A ribbon cutting and four more meetings

Ribbon Cutting for the Brick Streets

On Thursday morning a ribbon cutting was held for the Brick Streets Project.

Before the scissors came out, there were several speakers who thanked the many people who contributed to this project, which was years in the making. Among speakers was Mayor Phillips, former Mayor Wood, Congressman Baird, a representative for Senator Braun, State Senator Niemeyer, State Represenative Kendall Culp, and representatives from Kimley Horn, KIRPC, and EDA.

There was a surprisingly large crowd.

After the event, people could eat donuts. They left a lot, which were then served at the Customer Appreciation Lunch in City Hall from 11:00 until 1:00. The attendance there, at least when I went, was quite small.

Redevelopment Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission met Monday evening. After approving minutes and five claims, it approved a declaratory resolution that does three things. It enlarges the Drexel/Fairgrounds Economic Development Area, it establishes the Van Elementary Residential Allocation Area, and it amends and restates the Drexel/Fairgrounds Economic Development Area. This is part of the process to create a residential TIF area to develop the area north of the Van Rensselaer School. It is also only a start to a process. The matter now goes to the Plan Commission, then the City Council, and finally back to the Redevelopment Commission.

JCEDO reported on the façade grant program. Top Link and Earth Magic have completed their work and have been reimbursed 50% of their costs. Shanley Construction has completed its work but has not yet submitted the required paperwork for reimbursement. The latest grant has been awarded to the new owner of what is called the "Carriage House." (Old maps identify this as used for storage so I do not know the source of the Carriage-House name.)

Below you can see the two new porch columns of the Mr Shanley added to the Forsythe mansion. 

Park Board meeting

The Rensselaer Park Board also met on Monday evening and the meeting has so many people attending it was moved from the conference room at City Hall to the Council Chambers. This was the first meeting at which Heather Hall was present from the beginning as Park Superintendent.

Several guests were recognized and talked about their concerns. Soccer is still concerned about the grass where the old Monnett school was located. 230 kids signed up for the Fall program. Greg Whaley gave an update on the Miniature Train Proposal. A recent Redevelopment Commission meeting provided some money to have some architectural plans prepared, and these were distributed and discussed. No action was taken.

Mrs Hall asked if there were bylaws for either the Park Board or the Rensselaer Community Recreational Development Corporation. (Park Board meeting include both groups that have somewhat different members.) There will be a search for them.

Filson Park is at substantial completion. Left to finish are the street lights, concrete caps on the fountain and behind the stage, benches, and an arch over the entryway. Next week the Prairie Arts Council will install an art work and the bird that sits by eMbers will also be added. Rental prices for the shelter and the park have not yet been determined. There will be a ribbon cutting and various activities on October 24 from 4:00 until 7:30 on October 24.

Project underway or soon to be underway include some facilities upgrades. LaRue Pool may get a facelift and perhaps a slide. Mrs Hall would like to have the mural wrap around the whole building. A pickle ball league has been established. The old tennis courts at Brookside will be moved a bit to the east and converted to four pickle ball courts. This project has received a substantial donation from a Jackson family. The Board approved moving forward with this project and now it is in the lap of the City.  It may take some time to figure out the best uses for the old power plant. 

The softball tournament scheduled for this weekend at the Blacker Fields has been canceled. Not enough teams signed up.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met on Tuesday morning. It heard a presentation from a person from Travel Indiana, which publishes a quarterly tourism magazine. It prints 30,000 copies that are distributed across Indiana and also has a web site promoting tourism. The Commission is considering advertising in the magazine but no decision has been reached yet.

