Science Olympiad 2017

On Saturday SJC hosted its last Science Olympiad. Teams from 16 schools attended and the total number of teams was probably higher than 16 because some schools brought both high school and middle school teams.

I looked around for some interesting photo opportunities and did not find much. Hover craft sounded interesting. It was in the Hansen Recreation Center, but when I was there, the teams were doing the written part of the activity.

Students in a Chemistry Lab on the third floor of Science were doing a Forensic activity. They had to identify powders, hairs, and some other things.

A few middle school students were playing with Legos in the Core Building. The person in charge explained that most of the teams had completed the Write-It, Do-It activity and those remaining were finishing up.

The activity has two parts. In part one some students look at a model and explain in writing, without diagrams, how the model is constructed. Below is the model that they were describing.

 In the second part, their teammates must use their written descriptions to reconstruct the original object as best they can. Below are three of the attempts. None of them or any of the others were very close. The judges had a challenge in ranking the results from best to worst.

If the results of the Olympiad get posted, they will probably be available here.

Saint Joseph's College has hosted this regional Science Olympiad for at least two decades. I believe that the late Duvall Jones was the person who brought the event to campus. Duvall taught Biology and was an avid birdwatcher. In the early years the events were run mostly by faculty members and for a two or three years I was in charge of the astronomy event. I was happy when the science students took over most of the work in running and judging events, and that was many years ago.

Over the years I have written about a lot of events that have taken place at Saint Joseph's College--plays, musical performances, special events such as Homecoming and Little 500. SJC is the second most common tag that I have on posts. (Construction is first.) I plan to enjoy the next two months of events at SJC because I know that I will really miss the activity next year.

On Thursday the SJC basketball teams played their last games in the Field House. Both the men's and women's teams won their games. Over the years the basketball teams have had some very successful seasons (as well as some seasons that were not very successful.) Hanging in the Field House are banners of their appearances in the NCAA Division II tournament with special banners for the years in which they made the final eight. (Here is my post on the 2010 banner.)

I hope that the various artifacts and documents that tell the history of the College will be preserved.

Updates and meetings (pt 2)

The walls of the old Donnelly laundromat building are now down.

 The debris has not yet been removed.

 There is a machine on the site that grinds cement blocks into gravel-sized pieces.

 The slab of the Park View apartment building that was destroyed by fire was gone on Tuesday when I stopped by.

 The County Council met on Tuesday. There were four items on the agenda, three requests for additional appropriations and one for a transfer. The additional appropriations were for Local Emergency Planning, the Court, and the Sheriff's office. Judge Ahler wanted enough additional funds to pay his second court reporter the same as the first. (He had hired two court reporters to replace one that retired with about 30 years of experience--the job takes time to learn.) In January's meeting the Sheriff had requested a transfer of funds to order a new computer server and now he wanted additional appropriations to replace those funds, something that he had told the council he would be doing. (There was a technical reason he could not just request the additional appropriation the first time--the rules for county councils are complicated.)

A few interesting bits emerged from the discussion. The National Weather Service recently held training for storm spotters and about 60 people attended. Emergency management will be involved with disaster training at the KV High School in early April. Madison County was the victim of a cyber attack last year and the cost of that attack was about $200,000.

The Board made appointments to the Redevelopment Commission (which rarely meets) and the Alcohol Review Board (which usually meets every month in the Rensselaer City Hall). The Council would like to begin discussion of the local Income tax at the March meeting. Several Council members had toured the animal shelter and were impressed with how well it was organized.

The hotel that Fair Oaks will be building will be a Marriott. There was a question with no answer of when the travel center at the intersection of I-65 and SR-10 will be built. One of the hold ups has been that the developer could not find a sit-down restaurant interested in being part of the facility.

Earlier in the evening the Jasper County Historical Society met. Their presentation was on items in their fabric collection that are currently on display.

The clothing above is from the turn of the 19th century and that below is from the 1920s and 1930s.

 The presentation is available on Facebook. (Click here.)

Finally, walkways have been installed at the high rate treatment plant on Lincoln Street.

