A ribbon cutting and four more meetings

Ribbon Cutting for the Brick Streets

On Thursday morning a ribbon cutting was held for the Brick Streets Project.

Before the scissors came out, there were several speakers who thanked the many people who contributed to this project, which was years in the making. Among speakers was Mayor Phillips, former Mayor Wood, Congressman Baird, a representative for Senator Braun, State Senator Niemeyer, State Represenative Kendall Culp, and representatives from Kimley Horn, KIRPC, and EDA.

There was a surprisingly large crowd.

After the event, people could eat donuts. They left a lot, which were then served at the Customer Appreciation Lunch in City Hall from 11:00 until 1:00. The attendance there, at least when I went, was quite small.

Redevelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met Monday evening. After approving minutes and five claims, it approved a declaratory resolution that does three things. It enlarges the Drexel/Fairgrounds Economic Development Area, it establishes the Van Elementary Residential Allocation Area, and it amends and restates the Drexel/Fairgrounds Economic Development Area. This is part of the process to create a residential TIF area to develop the area north of the Van Rensselaer School. It is also only a start to a process. The matter now goes to the Plan Commission, then the City Council, and finally back to the Redevelopment Commission.

JCEDO reported on the façade grant program. Top Link and Earth Magic have completed their work and have been reimbursed 50% of their costs. Shanley Construction has completed its work but has not yet submitted the required paperwork for reimbursement. The latest grant has been awarded to the new owner of what is called the "Carriage House." (Old maps identify this as used for storage so I do not know the source of the Carriage-House name.)

Below you can see the two new porch columns of the Mr Shanley added to the Forsythe mansion. 

Park Board meeting

The Rensselaer Park Board also met on Monday evening and the meeting has so many people attending it was moved from the conference room at City Hall to the Council Chambers. This was the first meeting at which Heather Hall was present from the beginning as Park Superintendent.

Several guests were recognized and talked about their concerns. Soccer is still concerned about the grass where the old Monnett school was located. 230 kids signed up for the Fall program. Greg Whaley gave an update on the Miniature Train Proposal. A recent Redevelopment Commission meeting provided some money to have some architectural plans prepared, and these were distributed and discussed. No action was taken.

Mrs Hall asked if there were bylaws for either the Park Board or the Rensselaer Community Recreational Development Corporation. (Park Board meeting include both groups that have somewhat different members.) There will be a search for them.

Filson Park is at substantial completion. Left to finish are the street lights, concrete caps on the fountain and behind the stage, benches, and an arch over the entryway. Next week the Prairie Arts Council will install an art work and the bird that sits by eMbers will also be added. Rental prices for the shelter and the park have not yet been determined. There will be a ribbon cutting and various activities on October 24 from 4:00 until 7:30 on October 24.

Project underway or soon to be underway include some facilities upgrades. LaRue Pool may get a facelift and perhaps a slide. Mrs Hall would like to have the mural wrap around the whole building. A pickle ball league has been established. The old tennis courts at Brookside will be moved a bit to the east and converted to four pickle ball courts. This project has received a substantial donation from a Jackson family. The Board approved moving forward with this project and now it is in the lap of the City.  It may take some time to figure out the best uses for the old power plant. 

The softball tournament scheduled for this weekend at the Blacker Fields has been canceled. Not enough teams signed up.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met on Tuesday morning. It heard a presentation from a person from Travel Indiana, which publishes a quarterly tourism magazine. It prints 30,000 copies that are distributed across Indiana and also has a web site promoting tourism. The Commission is considering advertising in the magazine but no decision has been reached yet.

The Carnegie Players had a request for $25,000 to help renovate its building at 220 N Franklin Street. The building needs a new roof, new windows, and a ramp to make it handicapped accessible. At present the Carnegie Players do not have permanent home and whatever venue is available. One of their problems is rehearsal space. The best space in Rensselaer is the auditorium at the High School, but t is used by the high school for three plays a year, the new middle school theater group for one, and Fendig Theater in the summer. Rehearsal before a production can take two months, so there is not a lot of time left to share at the high school. The Carnegie Players' building can have at least two rehearsal sites and the Players are willing to share them with others in the community. It also wants to coordinate with other arts groups in scheduling so their events do not complete. A donor is matching donations for the roof. The Commission approved the entire ask of $25,000.

