Higher taxes

From nwi.com:

County officials recently approved hiking the county's income tax rate to 3.114 percent, up from 3.05 percent. The new rate took effect Dec. 1.

Combined with Indiana's 3.4 percent state income tax rate, Jasper County residents now pay 6.514 percent of their income in state and local income taxes.

Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/jasper-county-boosts-income-tax-rate/article_c592a39b-744d-5516-807c-d632f30a8203.html#ixzz1fxspVuIq

Jasper County has the second highest county income tax in Indiana, with only Pulaski County higher. Our county income tax is almost as high as the state income tax. I suspect that that both Pulaski and Jasper counties have among the lowest property taxes in the state. I think that the county has placed too much of the tax burden on income and not enough on property and that division of the burden probably tells us who has political clout in this county.

Remington news

A recent comment mentioned that there was a new Dollar General store under construction in Remington. On a recent trip south I detoured though town and found the site on the south east side of the intersection of US 231 and US 24.

The town of Remington site has a better picture and also information that the targeted completion date is December 20 (seems pretty ambitious) with a grand opening for January 19, 2012.

Getting ready for the big pole

This morning there were several trucks tying up traffic at the corner of Cullen and Clark. One of them, not pictured, was a city truck trimming branches, probably to get ready for the utility line that will run along Cullen to Merritt. I could not quite make out what the other two were doing.

A view from a different angle was more revealing. NG Gilbert, the contractor for the utility line, had brought in bigger equipment from another contractor to bore a huge hole. The drill bit that you see on the truck to the left in the above picture is what they use for the tall poles that they have been installing along Merritt. It was dwarfed by the drill bit of the other truck.

Below you can see the workers pulling up the drill bit. They move it away from the hole and then spin it to remove the clay that they are taking out of the hole. I helped my son do something very similar a few months ago, but with a two-man post-hole driller.

A city worker who is a neighbor of mine said that tomorrow they are scheduled to set an 85-foot tall fiberglass utility tower with the footings that they are preparing today.

Invasive shrubbery

Over the Thanksgiving holidays my son mentioned that the bushes growing at the western edge of Weston Cemetery were honeysuckle bushes. They are easily distinguished in the fall because they maintain green leaves longer than just about any other tree or shrub.

 It is a pretty bush and I can see why people have planted it as an ornamental.

Unfortunately, it is also highly invasive and threatens native plants whenever it gets established in a wooded area. When my son mentioned honeysuckle, I immediately remembered reading calls for volunteers to help eradicate it from various nature preserves in our area. The only other plant that seems as much hated by the people trying to restore native plants is garlic mustard.

The war against the invasives is probably fruitless. The topic of invasives, however, is fascinating. A recent book, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, is on my list of books I want to read. Did you know that there were no earthworms in the upper Midwest before Columbus? Their arrival reshaped American forests because the worms ate the leaf litter. The author asserts that the Columbian exchange "was the biggest event in the history of life since the death of the dinosaurs." How can you not be intrigued by a book discussing something as important as that?

Floor

I stopped by the library today and noticed that there was construction (or demolition?) in the entry way and bathrooms.

Some of the tiles had buckled, and they tried to get estimates on replacing the bad tiles, only to be told by multiple contractors that they could not fix the problem area, and that the only way to get it fixed was to replace the entire area.

My home repairs are often like that. What on surface seems like it should be a small task often ends up being much more involved that anticipated, and that is why I hate home repairs.

I have not been posting much this week and do not be surprised if the light posting continues for a while. It is a combination of not much happening in my world and a desire to focus on some other things. A year ago I felt bad when I missed a day. Now I do not.

What happened to November? It sure went by quickly.