A few last days of summer

 More pictures from downtown

On Thursday evening the Harrison Street/Van Rensselaer Street intersection was almost finished. It needs to be finished in a week for Oktoberfest. Notice how the use of differet colored bricks outlines the crosswalk.

Work continues in Filson Park. New pillars at the entrance on Kellner match the brick pillars in the downtown parking lots. I believe there will be an entrance arch over these pillars.

New street signs match those being installed for the brick streets.

The bases for light poles are ready.

Jasper County Council meeting

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening. The September meeting is the meeting in which the Council reviews budgets for several taxing units and then approves them in the October meeting. First up was the Rensselaer Central School Corporation. The Council reviews this budget because the School Board is appointed, not elected.

Mr Craig, the superintendent of the School Corporation, read a budget summary and commented on parts of it. (Some of those numbers might be available on the Indiana Gateway site, here.) He noted that assessed valuation was up 12% and that should lead to a lower tax rate. The School Board had scheduled a vote on a new bond issue at its meeting later Tuesday night that would fund new doors and windows at the highs school, new light poles for the football field, gutters for Van Rensselaer, new bleachers for the middle school gym, and new auditorium lighting at the high school. In addition to tax revenues, the schools are funded by the State, which gives $8000 for each student enrolled. That money is used to pay teachers. He said that enrollment was up this year, but the trend for recent years is smaller enrollments. The peak number of students was in the 1970s. The rise in enrollments this year was in the grade and middle school. High school was down and he attributed that to kids choosing on-line schools. The school officials then left to get to the School Board meeting.

Next the Council considered the County budget. Again a bunch of numbers were read. Most County employees will be getting a $2500 pay increase for next year. A flat increase of this sort benefits lower-income employees more than higher-income employees. A new public defender system will change the 2025 budget. The Sheriff is changing the pay schedule of his employees to a percentage of his salary, which in turn is a percentage of the Prosecutor's salary. The vote on the budget will take place at the October meeting.

The Council next reviewed the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District budget. This budget had not been approved by the District's Board because the last meeting did not have a quorum. To help it meet future quorums, the Council appointed Jason Armold to serve on the board. The District is completely funded by tipping fees at the landfills in Newton and White Counties. The Jasper County Council reviews the budget because Jasper County has the highest assessed valuation of the counties served by the district.

The Council then reviewed the budget of the Iroquois Conservancy, which clears log jams from the Iroquois River. This year the Conservancy has added those parts of Benton County that are in the watershed of the Iroquois River.

Before approving the August minutes of three sessions of the Council, the Council approved the budget of Walker Township. It could not approve its own budget because two of the Board members were firemen (and presumably had a conflict of interest).  Other townships were instructed to stay within the 4% growth factor.

The Council then approved two transfers. At a previous meeting they had approved appropriation for the Recorders Perpetuation Fund but it had been put into the wrong fund. At this meeting they reduced the wrong fund and made an additional appropriation to the correct fund. They also approved spending from a donation fund for maintenance on sirens, an additional appropriation for law books and research for the Courts, and an appropriation for a cleaning lady for the Surveyor/Extension office. 

Sara DeYoung from Jasper County Economics Development Organization gave a presentation about JCEDO that was similar to the presentation that she gave to the Commissioners the day before. She stressed that we need to create communities that people want to live in so that when opportunities come our way, we can take advantage of them.

The review of the Airport budget had been advertised for 7:00 so it did not take place with the other reviews. The Airport was established in 1933 but was closed during WWII. Fuel sales, a major source of Airport revenue, have been good this year. The Airport has averaged about 500 takeoffs and 500 landings per month. Last year the high-school class at the Airport, which has the goal of getting students ready to pursue aviation careers, finished with four students. This year the class has seven students, three from RCHS, three from KVHS, and one from SNHS. Priorities for the future are finishing the master plan and designing a new hangar building. There is a wait list for hangar space. When the Airport makes capital improvements, 90% of the cost is funded by the FAA. 

The County has a local income tax (LIT) of 2.864% and the revenue is split to fund various categories. Currently the rate that goes to fund ambulance services is .02 and the Council would like to increase it but to do that without raising the overall tax rate, something else must be reduced. After some discussion, they decided to come back to the issue in October.

