The cold continues

 Winter weather continues. Every few days we warm up and we get a bit more snow. Then the sky clears and we get bitter cold. The sun melts snow from roofs, which leads to the formation of icicles. The forecast suggests this pattern will continue for most of the month.

City meetings


The City of Rensselaer announced on Facebook that Monday's Board of Public Works and the City Council meetings would be live streamed. Because the evening was very cold and the streets had patches of snow and ice, I decided to not attend them in person but to see how these first live-streamings would be.

I followed the link to the youtube site for the live stream, but had problems joining. The live stream did not automatically pop up but only appeared when I followed the link after it had started. The agenda had several items, most dealing with the waste-water treatment plant. Commonwealth Engineering had four sets of invoices for the project, and the Board approved amounts of $155,940.55, $198.56, $46,047.10, and $43,913.85. For work on getting the bonds issued, Bose McKinney & Evans was paid $30,000 and Baker Tilly $25,000. There were also two items from the water-tower project, a payment to Commonwealth Engineering for $823 and one to Maguire Iron for $105,165. The City is withholding $92,979.51 for outstanding issues and Maguire Iron is supposed to respond to a letter sent about those issues.

The meeting lasted about ten minutes. The video of the meeting is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Qo5F3Mkno. The City's youtube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/@RensselaerIN/streams.


Here is what the meeting looked like:


The Rensselaer City Council meeting had a separate live stream and again I could not find the stream until a couple minutes after it started. The first item on the agenda was the election of a Council president for 2025. The president for 2024 had been Noelle Weishaar and she was re-elected for 2025. A gas tracker increase was approved. I believe the new gas superintendent said it was 1¢ per hundred cubic feet, but the sound  was bad. 

The Council passed an ordinance that separates the Lintner and Drexel TIF districts for reporting purposes. They have been combined. The penultimate pay request, #9, to Grimmer for $56, 691.33 was approved. The vacation of part of Prairie Street was the next item considered, and Mrs Weishaar moved to terminate the request because of the objection of one of the adjacent property owners. She had inspected the area and said it needed to be kept clean. Her motion failed on a 2-3 vote. The Building Department will prepare an ordinance, though how the property will be split is not determined yet.

Next on the agenda was "2020 Census Redistricting." Apparently the City has not adjusted its wards to reflect the census, though it does not matter much because we vote for all Council candidates, not just the one from our ward. Mr Davis presented two options that I could not see, and the Council told him to develop one of them to present at a future meeting. 

A person from Peerless Midwest, a company that does water-well protection, gave an update. The company will do some modeling to the various well fields. An advisory committee will be formed to watch for potential threats to the wells. The  Council approved a request from the electric department for a pre-downpayment of $97,668 for a new digger truck that will be ready in early 2026. 

The Clerk/Treasurer said she had received all the nepotism forms. The Line Department sent two linemen to help restore power in Kentucky after a recent snowstorm. Baker Tilly is working on a planning document for the Line Department. The Building Department announced Plan and BZA meetings for the 16th, a Redevelopment Authority meeting for the 23rd, and a special Plan Commission meeting before the Council meeting on the 27th. Plans to cross I-65 with water and sewage lines are almost completed. The recycling department took delivery of a new truck. The Gas Utility is planning a new gas line to the old light plan. There are three applicants for a vacancy in the Gas Utility. The meeting adjourned at 6:43 and the recording of the meeting can be found here.

A couple of notes on streaming: I had to turn the sound volume on my computer to the maximum to hear the meeting. The speakers podium is directly below the two cameras so a viewer could not see someone at that podium. It should probably be moved either forward or backward so one of the cameras will catch it. Overall the streaming went well and did not have the problems that many of the County Zoom meetings have had.