Updates and meetings (pt 1)

Demolition continues on the old Donnelly building at the corner or College and Kannal. The property changed ownership on Feb 17. If you would like to know more about O'Reilly, the business that will build here, see this entry on Wikipedia.

 Below is a picture taken on Tuesday of the future convenience store for the Marathon gas station by the railroad tracks. Soon the exterior will be finished and there will be no apparent changes as construction continues inside.

 I mentioned a while back that the old Fashion Bug space in the Walmart Mall (what is the name of that mall?) was being subdivided. The smaller part, the northern end, is being chopped into offices.

 I am not sure what the plans are for the other part. I was not expecting any changes, but for over a week people have been working there.

Driving past Remington on Sunday, I noticed that a sign announcing coming construction of Sayler apartments. From the quick glance I got of the sign, it appeared to be similar to the one for the Elza Street apartments.

The Rensselaer Community Garden group had its organizational meeting on Monday night. The operation will be much the same as it was last year. The plots being rented are 20 feet by 20 feet and cost a mere $10. The location is next to the Extension/Surveyor's office on North McKinley (across the highway from the County jail). If you are interested in renting a plot, visit or phone the Extension office.

Last year four plots were cultivated for the food pantry. Over 1000 pounds of produce were given to the food pantry and there was more than they could use. Some of the surplus was given to the jail and some to the police department and in both places it was appreciated. (How did they know that over 1000 pounds were donated? They weighed the harvest before they donating it.) If anyone is interested in helping tend these charity plots as a service project, contact the extension office.

Gardening means spring is coming. I killed three mosquitos yesterday. Flocks of sandhill cranes have been flying overhead and some of the summer birds--robins and killdeers--are coming back. Days are noticeably getting long and the sun is higher in the sky. Some maples are ready to bloom.

In news about Saint Joseph's College, the Alumni Board joined the Student Association and the Faculty Assembly in passing a resolution of no confidence in top administrators and Board members. The resolution refers to one person as a former Vice President--I have not seen a notice of his resignation, but then there is not a lot of information coming from the top at SJC.

The college basketball season is coming to an end. On Thursday the Scharf Fieldhouse will host the last ever SJC basketball games. See the sidebar for information.

Every day there are colleges visiting SJC recruiting transfer students. On March 1 another Transfer Fair is scheduled with about 100 schools registered for the event. (It might be a good event for any area high school seniors or juniors who are doing college searches--if they can get out of school.)

A letter from the College to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development caused a bit of comment recently. It was giving notice of 37 job terminations that will take place on April 17. About half are for athletics with several in admissions, the library, and the development office. What caused comment was this sentence: "While we hope that this action is temporary in nature, unless the report provides a viable option, this action is expected to be permanent in nature." The idea that the College could restart after suspending operations was and is wishful thinking and probably included to keep some options open. The College has no way of paying the debt it has incurred. It stated that it had borrowed against any asset it could use as collateral and spent any part of the endowment it could. Unless some rich alumni make enormous donations, it seems to me that the campus and the adjoining farm lands are destined to soon be owned by Farm Credit.

(Previous reflections on the closing are here and here.)

Demolition

The demolition of the old Donnelly laundromat building began this morning. It may take a while to complete--the building is very well built.

 The site is the future home of an O'Reilly Auto Parts store.

Update: I heard and saw several flights sandhill cranes flying overhead today.

Pictures from south of the tracks

The burned Park View Apartment building is mostly gone. On Friday a large truck was being filled with debris.

 There is a lot less rubble than was there at the start of the week but still enough to fill another truck.

 The shell of the new Marathon station south of the tracks is going up very quickly. This was was it looked like on Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday the exterior was being wrapped.

The exterior of the Elza Street apartments is no longer undergoing changes. The windows and doors are installed. The work seems to be in the interior. However, there is new construction on Mattheson where the foundation of a new house was poured this week.

Monday is Presidents Day and the Rensselaer School students have the day off because they did not need it to make up a snow day. We have had a very mild winter.