Park dedication and Christmas parade

Dedication and parade

On Saturday evening Filson Park was dedicated with speeches by Heather Hall, Stace Pickering, Brienne Hooker, Mayor Jeff Phillips, and Barb Michals followed by a ribbon cutting. The lighting was poor, so I adjusted the exposure so the ribbon could be seen. (This week's Rensselaer Republican will almost certainly have a much better picture and also an article with more details.)

The picture below is more like what the event looked like to me.

Before the park dedication and other events of the evening, there was a parade. The crowd waited until it got dark, with kids excited by the prospect of picking up lots of candy.

The parade started with a lot of noise with fire trucks and tow trucks, all with horns honking and sirens screaming.

One of the highway department trucks had a decoration that I remember was in last year's parade.

The snow plows were intimidating.

I am not sure what group these were with.

Teen Mission

No horses this year, but giant tractors.

The Rensselaer High School band played on.

The City of Rensselaer had several entries, including their recycling trailer.

Bomber softball.

Probably ConAgra. Someone gave me popcorn,

The kids on either side of me got plenty of candy, though some of it was not thrown well and was left on the street. (See picture above.)

There were many more entries than those shown above. My camera malfunctioned before Santa came by to end the parade.

City meetings

There was a very short Board of Public Works meeting Monday afternoon. It approved a pay request from Commonwealth Engineers for $6740 for work on the water-tower project. There remain several items on the water towers that have unfixed problems.

The City Council meeting that followed had two public hearings. The first was about the sewer-rate increase. A person from Baker Tilly explained that the City is under an unfunded mandate to fix problems with its combined sewer system by 2028. The fix will be expensive but the first part will be financed with a $19 million loan at a zero interest rate and the second part will be financed with about a $9 million loan with a below-market rate. The pay off these loans, sewage rates, which are determined by how much water a household uses, will rise 30% next year, another 23% the year after, and a final 13% the next year. One member of the public asked if the rates could be phased in over four or five years rather than three and he was told that the State wants the full rate in place when payments start, so three is the maximum.  Below is a handout provided at the meeting showing how Rensselaer rates will compare to other communities. We go from quite low to very high.

(How much water do you use? I am no where near the 4000 gallons a month level.)

The second public hearing was on a petition to abandon parts of Prairie Street and unnamed road that are north of the large Presidio warehouse on Merritt Street. Some of these streets seem to have been previously vacated but no one could find a record of the vacation. Presidio would like the streets vacated to improve truck flow for the renters of space in the warehouse. One adjoining property owner objected and said he wanted some of the land if the streets were vacated. 

Two bids were opened for Community Crossings paving grant, one from Milestone for $1,169,000 and the other from Town & Country Paving for $1,077,498. They were given to a consultant and a person from the Street Department to review for a recommendation.

The Council then passed the sewer-rate increase. Next on the agenda was an ordinance on the collecting and writing off debt owed to the City. The Council suspended rules so it could be passed with one reading, which was done. There were several transfers of funds passed, and the gas tracker for December will be a one-half cent increase per 100 cubic feet of usage. There was a discussion of replacing clocking in with time cards to using a software system. The Council voted to have the clerk/treasurer pursue the matter. On Thursday and Friday the front entrance to City Hall will be closed for upgrades to the doors to make them ADA compliant.

The two people examining the paving bids returned with a recommendation that Town & Country be awarded the bid. However, they recommended that the work proposed for Milroy Avenue be postponed to bring the project down to the budget even though that will result in a somewhat smaller grant from the State. The Council accepted their recommendation.

The Street Department said it would like to switch mapping vendors, but other departments were happy with the status quo. No action was taken.

Odds & ends

Wreaths Across America Day will be Saturday, December 14. Opening ceremonies will be at 10:00 at the Jasper County Fairgrounds.

On Monday Rensselaer School Corporation schools canceled classes because the computer network was down. Things have changed a lot since I went to school. We had no computers, much less a computer network.

Sblended has announced that it is closing. Dec 22 will be their last day.  The owner says, "There will be another business taking over in the building where we are located now, I think it’s going to make an incredible addition to the lovely Rensselaer Community and I hope that you all will love and support it."

The organ that was in the Ritz Theater has been moved to the building that the Carnegie Players recently purchased and will renovate. The picture below was provided.

The Tourism Commission meeting scheduled for December 10 was canceled because a quorum could not be assembled. It will be rescheduled.

The Airport Authority Commission meeting scheduled for December 10 has been moved to December 19 and the December 30 meeting canceled.

The Carnegie Players production of Saving Christmas is scheduled for the 12th, 13th, and 14th.

