile. The tower will be 195 feet tall, which is what is allowed in the County ordinance. The company will lease a 100 by 100 foot patch in a wooded lot near the railroad tracks


There was one person who opposed the plan, arguing electromagnetic fields from cell phones and cell towers was dangerous, especially for children. Despite his comment, the Board approved the special exception.

The Plan Commission met after the BZA meeting with one cause on its agenda, a rezone from A1 to A2 for a future subdivision in Walker. The owner said that some of the land was wooded and that the parts that he farmed were poor land, so he thought housing would be a better use of the land than farming. He gave the Commission members maps of what he was proposing. He said that the lots would be four or five acres in size. He also said that the land was next to a solar farm and he liked it because it was peaceful. The Commission voted to send his request to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation.

The next meetings of these two groups are on the schedule for October 21 but several of the members said that they were doubtful about attending because they might be in the fields harvesting. There will be items on both agendas, including items about the Carpenter Wind Farm. The meeting might be moved to 6:00 at the Fairground. Or the meetings might not happen at all. The BZA is more doubtful than the Plan Commission.


Getting ready for the Cemetery Walk

The Weston Cemetery Walk held its dress rehearsal on Sunday and seems ready for the Saturday performances. The list of people portrayed and the actors was in last week's Rensselaer Republican and you can find the article on-line here. One of the graves that will be visited has this iconography which is quite common in Catholic Cemeteries but unusual for Weston.

The IHS are the Latin letters equivalent to the first three Greek letters in the name "Jesus". The family buried here (Healy, not Healey, a completely different family) were Catholic. I do not know why they chose Weston rather than Mount Calvary, but some members of the family are in Mount Calvary. 

Another grave visited is that of Emmet  Kannal, for whom Emmet Street is named.

Performances are at 11:00 (in the Hall Shelter) and 2:00 (walking through the Cemetery). Tickets are available at Cup of Joy and Brown's Garden Shoppe.

SJC Homecoming

I stopped by the SJC Homecoming on Saturday and did not see any alumni that I recognized, though if I knew any of them, I probably would not recognize them because many people change so much in appearance just a few years after they leave college. There seemed to be a good-sized crowd there and I was told that the graduating classes of 1984 and 1974 were especially well represented.

There was entertainment in the form of a baseball scrimmage by players from Ca;ument College of Saint Joseph. There was a brat tent (shown) and a beer tent (not shown).

Odds & ends

Days are getting shorter as we approach the autumnal equinox. There are a few fields that have been harvested and some of the corn fields look ready for harvest. There are some bean fields that are still totally green. The trees in my neighborhood still have not started changing color.

More Festival pictures

 Little Cousin Jasper Parade

Many people lined Washington Street on Saturday for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival parade. 

After the very loud fire trucks passed, the Cousin Jasper King and Queen for 2024 rode by.

These marchers were handing out popcorn. They were from ConAgra.

The Rensselaer Care Center had a float with two kids on it.

The Rensselaer marching band was the only band in the parade this year.

The Republicans had a float with lots of signs for its candidates for County, State, and National offices.

I do not remember who sponsored this float, but it commemorated the 50 years that the Little Cousin Jasper Festival has been around.

Youth soccer has a lot of kids in its program and the younger ones were on a float. Some of the older ones were marching behind, throwing out candy. There was a lot of candy this year, and any kid who did not go home with a big bag of it was a slacker.

I did not quickly recognize what the woman on the right was supposed to be. She was a toothbrush and represented one of our local dentists.

Donaldson's had a colorful float.

The Democrats have fewer candidates running for local offices than the Republicans. Neither Luttringer nor Jeffries ran in the primary election. 

At the end of the parade was a strange three-wheeled vehicle and a car that looked like it had been in a demolition derby.

More Festival pictures

The Carnegie Players put on several performances of what they called "Professor Galen Placebo's Miracle Elixir Medicine Show". Here Professor Galen demonstrated how his miracle elixir was keeping a head without a body alive. 

The show also had a magician trying to perform tricks. Here she is with Ima Lone and her assistant Lotta Tusch. 

