Meetings and some interesting pictures

 Board of Public Works meeting

The Board of Public Works met Monday evening before the City Council meeting. A presentation from Commonwealth Engineering gave a quick update on the I-65 Sewer, Water, & Gas extension. The planning is finished and the Board approved a request for Commonwealth to seek bids for the project. The bids should be ready to open at next month's BPW meeting.

The Board approved an invoice from Commonwealth for $6788 for work on punch list items. They also approved a task order for the preparation of plans for the 7th Street Improvement project. The cost will be $74,799 and will be for designing, preparing permits, and preparing a bid package. Much of the work installing utilities will be done by the City but the paving of the street will be bid out. Some of the cost may be shared with the Redevelopment Commission. The work may be done this year. The Board approved two task orders that have the effect of taking unspent funds from the water-tower project and using them to remove 62 additional lead service lines. The Board was informed that the Park Department plans to demolish its former headquarters building in Iroquois Park.

On Friday the City announced that Walnut Street was closed between Scott and Melville. The reason was that CSX discovered a sinkhole in its tracks just to the west of Melville Street. The cause of the sinkhole was a collapse of a Rensselaer sewer line. The City and CSX responded immediately. Because the sewer line was blocked, it had to be bypassed, and that was done by pumping sewage through pipes from a manhole near Melville to one near Scott. The Board approved an emergency declaration so that some of the red tape could be ignored to get the problem fixed as soon as possible.

Below are some pictures taken Wednesday morning. First, the pump near Melville with the pipes extending to the west on Walnut.

About halfway on Walnut the size of the pipe changes. Notice how the sections are clipped together. I did not see any leakage along the route.

At the west end the pipe empties into a sewer near Scott Street.

I looked for a sinkhole but it had been filled in. Judging from the color of the stone, it was a few yards to the west of Melville. (Video of the meeting is here.)

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The first item on the agenda of Monday's City Council meeting was an ordinance for a fee schedule for zoning and related matters. Several Council members expressed reservations, noting the increases were large and wondering how they compared to what the County and neighboring communities were charging. Rein Bontreger who was at the meeting for another matter, suggested that they ask Mrs DeYoung, head of JCEDO, for comparison data. The item was tabled.

The vacating of an undeveloped alleyway in the northwestern part of the City that had been discussed at a previous meeting was passed on a first reading. It will need to be passed on a second reading to take effect. The gas tracker for February will reflect an 11¢ increase per hundred cubic feet. A quote for ADA improvements for the Electric and Meter Office was tabled because the Mayor wanted more information.

For seven years Rein Bontreger has organized a weekly car-show event during the summer that he calls Cylinders and Snacks. He would like to continue the event for 2025, but switch the location to the brick-street portion of Harrison. The Council approved his use of Harrison from May 22 to September 25 from 5:00 until 7:30.

The Council approved a public relations request of $1500 for the Chamber of Commerce luncheon featuring the Park Department and its new headquarters. They also approved May 5-9 as cleanup week. Later in the meeting Fire Chief Haun announced May 3 would be the date of the town-wide yard sale.

In the comment section, Mr Rayburn asked about a couple of properties and was told that planning was continuing on the renovation of the former R&M building and that appraisals were being sought for the building at Cullen and Clark. Mr Black, the Street Department superintendent, summarized for the Council what had happened at the BPW meeting earlier. He thanked the County for their help. He received approval to hire up to 4 seasonal summer workers. Things are moving along for the Scott Street closing and improvements around the depot.  (Video of the meeting is here.)

Tourism Commission meeting

Because of another commitment I was only able to attend the first part of the Tourism Commission meeting. Two of the four members present were new members, Erica Kingman and Randy Rottler. After approving the minutes of the last meeting, they heard another presentation of Placer AI, a subject that has been discussed for months. The company uses data from cell phones to estimate crowds at locations and can tell where they came from and what businesses they visited. At the Tuesday meeting the Commission finally approved the agreement with the company.

The Touch of Dutch festival had a request for $5000 to support this year's event. It will be the 50th anniversary event and the total budget is $40,000.. The festival will cap the number of vendors at 120. Last year they had 150 and decided that was too many. I had to leave before a decision was made, but I suspect the request was granted.

