Another zoomed meeting

I passed through Monon on late on Monday afternoon and took a couple of pictures of their new downtown mural.

Sorry for the poor quality. I took them from the car. 

There is not a lot happening. The leaves are down and almost all of them have been picked up by the street crews. An interesting news item I noticed is that a company called Cleveland-Cliffs is buying most of the steel-making operations of ArcelorMittal, which include several big plants in Gary, for $1.4 billion. That seems to be a ridiculously low amount for such a huge operation.

The City Council met on Monday at 4:00 in a Zoom-only meeting. It passed an amendment to an ordinance that extends the shutdown of City Hall to December 4. It authorized borrowing of $100,000 from gas department cash reserves to fund the new sanitation department until its fees allow it to fund itself. The borrowing is to be paid back by the end of 2021. The sticker program ends this year but the new monthly fees for trash pickup will not be immediately available to pay bills. A bit later in the meeting the Council established the new sanitation department. It has until now operated by paying expenses from City's general fund.

The Council approved a couple of transfers of funds, one for repairs on the aerial truck (which is now working correctly) and the other for engineering work for a Community Crossing grant for street work. The Council approved bids for 2021 supplies of gas, diesel, and tires. It was an easy decision because each item had only one bidder.

The Mayor announced that he has tested positive for COVID and is in quarantine. He has no symptoms. The City Project Manager and Gas Department Superintendent are in quarantine as they wait for test results. The City Building Commissioner is in quarantine because his wife tested positive.

Although the old aerial truck is again working, the City has signed contracts to purchase a new truck that should go into production in late February or early March. Apparently each truck is a special order.

Have a nice Thanksgiving.

Released from Facebook jail

I have been released from Facebook jail! (You might not realize that I was in Facebook jail if you rely on links to the Rensselaer Adventure Facebook page for notices of new posts.) I added a location to my personal page and my few Facebook friends were informed that I suddenly moved to Rensselaer, Indiana. That seems to have solved the location problem without sending a photo ID. However, I deleted the mobile phone number and that undid the two-factor authorization. So I redid the phone thing and now I will leave the number there.

The City Council met on Monday evening. They approved a reduction in appropriations that the State said that they had to make and transferred some funds to clean up bookkeeping. They approved a gas tracker than I think was a 4¢ increase per hundred cubic feet.

The main event of the meeting was a presentation on fire-department billing from two ladies from Emergency Services Billing Corporation (here on the web). The Company said that State law allows fire departments to bill for their services but collecting requires persistence and knowledge of both state law and the insurance industry. ESBC adds a fee to the amount that they want to collect, so they are paid on commission; if they cannot collect, they get nothing. They are located in Indiana and presently have Crown Point, Merrillville, and Lowell as clients. At present the Fire Department does not do any billing for fire runs. The authorization from the Council would only apply to runs in the City but the Marion Township Trustee is likely to agree to use the company for runs outside city limits. The representatives left information with Council members and the matter will be discussed again at the next Council meeting. My guess is that they will agree to use the service because there seems to be nothing to lose and something to gain.

The Council approved some funds from the public relations account for a retirement party for a worker in the electric department. At the next meeting the new Council will be sworn in although it will not take effect until January. The Police Department has taken delivery of new cars. The Council approved using City streets for a 5K on March 7 that will run from the Fairgrounds to Brookside Park and back. The parts that were recently delivered for the aerial truck did not work and the truck will be out of service for at least another three to four weeks. Frosty Fest was well attended. And Census is hiring for next year's Census. (I worked the Census in 1990 and kept notes that I used to write about the experience twenty years later. See here.)

The Rensselaer Republican and the radio station have reported that Genova has laid off workers because of supply-side problems. The Republican has also reported that Commissioner Kendall Culp will be the president of Indiana Association of County Commissioners for 2020. The association presents the view of the counties to the State legislature. The Airport Association Authority is moving their monthly meeting from the evening on the first Wednesdays of the month to 4:00 on the second Thursdays. (I may be able to attend a few more next year.)

Finally, here are pictures of a few trees and decorations at Potawatomi Park.

The tree for the Animal Shelter

 The Rensselaer Care Center

 A tree I could not identify. Delos Thompson house in the background.

 Rensselaer Parks put up this tree. The Christmas mural is in the background.

