Early May meetings

 Construction of the vet clinic east of Fountain Stone Theaters is off to a fast start. Last week concrete trucks were delivering cement for the foundations.

Below is the site at the beginning of this week.

The Rensselaer Farmers Market had its first day on Saturday. There were quite a few venders but it is still too early for garden crops. (Although rhubarb and asparagus may be ready to harvest in local gardens.)

The Park Board had an interesting meeting on Monday evening. The Fendig Theater, which should be announcing summer plans this week, asked if it could use the parks for summer performances and their request was approved. Last year the lockdown prevented their usual summer performance and this year fears of Covid will still result in a change from the full-scale musical production. Last year they went to on-line programming and served children in 35 counties, seven states, and two foreign countries. The Theater hopes to continue online of programming throughout the year.

This coming weekend the Blacker Fields are scheduled to host the largest tournament of the summer, with 32 teams playing games Friday through Sunday. This will be the only three-day tournament at the fields. This past weekend there was another girls softball tournament, this one with 11 teams. The previous weekend the tournament was very small, with only four teams playing only one day. Parking remains the big concern. Will there be enough parking if there are weekends with big tournaments and multiple rentals of shelters?

The Board reviewed finances for the Recreational Development Corporation, which is a non-profit part of the parks that controls money raised by park events. Revenues for 2020 were down from pool fees and shelter rental. It will be interesting to see how the tournaments change the numbers for this year.

The Board approved an lengthy list of summer programs proposed by Heather Hall. There will be some program for almost every day in June, most for kids but some also for adults. Also, there are plans to add a small building next to the existing building east of the soccer field in Brookside Park. It will have about 600 square feet of space to use as a class room/craft room and for any activities that are better done inside than outside. Funding for it comes from a local group that has not yet made an announcement on the matter, so I will not step on their announcement.

The Commissioners met on Monday morning in another hybrid meeting, partly in-person and partly via Zoom. There was a public hearing for the designation of an infrastructure development area. The purpose of this is to encourage installation of broadband Internet connections throughout the County. The Commissioners approved a motion that stated that finding shows that the County needs faster Internet speeds. Final wording on an ordinance is being worked on and will be presented at the June meeting. Once enacted, developers will be able to apply for an exception with the assessor, which is like an abatement but with a different office overseeing it.

Next the Commissioners heard a request to use a County parcel located along Wood Road and adjacent to the Airport runway for a 4H shooting range. It would be used during the County Fair for shooting related activities. The Commissioners did not take action, but wanted to see what the Airport Authority Board thought of it. (Their next meeting is May 13 at 6:00.) Any plan would need Purdue approval and it might also need Rensselaer approval because the land is within the City's buffer zone.

The City of Rensselaer plans to extend a sewer line along SR 114 and would like an easement for crossing the property of the County Highway Department. The matter had been discussed at a previous meeting and some questions raised. The questions having been answered satisfactorily, the Commissioners approved the easement.

Steven Eastridge gave an update on what progress had been made on the recommendations of the NIPSCO task force. It was noted that we are only two years away from the May 2023 planned shutdown of the Schahfer plant.

The Commissioners approved two rezones that were recommended by the Plan Commission. The County Prosecutor requested that his investigator position be made a full-time position. The Commissioners were sympathetic but wondered if it would set in motion a host of other requests to change part-time positions to full-time. The request will be back on the agenda in June.

The Health Department proposed some loosening of Covid restrictions. If all workers in a Court House office are vaccinated, they no longer need to wear a mask if no outsiders are present. The Court House will no longer scan for temperatures when people enter. County Highway workers can be considered in quarantine if they are alone in their trucks. The judges will decide what is appropriate for their courtrooms. The Commissioners approved the recommendations.  

The Keener Township Trustee has been trying to combine the various parcels of the Keener Township Cemetery and discovered one parcel is owned by the County. He requested that it be given to the Township. The County Attorney will draw up the needed paperwork.

There was a presentation from a consulting firm that specializes in child-support reimbursements. The auditor uses a competing company but may switch when at the end of the year. 

The Sheriff suggested the County needs an ordinance to deal with impoundment of large animals (horses). The boarding fee for horses impounded because they are not being properly cared for is $15 a day and they may be boarded for months. He also had a couple of requests to replace officers, one a part-time Court House security officer and another correctional officer. Tri-County Schools is establishing its own police force so it can hire a security officer and would like to purchase one of the older cars of the Sheriff's Department. They agreed to $12,000, but then the Department discovered that they had misstated the mileage by 30,000 miles. The Commissioners agreed that $10,000 was a fair price for the 2015 vehicle. 

