Lots happening in July

 Murals

Work on this summer's murals has begun. Below is a picture taken on Saturday morning of the water tower near I-65. (Note to self: the lighting will be better in the afternoon,)

A closer look.

The artist is Cameron Moberg. He did one other mural in Rensselaer this year, a wall in the gymnasium at the Rensselaer Middle School. After he finishes the tower, he will do a mural in Remington.

The City of Rensselaer Facebook page has an earlier view of this mural.

One the way back from taking the above pictures, I encountered some wildlife that I rarely see.

Seussical

The Fendig Theatre for Children presented Seussical last week. Seussical is far from my favorite play, but it was an excellent choice for a Theatre for Children. It had excellent and very colorful costumes, energetic choreography, and was well cast. On Friday night I thought the sound track was too loud as it drowned out some of the solo singers but I was told that the volume was lower on Saturday. (In the distant past, they had a pit band. It would be nice to bring it back.)

Before the performance there was an announcement that people should not take pictures, so I did not. However, I have several pictures taken on Wednesday at a preview at the Cup of Joy Cafe, Too. Pictured below are Thing 2, Thing 1, Sour Kangaroo, and Horton the Elephant. The story is a mishmash of 15 books by Dr. Seuss, with most of the plot involving Horton.

The Cat in the Hat had a major role and did an excellent job.

Next year will be the 50th year for the Summer Theater. The first performance I saw was The Hobbit in 1978. It was, if I remember correctly, performed in the basement of St Augustine Church and they cut battle scenes because they seemed too violent. The first play one of my children was in was Annie in 1984. My kids were in crowd scenes or with only one or two lines, with one exception. A son played Winthrop in the Music Man (1992) and did an excellent job.

Sidewalks

Almost all of the concrete work is finished for the Brick Street Project. On Thursday a separator strip had been poured where Van Rensselaer meets the highway.

Also on Thursday the sidewalk on Harrison was being poured.

On Friday the sidewalk on Ayda's corner was finished

as was the sidewalk on Harrison next to the Courthouse.

Below is a picture taken on Friday of the crossing of Harrison next to SR 114.

On Saturday the last bit of sidewalk was poured, at the end of the alley that leads to Van Rensselaer Street.

Next the contractors will fill the streets with dirt and gravel to get them ready for the bricks.

Jasper County Plan Commission meeting

The Jasper County Plan Commission met Monday evening with a two-part item on its agenda, a rezone from A1 to A2 and a primary approval of a two-lot subdivision. The property is in Barkley Township and the parcel is about ten acres, which is large enough for only one residence because it is zoned A1. The purpose of the change in zoning was to allow the establishment of a two-lot subdivision, which would allow a second residence to be placed on this ten acre lot. Both requests passed.

Odds & ends

As mentioned in the previous post, the Clinic of Family Medicine has moved into its new Washington Street location. Below is a picture of the reception area.

All clinics seem to have hallways. Here is the one for the Clinic of Family Medicine. The interior has been completely remodeled.

A bit down the street the exterior of Earth Body Magic Potions is having its façade renewed.

On Sunday the Good Samaritan Food Pantry had an open house at their new location. They had a ribbon cutting in April.

The Iroquois River did not hit flood stage after the rains that came with the remnants of Beryl, but the recent rains since then may send it to flood stage. As I write this it is at 10.52 feet and still rising.

The Japanese beetles are back but do not seem to be as bad as they were a few years ago.

I had an unexpected and quite improbable meeting on Sunday morning as I was leaving the house. A car drove by and then turned around and out popped a former SJC colleague of mine. He was returning to his home in Bloomington and had gotten off the Interstate because it was congested. We had a short chat because I was on my way to church and did not want to be late. We agreed that SJC had been poorly run and the problem was not just a few people at the top but it ran deep.

The County Fair is coming. Enjoy it.

Beryl arrived

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl arrived Tuesday and have given us three or four inches of rain. The Iroquois River is rising.

Sidewalk updates

The sidewalks on the southwestern part of Filson Park are finished. Below is a stretch of the sidewalk along Kellner Street as it was on July 2.

On that date there was still a bit missing leading to the fountain.

And by the shelter.

On July 3 the two sections that were ready for concrete on the Second had been poured.