Tourism Commission meeting

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met on Tuesday morning in the conference room of the Carnegie Center. This year starts with two new members, Erica Kingman appointed by the Rensselaer City Council and Randy Rottler appointed by the County Commissioners. The meeting had a quorum, with one member attending via Zoom. As the longest serving member, Jannelle Musch presided. For some reason the Commission did not elect a new president, perhaps an oversight. It approved the minutes of the last meeting that had had a quorum, the October meeting.

There was a long discussion of a proposal to sign an agreement with Placer AI, a company that uses cell-phone location to determine how many people attend events, where they come from, and where they go. The Tourism director had negotiated new prices, $20K for a first year and $23K for an optional second year. The discussion was about how the data could be used and whether the benefits would exceed the costs. The item was tabled to the February meeting.

The Commission reviewed and accepted the Innkeepers tax report that showed through the end of November the receipts were slightly less in 2024 than in 2023 but up substantially from 2022.

Organizations that receive grants are supposed to report back to the Commission on how the grants promoted tourism. The Fair Board had submitted a report on the horse barn at the Fairgrounds but no representative was available so that item was postponed until February. In their written report, they listed horse shows held in April, June, September, and October.

The Connection Center thanked the Commission for the grant it had received and noted that it was partnering with local businesses. Since its opening in May, it has seen lots of growth. A couple of travel baseball teams from other counties are using the Center for weekly practices. The Center has had a number of camps and the public is finding uses for the Center that the organizers never expected. The medical side of the Connection Center has grown. They currently have 253 members with a goal of 400 by May. They want to be self-supporting and think that will be easier once they pay off their mortgage, hopefully by the end of 2026.


A grant of $4500 from the Tourism Commission to the LEAP Foundation helped fund two murals at the Belstra Farm and Garden Greenhouse. A written report for that grant was received by the Commission.

In 2026 the Commission plans to change the schedule for reviewing grant applications. They will be done quarterly rather than as they randomly come in. The members had a short discussion about advertising in the magazine Travel Indiana and approved an option that will cost $1800, with some conditions.

I hope that the Commission decides to use Placer AI. There are so many questions it could answer, especially about what draws visitors to the County and which of the grants it has given seem to have been worthwhile.

Airport Authority Commission meeting

I had problems joining this meeting on Zoom. The Airport's website had not been updated for 2025 and using a Zoom link from 2024 did not work. There was an agenda and link posted on Facebook, but the link on the agenda was not clickable. After entering the link manually, I was put into the waiting room where I stayed for several minutes. I finally joined the meeting as the Finance Committee meeting was ending.

I missed the election of officers but from the audio I could tell that Andrew Andree had been elected president. There was no video of the meeting room and the Airport Manager, Emily Hackler, was attending remotely and appeared to be sick. The Airport's engineer said that work was continuing on the master plan and that planning was moving forward for the construction of a new t-hangar but that lots of approvals were needed. (It will use federal funding, and with the funding comes federal red tape.)

The manager's report was given by Isaac Gibson, the assistant manager. There are two hangar vacancies in the old building. There were 8779 operations (takeoffs and landings) in 2024. Six people have signed up for a ground school that starts January 19. There will be an Aviation Career Day on May 9. The Board approved an additional appropriation for a new engine and also approved a hangar rental for a person who bought a plane from the person who was previously renting the hangar. The Board approved advertising for a hay lease on 27 acres and also the holiday schedule. There was a discussion of what was needed to complete a land swap of about 27 acres, with the Airport getting land to its west in exchange for land it owns along SR 114. The Board approved a couple of motions to move that swap along. The swap will need approval of the Rensselaer Plan Commission.

The Board approved the recommendation from the finance committee on investment policy.

Etcetera

In the previous post I visited Brick Built Cafe and Coworking, a new realty office and cafe. Here is the post by the owner explaining why she closed S-blended and opened this new business. A ribbon cutting is scheduled for 9:30 on Friday, January 17.

I had a picture of one of the SJC trucks used for CDL training and thought that there was only one design. I was wrong.