There was a brief discussion of bridges. The County ranks in the top ten of counties in the State for the good condition of bridges. Six bridges merited mention. One in Remington is being redone with a Federal Grant. A second near the NIPSCO plant can wait until the work on the solar farm is finished. One is recommended for replacement, and three others need some less drastic work. The Commissioners wanted more information. The County was awarded $818,252.25 in the latest round of Community Crossings grants. The total length of roads in the project is about 7.5 miles. The advertisement for bids will go out as soon as possible. 

The Commissioners approved quotes for three lighting improvements, one at the former 5/3 building and two at the Sparling annex.

The County Court was built 125 years ago and there may be some ceremony to mark the occasion.

There are storage containers in the Walmart parking lot and it appears there will be more coming. Anyone know why?

Some more pictures

 Work connecting the new gas feed into the existing line was completed this week. On Tuesday workers were drilling the holes in the pipes to allow the old section of pipe to be bypassed.

The view from a different angle.

On Wednesday morning one could see the results of Tuesday's work.

Then it was time to cover it up. 

I do not understand the technology that is used to connect gas pipes without disrupting the flow of gas. Reflecting on this connection and the directional drilling used to install the pipes, I realized that there are probably millions of people who have contributed in some way to making life pleasant for us in the early 21st century. Much of the technology behind our affluence is invisible to us because it is used in production. We take for granted the gas that is used to heat our homes in the winter. There is a vast infrastructure needed to deliver the gas that we rarely think about. 

This week the parking lot at the recycling center is being reconstructed.

Site work for the new vet clinic on St. Gaspar Drive is underway.

I wanted to see what building is going on at Genova but could not see anything from the entrance. I did take a picture of the newest house in Blacker Village. It appears to be almost finished.

Rotary introduced the top 20 students from the Class of 2021 at its meeting this week and streamed that part of its meeting on Facebook. There were only 19 of the 20 present, eight males and eleven females. Top pick for a college was Purdue with seven, followed by IUPUI with five and Ball State with three. Other colleges mentioned were Butler, DePauw, Albion, and Northern Oklahoma College. Only two of those are out of state.

I saw on Facebook that Rose Acres is planning to close its Monon plant in June. It may reopen it in the future but has told the State that the layoffs should be considered permanent.

The Boys and Girls Club of White County will have to find a new home. They are currently using a building owned by the Twin Lakes School Corporation, but the Corporation wants to demolish the building and erect something else.

I do not see any frost in the forecast for the next nine days. Is it safe to start putting out tomatoes in the garden?

Almost May

 I went into the Court House today for the first time in a year. The security officer stops you as you enter and asks you to pose in front of a screen that takes your temperature.

This past weekend the Blacker Fields hosted a girls fastpitch softball tournament. I could not find out much about the teams or the organizations, which has both a website and Facebook page. I do not know if there were games on Saturday, but on Sunday only two of the three fields were being used.

There are five more weekends of boys baseball tournaments scheduled:

May 7-9  31 teams
May 14-16  20 teams
May 21-23
June 4-6
June 25-27

On Thursday I found workers connecting the new gas pipeline to the existing line. When I got there and saw what they had done, I initially thought they might have done most of the work. I was wrong. They had gotten the new line under an existing water main, but still had a section of bypass to install.

On Friday the bypass had been installed and over the weekend the assembly was pressure tested. This week the final connection will be done and when all is finished, the old section of pipe will be removed and the line will have the little detour left.

SJC has been cutting down dead ash trees.

The bowling alley has a Facebook page, Pottsy's. On Saturday it posted a picture of cars lined up for donuts. 

The City Council met on Monday evening. It began with a public hearing on additional appropriations, and there were no public comments. The Council then approved an additional appropriation of $3225 for the Police Department (fund from fines, I believe) and $204,000 from the Rainy Day Fund that will be the City's match for the Community Crossings Grant that funds street paving.

The Council approved spending $40,454 to replace a baffle curtain at the waste-water treatment plant. The repair will have to be done without shutting down the plant, which requires divers.