The giving tree and the IBEC tree

 Another unidentified tree, but something school related

Will next year be the year of good eyesight? You know, 2020.

A post before Thanksgiving

The City Council met Monday evening with a short agenda. At the last meeting the Council expressed interest in examining the rates for trash pickup. At this meeting they gave the Mayor approval to sign a contract with Bakertilly, which recently merged with Umbaugh, the company that has advised the City in the past. The Council also approved accepting the supply bids for gas and diesel that were opened at the last meeting. (There was only one bidder, Ceres Solutions.)

The Mayor and other City officials had met with residents of Owen Street earlier in the day to discuss options for the sewer project the City is planning for the area. There were three options. The low priced option was for low pressure with grinder pumps. I believe the pumps would be the responsibility of homeowners, so this was not popular. A second option was the most expensive, one that used only gravity. This option would require lines to be up to 20 or 24 feet deep. The third relied somewhat on gravity but also used a lift station. This was the option that the Council approved.

The Council approved establishment of a fire department donation fund that would be used for expenses and purchase of equipment. The City received notification from the State that it needs to cut its budget for next year and the Council gave the Clerk-Treasurer authority to make the cuts. Parts are in for repair of the fire department's aerial truck and the repairs should be made in about a week and then there will be testing to see if the problem is solved. It was a short meeting.

Work continues on the concession stand/restrooms for the new ball fields in Brookside Park. Below is a photo of what the structure looked like on Tuesday.

The City has put up Christmas lights.

I stopped by the alley behind eMbers late last week and noticed that the wall that had the last bit of the angry birds mural was no longer.

 Below is another picture taken from the same place but with the camera held above the fence.

I rode over to Monticello on Tuesday afternoon and only saw one unharvested field along the road. I might have missed some. The bridge on 114 opened about a week ago.

My post on the aftermath of the fire now has the most page views according the the statistics that blogger provides. I think the fact that I updated it and then gave it a second push on Facebook helped. (Most posts have between 200 and 300 page views but there is a lot of variation from post to post. It is very rare for a post to exceed 1000 page views.)

Have a nice Thanksgiving and drive safely if you are on the road.

Odds and ends and a long meeting

On Tuesday I noticed that work was being done inside the former Farm Credit office that was in the same building as 5/3 Bank so I stopped by the bank to see what was happening. As I left, I noticed that the mural on the north side of the eMbers building now was visible from the entrance of the bank.

 If I had waited a day, I would have learned what was happening without asking. The new tenant will be ASG Staffing, an employment agency. Their Facebook page is here.

 I keep reading that 20 or 23 or 24 businesses were affected by the fire. I can not account for that many. I found eight that have links to Facebook pages: Cutting Room, Sune Salon, Nail Bumpers, Serenity Health & Wellness, Work One, Express Employment, Jasper County Economic Development, (also Jasper County Tourism), and B & D Pools and Spa. Some of these have found temporary quarters. The ladies of the Cutting Room are at the Renew Salon. Sune Salon is at A New Beginning. Nail Bumpers is at 219 W Harrison Street #2. Work One refers people to their Morocco office. Express Employment is temporarily at eMbers Venue. Other businesses that were affected are Hearing Care Professionals, Honey Comb, Filson Rentals, Dr Kim Moyer, Attorney Clifford Robinson, Amerimac Corporation, & Rich's Barbershop. I have not found an Internet site for any of them. My total is 16. Who am I missing?

Update: The November 23, 2019 issue of the Rensselaer Republican listed several additional businesses that were found by the Fire Chief from utility office records. Included were Filson Rentals (twice), MS Maxwell LLC, Corn Genetics, Miracle Ears (which is the same as Hearing Care Professionals), and LASUMIKI Enterprises LLC. Filson Rentals owned the former Sears building so would be paying utilities for any vacant space and MS Maxwell LLC owned the other building and would be responsible for any utilities there.

Sheets Family Practice, in a building east of the fire, has moved to its old location at 123 S McKinley because of smoke damage.

The follow-up post on the fire went viral and is currently the second most popular post that this blog has had. It is closing in on the most popular post ever and knocked the post about Jay Dwiggins out of the top five.

