A busy night at City Hall

I arrived during the Board of Works Meeting on Monday night. Usually these meetings last only a few minutes and they mostly approve payment of bills. On Monday the meeting lasted past 7:00 as the police chief gave a number of awards. Two officers received recognition for years of service, one was promoted, two received awards for helping save lives in the Park View Apartment fire, and one for capturing a armed suspect. The police chief also gave an award to a civilian, John Barrett, for saving lives in the apartment fire. The mayor read a letter from a lady he saved. She had fallen unconscious in the stair well and after he carried her out of the building, she was flown to Lafayette to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. The Rensselaer Republican reported more details about these awards in their Tuesday edition.

The City Council meeting, which had a long agenda, started a few minutes late. It approved closing a section of Harrison Street for an Eagles fundraiser for the victims of the Park View Apartments fire. It then heard a report about the large elm across from the Post Office that is dying. It had been inspected by an expert from Purdue who said that the tree would be a hazard and needs to be removed.

A public hearing on the 2017 budget was opened but no member of the public spoke. There were two ordinances from the utility office, one approving a new company to handle credit and debit card payments and the other to extend the time before shutoff of service for nonpayment from ten to 14 days.

A number of items followed that involved the utilities. A 45-page bond ordinance prepared by the City's financial advisor was passed to prepare the way for a electrical substation at the intersection of Bunkum Road and CR 850W. A bit later another item was passed that allows Rensselaer to pay IMPA and NIPSCO for their part in this project, which will provide a second feed to the customers by the Interstate and also give Rensselaer a third connection to the grid.

The next part of the meeting considered bids. The small one was for a pickup truck for the electrical utility manager. The truck will release a car for use by employees for out-of-town travel. Five bids were received for a new garbage truck and they ranged from $144,694 to $173.991. Bids were also opened for street work. Two bids were for only part of the project but four were for all the work and they ranged from about $720K to$876K. The garbage truck and street bids will be reviewed by committees for recommendations.

The city attorney reported that all the paper work had been completed to transfer the Staddon Field property to the City via the Jasper Foundation. The Foundation had insisted that a provision be inserted that if the City ever stops using the property as a park, the Foundation has the right to purchase it for $10.

A discussion of the new well that is on SJC property followed. The city attorney recommended that the city accept the assessment done by SJC and enter into an option to purchase at that price. He said that the alternative, pursuing seizure with eminent domain, would probably be more expensive after all the legal bills were paid. The option to purchase will allow the City to pursue an OCRA grant next year. The project will be delayed a year. The motion passed with one opposed.

The Council heard a recommendation from a committee to hire an additional police dispatcher with funding coming from utilities. It was approved.

Next week the gas department will be making some repairs on the gas main attached to the Grace Street bridge. They will be using a bridge inspection lift to do the work. While they are working, the bridge will be closed to traffic, though if an emergency vehicle needs to use the bridge, there will be a lane open.

The assistant street superintendent announced that on Tuesday 150 cubic yards of concrete would be poured at the high rate treatment plant.

The Council ended the night by approving the hiring of a seasonal worker to help the sanitation department, which has some temporary staffing problems.

Duck Derby and more LCJ

On Saturday the river was too high for the duck derby, so instead it was held next to Brookside Park in the Maxwell ditch. Miss Little Cousin Jasper helped launch the ducklings.

 The current caught some and sped them ahead while others were blown into the weeds along the bank. The wind was from the west, so eventually all of them drifted over to the east bank.

 The SJC basketball team helped with the event. They had shovels and rakes to push the ducks away from the bank.

 The winner was the first one to get into the little slot of the PVC pipes.

 No actual ducks were harmed during the running of this event.

On Friday night the new Little Cousin Jasper and Little Miss Cousin Jasper were crowned.

 There were a lot of food booths at the festival. I suppose some of them travel from festival to festival in the fall--there is an area festival just about every weekend.

 Among the attractions were pony rides.

 Sheltered Reality, a percussion group, performed on Friday night, but their performance was cut short by rain.

 The big-name attraction was Jake Gill, who performed on Saturday night.

 On Sunday morning an interdenominational prayer service was held.

Among the booths I visited was that for YNG or You'll Never Guess, Rensselaer's new 3-printer company. They had a variety of items for sale and had one of their printers operating under their canopy. (It only got stopped twice by the rain.) A lot of people stopped by to learn what they offered and a number of them bought their Rensselaer Bomber cookie cutters.