The completed sidewalk on the Courthouse side of Van Rensselaer taken on the Third.

There were workers spraying white stuff on the new sidewalk.

On Monday, July 8 there was what appeared to be a second curb along Van Rensselaer. I asked a City employee what it was for and was told that there will be a strip of bricks that will permeable to water along the edges so there will not be pools of water after rain.

The Fourth weekend and now rain have slowed progress on these projects.

City meetings

The Rensselaer Board of Public Works met Monday afternoon and approved paying three claims all for work on the water-tower project: Commonwealth Engineering $42,555, Maguire Iron $162,806, and Grimmer Construction $56,600. They approved an update to the water project that will shift some funds around allowing Commonwealth Engineering to complete its work. Finally, they approved a 700-page Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) document for the Police Department. This update will not result in any substantial changes in the way the Department operates but brings their SOP up to date with changes in State Law and recent court decisions.

The Rensselaer City Council also met on Monday evening for an unusually long meeting. The first item on the agenda was a lengthy presentation from Baker Tilly of utility financial reports. The Baker-Tilly representative gave the Council members a lengthy handout which contained the information he presented on the computer monitors. He summarized the status of the five City utilities and was especially interested in how the projected case cash reserves of each utility would compare to the minimum recommended cash reserves. If cash reserves were projected to fall below the minimum recommended, that might indicate that a rate adjustment was needed.

The first utility he presented was the water utility. Currently its cash reserves are above the minimum recommended, but the projections showed it falling below that minimum in less than two years if costs keep rising. The top ten water users account for 13% of water revenue. There are three bonds outstanding and the bond payments are $670,000 annually and that level will continue for 15 more years. Well #9 will need an upgrade in 2028 and that is projected to cost more than a million. The consultant expected that the Council would need to raise rates in a year or two.

The cash reserves for the Sewer Utility are already below the minimum recommended level and the consultant said this was the utility that needs the earliest rate adjustment. The ten largest users account for 20% of revenues. There are four bonds outstanding but in 2030 there will be a drop in payments. The City is currently reducing costs in the Sewer utility by paying some of the workers from the Water utility. He mentioned several options to cut costs but expects the City to need at least a 20% increase in fees.

The gas utility is in good financial shape. 65% of its costs are from the purchase of natural gas but the monthly rate tracker adjusts the customer bill for changes in the cost of gas. the ten largest customers account for 27% of revenue. The bond payments are level until 2038.

The electric utility is also in good financial shape. 72% of its cost is for the purchase of power and like the gas utility the tracker (quarterly in the case of electricity) adjusts bills to reflect this cost. The top ten users account for 47% of revenue. Some of the bond payments will end in 2028. However, there are several smaller capital projects on the horizon (a new transformer, substation, and power line) that are projected to cost about $4 million. How these will be financed is uncertain and the details of that financing will determine if a future rate hike is necessary.

The last utility discussed is the newest, the sanitation utility. Rensselaer's fee of $19 per month is on the high side but other Indiana communities are catching up. The main problem facing the sanitation utility is the need to purchase a new garbage truck. Some ways of financing that purchase might need a rate hike. An option would be to have the purchase funded from City funds, but that may cause other problems. The City has little or no control over its revenues from income and property taxes but it can control utility fees, so it may not be a good idea to fund utility items from tax funds,

The rest of the meeting went quickly. The Council approved closing a block of Van Rensselaer Street for OktoberFest on September 28. If the Brick Street Project is not substantially complete by then, the backup plan is to use Filson Park. The gas tracker for July reflects a three cent increase per hundred cubic feet. The Council approved Grimmer Brick Street pay request #4 and also approved an update that allows Commonwealth Engineering more flexibility in monitoring the project. The City attorney is working on an agreement between the Electric Department and Park Department for use of part of the light plant. The Police Department was busy with traffic stops on Cruise Night. There was a crash, a car fire and a tree fire. The Mayor asked the Council to think about purchasing a parking lot for an EV charging station. The erection of the fire tower should happen in the first part of August. The Council approved a quote of $3500 to fix a roof leak in City Hall.

