February 2023 ends

Art Show

The third of the annual school shows is now on exhibit at the Fendig Gallery. This one is for high-school students.

These word portraits are done in Photoshop.

Not all the art was two-dimensional.

Who do you think drew this picture, a male or female?

I admire the craftsmanship needed to do realistic faces.

An even better face.

The exhibit closes on March 12 with an awards ceremony 

City Council meeting

Highlights from Monday's City Council meeting:

A new police officer was sworn in. I expect the Republican to have an article explaining who he is.

The Little Cousin Jasper Festival will hold its festival in Potawatomi Park this September. They requested the Front Street parking lot be reserved for food trucks and that a block of Front Street be closed from Thursday through Sunday for game trucks. Their request was approved. The Festival folks said that they could use more volunteers.

The Mayor announced that the City has borrowed $6 million at a zero interest rate for the water project and will get a grant (a forgivable loan) of $2 million to remove lead service lines.

The Fire Department will sponsor a 5K event on May 20. The race will start in Jasper-Newton Foundation Park, go out Sparling to College Woods, go through the Woods and return to Foundation Park.

Councilman Cover expressed concern about the condition of rail crossings on Cullen and McKinley Streets.

Bids for street work funded by Community Crossings grant are due on March 13.

JCBZA & Plan Commission meetings

The Jasper County Board of Zoning Appeals also met Monday evening. It approved minutes from its last meeting, October 2022, and elected officers: President S Walstra and VP K Korniak. It had only one other item on the agenda, a request for a special exception to use a basement bedroom and bath for an Airbnb. The house sits on about 20 acres of wooded land in Walker Township and the owners thought that people who enjoy birds and other wildlife might find spending time there relaxing and attractive. A neighbor who farms adjacent land opposed the exception because he said commercial uses interfered with farming so he did not want any commercial uses. After pondering the issue for a while, the Board granted the exception with three conditions, that it was attached to the applicants and would disappear when the land changed ownership, that it be limited to no more than two guests, and no firearms be allowed to registered guests. The next meeting will be March 20.

The BZA meeting was followed by a Plan Commission meeting. They approved their November minutes and elected K Korniak president, V Urbano as VP, and J Rodibaugh as Secretary. They also appointed two members to the BZA, K Korniak and V Urbano. Their first cause was a rezone request from I-1 to A1 (Light Industrial to Agricultural). The land is in Hanging Grove Township near McCoysburg. It had been zoned I-1 when zoning first started, apparently in the hope that business would develop in McCoysburg. The applicant said that with the I-1 zoning he would be prevented from rebuilding if his house was destroyed and mortgage companies will not lend for residential purposes. The members agreed that this was a zoning that should have long ago been changed so recommended to the Commissioners that it be changed.

The second cause was an amendment to the solar ordinance. Towns and cities can control zoning in an area up to two miles from their borders, but none of Jasper County communities does that. They have buffer zones that follow County Roads and are in places less than two miles from the town limits. As it reads now, the solar ordinance mentions the two-mile limit, but communities are only regulating their declared buffer zones, so there is a gray area that is not covered by the ordinance. The amendment, which the Commission recommended to the commissioners, replaces the two mile limit with the buffer zone. The director of planning and development was asked to find other places in ordinances where the buffer zone could replace the two-mile limit.

Weather

We got about three inches of rain on Ash Wednesday. The rain recreated Weston Pond and raised the river to just under 11 feet. 

I have a maple tree that is leaking sap and I heard redwing blackbirds last week, more signs that Spring is one the way. My son who lives in Kentucky has lots of daffodils blooming, but my son in Arizona has several feet of snow with a couple more feet in the forecast. He cannot shovel it anymore because there is no place to put it.

Other things

The law office of Hodges Davis has relocated to the back of the Horton/Yallaly Building. The Shelter Insurance office that was there is gone.

The first batch of digitized Rensselaer newspapers is now availabe on the Hoosier State Chronicles. This will make it far easier to research early Rensselaer history.

Work on the sewer line along Owen Street continues. 

I started work on taxes for last year. Pulaski County, which at one time had a higher income tax rate than Jasper County, no longer does because they cut their rate a couple years ago. However, there are three counties that do have higher rates: Putnam at .03, Cass at .0295, and Wabash at .029. (Jasper is at .02864.)

All Saints Day 2022

Leaves

November has arrived and peak color has departed. Below is the view from the Talbert Bridge. Compare it to the other views in posts here, here, and here.