LCJ Festival Parade 2016

Rensselaer had light rain Saturday morning but fortunately it stopped before the Little Cousin Jasper parade began. Something new and quite spectacular this year was a giant American flag hung over the parade route in honor of those killed by the 9-11 attacks. The ladder trucks of the Rensselaer and Carpenter Township fire departments held the flag.

 No Rensselaer parade is complete without some tractors from the Retired Iron Club.

 The Rensselaer Central High School band sounded good.

 Mr and Mrs Lincoln came to our parade and later in the day they addressed the audience from the stage in front of the Court House.

 Some of the Indiana Bicentennial torch bearers marched.

 Some special kids walked the route.

 There were only two horses in the parade and they were not at the end.

Among the strange vehicles in the parade was a truck from Rensselaer Septic Tanks.

 The South Newton High School band was small but mighty.

 After the final entry had passed under the flags, the firemen carefully lowered the flag, making sure it did not touch the ground.

I expected to see lots of pictures of the parade on Facebook but so far have seen only a few. Maybe I should have taken more.

Usually the Rensselaer Cross Country Invitational runs on the same day as the Little Cousin Jasper Festival. This year it was canceled. There was some water on the course, but should that not have made the course more interesting? I have heard comments that Rensselaer's course is not as much fun to run as some others because it has no hills or other unusual features. This year it had water--the runners should have loved it.

The water on the course was the result of heavy rains on Thursday evening that were on top of an inch of rain on Wednesday morning. The Iroquois River peaked at just below flood stage on Saturday morning but will still set at least three daily flow records.

Two more meetings

The County Commissioners assembled as the Drainage Board on Tuesday afternoon. There were many items on the agenda, but only a few were of general interest.

There were two guys from INDOT seeking county approval for a sewer pipe, which I thought a bit odd. Usually the State tells the County what to do. But in this case INDOT wanted to use a County right-of-way. The sewage stations at the rest stops just south of the Kankakee River are aging and INDOT wants to pipe the sewage to the sewage handling facility of the campground that is west of the Interstate. To do this they want to bore the a two to four inch pipe below the regulated drain. The Board approved, noting that they would still need to get approval to use the County right-of-way along county roads.

An engineer reported on his work regarding the Price Tile and the Amsler Tile. Both are deteriorating and in need of extensive repair. In the case of the Price Tile, the people who farm the land objected in large part because the cost per acre was about $650. However, the estimated cost of redoing the Amsler was even higher, at about $930, and the landowners there were in favor of the project. A major hurdle going forward will be getting permission for CSX to cross their right-of-way.

The next item was by far the most interesting. Bruce Sayler is planning to build apartment buildings on the north end of Elza Street. He ultimately would like to do four ten-unit buildings and will do the project in stages, starting at the north end. He was before the drainage board because his retention pond will drain into the Norman ditch or tile, which empties into the Maxwell Ditch (the stream that forms the eastern boundary of Brookside Park). He did not have final plans but was told that the Board would want a slow release of water, which would mean a big retention pond. He will be on the agenda at the end of the Commissioners Meeting in October at 11:00.

In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board met. The meeting began with the presentation of a check of $1500 from the Jasper Foundation that was meant to support the soccer program. (I am attaching the press release from the Foundation at the end of this post.)

The Board heard a presentation asking for use of the Brookside Park for a softball tournament on Sept 17 to raise money to help with the medical expenses of a softball player who was injured in a game in July. The Board decided it did not need to approve the request, but that it could be scheduled in the same way a shelter rental.

There was news that the transfer of the Staddon Field property from the School Corporation to the Jasper Foundation would take place very soon. We will see if still another hurdle can be found to delay it.

Then there was discussion of the soccer program, which continues to be operated under the auspices of Saint Joseph College. The program was supposed to pay for use of the fields and for utilities but for some reason could not, and my interpretation is that the Jasper Foundation money was given to allow the program to continue this year. The Park Board has decided that next year they will sponsor a soccer program for the parks and the the SJC soccer program will not be using the parks.

$200 was raised for support of a dog park at the Pet Parade at a Tuesday night farmers market and the check was given to the Park Superintendent.

A motion was made to hire Mrs H Hall as a program director, charged with developing new programs for the parks. It was passed unanimously.

The next meeting will be held on Oct 17, the third Monday rather than the first.

