City meetings 05-11-2015

There is often a meeting before the city council meetings on Monday evenings and yesterday I managed to get to one of them, a meeting of the Board of Public Works. It approved paying a bill to the company that conducted the first round of bidding for the fire station,  a large bill to the company constructing the road that will connect to Drexel Boulevard, and a bill for an engineering report on the waste water treatment plant. The road work in the Drexel Industrial Park is 43% complete (or maybe the payment is 43% complete). The sanitary sewers are complete and water main is now being installed. Work on the road surface should start in the next three weeks. The waste water treatment plant will need upgrades because of new regulations. It will soon have to remove phosphorus.

A couple of other bills not on the agenda were also approved. One was a pass through of a bill to the state revolving loan fund for one of the ongoing projects--perhaps the extension of the water main to the Interstate. The other was for work on the storm water treatment plant (design and regulatory assistance) that will built on Lincoln Street. That project is almost ready to be bid. One final item was from the police chief who is hiring. The Board will interview the candidates in a closed meeting, probably on June 8.

In the city council meeting the council passed the gas tracker ordinance that will raise gas prices for May by six cents per hundred cubic feet. The council approved the recommendations of the Tax Abatement Board that had met on May 6. It had recommended all nine tax abatements be continued. The council agreed to waive city fees for the new fire station so the city would not be billing itself. The mayor announced that there were four applicants for the city-appointed position on the Rensselaer Central School Board. There will be a special closed meeting to interview them.

Cruise night will be July 11. The city will have to pay something for the Hoosier State passenger service but there is money in this year's budget for that. There will be a Memorial Day Service at Weston Cemetery on May 25 at 11:00. The council approved the request of the mayor to have the area around the Veterans' Memorial paved.

Clerk/Treasurer Frieda Bretzinger had volunteered to help with the Crisis Center Radiothon and reported that over $15,000 had been raised. Police Chief Phillips reported that of the 70 vehicles tagged for removal, the city had to remove only three; the others were moved by their owners.  Softball and youth baseball will begin next Monday. The new motel that is locating at the SR 114/I65 intersection will break ground in 30-45 days in anticipation of the water main reaching them before construction is complete. The building inspector announced that something would be going into what was once a Marathon gas station but I did not catch which building he was referring to. The city will pay the last bill for the 69K project after an inspection and walk through of the substations. The city open house at the gas department had 165 visitors this year, up from 128 last year. The gas department had a request for gas service from someone building a house on the west side of 850W across and a bit north of Oak Tree Estates. The city provides gas to Oak Tree Estates from a gas line that follows Bunkum Road and it provides gas to the Interstate area from a line along SR 114. The council approved connecting the two lines and thus providing service to anyone who builds along 850W. Bulk pick-up week was pronounced a great success with many tons of trash, yard waste, and brush removed.

Work continues on the renovation of the city utility office. There is now a second window. Glass will be installed in the big window this week and then a intercom system will be installed, something that excites the people working there because communication with customers has been a problem.

Saturday

I took a quick visit to the Farmers' Market on Saturday morning. The only vendor selling garden produce was the SJC hoop house. Vendors selling pork, beef, and shrimp were there, along with Homestead Buttery and Bakery from Remington.

Then it was off to a conversation at the Jasper County Historical Society. Henry Z Scheele, author of the book Charlie Halleck: A Political Biography was there to see the Halleck exhibit as were Sue and Julian Ridlen. Julian was a former treasurer of the state of Indiana and Sue worked as a secretary first for Senator Capehart and, after he was defeated, for several years for Charlie Halleck, There was no formal presentation but conversation with a variety of stories.

Halleck was deeply involved in the political history of the mid 20th century. He was elected to congress in a special election in 1935 after the person elected died within a few weeks of the election. That person was named Landis and was part of a politically important family from Logansport; at one time before 1900 two Landis brothers were serving in Congress from Indiana. Halleck gave the nomination speech for Wendell Wilkie in 1940 and was strongly considered for the vice-presidential slot by Thomas Dewey in 1948 but was passed over in favor of Earl Warren of California because California had more electoral votes. Halleck thought that if he had been the VP candidate, Dewey would have won. Halleck was a better campaigner than Warren, who was not especially good.

Until early in the 20th century Indiana was considered an important swing state and as a result people from Indiana were strong contenders to be presidential and vice-presidential candidates. At that time Indiana had more electoral votes than California.

After WWII both parties wanted Eisenhower to run on their tickets and apparently Truman even offered to step aside if Eisenhower would run as a Democrat in 1948. Charlie Halleck had a major role in steering Eisenhower to the Republican party.

Mrs. Ridlen said that Halleck was easy to work with and that when he got mad at an employee he would say, "You're fired, but rehired." Those who had worked in Washington noted that access to Congressmen is very different today as is the atmosphere of Congress.

The Hallecks had two children. Their son lives in California and their daughter in Florida.

