January is off to a cold start

 Mystery window

During December I posted many pictures of decorated windows. Here is what I think is a final one. I would never have found it if I had not been told were it is. Do you know where it is? If so, tell everyone by leaving a comment.

If no one answers, I will tell where I found it in my next post.

New Commissioners

County government has two new Commissioners for 2025 and they got a workout on Tuesday morning. At 8:00 the Board of Finance met. It is required to meet between the first and last Mondays of January and the three County Commissioners are its members. The Board elected Rein Bontreger as president and Tammy McEwen, the County Treasurer, as secretary/treasurer. It approved an investment policy for 2025, which the Board members had in written form. The State severely limits how counties can invest funds, limiting them to liquid, safe assets such as CDs and Treasury notes. The County has over $30 million in various accounts that the Treasurer invests and last year the County earned more than $1 million on those funds. The meeting lasted only about 15 minutes.

The Commissioners meeting that followed was not as short, lasting about two and a half hours. Rein Bontreger was elected president and Ryan Hilton was elected vice president. The next item on the agenda was the opening of highway bids for various items that the Highway Department uses. This took about twenty minutes and involved a lot of prices that made no sense to me but were important for the Highway Department. As in past years, all bids were accepted so that if the low-price supplier cannot deliver, the County can get the material when it is needed.

A new State law now requires that contracts that the Sheriff previously approved must now receive Commissioner approval. The Commissioners approved a contract for battery maintenance. They also approved the yearly forfeiture audit. Finally, they approved the retirement of K-9 dog Alpha.

The Coroner wanted to make sure that the change in Commissioners would not interrupt planning for a new forensic center. Sharon Colee from Community Services had several items for Commissioner approval. A furnace at the Fase Center failed and was replaced at $5200. She wants a railing at the entrance of the Fase Center to help those who are mobility impaired. Both of these items were approved. She had investigated getting DeMotte water for the Fase Center but there is no nearby water main, so the cost would be over $100,000. She wants the Commissioners to do a walk through of the Rensselaer Center to see maintenance issues.

Last year the Commissioners approved $30,000 from Opiod settlement money to the House of Grace and Tammy Tidd, head of the House of Grace, would like a similar amount this year. In the four years that they have had a location in Rensselaer, they have served 19 women and have two current women living here with another pending. The local facility can handle up to four women. I think she said that they have bought a house here. The Commissioners decided to make a decision on the request in February.

The Commissioners approved the replacement of an employee in the Clerk's Office who retired at the end of last year. The Office is still short-staffed because an employee is on maternity leave. The Commissioners also approved two conference requests from the Health Department. They were skeptical, however, at the Department's request to fill a full-time position for a second person to do food inspections and septic-tank inspections. The Health Department argued that the position would be needed because two new subdivisions are going in near DeMotte. The matter will be on the agenda again in February. 

The transfer of the Remington EMS building to the County was delayed because one of the people signing did not have the proper seal. Next on the agenda was "Arrowhead Grant." I could not find the full name of the Arrowhead organization, but it gives small grants in our area. The Commissioners could not think of any programs that might benefit, but said "maybe next year.

The next 20 or 25 minutes were devoted to appointments to boards and various office positions. In most cases the current members were retained. There were several applicants for the Airport Authority Board and the Commissioners approved Tommy Gutwein. Noah Hoek and Chad Healy were added to the Citizens Advisory Board for Land Acquisition. The Community Corrections Advisory Board adds Jake Misch, Justin DeYoung, and Clifford Robinson (who may be the new head of the Public Defenders Office). Ryan Hilton was added to several boards, including the Fair Board, Kankakee River Regional Planning Board, and the Jasper County Plan Commission. Craig Standish will be new on the Northwest Solid Waste District. Both were added to the Water and Sewer Board. Jake Misch wanted off the Property Tax Board of Appeals and will be replaced by someone whose name I did not catch. Risk Management Board added Diana Boersma and Craig Standish. The commissioners appointed George Hamstra to the Town of DeMotte Plan Commission and John Schwab to the Remington BZA. 

Employee bonds were approved for employees who handle money. Three buried cable requests were approved. There was a brief discussion of plans to renovate a barn at the County Highway Department and the Commissioners approved getting bids to move along the process. The County has received safety grants and needs to request proposals to implement them. One citizen expressed concern about a plan for an unelected regional government. 

If needed, the meeting was continued until January 21 at 8:30 in the Commissioners' Room in the Court House.

After a short recess, the Drainage Board met. Craig Standish was elected president, Ryan Hilton Vice President, and Rhonda Eldridge secretary. Jacob Ahler will serve as the Board' attorney. There were also appointments to the various joint drainage boards with surrounding counties. 