Tourism Board meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Board had a short and uneventful meeting on Tuesday morning. It approved $3000 for drone footage of the water tower mural. There were two quotes and the choice of which to use was not decided in the vote. The Tourism director would like to have full rights to the footage, allowing her to use it in future promotional materials and it is not clear if one of the companies will allow that. Jasper County Tourism is now a member of the Indiana Tourism Association. One of the members mentioned that DeMotte will be getting a Wendy's Restaurant. The next meeting is scheduled for August 13.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Jasper County Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening and because of the rain I attended via Zoom. One of the Airport engineers said that the FAA had only minor comments of the last chapter of the Master Plan that was submitted and work will continue on the next chapter. Some Airport property that was of interest to a private buyer has been appraised and there is a chance that it could be swapped for land that the Airport wants. The Finance Committee will probably meet next month before the regular meeting. There was a rather long discussion whether renters of the Airport's plane should be required to have renter's insurance but no action was taken. There was shorter discussion of issues involved in maintaining the rental aircraft and the Board approved going to inspections every 100 hours of use. 32 kids got to fly in the Young Eagles event. There are two hangar vacancies, both in the old hangar. 

Helicopter rides are scheduled for July 20-21 and July 27-28 and Biplane rides on July 25-28.

Odds and ends

On June 27th, Appleseed's Adam Alson spoke at the National Child Care Innovation Summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Video of the panel he was on is here.

The Clinic of Family Medicine has moved into their new Washington Street quarters.

Saint Augustine's parish had a visiting priest last weekend and why he was visiting was unusual. The priest, who served many years in the military, is a pilot and his plane needed repairs. He said the best place for those repairs was here in Rensselaer at Excel-Air. He flew in from Vermont but customers from this distance are not unusual at Excel-Air. I believe it is recognized as one of the best shops to service Grumman planes. See their website here.

A short post to start May

 Medical signs

In the previous post I had pictures of a sign for the Clinic of Family Medicine being installed downtown. According to its website, The Clinic of Family Medicine has three medical providers: Dr Robert Darnaby, Family Nurse Practitioner Sharon Johnson, and Nurse Practitioner Debra Drescher. They have not moved yet as the renovation of their downtown office is not finished.

What used to be the Clinic of Family Medicine is now three offices of Franciscan Health: Working Well, Express Care, and HealtheAccess. 

These services have moved from the building to the west, which is now vacant.

It has a sign in one of the windows saying the space is available.

The property tax record from the County says this building has 3142 square feet and the former Clinic of Family Medicine has 5312 square feet.

The Liberty Clinic of Dr. Randy Lehman is now operating out of the Hospital. Dr Lehman posted a video on Facebook that explains what he is doing and why.

The Clinic of Family Medicine is now operating from the building to the south and east of the building Franciscan is using.

It is open four days a week and on the fifth day the building is used by Lafayette Pain Care.

Odds and Ends

The Food Pantry has a sign in front of their building along the highway.

Over the weekend the Chamber of Commerce sponsored Daffodil Days, which featured a scavenger hunt to get people to visit the participating businesses. I picked up the goodie bag but decided I did not want to enter the drawing for the big prizes. (I am too old to want more stuff.) The goodie bag had some pens, some popcorn, a fan that folded up in a funny way, and a coupon for a free cookie at McDonalds. I used the coupon and was surprised that there were no customers inside. I asked the lady who waited on me how much business is through the drive-up and she said over 80%. There always seems to be cars in the drive up.

On Friday the City's Gas Utility hosted an 811-Awareness event with a free lunch.

You can find better pictures here.

I sat by some City officials and some County candidates joined them a bit later. One of the County candidates noted that the issues that concern people in the northern part of the County are completely different from those that concern people in the southern part of the County.

We had a frost on the morning of April 25. Hopefully that will be the last frost of the season. I saw someone on Facebook asking when the peach trees would bloom. Mine bloomed two or three weeks ago and had very few flowers. Apparently the cold snap in January has largely destroyed this year's crop in our area.

We have had a very wet spring and you can see it in the rise and fall of the Iroquois. The graph below is from the gauging station at Laird's Landing.

I do not see much activity in the fields. They are too wet to work. The oak trees are leafing out, which may mean it is time to plant some of the more sensitive plants in the garden.

Work on the Brick Street Project continues. Last week there was a pile of stuff found under the streets. 

The workers keep digging and filling holes.