Scheele said that it took a year to write the book but six or seven to research. He had the cooperation of Charlie Halleck and access to his papers. He recalled that at one time he had called Gerald Ford to check on something for a paper he was writing and was surprised to get Ford himself and not a secretary. I believe this was when Ford was president. Steele worked in a carrel in the library at Purdue and and liked that fact that it was quiet and isolated.

If I can find some time, I will try to read Scheele's book. It is currently out of print and ranks even lower on Amazon than my maze books.

We are far enough into spring that the first crop of dandelions has bloomed and gone to seed.

Aviation and Bicentennial

I forgot to mention in the last post that Fountain Stone Theater's Family Film Festival schedule has been posted. The first film is June 10.

On Wednesday night I attended part of the monthly Jasper County Airport Authority Board meeting. The main item was a discussion of the proposed fuel farm. (I have no idea why it is called a farm but it is.) This improvement, which has been discussed for several years, would be partially funded by a grant from the FAA. Since the airport has not taken a grant from the FAA for several years, they should be eligible for about a $450,000 grant. They can also expect a state matching grant of $25,000. Costs over that will come from the Authority. The process is already well along for this year. The engineering company that provides technical assistance had opened the one bid they received for tanks (a tank for general aviation fuel and another for jet fuel) and it was for $316,000. (I am not 100% sure on that number.) Nine companies had been specifically invited to submit bids. Because a local contractor was interested in submitting a bid for the site preparation, they had not yet opened the bids for that part of the process but expected to do that next week. The engineering company and the board will then have three weeks to consider the merits of the bids before next months meeting.

The big decision in June will be whether or not to submit a grant application to the FAA. If a grant application is submitted, the FAA has no firm timeline on when they approve it, but if they do approve it, they may want a commitment within a week or possibly in as short a time as 38 hours. There was some discussion about how much the Airport Authority would be paying for the project. The back of the envelope calculations suggested it would be a bit less than $200,000. Unlike last year when they did the calculations, they should not need to finance their contribution. There is money in the budget that should allow them to cover it.

There was discussion of other matters, including proposals for website construction. The Airport does not have a website but the FAA has told them they need to have one. In the various discussions I learned that fire extinguishers have a twelve year life but aviation fuel is supposed to be used within nine months.

On Thursday morning there was a meeting in the Court House about the upcoming Indiana Bicentennial. Did you know that there is an Indiana Bicentennial website, www.indiana2016.com?
There was discussion about the torch relay--Jasper County will have the torch only for an hour and a half. There is no money from the state to fund anything other than nature preserves. The state park system got started with the centennial celebrations, and a goal of the bicentennial is to have nature preserves within a 20 miles of all citizens. There is land being purchased for that purpose in the northern part of the state that will connect the tow parcels of the Tefft Savanna Nature Preserve. There is still a bit of unallocated money but it probably will not last long.

The major emphasis on the meeting was to get local festivals and events endorsed by the Bicentennial Committee. So far about 200 events have been endorsed in the state, but none from Jasper County. Clearly all the festivals in the county could qualify and a number of other events should also have no problems getting listed, things like Chautauqua, the County Fair, Cruise Night and maybe even the productions of the Children's Summer Theater and the Carnegie Players. Endorsement puts the event on a state calendar and allows the event to use the logo of the Indiana Bicentennial. It may also aid in raising funds. It takes about fifteen minutes to fill out the form on the website and a letter of support is also needed (and that could be a city or county official or perhaps someone from the county tourism board. If you are interested in more, check out the website or contact your local tourism people.

Another thing I forgot to mention in the last post is that the corn is sprouting in the fields. Summer is here.

Miscellany May 6, 2015

There seems to be a new tattoo place in Renssealer, in what was the old Elks Investment Building on the corner of Washington and Weston.

 There may also be a new business going in across the highway, E-ZEA Auto Center.

Marvin Nagel is hosting a Jack's Uptown Service Customer Appreciation Luncheon on Saturday, May 9 at the Knights of Columbus Hall from noon till three. It is a bit sad seeing the empty building.

Another event on Saturday is the Crisis Center Radiothon from (9:00 till 3:00. WRIN and WLQI will be broadcasting live from the PNC bank, which has items that will be up for auction on display.

The Saturday Farmers Markets have begun. There is not much to sell from the garden other than rhubarb, but a variety of food and non-food items will be available.

I missed the Park Board earlier this week because I went to a meeting of the Community Garden Association instead. There will be no community gardens this year but maybe next year. I have been busy trying to get some things planted in my back yard, but have to fight the Creeping Charlie.

Jasper Junction has new hours. They will be closed on Mondays.

I stopped by the Town Mall to see what was new. Not all the businesses in the Mall are on the sign. The Cutting Room and The Sune Salon are missing, as is Preferred Medical Academy, which has more than one office space. WIC and Dr Moyer are also missing.

 Jazzercise seems to be new to the Mall--I do not recall seeing them there before.