The Commission had three reports on previous grants on its agenda. The first was for the Jasper County Fair Horse Barn. The JCFA also previewed plans for a new show arena but did not request any money. The Remington Sign Project was on the agenda and I do not know if there was a presentation. The third item was the Carnegie Players who had received a grant of $25,000 to renovate an old church building at 220 N. Franklin. They had submitted a report that said they had replaced the roof on the building which will prevent further damage to the interior. They estimate they need about $100,000 of additional repairs and have raised about $45,000 of that amount.

Airport Authority Board meeting

I got to the Airport Authority Board meeting a bit late because I used the old Zoom address from their website. I got a message that the host was on another feed, so I kept looking and found the correct address on Facebook. I missed the engineer's report and got to hear a discussion of a host of maintenance issues. The new engine for the rental plane has arrived and will be installed before the end of the month. The manager is thinking of replacing the summer aviation camp with a weekly club meeting. There was one bid for the hay lease of $1900 and it was accepted. The Board approved charging the windracer drones $70 a month for a tie-down space. There was a discussion of how to charge crop dusters who are based at the airport. If a crop duster buys fuel from the airport there is no charge for using the airport, but none of them buy the fuel. If they bring their own fuel there is a $100 a day charge. The Board decided the same daily charge should apply whether or not a crop duster rents a hangar. The Airport is almost ready to launch a new website. The Bombers for Academic Excellence (BAE) gave a donation to support the high-school aviation program.

Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce held its February luncheon in the old light plant. There had been so many reservations that the reservations were closed, but it seemed that some who had been intending to attend did not because there was a lot of room left at the tables. Perhaps the threat of bad weather had an impact. Light rain had started before the event began and when it was over there was a dusting of snow on the ground.

As people finished eating, Mayor Phillips and Park Superintendent Heather Hall spoke. The building is old and historic and has good bones, but it is not clear what the best use of it will be. It was built to house heavy machinery and as a result has peculiarities so there will be difficulties transforming it to other uses. The south end has a large open space, but it has a very high ceiling and will be hard to heat. Ball sports inside probably are not a good idea because of the many windows. The City will ask architectural firms for suggestions of what the best use could be but also invites citizens to make suggestions. I think a roller derby arena would be nice, or maybe an indoor shooting range. (I am sure you can come up with better suggestions than mine.)

Around the west wall were several pictures. Below is the original plan for Milroy Park. If you look closely you can see that the Milroy statue is already there. I do not think a fountain was ever built, but I have heard that early on there was a tennis court in the park.

There were several pictures of the old light plant. This one reads: 1925---RENSSELAER'S FIRST DIESEL ENGINE -- INSTALLED IN EXISTING BUILDING Since the schools still relied on the steam, a steam engine was kept available for standby service.

There is a basement under parts of the building but it was not on the tour after the lunch.

A stairway to the basement.

Next to the the room in which we ate there is a smaller room with a wooden floor. The door is an entrance to what will be a new park office. I did not take a picture inside because the light was bad, but Visit Rensselaer did.

At the north end of the building is a shop area, part of which is used by the Park Department and part of which is used by the Electric Department. The current office of the Park Director is in a corner here.

A final look at the luncheon space. Note the heaters.

Odds & ends

Last week's Rensselaer Republican had an interesting article about economic development that highlighted comments by Councilman Paul Norwine. 

Wednesday's snow resulted in early dismissal of school, lots of cancellations, and Rensselaer snow plows clearing snow from City streets. Area schools were closed on Thursday.

Inauguration day 2025

 A ribbon cutting

On Friday morning Brick Built Real Estate Cafe and Coworking had its ribbon cutting. While I waited for more people to arrive, I took pictures of their menu.

In the picture below the owner of the cafe, Kylie Black, is holding the scissors to the right of Mayor Phillips. Next to her is the owner of the Brick Built Realty company, which is headquartered in the South Bend area.. Mrs Black began doing marketing for Brick Built several years ago and that eventually led her to becoming a realtor.

Below is a very short video of the ribbon being cut. (My camera adds these to the pictures I take.)

Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Plan Commission met Thursday evening. It elected Kevin Armold as President, Stan Haines as Vice President, and Krystal Bassett as Secretary. After discussion, it approved the preliminary plat for the St. Joseph's Building & Trades Subdivision. The requirements for curbs and gutters along Sparling and Daugherty Roads were waived and a decision on sidewalks was deferred until phase Four. The approval was contingent on completion of a few minor changes. The assistant street superintendent will inspect water and sewer installation for the first phase. A final plat of the first phase must be completed in three years, of the second phase in 5 years, of the third phase in 14 years, and of phase four in 23 years. Brice Black abstained because as Street Superintendent his department must approve inspections.

The Commission recommended to the City Council a new fee schedule for zoning and subdivision control. I did not see the schedule. It discussed changing the subdivision ordinance so that simple two- or three-lot subdivisions have a simpler process for approval than large subdivisions. This matter will be taken up again in a January 27 meeting at 5:00 before the City Council meeting. The Commission approved the 2025 meeting schedule, with meetings on the third Thursday of the month at 5:30 (and BZA meetings at 6:30). The schedule also has filing deadlines on Tuesdays preceding the meeting at 3:00 pm and a public notice date 14 days prior to the meeting.

I did not stay for the BZA meeting because the agenda only had election of officers and approval of the meeting schedule.

A map of the subdivision is in this post. The only difference between the updated map and this one is that the lot numbers of phase one have been reversed.

Open Houses

On Saturday both Saint Augustine School and the newly-forming Harvest Christian Academy had open houses. I stopped by both.

Saint Augustine School opened in 1903, though not in its present building. The original building was located in the corner of what is now the parking lot. The people visiting while I was there were interested in enrolling in the kindergarten. The announcement of the open house mentioned that the parish was 140 years old. I checked the Hoosier State Chronicles and found these notes in the Rensselaer Republican for 1884 and 1885:

3 Jan 1894 In a long list of improvements in Rensselaer for 1883 and their values:  Additional work on Catholic Church, $1400.

17 April 1884: Last Monday was a great day with our Catholic fellow citizens. Their “rattle'’ came off and the new bell was christened and hoisted to its place in the belfry of their neat little church where it now warns the faithful of their duty three times a day, morning noon and night.

31 July 1884 Mr. Alfred McCoy propounded the question to this pastor of the Catholic congregation, “Why don't you finish your church building?” The pastor replied that they lacked the means. “How much will it take?” said McCoy. The reply was, about $400. “Well,” said McCoy, “go ahead and finish it, put me down for $25. I want to see the boards pulled out of those windows.” Mr. McCoy had already made a donation of $100 towards the building. 

27 Nov 1884 The windows of the new Catholic church are at last being put in place, the furniture of the church will soon arrive, and, we are glad to announce, the building is soon to be dedicated. Bishop Dwenger will be present at the dedication, we understand.

18 Dec 1884  The fine brick church building of our Catholic brethren is now almost completed and furnished. The gallery is now in process of erection, and when that is completed the building will be ready for dedication. The dedication services will take place as soon as Bishop Dwenger can spare a Sunday for the purpose. 

8 Jan 1885 The Dedication of the new Catholic church will take place on Sunday, January 18th, 1885, Bishop Dwenger officiating.

That first church building was demolished long ago to make room for the current building. However, the open house was exactly 140 years after the dedication of the first St. Augustine church.

The Harvest Christian Academy is planning to open this fall in one wing of the Core Building. Their slogan is already on their entrance to their wing of the Core Building.

Both Saint Augustine's and Harvest Academy were telling parents of the vouchers available in Indiana that can be used for students in private schools. The cost for many students attending a private school is about the same as attending a public school.

Harvest Academy had one classroom staged to show what a Kindergarten or first-grade classroom might look like.

Odds & ends

Aydas purchased a building next to the Ritz some time ago and their plans did not work out. Here is their explanation of what happened.

JCEDO announed two more façade grants.

The new façade at Short Cuts looks like it is finished except for signage. It was done without a façade grant.

Adam Alson has resigned from the board of Apple Seed and refers questions to the new director, Anthony Butler. Appletree would not have happened if not for the dedication and persistence of Mr Alson.

Bazz's roller rink is now offering breakfasts.

I had planned to publish this post after two County meetings on Tuesday, but decided waiting would make this post too long. The County meetings will wait for the next post.