The whole thing was very funny but the sound from the main stage was distracting. Hopefully they will be able to perform it again in a better venue.

Two of the actors shown in these pictures will be performing on September 21 at the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery.

The stage show that had the loud sound was a hypnotist.

I paid a last visit as the Festival was closing and was surprised at how many people were still there. I saw a bunch of kids wearing these hats that had bulbs in the legs. When they were squeezed, the ears moved.

Board of Public Works meeting

The Board of Public Works meeting had only one item on its agenda, a payment of $20,572 for Commonwealth Engineering for its work on the Water Project. It was approved.

The fence around the water treatment plant next to Iroquois Park is finished. The City has started filling the I-65 water tower. The generator for the water towers passed their tests. Work has started on the permeable pavers along Harrison Street. The new police cars are still not ready to enter service.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Council passed on a second reading of an ordinance for discontinuation of services. There were a few minor changes and clarifications made to it. The gas tracker for September did not change. The Mayor issued a proclamation for the Knights of Columbus' Blue Light Program. It honors first responders by encouraging people to light a blue light on September 11, which was proclaimed Blue Light Day.

The Council approved starting to prepare for closing the Scott Street rail crossing. There will be a public hearing on October 14.

The Council then heard presentations for Commonwealth Engineering and Baker Tilley about making improvements to the sewage system to comply with a State decree. The City has until 2030 to make these improvements. It had sought financing from the State Revolving Fund (SRF) for zero percent financing, but initially did not make the cut. However, several localities that were above it in the rankings were not ready to begin their projects, so the cut line dropped down until it included Rensselaer. Rensselaer can borrow up to $20 million at the zero interest rate and Commonwealth expects the changes to the sewage plant to be $18.8 million. The City also needs to make changes in its sewers within Rensselaer and that is estimated to cost another $8 or $9 million. The speakers kept making references to a packet that the Council members had so the presentations were hard to follow for someone in the audience.

The Baker Tilley presentation ran through the financing numbers and said that the end result would be almost a doubling of sewage rates. The City will not be able to tap into a second zero-interest rate for the second part of the project. Delaying the project will only increase costs and the size of rate hikes, so the Council voted to move forward to seeking the funding and preparing the many steps needed before construction actually begins. The first step will probably be approving a bond ordinance next month.

The Council will have to have its meetings on-line starting next July. It will keep its current audio system, spend $1945 for new video equipment, and use Youtube to stream the meetings. The Council then approved some changes to health insurance and pay. They will be included in the salary ordinance at a future meeting.

Trick and Treat hours will be from 5:00 to 8:00 on October 31.

The EPA is beginning to regulate a contaminate that I did not catch, though it may be PFAS. The City has the opportunity to have testing for it paid by the Indiana Finance Authority, and the Council approved taking the free testing.

Because the second Monday of November is Veterans Day, the first Council meeting in November will be on Tuesday, November 12. The next Council meeting will have a public hearing on the budget. There is a Plan Commission meeting on September 19 and a public hearing on a proposed TIF district on September 30.

Odd and ends

Fase-Kaluf Appliances has new owners.

The doors of what used to be Not Your Typical Wingz now have "for rent" signs on them.

The Fall newsletter from SJC is available.

At the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting summarized in the previous post, there was mention that a Sanborn Insurance map showed that the property on the corner of Clark and Cullen had once had a gas station. I searched the Internet and found a 1921 map that did not have the building, but a map at the Rensselaer Library showed it.

Part of the building was storage for soft drinks. The gas tanks seem to have been located next to Clark. I suppose that is where the pumps were.

In the past the Weston Cemetery Walk (September 21 this year) has had one presenter for each grave visited. This year we will try something different, a conversation among three sisters who died within two years in the late 19th century. All were between the ages of 16 to 22 and their father was a popular craftsman/shopkeeper. I have seen the script and if the three women do as well as they have in rehearsals, it will be a highlight of this year's walk.