The Board approved compensation for the Board's attorney of $10,000 plus $215 for any work not covered by the usual duties. Landowners drained by the Zimmer Ditch brought signatures to reconstruct the ditch. The next step will be for the surveyor to do a report outlining what work needs to be done and how much it will cost. The Board accepted certifications for the Sands Ditch and the R. E. Davis Ditch and approved signing a hold-harmless agreement with Genova Plastics. There was discussion of the need to update the County's drainage specifications because some of it is out of date.

These were the last meetings to be held at the Sparling Annex for at least a couple of months. When the remodeling is finished, the column in the center of the room will be gone.

Odds and ends

There was a Park Board meeting on Monday evening but this post is long enough already so I will write about it for the next post.

Rensselaer avoided heavy snow fall that the weekend brought both north and south of us. 

During January daylight increases by 47 minutes, with about two thirds of that coming by later sunsets and about one third by earlier sunrises. The reason that the two are unequal is due to the eliptical orbit of the earth and the fact that it earth is tilted on its axis. The perihelion for earth (when it is closest to the sun) just occurred on January 4. Did you enjoy the extra warmth on that day?

On January 1 I took a picture of the building trades house at SJC. It has windows and doors, so work inside can be a bit more comfortable than it would be without them.

Leaving SJC I noticed a new sign at one of the entrances. The hours for the open house are from 10 to 4.

SJC has an open house for its various certificate programs on January 25 from noon until 2:00.

Driving past SJC on Sunday I noticed that they had their semi-trucks used for CDL training decorated. I was able to get a picture on Tuesday.

Lirio Resources now has a Crown Point office.

A last post for 2024?

 More Christmas pictures

Among the Christmas decorations around town are a number of creche scenes. The first three below are at churches and the last two at residences.

Although the next three pictures may not look like Christmas pictures, they are. They show the parking lots at the College Mall, Strack & Van Til, and Walmart as they were on Christmas Day. Not even the Chinese restaurant was open in the College Mall. 

The picture below is from near McDonalds. It was closed. While I was taking this picture, a car drove into the drive-thru and tried to order. The driver left unsatisfied.

The only businesses that seemed to be open in the south part of Rensselaer were the gas stations.

The weather this week has been bleak, with heavy clouds. However, in winter heavy cloud cover usually means warmer weather, and we did get warmer than usual temperatures this past week.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met for its final 2024 meeting on Monday. It passed the annual ordinance writing off non-collectable utility accounts. An account becomes non-collectible when it is six years old or older or the customer has either died or declared bankruptcy. The electric tracker for the next quarter will reflect a reduction of $4.64 per 1000 kilowatt hours. 

The Council then approved several encumbrances. An encumbrance takes funds from the 2024 budget to use in 2025. The Council appointed Kevin Smith and Jeff Webb to the Redevelopment Commission and Mike Lyon to the BZA. The Council appointed Mayor Phillips to another term on the KIRPC Board.

The water, sewer, sanitation, electric, and gas utilities each gave a budget number to the Council. I think this was their anticipated expenses for 2025 and I am not sure what it means because there are a lot of extraneous forces that will affect spending, but the Clerk/Treasurer wanted numbers to plug into her budget.

Consideration of vacating part of Prairie Street was tabled because a key party was not able to attend this meeting. The Council approved a motion to have the Mayor sign a contract with HWC Engineering to develop a housing action plan and a park master plan. 

On December 3 IDEM told the City that it had approved a $62,861 sanitation grant to the City. It will be used to install 15 trash and 20 recycling receptacles in the downtown area. The City would like more recycling as a way to reduce tipping fees at the landfill.

The Mayor announced that Matthew Gunter had been appointed safety director. He then recognized two long-time employees who are retiring at the start of the year, Carol and Jerry Lockridge. (There will be a retirement celebration on Jan 3 in City Hall from 1:00 to 3:00.)

The Street Department won the decorating contest in which the various departments were competing. The Fire Department is starting a Fire School in February. A video by Commonwealth Engineering of the water tower was recommended.

A new Park Office is being constructed in the old power plant and may be finished by the first of the year. A disc golf tournament is planned for February.

Below shows some of the Park equipment moved into the old power plant.

The new Park office will be further north in the building than I expected.

The building is not yet ready to have visitors.

 Finally

The remodeling of the front of Short Cuts by Kim seems to be nearing completion.

Below is a picture from November 11.

And one from October 11.

An earlier picture was shown in a post at the beginning of October.

