Halleck Park

The major park in Rensselaer is Brookside Park, which has picnic facilities, a large playground, softball and soccer fields, a track, a tennis court, a swimming pool, and more. Rensselaer also has some small parks. One of the smallest is Halleck Park, located across the street from the court house square.
The park is named for Charles Halleck, the most important political figure that Rensselaer has produced. He is almost certainly the only Rensselaer resident to have made the cover to Time magazine (June 8, 1959), and was twice majority leader of the House of Representatives, as well as serving a number of years as minority leader.

Does this park have any purpose other than to honor the memory of Charles Halleck? The park is tiny and its location next to the former Jasper County Jail is hardly ideal. It has a couple of park benches, six trees, and a hiking trail that is about 30 yards long. Across the street are the far more attractive grounds of the court house.
Do you know anyone who has actually used this park? And if the purpose is to honor the memory of Charles Halleck, why is there no plaque telling why he was notable?

Epiphany

Today is Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas and an important holy day in the eastern church. In the western church it celebrates the coming of the Magi, so a creche scene seemed appropriate, though I do not know if they are still up. The first was on Bunkum Road right before it becomes a straight east-west road, about two miles from Rensselaer.
Here is a better shot of the three kings.
Here is the same creche set with magi, but this one was on Vine.

Salt and Sulphur

This morning I noticed a truck delivering a load of salt to the water treatment plant that is in (or next to) Iroquois Park. It is actually not uncommon to see one of these truck backed up and unloading.

Without treatment, Rensselaer would have extremely hard water. I live in an old house, and it has an amazing array of pipes in the basement because at one time it had both hard and soft water lines. Some went through a big water conditioner and others did not. However, because the city now treats the water, most of those pipes do nothing.Our city water also has problems with sulfur, and I do not know if the salt also takes out that smell, or if some other process is needed. When the new treatment plant was dedicated, there was an open house and all these questions were answered, but I no longer remember what the answers were.

Update: From my e-mail:

After taking my 8th grade classes to the water treatment for some ten years, six class periods each year, I have the presentation memorized (yes, I've heard it sixty times, in fact I often gave the tour myself when the guys were busy doing something else). It turns out that they blow the sulphur dioxide out of the water using air. This aerator is positioned right after the water comes out of the ground and just before it gets its first injection of chlorine. It the big tall unit at the back of the plant near the park shelter. You often can smell the sulfur in the air.

Amtrak sign update

A little more than a month ago I noticed a new Amtrak sign. It did not last long. I think the weather took it down--I hope the weather took it down and not vandals. Here is what it looked like this morning.

The building in the background houses the Rensselaer branch of the Morning Song bird food company, which is a division of the Scotts Miracle Grow company. I think it employs about a dozen people. The building itself was built, if my memory is correct, for a company that distributed beer, and again, if memory is correct, it folded when the Indiana regulations for beer distribution were changed. If I am wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments.

Update: On Feb 14 I noticed that the sign had been restored to its original splendor.

Second semester starts

The SJC students should be coming back on campus and classes should be starting up again. To welcome the SJC students back, and to show them what they missed while they were gone, I have some video from a basketball game held over the break. Featured is the halftime entertainment.