An old horse stable?

The back end of the building that houses Walter's Auto Electric is being remodeled--the building permit was issued in March. The very end of the building was once the Food Pantry.

 The building has served a number of functions over the years, but the process of remodeling has revealed that it was probably originally built as a horse stable. I would not have been able to tell that, but people who know more about what a stable would look like find the clues convincing.

 As I looked up at the ceiling, I remarked that it looked like there must have been many roof leaks in the past. There were, but the owner, Dave Walter, suggested that the lumber was probably reused lumber. Back when the building was built people would have wanted to use cheap materials for a stable. Lumber was expensive and labor cheap, so it made sense to reuse materials. Now it usually does not.

 The little door shown below was one of the bits of evidence that the building was a stable. The circular hole was a later addition and was probably for a stove.

 The photo below may show an old bridle hook. There is another on the second picture, on the post.

The concrete floor was cracked and there was a section seen below where it had been removed to allow plumbing to be installed. Before the current demolition, there was a wall running from the top to the bottom in the picture below, so the timber lying on the floor had been protected for many years. Note its extreme wear, wear that makes sense if horses had stepped on it for a number of years.

Because the concrete is stable, it will be left and a new floor put over it. The board above will be removed, and after the remodeling, there will be a lot less evidence that the building was ever a stable.

Little Cousin Jasper Festival (Updated)

People were busy setting up the Little Cousin Jasper Festival today. New was a sound booth that will be next to the main stage by the court house.

 There are lots of booths selling lots of things. Most do not seem to be local. It seems to me that there are more food booths this year than there were in the past--perhaps that is because the Fall Festival is not competing for the weekend. (Although it is a bit--the demolition derby that was rained out will be held Saturday at 7:30 with fireworks following.)

 Early this afternoon some storms blew up just east of Rensselaer and the clouds were spectacular.

 I found a few Rensselaer businesses that I did not know previously know. Specialty Cakes by Stacy is located on Airport Road just south of the southeast entrance. I have seen the sign when I am on that part of Airport Road. They were selling cupcakes, but the main reason they had booth was to let people know that the make big cakes for all occasions.

 Log Creations specializes in outdoor log furniture.

 Photos by Jenny is a fairly new business--the owner has only lived in Rensselaer a year.

The beer garden was ready to open at 4:00.

 The stage for the Jasper Jamboree was being set up. It will take place at 6:00, followed by Sheltered Reality at 7:00. I am not sure when the rain is scheduled to hit.

In other news, the Taco Bell by Interstate will open tomorrow, Saturday.

Update: The storm front interrupted the Jasper Jamboree, but not before the audience got to hear some great songs, like "If my nose ran with money, I would blow it all on you."

I forgot to mention that Morocco is getting a Dollar General store. It will open later this month.

Update 2: More pictures here.

A few more meeting notes

On Wednesday evening the Airport Authority Board met for its monthly meeting. They mostly discussed routing things--drainage, the proposed fuel farm, a nepotism policy, the courtesy car. One new item was the approval of the purchase of a new truck and snow plow that will be used to clear the runway in the winter. They hope to get ten years of use from it.

The airport manager challenged them to come up with goals for the next two to four years. They will apparently take this up at future meetings. One member suggested that a goal should be a website. Presently neither the airport or airport authority has a website.

Across the road, something has happened at the MacAllister site. A green box is in place--one of the essential items on any construction site.

On Thursday evening the Park Board had its monthly meeting. There was discussion about the Staddon Field. The School Corporation owns the land, and earlier this year the Park Board or maybe the city offered $40,000 for it. That offer was rejected on a 5-2 vote. The School had the land appraised and the result came back at a bit more than $90,000. One member of the Park Board wanted to see if negotiations might move ahead if the Park could get the Blacker Trust (or the City--the Park Board does not have the money to purchase the property) to offer about $60,000. This idea was met with resistance. One member said that the School should be left to sit on the property, maintaining it. If they decided to sell it, it would not fetch $90,000, but it would fetch a lot of criticism for the school board members. There was agreement with this sentiment, so the matter did not go further.

Then there was more discussion of proposed ball field in Brookside Park. Again, the Park Board has no money to do this, but it is trying to put together a proposal that will be acceptable to the lawyer who controls the Rex Blacker Trust. The Park Board will try to get cost estimates for the various parts of their plan.

There was some discussion of the proposed Dog Park in Iroquois Park and how that project could be advanced.

It was noted that Kentland spent about $1.5 million to update their swimming pool. It apparently has added water-park features. As for the Rensselaer pool, on the last weekend the water level was unusually low. After the pool was closed, a crack in a pipe under the pool was discovered as the reason that the water level was not what it should have been.

And in completely unrelated news, a very long utility pole was delivered to the Melville substation this morning.

Meeting odds and ends (updated)

The Commissioners held their monthly meeting on Tuesday--delayed a day because of the holiday. Most of the meeting was taken up with routine matters. (I have attended enough of these meetings so that almost all of the meeting seems like routine matters.)

A representative from WorkingWell gave the commissioners information about their services and prices. She also said that they would be adding express urgent car starting October 6. Franciscan was not intending to offer express care so soon, but there was a demand for it.

The commissioners approved the purchase of a backhoe by the highway department for $93,700. It will indirectly replace a backhoe that the surveyor's office was using and that burned this past spring.

The commissioners will schedule a public hearing in an upcoming meeting to vacate 1000 N between 300E and 400E. (My map of Jasper County does not show a road there.) This bit of road is entirely within the Jasper-Pulaski Reserve, is not included on the county's inventory of roads, and gets no maintenance from the county. It is also almost impassible at one end.