I suspect this will be the last post of 2024. I do not see any meetings on my schedule until January 6.

Merry Christmas

Pictures

Before the Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting on Thursday night, I paused in front of the Court House to watch some of the light show being displayed and snapped a few pictures. The display seems to be a loop that is five or ten minutes long.

Tuesday night will be the last night for an Advent wreath. Tempus fugit.

The entire staff here at Rensselaer Adventures wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  ;-)

Thursday evening meetings


The Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission met on Thursday evening. Under old business was the preliminary plat for the SJC Building Trades Subdivision. The item was continued to the next meeting because there are still details to be ironed out. SJC has switched engineers to help design a lift station and that may be finished in time for the February meeting. 

The Park Department needs a master plan in order to be eligible for grants and Mr Davis recommended the firm HWC Engineering, which has helped Remington in its park planning, to develop the plan. The City also needs changes in its master plan to encourage housing and again HWC Engineering was recommended. The Commission endorsed these recommendations that will be sent to the City Council for approval.

There was some discussion of proposed changes in and additions to fees charged by the Building Department. I left the meeting before this discussion concluded because I wanted to get home to Zoom the Airport Authority Board meeting that overlapped the Plan Commission meeting.

The Jasper County Airport Authority Board meeting usually has a meeting the second Tuesday of the month and a late December meeting to deal with whatever has to be cleaned up by the end of the year. These two meetings were replaced  with a meeting on Thursday evening. The meeting began with an update on a land swap that the Airport would like to make to provide space for an east-west runway. There is slow progress and that is to be expected because of government regulations. The Airport may be ready to present something at the January or February Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting.

There was a short discussion of what to do with Airport funds when the current short-term investments mature. There will be a Finance Board meeting in January that may decide. The Airport has had a problem with a toilet overflowing. The manager had received quotes to replace toilets, but some Board members suggested the problem might not be the toilets but the sewer lines. A committee was established to investigate.

There were a variety of transfers and encumbrances to clean up the books for the end of the year. The Board approved two new hangar leases. The rental plane needs a new engine and it should be arriving in January. There were various expenses and maintenance issues discussed. Some Windracer drones will be stored at the Airport and the Board approved a storage fee. The website is being revised and may be hosted by IN.gov. This was the last meeting for the President of the Board, David Pettet, and he was given something to express the Board's appreciation for his service.

(The picture was provided by a Board member. From left to right, Emily Hackler, Andrew Andree, and David Pettet. The framed item appears to be a windsock.)



A last meeting

The County Commissioners met for their end-of-the-year meeting on Monday morning. It was the last meeting of the year and the last meeting for three of the main actors in these meetings, Auditor Donya Jordan, Commissioner Jeff DeYoung, and Commissioner James Walstra. I turned in on Zoom a few minutes after the start of the meeting, missing the Pledge of Allegiance, but in time to see former Commissioner Kendell Culp present Donya Jordan with a certificate. He recounted her 44 years of service to the County in the offices of Auditor, Treasurer, and Recorder. President Bontreger then presented these three with a canvas and something I could not identify. Below is what the presentation by Mr Culp looked like for viewers on Zoom. On the left is Attorney Beaver, standing in the back are Commissioners DeYoung, Bontreger, and Walstra, and seated at the right is Auditor-elect Dianne Boersma. (Update: Better pictures here and here. Before I started Zoom, Jim Walstra also received the Governor's Distinguished Service Award.)

After some claims and conference requests were approved, the Health Department had a request to close on January 9 and 10 in order to move within the building. Phase 1 of the remodeling of the building will be finished and the Department will move into the finished space so work can begin on Phase 2. As part of Phase 2, the conference room will be remodeled and the post in the middle of the room will be removed. The January 7 Commissioners meeting will be held in this room, the last public meeting to be held there until the remodeling is finished.

The Commissioners approved, after a brief review by their attorney, a contractual services agreement with the Extension Office. This is done annually. It approved a request by Community Corrections to replace two employees, one part-time and one full-time. A request from the Clerk's Office to replace an employee was tabled to the January meeting. 

There is a new law that requires that the Sheriff's Office get approval from the Commissioners for any contract involving money and the Sheriff had three for them to approve. The Commissioners also approved the signing of the Sheriff's contract that had been previously approved.

The State Board of Accounts told the County that the duties of the Commissioners' attorney need to be spelled out in a contract, and the Commissioners approved that new contract. The Commissioners got a brief report on three safety grants that the County had obtained, two from the State and one from the Federal Government. The County is also working with the City on a grant application for a trail along SR 114.