A few bits of news

Park Board meeting

The Rensselaer Park Board met Monday evening. They heard details about an upcoming event, the Woodchuck-It Disc Golf Tournament scheduled for February 1. One purpose of the event is to raise funds for concrete tee pads for the disc golf course. Playing the course gives a person a one-mile walk. There is hope that a disc-golf league might be established this summer.

The move of the Park office from Iroquois Park to the old light plant continues. There is hope that the new office may be able to host the February Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Upcoming projects include new metal roofs for the pool house and the Gifford Shelter. 

The Park Superintendent mentioned that she was exploring using the website SeeMyLegacy for fundraising, highlighting memorials and other park features, and informing the public about the parks. The Board discussed fees for renting Filson Park and its shelter. Ultimately they decided to charge $250 to rent the whole park for a day and $75 to rent just the shelter. Those fees might not apply to civic organizations doing events open to the public.

The leases of the Blacker Fields for tournaments have been signed but there was no mention of how many tournaments are scheduled. This year there will be no fencing to help collect entrance fees. There was a discussion of the dog park and of a person who has not been following the rules of the dog park.

When asked what the future use of the Iroquois building that has been serving as Park headquarters, the Park Superintendent said that she hopes it can be demolished. That would open up the back section of Iroquois Park that presently is not used. A board member asked about Columbia Park and was told that a lot of maintenance has recently been done there, significantly improving its appearance. There is an effort underway to have the park baseball teams play teams from surrounding communities.

Now open

The space that was occupied by S- blended Nutrition is now Brick Built Real Estate Cafe & Coworking. The smoothies are mostly gone, replaced with coffee and snacks. The official opening and ribbon cutting will be January 17. 

The space also serves as an office for the local branch of Brick Built Real Estate. The main office is in Granger and most of the realtors are in the South Bend region. I asked about the very untraditional feel of this office and was basically told that it was a feature, not a bug.

The co-working part is free. They have free wi-fi and anyone can come in, set up a laptop, and work. In addition to tables designed for eating, there are three that are specifically designed for computer use.

There are some very comfortable chairs in the front.

The S-blended business used one supplier for its drinks. The Brick Built Cafe will be using more local suppliers for its coffee and food items. Check out this new, or sort-of-new, business.

Other

On Wednesday the Chamber of Commerce had a luncheon with Christine Bogan, a financial advisor at Edward Jones, as the speaker. She touched on many topics, including ways to and the need to accumulate an emergency fund. Something that younger people may not realize is that the money tucked away in retirement accounts to avoid income taxes will eventually be taxed when the holder reaches the mandatory age, which keeps changing. It is now 73, up from 72 last year, which in turn was up from 70.5. If you have IRAs or can transfer other retirement savings to an IRA and you make charitable gifts to not-for-profit organizations, you may find that you can cut taxes with qualified charitable distributions from an IRA. However, you must be at least 70.5 when the distribution is made. I think most or all the local non-profits get at least some of their donations in this form.

On Thursday evening Mount Hood Pizza announced on its Facebook page:

We would like to announce the merger of Not Your Typical Wingz with Mt Hood Pizza & Grill!

We are excited about the addition of Robert Hearod as Co-Owner. Robert brings not only his food experience background but his FULL MENU from Not Your Typical Wingz!

Addendum: I initially forgot to mention where the painting shown in the previous post was. The comment on the post identified it as Dr Markley's office, which is in the Huth-Thompson building on Drexel Drive.

Approaching mid November 2024

 The Wine Room

There is a new business in Rensselaer, The Wine Room. It is located in the old REMC building, now named Toplink Business Center. The Wine Room occupies the corner of the building next to Kellner and Cullen and is quite large.

A closer look at the Christmas-Tree manikin from the picture above.

A view of the other half of the room.

It is a very pleasant space and I think it would be a good space for some kinds of events and parties. I am not the target audience, but I will be watching to see how the business develops.

The owner of the business also owns Erica's Boutique on Front Street. 

A year ago there was a ribbon cutting for Hometown Mortgage in this building. It no longer is listed on the window sign so I think it has abandoned this office. Hometown Mortgage is located in DeMotte and the Rensselaer office was a satellite office.

Across the street, what was ASG Staffing has a new name, Verstela.