The county now owns the old Johnny Rusk building between the court house and the post office. The commissioners asked the county engineer to solicit bids for its demolition, which cannot take place for at lest 60 days because a tenant needs to vacate the property. The county engineer wondered if the county could do the demolition in house.

At 9:30 bids were opened for restoration work on the exterior of the court house. There were three bids, and in addition to a base bid, they also were supposed to bid on five options. After they were opened, the commissioners asked their consultant on the project to review the bids. Near the end of the meeting he returned, and after discussion, the commissioners accepted the bid form Midwest, which is based in Paris, Illinois. They agreed to the base plus options 1, 3, and 5 for a total cost of $297,535. (I do not know what options 1, 3, and 5 are, so do not ask me.)

The commissions also approved a switch in the company handling inmate health care at the jail, from Advanced Correctional Care to Quality Correctional Care. The price was about the same, but the new company offers some mental health services.

In the afternoon the Drainage Board met and the crowd of people filled almost every seat in the room. The reason for the interest was that there were public hearings about two ditches, the Nagel Ditch east of Rensselaer and the Lawton Ditch in Kankakee Township, near Teft. The discussion of the Nagel Ditch was fairly short and was continued to the December meeting because one of the landowners said that the tiles in his field ran not to the Nagel Ditch but to the Mary Dunn Ditch. the surveyor said that after the harvest, he would check this out, and if it was true, then he would have to reconfigure the assessments. The typological map indicated that the surface drainage of the land should be to the Nagel Ditch.

There was a vigorous discussion of the Lawton Ditch. Several people said that they spent money keeping their portion of the ditch clean and they though it was unfair that they should pay as much for cleaning the ditch as those who had done nothing at all. The commissioners were sympathetic, but implied that trying to charge by who cleaned their ditch and who did not would be impossible. The commissions pointed out that the only reason this was on the agenda is because the landowners had petitioned it to be on the agenda, and that with some ditches the landowners involved found ways to agree to clean the ditch without involving the county surveyor. They were invited to try to resolve the matter among themselves. However, because the town of Teft was included in the proposal, and because Teft now drains into a different ditch, this discussion was also continued to the December meeting.

Almost everyone left. The board then heard requests from two people to consider cleaning the lower Ryan Ditch and the Frances Fleet Lakin Ditch. The Board approved the drainage plan for the Davis Veterinary Clinic, and the meeting was finished.

While on the topic of water, the water level in the quarry is rising very slowly. I compared this picture taken today with a picture I took two weeks ago and there was very little difference. Today, however, there was a nice reflection of the cliffs in the water.

 There is still a lot of equipment down in the pit. However, the water will probably not threaten it for several more months.

 You do not need to go west to see badlands. We have some by the quarry, though they are not as colorful as those you find in the west.

 SJC must be worried about water because they were beginning to install some drainage tile north of the softball field.

 Workers were also working on the roof of Bennett Hall.

Update: It appears that the drainage at St. Joseph's College is for Halleck Center, which had water problems a year or two ago.

Odds and Ends for Labor Day 2014

The mosquitoes in my back yard are horrible--they swarm me when I go outside. Are they as bad everywhere in Rensselaer, or is my backyard unusually bad?

There are lots of little things happening. The scaffolding on the bell tower at SJC is gone. Fair Oaks Farms is working on a water feature, has started erecting steel for the Pork Education Center, and is finishing up their bakery and market. South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority will be working with Newton County to help them promote tourism. MacAllister Equipment has not yet started moving dirt. I saw corn being harvested on Bunkum Road--I think it was seed corn because the field is owned by one of the seed corn companies. Despite the heat, we know that summer is fading away because twilight arrives a lot earlier now than it did a month ago.

There are some changes downtown. The small building between H&R Block and the beauty salon is being refurbished. I saw the people who were working on it and asked what they were doing. It will be a beauty salon that is presently in the office building south of the old Hoover House. That building is for sale by the owner. Since the only beauty salon on the sign board is Short Cuts by Kim, I assume that is the business that is moving.

 Down the block, the carpeting and flooring are finished in the new Rensselaer branch of Demotte Carpet.

 Further down Washington, the office of First Source Asset Advisors is now empty. Ms Beier has moved to 5/3 Bank. The information on the reception desk hints that 1st Source may be trying to find a replacement. When I deposited a check last week at 5/3, I noted a big beam down the center of the office. I asked and was told it was not remodeling but repair--they have had some roof problems.

At the intersection of Grace and College, the Fase-Kaluf building looks much better with its new exterior.

Across the street GRG Auto Repair has been repainted.

GRG Auto Repair is in an building originally built as a gas station. The Marathon Station by the railroad had a customer appreciation day a week ago and lowered gas prices about 15 cents. They were very busy, pumping almost 3000 gallons of gas in three hours.

The Taco Bell by the Interstate now looks like a Taco Bell. The building looks finished but the parking lot needs an inch or two of asphalt. Its opening will be a bit later than the planned August opening, but it should be very soon.

The RCHS Building Trades class has been finishing the house on Vine Street that was not finished last semester.

And on Scott Street south of Harrison, work has started for this year's Building Trade House. The School Corporation owns two adjacent lots there.

Do you read the City of Rensselaer Municipal Power News? The last issue, Vo 20 Issue 2, had a summary of new and proposed regulations from the EPA. After describing the proposed standards for new power plants, the column concluded, " Since carbon capture and sequestration has not been adequately demonstrated on a commercial scale, implementing the technology is cost prohibitive, effectively eliminating a utility's ability to construct future coal-fired generating units." My guess is that the EPA sees that as a feature, not a bug.