The Commissioners approved two changes to the work schedule of EDP Renewables for the Carpenter Wind Farm. Residents wanted to have wind-farm use of CR 1800 South finished by the start of the school year and the County wants $1.8 million for new culverts before the work begins. 

The Highway Department wants to allow observance of three County holidays that fall on Fridays to be moved to Thursday for its employees and this was granted. There was a brief discussion of vandalism and theft of stop signs. The Commissioners approved the replacement of a part-time employee in the Recorder's office.

Paul Norwine, speaking as a citizen, praised the work and accomplishments of the three officials who were at their last Commissioners meeting. He lauded Mr Walsta's work on the Kankakee River Commission. Then the Commissioners appointed Vince Urbano to take the spot that Mr Walstra had on that Commission and appointed Jeff DeYoung to the technical advisory board of the Commission. Mr DeYoung urged the incoming Commissioners to make sure the sidewalk on the east side of the Court House is repaired. He also noted that the Commissioner's job takes a lot more time than the job of a Councilman.

Odds and ends

Appletree Rensselaer announced that it has achieved a Level 3 Paths to QUALITY™ rating. Paths to QUALITY is Indiana’s quality rating and improvement system for child care programs. There are four levels, and level 4 does not appear to have anything that improves what the children get.

The old carriage house now has a roof.

Approaching the solstice

Pictures

I finally got around to taking pictures of the trees in Potawotomi Park. I am not sure who put up some of the trees.

I think this one is K&W Trucking, Amazon Freight Partner.

Franciscan Health

The one of the right is Fendig Theater and the one on the left is probably ConAgra because it has a picture of Orville Redenbacher on the tree. The one in the middle is Edward Jones.

Chief Industries.

Part of White Castle on the left and the Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce on the right.

White Castle Bakery.

Several trees that I did not identify leading up to the White Castle display.

On the left Donaldson and Little Cousin Jasper on the right.

Renew Salon and DAR.

The very blue one is IBEC and the one next to Santa's house is Brushwood Church. The middle one is the Post Office. The closest is either by the Police Department or in honor of the Police Department.

A better look at the IBEC and Brushwood Church trees.

Two Park trees. The one close was planted here a few years ago.

Painted windows at Rensselaer Pet Care.

The decoration on the windows of the Library are more modest than they were last year. The artist was running out of time and daylight when she did it.

Main Street Rensselaer has a light show playing on the Court House.

I have seen a very limited part of Rensselaer after dark, but the parts I have seen impress me with the number of houses with outside decorations. Many are quite elaborate.

Jasper County BZA meeting

The Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeals met Monday evening with three requests for variances on their agenda. First, however, they decided new dates for their January and February meetings. The third Monday of those months are Federal holidays, so they decided to move those meetings to the fourth Mondays. The Board had a new member, Scott Walker who replaced Scott Walstra, who had resigned because he had been elected to the County Council.

The three requests for variances were all from dairy farms and all were for setbacks. The required setbacks are 300 feet from the property line. The first request was from DeJong Family Farms in Gillam Township. They want to erect solar panels to partially power their dairy farm. The Federal government has a program that subsidizes these solar installations. They had selected a parcel of land that was unused for any productive purpose, but that land extended to 75 feet from the edge of Division Road. Not part of the variance, but the Farm wants to add another digester to produce more methane that is then injected into the natural gas pipeline. All the adjacent land is farmland, some owned by the DeJong Farms. Members of the Board wondered if the panels could be located on a different part of the property so they would not need a variance. The lawyer representing the Farms said that the BZA had always stressed preserving crop land and that is what this location did. Other locations would reduce cropland. The Board voted on the three findings of facts and nay votes exceeded yes votes on two of them so the variance was denied.

The second request for a variance was from Windy Ridge Dairy in Union Township. This dairy is on the east side of I-65 north of SR 14. It is the first dairy that was permitted in Jasper County and it also wants to install solar panels because of the Federal subsidy. The solar panels planned would be about 100 feet from CR 1100 W. Again, they had tried to find space that would avoid crop loss. Some of the panels they planned were on a bit of land that was not near the road. The dairy needs to renovate and expand, but none of that will need a variance. The panels are designed to provide 80% of the power the dairy needs when the sun is shining and 35% to 40% overall. The Board again asked if other siting was possible, including perhaps on roofs, but was told that there were problems with roof siting. The attorney representing the dairy was a bit frustrated that the Board was more interested in preserving setbacks than crop land. Eventually the Board decided that they could approve an increased setback that was 45 feet more than the 100 feet that the dairy had requested.