This coming Saturday two elementary schools will have open houses. Saint Augustine School will have a two-hour open house from 10:00 until noon until 2:00 and the soon-to-be Harvest Christian Academy will have one from 10:00 until 4:00.

For several years I thought the word penultimate was the most useless word in the English language. Then I discovered that antepenultimate is considered a word and preantepenultimate is being considered for inclusion in dictionaries.

Stay warm and drive carefully.

December and winter arrive.

Winter

Winter fully arrived during the week of Thanksgiving. There were a series of days in which the temperature stayed below freezing. One result was that the fountain in Filson Park froze.

The dedication of the park is scheduled for Friday after the Christmas Parade. Will warmer weather on Wednesday bring down some of that ice?

Travels

I spent the weekend of Thanksgiving visiting family south of Indianapolis. The new section of Interstate 69 has been open for several months, and where we exited, we encountered three roundabouts within a couple hundred yards. That area loves roundabouts. I am still uncomfortable with them because I have not driven enough of them (and maybe because it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks).

I also do not like driving some of the roads there because when housing moved out, the county authorities did not realize that they needed to widen roads. So there are many busy roads that have two lanes with no room for shoulders or sidewalks because the utility poles (often on both sides of the road) are about 18 inches from the pavement. Some of the newer developments seem to have learned from past mistakes and are leaving more room for the roads and also putting in sidewalks.

A few family members decided that it would be fun to go to a professional basketball game during our stay. They did not go to a Pacer's game. They went to the other men's professional team in Indianapolis, the Indiana Mad Ants. The team was originally located in Fort Wayne. The G league is a developmental league for the NBA. I had never heard of this team or league. There seem to be plenty of seating available at its games.

In both going and returning I was reminded that I-65 really needs to be three lanes each direction for its whole length.

Commissioners meeting

I could not attend the Commissioners meeting in person on Monday because I was still not back in Rensselaer. I attended via Zoom. The meeting was in the CourtHouse and it would have been fun to attend one more meeting there. (The Sparling meeting room is being renovated, with the column in the middle of the room slated for removal.) I also prefer attending in person because Zoom does not capture everything. Sound from the Commissioners was good, but some of the speakers in the audience were hard or impossible to hear. Some of my audio problems were on my end; my earphones did not work well with my device.

A couple of buried cable requests, both from NIPSCO, were approved. The Sheriff had contracts for 2024 and 2025 approved. He was too far from the microphone for me to hear what he had to say. The contracts also need Council approval. He had some surplus property with little or no value and the Commissioners gave him permission to dispose of it. They also approved filling a vacant dispatcher position.

The Commissioners approved an agreement with Illiana Heating & Air for the north annex They approved a laser light display for the Court House that Main Street Rensselaer is planning. Sharon Colee's snow removal plan for the Fase Center was approved and she was allowed to pursue getting DeMotte water service for the Fase Center. She wants the Commissioners to do a walk through of the Rensselaer Center to show them the maintenance issues. The building is about 35 years old.

Jatin Patel has resigned from the Jasper County Tourism Commission and the Commissioners appointed Randy Rottler from Carpenter Creek Cellars to replace him. (Mr Patel's insights from the hotel industry will be missed.) The Commissioners approved a couple of conference requests and a GUTS agreement that I think was for lock-box services. They appointed Susie Howard to the Wheatfield Plan Commission Board, filling the remainder of a term of someone who retired. This position is for someone from Wheatfield's buffer zone. 

There was a short discussion of progress being made in the new public defender office. There are still details to be worked out. The Commissioners approved changes to the Unified Development Ordinance that had been recommended by the Jasper County Plan Commission. They approved a contract to inventory capital assets, had a discussion about a SAFE grant, trying to decide whether to be part of a multi-county proposal or going alone. The matter should be decided at the December 23 meeting. Snow plow quotes were opened and all were accepted, with Mr DeYoung abstaining.