City meetings

On Tuesday afternoon the Rensselaer Board of Public Works had its shortest meeting that I can remember. It lasted two minutes. The only item on the agenda was a vote to affirm a sewer bond anticipation note agreement. I am not sure what this does but the City's financial advisor, Baker Tilly, wanted it done.

After a long wait, it was time for the City Council meeting. There had been mention at the previous meeting that this meeting might be streamed over the Internet, but the equipment was not yet in place. The first item was a presentation of and vote on a rate ordinance and bond ordinance for the upcoming sewer project. There are two parts to this project that is mandated by the State, a upgrade to and expansion of the sewer plant that is estimated to cost $19 million and a combined sewer overflow project that will have an estimated initial cost of $9 million. The State Revolving Fund (SRF) will finance the first of those with a 20-year interest-free loan but the second will have to be financed with a bond that will pay interest. To pay back this debt, the utility will need to raise rates and the City will raise them in three steps. Currently a customer using 4000 gallons of water a month has a sewage bill of about $56. The rate ordinance will raise that to $73 in 2025, to $90 in 2026, and to $102 in 2027. Without the interest-free loan from the SRF, the bill in 2026 would be $108. The City will try to get as many bids as possible for this work in hopes of getting lower prices but there are few contractors who do this type of work. There will be a public hearing on December 9 on the rate ordinance. The Council suspended the rules to allow the bond ordinance to be passed at this meeting.

The Rensselaer Urban Forest Council gave a report on what it has been doing. Since 2008 it has planted 987 trees. However, 1070 trees have been removed. Not stated is that many of them were ash trees that were killed or damaged by the emerald ash borer.

The Council had a second reading of an ordinance to close the Scott Street railroad crossing and then passed the ordinance with Mr Armold voting against. The gas tracker for November will be a small decrease in rates. The City supply bids for gasoline and diesel were awarded to Keystone Cooperative, the successor to Ceres Solutions. The Council approved two public relations requests, one for the retirement of two City employees and the other for an employee Christmas party.

Rensselaer received a Community Crossings grant of $733,623 to improve roads. The Mayor would like to apply for a grant to build a trail from Rensselaer to the Interstate. The Council approved the application. The Rensselaer City budget has been approved by the State. The Fire Department 1996 pumper is down again and there is no estimate yet on what it will cost to fix it. The City continues to gradually replace lead service lines. The City received reimbursement for some CDL training of employees. If the weather cooperates, a new mural will be started on the LaRue pool bath house.

Other meetings

The Tourism Commission meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning was canceled because it would lack a quorum. (I could have gone to the Alcohol Review Board meeting instead but I forgot that it meets at the same time the Tourism Commission meets.) There was nothing exciting on the agenda. Members who missed the June presentation on Placer.ai were invited to view the demo video on Zoom. You can see what Placer.ai does in a June post.

The Airport Authority met Tuesday evening but the Rensselaer City Council meeting conflicted because they moved their meeting due to Veterans' Day.

Odds and ends

The local races in Election 2024 were rather uninteresting. The only County races that were contested were the three at-large County Council seats and the Republican candidates easily won those. There will be a number of new County officials come 2025 (two new commissioners, a new council member, a new auditor, and a new judge), but they were mostly determined in the Republican primary, which had quite a few contested races. 

On Friday I drove to Monticello and was delayed in Monon by a train that stopped across the tracks. While I waited, I took a picture of a new mural that Monon has. It is by a local artist, Romulo Diaz. who seems to be a tattoo artist.

The White County paper has an article about the mural and also the other murals in Monon. There is a big mural by Cameron Moberg that is on a north-facing wall that I tried to photograph once but the light was bad. Here is a decent picture of it.

On Monday a Veterans' Day Ceremony was held at Weston Cemetery.

Veterans' Day was established to commemorate the end of WWI with an armistice beginning on November 11 at 11:00 in 1918. Memorial Day was established to commemorate those who died in the Civil War. Veterans' Day honors all vets; Memorial Day honors those who died in service.

Windows downtown are being painted again this year with Christmas decorations. These first two are on Brick Street Ice Cream.

City Hall

The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce office.

And finally the start of one on Gallina Insurance

Three--make that two--ribbon cuttings

Ribbon cutting for a revived greenhouse

On Wednesday the Rensselaer branch of the Indiana Ag and Tech School (IATS) held a ribbon cutting for the reopening of a green house on the SJC campus. The green house was abandoned when SJC suspended operations in 2010 2017. This year IATS moved its Rensselaer location from the Fairgrounds to the campus and decided to take advantage of the greenhouse.