The County is under a burn ban because the dry weather has increased the changes of field fires. White and Pulaski have also announced burn bans. (Rensselaer got a couple of showers Friday, but the rain was very localized so the burn ban continues for the County.)

The Commissioners established a committee to plan for a new forensics center and one of the positions on that committee is assigned to a Council member. The Council appointed Jacob Misch.

At the Commissioners meeting there was a discussion of how to account for fees that the Coroner pays for transporting bodies. The Commissioners decided that was an issue for the Council. The Council and Auditor had a confusing discussion on the issue and I am not sure if agreement was reached. The Council did agree to raise the transfer fee from $125 to $175 retroactively to January 1.

The meeting lasted almost 2.5 hours and thankfully there were no public comments.

Networking event

On Thursday the Jasper Newton Foundation and United Way of Northwest Indiana hosted a lunch and networking event at the Carnegie Center. This was one of several such events that the United Way has had in the region it serves, primarily Porter and Lake Counties but also Starke, Jasper, and Newton. After a quick lunch and some remarks from United Way (I regret not getting a tour of their mobile van that they brought), the people attending introduced themselves and told what they did. Here are the organizations that I caught and some highlights.

Level Up works with United Way to help people get certifications and jobs or better jobs. They provide conseling and teach financial skills. To get into their program, one needs to have the desire to improve.

Meals on Wheels delivers meals and as a byproduct also provides wellness checks. Like many of the organizations represented, they are headquartered in Lake or Porter Counties.

Girls on the Run of Northwest Indiana has a site in DeMotte and would like to see one established in Rensselaer.

Alzheimer's Association sponsors walks in Porter and Lake Counties and would like to see one established in Newton or Jasper County.

WorkOne has a Rensselaer office and helps people get training to advance in the job market.

KIRPC Head Start is underenrolled in all of their locations except Rensselaer.

Newton County Community Services provides similar services to those provided by Jasper County Community Services. This past year they started a community garden.

Northshore Health Center has a location in DeMotte.

New Vistas High School is an alternative charter school in Portage. 

The Connection Center in DeMotte has been expanding their programs.

Catholic Charities-Diocese of Gary looks to partner with other organizations.

I did not catch the name of an adult education group that helped people get their GEDs.

The American Heart Association is putting blood-pressure hubs in various locations to help find people with very high blood pressure and who are unaware that they have a problem.

Scouting, which used to be Boy Scouts before they opened to girls, has several programs.

Birthright of Rensselaer supports pregnant women and women with young children.

Right Steps staffs eight child care centers including Appletree in Rensselaer.

Indiana Department of Health-Health Equity Council was represented as was Franciscan Health Hospice care.

Anew Ministries provides support for young, mostly teen mothers who face challenges. They have a chapter in DeMotte.

Finally, Saint Joseph's College announced that they had purchased two semis for the CDL Academy and that they would be restarting the hoop house with the Indiana Agriculture and Technology charter school, which now lists SJC as their regional home instead of the Jasper County Fairgrounds. 

Rensselaer Plan Commission

The Rensselaer Plan Commission met on Thursday evening. At a previous meeting they did not give approval to the SJC Building Trades subdivision because some details still needed to be worked out. Apparently they were not all worked out because Commission tabled the item to the October 17 meeting.

The next item also concerned SJC. There was no zoning for the SJC property. The proposal sent to the City Council with a favorable recommendation would make the campus between Sparling and the highway as well as the bowling alley, the field south of Justin Hall which SJC no longer owns, and Mount Calvary Cemetery zoned as B2, which is a business zoning. The College Woods will be zoned RS, which is the least restrictive residential zoning, if the Council concurs. Since the Council asked the Commission to deal with this issue, it is highly likely that they will concur.

A second matter that the Council wanted the Commission to address was the need to get variances when a residence in a zone classified for business changed hands. The original variance does not transfer. The Commission voted to change the policy to allow non-conforming residences in business zoning to continue being used as residences when there is a change in ownership. It also allows, with some restrictions, a non-conforming residence to be repaired if it is damaged.

The State says that redevelopment commissions should have a seal so the Commission adopted one. I did not see what it looked like.

Finally, on August 21 the members agreed via telephone to change the lot on which the SJC building trades program would build from lot 5 to lot 1. They affirmed this change with a vote. (I was wondering why the construction was happening on what I thought was the wrong lot.)