The Carnegie Players had a request for $25,000 to help renovate its building at 220 N Franklin Street. The building needs a new roof, new windows, and a ramp to make it handicapped accessible. At present the Carnegie Players do not have permanent home and whatever venue is available. One of their problems is rehearsal space. The best space in Rensselaer is the auditorium at the High School, but t is used by the high school for three plays a year, the new middle school theater group for one, and Fendig Theater in the summer. Rehearsal before a production can take two months, so there is not a lot of time left to share at the high school. The Carnegie Players' building can have at least two rehearsal sites and the Players are willing to share them with others in the community. It also wants to coordinate with other arts groups in scheduling so their events do not complete. A donor is matching donations for the roof. The Commission approved the entire ask of $25,000.

The Fountain Park Chautauqua asked for $5000 to bring Bruce Barker The Piano Man to the Chautauqua. They did not have a representative to present the case and answer questions. One Commission member suggested that the admission price of $5 was too low. The Commission approved $1500.

Airport Authority Board meeting

The Airport Authority Board met Tuesday evening. They discussed a planned land swap that has a verbal agreement but the details need to be finalized. They also discussed plans for a new nine-unit hangar that will probably be built in 2025. They have been accumulating the funds for this for four years and it the hangar is not built soon some of those funds will go away. A lot of what the Airport does is determined by the rules and regulations of various Federal and State bodies. 

The old hangar building along the taxiway needs to come down but there are no plans yet of when and what will be done on that site. Fuel sales were very strong in September. There was discussion of various maintenance issues and of things not working properly. The meeting lasted a bit less than an hour.

New art exhibit

There is new exhibit at the Fendig Gallery, the Jasper County Art League's Annual Member Show. This year the theme is "Verse Made Visual."

The picture below is a painting, not a photograph.

You can never have too many pots.

If you follow local artists, you will know who did this basket.

The show runs until November 7.

Odds and ends

Below are a few more pictures from the Scarecrow Trail in Milroy Park. The first is from Fase-Kaluf.

There is no sign on this one, but I am pretty sure it is from the City's Electric Utility.

One of the ghosts from the Fendig Theater was taking a nap when I stopped by.

At the next City Council meeting there will be a public hearing about closing the Scott Street rail crossing.

There are four streets next to each other than have rail crossings, McKinley, Franklin, Webster, and Scott.. I am not sure why Scott was chosen for closing. The next street to the east that has a crossing is Melville, and that is three blocks away.

The maples are donning their fall colors.

Beneath this tree a little girls is swinging. Say "Hi" to her if you pass by. She will not answer you.

We may get a frost early next week.

Arts and Theater

Carnegie Players to present three short George Ade plays

On June 20, 21, and 22 at 7:00 pm the Carnegie Players will present three short George Ade plays in the basement of St. Augustine Church. Tickets will cost $8.00 and will be sold at the door.

George Ade was an enormously successful writer, becoming quite wealthy from his many books, plays, and articles. He built a mansion east of Brook, which is now owned by Newton County. He was a graduate from Purdue University and was a generous donor to his alma mater, with his name on the football stadium. (He is the Ade of Ross Ade.)

Ade died 80 years ago in 1944 so this may be a good year to pay a tribute to a person who came from our corner of Indiana. Like most authors who were very popular during their lives, many fewer people read him now than when he was alive. In Ade's case, that may be because a lot of his humor was prompted by the popular culture of his time.

I was invited to a rehearsal on Thursday evening. The first play performed was Mrs. Peckham's Carouse. This play's humor comes from poking fun at the temperance movement that led to Prohibition in the 1920s. Mr Peckham is a lawyer who receives a bottle of whiskey from his brother-in-law. His wife is a temperance crusader. There are deceptions and misunderstandings that lead to poor decisions and ultimately to a twist at the end.

The second play, The Mayor and the Manicure, is about a mayor dealing with a woman trying to blackmail him because of poor judgement by his son. The two telephones play an important role in this play.

The last of the three plays, Nettie, was my favorite because it was the least tied to the times in which it was written (and also because it needed the least amount of tweaking before the actual performances). It is a twist on mistaken identities. Ade never married or had children and perhaps this play also reveals a bit of what he thought about women. 

While I was there, the lights and sound system were being wired.