The Fountain Park Chautauqua asked for $5000 to bring Bruce Barker The Piano Man to the Chautauqua. They did not have a representative to present the case and answer questions. One Commission member suggested that the admission price of $5 was too low. The Commission approved $1500.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening. They discussed a planned land swap that has a verbal agreement but the details need to be finalized. They also discussed plans for a new nine-unit hangar that will probably be built in 2025. They have been accumulating the funds for this for four years and it the hangar is not built soon some of those funds will go away. A lot of what the Airport does is determined by the rules and regulations of various Federal and State bodies. 

The old hangar building along the taxiway needs to come down but there are no plans yet of when and what will be done on that site. Fuel sales were very strong in September. There was discussion of various maintenance issues and of things not working properly. The meeting lasted a bit less than an hour.

New art exhibit

There is new exhibit at the Fendig Gallery, the Jasper County Art League's Annual Member Show. This year the theme is "Verse Made Visual."

The picture below is a painting, not a photograph.

You can never have too many pots.

If you follow local artists, you will know who did this basket.

The show runs until November 7.

Odds and ends

Below are a few more pictures from the Scarecrow Trail in Milroy Park. The first is from Fase-Kaluf.

There is no sign on this one, but I am pretty sure it is from the City's Electric Utility.

One of the ghosts from the Fendig Theater was taking a nap when I stopped by.

At the next City Council meeting there will be a public hearing about closing the Scott Street rail crossing.

There are four streets next to each other than have rail crossings, McKinley, Franklin, Webster, and Scott.. I am not sure why Scott was chosen for closing. The next street to the east that has a crossing is Melville, and that is three blocks away.

The maples are donning their fall colors.

Beneath this tree a little girls is swinging. Say "Hi" to her if you pass by. She will not answer you.

We may get a frost early next week.

July has arrived

 Filson Park construction

The last two weeks have been busy at Filson Park.  At the start of the week, most of the interiour sidewalks were in place. On Tuesday this was the view through the shelter house.

Also on Tuesday, City workers were removing the sidewalk along Kellner Street.

On Wednesday they had finished removing the sidewalk along Kellner.

On Saturday I took a picture of new sidewalk along part of Kellner. The new sidewalk did not reach the end of the block. On Monday workers were preparing the north part for concrete.

I was surprised to find the there was a concrete floor where a small stage area will be located.

The plans from about three years ago are being realized.

Odds and ends

The Prairie Arts Council holds special programs on some of the last Thursdays of the month. On June 27 they hosted the Yolotzin Dance Troupe from Lafayette. I was unsure what to expect, but it was young girls performing dances from various parts of Mexico. I did not take a picture of the first dance because I expected the dresses that the two girls were wearing would be the same as the dresses the other dancers would wear, but I was wrong so I missed getting a picture of the most elaborate of the costumes used. The second dance had younger girls waving pineapples.

The conference room in the basement is not an ideal space for a dance performance because there is a column in the middle of the room that blocks the view. Each of the first three dances was from a different part of Mexico and the costumes were from the part of Mexico that the dance was from.

In the fourth and final dance the dancers invited locals in the audience to join them. One of the locals told me not not use pictures from that part of the evening on the blog.

It was an entertaining performance, in part because several of the youngest dancers had not mastered the dances and were sometimes completely out of step.

 The new Mexican grocery on Washington St across from the Court House is open. The name of this new business is Super Tiendita Ideal. I could not find a website or Facebook page for it, but Google knows that it is there.

SJC has its summer newsletter on-line. The building and trades program now has an instructor and plans a ribbon cutting and ground breaking on July 26. The College is starting what it calls a CDL Academy that will help people get the commercial driver's license.

On Monday the LaRue Pool had a dollar day and a 75th birthday celebration. At the first break (adult swim) a 1:45 Mayor Phillips handed out little cupcakes to the patrons of the pool.

In addition to cupcakes, kids celebrated with party hats, funny cardboard glasses, and very loud noisemakers.