On Tuesday evening there was a joint Commissioners/Council meeting. The purpose of joint meetings is to share information about issues that concern both bodies. The meeting began with a short discussion of the pension for the Sheriff's Department. The Council would like to move away from a defined-benefit system to a defined-contribution system, but there are questions of how that can be done. The Sheriff noted that the current fund was in much better shape than when the issue was originally brought up because of the rising stock market.

The discussion of the County's participation in Rensselaer's downtown revitalization project was also short. It included a discussion of what the County should do with the Johnny Rusk property. The idea of giving it to the City was unpopular and I suspect that the lot will soon be sold.

In response to the NIPSCO task force, the Planning and Development Office has begun a review of the County's comprehensive plan. An ordinance on tax abatement is being prepared and may be taken up by the Council in December or January.

The new and unnamed county building (formerly the PNC Bank) is nearing completion. Hooking up telephones and internet is not yet scheduled. Century Link has been slow to respond and the elevator in the building will not operate without a phone connection. The annex from which offices will be moving has about 10,700 feet of space and the County will sell it as is.

A discussion of EMS services largely repeated what was said in the last Commissioners meeting. Expenses are rising and health care billing is getting more difficult. The service that serves Remington finds that one third of their calls are to the Interstate, a third to the truck stop, and a third to everything else. Jasper County has 38 miles of Interstate, which brings commerce but also requires services that sometimes are not reimbursed.

Mr Culp reported that he signed a document on Monday that will allow financing for the solar farm at the jail. There was a discussion of something about fire protection and the Commissioners approved the contract.

There was a surprisingly large crowd at the meeting and most were there for the last item on the agenda, a presentation from Spillman software. This is a software system that the Sheriff wants. It will tie together fire, police, and ambulance. It is used in 30 Indiana counties. In contrast, the software the Jasper County Sheriff is currently using is used in one, Jasper County.

 The Spillman representative explained the benefits and then went on to cost. The cost of purchasing it is expensive. After some discounts, he came to a total of almost $534,000.  Maintenance, which includes quarterly updates, will be about $77,000 per year. Payment can be made over two years with no interest charged during that period or else the software can be leased. The Sheriff has been trying to find other County users who can contribute the the cost. The Rensselaer Police Department is all in because the software they are using is nearing end of life and will not have continued support. Several townships were willing to participate while others were undecided. The town of DeMotte thought the funding expected from them was too high.

The implementation of the new software will take 12 to 15 months. There is a learning curve and training is necessary. The Spillman representative offered a discount if the County would adopt before the end of the year. Mr Culp did not like that move because he does not want to make a hasty decision.

The joint meeting lasted an hour and fifty minutes. The County Council meeting began an hour later than scheduled. It approved several additional appropriations and several transfers of funds. The Sheriff reported that serious incidents at the jail had declined and attributed some of the decline to work of Dr. Chad Pulver. The Council reappointed Jacob Ahler as its attorney. Mr Ahler asked if the Council wanted him to work on an ordinance establishing economic recovery areas (ERAs) that are a first step in setting up TIF districts. The Council approved. The last item discussed was a possible upgrading of the meeting room. The Council agreed that Mr Andree should continue looking into options. With that the meeting adjourned.

I missed the Jasper County Historical Society meeting that took place at same time as the meetings above but watched the video of the meeting on Facebook. The video is really well done—notice how it switches between different cameras. Before the program on Native American foods, Linda B mentioned that the former Longs building was originally a Nash dealership that her family owned. Across the street where R&M is now was the Ford dealership.

The concession building for the Blacker Fields is getting a second floor that will be the announcer's booth/press box.

The effort by the Parks for People Campaign to raise $50,000 by the December 29 has ten donors and $23,938 raised as of Thursday morning. There are no small donations listed on the projects page.

A lot of pictures

Below is a picture of all that remains of the angry birds mural that was painted this past summer.

 The heat from the fire that destroyed the Town Mall warped the side of the sign that faced the fire.

 On Tuesday the Remington fire department sent their aerial truck to extinguish a flare up of the fire. The excavator was busy digging in the debris at the same time. Rensselaer's aerial truck is out of service because the ladder does not function properly.

Fencing has been erected around the entire half block to keep people away from the demolition that is starting to take place.

Several former tenants of the Town Mall have found temporary places from which to conduct business. The Cutting Room will work out of the Renew Salon, Express Employment said that they would be at Healthy Haven (updated to Embers Venue). Work One refers people to their Morocco office. If you know of other arrangements, write something in the comments to the blog.