There were several public comments. A woman who in the past voiced concerns about chemicals eroding from windmill blades gave some updated research. Someone had questions about the County agreement with Remington regarding the Remington EMS building. There were concerns about vandalism with the newly-installed lighted stop signs in the northern part of the County.

I do not know if there was a Drainage Board meeting following the Commissioners meeting. There was a Rensselaer Redevelopment meeting Monday afternoon that I was too tired to attend. The agenda did not look very interesting.

More painted windows

Continuing the showing of windows that the Rensselaer Chamber has been painting, the one below is from Kentland Bank. I wonder if this counts as one window or two. The Chamber says it has painted 90 windows and I would like to find as many as I can.

Two windows from SuperCuts in the College Mall.

Arni's a bit north of Strack.

M&W Insurance.

The law office of Samantha Joslyn.

Jasper County Abstract office.

The dental office of Jordan Balvich

Estel George's State Farm Insurance office.

The next two are windows of the Deerwood Group on North McKinley.

The doors of the Knights of Columbus hall.

Finally

Awaiting sunrise on a winter morning

A slow week

 Weather rollercoaster

This week the bitter cold ended and rain began. On Tuesday area schools were canceled because of concerns about the weather. The temperature rose above freezing but apparently many County roads were still icy and the forecast for the afternoon was heavy fog. I drove to Lafayette in the late morning and there was light rain the whole way. At the 205 entrance to I-65 and for several miles further south there were many large potholes. Coming home a few hours later I saw a crew filling them and they backed up traffic for at least a mile.

We have had light rain and fog for most of the week and most of the snow is gone. The Iroquois River has risen and may reach flood stage.

A government agency tracks the ice cover on the Great Lakes. At the beginning of January it was almost zero but then with the cold it rapidly rose to 16% on January 22 and has since dropped with the warmer weather. 

Water tank

On Thursday the water tank was being put together. Here are some pictures from a video that the City of Rensselaer has on its Facebook page.

A few years ago I might have gone out to see the work but as I get older I am less and less adventurous. 

Something from the distant past

Wolves were once common in Jasper County and the County paid a bounty on them. Here is an article from the Evening Republican of February 12, 1914 page 4.

On the same page was this little bit that made me smile.

Both of these were found using the Hoosier State Chronicles.

It has been an uneventful week and I expect next week to be the same.

A slow week

Goodbye Nordberg

It has been a slow week, with no public meetings that I was aware of. There was activity at the power plant where the last of the engines to be scrapped was removed from the building. I missed the actual removal, but did get some pictures of the body of the engine on a 30 wheel truck.

Below are a couple of close-ups.

The City tried to sell it at auction but it did not sell. Here is a link to the auction, which may not be available for very long.

The truck left early this week but another large piece of the engine remained. Work also continued inside the building but I could not see what they were doing.

On Thursday bits and pieces of leftover scrap were being loaded into a dumpster.

Courthouse drainage

Work has started at the Courthouse to install drainage to keep water from leaking into the basement. 

Earlier this week there was a deep hole near the gazebo.

A day later some concrete catch basins or manholes (I am not sure what the name of these are) had been installed.

On Thursday there was a trench leading to the big hole.

Winter

Rensselaer had another few days of real winter this week. It was cold enough so parts of the Iroquois River froze over. 

The winter has been mild overall. As of February 1, the ice cover on the Great Lakes was only 12%, which is lower than it was for that date in 2022 and 2019, but slightly above than in 2021 and 2020.

Days are getting longer. On Friday the length of day from sunrise to sunset is 10 hours, ten minutes, and 53 seconds. (It was 9:16:59 on December 21, the winter solstice.) Each day we get a bit more than two more minutes of daylight. 