Several times in the past couple of weeks I have heard the music of an ice cream truck in my neighborhood. Below is a picture of the vehicle. I wonder if this is a sustainable business.

I have no pictures from the Brick Street Project because I did not notice any work being done there last week.

JCEDO has an intern for a few more weeks who has been writing articles about things happening in Jasper County. Check out what she has been writing here. Also, Jasper County Tourism is looking for sponsors for the mural project and will host a catered buffet for them on July 11. For more info, contact the JCEDO office. (Or see here.)

Have a safe Fourth.

Commissioners meeting

The County Commissioners met on the morning of July 1 with a long agenda of routine items. There were no buried cable permits to consider. The Council approved some conference and vacation-extension requests and a preliminary agenda for department head training on September 11. The County Clerk said that the political parties have until July 3 to add candidates for positions that had no primary. The Commissioners approved the replacement of a part-time recycling employee in Wheatfield and approved a covered-bridge certification that confirms that Jasper County has no covered bridges. It approved the use of part of the CourtHouse lawn for Mainstreet's Oktoberfest to be held on September 28 (if the Brick Street Project is finished). It considered two options for problems with lighting for Community Services in Rensselaer, one to fix the broken parts and the other to install new lighting, and chose the second option. At previous meetings the Sheriff has proposed to move the jail's chiller from the roof of the jail to the ground. The Commissioners made an appropriation request to the Council and will be discussed at their joint meeting later this month. The Auditor and the Commissioners want the paperwork done before vehicles are purchased. If it is not done before the purchase, there can be delays in getting the vehicles licensed.

The Commissioners then heard a rather long presentation about insurance renewal. Because insurance companies are losing money, rates and deductibles are increasing. The presentation was hard to follow because it kept referring to a handout that the Commissioners had and the audience did not. Overall the increase for the County will be 7%. A random fact thrown out was that the County has 158 vehicles.

Two items from the Plan Commission were approved, a rezone from A2 to HC (Highway Commercial) for 5.88 acres that will be used for a new hotel near DeMotte and an increase in the setbacks for test wells from 300 feet to 1320 feet. 

There was a concern about speeding in the Prairie Ridge Estates Subdivision. The Commissioners can place a 30 mph speed limit sign at the entrance to the Subdivision without having a public hearing and that will be done. The Commissioners approved replacing a person leaving Soil & Water and approved a vacation extension so the time off will come when the new person is hired.

The Commissioners approved going forward to hiring a website vendor to take over the County website. They also approved the scope deductibles letter from Baker Tilley for County financial analytics and forecasting. They approved a memorandum of understanding with VS Engineering for construction compliance monitoring for the proposed SolarPack project. 

The Highway Engineer said that they needed signatures for Town and Country Paving to do work on the road work funded by the $1.5 million CCMG grant. The County Attorney said that they needed to first approve Town and Country as the contractor, which they did. They approved an agreement with BF&S as the construction compliance monitor for the proposed wind farm in Carpenter Township. Andrew Boersma had questions about plans for a new morgue and County building for the Northern part of the County and also announced that he would be play a role in September's Weston Cemetery Walk (Memories Alive in Weston Cemetery.) He will play a former funeral home director and County Coroner, Truett Wright.

The commissioners approved the replacement of a person in the child-support area of the Prosecutor's Office. The current person is taking a new job. In public comments, a person expressed concern about ATVs and minibikes racing on CR 100 S at all hours of the day and night. The meeting was continued until July 15 at 8:30 if necessary.

Drainage Board

There was a short Drainage Board meeting following the Commissioners meeting. The first item was a drainage plan from NIPSCO that I did not completely understand. NIPSCO is expanding either gas generation or storage and this somehow involves land that Georgia Pacific Gypsum owns. The current drainage basin is sufficient for what they are doing but the Surveyor wanted to get the plan on record.

The second item involved the Christian School in DeMotte which recently purchased some adjacent land. They want to build pedestrian bridges over the ditch that separates the two parcels so students will not have to walk along the road to access the new parcel that will eventually have athletic fields. The plan was approved.