It is sad to see the sign below. The new bakery seemed to be off to a strong start.

 County Bumpkin has a very attractive sign in its window.

 I visited the bridge on Saturday and the approach still had not been paved. On Tuesday there was new asphalt and a machine was cutting grooves into the surface.

 It is good to have groovy bridges.

I am not sure what else needs to be done. It looks about ready to open.

On Tuesday I got a chance to see what was happening inside the old PNC building. The open lobby has been closed in with walls. The main part of the prosecutor's office will be behind the wall on the right.

Below is a peek through the door. Along the far wall are the offices that were in the bank. They remain.

Where once bank tellers waited on customers are several small offices behind a new wall. The far office will be for emergency management and the others will be for people working on child support issues.

 Here is a look into two of the small offices.

 Do you remember what the balusters of the old stairs looked like? The new ones are much closer together. The door is for the elevator and if you look carefully you might see some of the elevator mechanism.

 The basement has lots of small rooms. It will house the probation department. The view below is not showing the staircase of the previous photo but the one on the other side of the building.

 I noticed that there was what looked like an old patch to the concrete that had been signed by some of the bank workers. I suspect it has hidden under carpet for years and that it will soon be hiding under carpet again.

 The finishing date is uncertain. The building still needs to have computer networking installed and no date has been set for that. (Not the County's fault.)

Both the Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission met on Monday night. The BZA meeting lasted five minutes and approved continuing a variance for a person who had his mother-in-law living in a trailer on his property. The variance has to be renewed every two years. The Plan Commission was scheduled to meet at 7:10 and had to wait for five minutes to begin its meeting. Its meeting approved a three-lot subdivision in Kankakee Township. A variance for this property had been granted at last month's BZA meeting. The Plan Commission meeting last ten minutes. If there is an agenda for either group, the meeting will be December 16. The third Monday in January is the M.L. King holiday, so the January meeting, if there is one, will be the 27th.

Strack and VanTil has their Christmas trees on display.

Record cold

Early this morning I checked a weather app to see the temperature and it said that it was 3º. At least it was above zero.

The cold and snow on Monday made for a very short Veterans Day ceremony at Weston Cemetery. The crowd was much smaller than it was last year.

Despite the snow on Monday, workers began constructing the walls of the concession stand for the new ball fields.

They were not working on Tuesday, perhaps because of the extreme cold.

One of the muralists who was in Rensselaer this past summer was in the news for work he is doing in San Francisco.

Because of the holiday, there were no meetings on Monday and there were a lot on Tuesday. In the morning PTABOA (Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals) met. Their first case was a homeowner who argued that his valuation was too high because a finished basement damaged in a flood in 2003 had never been restored to a finished state and that what was listed as a second deck was not a deck but flagstones. Putting the new information into the computer reduced his valuation by $15,000.

A second case involved the bowling alley in Wheatfield. It had an assessed valuation of $1,021,800 despite being purchased in 2017 for $386,000. The consultant making the case for the bowling alley tried to compare its valuation to other bowling alleys in the region and found that difficult. Bowling is a declining sport, so some of the bowling alleys that were sold recently have gone out of business. He offered $634,100 as an acceptable valuation and the assessor and the Board agreed. The issue of valuation of personal property (the equipment in the bowling alley) is still unsettled.

Family Express in Rensselaer had contested its valuation but had come to a compromise with the assessor. Walmart had also reached an agreement but has not signed it. The Board approved the agreement and if Walmart is unhappy with it, they can appeal to the State. Finally, the Board approved an exemption for 2020 for a property that the Methodist Church bought earlier this year next to its parking lot.

There were three meetings in the evening, all at City Hall. The Board of Public works approved a conditional offer made to fill a police department vacancy. It also approved a payment to Commonwealth Engineers for work through September that it has done in planning for the sewer project (lift station and extending sewer lines to unserved areas).