Odds and ends

I got the following in my e-mail last week:

Hi, R.A.,

I am a new-ish Hoosier, volunteering for the City Nature Challenge Chicagoland Area. This is a four day contest or opportunity to observe nature. It is free. It requires using a free app called iNaturalist on a smart phone. Here are two links that explain it: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2023-chicagoland-region and https://www.chicagowilderness.org/page/citynaturechallenge. There are lots of ways to participate, from observing a spider in your laundry room, to strolling through a natural area looking for spring flowers, to snapping photos of your catch while fishing.

I am writing to you because I really know very little about Jasper County. While searching the internet, I found your informative blog. I hope you could steer me towards nature groups or clubs at the high school, or hikers, or birders, or other people with similar interests who might enjoy participating. For example, is there a "Friends of" group at a local park?

I am grateful for any help you can give me.

If you are interested and want contact information, e-mail me at my rensselaeradventures at yahoo address. 

What has happened to the Jasper County Chronicle? It got off to a great start in January and now has been silent for a couple of weeks.

Rural Bling announced a grand opening for March 8, 3:00-7:00 pm. The business is already in the former GRG Auto Repair building on South College, but does not yet have retail hours. The grand opening announcement said that another business, Backyard Blooms, would also be part of the grand opening.

Finally, I saw a picture on Facebook of a bank note issued by the Bank of Rensselaer, which apparently was only in business for a couple years, failing in 1855. Rensselaer has an interesting banking history, with a lot of banks, several of which failed.

The Winter Solstice

Today (Dec 21) is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Now the days will begin to get longer and the sun will rise and set a bit further to the north each day.

The forecast is for a white and very cold Christmas. If you are driving in the next few days, be very careful.

Special City Council meeting

On the 19th the Rensselaer City Council met in a special session to consider ordinances that change utility rates. The meeting began with a public hearing at which one person, a nonresident of Rensselaer who gets natural gas from the City, complained that his calculations showed rates were going up almost 24%. The response from the representative from Baker Tilley, the City's financial advisor, was that the new rates included the accumulated gas trackers, so what might appear as a rate increase actually was not. Some of the rate changes result from a more accurate estimate of costs of improvements to the utilities than those made the last time rates were adjusted.  Offsetting some of the potential increase was the State's elimination of utility receipts tax, which had been added to our utility bills.

The Council passed all four ordinances. A reason for passing them now even though most or all of the rate change will take effect in 2024 is that in January the Council will have a bond ordinance on the agenda and having the rates set is needed to sell the bond. The electric rate was only increased by 1.5% but there was a warning that an unusually high electric tracker adjustment is coming for the first quarter. (The trackers reflect the cost that the utilities have to pay for gas and electricity.) Even though the base rate (neglecting the tracker) for gas will be a small decrease, some people may have a noticeable increase in bills because customers have not been charged correctly for the monthly customer charge. This was supposed to be a charge added onto the charge for gas usage but the computer was treating it as a minimum charge. The software has been changed to treat it correctly.

County Council meeting

The County Council meeting on Tuesday evening had two public hearings for establishing economic revitalization areas. The Council had given them a preliminary passage, but a public hearing and a confirmatory passage was necessary for them to take effect.

The first was for a warehouse near DeMotte that is connected to Belstra Milling. Belstra is growing its feed brands offering feed sold at retail locations nationally and needs more space. Hence, their proposed 80' by 200' warehouse that may be expanded in the future if demand warrants it. The ordinance sets up a tax abatement that declines over six years. The second ERA was for FBI Builders in Remington, which is planning a facility to make trusses to be used by FBI and also sold to others. It will employ an additional 17 workers. The tax abatement for this project is also for 6 years. 

Rensselaer's Mayor Wood made a presentation for information purposes to the Council explaining that the City was preparing for the annexation of the SJC campus. It would also like to annex the bit of land that houses the County Health Department, CASA, and the County meeting room. He stressed this was a voluntary annexation, that the College had requested it. The Commissioners will have to decide if they want the County property included, which is probably to the County's benefit because it would give them lower utility rates for their building.

