Another tour

On Friday Gutwein Popcorn north of Francesville celebrated its 25th anniversary with an open house. I had never seen the plant and was impressed with its size. We came fairly late to the open house and the parking lot was almost full.

The firm served visitors a lunch from a food truck and then offered a tour. The tour began with a look at some of the equipment used in the early days of the company. The machine on the left filled fifty pound bags and the operator would then stitch them shut and move them so they could be placed on a pallet. Once the bags were all paper but now most are a tough plastic that can take a lot of abuse without ripping.

Leaving that building we could see some of the storage bins. Since popcorn matures only once a year, it needs to be stored so it can be packaged year around.

Walking a bit, we came to their new packaging plant.

The assembly line was very short. A machine filled bags every few seconds. They then were automatically sewn shut and fell onto a conveyor that took them to a formidable looking robot that stacked them on a pallet. Once the pallet was full, the robot would start filling a pallet on its other side and a fork-lift operator would take the filled pallet to a machine that would wrap the filled pallet in a plastic wrap. The pallet was then ready to be shipped.

For a better look at the robot, see the video on Elect Kendell Culp's Facebook page, hopefully reachable here. A bit more information about the company is here.

In addition to 50 pound bags, the company produces really big bags of popcorn that weigh more than a ton. We only saw one line producing small bags with two pounds of popcorn and the tour visitors each received one.

Gutwein exports a lot of their popcorn and apparently Pulaski County is the Nation's largest producer of popcorn. I asked if they sold to ConAgra and was told ConAgra was a rival, not a customer.

Happenings

Sorrel & Rye Mercantile will open soon on Rutsen Street across from the Post Office.

NuBloom Naturals is now open on North Van Rensselaer Street. Their hours are from noon until 8:00 and they have a big green cross in their window. 

On Thursday I noticed a booth next to the Smoked food truck. The booth is owned by the people who own the food truck and this was a test run. They expect to have the booth at the County Fair in a few weeks.

Work got started on a new horse barn at the Fairgrounds but seems to have stopped to wait for the unraveling of red tape.

The walls are still not up on the ambulance building across from the entrance to the Fairgrounds.

Last week rhe Carnegie Players presented two short plays based on Sherlock Holmes stories. The theater was the former site of Country Bumpkin, a long, narrow space. The stage was set up along one of the long walls.

The cast was different in each play, with Holmes and Watson played by women in the second play. The attendance on Thursday was good, with almost every seat filled.

Friday was the first dollar day at the pool. 

The Farmers Market had live entertainment on Saturday.

One of the booths had locally grown mushrooms. I asked the vendor how he grows them and it sounded like a lot of work.

The fence for the Hyper Center is partially finished. It is intended to keep little kids away from the street and parking lot.

The fencing for the new lift station is installed.

This weekend the Blacker Fields hosted the penultimate tournament of the year. At one time I thought the word "penultimate" was the most useless word in the English language, but then I learned that antepenultimate was a word.

The next tournament is July 1 & 2.

We got some much needed rain Saturday night/Sunday morning. I think the total was about two thirds of an inch. 

Titan Construction is working in the old power plant getting it ready for whatever it will become. There is still one large generator in the plant.

The previous post on the Forsythe house is the 12th most popular post of this blog, with just shy of 3000 views.

Drainage Board Public Hearing

The Drainage Board held a special meeting on Wednesday morning at the Fairgrounds. It was a public hearing for the reconstruction of four ditches in the northeast part of the County that serve land that the Dunns Bridge Solar Park occupies. The four ditches are the Hinshaw Ditch #52, the Rassmussen Ditch #90, the Sands Ditch #2603, and the R. E. Davis Ditch # 111. The meeting agenda has fifteen minutes for public discussion for each of those ditches, but the entire meeting lasted about three hours. The meeting was scheduled for the Fairgrounds assuming that there would be too many people for the Sparling Annex meeting room, and that assumption was correct. There were at least 40 people who attended.

Each of the four sections began with a short presentation from someone from BF&S Engineering (Butler Fairman & Seufert) who gave some background and presented estimates of various costs such as tree removal, removal of sediment, and correction of adverse slopes. Then the public had a chance to speak. If the Commissioners expected a lot of unhappy people, and I suspect that they did, they were not disappointed. There were many speakers, but only a few major themes. There were a lot of questions about estimated costs and the costs of specific items. The Surveyor explained several times that the costs were estimates and probably high because if a bid is 10% above the estimated cost, it cannot be accepted. Therefore, he estimates costs on the high side and the actual cost will likely be considerably lower than the estimate.