More large concrete structures are being put in. I believe this is part of a sewer line.

Almost all of the sidewalks on both sides of the brick-streets part of Harrison Street have been removed.

This Saturday we will have the opening of the Farmers Market and the Town-Wide Garage Sale. On Friday is the Fire Department's fish and chicken dinner. Tickets are $14 for adults, which may seem a bit expensive, but it is all you can eat (and some people can eat a lot.)

Next Tuesday is primary election day. If you have not voted early, you can vote at any of the ten voting centers in the County. The two that are most convenient for Rensselaer are at the armory and the Fairgrounds. This week's Rensselaer Republican is devoted to previewing all the contested races.

April showers

 Ribbon Cutting

The Good Samaritan Food Pantry has moved to a new location on College Avenue behind Pizza King. The new location has about triple the floor space that the old location had. 

In brief remarks before the ribbon was cut, the Food Pantry thanked the Walters for their many years of being landlords who charged below market rates for rent. Also thanks for those who rehabilitated the new quarters and helped with the move.

Commissioners meeting

The Jasper County Commissioners met for their April meeting on Monday. They quickly approved three buried cable permits: one for broadband in the Georgetown Subdivision,  a second for NIPSCO repairing a gas pipeline in Remington, and a third for Farm Builders for extending a water main from Remington.

Judge Potter gave them the same presentation about public defenders that he had given to the County Council in March. He noted that while the $50,000 that Jasper County pays public defenders seems like a lot, other counties are paying more and offering benefits. He mentioned Cass County, which pays $80. He also said that there is a shortage of lawyers, giving some numbers of area counties with Warren County having none. He suggested that a joint meeting of the Commissioners and Council might find a solution and Mr Bontreger suggested that a May meeting might be arranged.

A person from Pulse Technology answered questions about a new postage machine that the Extension/Surveyor would like. Currently they use either the postage machine at the jail or the Courthouse. The Commissioners approved a lease. Corrections received approval to submit its annual grant application to the Department of Corrections. They are asking for $724,003 and if they get that amount would like to hire a recovery counselor, someone who has overcome addiction to help the inmates deal with their additions. They also received approval to replace and add security cameras. The Commissions signed a contract with Phegley Construction for remodeling the Community Corrections kitchen.

The Sheriff's Department received approval to release a vehicle to EMS. The Commissioners approved the Farmers' Market use of the Court House parking lot on Saturdays from May to October and on Tuesday afternoons after 4:30 during July and August.

The Health Department had several requests. As a result of a change in State funding, they have to spend down an account and would like to use the money to purchase two vehicles. They will look for vehicles and bring the results back to the Commissioners for approval. They want to hire a new nurse to do things that they are not currently doing and the position will be paid by State funding. The Commissioners approved. They also received permission to change some hours. Because most of the State is on Eastern time, the current hours cause some problems. Finally, the Commissioners approved hiring a part-time EMS director.

The Commissioners approved the rezone from A1 to A3 for Rose Acres that the Plan Commission had recommended. They approved an updated contract for the Recorder's Office that allows the public to find documents electronically. They also approved a conflict of interest statement that allows an employee of the Sheriff's Department to sell a K-9 dog to the Department. They adjusted that start time of future Commissioner meetings from 8:15 to 8:30. The old start time seemed to have been set so County employees who arrived at work in the Courthouse had a few minutes to settle in before the Commissioners meeting began. Now that the meetings are no longer in the Court House, 8:30 seems more convenient.

A citizen had relayed concern about speed limits on the roads around DeMotte. The Highway Department is working on a proposal. The Auditor needs to replace a deputy auditor and was given the OK. Early voting at the Courthouse for the primary election will begin April 9. Andrew Boersma expressed concerns about the speed limits on the highways bordering Wheatfield. The meeting was continued until April 15 at 8:30 if needed.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting was short. The request for a variance to locate a garage on a ditch easement that was considered in March and tabled was tabled again. https://rensselaeradventures.blogspot.com/2024/03/early-march-2024-meetings.html

In several recent meetings there was discussion of replacing a tile alongside a road that is failing. At this meeting they opened two bids and accepted the higher bid because the lower bid had stipulations that they believed could not be met. The bid was for $21,400 and materials will cost $38511. The materials could be purchased from the Bridge Cumulative fund but there was a question about how the labor costs could be funded. They approved the bid pending taking money from the Bridge Cumulative fund.