The plays have a cast of 13. Most are in only one play, but several have roles in two of the plays.

I look forward to seeing the finished production, in part to see how much change there will be from this rehearsal to the finished product.  If you like theater, comedy, or tributes to Indiana history, you will enjoy An Evening with George Ade.

Honoring Hispanic Heritage at the Fendig Gallery

The current exhibit at the Fendig Gallery is Honoring Hispanic Heritage and it runs until July 7. It features art,  artifacts, and objects that exemplify and showcase Hispanic heritage.

The paintings on the right above are by Doris Myers from a trip she took to Mexico.
 

Much of the exhibit is made up of small items that are numbered, with a short explanation of what each is on a placard. 

These crocheted pieces are from a very large exhibit from Mexico.

Here is the explanation. Searching for "Etzatian" on the Internet should show you what the whole construction looked like.

There were only a few paintings in the exhibit. This one was for sale.

Gallery Hours areTuesdays: 12pm - 4pm; Thursdays: 2pm - 6pm; Saturdays: 12pm - 2pm

Odds and Ends

The LaRue Pool opened on Monday and despite very cold water and cool temperatures, it had swimmers all afternoon. On Thursday the temperature was warm and there were a lot of swimmers even though the water was still cold.

On Wednesday the Chamber of Commerce had a luncheon at Autumn Trace. After the lunch, there were tours of the facility. It has not changed much since it opened.

Workers have finished pouring curbs on Harrison Street.

There are forms for some of the sidewalks at Filson Park.

Thursday night into very early on Friday Rensselaer received about an inch of much needed rain. 

Mural week Day 2

Murals

Early on Tuesday the lady on the back of the Horton-Yallaly building still looked awful. The artist did not like the texture of the wall so had patched it.

However, by noon her face was restored.

This is what she looked like as I went to the Farmers Market in the evening.

On Tuesday morning the back of the Rensselaer Republican building was still being prepped.

In the afternoon the artist, who a couple of years ago did the firefly mural across the alley, was marking up the wall.

On Tuesday morning I asked what the artist was painting on the back of Embers. Can you tell?

By the afternoon it was pretty obvious that it was a scooter.

This wall is in the sun in the late afternoon so the artist works early in the day.

The Anders Water Conditioning wall is in the sun early in the morning, so that is the best time to photograph it.

In the morning there was a sketch on the back of City Hall.

I could not tell what the artist was trying to paint midday.

At the end of the day I still could not tell what the subject was.

Trent Musch is repainting a fence at the back of eMbers.

On Monday morning the LaRue bath house had its base layer of paint.

Later in the day some of the background was finished.

I told the artist, Rein Bontreger, that I thought a large shark eating a small child would work really well on the wall. Or perhaps a huge shark mouth surrounding the door. Instead he wants something cheery and playful. Below are sketches of what he intends to paint.

Kids night at the Farmers Market

Tuesday was kids night at the Farmers Market and the turnout was huge. I do not think the vendors were very busy, but the many businesses and organizations that set up booths were.

The bounce houses were popular.

The Fire Department let kids hold a fire hose and shoot water at a target. Fair Queen royalty also got a chance.

Fair Oaks Farms came to the market with a cow.

I am not sure who the pig and bunny were representing, but they were happy to pose for pictures.

Among the many organizations at the Market was the Jasper County Airport. I asked if my guess was right about a new hire of an assistant manager and was told that the new person started on Tuesday.

The ladies of JCEDO posed for me.

Christy Fleming on the right owns Willow Switch. Her business will close in August and in September a new business, Cup of Joy, another coffee shop, will open in the building. See here for the announcement.

Notes

There is a gigantic crane parked by the power plant. I suspect it is there to move the remaining engine. The City sold it months ago, but it is huge and it will be fun to see how it is moved.

Workers are now moving things into the former Walgreens building. Below are counters labeled Dollar Tree.

These are shelves.