Groundbreaking for the Steinke Funeral Home renovation

This morning (Wednesday) Steinke Funeral Home had a groundbreaking ceremony for an extensive renovation project. Before the posing for the picture, a pastor said a short prayer and noted that those in the funeral home business performed an important service in helping families deal with death of loved ones.

The Funeral Home will stay open during the renovation. The architects, who are from St. Louis and specialize in funeral home design, have planned out how they can block off and renovate certain parts while other parts remain in use. In addition to changes inside, there will be a portico around the front of the building (which you can see in the picture below) and an addition to the back of the building.

Tecton, the building contractor, recently finished the Louck Medical Building, which is now open. Lana Williams is a former Rensselaerian who graduated from RCHS about twenty years ago.

William C Babcock scrapbook, part 1

A week or two ago I posted about scrapbooks at the historical society museum. I only briefly glanced at one done by William C Babcock, and I decided I wanted to take a closer look. He was a Rensselaer businessman and served in the Indiana House of Representatives for at least two terms. I have not been able to find much about him, but I think his cemetery record is here. It does not appear that he has any surviving descendants.

The historical society has two scrapbooks of his, one for the years 1931 to about 1933, and the other from about 1933 to about 1935 or 1936. They contain a wide range of items such as membership cards. (Note the signature on the Hazelden Country Club cards.)

 His membership card for Curtis Creek was on a different page.

I think this sample ballot was for 1932. He is listed second under the Republican ticket. The other notable name on the ballet is listed fourth, Charles Halleck, running for Prosecuting Attorney. Part two of this post will have more about Halleck.

 Babcock was named after his father, and in turned gave his son the same name. The school recorded the son's height monthly when he was in first grade.

Below is a questionnaire from the Indianapolis Athletic Club. I suspect many state representatives used their facilities while the legislature was in session. I do not understand it what the purpose of the questionnaire is, but I like the response the question, "Do you especially desire a Chairmanship?"

 Among the organizations that Babcock joined was Rotary.

 In 1932 Indiana had twelve congressmen. Lake County had enough people to be its own congressional district, but Allen County (Fort Wayne) did not.

 Babcock had a questionnaire from the Indiana Anti-Saloon League in his scrapbook. I wonder if its inclusion meant that he did not bother to reply to them.

 Babcock ran a grain company and he seems to have had an interest in a quarry in Monon. During the early years of the New Deal, the Roosevelt administration tried to raise prices and wages by edict through the NRA (which was not the National Rifle Association.) The NRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935. I have never seen a convincing argument that it a good idea. Most economists who have spent any time looking at it conclude it was a program that impeded recovery. Here is that argument.

The stamp of the NRA suggests that these prices were approved by the government.

I assume that the Babcock Quarry is named after him.

I will include more tidbits in a future post.

Airport digging

If you have driven past the airport recently, you must have noticed that dirt is being tossed around.

The earth moving is being done to create a new drainage system. Above the excavator is digging a hole that will become a retention pond.

The new system, like the old, connects to a ditch, which is usually dry, that runs east of the fairgrounds until it dumps into another ditch that is just to the south of the south entrance to the fairgrounds.

It seems that almost every new construction project comes with some kind of retention pond. There is even one now in Iroquois Park for the water treatment plant. It must be a legal requirement. Does anyone know what the rules are that are giving us lots of little wetlands?

Number one in corn

I noticed a pattern in a field north of town and remembered that I wanted to mention something in JCEDO's April newsletter, that Jasper County was the number one producer of corn in Indiana for 2012. I was able to find the USDA report, which is here. Jasper County had more acreage in corn (177,500 acres) and produced more (24 million bushels) than any other county. White County was second, Benton fourth, and Newton fifth. 

Jasper County did not do as well with soybeans. It planted only 84,700 acres and was ranked twelfth in total harvest. The report is here. The only other report that I could find for 2012 was for cattle, where Jasper County was third.

While I was north of town, I noticed an outhouse for sale at Smith's Farm Store. I have seen several of them by a house near the power plant, so I suspect that they are produced locally.

Update: The decorative outhouse could make a nice tool shed, a place to store rakes and shovels.

Spring is finally arriving

I spent Easter in central Kentucky. I expected to find spring there--leaves sprouting on trees, nesting birds, and lots of wildflowers. But the trees there were as bare as the trees here. However, their daffodils were blooming and I have not seen any blooming here. One night it was cold enough to put a layer of ice on a bucket of water left outside.

Even though there are still remnants of snow piles in parking lots, there are lots of signs that spring is beginning. I have some crocuses blooming in my yard. (A Facebook friend had some kind of flower blooming in February, so mine are far from early flowers.) More importantly, my rhubarb looks like it is starting to grow. Walmart is setting up its garden display.

The Community Garden, which got a lot of publicity in the past week from the Rensselaer Republican, was tilling the garden plots this afternoon. There are still a couple of empty plots. That is very different from what happens in some other places. My son got up extra early in Bloomington, IL to stand in line to claim a garden spot a few weeks ago. If you do not get there early, you do not get a plot. He is taking gardening seriously--he has dozens of little plants already growing under grow lights.

Brookside Park has its summer complement of trash cans out. Last week the park people were setting out picnic tables in the shelters. This year all the benches will be the plastic tables made from recycled milk bottles and some of them are designed to accommodate wheel chairs. Some of the old wooden picnic tables will see use at the Little Cousin Jasper Festival and maybe some short duration events.

I thought that demolition activity at Monnett would be over this week, but when I stopped by I saw that a large fuel tank had been partially uncovered. It seems to have been a tank to store fuel for heating. I suspect that at some time after Monnett was built, the heating was switched to natural gas.

 I stopped by Lending Hand because the office is now open with a big "Grand Opening" banner in front. The office was very simple--a couple of desks. I learned that the headquarters of the company was not Lafayette, as I originally wrote, but in Monticello.

Steinke Funeral Home will soon be undergoing renovation. There is a sign in front showing the planned changes with the names of contractors and architect.