A ribbon cutting and more

Rensselaer again has a bakery, sort of. Main Street Bakery opened a branch in the east end of the bowling alley on Friday. Their first day was a huge success; they started the day with about 6000 donuts and sold out. Their hours are 5:00 am until noon and people were waiting for the doors to open. After closing, at 1:00, they had a ceremonial ribbon cutting.

There are no donuts being baked in Rensselaer. All the baking is done in Medaryville. Main Street Bakery purchased the equipment from what was once Daryl's Bakery. Mr Williams, the owner, built the display case. I expect that next week's Rensselaer Republican will have a detailed report on the bakery and its Rensselaer opening. 

The Indiana Destination Development Corporation (IDDC) began a series of 13 statewide meetings on Wednesday with their first meeting in Rensselaer at eMbers. For some reason I received an invitation. The IDDC is a new organization and replaces the Indiana Office of Tourism Development. It is quasi-governmental, which means it is partly part of the government and partly not. Its board of directors is appointed by the governor.

Like its predecessor, the IDDC still promotes tourism but it has a mission beyond tourism. It wants to use tourism to promote economic development. Its research indicates that people outside of Indiana have neither a positive or negative impression of Indiana they have little or no impression at all. The IDDC sees this as an opportunity: they can help shape a positive impression. They think that if people visit Indiana, they will most likely enjoy their visit. The presentation emphasized quality of life, a theme that I have heard often from the local development office. If people recognize Indiana as having a high quality of life, it will allow the state to attract talented people and that will grow the state economically.

Indiana is in the top five states for attracting college students from outside the state. It has seven state and 30 private colleges. However, it does not do a good job of keeping those students in the state; they learn in Indiana but then leave for a job. It was mentioned that Google and other tech companies recruit heavily from Purdue. The IDDC wants to get students into the communities so they will appreciate more what Indiana has.

Three initiatives currently underway are two passport programs, one for travel and the other for dining, and a video series in cooperation with Indiana Realtors called Hoosiers by Choice. (Click the links for more information.)

On Thursday evening the Airport Authority Board had a special meeting that was open to the public. I attended via Zoom. Earlier this summer the current Airport Manager announced that he was leaving to take a job at an airport in Kansas. The Board appointed a search committee to find a replacement and they reviewed about 20 applications, conducting interviews with five. They had a recommended candidate for the Board to approve along with terms of the contract. After a lengthy discussion of whether the Airport needed an assistant manager and whether they needed more time to review candidates, the Board accepted the recommendations of its subcommittee with one negative vote. The applicant was never named in the meeting and has until Tuesday evening to accept of decline the offer.

On Friday morning the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution presented William Campbell of Campbell Printing with a special Flag Certificate recognizing his appreciation for and display of the American Flag. The flag on his building was painted by Rein Bontreger of Reinforcements Design.

New walls are rising at McDonalds.

I was surprised a while back to see this sign at McDonalds.

On Thursday the first hoop for the basketball court at Brookside Park was installed.

On Thursday an accident a bit north of Rensselaer on US 231 damaged a utility pole and caused a brief power outage for most or all of Renssleaer. There are better pictures on Facebook.

I thought we missed the invasion of the 17 year locusts earlier this year, but the annual locust season is here and it can be pretty loud at times.

Odds and ends during the Dog Days of Summer (Updated)

 The Rensselaer City Council met Monday evening. There were three events using streets or parks that needed approval. The Jared Valentine 5K that raises money for a memorial scholarship will start and end in Foundation Park. It is scheduled for September 25. Also on the 25th is Oktoberfest. The Council approved closing the block of Van Rensselaer next to the Court House from 10 am until 11 pm. The Eagles will have a dinner on September 11 and the Council approved closing half of a block of Harrison Street.

There was nothing very exciting in the rest of the agenda. The Council approved trading in a 2012 John Deere backhoe and purchasing a new John Deere backhoe. In the past the Gas Department had entered hedging agreements to purchase gas that needed the Mayor's approval. For some reason this year the agreement needed Council approval, which was granted. The Council affirmed a zoning change passed by the Rensselaer Plan Commission for a property at the north end of Owen Street. REMC wanted the change and it was passed contingent on purchase by REMC and getting the tenants out. The Council approved $200 from the public relations fund for Oktoberfest. The Mayor appointed an insurance committee to look at health insurance. They will report back at the Sept 13 meeting, which will also have the budget hearing.

Mr Cover made a motion to amend the salary ordinance, which was passed. The Electric Utility has lost two lineman to area REMCs and it appears that the City pay and benefits are not competitive with surrounding electric utilities. The specific amendment to the ordinance will be presented at the next meeting.  

The Police Department has recently lost two officers and a crossing guard. The Council approved replacing the crossing guard and conducting a search for the two officers. The new gas line connecting to the trunk line went active last week.

The fall soccer season is underway. As it gets going, swimming is coming to an end. The last day at LaRue Pool will be Sunday, August 29. Have you noticed that the days are getting shorter?

The Main Street Bakery of Medaryville is planning to open its Rensselaer store Friday. It will be in the east end of the bowling alley. Fenwick Farms is closed this week for remodeling. For a while I could not tell if the carriage house behind Fenwick Farms was being repaired or demolished. It is being repaired.

The Court House sign is now showing messages. 

I was pleased to learn last week that Strack and Van Til has resumed its bag policy: if you bring your own bags instead of using their plastic bags, you get 5¢ deducted from you bill for each bag. They had stopped the policy for a while because of Covid.

Construction of the McDonald's addition is going quickly and a supervisor told me that it should be finished in early September.  Last week the concrete footings for the new walls were poured.

By the weekend the front of the building was being removed.

The footers were ready for masonry.

By Tuesday new walls were being put in place and more of the old front was being removed.

