Miscellany 08-23-2012

The Austin Park bridge has gotten its first coat of paint.

The 9-11 memorial I-beam seems to be in place in front of the fire station. I wonder if the box will be removed as part of the dedication ceremony. The Little Cousin Jasper Festival would be a good time to dedicate it.

I do not have more pictures of the Court House roof today, but I do have some roofing pictures. It looks like Donaldson's is getting a new roof.

While I was there workers were dumping debris down the black chute to the right of the crane.

Behind Donaldson's the turnabout for the Little Cousin Jasper 5K race seemed to have been recently painted.

At SJC I heard hammering and found that the entrance decoration to the east of the highway was mostly demolished.

I asked a worker what was planned and he did not know.

More bridge news

I keep waiting for the pedestrian bridge to be lifted into place, but last night one of the guys who seems to be a supervisor told me that it has to have three coats of paint before it will be placed. The earliest it might be lifted into place is Friday, but next week is more likely.

 Today I noticed that the crane was lifting something so I took a closer look. The I-beams were being relocated, probably to be painted as well.

The old bowstring bridge, according to one of the workers, will provide no structural support for the walkway--it will be purely decorative. The support will come from the I-beams, which will have a wooded deck.

Yesterday I took another picture of work on the Court House roof and I liked it enough to want to publish it.

Sunday night I took another picture that included the Court House. Near sunset a rainbow was visible in the rain that had visited Rensselaer a few hours earlier. I had to alter the contrast to get the rainbow to be easily visible, which is why the colors are a bit strange.

Finally, last night at the Tuesday Nite Farmers' Market the Chamber of Commerce auctioned off rocking chairs in a promotion to raise some money. This year the chairs were all kid-sized chairs and in contrast to last year, when the various merchants customized the chairs with decoration that reflected their businesses, the decoration was mostly generic. I liked the idea of the businesses putting their logos on the chairs, but then I am not one of the people who wants to buy one. Perhaps they learned that a more generic look was better when selling them.

Summer is coming to an end. Local schools start next week, though all the sports teams are already competing. The new primary school has an open house tomorrow. The swimming pool will close Sunday, but reopen for Labor Day weekend. The recent cooler weather has cut attendance. Next week's Tuesday Nite Farmers' Market will be the last and will feature the Rensselaer High School Band. (Saturday morning Farmers' Markets will continue.) And have you noticed that the days are getting shorter? Pretty soon the farmers will be in the fields harvesting.

The bridge is back

The bowstring arch bridge, which once spanned the Iroquois River north of Laird's Landing, is back in town and may be put into place later today.

I expected it to come back painted, but it does not seem to be.

Update: They did not get it in place today, Friday.

Beginning their Rensselaer adventures

Today was the day that most new students arrived at Saint Joseph's College, ready to begin their Rensselaer adventures. They were greeted on the main drive with information and directions.

There were older students ready to help them move in when they reached their dorms. In the mall other students were setting up tents (they must have looked at the weather reports) for some activities later today.

Classes begin Monday.

Another historic school

If this were a normal year, Monnett School would be full of Kindergarten students and first-graders this week.

But there will be no students being dropped off by busy parents or arriving on the buses. Monnett School has been retired.

I tried to find some of the basic history of the school, such as its date of construction, but could not. When we arrived in Rensselaer in the mid 1970s, it was the elementary school that served the south side of Rensselaer. It had grades K through 5, I believe. Only one of my children attended Monnett, and that was for Kindergarten. If you know the key dates in this buildings history, please leave them in the comments. (That would be construction date, dates of any remodeling, when it lost the upper grades, etc.)

The school sits on the site of the former Monnett School for girls, and it takes it name from the site. The pronunciation is unusual--the double n suggests a short o, but it is pronounced as a long o.

The school had a gymnasium. Was that original or an later additon?

The hallways should be full of students, but are only full of stuff waiting to be discarded, moved, or stored.

I peeked through a window to see what was left inside. Some of what is there will still be moved. Some of it, those things that can find no use either in the new primary school or the other schools, will probably be sold at an auction sometime in the future. If you need old school desks, they will probably go pretty cheap--at least they have in previous school auctions that I have attended.

The playground behind the school looks unkempt with its weeds. It was and remains open to any kids who want to use it.

I always like the map of the US that is on the playground area. I suspect this was painted when the school had upper grades.

The pictures in the brickwork were used in the "Where is this" photo contest that the Rensselaer Republican ran several years ago.

These benches look decrepit, perhaps foretelling the fate of the main building.

Monnett has two wings of classrooms, in between them is an interesting courtyard and interesting wall paintings that contain some simple astronomy lessons.

The east wall shows how the illumination of the moon by the sun creates the phases of the moon.

The south wall of the north wing shows the solar system, though the planets are not to scale. (Mercury is too big, Jupiter and Saturn too small.)

All the surrounding schools have begun. SJC welcomes new students tomorrow. In about a week there will be an open house at the new primary school.

I have not been able to learn what the future holds for the school, and perhaps no one really knows. Apparently when it ceases to be used for education, the ownership reverts to the city of Rensselaer. Again, if you know what is happening on this topic, please inform us in the comments.

By the way, the new primary school is K-2. It takes K and 1 from old Monnett, and 2 from van Rensselaer School.

Because school is starting late this year, the swimming pool will close late. It will close after regular hours on August 26, but will reopen for Labor Day weekend, September 1, 2, & 3. Then it will shut down for the season.