 I think Curves is gone.

The restaurant that will open in what was Rico's has a new sign.

A new store, BB's Crafts and More is now open in the Horton Building (where Home Sweet Home was recently located). It will rent out booth space to whoever wants to sell there.

 Among the items on sale are these Redneck wine glasses.

The store is not fully stocked and is not officially open until June 1, but unofficially is open and welcomes your visit.

Balloons Galore and More, in the front part of the Horton Building, is selling clothes in their back rooms, behind the balloon part of the store.

A new dance studio, Dance Magic, is planning to open on the third floor above Unique Finds. It will teach dance and karate and maybe some other things. The owner has a dance studio in Monticello (and according to her website is currently offering classes at the First Presbyterian Church.)

The plays have been set for the summer. The Children's Summer Theater will be doing Mary Poppins on July 9, 10, and 11 and the Carnegie Players will be doing Oklahoma on July 29, 30, and Aug 1.

The 9th Annual Chloe 5K Run/Walk for Autism will be held May 16.

The Rensselaer Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary is having an all-you-can-eat fish and chicken fry at the fire station on May 15 from four till eight. The cost is $9 for an adult, children 5-12 $4.50, and below 5 free.

(I probably forgot a few things that I meant to mention, but they can always be included in a future post.)

Watching and listening

Today is the first day of bulk pickup. Some people had impressive piles, which you can get if you clean out a three story storage barn for the first time in several decades.

 On Sunday as I was looking for an impressive pile of trash to photograph, I arrived at the scene of a fire shortly after it had been extinguished. It was on South Cullen and the police had closed off a section of SR 114 to allow the fire trucks to operate.

 On Sunday I went to a well-attended choir concert at SJC and was surprised to learn that it was Kelly Ford's farewell concert. This week is final exam week at SJC, with graduation next weekend.

Tomorrow is primary election day, with the main contest between Rick Williams and Russ Overton for the Republican nomination for mayor. There are two council seats being contested in the Republican primary as well. There are no contested races in the Democratic primary.

The Commissioners held their monthly meeting this morning and it had a long agenda. Most of it was not of general interest, so I will skip it. Ed Dumas wanted to make sure that the people serving on the Jasper County Hospital Building Authority (I may not have the name right) had been properly appointed and the commissioners assured him that they had been. I was a bit mystified about why this was important, but then he said that the Franciscan Alliance and the Jasper County Hospital had  a proposed asset purchase agreement that was 99% complete. There were no details about what is in the agreement, but there will be a meeting, tentatively scheduled for May 13 at 7:00 at the Fairgrounds, in which the commissioners, county council members, and the board of the hospital will meet with Franciscan people. The public will be able to attend the meeting but will not have the right to speak because this is a work session of the council and commissioners to share information. There will be a public hearing on the matter, assuming that all goes forward, probably in early June.

Even without that bombshell, the meeting would have been very interesting. The auditors office has had problems using the software it has and wants to move to the software that 46 other Indiana counties are using. Jasper County is the only Indiana county using the software that the auditor has. The treasurer's office has to use the same software that the auditor uses, and though they have no issues with the current software, will defer to what the auditor wants. After a presentation from the software company, the Commissioners approved the switch.

The county recorder brought in a vendor who can digitize old records. At present the recorder has digitized records going back to 1995 and would like to extend that back another thirty years. (Ultimately she would like it extended back to the start of county records.) The recorder's office has records of all land transactions and at present when people are doing title searches, they come in and find the item in a big book and then find the document on microfiche. Digitizing them protects them from natural or man-made disaster and also makes searching the records much faster. It also allows for the possibility of remote search and the option of charging uses for digitized search. There were questions of how the roughly $63K cost of this would be financed, and the commissioners approved a proposal to have the thirty years of records scanned and ten years of that grouped and categorized. The other twenty years can be done when funds are available. (There may be a summer job available for someone who wants to re-sleeve or re-jacket the microfiche records.)

The sheriff requested permission to fill one full-time and three part-time positions that are or will soon be vacant. The request was approved.  There was further discussion about a generator for the north annex, with both the sheriff and the coroner contributing to its purchase. There was also discussion of the coroner and sheriff sharing a employee at the north annex, but that would require County Council approval.

There were other items discussed, but those were the highlights.

At one o'clock the Rensselaer Redevelopment Authority opened bids for the proposed fire station. Three bids were received, with base bids ranging from $3,926,00 to $4295,000. Each bid also had quotes for alternatives, and three of the alternatives were taking away things from the proposal: the basement, the unfinished second floor, and brick work on the exterior. Removing the basement from the proposals cut them from between $207,000 and $355.534. (This is the second round of bidding--the first was mentioned here.) The bids were turned over to the company that the city uses for engineering services. There will be a meeting on either the 8th or 12th in which the engineer and the financial consultant will make recommendations and at that time the Redevelopment Authority will probably accept one of the bids.