A day or two ago someone e-mailed me asking if I know what this sign in the County parking lot was about. She had tried to google for info and found nothing. I told here that her question was the first I had heard of it. Coming home from the City Council meeting I noticed another by the parking lot at the end of Kellner. My guess is that they are for workers for a contractor, perhaps doing road work. Anyone know the right answer?

Last weekend for the first time in several years I traveled via the Tri-State tollway around Chicago. I was surprised to find that there are no people manning toll booths. Cameras take pictures of your license plates and the State of Illinois bills you. So far I have not seen the bill.

Update: I forgot to mention that in the legals of last weeks Rensselaer Republican the Rensselaer Central Multi-School Building Corporation announced that they were selling $5,575,000 worth of bonds. I do not attend School Board meetings because they meet at the same time the Jasper County Council meets. Does anyone know what is planned with that money?

An oversized delivery

 On Wednesday morning a truck made an oversized delivery to Brookside Park. It was the building for the Jeff Goad HYPER (Healthy Youth Parks Education Recreation) Center. I was curious as to how the building would be moved from the truck to its foundation.  I did not have to wait long to find out.

The truck driver had a tiny machine that he used to pull the building from the truck trailer.

When he got it far enough along, he lowered the back of the truck trailer so he could completely remove the building.

He then used this tiny machine to drag the building to the pad.

First he positioned one end of the building on the pad.

Then he took the machine to the other end and positioned it on the pad. He did some fine tuning to get it exactly where the Park people wanted it, and he was done.

The inside of the building is completely unfinished.

Here is the building on its pad.

On Tuesday evening the Jasper County Council met to begin their budget hearings. Before they got to the 2022 budget, they had a series of additional allocations that were confusing and took about 45 minutes. They were related to Covid funding. The State got overwhelmed in processing claims so they changed the way they had counties account for the expenditures. These additional appropriations were mostly putting money back in the accounts were it belonged.

The budget hearings, which will continue through most of Wednesday, are almost impossible to follow if one does not have the thick budget books that the Council members have. One thing that did come out is that commissioners are unhappy with the present state of EMS services in the County and would like for the whole County to use township EMS services. We will see how that plays out in the next few months.

On Tuesday forms for new footers were being installed at McDonalds.

Planning and development

 The Rensselaer Plan Commission met on Thursday, August 12. It began the meeting by electing officers because its last meeting was almost two years ago, in 2019, and its membership had changed. It had one item on the agenda, a change in zoning from A2 to L1 for two acres at the north end of Owen Street. The property is adjacent to the Jasper County REMC building and the REMC would like to acquire the property for storage and possibly for office space. REMC is in process of providing high speed internet service throughout the County and I think this expansion is the primary reason they need more space. The zoning change was approved and now REMC will presumably purchase the property. 

The Rensselaer Board of Zoning Appeals met an hour later to consider a variance for height of an accessory building. The owner of a property near Curtis Creek wants to build a structure that will have a peak height of 27 feet but the building code allows only a peak height of 18 feet. Some neighbors were concerned that it might be a pole barn but the owner and her contractors are planning a structure that will be similar to the house. The reason that the Rensselaer BZA has jurisdiction is that the property is within the two-mile exclusion zone of Rensselaer. The variance was approved.

I would have liked to have attended the Airport Authority meeting on Thursday evening because they may have discussed hiring a new airport manager but the meeting time conflicted with the Rensselaer Plan Commission meeting.

The County Plan Commission met on Monday evening with two items on its agenda. The first was a special exception for a proposal to build cabin rentals around a gravel-pit lake north of Rensselaer. This project had been in front of the Plan Commission in June for a rezone from agriculture to parks and recreation, which was granted. However, the Jasper County designation for Parks and Recreation does not include short-term cabin rentals, so a special exception was needed from the BZA. The project now has a name, Brightstone Lake. The developers were seeking the exception only for a phase I on the project, which would be five cabins at the north end of the property. They said that future phases would depend on what they learned from phase 1. After a discussion that seemed to drag on forever, the exception was granted with one member opposed.

The second item was a special exception for a solar farm in Walker Township between 900 N and 1000N. The Jasper County Solar ordinance requires that any solar farm be approved with a special exception. This solar farm is completely separate from the Dunn's Bridge Solar Farm in Kankakee Township. It apparently has been before the Drainage Board, but I do not remember it and it may have been presented at one of the meetings I missed. It will occupy 470 acres and supply (if I heard correctly) 80 megawatts DC or 60 megawatts AC. (By comparison, the two solar farms in Rensselaer supply 4 and 1 megawatt.) Several people attending the meeting spoke against it, saying that they did not want to look at solar panels. Several others, including two of the landowners spoke in favor. The landowners said that the panels would be screened and would not be visible to neighbors. The special exception was approved. There was no date given for start of construction and additional approvals may be needed, but once construction starts, it will take nine months to a year to complete.

As for building under construction, not just being planned, the future Rensselaer Pet Care building now has conpleted its exterior.

The new electric storage building north of Columbia Park is getting walls. Below is a picture from late last week.

By Tuesday the front had been closed up.

McDonalds will be slightly larger when its renovation is completed. A trench for a new footer has been dug several feet away from what is now the south wall.

The new exterior of the south restrooms at Brookside Park is almost finished.

The exterior of the addition to Pipestone Veterinary Services seems to be finished.

Back to school

A new school year begins for Rensselaer students today (Thursday) and with it a new exhibit of ephemeral art: the paintings of parking lot spots by seniors at RCHS. This is the third year that high school seniors have, for a fee, been able to claim a parking spot and mark it with a design. (For pictures from the last two years, start here.)

This may be the least artistic but also the funniest.

 In other news, construction has begun on new rest stops on I-65 north of the DeMotte exit. Detail are here.