Some people thought that NextEra should pay for all the costs and I do not think the Commissioners disagreed. A very common complaint was made by people who have been maintaining their sections of a ditch and they, naturally, thought it unfair that they should have to pay for cleaning the ditch for people who did not maintain their part of the ditch. Several commenters asked what the benefit of cleaning the ditches was to them. They saw large costs and small or no benefits. A woman commented that the farmers know best how to maintain the ditches because they live there and they should be allowed to continue what they are doing. This was the only comment that was met with applause.

The largest of the ditches is the Davis Ditch, It has several laterals and the estimated cost of cleaning the whole system was about $1 million. This ditch sometimes attracts beavers and the comment was that when they are on the NIPSCO portion of the ditch, nothing is done about them. One farmer suggested that the main problem of the ditch was that NIPSCO does not maintain its part of the ditch. 

After about two hours of comments, the meeting was recessed while the Board discussed among themselves what they wanted to do. What they came up with surprised me. For the three smaller ditches they gave the landowners the option of cleaning the ditch by themselves under the guidance of the Surveyor. If the work was not done by the end of December, then the Surveyors recommendation would take effect and the reconstruction of these ditches would be put out for bid. A landowner in the Hinshaw watershed agreed to try to organize the other landowners, but no one at the meeting stepped up to organize the other two watersheds. One commented on the Rassmussen Ditch that it ran through the yards of homeowners who would not want anything done. It takes just one stubborn landowner to tank the effort to clean the ditch cooperatively. Cleaning cooperatively will save a lot of money and avoid paying the cost of the engineering studies. The Board wants to know by its August meeting if the landowners in each watershed will be trying to do this privately.

The Board did not give that option on the Davis Ditch but approved the Surveyor's recommendation to seek bids for reconstructing the ditch. 

A ribbon cutting in Francesville

 Another mural

In the previous post I had pictures of new decorations on the concrete pad behind the HYPER Center in Brookside Park. The artist, Addy Cain, who was painting them has recently done a mural at Brown's Garden and Floral Shoppe, shown below.

Here is her signature.

(Earlier this month Monon got a new mural, a picture of a locomotive by Cameron Moberg.)

Appleseed

Appleseed Childhood Education sent out a press release this week announcing that it had received a grant of $133,200 from the USDA Rural Development program that will be used to purchase classroom and kitchen equipment. Appleseed is currently renovating the former administration building of the hospital and expects to open early in 2023. Its ceremonial groundbreaking was covered here.

Ribbon cutting in Francesville

The recently opened Francesville Market had a ribbon cutting onThursday and I stopped by in time to take a picture of it.

The Francesville Market is along US 231 US 421 in a large building that formerly housed several businesses, including an agricultural equipment dealership. It is a true general store. It has a gas station with a typical gas-station convenience store inside.

Behind the convenience store is a small grocery store with a deli. This section can be reached with a second entrance rather than going through the convenience store.

In the future it will have a pharmacy with a drive-up window.

The store is a coop. It was formed as a result of the closing of Francesville's grocery store. With that, people had to drive to Monticello or Rensselaer for groceries and the residents wanted something closer, so some of them got together and organized this. Parts of the store opened in June. There was a very big crowd for the grand-opening/ribbon cutting. Perhaps the free food attracted many of them

I have thought that the dollar stores that are popping up in just about every small town in the midwest represented a return of the general store. However, the Francesville Market is closer to a true general store, though it does not have clothing or hardware. Stop by and check them out when you are in Francesville.

A couple of power plant pictures

Dismantling of the engines at the power plant continues. On Friday a truck was loading up with the innards of one of the big engines. I assume they are scrap metal now.

Here is a closer look.

Parks

The scarecrow trail in Milroy Park is starting to take shape.

Last week trash cans were decorated in Brookside Park

The schedule for baseball tournaments has been released and there are six weekends listed for Blacker Fields. Four are in May and two in late June.

Finally

The asters are blooming, announcing the end of summer.

Regional High School Art Show and other tidbits to end February.

The 29th Regional High School Art Show is on display at the Fendig Gallery.

The Gallery is open Tuesdays from noon until 4, Thursdays 2:00 until 6:00, and Saturdays noon until 2:00.

March 12 will be the last day of the exhibit.

Snow has given people ways to display their artistic creativity. I found these snow creatures the other day. They had started to melt and were past their prime but I took a picture because I really like the little dog.

I have a mouse or mice in my yard that have been busy tunneling under the snow. When the snow melts, their tunneling is revealed.  I am surprised that one of our neighborhood cats has not killed them.

The water in the quarry has reached the floor of the platform that once held a pump that kept the water from rising.