After the City Council approved a gas tracker decrease for October of 2¢ per hundred cubic feet, it heard a short summary of Phase 2 of the downtown revitalization project. The reason for the presentation is that City has the opportunity to apply for a grant from the State Transportation Improvement Program run by INDOT. It is a matching grant, with the state paying 80% and the City 20%. The proposal is due later this month and results will be revealed in February of 2020, but the funding will not be available until 2025. For the proposal to be filed, the City needs to sign a financial commitment letter. The amount of the ask will be $7.3 million and the City's share will be a bit more than $1.4 million. The proposal will focus on Washington Street from the bridge to Cullen and will redo street lights, sidewalks, and buried utilities. There were questions of how the City would finance its contribution and the answer was that there were several ways it could be financed: money set aside in the next five years, a bond issue, or TIF funds. The Council approved having the Mayor sign the letter.

Bids were opened for City supplies. Only Ceres Solutions bid on the gasoline and diesel fuel and there were no bids on tire repair. The bids were taken under advisement.

The Council approved a payment of $23,750 to First Group for their work in preparing the City to apply for a Community Crossings Grant for street paving. It also approved $9839 for the purchase of two cabs and a snow plow for the mules that the Park Department uses to clear snow from trails. There was brief discussion of problems with people not using trash stickers and the Council approved a motion to have the City's financial advisor look into the way fees are being charged. The implication was that perhaps $3.00 per sticker is too much and the price is causing non-compliance.

After the City Council meeting, the Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met. The agenda item was a variance. The Fendig Children's Theater would like to purchase a property on Rachel Street to the south of Columbia Park for storage and perhaps a new building that would have an office and a multipurpose room. (What gets built will depend on what funds can be raised or found.) The lot is zoned residential and the proposed use is not residential but also not really commercial. The zoning ordinance does not seem to address this possible use so the Building Inspector thought that a variance would clarify the matter and allow the Children's Theater to purchase the lot. The BZA approved the variance.

The existing building will be used for storage and its ultimate fate also depends on how much money the Theater is able to raise.

On Wednesday morning there was a brief meeting of the Jasper County Indiana Building Corporation, which is the legal owner of the Jasper County Jail. It met to approve and sign documents needed to allow the installation of the proposed solar park at the jail.

Addendum: Five meetings within 24 hours may be a personal best.

Other meetings

In addition to the Commissioners meeting, discussed here, there were two other meetings on Monday. The Drainage Board met in the afternoon. The most interesting case was a proposed substation from NIPSCO. It would used for the proposed solar project and would be the first of several. The proposal indicates that plans for the solar field are moving forward and NIPSCO is involved.

Also on the agenda were Family Express at the US 24/I-65  interchange, Dollar General in Wheatfield, and Family Dollar in Wheatfield. I could not see the plans that were presented and do not know if any of these were new proposals.

The Rensselaer Park Board and Park Corporation met in the evening and the discussion ran all over the place. There was discussion of placing a post at the College Avenue entrance to the Monnett Park walking trail because at least one person has tried to drive a car on it. There was a long discussion about concessions at the new ballfields when there are tournaments. A company that does concessions for KV said that Rensselaer is too far south for them. The advantage of using a specialized company is that it would provide consistent service. There was strong feeling among the board members that local organizations and businesses be invited to submit proposals for running concessions for tournaments. The concessions might be excellent fundraisers.

On Monday a City crew was installing a light pole for one of the fields. In the picture below you can also see that many fence posts have also been installed.

Late next year there may be a tournament or two that will use the new facility as a soft opening to let the Rensselaer Park people get a feel for what will be required in 2021.

The Board approved purchasing frames for eight to ten new tables. They will be used in the new park shelter at the Monnett/Staddon park. That shelter got a roof over the weekend and on Tuesday workers were installing trim and a ceiling.

There were 21 entries in the Scarecrow Trail and next up is the Holiday Tree Trail that will be in Potawatomi Park. On December 7 there will be a tree lighting plus a visit from Santa. The Santa's House that has long been on the corner of the Courthouse Square will be in Potawatomi Park this year. There will be other attractions for the December 7th event.

There was some discussion of the dog park. It was noted that there are still people using the ball fields to exercise their dogs and not all of them clean up after their dogs. The Board decided that signs should go up declaring that dogs are not allowed on the ballfields and that at least one gate on each field be chained open to discourage people from letting their dogs run free.

There was also mention of the Patronicity Grant for which the Parks for People Campaign needs to collect $50,000 by December 29 to qualify for a matching $50,000. Additional pledges do not count but people paying off their pledges does count, so if you have made a pledge, consider paying some of it in the next seven or eight weeks. (If you are older than 70½ and are taking mandatory distributions from tax-deferred savings, there may be a way for you to reduce your taxes. If you make your charitable contributions from an IRA they count toward the mandatory distribution but are not included as income for tax purposes. So there is a substantial tax savings in making charitable contributions in this way.)