The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce has its annual meeting with civic awards on Tuesday (Dec 10) evening. Update: the Presidents Award went to Denise Espino, the artist who designed and painted the Christmas windows.

Homecoming and harvest

 Homecoming parade

This past weekend was RCHS Homecoming and on Thursday the school held its annual homecoming parade. I stopped by the line-up to take some pictures because I never know how well the pictures at night will turn out. I was surprised to see so many old cars ready for the parade, but I later learned that the grand marshall was shop teacher Walt Brown who co-founded the JC Cruisers.

In the lineup I took pictures of a couple of floats that I did not capture during the parade

I am not sure which class belonged to each of the class floats.

The FFA had its own float.

The band marched by quickly and my camera did not focus on them well.

At the end of the parade the very loud fire trucks carried the members of the football team.

Lots of candy was thrown to the delight of small and some big kids.

The football team won the game.

October Commissioners meeting

The October Commissioners meeting may have been the shortest of the year, lasting only about one hour. After approving minutes and claims, the Commissioners approved a simple bore request in Keener Township for a fiber optic cable.

The Commissioners and Council have discussed reorganizing the public-defender program for the past year. At this meeting a public-defender plan was presented to the Commissioners for their approval. It was based on a draft that came from the State public defender office. That draft had some changes made in various meetings. It will have a chief public defender officer who will do paperwork currently done by the Courts or the Auditor. The budget should be on the agenda of this month's Council meeting. The Commissioners approved the plan and thereby established the office of the chief public defender.

The Commissioners approved the meeting calendar for the Commissioner meetings in 2025 and also the 2025 holiday schedule. It approved a rezone of 83 acres in Walker Township from A1 to A2 in Walker Township. The owner decided that the land was not worth farming and would be better used for housing. An animal shelter shed was on the agenda but was pushed to another meeting for more information. Community Corrections received approval to replace an employee who left. 

The Sheriff reported that his food vendor is increasing prices by 4%. Also, a service a medical provider was providing free will now have a cost. He submitted and the Commissioners approved a conflict-of-interest form so that one of his employees can be hired to fix a car damaged by a deer. 

NIPSCO is planning a gas-fired peaking plant on its Wheatfield property and has agreed to pay for an analysis of an economic agreement with the County. The County has approved this but has not gotten a final word back from NIPSCO.

The harvest is in full swing and the fields are dry. On the advice of the local fire departments, the Commissioners approved reinstating the burn ban for the next seven days. Bids for various supplies for the Highway Department are going out to be opened in January. The Commissioners approved the contract snow plowing for the same subdivisions that had it last year. The Prosecutor was given permission to fill the position of a deputy prosecutor who is leaving. The meeting was continued to Tuesday, Oct 22 at 8:30 if needed. If the Sparling Annex room is unavailable because of construction, the alternative will be the Commissioners room in the Court House.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting that followed the Commissioners meeting lasted longer than the Commissioners meeting, which is very unusual. The first item after approval of minutes was an adjustment to the drainage plan for the Genova south parking lot in Rensselaer. They will add a pond and the adjustment was approved with a hold-harmless agreement.

A landowner who has been getting water near the Davidson tile thinks there is blockage in the Davidson tile and would like assistance in finding the blockage. There was a long discussion that followed. The tile is from 1902. No action was taken and he was told to carry a petition to maintain or reconstruct.

The next case on the agenda was from a person who bought a 2+ acre lot in a subdivision that has a house. However, most of the lot is a retention pond that he must maintain and cannot build. He was not at the meeting and no action was taken.

There were two items involving NIPSCO. About a year ago they had received permission to make a temporary crossing of a County ditch on their property to do some work. The work is now done and they would like to leave the crossing, thereby making it permanent. The Board approved contingent on them getting the required permits from other agencies. The second item was a request to cross another ditch with a fiber optic cable. That was also approved.

There was a request for a variance to build a pole-barn building on North McKinley that will be over a tile. Several existing buildings are already over this tile. The request was granted but the owner will now be responsible for that section of the tile and must sign a hold-harmless agreement.

At a meeting on reconstructing the Kelly-Denton tile, the landowners decided they would like the tile replaced with a ditch. The Army Corps of Engineers said no to the ditch but the tile can be replaced because the ditch would drain a wetland. A new public hearing was scheduled for 10:30 on December 2. The location is uncertain because of upcoming remodeling at the Sparling Annex.

Two bids were received for cleaning the Claude May ditch and the lower bid was accepted.

Finally someone in Rensselaer wants to build a garage on a County right-of-way. The house is already on the right-of-way, as are some other homes. The variance was granted with a hold-harmless agreement.

