Highlights from 2015

Another year enters the history books. Looking back, there were many interesting things that happened in Rensselaer during 2015.

Perhaps the most enjoyable posts from my point of view were two that started the year and recounted my tour of Donaldsons.

New construction was the subject of numerous posts. Big projects are the fire station and Comfort Suites. Others included a new road in the Gasper Park area, Stash It Storage, and the water main to the Interstate. Below is fire station as 2015 ends.

Businesses opened or moved. Ribbon cuttings or open houses were held at MacAllister, Dance Magic, Gutwein-Risner Insurance, RPJ Trucking, Healthy Glow, and the Chamber of Commerce. E-Zea Detailing opened in one spot, had a ribbon cutting, and a month or two later moved to a spot in the Roberts Auto Center building. Paul's Auto Repair opened in the space vacated by E-Zea, returning to the place it had been several years ago. Other new businesses were Anytime Fitness, Renew Salon, BBs Crafts and More, R&S Used Furniture, Preferred Medical Academy, and a tattoo shop. (I undoubtedly have missed some.)

There were changes in the restaurant business. Devon's and Slice of Pie Pizza closed. Royal Oak opened as did Doggers. Ayda's moved to a much bigger space and became a much bigger restaurant. Blockbuster added Noble Romans Pizza.

There were other closings. Jack's Uptown Service closed as its owner retired. Peerless Cleaners shut early in the year. Foxy's Hair Salon left in May. Dale's Steak and Chop Shop closed in the fall. The old Johnny Rusk building was purchased by the county and demolished. A small building on Front Street was removed to make way for a parking lot for CTS. The final Fall Festival took place in August.

One of the really big stories of the the year was the purchase of Jasper County Hospital by Franciscan Alliance. The public became aware of the deal from proceedings of a Commissioners meeting, a reason this blogger goes to these meetings. Other meetings that were interesting included a School Board meeting at which the Jasper Foundation purchased the Staddon Field area, clearing the way for park planning to go forward. This bloggers favorite meeting of the year was a County Council meeting that discussesd local taxes.

The other really big story of the year was the extensive flooding of June. A number of river flow records were set as heavy rains in the area inflicted considerable damage on the corn crop. 2015 will not be a year that area farmers will look back on fondly.

A lot of maneuvering in Indianapolis kept daily train service as Iowa Pacific took over the Hoosier State Amtrak route. SJC hired a new president. City elections mostly returned incumbents.

With that I will stop because I have already mentioned too many things for them to be highlights. The big four are, in my opinion, the June floods, Franciscan taking over the hospital, construction of the new fire station, and construction of the Comfort Suites.

Another record to close out the year

The river broke its previous flow record for December 29. The previous high flow was quite recent, in 2009, with a flow of 1720 cubic feet per second. It was slightly above that this morning and as I write this in the evening, it is at 1900 cubic feet per second and the river is still rising. We will close the year with a new record, adding to a whole lot set in June. (However, we will not set a flow record for December 30 even though the river is higher than it was on the 29th. The old record is from 1991 with a flow of 2200 cfs. The river is peaking today at about 1940 cfs.)

This is a minor flood, with only a few roads closed and most of those in Weston Cemetery. In June the rails on this bridge were a foot or two below the water.

A flood seems to be defined as whenever the river is over its banks. It is about a foot and a half over when I checked a few minutes ago. It was a bit lower when I took this picture from the bowstring arch bridge looking toward the Washington Street Bridge.

If the temperatures are cold enough this week, there will be interesting ice formations on the trees shown above as the water recedes.

I missed a couple of meeting on Monday night. The BZA agenda had one item, a special exception for a business to repair and assemble firearms. The Plan Commission met to discuss further the Unified Development Ordinance. I did not notice that they were meeting until after their meetings were over.

The Carnegie Players are holding auditions for their winter production, Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Auditions are January 4 & 5 6:30 to 8:00 at the First Presbyterian Church. The play will be held at the First Presbyterian Church on March 4 & 5.

Back to normal

After spending Christmas away from Rensselaer, I was surprised to see all the water in the fields as I returned on Monday afternoon. I did not see ice-coated tree branches until reaching the Houston Subdivision south of town. I checked my rain gauge and found that it had almost four inches of water in it. I think I emptied it about a week ago. Maybe on Tuesday the weather will allow me to go out and take some pictures.

On the way to the city council meeting on Monday night I noticed that Weston Lake had returned and the city was pumping water on Jefferson Street north of Lincoln Street. When I got back from the meeting I checked the river flow meter and saw that the river had gone over 12 feet, which is considered flood stage.

At the city council meeting the mayor and the city council members who won election in November were sworn in. The only new face will be Rick Odle, who is replacing Russ Overton. Below you can see him being sworn in by Frieda Bretzinger, city clerk-treasurer. You can also see Russ Overton in his final meeting as a council member. (Odle will replace him at the next meeting.)

