Funks seed corn

When I arrived in Rensselaer almost 40 years ago, there was a Funks Seeds based in Kentland. One of my acquaintances at the time, an accounting faculty member turned business manager of the college, left the college for this company and a few years later I recall that it was purchased by a larger company.

Last week I spent a day in Bloomington, Illinois and was surprised that there was a Funks seed business there as well and that it was not connected to the Funks at Kentland. Doing some quick research on the Internet (see here, here, and here), I found that the Funks Brothers Seed Company in Bloomington was much larger than the Funks from Kentland, and at one time was one of the big three. It faded in the 1970s when it was bought out by Ciba Geigy and when the Southern Corn Leaf Blight hit. Its hybrids lacked a genetic factor that would have protected from the blight. None of the Illinois Funks are still in the seed business, but one of the Kentland Funks still is, with Frontiersman.

 The reason I bumped into the Bloomington Funks was that I visited a gem and mineral museum that one of the Illinois Funks had assembled. The guide was very enthusiastic and was full of information and praise for the Funks. The museum claims to be the largest one man gem and mineral collection in the world.

In the entranceway are four windows on which slices of translucent gems and minerals are glued. When backlit, they are beautiful.

The museum is free and worth every bit of the cost of seeing it. If you like rocks, it is a must see in the Bloomington area.

The museum is southwest of Bloomington, very close to the Interstate 55 and historic route 66, which parallels the Interstate around Bloomington.

There is not a lot on the Internet about these seed companies. I noticed that the Newton County Historical Society has a museum or building along US 24. I hope that they will have the foresight to collect what they can of the story of the Funk Seed Co. (I could not find a web link.)

Rensselaer makes a top 15 list

Rensselaer has arrived--it made a list of Top 15 Small Cities in Indiana. And it was number 3. But before you get too excited, the description of our little city is full of errors:

During the PBS segment, Nunemaker introduced the French Lick Railway that passes through Rensselaer. Locals and tourists alike still ride the century-old train through the Hoosier National Forest, but the historic transportation route also has a charming surprise in store for passengers who ride select weekend trains. Modern-day rail workers and actors immerse unsuspecting riders in an interactive reenactment of a historic attack by horseback bandits.
Terry McKnight, a Rensselaer local in charge of the “rangers” who stage the robbery and charge the train, explained to PBS that the reenactment always ends with a dramatic faux chase and shoot-out, delighting families and educating youngsters about the small city’s history.

When I rode the French Lick train, one of the highlights along the route was the boyhood home of Larry Bird. I do not recall that it passed through Rensselaer, though. But who cares. We are number 3, even if the person doing the ranking has no idea what he is talking about.

On to other things. The Crazy D's gas station at the mile 205 Interstate interchange is now an Amstar gas station. It remains the only business at that intersection.

There is a student art show at SJC for a few more days. I did not find anything of great interest.

 I was out of town for most of Wednesday, and when I got back the road over the new culvert looked like it was almost ready to be resurfaced. The pile of big rocks probably will be used to stabilize the banks so the sides do not erode.

 If someone crashes through the barricades now and somehow avoids the excavator, they might not crash and die.

The Dollar General store will have some masonry in front. Maybe we are getting the deluxe model. (Someone told me that Dollar General has four standardized plans for stores.)

The trees are starting to leaf out--we finally have some green in the groves of trees in the country. Quite a few people have already mowed their lawns. Are you ready for summer?

Odds and ends, April 28 2014

I had to drive to Monticello today and was surprised by how strong the wind was. Below is a view of the road in White County.

 A lot of people had fun at the Little 500 race at SJC on Saturday. On of the entertainments for kids was a merry-go-round that was powered by the kids pushing and pulling on a bar.

 I forgot to include this picture in my last post on the culvert adjacent to Brookside Park. It was taken on Thursday.

 There was minimal work on Friday, but on Saturday morning the crane lowered all the sections of the culvert into the creek bed. I arrived shortly after they had finished that task.

 By the end of the day the earthen dam above the culvert had been removed and water was flowing through the culvert.

Although I did not see the crane place the culvert sections, I did see it leave. When it drives on the highway, it rests its boom on a separate trailer, and below it is lifting that trailer onto the road. The driver then made sure everything was secure and drove off.

I feel sorry for the truck drivers who keep coming up to the the barricades and are surprised that the road is closed. The highway signage is very poor. Today as I was returning from Monticello, I saw the detour signs all along SR 16. At the intersection of SR 16 and US 231, there was a sign that was easy to miss if you were watching traffic that said that to get on I-65 you had to go south. If you continued north, you kept seeing the detour signs. As you approach SR 114, you see the sign below. Isn't it reasonable to assume that you can continue west on 114? There are no barricades until you get to the culvert.

 There is not much to see at the Dollar General site except that workers were putting in forms for sidewalks. I think sidewalks are wonderful, but unless they hook up with other sidewalks going west and especially east, they will not be of much use.

