And the winner is....

As I was going past Monnett School on Wednesday morning, I saw two bucket trucks with their arms extended. It looked as if they were having a giant battle, the sort of thing that is fun to watch on cheap sci-fi movies.
It was nothing so exciting. Rather it was the city utility trucks working on an electrical connection for the Rensselaer Central School Administration Building.
A week or two ago I noticed that workmen had ripped up the old sidewalks, and then last week I saw a trencher busily digging a trench. I asked why, and discovered that the lines (electric, telephone, cable, internet) that were on the poles were going underground. I did not know why and did not ask at the time.
I did ask someone who usually knows what is happening in the schools when I noticed that there had been a lot of dirt moved next to the administration building. I was told that the alternative school will be placed in this location.
I enjoy watching construction. You can count on more pictures in the future.

Arbor Day and tree walk

On Friday there was a brief ceremony at the gazebo on the court house lawn in which Mayor Herb Arihood read a proclamation about Arbor Day.
There was a banner that proclaims Rensselaer as one of the tree cities in Indiana. (I was drafted into holding one side of the banner for a while, so I might be in a picture in the Rensselaer Republican tomorrow or whenever they feature the event. If the Republican uses that shot, you will see why I got the close-up picture of the mayor above.)

Below the mayor presents the proclamation to Connie Kingman.
After the brief ceremony, there was a tree walk led by James Potthoff, who identified the trees around the court house and made comments on them. He talked a bit about the threat of the emerald ash borer, which is being transported throughout the country in firewood. Jasper County is currently not infested, but White County has it, probably because of camping around Lake Shafer. If you see large, purple, kite-like structures in trees this summer, they probably will be emerald-ash-borer traps, which are checking to see if the insects are around. (By itself, the borer only moves about a quarter of a mile per year. But when people move it in firewood, it can move hundreds of miles a year.)

We have a lot of ash trees because they were planted to replace the elm trees that were wiped out by Dutch elm disease. It is probably not a good time to be planting a lot of new ash trees.
I had to leave early so did not hear all he had to say. He did say that the trees that work best in an urban setting might not be the best for rural settings, and the people should plant a mix of different kind of trees. One thing that surprised me was that he did not think tulip trees were a good urban tree because they get too big.

The big crane

Last week there was a crane assisting in work repairing or upgrading the equipment on the elevator. It was really quite a marvelous machine. It was sort of like the transformer toys that my kids used to play with. It could change shapes and become something very different from its original shape. Below is a picture of the crane when it was finished with its job and getting ready to leave.
I also caught it one morning as it was getting ready to go to work. It had raised its arm and was extending it. The arm telescoped out.
So after a few minutes the arm had become quite long, and it was still extending. When it was finished extending, there was a further extension that was attached. Fully extended and with a final attachment, it was much taller than the grain elevator.
I am not sure what they were doing, but a lot of rusted metal pipes and fittings were on the ground, so I assume those had been removed.
Do any of you readers know what they have been doing at the elevator? Or do you expect me to ask?

Youtube is four

Did you know that Youtube is four years old today?

In honor of that, and the ending of the school year at Saint Joseph's College, I offer this clip.

Update: The clip has been pulled. It was from Ferris Bueller's Day off, the scene with Ben Stein as the teacher talking to a class of totally bored students.

Kirby Risk construction update

Construction has been going quickly on the new Kirby Risk building just west of Rensselaer. I was out of town for a week at the beginning of March, and while I was gone, the workers poured the foundation and floor. (Click on the pictures for bigger versions.)
I was in town when they put up the steel, but I missed that as well. They must have been pretty quick. After the steel was erected, they enclosed the building. The three lifts that were parked in front of the steel skeleton reminded me of dinosaurs.Most of the building was covered in sheet metal, but a small part of the front will sport concrete blocks.
The workers started on the east side with the metal sheeting and then continued on the back or north side.
They probably wondered why a strange guy was taking pictures just about every day. Below they have finished the west side and have arrived at the front of the building.
After the walls were finished, it was time to work on the roof. For that they used scaffolding in addition to the lifts.
It appears that some daylight is still visible looking through the building, so the roof is not yet finished in the picture below.
In this picture they are applying finishing touches.
And finally, the outer shell has been completed. Now that construction is concentrated on the inside, there is not as much to see, so I will find some other place to visit on my morning jog.
There have been interesting things happening at the grain elevator, with an even bigger machine than the ones in these pictures. The workers there may also have been wondering why a strange guy kept taking pictures. I will tell you about that tomorrow.