The Sheriff reported he had an applicant for the SRO position at KV schools, a position that Commissioners approved at their December meeting. He wanted to know where the Council was willing to start him in the pay matrix by determining how many years of experience it was willing to give him credit for. The Council approved an upper limit on the salary. He also gave a report on what he does with Commissary funds and the Council approved two additional uses.

The Council approved the salary ordinance for 2023 and an amendment to the 2022 salary ordinance that affects three members of the election board. The State Board of Accounts recommended that money in dormant funds, funds that had not had any activity for three or more years, be returned to the general account. There was a long list of such accounts, most with little money in them. The Council approved the measure with the exception of an Ebola grant that the Health Department thought it might be able to use in some way. 

The Council passed a list of additional appropriations. Many were precautionary to make sure that there would be enough money to pay bills before the end of the year. They also approved several transfer appropriations. The Health Department has four that were designed to pay employees extra for working on Covid-19 matters. However, they were told that they would not be able to use the money without an amendment to the salary ordinance and that could not be done this year. So the matter was tabled until January when, after advertising the amendment to the salary ordinance, the matter may finally be put to rest.

The Council approved its schedule for 2023 after reading off the dates. I think all the dates were the third Tuesdays of the month. After the schedule was passed, someone noticed that the July meeting was scheduled during County Fair week. It will either be changed or perhaps the meeting could be held at the Fairgrounds. Wouldn't that be interesting?

This was Rein Bontreger's last Council meeting and Erick Kidwell's first. Rein has served on the Council since July 2009 and has been president of the Council for most of those years. He was given a plaque by the other Council members honoring his service. In January he will become a County Commissioner.

Some Pictures

The Jasper County Historical Society helds its annual Christmas Party on Tuesday.

Its current exhibit is about Jessie Bartoo, who ran a photography studio in Rensselaer in the late 19th century. She died very young but left behind many pictures. The Historical Society recently was given many of her pictures and has about 200 of them.

Photographers of the age mostly took pictures of people.

But sometimes they took pictures of houses. This one is identified as the Eger House on South Van Rensselaer Street. I do not recognize it.  Has it been demolished?

Jessie was the aunt of Edison Marshall, who is now forgotten but was a best selling author early in the 20th century.

In a few weeks the optician office that is next to Ayda's will move into the former Jordan Floral building.

Next to it the former GRG Auto Repair is being remodeled. It sold earlier this month and will become the home of Rural Bling.

After two weeks of work, the garage for the Health Department has a shell.

There is little to see of the new lift station now that about ten feet of fill has been put around the building. 

Parts of the Iroquois River have frozen over. We will see if the parts with fast flowing water will freeze by Christmas. The forecast for later this week is that we will have a day with the highs barely above zero.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Snow and ice

We got a taste of real winter during the past few days. We got a bit of snow that did not melt immediately. 

The temperatures got low enough for ice to form on the river.

Hopefully it will all melt with the warmer temperatures this week.

Special County Council meeting

On Monday evening the County Council met for a short meeting to approve the sale of the former prosecutor/Health Department Annex, otherwise known as the former REMC building. (The Sale had been approved by the Commissioners at their November meeting.)  Two offers have been made for the building and the Commissioners have accepted the higher bid of $125,000. That is considerably less than the original asking price, but a reason that the County decided to move offices from the building was that the heating/cooling system needed to be replaced and the estimated replacement cost was very high. The potential buyer was not known by the Council, which approved the sale.

After the vote, the Council spent another ten minutes discussing whether construction bids could be limited to local contractors and the need for shopping for options for employee health insurance.

Missing from the meeting was Jeff DeYoung, who resigned from the Council after he was appointed by the Republican precinct  committee men and women to replace Kendell Culp as a commissioner. WLQI reported that five ballots were needed for DeYoung to get a a majority of the 24 members present. DeYoung was an at-large representative on the County Council and his replacement will be named by the same Republican committeemen at a meeting on December 8. 