Odds and ends

There was a death in the County that has attracted media attention. It is the subject of the lead article in this week's Rensselaer Republican.

Also in the Republican are stories about change in ownership of the Ritz and the change in leadership at the Jasper County Library.

As one theater becomes a church, a church becomes a theater. The is a former church that is becoming a theater and the Carnegie Players are raising money to help repair the building.

Milroy Park has been prepared for the ScareCrow Trail.

The County Clerk has posted the candidates for the general election on Facebook but I cannot find the list on the County website.

Maybe next week the Fire Tower at the Fire Station will be put together.

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.

Ribboncuttings, long meetings, and more

Ribbon cuttings

Franciscan WorkingWell had a ribbon cutting Tuesday afternoon to celebrate its move into a larger building, the former Clinic of Family Medicine. Two groups posed by the ribbon. In the first group were those who helped make the move.

The second group included local people and staff of the new clinic. They got to watch the ribbon being cut.

After the ribbon cutting there was a short program and then a blessing of the building. Giving a prayer was Father Buckles who is Director of Spiritual Care at Franciscan Health at Lafayette.

There were snacks for those attending.

People could take a tour of the building. Below is the reception area. Those that work here were very happy for the move because they were extremely cramped in the old building.

The facility does a lot of testing and simple medical care. If someone has a problem that needs attention but is not serious enough for the emergency room, they are an option. They also have contracts with local businesses for services.

On Tuesday morning Ayda's had a ribbon cutting for their new patio dining area. I knew that the lighting would make it difficult to get a good picture of the event.

It is a very attractive space and can seat at least 80. 

Ayda's is not going to continue to use their party room in front of this space but will try to find another use for it.

Commissioners continued meeting

The County Commissioners met in a continued meeting on Monday morning, and although the agenda was very short, the meeting still lasted an hour and 45 minutes.

The first item on the agenda was approval of a wind-farm overlay, which identifies property where placement of wind turbines and the work needed to erect them can take place. The Plan Commission had voted an unfavorable recommendation for this item in its February meeting due to concerns about a variety of issues. and the Commissioners had not acted on the recommendation in their March meeting, but had decided to work through the concerns of the Plan Commission. The Commissioners believed that those issues had been addressed so the item was back on the agenda. In particular, the Commissioners had found a construction compliance monitor that would report to the County but the cost of which would be borne by the contractor. The Commissioners had received about twenty letters supporting the district from people or groups, including the Town of Remington and the Tri-County Schools.

Because the meeting had attracted a substantial number of citizens, Mr. Bontreger let people voice their concerns before the Commissioners voted on the overlay district. He also said that in June the Commissioners would have a pilot program to allow citizens to submit comments and concerns via the Internet so that those who could not attend the meetings could have their voices heard.

One person gave the Commissioners the result of a survey he had conducted. The Commissioners asked how he found people to respond and he said many came from Facebook and others from door-to-door canvassing. There were questions about the CO2 pipeline. At the first meeting of the month someone suggested the County could do more to resist the proposed pipeline. The County is working on an ordinance but it is not clear yet what it can control. A county in Iowa passed a restrictive ordinance but it has been challenged in court and the case is on appeal. The County does not want to pass something that will result in high legal bills and be rejected by Courts. One person suggested that the County establish districts for solar and wind and was told that the wind ordinance does that for wind: they are only allowed in Carpenter Township and a mile strip of Jordan Township. After hearing the comments, the Commissioners approved the wind-farm overlay district.

Next on the agenda was an agreement between the County and the City of Rensselaer to extend water and sewer to the west side of I-65. This project should encourage development west of the Interstate and tax revenues from improvements would go to the County. The County has agreed to help fund this project with surplus ARPA money (the federal stimulus money). However, extending the sewer to Sherwood Forest and Kelley Green would require a sewage plant and this might be funded with a TIF district, something for the future. The Commissioners approved the agreement.

In other business the Commissioners approved purchase of a refrigerator, approved finishing the floors of the first floor of the Courthouse to match those on the second floor, and noted that there was a need for a notary public in the Courthouse for County business. Recently requirements for notaries have increased so there are fewer people becoming notaries. They also approved a gas card for the Coroner's van.

