17 minutes

The City Council met on Tuesday evening for its second meeting in May. There was only one item on the agenda, an ordinance that would ban wind farms (or perhaps wind turbines--it was not clear to me exactly what was being banned) from City limits and the two-mile buffer zone around the City. In its only other action of the night, the Council approved closing Harrison Street between Van Rensselaer and Front on June 23 for Eagles Fest. The meeting adjourned 17 minutes after it started.

The Vietnam Wall has left for its next stop, Lima, Ohio. I was very impressed at how well organized the entire event was and how many people volunteered to help. Below is a picture of the take-down with lots of helping hands.

The Wall got a steady stream of visitors and probably would have gotten more if the weekend had not been so hot. The heat may also have kept people away from the Memorial Day ceremony in Weston Cemetery. The Mayor spoke and his speech was facts about the Wall. (Did you know that there are eight women, all nurses, on the Wall?)

In other news, the opening of the pool at Brookside Park will not be June 1. The date has been pushed back till sometime next week.  However, there is finally water in the pool.

Unique Finds is moving from its store on Washington back to its former location on Van Rensselaer. The Van Rensselaer site is considerably smaller. Another Chance Vintage Emporium announced that it will be closing on June 1. It has been open for less than a year. The owner will continue to sell on-line.

Pictures to end the week

The Wall is open for visitors around the clock. Several LED lighting fixtures have been installed to illuminate it at night. The picture below was taken before sunrise on Saturday. I asked the volunteers if many people visited during the night and was told that there were very few.

 There were many during the day on Saturday.

 Everyone in town could hear the Huey helicopter. I was told that anyone who was willing to pay the admission price of $100 could take a ride.

 The Community Band performed in the afternoon.

 The wall itself has no decorations, just names.

 The typeface is Optima by type designer Hermann Zapf.

Most people had the day off but not the construction crew for the solar farm. They were at work on Saturday. Some of the panels have arrived.

 There is a new art show at the Carnegie Center. The picture below may look like a photograph but it was done in colored pencil.

 This large painting of a woman is striking.

 I also liked this landscape with deer. Visitors are encouraged to vote for their favorite painting and the top three vote getters will receive a reward.

The show is the first annual PAC Member Art Show and will run until June 14. It replaces the former annual photography exhibit. The Fending Gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon until 4:00 and Saturday noon until 2:00.

The Wall arrives

The Wall arrived in Rensselaer Wednesday afternoon. If you missed the escort, the clip below shows what it looked like.

On Thursday morning a large group of volunteers was at Brookside Park to set it up. By 9:00 most of it was up.

 The Wall came in a much smaller vehicle than I expected.

 The panels fit into a metal track. There were lots of people unloading the panels.

 The view from the back.

It should be ready for the public by noon.

Odds and Ends, May 23, 2018

Construction of the IMPA solar farm on the north side or Rensselaer has been underway for a couple of weeks. I stopped by last Thursday to take some pictures and found that it was difficult to find a place from which to take a picture. The picture below was taken from the west side. The jackhammering that was going on could be heard in most of the City.

I had expected the rerouting of the County tile would be the first thing that the project would do, but I was wrong. The new tile has not yet been installed.

 I stopped by again on Tuesday and found that the entire field had short posts. The picture below is from the north entrance and on Thursday the only posts that had been visible had been in the distance.

 The local branch of PNC Bank closed last week and this week all the signage has been removed. There is a note on the door saying the office has moved to Merrillville.

 Fenwick Farms Brewery is adding an outdoor patio to their facility. The lot next to their buildings has been paved and a new door opens onto the space.

 I noticed that Sparling Avenue had been cut near Justin Hall at SJC. I had heard that SJC was abandoning its water system and would be getting water from the City. This is part of that switch, which is not yet completed.

The four lots between Fountain Stone and Royal Oak are now owned by Jasper County Senior Living LLC, the company that plans to build an assisted living facility on the site.

On Monday evening the Jasper County Plan Commission met for about two hours to discuss a revision to the planning code regarding setbacks for confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). There had been a workshop on the issue a week ago (it overlaped the City Council meeting so I did not attend) and two of the items that impressed at least some of the members of the Plan Commission were that if too many variances are being sought and granted, it may be that the unified development ordinance (UDO) is out of line and the Jasper County's buffer zones are greater than they need to be.

After some discussion by the members of the Commission, several members of the audience said that their discussion of some of the issues was beyond what they can regulate. The State of Indiana has assumed responsibility for regulating ground water and lagoons and the counties have no jurisdiction in these areas. Also, the meeting was advertised as addressing setbacks and therefore that is what they should be discussing, not other matters. Eventually a motion was made to change the setbacks of a CAFO to 100 feet from the perimeter, 200 feet from a road, and 1000 feet from the foundation of any primary structure on other property. The vote on that motion was six in favor and three against. The Commissioners will have final say, but it may not reach them for a while because the Plan Commission wants to present it as it will appear in the UDO.

There will be a special meeting of the Plan Commission on June 4 at 7:00 to discuss a rezone for a proposed pig farm. The matter could not be discussed at the Monday meeting because the newspaper did not publish the legal notice in time.

Finally, I noticed another mural near downtown. Do you know where this one is?

Vietnam Wall

On Wednesday the Vietnam Traveling Wall, an 80% scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC, will arrive in Rensselaer. At 4:00 it will be escorted from the Fairgrounds to the Court House Square and then to Brookside Park. It should be a noisy affair, with many motorcycles. On Thursday morning it will be assembled and then will be open to the public from noon on the 24th until 3:00 on the 28th.

Names on the wall of soldiers and sailors from Indiana can be found here. There are four names listed from Rensselaer. Two of them, Allen Stath and Leonard Lane are buried in Weston Cemetery in Section P, which is the section closest to the pedestrian bridge. (If you click on the links, you will get details of their service and deaths.)  I suspect the Wall is seldom so close to graves of fallen soldiers listed on it.

Columbus Gross is buried in Fair Oaks Cemetery and Paul Hattabaugh is buried in Osborne Cemetery.

I have not found others buried in Jasper County but there may be some.

Update: Here are pictures of the names of Leonard Lane and Allen Stath from the Wall.

The Jasper County REMC had information about two other soldiers from Jasper County who died in Vietnam. James Taylor is buried in Remington Cemetery and Malcom Brouhard is buried in Wheatfield Cemetery.