Three years ago we featured Ernest Zea as told from the perspective of his mother. Ernie was blind and confined to a wheelchair, but he made the most of what he had and was admired by the citizens of Rensselaer. This year we initially considered another person who had severe physical handicaps and an eventful life. Ultimately we decided not to portray him because, unlike Ernest, he took a destructive path that caused him and others great pain. Which raises the question, are their lives that are so objectionable or offensive that they should be out-of-bounds for an event like the Cemetery Walk? Does the answer depend on whether they have surviving relatives in Rensselaer?

The organizers appreciate the sponsors who make this event possible, including:

Budgets

 Some pictures

On Wednesday I noticed construction had begun on the stage area in Filson Park.

On Thursday what was there on Wednesday was gone, replaced with this.

There is now a bench near the pool. I suspect others will soon be joining it.

Light poles were being erected along Van Rensselaer on Thursday. I believe they were finished by the end of the day.

The concrete curbs that will separate bricks from asphalt at the Harrison/Van Rensselaer interesection are finished. The brick laying on Harrison is slowly working its way up from SR 114.

INDOT posted some pictures on Facebook about work on the bridge south of Rensselaer so I went out to check out the progress. They hope to finish before the end of the month.

There is still work being done at the SJC football field but I cannot get close enough to see what they are doing.

Jasper County Council meeting

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening at 6:00. President Steve Jordan was delayed so Gary Fritts called the meeting to order. First on the agenda were transfers and additional appropriations, but one of the additional appropriations, from the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District, had been advertised for 7:00, so the meeting was flipped and the beginning of budget hearings started the meeting.

Budget hearings are long and often boring. The Council is looking at numbers in a thick book that is not available to the audience and asking questions about them. First up on Monday was the Coroner. He wants to find funding to hire a deputy coroner and found it by reducing some other numbers in his proposed budget. He noted that costs keep rising, including those for autopsies and body bags. He has had 59 calls so far this year, a level not reached last year until October. He has a new van that will be operational soon and that resulted in some shifts in budget numbers.

Next up was the auditor. She put in the 10% increase in salaries that all the departments are including. I suspect that number will be adjusted to make the final budget fit revenues.

Emergency management presented a budget with only small changes from the 2024 budget. One change will be expenses for a vehicle. The department is getting a vehicle from the Sheriff's Department. The State pays 50% of salaries in this very small department. 

The Sheriff has one of the biggest and most complicated budgets in the County government. He had a number of pay differentials he wanted to establish; that is, when two positions pay the same but one has greater responsibilities, increasing the pay of the person with the greater responsibilities. There was a discussion of the meal budget in the jail, which has had a large increase because of rising food costs and more inmates. Meals cost about $7.50 per prisoner per day. He has budgeted for three new vehicles, two trucks and one car. When the cars are retired by the Sheriff, they usually go to another County department. He noted that his salaries are below those in some of the area law enforcement agencies and that makes recruitment and retention a challenge. He noted that it is difficult to recruit, train, and retain dispatchers.

With the Sheriff's budget discussed, the meeting returned to transfers and additional appropriations, several of which were for the Sheriff. There was a transfer because repairs for a damaged squad car had been paid from the wrong account. There were additional appropriations for several insurance lines because insurance costs have increased. There were several additional appropriations that were Coroner related. One request was for a new budget line, "Indigenous Pauper Burial" that the Commissioners had requested as a result of the burial of a decomposing stranger, who was later identified. The Council decided that it would not be needed this year so voted to not appropriate the money.

Generally pauper burials are the responsibility of the township in which the death occurs. However, Newton Township has no township cemetery so deaths there (and Newton Township includes a long strip of i-65) become the responsibility of the County. There is a cemetery in the Township, Makeever Cemetery, but it is legally owned by the County. The Commissioners want to give it to Newton Township.

One additional appropriation was for consultants. This was to pay for services the County hires to monitor SolarPack, which then reimburses the County. The reimbursement goes into the general fund so the payments have to be re-appropriated.

There was a large additional appropriation for jail meals, explained above. What I found interesting is that the jail uses inmates to help prepare the meals. They get a bit of pay (which I believe they get when they are released) and they get out of their cells.

There was a very large additional appropriation for EMS. It is needed to finish the year. EMS budgeting continues to be a problem.

The last additional appropriation was for the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District and because it did not involve County money, the Council quickly approved it.