 Then it was time for more public comments. One person gave an update on the Connection Center in DeMotte and the Commissioners recommended to the Council to appropriate $50,000 to help get the recreational part up and running. Somewhere in the comments someone at the table gave a list of payments that the various energy projects will provide the County and I think the total was $18.5 million. Much of that would come from the proposed Carpenter Township wind farm and includes rebuilding the roads used during construction.

One thing I noticed is that some of the people commenting want to solve national problems at the local level. For example, if a person thinks that federal energy policy with its subsidies for solar and wind and increasing regulations on fossil fuel is a bad energy policy, does it follow that one should oppose the County taking advantage of those subsidies as a way of opposing the federal policies? Or are local and federal two separable issues? Even if the federal policy is bad, should the local level take advantage of the dollars the policy makes available to local levels?

After the meeting adjourned, there was a short (five minute) meeting of the Regional Water and Sewer District, which is composed of the three Commissioners. This group has authority over providing water and sewer to all the unincorporated parts of Jasper County. They approved the County-City agreement to extend water and sewer west of I-65 and also transferred the authority to provide sewer and water to that area to Rensselaer.

Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission meetings

The Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission met Monday evening. There was one item on the agenda of the BZA and that item contained two parts, a request from Rose Acre Farms for a special exception for a confined feeding operation and requests for variances for setback from neighbors.  In March Rose Acre had  appeared before the Plan Commission requesting their land be rezoned from A1 to A3 and that request had been granted. However, the code requires a special exception be granted for any confined feeding operation. Rose Acre is converting to cage-free flocks and needs to rebuild its buildings on the corner of SR 16 and US 231 to do that. It is replacing three buildings with two that are larger. The new buildings will hold a bit over 200,000 birds each while the previous barns held a total of somewhat over 500,000. The special exception was granted.

The code says that the buildings should be 1320 feet away from residential dwellings. There are three residences near the proposed buildings that are slightly less than that, with the closest at 1200 feet. There were no complaints from neighbors and the variance was granted. Rose Acres also wanted a variance from the requirement that a shelter belt of trees be planted around the buildings. Trees attract birds and those birds may carry disease that can destroy the flock of birds in a barn. This has happened to Rose Acres in one of their Iowa facilities. The Board also gave them a variance on the shelter-belt issue.

The Plan Commission met after the BZA adjourned. Their first item was a rezone from R1 to A1. The property is an 8.66 acre lot in Keener Township adjacent to Newton County. The property is currently used as a horse facility but two people who would like to buy it want it zoned properly so they can continue using it for agricultural purposes with the proper zoning. They want to operate animal educational programs involving farm animals and reptiles. Their request was sent on to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation.

The second items were revisions to the solar ordinance, which were summarized in a previous post. The ordinance was read and then both members of the Commission and the public picked at it with a variety of questions and suggestions for changes. The most hostile comments were directed at the battery storage provisions and concerned safety in case of a fire. Eventually the Commission sent it to the Commissioners with no recommendation in hopes that the Commissioners will make changes and send back an improved revision to the Plan Commission. (The Plan Commission cannot amend what is presented to them as written amendments to ordinances, though they can amend proposed changes to the ordinance maps.) The revisions impose more cost on developers and it will be interesting to see if the additional costs will cause developers to abandon Jasper County for solar farms. Also, someone commented that the County would like any battery storage systems to be confined to the NIPSCO property east of Wheatfield.

The last item on the agenda was an amendment to the UDO that adds requirements for special-purpose (or test) wells. At present there is nothing in the UDO about test wells, wells drilled to examine the underlying geology and rock strata, so if a company obtains a permit from the State to drill, they do not even have to tell the County that they are drilling a well. The proposed amendment establishes a requirement to tell the County about any such well as well as provide setbacks and fencing requirements. There was general consensus that the proposed amendment needed changes but that something needed to be put in place immediately, so the Commission sent it to the Commissioners with a favorable recommendation and the hope that there would be further development of the ordinance. 

The next meeting will be on June 24 if there is an agenda. The meeting adjourned at about 10:00, three hours after the BZA meeting started and shortly after the thunderstorms moved in.

Jasper County Coucil meeting

The County Council met Tuesday evening for its May meeting with a list of additional appropriations on its agenda. It approved money for an administrative assistant/evidence based practice coordinator for Community Corrections and funds for Valley Oaks Health. Valley Oaks had not requested a payment last year that it should have so it was paid this year and the funds needed to be appropriated. Some funds that were supposed to be in the budget for the 100th year anniversary for the Fair were not, so they were appropriated. The Sheriff's Department is upgrading computer equipment and an appropriation was made for that. 