The contracted spraying of ditches was finished early and the Surveyor is happy with the results.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting

I was not keeping track of the time on Monday afternoon and arrived at the Rensselaer Redevelopment meeting late. When I arrived the Commission was discussing the possibility of the City purchasing a lot downtown for an EV charging station. Currently the closest charging station is at Fair Oaks Farms. No action was taken and the matter will probably be discussed further by the City Council. 

There was a discussion of developing 7th Street immediately to the north of Van Rensselaer School. Presently it looks like an alley. The City owns two blocks of land in this area and one that fronts on the unfinished 7th Street. The possibility of creating a residential TIF district to help finance the development of the street was discussed but no action was taken.

Greg Whaley requested $4500 to pay for a complete set of drawings and plans for a miniature train display. He would like to purchase one of the miniature trains that was built in Rensselaer in the 1950s and have it displayed in Foundation Park. These trains come on the market from time to time and he has been trying to arrange funding so he could purchase one for the Rensselaer Parks. He has support for this project from the Park Board, the Jasper County Historical Society, and several community organizations. Some other organizations want a complete set of plans before they pledge or commit dollars. The Commission approved an amount not to exceed $4500.

Before I arrived at the meeting, the Commission discussed doing an environmental study of the former laundry on the corner of Clark and Cullen. I think they are considering purchasing the property but want to know if there are dry-cleaning chemicals on the site. They also approved $25,000 to help fund the mural on the water tank near I-65. The Tourism Commission will pay the artists but additional money was needed to rent the lift (surprisingly expensive) and for the clear coat finish. Finally, the Rensselaer Gas Department serves customers west of I-65 but that service depends on a single link along Bunkum Road. The Department would like to add another link, thereby looping their pipeline, when the water and sewer lines are bored under the Interstate. I believe the Commission approved some money for this.

Arts and Theater

Carnegie Players to present three short George Ade plays

On June 20, 21, and 22 at 7:00 pm the Carnegie Players will present three short George Ade plays in the basement of St. Augustine Church. Tickets will cost $8.00 and will be sold at the door.

George Ade was an enormously successful writer, becoming quite wealthy from his many books, plays, and articles. He built a mansion east of Brook, which is now owned by Newton County. He was a graduate from Purdue University and was a generous donor to his alma mater, with his name on the football stadium. (He is the Ade of Ross Ade.)

Ade died 80 years ago in 1944 so this may be a good year to pay a tribute to a person who came from our corner of Indiana. Like most authors who were very popular during their lives, many fewer people read him now than when he was alive. In Ade's case, that may be because a lot of his humor was prompted by the popular culture of his time.

I was invited to a rehearsal on Thursday evening. The first play performed was Mrs. Peckham's Carouse. This play's humor comes from poking fun at the temperance movement that led to Prohibition in the 1920s. Mr Peckham is a lawyer who receives a bottle of whiskey from his brother-in-law. His wife is a temperance crusader. There are deceptions and misunderstandings that lead to poor decisions and ultimately to a twist at the end.

The second play, The Mayor and the Manicure, is about a mayor dealing with a woman trying to blackmail him because of poor judgement by his son. The two telephones play an important role in this play.

The last of the three plays, Nettie, was my favorite because it was the least tied to the times in which it was written (and also because it needed the least amount of tweaking before the actual performances). It is a twist on mistaken identities. Ade never married or had children and perhaps this play also reveals a bit of what he thought about women. 

While I was there, the lights and sound system were being wired.

The plays have a cast of 13. Most are in only one play, but several have roles in two of the plays.

I look forward to seeing the finished production, in part to see how much change there will be from this rehearsal to the finished product.  If you like theater, comedy, or tributes to Indiana history, you will enjoy An Evening with George Ade.

Honoring Hispanic Heritage at the Fendig Gallery

The current exhibit at the Fendig Gallery is Honoring Hispanic Heritage and it runs until July 7. It features art,  artifacts, and objects that exemplify and showcase Hispanic heritage.

The paintings on the right above are by Doris Myers from a trip she took to Mexico.
 

Much of the exhibit is made up of small items that are numbered, with a short explanation of what each is on a placard. 

