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.

End of July pictures

Two new murals

While at the Art-in-the-Alley festival on Saturday I noticed work on a mural.

It was being painted by Ryan Preston and Cameron Moberg.

It was replacing a mural that had severely deteriorated. I mentioned that the wall did not hold paint and they said it was because of the water coming off the roof. Below is what the back of the building looked like in April. Notice the new mural keeps one bit of the old mural, the "I'm OK" bubble.

The mural in its prime can be seen here.

Rein Bontreger's mural on the back of Unwind Massage seems to be complete because he has signed it.

More County Fair pictures

In a post last week I had some pictures from the County Fair. Here are more.

This exhibit had pig races. A couple of my granddaughters watched a race and thought they were amusing.

I have always liked Ferris wheels.

This is a picture of one of the two funny little people who were roaming around the Fair.

A view toward the barns from outside the Commercial Building.

ConAgra was giving away popcorn.

One of the booths that was scheduled for the Commercial building but did not show was for the Tri-County Bible school. I asked one of the people at the Tri-County Bible Church booth about it and was told the plan is to open in the Fall of 2025 in the Core Building at SJC.

EDP Renewables, which plans to start construction of a wind farm in Carpenter Township in 2025, was giving away a variety of items. The cow stuffed animals were a big hit with my young granddaughters.

Bob's Bumpy Barrels were back again this year.

On Friday evening 4-Hers were taking their goats to the livestock auction.

Below is a picture of what the Fair Board would like to build, an enclosed show arena.

Here is a video of the steam engine in action.

It had a belt connected to a large saw that was cutting planks from logs.

The Fair ended on Saturday night with fireworks. A video is here.

Art in The Alley

The annual Art in The Alley was the first event to be held in the almost completed Filson Park. The fountain was operating and as far as I know, no one waded in. This year the event overlapped the last day of the Fair, which probably hurt attendance.

One of the scheduled events was an improv performance by members of the Carnegie Players.

Unscheduled was a few minutes of dance by a local line-dance group.

While I was there, the biplane and helicopter rides that the Airport had were almost constantly in the air.

Miscellaneous pictures

Bricks are being placed on Van Rensseler. It will take a while to finish this part of the project.

On one of my trips to the Fair, I saw a deer in a soybean field.

Last Thursday workers were beginning to install batting cages near Staddon Field.

Fireworks and Cruise Night

July 4 Fireworks

Again this year the Brookside Church provided a fireworks show on the Fourth of July. Before the show they had the band "Warranted" play for several hours. I did not see a lot of publicity for the fireworks, but the crowd at Brookside Park was huge. The picture below was taken from near the playground equipment and the church building can be seen illuminated by the fireworks.

There were kids having so much fun on the playground equipment that I do not think they watched much or any of the fireworks.

This picture was taken from south of the LaRue Pool and the white lines are the fence post for the fence around the pool. The fireworks on the left were from a private citizen living north of the highway. (Three other private fireworks were visible to the east of the church fireworks.)

Most of my attempts to photograph fireworks do not turn out well. Here are a couple of exceptions.

Here is a video of 32 seconds of the display.

Someone had fun on the Fourth.

Car show and Cruise Night

The 2024 JC Cruiser Car Show was the biggest ever. There were cars from the highway to the pool and from the Creek to the parking lot for Blacker Fields.

A lot of cars meant a lot of trophies to give out.

I wandered around and took some pictures. I have to admit, I am not a car person and have little talent in auto or engine mechanics. I suspect my maternal grandfather and my two maternal uncles pitied me for that shortcoming. My grandfather owned a car dealership in Minnesota in the 1930s and 1940s and in the 1950s and 1960s owned a John Deere dealership with one of his sons. Both of those uncles made a living fixing farm equipment. One of them rebuilt old farm steam engines (used for power before tractors.) I suspect my lack of mechanical ability came from my father's side of the family.

A lot of hoods were up so people could admire the motors.

There were a number of vendors at the event, including one selling hub caps.

The oldest car at the show was a 1908 Buick. It did not join Cruise Night, That was probably a good thing because it left the smell of gasoline behind it.

There was a large crowd for Cruise night. Most were on the west side of the highway so they did not have to look at the setting sun. However, that meant it was very difficult to get a good picture of the crowds. 

Trinity United Methodist Church was handing out free hot dogs and chips in front of Fase's. They did not have as many takers as I expected.

The little pink ice cream truck had a line of customers at Milroy Park.

As I continued toward the downtown I heard more ice-cream-truck music and was wondering where it was coming from. There was a second truck working the route. I suspect there was plenty of business for both.

I was getting ready to leave when the cars from the car show arrived and I took the video below of most of them.

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.