After a confusing discussion of moving money from the EMS director to an administrative assistant, the transfer was approved. Then the Council was very happy to make a budget reduction of over $4 million in the Highway budget.

The Council changed its meeting time for future meetings from 7:00 Central to 6:00 Central. They reappointed a member of the Library Board. The State is releasing a large block of money that it had collected for and not previously returned to local governments and the County share is $2.4 million. The Coroner gave the Council plans for a new annex he would like to be built. In some of the discussion among members there was mention that NIPSCO plans to build a gas-fueled peaking plant when it shuts down its coal-fired generators.

Odd and ends

Saint Joseph's College announced the appointment of a new CEO.

Fountain Stone Theaters announced their free summer movie schedule.

Work has started on a water main to the planned fire tower at the Fire Station.

In the field to the west the corn is emerging.

There will soon be a new business on Washington Street. I heard from a good source that it will be a Mexican grocery.

The building that will house the Clinic of Family Medicine is getting new windows.

Weston Pond has dried up leaving behind hundreds of little dead minnows.

On Tuesday morning workers were starting to erect the fountain in Filson Park. The finished fountain will be taller than this. The workers were having problems getting everything level.

Work continues on Harrison Street.

Van Rensselaer was quiet on Tuesday monring.

The goslings at Weston Cemetery are growing up. There are two families there. The other has only two chicks and they are smaller than these.

Strong winds late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning resulted in branches down throughout town. We have had some hot days recently.

AppleTree announced that they received over $8000 in donations from Alliance Bank and White Castle Bakery.

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.

Early November 2023

 Commissioners meeting

The November Commissioners meeting had an agenda of routine matters and was fairly short for a Commissioners meeting. As I arrived, I noticed that work had begun on expanding the parking lot of what I call the Sparling Annex and work on spreading stone and compacting it continued for most of the meeting.

There were buried cable permits approved for some simple bores, for work on a United Telephone project near Fair Oaks, and three bores for manure lines. The Commissioners decided to wait another month before accepting a bid for fixing the roof on the Prosecutor's annex. The 2024 meeting schedule was approved, with all but two of the monthly meetings to be held on the first Monday at 8:15. The exceptions are for January and September, when the first Monday is a holiday so the meeting will be the first Tuesday at 8:30. There is also a second meeting in December on the 23rd. Joint sessions with the Council are scheduled for July 16 and November 19.

The commissioners approved $200 for the Veteran's Office to host a quarterly training session for veteran service officers. They approved a final agreement with the DNR to close a section of 400E at the shooting range at Jasper-Pulaski. A signed agreement is required by statute. The Sheriff was granted permission to fill two vacant positions, a full-time 911 dispatcher and a part-time controller. The Commissioners again approved a carpet cleaning request from the Extension Office; it had approved this request some time ago but nothing was done. 

There was a short discussion of W-2 forms. 126 County employees have not logged onto the doc delivery system the County has begun using that will allow the employees to download their W-2. The HR department will send reminders but in the end some W-2s will have to be printed. The Commissioners approved spending $21,611.06 to replace the fire-alarm system in the Sparling Annex. The old system is 26 years old, no longer works, and parts are no longer available to fix it. The extension office reports that some of its windows are leaking air and the blinds need to be repaired. They will be inspected to see what the best course of action is.

Animal Control was given permission to fill a vacancy. In the public comments a citizen read a statement urging the Commissioners to revisit the solar ordinance and to put a moratorium on new solar projects until the revision is finished. The meeting was continued until November 20 at 8:30 if needed.

Drainage Board meeting

After a short break, the Drainage Board, which is composed of the three Commissioners, met. They approved a proposal from NIPSC to install gas and electric to a new subdivision in the DeMotte buffer zone. The subdivision is an extension of an existing subdivision and will have 92 lots. Mr DeYoung abstained because he and his brother own the subdivision.

White Castle's drainage plan for its planned expansion was approved. At the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting in the evening there was mention that the old Soebe building would be demolished and that a new building would be built next to the existing factory, doubling its size.