The Surveyor had received a petition to clean a ditch whose name I did not catch. The Board approved having him start the process that will end in a public hearing.

Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission held a short meeting on Monday afternoon. Left over from the March meeting was a request for funding from Apple Seed that had been tabled. Apparently Apple Seed provided more financial data since that meeting, but the Board decided it was not enough and wanted financial data from Right Steps, the organization that actually runs the Apple Tree center. The request was tabled again.

A woman from Baker Tilly was on Zoom to discuss the TIF Management Report that Baker Tilly had prepared. I could not read the very small print on the screen and did not have a copy of the report. The Commission acknowledged that they had received the report. It then reviewed and approved a contract with Baker Tilly for future reports.

Park Board meeting

The Park Board met later Monday evening. It heard a presentation of summer programming for 2024 and approved it. Most or all of the events from 2023 will return for 2024, though some will be revised. There will be theme days/dollar days at the pool on Fridays in July and on June 19 the pool will celebrate its 75 birthday. There was a discussion of tournaments at Blacker Fields. Not all of the dates for tournaments have confirmed concession workers. The next meeting will be on May 6.

Notes

Below are a few pictures from the Brick Streets project. At the end of last week almost all of the bricks on Harrison had been removed from the street.

At the end of last week and the beginning of this week, workers had dug into Harrison Street south of the brick streets. I think the pipe in the trench is for storm sewers, but it may be something else.

The new water main had been installed under most of Harrison last week. 

The Walgreens in Monticello is scheduled to close on April 3.

Our April showers are causing the River to rise. As I write this on Tuesday evening, the gage at Laird's Landing says it is over ten feet and the level is still rising. Will it hit flood stage at 12 feet?

It's a hot time in the old town

We are having a heat wave and that means there are lots of people using the LaRue Pool. The water is refreshing and not as cold as it has often been this early in the swim season.

The high school tennis courts are being redone with a concrete base. I cannot tell if there will be six courts as in the past or if there will be more.

Also being renovated is the bowling alley. Work has encountered problems.

Main Street Bakery has a food truck that is sometimes parked next to the bakery.

The Cylinders and Snacks car event takes place every Thursday evening on Front Street. Last Thursday there were about a dozen cars on display.

This week the Carnegie Players are presenting the play "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" on June 16, 17, & 18 at the Presbyterian Church at 7:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased at the Willow Switch or Browns Garden Center. (SJC did this play in 2010.)

Below is a picture of a building wall somewhere in Rensselaer. Do you know where it is?

BPW

The Board of Public Works met late on Monday afternoon. It approved three pay invoices, two from Commonwealth Engineering and one from Thieneman Construction. One of the Commonwealth invoices was for work on the Elevated Water Storage & Water Main Replacement Project  and the other for the Main Lift Station & Unsewered Areas. They also approved a change order extending the time to completion of the Lift Station and Sewer project.

The heavy rains last week have delayed work on the lift station project as Weston Pond reappeared. The river rose but crested a foot below minor flood stage. 

Frogs were very happy with the water. I wonder if it will last long enough for their tadpoles to mature to frogs.

City Council meeting

The City Council meeting on Monday evening had a short agenda. The Council recognized an employee for ten years of service and approved the June gas tracker which reflects an increase of 20¢ per hundred cubic feet of use. The Council approved the lower of two quotes for removal of 32 trees. Fifteen of them are along the east side of US 231 south of the College. The accepted bid was for $12,500.

Noelle Weishaar noted that she had dealt with a citizen's complaints about dogs and said that in doing so she had discovered that the City's dog ordinance was seriously out of date. The Police Chief and City Attorney said they would see if they could begin revising it. Hiring an outside consultant to do the work would be very expensive. There was some wondering how many of the other old City ordinances should be revised or repealed. 

The Council approved a request for $250 for Kids Night at the Farmers Market (July 19). Work has begun on separating the storm sewers on Thompson Street from the combined sewer line. In the next meeting there will be a presentation from a company that is somehow involved in distance working. On June 25 there will be a memorial for Mike Riley in Potawotomie Park at 3:00. A tree and plaque are already there.