Last week the City fired up its green monster, the leaf vac. Below is a picture of it with the street sweeper cleaning up leaves on Park Avenue.

Halloween

Saint Augustine Church hosted a trunk-or-treat event on Sunday evening with a lot of kids and adults in costumes.

In addition to the candy in the parking lot, there were games in the gymnasium, such as bowling and ring toss.

The most amusing was the one where kids had to eat a donut hanging from a string without using their hands.

There were plenty of candy opportunities this year. It is fortunate for the kids that the City Council moved the trick-or-treating time because Saturday evening had nice weather but Monday evening had rain.

The Saint Augustine School kids have a second dress-up day, November 1, All Saints Day, when they dressed up as a favorite saint.

Special County Council meeting

On Friday afternoon the Jasper County Council had a special meeting in the Courthouse to change how the revenues from the local income tax (LIT) are allocated. It had a public hearing, at which the only member of the public in attendance (me) had nothing to say, and then voted to reduce the tax going to public safety from .3925% to .3725% and increased the tax going to emergency medical services from 0% to .02%. The income tax rate that people will pay will stay the same at 2.864%.

This is a step in establishing funding for EMS and I suspect that it will be changed in the upcoming years. The change will take effect January 1, 2023 and the Council will be able to spend the money beginning in 2024. 

The details of the ordinance are given in the agenda for the meeting, available here.

Other things

Part of Cullen Street got a new surface last week. It was milled on one day

and resurfaced on a second day.

The parade route for the Christmas parade in December will be flipped this year, starting on the north and ending on the south. Santa will end the parade in Potawatomie Park where various activities are planned.

The last farmers market was held this past Saturday. There were only five or six vendors and fewer customers while I was there. Another sign that winter is coming.

I mentioned a cross country result in the last post. Morgan Township, which finished second in the semi-state meet, only managed a 19th of 24 finish in the state finals. The other teams from the New Prairie Semi-State placed 7th (Valparaiso), 20, 21, 23, & 24. That indicates that the girls New Prairie Semi-State is the weakest of the four. I recall it as being a very strong semi-state a couple decades ago when I was paying a lot of attention to cross country.

Update: S-blended Nutrition announced on Facebook that it would soon be moving down the block to where Sage Bridal Studio is now. More details are expected soon.

Pictures and a very short meeting

 Park pictures

Rensselaer Parks had its annual Fall Fest last week at Brookside Park. Participants could carve pumpkins, listen to a Riley Read, or get their faces painted.

There were also hay wagon rides available and a bounce house, which you can see in the background of the picture below.

The Rotary Porkmobile was there for those who wanted food.

Potawotomie Park now has a chess table.  You have to bring your own chess pieces. Or checker pieces. Or lunch.

Below is a view of the table from the pedestrian bridge.

More trees

The view of Weston Cemetery from the Talbert Bridge shows that some of the maples are past their fall prime and are losing their leaves. (The same view with the tree in the center in full color is here.)

Most oaks turn brown or golden brown in the fall. An oak in Weston Cemetery, shown on the left below, has a pretty reddish brown color.

Tulip trees are turning yellow. 

I noticed this beautiful hickory with its golden brown leaves on the corner of College and Lincoln.

Halloween

I was not planning to post pictures of Halloween decorations this year because they are at their best when it is dark and my camera does not do a good job in the dark. But then I stumbled on this display in the south part of town. The tall figure caught my attention and when I got closer I saw it was part of a display of skeletons. One was raking, a mother skeleton was sprinkling her child with water, and there was a dog skeleton barking up a tree at a cat skeleton

There was also a skeleton mowing and apparently mowing another skeleton and a skeleton hanging from the eaves like a bat.

However, the funniest part of the display was a lineman skeleton climbing a utility pole.

Odds and ends

Last week there was a directional drilling machine at the north end of Mattheson Street. That indicates that work extending sewer lines has begun.

Below is the lift station over the weekend.

City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council had a short agenda on Monday evening. They approved a salary ordinance for 2023 that reflects the raises passed earlier and approved a public relations request of $750 to fund a City Christmas tree in Potawatomi Park, a City float in the Christmas parade on Saturday, December 3, and some lobby and window decoration for City Hall. The Mayor appointed a committee of seven (Cover, Watson, J. Lockridge, C Lockridge, B Black, Larson, and Keyes) to update policies and procedures. 

City Offices will be closed on November 11 (Memorial Veterans Day). The City has filed a complaint against a property in Kelly Green that was brought to the attention of the Council in July. The Electric Department will start its tree cutting season in November. 