The final variance request was from the Oak Basin Dairy in Barkley Township and this one had no solar but was for an additional free-stall barn that would be less than 300 feet from the farm field to its west. The owner of that property had no objection to the siting. The new barn would add about 1400 additional cows but, when it was built, the infrastructure of the dairy had been planned to handle these cows. This variance passed with little discussion.

County Council meeting

I attended the County Council meeting on Tuesday evening via Zoom because the agenda did not look very interesting. The agenda had six additional appropriations, all of which were approved. There were also several transfers of funds that were approved. A salary ordinance was approved with the comment that the salaries listed are maximums and a department can pay less. The ordinance does not include salaries for the public defender's office.

The Council approved the salary contracts for the Sheriff for both 2024 and 2025. They had previously been approved by the Commissioners. It also approved the contract for its attorney, Jacob Ahler.

Under old business, the Council considered a resolution that says the Council will modify its tax-abatement scorecard to give negative points for commercial solar farms and battery storage facilities. In the discussion one councilman pointed out that the statement that the majority of citizens opposed solar farms had no factual backing. There was a discussion of tax rates and assessed valuation. One member wanted the matter tabled because it had not been available before the meeting and he said he needed time to evaluate it. The motion to table was rejected 2-4. The motion to pass the resolution with one section omitted and another added passed 4-2.

The Sheriff's office wanted to make some promotions so there would be a supervisor on each shift. The Council agreed and will work on implementing it in the next salary ordinance.  The EMS director has resigned and has been replaced by one of the EMTs. The January and February meetings will be in the Court House due to remodeling at the Sparling Annex.

Odds and ends

New County officials were sworn in on Monday evening at the same time as the BZA meeting started.

The rescheduled Tourism Commission meeting was canceled. The next meeting will be in January and it will meet at the meeting room in the Carnegie Center.

The old carriage building that was last used to store stuff for the Fendig Theater is getting a new roof.

Comments on this blog are moderated, which means they do not appear until I review them. The reason for this is that almost half the comments that are submitted are spam. A lot of them seem to be designed for search engine optimization. The more links going to a site, the higher it appears in search-engine results. So I get things from Indonesia and India offering products and services that can not be of interest to the blog readers. 

Another note: Much fuller accounts of the meetings reported on the blog are available in official minutes that can be found on County or City websites. However, they do not get posted until they are approved, which is usually two weeks or a month after the meeting. 

The winter solstice will be on December 21 this year. On that date we will have nine hours and 17 minutes of daylight. By Christmas we will have added 38 seconds more. You can track the changes in daylight at https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/rensselaer-in.

Getting ready for Christmas

 Saving Christmas

The final performance of Saving Christmas will be on Saturday (Dec 14) at the former Ritz Theater (now Truth Bible Church). The admission price is $8.00 and the show begins at 7:00. The play is a musical written by local author Peter Schulenburg.

The story begins with three people arguing about whether Santa is real. They decide to find out by traveling to the North Pole. The action starts off stage as the three travelers sing about being lost in the snow.

But then they see a light and discover Santa's workshop.

They get to meet the elves at the workshop. Different elves inform Santa of two crises. One elf tells him about a boy in a town called Rensselaer who no longer believes in Santa and urges him to show himself to stop "claustrophobia" from spreading. The other, the North Pole Inventory Control Elf or N.I.C.E, informs Santa that work is behind schedule and Christmas needs to be postponed two days.

The explorers save the day by volunteering to help in the workshop making toys.  When the toys are finished, they have to be wrapped. All of these events are celebrated in songs. Some of the tunes are familiar Christmas songs with new words to fit the plot.

Gifts wrapped, they are then loaded into the sleigh.

The presents do not all fit into the sleigh, so a backup sleight must be added, and it takes the three explorers back to where they came from, a town called Rensselaer.

Below is the curtain call, sans curtain.

The play was a lot of fun. It lasted almost exactly an hour. It had two acts, but no intermission between acts. It was a very good community-theater play. 

One of the things that makes the play so enjoyable is the fun the cast has. They love to act and be on stage. There was a very respectable sized crowd on Friday night. 

City Hall

The offices in City Hall had a decorating contest. Below are pictures from the Clerk/Treasurer side of City Hall, where few people ever venture.

The front door to City Hall now has power-door openers recently installed to make the building ADA compliant. Pushing the button opens both doors.

Other

With the help of a façade grant, the old carriage house in the alley behind Fenwick's is being remodeled.

I tried to find out a bit about the history of this building but could not find much. It was once a warehouse. I do not know why it is called the carriage house.