When I saw the announcement I assumed that they had fixed the old hoop house. They had not. Instead they had repaired a smaller building next to it that included a small greenhouse and a classroom behind it.

The skeleton of the hoop house remains but it will take some work to restore it. That may happen next spring.

Before the ribbon cutting, students who had worked to restore the building spoke. They mentioned that the building was full of mouse droppings and they began cleaning it wearing hazmat suits. They had to replace some of the panels of the green house and there was a lot of work needed to get the hydroponics part of the greenhouse working. They also cleaned, painted, and refinished floors in the classroom part of the building. They were proud of what they had accomplished and deservedly so.

The Rensselaer branch has about 35 students. IATS is a public charter school that draws students from as far away as Clinton County. After the ribbon cutting I had a guide take me through the building and he was an eighth grader from the Rossville area. The bulk of their classroom work is done on-line using Edgenuity, a national provider of on-line instruction. Once a week, on Wednesdays, they meet together at SJC.

Below is a picture of the ribbon cutting. The people on either side of the door are IATS students.

Below is a very short video showing the ribbon being cut.

Below is the classroom behind the greenhouse. There are also some storage closets and a small room used to germinate plants.

To keep the plants from freezing in the winter, the greenhouse has a heating unit.

Those attending were treated to some homemade cookies after the ribbon cutting.

I asked a couple of students why they chose IATS. One girl said she lived on a farm and entered many animals in 4H, but the key to her choosing IATS seemed to be that she was bullied at her regular school. I wish I had talked to more of them and gotten their stories.

Fall fun at Filson Park

A ribbon-cutting event had been scheduled for Filson Park Thursday evening but it was postponed because one of the principals was ill. However, the rest of the planned activities took place including a concert, pumpkin carving, roasting hot dogs, making smores, and the movie, "Hocus Pocus".

The bird that for the past few years has been sitting outside eMbers has a new home. It was given to the City but until now the City had no place to display it.

This ringed globe is new. It was provided by the Prairie Arts Council.

The fire hydrant on the corner has been made into an art piece.

A lot of asphalt patching has been done recently, including around the new sidewalks at Filson Park.

Fire tower dedication

I left Filson Park before the sun set to get ready to go the second planned ribbon cutting of the day. That ceremony began with about 20 minutes of various people thanking the many people who contributed to the planning and building of the fire tower.

There was no ribbon cutting. Instead two hoses were uncoupled. The people standing above were firefighters from Rensselaer with a few from neighboring departments.

Then the best part of the evening began. Those attending were invited to explore the tower, which is constructed from shipping containers. There are many hallways that have white walls. They may not stay white after bales of hay are set on fire as part of training.

Metal stairs take up a lot of the room inside.

I kept climbing until I reached the top so I could take some pictures. The final ascent was on a ladder, not stairs. The bright lights made it hard to get pictures in some directions. Below is the view looking to the east. Notice the partial circle next to the building. That is around a second ladder, this one on the outside of the building. I contemplated descending using it but decided to go back down the way I had come up.

Below is the view of the fire station from atop the fire tower.

Coming back down I left the building to go onto the deck that the firefighters had used for the uncoupling picture. 

After leaving the building, I thought the southeast corner was lit very nicely so I stopped and took a picture. Notice the cage around the ladder mentioned earlier.

The tower will provide training not only for fire fighters from around the state but for other first responders including police and EMTs. One of the reasons that Rensselaer wanted this is to reduce the burden of traveling for training. There is a lot of training needed to become a fireman and if it includes frequent trips lasting a couple of hours, that makes the training burdensome.

Odd and ends

On Thursday morning we had another patchy frost. The first light frost was a week earlier. The first frost damaged some of my garden plants but I do not think it killed any.

Work on converting the old tennis courts at Brookside Park to pickleball courts continues. On Wednesday the foundation was being prepared.

The next step was to put on a layer of crushed stone.

I was asked if I knew what was happening with YNG. I do not know but the large space that they rented in the College Mall is empty. (Update: See comment at end.)

Finally, a picture of Fall.