The meeting lasted a mere 15 minutes.

Other things

Last week we had a frost that killed most of the frost-sensitive plants in my garden.

The cross-country semistate was held on Saturday and the Rensselaer boys team came in tenth in a field of 20. However, much more impressive was the winner of the girls sectional held at Rensselaer a couple weeks ago. Morgan Township, which is quite a small school, placed second and will compete at the state meet. It is very rare for a small school to make it to the state meet because cross country does not have a class system; all schools, big and small, compete together. (In 2009 the Tri-County girls made it to state. Some info here and here.)

Francesville is getting another mural. It will be on the wall of the Circle S Farm Solutions building that was constructed in 1908 as the Myers Opera House Block. (The picture at the link shows what the finished product will look like. It is not a picture of the actual mural.) The muralist previously did the sandhill crane mural on Main Street Bakery in Medaryville. 

I found this listing of the Jasper County Chamber of Commerce while looking for something else on microfilm in the Library. I recognize most of the businesses though a few were no longer in existence when I came to Rensselaer in 1974, but only a few are still active. 

Miscellaneous Pictures

Tee ball and baseball games have begun in the parks.

 A walking trail has been cut out in the Staddon/Monnett park. It has an interesting circle in it. Soon the trail will get a layer of stone and after that it will be paved.

Rensselaer's first roundabout?

 Fencing for the new dog park has been installed.

On Saturday morning the annual running of the Chloe 5K started from the Fairgrounds and came through Brookside Park. When the runners and walkers arrived they got some musical encouragement from a Tri-County High School band and some water from the water station.

Later on Saturday the SJC Alumni had a Little 500 race at the fairgrounds. The race featured a huge trophy.

 There were six racers and the race was run in three segments. The track circled the area in which the carnival sets up during the County Fair.

 I noticed a new gazebo in near the livestock barns.

Last October I posted a picture showing the construction of the new office building  Here is the completed building.

 On Thursday a semi truck drove west on Jackson Street and then turned north on Abigail. On Abigail it hit the overhead lines and brought them down. The lines were not those of the electric utility but those of NITCO and CenturyLink.

Workers spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up and getting the lines off the road. On Friday a crew from the City replaced a utility pole that had been cracked. (The City owns the utility poles and CenturyLink and NITCO pay to use them.) More crews came and worked until after dark on Friday. There were more workers doing something with the lines on Saturday and today (Monday) a CenturyLink crew was doing something with the line.

Gordon wrecks Little Cousin Jasper

The remnants of tropical storm Gordon arrived on Friday and stayed for Saturday. We were on the northern fringes of the area affected, so we got light rain and drizzle that lasted for much of two days. Because the rain was light, the ground was able to absorb it and the river has hardly risen. I am not sure how much rain we got.

Though the rain was light, it had a big effect on the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. Cold and wet are not ideal conditions for people to get out and walk around. The parade scheduled for noon on Saturday was canceled. Some booths never set up. It had to be very disappointing for the people who worked so hard organizing and preparing the festival.

 There was a car show on Saturday but I saw only about twenty cars. The weather must have affected this as well.

 Most or all of the acts scheduled were a go. Olga the violinist was terrific but her audience was small. Who wants to set on wet bleachers in the rain?

 The "win-a-bunny" booth was back. I talked to some kids who won a bunny but their mother nixed the idea of bringing one home.

The rain had stopped by Sunday morning and perhaps some of the people who had stayed home on Friday and Saturday decided to make a visit.  The Jesse White Tumblers from Chicago performed to a decent audience.

 On Saturday the annual Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational was held. At one time this was one of the big high-school cross country meets in northwestern Indiana but over the years the number of high school teams attending has gradually dwindled. As the high-school part of the meet was shrinking, the middle-school part was growing to become a major middle-school meet. This year the high-school races were eliminated and the meet became a middle-school-only meet.

Cool and misty weather might be bad for a festival, but it is not a problem for cross country. Cool weather is much better than hot and humid for runners.

The Rensselaer girls did exceptionally well.

The Jasper County Art League's exhibit, Through The Window, had its opening reception on Friday evening. The theme was windows and most of the pictures had a clear window theme—pictures framing the work or pictures taken or painted looking through a window. One omission I noticed was that no one used computer windows as the framing device for their pictures. If I had the talent to enter something, I would have done a picture something like one below.

(I like tessellations.)