The Walker Township solar farm submitted a preliminary drainage plan. This is a 60 megawatt project. The Board received the plan and gave them permission to move forward but no vote was taken. The Board will wait for the final plan before voting on approval.

Genova wants to add a 33,000 square foot parking lot for material storage. It will also be seeking to have an undeveloped section of Cherry Street vacated at the next Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting (Nov 9 at 5:30). The Board approved their drainage plans. 

White County wants to clean a ditch that extends into Jasper County. The Board agreed to waive its rights, which is customary in cases like this. Jasper County will collect the ditch assessments and turn them over to White County.

The Board accepted maintenance certifications for the R. E. Davis and Sands ditches so maintenance collections can begin.

At 10:30 bids were opened on three projects, the R. E. Davis main ditch, the Davis laterals, and the Sands ditch. On the first two only Gutwein Evacuation bid and its bids were well under the Surveyor's estimate. The Gutwein bid on the Sands ditch was $21,500 and the other bid was $230,000.

In public comments a citizen suggested that the best way to deal with the problem of private and mutual drains in a solar development would be to have the development install a perimeter drain. Otherwise there is the risk of tiles being broken and not discovered until the project is completed and then repair is difficult and expensive.

Rensselaer Redevelopment meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission held a short meeting late on Thursday afternoon.They briefly discussed the former R&M property. Titan is working on estimates for demolition and a party that previously had expressed interest in purchasing the building is again showing interest. The Park Department would like a new headquarters building and the Redevelopment Commission may be able to help. It is planned for the old tennis courts and will be a multipurpose building.  At the next City Council meeting a committee may be formed to plan for the building.

The City is working with the County to get City water and sewer west of I-65. The next meeting will be December 4.

Chamber of Commerce lunch

The November Chamber of Commerce lunch was at the hospital and featured Carlos Vasquez as the speaker. It was lightly attended.

Mr Vasquez said that planning for improvements began in 2020. Initially the plan was to modernize the interior with no new additions. Covid delayed everything, and in 2022 the plan had changed to adding to the building behind the emergency room, though this would eliminate the helipad. This updated plan was put out for bid and the bids came back $5 million over the $28 million approved for the project. The reason the bids were high is because construction costs have increased, in part because there has been a lot of health-care construction in Indiana. It is back to the drawing boards. The people involved are considering what might be done with the second floor, which is currently not being used. The problem with rehabilitating it is that the current regulations for hospitals are far more restrictive than they were when the hospital was built in 1963, so exemption may be needed.

He briefly mentioned Medicare Advantage plans, which hospitals hate. The plans make their money by restricting care. Regulations have made it unfeasible for Rensselaer Franciscan and most other rural hospitals to have maternity and delivery services. Mental health services are an increasing need. There are shortages of every type of health-care worker. No one wants to share a hospital room anymore; everyone wants a private room. Finally he passed around an award that the hospital and Appleseed received from the State. The State would like to see other rural hospitals find nontraditional ways to serve their communities as Franciscan-Rensselaer did by partnering with Appleseed.

Notes

We not only got our first freeze as October ended, but we got our first snow. It did not last very long; by afternoon it was mostly gone.

There were three contested races in the Rensselaer municipal elections on Tuesday and a Republican won one, a Democrat won one, and an independent won one. Jeff Phillips easily defeated incumbent Mayor Stephen Wood, Jeff Rayburn narrowly beat Zyan Miller who had defeated George Cover in the primary, and Ernest Watson retained his seat by narrowly beating Richard Comingore. All other races were uncontested and the incumbent was reelected. Less than one third of registered voters cast ballots. Complete results are here.

On the way to take a picture of the Soesbe building, I noticed a new building on Maple Street east of the ambulance building. The lot is owned by the Carnegie Players so I assume this is the storage building that they were hoping to build.

This coming weekend is a big shopping weekend, with Mistletoe Magic at the Fairgrounds, Shop and Stroll in Rensselaer, and the annual craft show at the Carnegie Center.

There are five baseball tournaments scheduled for the Blacker Fields in 2024, three in May and two in June.

The annual St. Augustine Bazaar takes place Thursday.

We have been getting a spam (or scam) call repeatedly. The caller asserts that we owe extra on something that we supposedly purchased (A Keto diet) and I think they want a credit card number. At least it provides a break from all the calls trying to pitch Medicare Advantage plans.