The Council then moved to approving tax abatements. It approved the recommendations of the Tax Abatement Committee for abatements for Conagra (3 abatements), IMPA (2 abatements), and National Gypsum (2 abatements). It had approved abatements for Genova at a special meeting. (The special meeting also established the area as a Economic Revitalization Area, needed before the abatements were granted.) There was a long discussion of the three new abatements that were filed for Indiana Face Masks and American Melt Blown. Indiana Face Masks is building a new building that will cost $375,000 and will add equipment worth $1,713,000, but even though they are part of the same project, the abatements were filed by two different business entities, both with the same owners. The City has a threshold of $500,000 for a project to qualify for an abatement, so there was a question of whether the building should qualify. Spokesmen for the company successfully argued that  it should because it was part of a larger project, and the Council voted 3-0-1 in favor of the abatement. The project is supposed to add 80 jobs.

(The new building is under construction. The roof seems to be finished, but it is near the ground. I am not familiar with the construction technique of building the roof first, then raising it later.)

The Council approved the Mayor's Holiday for City employees for July 2. The Clerk-Treasurer swore in the new building inspector, cemetery superintendent, and fire chief. The seat on the Rensselaer School Board that the Council fills had only one applicant, who will be interviewed before the next meeting. The Council approved removing three more dead ash trees for $1400.

The Police Department is now using the two new cars that were ordered in late 2020. The Department is tagging abandoned or derelict vehicles as part of Clean-up Week, which will be May 3-7. Town and County has begun work on the parking lot at the recycling center. Walsh and Kelly will being demolishing sidewalks on May 3, the first part of the street repaving project. The Gas Department is reviewing their gas rates with the City's financial advisors, Baker-Tilly, and something may come to the Council from that review.

Groundbreaking

 On Tuesday morning, before the snow began falling, RWE Design Build and Rensselaer Pet Care had a groundbreaking ceremony for a new veterinary clinic on St. Gaspar Drive.

RWE Design specializes in designing and building veterinary clinics. The expected construction time is five or six months.

And then the snow began falling.

Walmart protected some of their plants with a cover.

The Rensselaer Tax Abatement Committee met on Monday morning. It reviewed tax abatements given in past years to see if the conditions on those abatements were still being met and approved continuing the abatements for Conagra, IMPA, and National Gypsum. There were four abatements for Indiana Face Masks and American Melt Blown, at least two of which were new. There is a new building being built north of Indiana Face Masks, but the owner is not Indiana Face Masks but a related company. They were approved for a five year abatement. Genova is also building and had been given an abatement at a special Council meeting. This Committee meeting The special meeting also approved an abatement for personal property provided that Genova provides an equipment list. The City Council must approve all abatements; the actions of this committee are advisory.

In the evening both the Jasper County BZA and Plan Commission met and I attended via Zoom. Unfortunately the sound quality was erratic, with some mics not working and some speakers not being close enough to the mic. The BZA approved a variance and a special exception for Calfland LLC, which, as the name suggests, raises calves. Their operation is a bit south of Fair Oaks. They currently have sheds for 6000 calves and if I heard correctly, they will now increase that to 12,000.

The Plan Commission approved a couple of rezones to allow construction or use of housing. The third item on the agenda was a proposal to develop land around a small gravel-pit lake several miles north of Rensselaer. The owners would like to erect cabins for vacation rentals, but what they want to do is not covered in the current planning regulations. The owners did not expect approval at the meeting and did not get it. The Commission voted to not take any action. During the discussion there were concerns about drainage and about whether the project would be able to get State and Federal evironmental approvals.

On Tuesday evening the Jasper County Council met and again I chose to attend via the Zoom option. Sound was better, though the Council's attorney was not near a mic when he spoke and I could not hear what he had to say.

The first item on the agenda was an abatement for a digester for the DeYoung de Jong farm that will be part of a methane pipeline project. The entire project will cost about $8 million and there will be one well-paid employee when completed. This is the first abatement proposal that was filled out using the new scorecard approach that the County approved last year. There is a cutoff date of May 17 to meet some kind of State deadline and there needs to be an advertised public hearing. The Council must also designate the area as an ERA (Economic Revitalization Area?) and pass the abatement. The Council at this meeting voted to move forward and have the needed paperwork prepared and the public hearing advertised. At the end of the meeting they did not adjourn but continued the meeting until May 14.