There are hundreds of geese that hang out in the quarry. I wonder where they go to eat when the snow covers the ground.

A sign that the Covid panic/pandemic is over:

If you get up early in the morning on a clear day, you will see Venus in the morning sky. It is very bright.

Rensselaer Baseball Inc (RBI) has obtained a Patronicity Grant to make improvements to Staddon Field, including upgrading the restroom. They need to have people donate to match the grant. More details are here.

I posted in late January that United Way of White County was administering a grant that still had money available for Jasper County. In its February meeting the review board approved grants that allocated all the remaining funds.

I have been trying to finish my taxes and I noticed that the county tax rate for Pulaski County is now lower than the county tax rate for Jasper County. Pulaski had the dubious distinction of having the highest rate in the State. Now they are third. Our tax rate for 2021 is 2.864% and Wabash County has a 2.9% rate. I counted 13 counties with rates 2.5% or more. When I first started attending County Council meetings, a couple of Council members pushed to get our rates lowered, but there was a tight limit on how much they could lower the rates every year. Then some changes in what the State allowed created a lot of uncertainty and that push evaporated. Sometime in the past the Council decided we should have high income taxes and low property taxes. I do wonder what prompted Pulaski County to lower their income tax rate.

My son in Kentucky reports that he has seen crocuses. Spring will get here.

Cars and guns

 The 36th Annual Car Show and Cruise Nite took place on Saturday. There were 117 cars entered in the Car Show.

Most of them were not as old as the cars I chose to photograph.

I did not see any of these old cars in the Cruise.

The Cruise was well attended, with people lining the streets along the Cruise route. However, at least while I was there, there seemed to be fewer cars than in past years. I kept looking for something interesting to photograph and finally found this limo pulling onto the highway from the College Mall parking lot. I do not think it was part of the Cruise.

After I left the Cruise, I could hear the horns beeping for a couple of hours.

The other big event of the weekend was the Fendig Theater production of a couple of short plays. The performances were held outside at Foundation Park. Below is the stage.

Murals are back in the news. I guessed at what might be on the upcoming Kentland mural and was mostly right.  I did not know about Perfection Fairfax and I had forgotten about his owner, former Indiana governor Warren McCray. Next week I expect to do several posts about new Rensselaer murals.

Visiting Main Street Bakery, I was able to take a picture of Medaryville's downtown mural. The artist is Zach Medler, who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Blueberry season has started. Some corn is tasselling. On Friday roof trusses were being put in place on the addition to Pipestone Veterinary Services. New sidewalk is in place on one side of Ayda's

The Rensselaer BZA met Thursday evening with nothing specific on the agenda. They decided that future meetings would be held on the second Thursday of the month at 6:00 when there is an agenda.

It was a meeting with open discussion and the first item discussed was a proposal for a shooting range for 4-H sports. This shooting range had previously been proposed for County land adjacent to the Airport but opposition from the Airport Authority Board resulted in the abandonment of that site. The new site for the proposed shooting range is on County land east of the County Jail and north of the newly-constructed Jail solar farm. This range would not be open to the public but restricted to use by the 4-H shooting program, the Sheriff's Department, and possibly the Rensselaer Police Department. The range would have 15 foot side berms and a 25 foot end berm. The Board asked questions and told the proposer what kinds of information they would like in a formal presentation. A shooting range is not mentioned as a possible use for any zoning classification in the City Code, so special permission in the form of a variance or a conditional-use approval would be needed. The attorney suggested that a conditional-use approval would be better than a variance because with it the Board could attach whatever additional restrictions it wanted and could also stipulate that the use be reviewed in future years.

 

The Board continued with short discussions of people working from their homes (which can cause problems for neighbors). There were concerns about unsightly lots, with the quote of the night following: "It is not against the law to be a hillbilly." The training facility that the Fire Department has constructed has been getting use, including from law enforcement for training K-9 units. There will the start of Phase II construction at the facility beginning this month. Good Oil, formerly Trail Tree, has a round-up program with proceeds going to fund the Fire Department training area.

There was a short discussion of St. Joe's. Apparently a reputable company would like to purchase the athletic facilities and cannot get a call back. The Board's attorney told them there was really nothing they could do to force any action by SJC.

I learned a new word at the meeting: barndominium. Essentially they seem to be living quarters constructed with pole-barn techniques. There is someone interested in constructing one in Rensselaer. There was also a discussion of tiny houses, houses that are smaller than what the City's building code allows. One group that is interested in them are widows and widowers who want to live close to sons or daughters but not under the same roof. Finally, Rensselaer is not electric-car friendly. If you have an electric car, it is desirable to have a second electrical service but the code allows only one service per residence. (Though if Rensselaer went all-electric, it is not clear it could provide the electricity that would be demanded.)