This was the last park board meeting of the year. The next meeting will be January 6.

On Tuesday workers were pouring the new surface on the SR 114 bridge over the Iroquois River.

In Rensselaer's municipal election Mayor Wood won in a tight contest with Scott Barton and Ernest Watson narrowly defeated Richard Comingore.

Mostly commissioners meeting

Over the weekend the Alpine Echos Band performed at the Rensselaer Library. This was a return visit; they had played at the Library two years ago.

The group plays the alphorn or alpenhorn, an instrument that was once quite common in the farming communities of the Alps in Europe. This group is part of a larger German band that is located in Lake and Porter Counties.

 The Alpenhorn can only play 16 notes, which must limit what it can play. The band played music that was especially written for the instrument. Here is a video of the group playing at Milwaukee's German Fest.

The first Monday of the November was busy with meetings. The Commissioners met in the morning. There was an interesting discussion of ambulance service. The County is served by four providers. Three of them are run by townships and the one that serves Rensselaer and much of the center of the County is contracted to a commercial company, Phoenix. This year only Phoenix bid for the contract and its bid was a 65% increase. The County budget was set for a 5% increase, so the Commissioners have decided to rebid the contract.

The discussion involved people from Phoenix and the two ambulance services in the north, Wheatfield and Keener townships. The Keener representative noted that about a third of their calls are not reimbursed, about a third are billed to Medicare or Medicaid, which are very slow in reimbursing and often do not reimburse the true cost of the service, and about a third to private payment, usually insurance, which is getting more restrictive in paying. Because the expense of EMS services is growing more rapidly than reimbursements, there is a growing need for local subsidies. Staffing is a problem and to attract EMTs Phoenix has raised wages. One reason that there were not four bidders for the contract as there were last year is that there are fewer ambulance services in Northwest Indiana.

The population is aging and that is leading to increased calls for ambulances and EMTs. The calls do not always result in a trip to the hospital. Often the problems are minor and corrected on site. Falls are an example.

I recall when Steinke had the ambulance service. At the time it was very common for funeral homes to provide the service and they had combination hearse-ambulance vehicles. 

Another major item on the agenda was opening of bids for reconstruction or repair of two bridges in the far northern part of the County. There were four bids received, ranging from $457,529.40 to $487,885.00. The low bid, from JCI Bridge Group from LaPorte was selected. The contract will be signed at the December meeting.

The Commissioners heard an offer from a fire protection company to do an assessment at no cost of the County's fire alarms and other fire protection equipment. The Commissioners decided they needed to learn more about what the County currently has before they make a decision. The Commissioners approved two rezones that the Plan Commission had recommended. 

An employee at the Surveyor's office resigned and after some internal reshuffling, the Surveyor wants to hire a part-time employee, which was approved. The request of the Sheriff to replace a corrections officer was approved. When fully staffed, the jail has 21 positions and the staff work 12 hour shifts. The Sheriff also mentioned that insulation in ducts on the roof had become waterlogged.

The Commissioners approved signing the juvenile detention contracts with Lake and Porter Counties; this is done every year. Trane gave an update on the what is happening with planning for a solar array at the jail. There was a discussion of the next round of CCMG grants. The County will probably apply to improve roads in more subdivisions. The County will have an auction on December 7. The Council meeting on November 19 will be preceded by a joint Commissioners/Council meeting at 6:00.

Painting has begun in the former PNC bank building. The Commissioners were given a list of three overages that were related to the elevator. Two they had no problems with but they decided to contest one because they thought it was due to an oversight of the contractor that affected the bid price.

Over the weekend I noticed that the house that the City recently purchased next to Brookside Park had been stripped of siding and windows. I thought the City had begun demolition but was told that the former owner was responsible for the removal of items. He left an almost new metal roof.

The City's big green machine is roaming the streets. Here it is vacuuming up leaves in front of the Alfred Thompson house on Park Avenue. Alfred's wife, Mary Ellen Travis Thompson, was one of the characters portrayed at the recent Weston Cemetery Walk.