The proposal from the Prosecutor to have a detective position made full-time was tabled to see what the Commissioners decide on the matter. County Clerk Kara Fishburn presented a resolution that would allow her Election Board to investigate a change from precinct voting to voting centers. This proposal had been given to the Commissioners at their meeting and approved. Forty eight Indiana counties have already moved to voting centers, which allow county residents to vote at any polling place in the county. There will be a period for public comment, probably in June, that will be advertised by the Clerk's office. The Council approved the resolution.

The Council approved an amendment to the salary ordinance that changes some salaries. It also approved a Heritage Barn Ordinance. The State recently approved a measure that allows old barns that are no longer used for agriculture or business to be designated heritage barns and as such the owners pay a $50 annual fee instead of the property tax on the structure.

In public comments, Kendell Culp reported that 15,000 County residents had gotten at least one vaccination.

Despite all the equipment that the room has, sound continues to be a problem. The mics are very directional so that they do not interfere with each other, causing feedback. I wonder why there cannot be just one mic that hears the room in the same way that the human ear hears the room. 

The Jasper County Historical Society also met Tuesday evening. A video of their meeting is here. (Jump to 19 minutes for only the program of the evening.)

The Weston Cemetery Walk is planning to use Eventbrite for ticketing this year. Eventbrite is used by eMbers and Carpenter Creek for their ticket sales. You do not need tickets for the Fire Departments 125th Anniversary Open House on May 8 at 11:00. You will have to pay, however, for their drive-through fish fry on May 7 starting at 4:00.

Viewing the fire damage at Sacred Heart Church in Remington

 On December 28, 2020 a fire damaged Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Remington. The church had an alarm that notified the fire department while the fire was still small and, as a result, the Reminton Fire Department was able to put out the fire before it totally destroyed the building. Nevertheless, there was a lot of damage and there are no church services being offered at the building. The parishioners can go to Goodland for Sunday Mass.

On Sunday, April 18, the public was allowed into the basement of the building to see its current state. Part of the ceiling of the basement, or alternatively, part of the floor of the church's nave, have been removed so that one could look up into the church.

The fire started on the south side of the church beneath the floor, and the part of the floor that has been removed is the section where the fire started. You can see that a lot of plaster has been removed, both in the basement and in the nave. Fortunately, it does not appear that the stained glass windows were damaged. The walls appear to have been stained by the smoke.

Below is the view of the choir loft from the basement.

Below is a view that shows that plaster was removed from the length of the south wall. It is still not clear how much more plaster will have to be removed.

Below is the edge of the the floor that remains. The wood was singed but appears to be structually sound.

I had never been in the basement but was told that it had been chopped up into small rooms. It appears that the small rooms are being rebuilt.

The picture below shows the inside of a basement door. You can see how the heat of the fire blistered the paint.

For pictures of the church before the fire, see here and here.

The Blacker Fields hosted its second tournament this weekend. I noticed that teams playing in the northwest field seemed much smaller than the teams playing in Roth Field, so I searched to see if I could find a list of teams participating. I found it on the website of the organization that organizes the tournaments. There were three different age groups, 13 and under, 12 and under, and 11 and under. Teams in the 13u group were from Valapraiso, Crown Point, Kouts, Chesterton, and two from Lafayette. The 12u group had teams from Kouts, Porter, Frankfort, Bourbonnais, IL, Greenfield, and South Bend. The 11u had teams from Valpariso, Indianapolis, and two from Crown Point.

The fans had really good weather, unlike last weekend. Concessions were being sold by Team Mission Jasper County. While I was there, I saw someone hit a home run.  Also, I wonder if part of the parking problem is due to the lack of asphalt and thus painted lines showing where people should park.

The forecast says we will have a cold start to the week with frost on Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope it does not damage the fruit crop again this year.

The Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met Tueday evening to consider a conditional use application (which is what the County BZA calls a special exception) for an event barn on CR 1000 W across from Wilson's Fertilizer. That is not in City limits, but it is within the two-mile buffer zone. The barn is 85% complete and is 40 feet by 60 feet. It has a kitchen and bathrooms and is designed to host events of up to 100-125 people. It will have parking for 60-70 cars. The application was approved.

How long has Moonshiners been closed? 

A food truck plans to visit Rensselaer every Friday. It will set up in the parking lot of the bowling alley. Its Facebook page is here. 

Pizza Hut is getting a new roof.

A small building that was once part of the VanTobel lumber yard has been removed and the view of the rest of the building is now completely different.