****Press Release from the Jasper Foundation

The Jasper Foundation, Inc. board directors Dave Schrum, Robert Monfort, and Kathy Parkinson, were pleased to offer a Way to Go Grant to the Rensselaer Parks Department. The Way to Go Grant is an opportunity for board members at the Jasper and Newton County Community Foundations to give a qualifying non-profit of their choosing a little extra press and congratulate them on the work they are doing.
The Parks Department serves the Rensselaer area by playing host to numerous parents and children alike throughout the year and for the fall youth soccer season. This grant will help defray the costs of upkeep and usage of the grounds for soccer.  Soccer is a popular activity for many families in Rensselaer and the surrounding area. If you drive down College Avenue on a Saturday morning in September you will see hundreds of children and parents enjoying the games.
The Jasper Foundation, Inc. and the Newton County Community Foundation are dedicated to advancing the community in the areas of health, education, community initiatives, arts & culture and historic preservation. For more information, please contact the community foundation office at 219-866-5899 or 219-285-5899 or visit the website at www.jasperfdn.org. 

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Addendum: Rich's Cycle Solutions has occupied its new location far faster than I had anticipated. See here.

Commissioners meeting for September 2016

As I write this, it is 92 degrees with a dew point of 80 degrees. I hope this is the last of our hot, humid weather for the year. I saw this white bird east of Weston Cemetery and it seemed to be OK with the weather.

Because of the Labor Day holiday,  the County Commissioners met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday instead of Monday. There were a lot of items on the agenda, mostly of routine matters.

Judge Ahler requested permission to hire a fourth person for his court. He had been working with three, but his experienced court reporter quit to take another position. He has made an offer to hire for the position, but with a new person in the position, he feels that the office will need a fourth person to keep up with the work load. His request was approved.

There was an item about a culvert replacement on the Jasper/Benton county line and something about life insurance for county employees that would be paid by the employees. Main Street Rensselaer was given permission to use the Court House lawn for Oktoberfest on September 24. Three buried cable requests were approved after a discussion suggesting that the requests should come with information about exactly where in the county right-of-way the cables or pipes would be located. There was approval of paying something related to Obamacare, a transitional reinsurance fee.

A person who owns an excavating company in the northern part of the county had concerns with the frost law. He is located in what is supposed to be an industrial park but to get to the highway he has to travel on a county road that is posted for frost law. He was open to helping upgrade the road so it would be able to handle truck traffic during frost law times.

The County Highway department wanted to extend when comp time was taken by a month. Employees have accumulated time off but because this is the time of the year that they are most busy, the department does not want them taking the time off now. There was also a request to hire to more people and the Commissioners approved the hiring of one.

An update on the repair of the tile that was damaged when an fiber optic cable was installed along SR 114 reported that work was progressing on fixing the tile. The company doing the work was using a camera to find the places that tile was damaged and fixing them as they worked their way east.

The head of IT reported that in an effort to stop the damage from lightning strikes (the Court House is the tallest structure in town), he had reached an agreement with Century Link to replace the copper wiring that connects County facilities with fiber optic cables. The new system will be cheaper and because it will use the Internet for telephone, it will eliminate long-distance charges. It will require a five year lease but the cost of that lease is less than the cost of the current system.

The Sheriff had a number of positions to fill because of people taking other jobs. They were approved. Some kind of equipment still has not been installed in the radio tower so it will not be operational until the end of the year.

After the break and a couple quick items, the Commissioners spent about an hour reviewing a vote that the Planning Commission had taken at their last meeting that denied a request to rezone a parcel of land to A1, general agricultural. This time the person requesting the change brought a lawyer and a consultant. The lawyer argued that the land had a history of being used for agriculture and that agricultural use was consistent with the county plan. After a long discussion, the consultant pointed out that in the rezone in the 1970s, the north 300 feet of the property that was rezoned was not included in the rezone. That 300 feet later separated from the property and was the land under discussion. The previous zoning was S1, zoning for a subdivision. At that point the Commissioners decided that they needed to do some research and turned the matter over to their attorney. The item will be back on the agenda for the October 3 meeting. 

Two guys from USGS wanted permission to attached a river flow sensor to a county bridge over Carpenter Creek. One of the Commissioners wanted to know if this had anything to do with an agreement with White County to limit their flow of water from retention ponds near the rail line that goes through the southern part of the county. After some discussion it was decided that these were two separate items and permission was granted. 

Speaking of river flow and the USGS, this picture taken from the USGS river flow station just east of Rensselaer shows how the rains affected the river in August.

Among the items at the end of the meeting was approval of switching a polling place in Remington and a short discussion of refinancing some bonds, which seemed to be something that the County Council should decide.