As for the meeting itself, the electric tracker for the first quarter of 2016 that is set by IMPA will be small decrease. The council approved continuing membership in the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. The power plant recommended retaining Wilcox Engineering for assistance with forms and regulations concerning environmental compliance. The plant needs to be approved to continue operations.  The council approved a recommendation from its engineering consultants, Commonwealth, to award the construction contract for the wet weather treatment plant to Bowman Engineering contingent on getting all the details finalized for financing.

The council approved increasing coverage for non-employee theft from $100,000 to $500,000. The clerk-treasurer and the utility office manager asked for approval to obtain bids for new software to help run their offices. They think that it will be cheaper in the long run. They received approval.

In what I thought was the most interesting item of the evening, the mayor announced the search for a site for a new water well, something not need now but perhaps in the future, had taken them to St. Joseph's College. (Recently the city had been considering a site two or three miles out Bunkum Road.) Their consultants had suggested that there may be good fracturing point on the campus that would allow a well that could produce 800 to 1000 gallons a minute, the amount needed to make a well worth developing. There has been discussion with SJC, but any lease agreement needs SJC Board approval. The Council voted to approve a test well and a second motion to allow the mayor to give a signed land lease agreement to SJC for its board's approval.

In various comments, several people thanked Russ Overton for his four years of service on the council. The police department received $3200 in the trade in of their old squad car, more than the $2000 that was mentioned in the previous meeting as the minimum they would receive. It was noted that water, downed electrical lines, and lots of broken branches had resulted in a very busy day for city employees.

Merry Christmas

The reason for the season, presented by various local churches.

Ambulances, Animal Control, Frost Law, Manure Pipelines, and More

The reason for scheduling a second Commissioners Meeting in December is to approve claims before the end of the year. That approval took about fifteen seconds on Monday morning. However, the Commissioners had a number of other items on the agenda that took more time.

Animal Control had two items. One was a draft of a volunteer policy. Because it included a waiver of some kind, the Commissioners referred it to their attorney for review. The second item was a restructuring of duties, and the Commissioners wanted time to look at it. The restructuring was explained in an article in the Rensselaer Republican last week.

The ambulance bids were again on the agenda. A representative for Lakeshore EMS said to ignore what he had earlier said about a possible agreement with Franciscan for patient transport because the discussion had generated animosity. With the Lakeshore EMS bid no longer competitive with present services, the Commissioners awarded the bid to Prompt, the current provider. They will continue to receive $17,500 per month for providing services.

Most of the people at the meeting then left, but the Walker Township Ambulance people did not. They have been trying to get government plates for a new ambulance but the state contests their status as a government agency. The problem arises because the service is provided as the result of an agreement of three townships, Walker, Wheatfield, and Kankakee. The state demands to see an ordinance showing that they are a government entity and there is none. It was noted that the state encourages local governments to work together, but when they do, the state sometimes throws up road blocks. The Commissioners did not have an immediate solution.

A discussion of a proposed manure pipeline, an item that had been discussed at length earlier this month, drew comments from members of the audience. The pipeline will pass by six residences. There were questions of the possibilities of leakages and contamination of wells and of whether the pipeline would interfere with drainage tiles. It was noted that the pipeline will only be used occasionally to move manure to the fields; it will not be in constant use.

After a number of items of more-or-less routine business, there was a question about a proposal that will be introduced in the state legislature providing funding for county roads. Jasper County would receive a fairly large amount under this bill and the question was why. The answer was that the state puts some of the county income tax into a stabilization fund so that in bad years money can be taken from it and hikes in other taxes or borrowing can be avoided. Jasper County has almost $6 million in its fund (and Rensselaer has almost a million), but they cannot touch that money unless it is released. The bill going to the legislature will, if passed, release some of that money for roads. Counties that have large balances will get more than counties that have small balances. Jasper County has a large balance.

After some other routine business, there was a long discussion of Frost Laws, laws that restrict restrict heavy vehicles on county roads when the frost is leaving the ground. When the laws is in effect, signs need to be posted telling drivers what the restrictions are. Though there are usually only a few days in the winter and spring when heavy vehicles will damage the roads, limiting the law to just those days imposes a heavy cost of putting up signs and notifying drivers. Further, the state says that counties cannot have the law in effect for more than 90 days. The consensus of the commissioners was to have the law in effect from January 15 to April 15, but to actually enforce it only during the times when traffic would cause harm. The discussion will be put into the form of an ordinance by the county attorney and will be on the agenda in the January meeting.

With that, the meeting concluded and I said goodbye to this smiling snowman on the second floor of the Court House.

Have a Merry Christmas.