Odds & ends

There were multiple Facebook reports on Tuesday morning of reports of people seeing the Northern Lights.

Steinke Funeral Home shared some pictures of their building when it was the Granlund Funeral Home. I had never heard of name. The Jackson Funeral Home began in 1944 when John Jackson bought the Worland Funeral Business and then in 1949 it purchased the Wright Funeral business. The Wrights were the only funeral home in most of Rensselaer's early history.

The brick streets have fancy new trash cans.

I have seen some harvested fields in the past couple of weeks but on Tuesday I saw a combine harvesting a soybean field along Sparling Avenue.

It stopped and unloaded into a large trailer.

Another sign of fall is the appearance of large preying mantises. For some reason this one thought my bike tire made a good perch.

I have more to write but this post is long enough. More later when I get to it.

More Festival pictures

 Little Cousin Jasper Parade

Many people lined Washington Street on Saturday for the Little Cousin Jasper Festival parade. 

After the very loud fire trucks passed, the Cousin Jasper King and Queen for 2024 rode by.

These marchers were handing out popcorn. They were from ConAgra.

The Rensselaer Care Center had a float with two kids on it.

The Rensselaer marching band was the only band in the parade this year.

The Republicans had a float with lots of signs for its candidates for County, State, and National offices.

I do not remember who sponsored this float, but it commemorated the 50 years that the Little Cousin Jasper Festival has been around.

Youth soccer has a lot of kids in its program and the younger ones were on a float. Some of the older ones were marching behind, throwing out candy. There was a lot of candy this year, and any kid who did not go home with a big bag of it was a slacker.

I did not quickly recognize what the woman on the right was supposed to be. She was a toothbrush and represented one of our local dentists.

Donaldson's had a colorful float.

The Democrats have fewer candidates running for local offices than the Republicans. Neither Luttringer nor Jeffries ran in the primary election. 

At the end of the parade was a strange three-wheeled vehicle and a car that looked like it had been in a demolition derby.

More Festival pictures

The Carnegie Players put on several performances of what they called "Professor Galen Placebo's Miracle Elixir Medicine Show". Here Professor Galen demonstrated how his miracle elixir was keeping a head without a body alive. 

The show also had a magician trying to perform tricks. Here she is with Ima Lone and her assistant Lotta Tusch. 

The whole thing was very funny but the sound from the main stage was distracting. Hopefully they will be able to perform it again in a better venue.

Two of the actors shown in these pictures will be performing on September 21 at the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery.

The stage show that had the loud sound was a hypnotist.

I paid a last visit as the Festival was closing and was surprised at how many people were still there. I saw a bunch of kids wearing these hats that had bulbs in the legs. When they were squeezed, the ears moved.

Board of Public Works meeting

The Board of Public Works meeting had only one item on its agenda, a payment of $20,572 for Commonwealth Engineering for its work on the Water Project. It was approved.

The fence around the water treatment plant next to Iroquois Park is finished. The City has started filling the I-65 water tower. The generator for the water towers passed their tests. Work has started on the permeable pavers along Harrison Street. The new police cars are still not ready to enter service.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Council passed on a second reading of an ordinance for discontinuation of services. There were a few minor changes and clarifications made to it. The gas tracker for September did not change. The Mayor issued a proclamation for the Knights of Columbus' Blue Light Program. It honors first responders by encouraging people to light a blue light on September 11, which was proclaimed Blue Light Day.

The Council approved starting to prepare for closing the Scott Street rail crossing. There will be a public hearing on October 14.

The Council then heard presentations for Commonwealth Engineering and Baker Tilley about making improvements to the sewage system to comply with a State decree. The City has until 2030 to make these improvements. It had sought financing from the State Revolving Fund (SRF) for zero percent financing, but initially did not make the cut. However, several localities that were above it in the rankings were not ready to begin their projects, so the cut line dropped down until it included Rensselaer. Rensselaer can borrow up to $20 million at the zero interest rate and Commonwealth expects the changes to the sewage plant to be $18.8 million. The City also needs to make changes in its sewers within Rensselaer and that is estimated to cost another $8 or $9 million. The speakers kept making references to a packet that the Council members had so the presentations were hard to follow for someone in the audience.

The Baker Tilley presentation ran through the financing numbers and said that the end result would be almost a doubling of sewage rates. The City will not be able to tap into a second zero-interest rate for the second part of the project. Delaying the project will only increase costs and the size of rate hikes, so the Council voted to move forward to seeking the funding and preparing the many steps needed before construction actually begins. The first step will probably be approving a bond ordinance next month.