At the City Council meeting on Monday, there was discussion of what trees the city has removed this spring. Several had been removed along Vine to prepare for a new sewer line (I think it is storm sewer). I do not see any that had been removed along Vine itself, but the little grove of trees west of Vine is now gone, so those may be the trees that the city has removed. There are lots of drainage tiles waiting to be installed.

A few more meetings

The city council met for its second meeting of the month on Monday and had a busy agenda. It gave the mayor permission to sign a contract leasing Staddon Field for the summer for $1 and it approved expenditure  of about $13,000 to chemically clean water well #6, which is not pumping as much as it should. If the cleaning does not work, the company, Peerless Midwest will pull the pump and clean it.

The council then approved a bunch of tax abatements that had been recommended by the Tax Abatement Compliance Meeting on April 25. I did not understand what this was about, but the motion was approved for Chief Industries, ConAgra, Donaldson's, American Melt Blown, and Genova.

A few minor matters were then discussed and approved before a presentation of plans for a new fire station were presented. The plans are for a six bay station that will house all eleven vehicles that the department now has. (The current building only has four bays.) There will be an office area on the east end, and part of this area will have both a basement for storage and an upstairs. Below are some pictures showing the plans. If you want to know more, there will be a public hearing on this on May 12.

 Main floor:

 Second floor and basement:

 Office area on main floor:

The new fire station will be next to the Kirby Risk building on Clark Street (SR 114). The projected cost is $3.3 million to $3.6 million.

In other business and announcements, the city wants to extend the road that leads to Fountain Stone Theater, Taco Bell has broken ground by the Interstate, the Memorial Day ceremonies will be on Saturday, and on Wednesday at 10:00 the first steering committee meeting on the future of the old Monnett School building will be held at the building.

The meeting ended just before 7:00, so I had time to go to the Court House to attend two more meetings. The first was a short Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, which granted and made permanent a variance that been renewable. The business was firearms sales on a limited basis from the basement of a residence.

Following that the Planning Commission met to consider five items. The first was for a change of zoning from A1 to A4 so a person could sell seed corn. The person wanted his entire 20 acre lot rezoned, but the commission wanted to limit the rezoning to a smaller part. The issue was tabled to the next meeting on May 22. The second and third items were skipped because the people bringing the proposals had not finished all the steps that they needed to take. The more interesting of the two is for a farm implement dealership on the corner of SRs 14 and 49 that will focus on the sale of dairy equipment. The final rezoning request was to allow a separation of land into two parcels, a smaller one that contained a house and a larger one that is wooded that the family wanted to retain and not change. It was passed. Whatever passes the Planning Commission still must go to the Commissions for their approval. (One Commissioner and on Council member sit on the Planning Commission.)

The last item was a discussion of new fees for building permits and building inspections. This has been discussed at some previous county meetings I have attended, and the rationale was that the fees should pay for the work done for the building inspection. Since larger buildings take more time, they should pay a higher fee, which they do not at present. (If your building is less than 200 square feet, you do not need a permit.) The discussion veered off to a discussion of whether electrical upgrades should require a permit and an inspection, which at present they do not. The consensus seemed to be that this was a good idea. No one mentioned that more cost would give people less incentive to upgrade wiring and that more regulation would give people more incentive to do the work themselves rather than hire a contractor or electrician who would know what he is doing.

Digging--Updated

This is the time of the year for digging. I have begun digging in my garden. Farmers are in the field doing their version of digging. Steinke Funeral Home has been digging, planting shrubberies and trees.

 New trees are being planted at Potawotamie Park. On Friday (today) there will be an Arbor Day Celebration from 4:00 to 4:45 that will celebrate the new trees. These below were black alders, not to be confused with Black Adder.

 Speaking of trees, the magnolias are blooming, and some are past their prime. However, most trees still have not leafed out. I wonder if the harsh winter may have killed or damaged some of them.

The really interesting digging is taking place next to Brookside Park. On Tuesday the old culvert was removed.

A couple of hoses diverted the creek so the excavator could dig below the level of the creek.

 A couple truckloads of stone were then put in the hole to give it a smooth bottom.

On Thursday the sections of the new culvert arrived. The new culvert will be a lot bigger than the old one.

 Below is a good look at the water diversion.

 A large crane unloaded the trucks.

 As the trucks were being unloaded, the excavator was doing some final digging.

 A total of 12 sections of culvert were delivered by the end of the day on Thursday.  They are about ten feet by eight feet, but not all of them were equally wide.

In area news, Wolcott is getting a new water tower.

Update: A few days ago I saw a message from the Chamber of Commerce that Franciscan Alliance was going to open a Working Well office in Rensselaer. It will be in what was a dentists office directly across Grace Street from the hospital. Their goal is to have the office open in May, with a target date of May 12. Here is the press release.

I went out to see what the culvert replacement east of town looked like. The culvert there is much shorter than the one going in by Brookside Park. It also has only 7 segments, while there are 12 waiting to be installed in town.

The closing are not well marked. There are still lots of people driving up to the barricades and then being very surprised that the road is closed. From tire tracks you could see that a few people had driver around the closing, driving into the field.