County Plan Commission

The County Plan Commission also met on Monday evening, though later and at a different location. It had four items on its agenda. The first took by far the longest. It was for a rezone from A1 to A2 of a 15 acre parcel in Jordan Township so that a residence could be built on a four-acre section. The other 11 acres are in the floodplain of Carpenter Creek. If the rezone was granted, the only way according to the County Code to split off the four acres would be to create a two lot subdivision, but the Commission did not want to do this because one of the lots would look like it was buildable but it is not. After a lot of discussion, they approved the rezone (which is only advisory; the Commissioners have the final say) with the condition that the 15 acre lot be combined with the 26 acre lot owned by the same person, and then the four acres split off. Apparently if the acreage is large enough, a small lot for a residence can be split off without having it declared a subdivision. 

Two items were for a two-lot subdivision, one splitting 20 acres in Keener Township and the other splitting 25 acres in Walker Township. Both were approved. The final agenda item was for a rezone from A1 to GC (General Commerce?) in Keener Township. Bos Farms is currently using a building on the site as an office and wants to build a new office building, so wants to get the zoning right. It was approved. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Snow day, February 2022

 Today, Wednesday, is a snow day. It will snow all day long. I expected more snow on the ground this morning, but the snow that fell was compacted and wet on the bottom, so there was more there than what a first glance suggested. It was a good day for those who plow snow.

The roads were being plowed, but freshly falling snow kept the roads at least partially white. The City streets were mostly completely white despite the plows.

The River looked strange.

There was little wind overnight so the snow stuck to branches creating the "winter-wonderland" look.

Everything will probably look very different tomorrow morning when the snow fall has finally stopped.

The Prairie Arts Council (PAC) relayed an interesting announcement on Facebook:

Markit Arts located at 108 W. Washington St. Rensselaer is hosting its first painting event on Valentines Day Monday February 14. Join us for a fun evening of pop art inspired painting. See flyer and painting example below. Register for the event at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/street-heart-tickets-249850378207

We are excited to be opening our doors for art experiences in downtown Rensselaer! 

Ryan and Lindsey Preston
Cameron and Crystal Moberg

108 W. Washington is the tiny building that used to be Clean as a Whistle. Cameron Moberg recently purchased it. 

A couple weeks ago I noticed a new building on the south side of East Walnut Street. Judging from the tracks in the snow, it is being used. It is owned by  Sycamore USA LLC. The lot at one time held oil storage tanks and was owned by the Mobil Oil Company. The tanks were removed in 2009 and here are two posts on that: here and here.

The Clinic of Family Medicine and its property changed ownership in December. The Doctors Service Corporation sold to Liberty Rentals LLC.

Frieda's Grill & Breakfast opened this week. It is located next to the Ritz Theater in the building that last housed Moonshiners. It is open Tuesday through Thursdays for breakfast and lunch. On Fridays and Saturdays it will be open later.

The main dining area will be in the building next to the alley. They would have opened a few months ago but had difficulty finding staff.

I keep waiting for the Iroquois River to completely freeze over. Where the current is slow, ice covers the River, but where there is current, the water still flows. For example, here was what the River looked like upstream of the Melville Street Bridge on Saturday, January 31:

The River looked completely different on the other side of the bridge:

There is no current in the SJC reflecting pond, so it froze last week.

There is no current in the Babcock Quarry, but its water is very deep and still has not frozen. Hundreds of Canadian geese hang out there.

On Monday the walls of the new Walgreens started rising.

A day later and they were more than half up. 

Workers were installing roof trusses that will support the walls. The panels are pre-assembled so this part of construction is going very quickly.

I did not check back later on Tuesday to see if they had completed the walls.

I stopped in Walgreens on Monday and asked if they would have a big moving sale. I was told that the merchandise would be trucked to other stores and that the moving date may be in May.

One last picture:

In early December Rensselaer had a storm that knocked over a number of trees, including a big one in Weston Cemetery. On Monday the trunk was trucked away.