The Council will have to have its meetings on-line starting next July. It will keep its current audio system, spend $1945 for new video equipment, and use Youtube to stream the meetings. The Council then approved some changes to health insurance and pay. They will be included in the salary ordinance at a future meeting.

Trick and Treat hours will be from 5:00 to 8:00 on October 31.

The EPA is beginning to regulate a contaminate that I did not catch, though it may be PFAS. The City has the opportunity to have testing for it paid by the Indiana Finance Authority, and the Council approved taking the free testing.

Because the second Monday of November is Veterans Day, the first Council meeting in November will be on Tuesday, November 12. The next Council meeting will have a public hearing on the budget. There is a Plan Commission meeting on September 19 and a public hearing on a proposed TIF district on September 30.

Odd and ends

Fase-Kaluf Appliances has new owners.

The doors of what used to be Not Your Typical Wingz now have "for rent" signs on them.

The Fall newsletter from SJC is available.

At the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission meeting summarized in the previous post, there was mention that a Sanborn Insurance map showed that the property on the corner of Clark and Cullen had once had a gas station. I searched the Internet and found a 1921 map that did not have the building, but a map at the Rensselaer Library showed it.

Part of the building was storage for soft drinks. The gas tanks seem to have been located next to Clark. I suppose that is where the pumps were.

In the past the Weston Cemetery Walk (September 21 this year) has had one presenter for each grave visited. This year we will try something different, a conversation among three sisters who died within two years in the late 19th century. All were between the ages of 16 to 22 and their father was a popular craftsman/shopkeeper. I have seen the script and if the three women do as well as they have in rehearsals, it will be a highlight of this year's walk.

Three years ago we featured Ernest Zea as told from the perspective of his mother. Ernie was blind and confined to a wheelchair, but he made the most of what he had and was admired by the citizens of Rensselaer. This year we initially considered another person who had severe physical handicaps and an eventful life. Ultimately we decided not to portray him because, unlike Ernest, he took a destructive path that caused him and others great pain. Which raises the question, are their lives that are so objectionable or offensive that they should be out-of-bounds for an event like the Cemetery Walk? Does the answer depend on whether they have surviving relatives in Rensselaer?

The organizers appreciate the sponsors who make this event possible, including:

Fireworks and Cruise Night

July 4 Fireworks

Again this year the Brookside Church provided a fireworks show on the Fourth of July. Before the show they had the band "Warranted" play for several hours. I did not see a lot of publicity for the fireworks, but the crowd at Brookside Park was huge. The picture below was taken from near the playground equipment and the church building can be seen illuminated by the fireworks.

There were kids having so much fun on the playground equipment that I do not think they watched much or any of the fireworks.

This picture was taken from south of the LaRue Pool and the white lines are the fence post for the fence around the pool. The fireworks on the left were from a private citizen living north of the highway. (Three other private fireworks were visible to the east of the church fireworks.)

Most of my attempts to photograph fireworks do not turn out well. Here are a couple of exceptions.

Here is a video of 32 seconds of the display.

Someone had fun on the Fourth.

Car show and Cruise Night

The 2024 JC Cruiser Car Show was the biggest ever. There were cars from the highway to the pool and from the Creek to the parking lot for Blacker Fields.

A lot of cars meant a lot of trophies to give out.

I wandered around and took some pictures. I have to admit, I am not a car person and have little talent in auto or engine mechanics. I suspect my maternal grandfather and my two maternal uncles pitied me for that shortcoming. My grandfather owned a car dealership in Minnesota in the 1930s and 1940s and in the 1950s and 1960s owned a John Deere dealership with one of his sons. Both of those uncles made a living fixing farm equipment. One of them rebuilt old farm steam engines (used for power before tractors.) I suspect my lack of mechanical ability came from my father's side of the family.

A lot of hoods were up so people could admire the motors.

There were a number of vendors at the event, including one selling hub caps.

The oldest car at the show was a 1908 Buick. It did not join Cruise Night, That was probably a good thing because it left the smell of gasoline behind it.

There was a large crowd for Cruise night. Most were on the west side of the highway so they did not have to look at the setting sun. However, that meant it was very difficult to get a good picture of the crowds. 

Trinity United Methodist Church was handing out free hot dogs and chips in front of Fase's. They did not have as many takers as I expected.

The little pink ice cream truck had a line of customers at Milroy Park.

As I continued toward the downtown I heard more ice-cream-truck music and was wondering where it was coming from. There was a second truck working the route. I suspect there was plenty of business for both.

I was getting ready to leave when the cars from the car show arrived and I took the video below of most of them.