These crocheted pieces are from a very large exhibit from Mexico.

Here is the explanation. Searching for "Etzatian" on the Internet should show you what the whole construction looked like.

There were only a few paintings in the exhibit. This one was for sale.

Gallery Hours areTuesdays: 12pm - 4pm; Thursdays: 2pm - 6pm; Saturdays: 12pm - 2pm

Odds and Ends

The LaRue Pool opened on Monday and despite very cold water and cool temperatures, it had swimmers all afternoon. On Thursday the temperature was warm and there were a lot of swimmers even though the water was still cold.

On Wednesday the Chamber of Commerce had a luncheon at Autumn Trace. After the lunch, there were tours of the facility. It has not changed much since it opened.

Workers have finished pouring curbs on Harrison Street.

There are forms for some of the sidewalks at Filson Park.

Thursday night into very early on Friday Rensselaer received about an inch of much needed rain. 

Thirsty Thursdays

The Jasper/Newton Foundation has a new series of events called Thirsty Thursdays: Tap into Your Community. I wanted to see what they were about so I attended the first on Thursday evening. It  was held at the Carnegie Center and its focus was arts and culture.

The attendance from the general public was low so the event was mostly a networking event for the representatives of the groups that did attend. Prairie Arts Council (PAC)was well represented and several people talked about Rock the Arts, the exhibitions in the Fendig Gallery and their Holiday Show. We also heard about Art League and the Prairie Writer's Guild. The Art League differs from the PAC in that it is mostly a group of artists who share ideas and help one another produce art. PAC organizes and sponsors exhibits, art camps and classes, and festivals. It has a much bigger membership than the Art League. However, a lot of the Art League folks are also members of PAC and the two groups work together. The Prairie Writers Guild is like the Art League in that it is a group of writers who encourage one another to write. It also produces books of writings from the group, the From the Edge of the Prairie books.

The other group represented was the Touch of Dutch Festival. It has roots back to celebrations in 1946 when the community was welcoming back veterans from WWII. For a number of years it was Town and Farm Days or Town and Country Days. At some point they decided to have a theme, and one year the theme was called Touch of Dutch. The next year newspaper mistakenly referred to the festival as the Touch of Dutch and the name stuck. But the name was kind of an accident.

The festival took a year off in 2011 and then moved to the new Spencer Park. Since then it has grown. This year it had 127 vendors. DeMotte will soon be getting a community center in the park. It will be able to seat 250 to 300 people.

The meeting took place in the Fendig Gallery, which has just opened a new and impressive exhibit called State of the Art: Art of the State. It is a juried show, which means that a person or group of people select what goes into the show from submitted entries. The show was open to current and former residents of Indiana, who submitted 277 works for possible inclusion. It is a big show, with pictures not only in the upstairs gallery but also in the conference room in the lower level. The show runs to November 3 with the reception and awards on Friday, Oct 12 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The Gallery is open from noon to 4:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Saturday from noon to 2:00.  One of the PAC members commented that usually one would have to go to Chicago or Indianapolis to see an art exhibit of this quality.

When I saw this very large picture, I wondered if it was a photograph. It is not. It is a charcoal drawing. It is also for sale and was the most expensive item that I saw in the show.

Below are three pictures showing the variety of subject matter in the pictures.

 These shoes with mice were done by a former Rensselaerian.

 One of the members who frequently shows at the Fendig Gallery did this very large fabric work.

 Below is a close up of one of the trees. The red leaves are all individual bits of cloth.

The picture below reminds me of some of my adventures in childhood.

 There are some very pretty landscapes in the show.

The Prairie Arts Council does an excellent job of arranging exhibitions, but this one stands out. It is part of their celebration of 25 years as an organization.

The future Thirsty Thursdays events are Oct 11 at the Fairchild House in DeMotte focused on education, Oct 18 at Fenwick Farms Brewery focused on Health and Wellness, Oct 25 at the George Ade Home near Brook focused on Historic Preservation, and Nov 1 at Embers Venue focused on Community Initiatives. The Jasper/Newton Foundation would appreciate a RSVP if you plan to attend.