The bridge has reopened

The clear panels have been installed in bowstring arch pedestrian bridge and it is now again open for foot traffic and bicycles.

You can see the deck of the bridge reflected in the panel. I think the little red things were padding to prevent the panes scratching one another during transport.

Demolishing Monnett continued (and updated)

Today, Thursday, the excavator was working on the last half of the north wing of the Monnett School. It did not have to go much further before it would get to the east wall.

 Below is the view of the school from the south. On the fence you can see the No Trespassing sign that was in a earlier picture, when the wall was still there. That was last Thursday.

I will probably be updating this post with picture for the next few days rather than putting them in separate posts.

Update Friday:
Today the excavator seemed to keep pretty busy loading up trucks with debris. The metal goes to the local scrap yard, Rensselaer Iron and Metal. I did not ask where the rest goes.

 This morning noticed that the wall of the furnace room was down and you could see two furnaces in depression.

 Later in the day the furnaces were gone and the excavator was working in what had been the furnace room. It tilted slightly when it entered the room.

 Not much later there was nothing left of the room.

I talked to one of the guys doing the work. He said that the north wing was not built the same way as the south wing. Does anyone remember it there was an addition to the school? It may have been built in 1957. There is a plaque in the administration building with this date, but no one is quite sure that if it is for original construction.

There is not much structure left to tear down, but there is a huge concrete pad on which the school set that will take some time to rip up.

Update: Monday Feb 11
When I went past the school this afternoon about 2:00, most of the northwest corner was gone, with just a bit of the wall left.

Coming back about an hour later, that last bit of wall was gone and the pad was being scraped clean. In the background you can see a truck being loaded with scrap metal.

 Much of the outside wall of the north wing is still standing, and you can see it above. There is a lot of debris that is within those walls that will have to be removed. Only the east corner of the south wing is left, the little bit with the elephant pictures.

Update Tuesday:

When I stopped by today there was no activity on the site. The north wing was full of debris that needs to be hauled away, but except for a little bit of wall on the east end, the south wing is gone.

Here is the view from the other side of the wall. Uranus and Neptune are missing.

 A bit of the concrete pad on the Southwest corner has been ripped up, exposing the sand below.

 I noticed that the ramp leading to the last of the modules was being taken apart. I believe that this module will end up near the football field. If you know more, please tell us in a comment.

Odds and ends, 02-06-2013

I have noticed lots of little things in the past few days, like a new transformer next to the power station. It is part of the 69K line installation.

I did not see any demolition on Monday or Tuesday when I stopped by the Monnett School, but this morning the excavator was chomping on the entrance to the school.

 It was separating the metal from the other building materials, so demolition was slow.

 Another excavator was busy at the Tractor Supply site. The city is installing the water supply for the building. The trench that they are working in is deep, so they have to use a metal cage to prevent wall collapse and they were busy pumping water, probably because the water table was above the bottom of the trench.

 Yesterday there were a lot of these ice chandeliers along the river. The icicles seem to form from the river water because they are just above the water level and every so often the water touches them.

I checked my Rensselaer Adventures e-mail recently. The lay minister at St. Peter's Episcopal Church wanted publicity a for Valentine Card Making Workshop on Saturday, Februrary 9 at 5:30 pm. The cost is $5 for supplies per 5 cards. This event will be taught by "Close to my Heart" consultant Anne-Marie Lessner.  All are welcome!

I had an exchange with Donna Wetzel and learned that she writes things at a website called hubpages.com. Those who like Rensselaer history will enjoy her reminiscing about Joe Sheldon's Produce.

The Jasper Foundation is hosting another Community Conversation on March 7 at 8:30 am. They would like an RSVP for anyone who wants to attend. Call them at 5899 or respond to jasper at liljasper period com.

The Jasper County Economic Development Organization sent me their February newsletter. They have a new on-line guide to Jasper County that is full of information. Did you know that Jasper County is the leading agricultural producing county in the state with a market value of product sold in 2007 of almost $300 million? The publication has the 32 largest non-retail employers in the county. The top five are Jasper County Hospital, Kankakee Valley Schools, Advanced Auto Parts, NiIPSCO Schahfer Station, and Rensselaer Central Schools. To see where the other firms place, visit the JCEDO site at http://www.jaspercountyin.com. In 2011 the mean wage was $17.00.

It also had data on worker commuting patterns. Jasper County exports workers. 2549 people commute to work from Jasper to Lake County, 1009 to Porter County, 459 to Illinois, and 319 to Newton. 741 commute to Jasper County from Newton County, 338 from Porter, 313 from White, 254 from Pulaski, and 242 from Lake.

In other JCEDO news, Emily Gross, who for me has been the face of JCEDO, is leaving for a job at the Kankakee Iroquois Regional Planning Commission. I had not heard of this group before. It is headquartered in Monon, which is a bit strange since they are not in the Kankakee or Iroquois watershed. From their website it seems that they try to help local governments in Benton, Carroll, Jasper, Newton, Pulaski, Starke, Warren, and White Counties get grant funding for whatever projects that they are pursuing. They have a downloadable publication with lots of information on the region.

Snow and ice

Our weather has been given us a lot of variety during the past two weeks--heavy rain and snow with temperatures ranging between 0 and 60 degrees. This weekend snow has taken center stage. The two or three inches allow us to see things that are not normally visible, such as crow tracks.

 The cemetery is a study in white and black.

 The thin layer of snow does not make the destruction of the Monnett school look any better.

 There is not much left of the south wing as the new week starts.

 I finally have a camera that lets me take pictures of snow flakes.

The river is interesting. It was almost at flood stage after the heavy rains of last week and has been dropping since. The bitterly cold nights freeze the water along the shoreline, and then that shelf is left as the river drops. On Sunday there were three clearly visible shelves.

The high water levels created ice around tree branches that were dragging in the water, and then when the water dropped those ice plates rose above the river level and were decorated with icicles.

Below is another plate of ice attached to a tree branch.

The Glass Managerie

Saturday will be the final performance of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie at Saint Joseph's College. It has a cast of only four, three of whom are listed in the program as residents of Jasper or Newton counties. They did a good job with it.

I liked the stylized set.