A chilly start of November

October went out like a lion with snow and bitterly cold temperatures. The forecast for next week looks more like a forecast for mid winter than for early November. 

To the normal reds, yellows, and oranges of Autumn, we added white.

Another picture of fall colors.

We had had a couple frosts already this fall, but many cold-sensitive plants had survived if they were in protected places. Below is a picture of my tomato plants, which were still green on Friday morning.

The leaves were falling on Saturday, covering the streets. There are now enough leaves down to make raking worthwhile.

Some farmers have completed their harvest but there are others who still have soybeans in the fields. I learned that soybean plants need to be dry in order to harvest them, which means that there are only a few hours each day to work in the fields this late in the season.

The Iroquois River is usually quite low this time of the year but our recent rains have swollen it so that it is setting daily records.

The lot that once was the site of the Johnny Rusk building was recently filled, graded, and seeded. The recent rains made it mud and someone did not have the sense to stay off it.

The Airport announced that they have purchased a plane for renting to area pilots and for its planned flight school. See here.

The Parks for People Campaign has received another challenge grant. If they can raise $50,000 by the end of the year, that amount will be matched. They have received one grant as I write this for $2500. See here for more.

The Jasper County Tourism Commission met on Friday morning. It heard reports on three events or projects that it helped fund. First up was the Remington murals. Remington is very happy with what they got and hope to do some more in the future, possibly two years from now.

Little Cousin Jasper Festival reported that they had wonderful attendance on Saturday, when the weather was nice, and not much on Sunday when the weather was not nice. The magic show's five performances were well attended. The Festival was told to get ready for lower funding from the Tourism Commission because the Commission will be switching to sponsorships next year. The Commission looked at the sponsorship plans that the Festival had prepared and suggested changes that they thought would be improvements.

Next up was a report of the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery event. (I gave the report.) This year thanks to sponsorships and a generous grant from the Jasper-Newton Foundation, the event did not lose money as it did in its initial year. One of the members of the Commission suggested we reach out to descendants and relatives of those we highlight. The Walk did that to some extent this year, but it can do more. (More in the letter at the end of the post.)

The Director of Tourism would like to get the Discover Jasper County Facebook page up to 2500 followers.  Their page is here. 

The grand opening of the new Holiday Express and Suites in Remington is November 14 at 11:00 EST. The major complaint that they have had so far is that cell phones can switch time zones as people walk from one end of the hotel to the other.

Autumn Trace had about 200 tricks and treaters on the real Halloween. I was wondering how many people would show up.

Finally, here is a letter to the editor that was published in the Rensselaer Republican from the chairwoman of the Memories Alive cemetery walk. You may have already read it in the paper.

Letter to the Editor: 

If you look around Weston Cemetery, you will realize that every single person buried there has a story to tell. Some of their stories are compelling and some tell of family connections or struggles; some are encouraging and enlightening, while others may be short and simple. None-the-less, their stories are waiting to be told. 

Once again, on the third Saturday of September, the “Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery” walk took place. Although it rained that afternoon, the crowd that gathered was prepared with rain gear in hand to help honor the lives of eight residents and to learn interesting facts and trivia about the cemetery. Some of the attendees came from Michigan, Iowa, and Virginia, curious to hear the stories the eight actors had to tell. The cemetery walk was a success. 

On behalf of the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery Committee, our thanks go to Beaver & Beaver P.C., eMbers Venue & Station, Rensselaer Monument, Inc. Steinke Funeral Home, Jackson Funeral Chapels Rensselaer, The Law Office of Clifford M Robinson, Brown’s Garden & Floral Shoppe, Autumn Trace, Chasing the Past Genealogical Services, for their sponsorships. Also, Jasper Newton Foundation, Jasper County Tourism Commission, and Wendy and Rick Odle for financial support. Many thanks to Rensselaer Printco, JORDANS, Willow Switch, and Reinforcements Design for helping promote this event in numerous ways.  Most of all, thank you to the community for coming back to help celebrate the lives of a few of those who found beautiful Weston Cemetery as their final resting place. 

Also, the research and planning has begun for next year’s cemetery walk. Come back to see who we will be honoring on Saturday, September 19, 2020, at 2:00 pm at the next “Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery” walk! 

Cordially,
Linda Buschman
Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery Chairwoman
Vice President, Jasper County Historical Society