The Council had a discussion of the Local Income Tax on the agenda but decided to take that up on Wednesday morning at 8:30 when the budget hearings would continue. I have a high tolerance for long boring meetings, but not enough to want to go to that meeting.

A final note

I am on the planning committee for the Memories Alive Cemetery Walk in Weston Cemetery. We have found some interesting stories to tell and have recruited our cast. Here is the announcement of the event.

Most of the planning is finished but we need three or four able-bodied volunteers to help with set up and tear down. If you are interested, e-mail me at rensselaeradventures at yahoo.com and I will give you details of what is involved.

Early March 2024 meetings

Notes

Crews from Brightspeed have been stringing cable from the utility poles. Brightspeed has replaced CenturyLink as an Internet provider.

Last week people, presumably belonging to the Church that purchased the former R&M building, were busy filling a couple of dumpsters.

Peeking through the window, I could see that the shelving from the grocery store was still there. I assume it will be sold, either as shelving or as scrap metal. There is a lot of work to be done.

The Fire Department has started getting ready to pour a foundation for its training tower, but as of Tuesday there were only some sticks in the ground.

Work continues on the removal of bricks from Van Rensselaer Street. The removal has reached the alley, so about one fourth of the bricks are gone. Below you can see wrapped palattes of bricks that have not yet been moved to the lot that once held the Johnny Rusk building.  (If I called it the R.P. Carton building, would anyone know what I was talking about?)

There are piles of bricks along the edge of the street. I am not sure if these are just not processed or if they are rejects.

Along the sidewalk, which remains open so people can get to the businesses that remain open, there is something new, a sign in the windows of what was Walter's shop.

Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners meeting on Monday morning had a full house, but it lacked the large crowd of people standing or listening through the windows that the February Plan Commission had. There were two routine buried cable permits, both fiber optics, that were approved.

Mr. Bontreger recognized that most of the people in attendance were interested in the wind-farm item at the end of the agenda so he moved up the Planning and Development items. Two rezones from A1 to A2 that had been recommended by the Plan Commission were quickly approved. The Plan Commission had voted an unfavorable recommendation for the wind-farm overlay in Carpenter Township with some recommendations. Mr Bontreger announced that the Commissioners were taking the matter under advisement and would, at the recommendation of the Plan Commission, begin the process of finding a construction compliance monitor. He asked the Highway Department and the Surveyor's Office to prepare their concerns with the existing road-use and decommissioning agreements. Surprisingly, few people left; they seemed to want to hear the public comments that are given at the end of the meeting.

At the February meeting Animal Control had requested a light bar for a vehicle and at this meeting they reported that the Highway Department had provided one. Animal Control continues to have a problem with mice in their storage shed that they have not been able to contain. The Commissioners will investigate possible solutions including a professional exterminator or a new shed. Community Services had new quotes for seal coating and striping its Rensselaer and DeMotte parking lots and they were approved.

At the previous meeting the Commissioners had discussed donations to theThe Jasper County Recovery House and the House of Grace, which help men and women overcome addictions. They had not acted because they were unsure if funding was available. It is and at this meeting the Commissioners approved $30,000 for each organization.

Sara DeYoung from JCEDO introduced the Yodel website. The Newton Township Trustee reported on the Sayler-Makeever Cemetery west of Rensselaer. It has had some vandalism and she had discovered that the Cemetery is not owned by the Township but by the County. The entrance road was once a County Road that continued to SR 114. There was a discussion of what can be done to improve the Cemetery, and the County will help because it owns the land.

There is an ambulance housed in Remington in a building that the Town of Remington owns. The City of Remington would like to donate the building to the County with the provision that if the ambulance is ever removed, the building will revert back to Remington. The advantage for Remington is that it would no longer be responsible for the upkeep of the building.

The Commissioners decided not to pursue purchase of some grant software that was primarily a database. Rather they would prefer to hire someone to write grants. The Auditor said that White County gets twice as many grants as Jasper. The Commissioners approved mowing contracts for the Surveyor's office, the Fairgrounds, the jail, and the health department. They made appointments to PTABOA and NWICA and approved two conference requests.  The director of Animal Control requested a change in a job description that would eliminate a requirement that the position be a probation officer in order to make the position easier to fill. The Commissioners approved.