Miscellany June 12, 2021

 Eden Valley Farms, located just south of West Central High School, had an open house on Saturday. It was well attended, with tour groups of about 15 people starting every ten minutes or so. People on the tour had to wear hair nets and glasses and were not allowed to take pictures. At the end of the tour we were allowed to take a basil plant, so a picture of my basil plant is the only picture from the tour that I have to share. (There are pictures on the farm's website.)

The facility is divided into two parts. In one part herbs are grown in pots or trays and are watered in two different ways. This part grows organic produce. In the other part lettuce and maybe a some other things are grown without soil, hydroponically. This part was only being about 1/3 used. The facility employs 18 people full-time and another 7 or 8 part-time. Some of the output is sold locally under the Eden Valley Farms name, but most is sold under two other names, Farmers & Co and Edible Farms. The last is a Meijer label and Eden Valley is not the sole provider.

Murals are in the news. Cameron Moberg is finishing a large mural in DeMotte. A small mural was recently painted on the side of Main Street Bakery in Medaryville. Downtown Rensselaer also is getting a small mural, a flag on the Campbell Printing building.

The artist for this one is Rein Bontrager, who did the mural in Iroquois Park and who will soon be doing a large one in Kentland.  (My prediction from last year seems to be coming true.) The Kentland mural will focus on Newton County history. My guess is it will have people like George Ade, Sam Rice, and perhaps Jenny Conrad. Certainly it will have pictures of wildlife because Beaver Lake and the area around the Kankakee River were famous for wildlife. It will be interesting to see what he includes.

The curbs are in on South McKinley.

The Rensselaer Pet Care Clinic under construction east of Fountain Stone has been roofed and wrapped.

Walmart seems to be doing something with its sign over the entrance.

LaRue Pool did not open on Saturday but at least it had water. Filling started Thursday.

The Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce had a lunch in Brookside Park this past week and got to tour the new press box building. Below is the view of from the press box of the middle field.

The first item discussed at the Airport Authority Board meeting Thursday evening was the proposal for a 4-H shooting range northwest of the airport. This proposal had been brought before the Commissioners earlier in the week and also at their May meeting and Commissioners had wanted to know what the Airport Authority thought of it before they acted. The 4-H shooting sports are archery, air rifle, 22-caliber rifle, pistol, and shotgun for clay pigeons. The Airport manager pointed out that the area of the proposed range was under the flight path of some of the smaller planes taking off from the airport and said that the location posed safety issues. Further, the part of the year when the range would be most used, in July, coincided with the time when the airport had the most traffic. The Jasper County Sheriff said that though the people proposing the range had offered his department use of the range, the range would not be suitable for his department because the firearms that his people use are far more high-powered than those that the 4-H youth would use. The Board expressed support for the idea of a 4-H shooting range but voted to recommend to the Commissioners that it not be sited near the airport.

During the discussion it was mentioned that there was once a skeet-shooting range on the south end of the Fairgrounds. Prior to about ten years ago, the local 4-H had had shooting events for fair week. Those making the proposal said that there were other options for a site, and that the one near the airport was advanced because it was the closest to the Fairgrounds.

Next the Board turned to insurance. Some current insurance policies expire at the end of the month and the Board heard quotes for renewal. There were some tense moments and exchanges during the discussion, something I have rarely seen in meetings I attend. In the end, the Board voted 2-1-1 to renew the policies recommended by the existing insurance agent. (The Board should have five members but there is currently a vacancy.)

The State is ending the emergency meeting procedures that were instituted as a result of the COVID lockdown. The Board voted on an electronic attendance policy that would require that if any member is attending virtually, all votes must be by roll call.

The Airport received a $30,000 grant that will allow it to purchase three flight simulators to aid both existing pilots and those in pilot training. Although the Airport had the money in its account, it needed the Board to approve an additional appropriation before it spent the money.

The Airport is currently installing a back-up generator. It is mostly complete but it needs some gas pipes, which are currently in short supply. On Sunday the Airport will be offering free flights to 65 high-school aged students. Six or seven airplanes from around the state will be here to provide them. There will be an aviation summer camp this summer and 28 students are signed up. Indian Trails Career Cooperative will fund a half hour of flight training for each of the participants. The summer intern has been working at the airport for more than a week. She is a student at Kankakee Valley High School and would like to become an airline pilot.

The July meeting will have the 2022 budget on its agenda.