The Commissioners approved a software purchase by the auditor and a request for funds from the Veteran's Office for a quarterly training session. Craig Standish asked for their support for a 4-H shooting range at the Fairgrounds. Shooting events will return to the Fair this year with 42 participants. (In the past it once had 132.) The next step will be before the Rensselaer BZA or Plan Commission.

The Commissioners approved ambulance contracts to the Wheatfield, Keener, and Central services. These included the County subsidy to each service. They approved a contract with a construction manager for the planned renovation of the Health Department building. The County would like a new website and a possible website creator was mentioned. The County has received the seismic testing data that BP collected and wants to collaborate with Benton County in analyzing it. The Sheriff received permission to replace a part-time person who is planning on quitting.

The floor was then open to public comments. Most were about the proposed wind farm and some of the speakers had previously spoken at the February Plan Commission. Some were just asking for clarification of an issue. The meeting was continued to March 18 at 8:30 if necessary.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting was short and had an audience of one. Three bids were opened for the annual ditch spraying contract and the low bid of $154,761.82 from Ditchside Management LLC was accepted. There was discussion of a request for a variance allowing a garage to be built into a ditch right-of-way. The construction had approval from DeMotte pending Drainage Board approval. The Commissioners wondered if the location could be shifted to reduce the encroachment and tabled the request to get more information. In a recent meeting the Board had decided to remove a section of tile along a road and replace it with a ditch on the other side. One of the persons who would be affected had a very different cost estimate for replacing the tile and what followed was a discussion of ribbed vs spiral piping.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met Monday evening. They released funds that had previously been approved to the Rensselaer Central School Corporation for a Pre-K program ($25K) and for classroom supplies ($25K). They then heard the request for funds from Appleseed Childcare Education. Adam Alson gave a presentation explaining that childcare is one of the things that people look for when deciding where to live. However, in rural communities licensed childcare centers cannot make a profit. Expenses will be higher than the amount of tuition that parents can pay. Therefore, it must be subsidized. Lack of childcare leads to increased absenteeism, so it impacts business and becomes an economic development issue. Appleseed brought together various groups to make licensed childcare happen. The expertise to run a center did not exist locally, so they brought in Right Steps from Lafayette. Franciscan provided a building that otherwise would have been very expensive. About 20 local employers have supported the endeavor financially. The members of the Commission applauded these efforts and agreed that Appleseed was providing a valuable service.

However, the Board wanted to see a budget before it approved funding and Appleseed did not want to provide one. Apparently Appleseed does not want it on the public record. So the matter was tabled.

I was mystified by this because all nonprofits are required to file a form 990 with the IRS and those forms must be available to the public. For example, here are several years of 990 forms for Saint Joseph's College.  The 990 does not contain as much information as a complete budget, but it includes the most important numbers.

Rensselaer Park Board

The Rensselaer Park Board also met on Monday evening. It heard from Pat Fox about plans for the 2024 Little Cousin Jasper Festival. This year will be the 50th anniversary because the festival started in 1974, though there were some years since then that did not have a festival. Because of the uncertainty caused by the Brick Streets Project, the site for the festival will again be Potawatomie Park. Ms Fox said that the lighting in Potawatomie is poor and that there was vandalism despite having a security guard for the night hours. There was a discussion of various options, including using Filson Park and/or Iroquois Park. If Iroquois Park is used, College Avenue will probably be closed during festival hours.

A contract for a program director for summer programs was signed. It will be a template for future independent contractors. There was a discussion of how to get the summer programs off to a fast start and the Board approved $1500 for that on a 4-2 vote. A soccer contract had been prepared but no one from the soccer program was available to sign it. The Board approved the purchase of two lifeguard chairs for the pool. Someone suggested that the horseshoe pits should be moved to the front of Iroquois Park to increase their visibility and thus their use. The Board approved an improvement on the donor posts in Foundation Park and a proposal to hire someone to fertilize the Blacker and the soccer fields.