Odds and Ends, Oct 1

Longs Gifts and From the Needles Point are closing because the owner is retiring. Rensselaer has other gift shops but no other sewing/fabric shop. There were long lines checking out on Saturday morning. They will be open Sunday and I do not know what happens after that.

Another business that has left is Greene's Antique Mall. The JECDO monthly newsletter highlighted it as a property for sale or lease. Greene's Furniture remains open.

I intended to go to the SJC Homecoming but the weather was miserable with light rain so I skipped it. The new location of what had been the bookstore opened Friday afternoon. It sells clothing and other things with the SCJ logo, so it was important to be open for Homecoming. I did not see any books in the store when I went by on Friday morning. I asked what would happen to the space where the bookstore had been and was told that the registrar's office would move there.

I appears that the ground is being prepared for construction  on Melville Street between Maple and Merritt. Perhaps it is another storage building that will be similar to the one already there.

As I was approaching this site, I saw a train going through town and it appeared to be BNSF engines pulling ore cars. Maybe the Magnetation plant at Reynolds is not going to shut down.

There is a bill in Congress supported by all the Indiana Congressmen to change the designation of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to Indiana Dunes National Park. I do not think it would affect much other than name, but a National Park would draw more tourists than a National Lakeshore. It already draws more visitors than a number of out-of-the-way national parks.

I also saw something about a proposal to put a wildlife refuge west of Newton County in Illinois. The local farmers were opposed because of concerns about drainage. They feared that the wildlife refuge would disrupt the drainage tiles and ditches.

The JECDO annual report has been released (though I cannot find it yet on the JECDO website). It mentioned a few projects that I have not written about or touched on only indirectly. Remington is constructing a $4 million 1.7 million gallon per day water treatment plant that should be up and running in early 2017. Belstra Milling in Demotte is completing a $14 million animal feed plant. Casey's opened a General Store and gas station in DeMotte. There is a huge, new church  east of Demotte, the First Church at the intersection of SR 10 and US 231. Reinforcements Design west of Rensselaer added 1500 square feet to its building. Remington Farms completed a 22,000 square foot office and shop facility. Remington Seeds is finishing a 75,000 square foot distribution center. And finally, Town and Country Paving of DeMotte added 1150 square feet of office space.

This past week a lot of work was done on the high rate treatment plant on Lincoln. There may be some urgency to get as much done before the colder weather arrives. I suspect that the wet summer put them well behind schedule. The smaller of the two circular structures now has a concrete floor and forms are rising to construct walls.

Celebrating Indiana 200 years art exhibit

The Fendig Gallery is hosting an art exhibit by local artists celebrating the Indiana bicentennial. As I looked at the various pictures, I realized that if I did not know that the exhibit was titled "Celebrating Indiana, 200 Years", I would not be able to guess what the theme of the show was. Then I asked myself, "What would I paint if I had the talent to paint something?" I could not think of a good answer. I understand why they chose the theme this year, but it is a much more challenging theme than last year's, which was "Primary Colors".

 There were quite a few pictures of wildlife and rural scenes such as this heron.

 Those of us living in Jasper County may associate sandhill cranes with Indiana because there are so many that stop at the Jasper-Pulaski preserve, but I am not sure everyone in the state would make the same association.

The buffalo fades into the autumn landscape.

There is a bison on the state seal and this year the we celebration the bicentennial with decorated bison, but the original population of bison that lived in Indiana was wiped out not too long after white settlement.

The show runs until October 28 and the gallery is open from noon until 2:00 pm Mondays through Fridays.

More robotic dairies

(If the title makes you think of robot cows being milked, you probably did not grow up in Rensselaer.)

After Monday night's City Council meeting, it was time to go to the Court House for more meetings. Up first was the Jasper County BZA. It announced that the continuation of the  hearing for Prairie Creek Ag Lands, which had wanted to remove a sand ridge in the northern part of the County, was delayed and would not be heard until the January meeting.

Next on the agenda were special exceptions for two robotic dairies. Both were from T & M Limited Partnerships, one for Hidden View Dairy in  Barkley Township and the other for Herrema Dairy in Union Township. In March of 2015 the BZA approved a robotic dairy for Bos Dairy farms that was a test of European technology. The test has been successful and now the owners of the dairies want to put it in other dairies.

Both dairies currently have about 4000 cows. The Hidden View Dairy wants to add 780 cows and the Herrema Dairy 960. A reason for the difference is that the Hidden View Dairy plans to move some cows from its existing operation. Both buildings will be large, one 345 feet by 350 feet and the other 346 by 412 feet. In a robotic dairy the cows decide when they want to be milked. They approach the milking machine which reads their ID, washes their udders, attached the cups, and milks them with no human intervention. A robotic dairy uses two people to do the work that seven do in a regular dairy. There were also details of retention ponds, manure lagoons, and digesters for each dairy. Both special exceptions were approved.

The Planning Commission met next. It had a request to rezone from A1 to A2 for a parcel in the Wheatfield Township. Two brothers want to subdivide and each build a house. There was a concerned citizen who voiced opposition largely because he suspected that they wanted to do more than build two houses, but the rezone was granted.

Closer to home, at SJC the bookstore has closed because it is moving. Ever since I arrived on campus in 1974 the bookstore was located on the west end of Halleck Hall on the Ballroom floor. A few months ago the College turned over the business to Sodexo, the company that runs the food service. The new location will be on the south side of the Ballroom floor, in an area that was once a student lounge and the Chaplain's office. There is also a name change coming, The Shoppes. I asked one of my former colleagues if students still bought textbooks at the bookstore and he said that it was all done on the Internet now.

The weather has turned cooler but is still pleasant.

City Council and a ribbon cutting

On Monday evening the Rensselaer City Council held its final September meeting. The Council quickly passed an ordinance authorizing hiring of an additional police dispatcher, approved the 2017 Salary Ordinance that they have discussed in two special meetings, and approved the 2017 budget. The vote on the 2017 Salary Ordinance was three for and one against, with one member not at the meeting. The electric tracker, which reflects the cost of power to the City from IMPA, was an increase that will raise the bill of the average customer by $1.49 per month for the fourth quarter of the year. 

Emily from KIRPSE explained a resolution with the title, "Slum and Blight Area Declaratory Resolution". The City would like to seek a grant to help upgrade downtown sidewalks and street lights, and in order to get this grant, it is best if the city first get a planning grant of $36,000 or $40,000. The grant will require the city to match at 11.11%, so either $4000 or $4450. With the results of the planning grant, which would largely be used to hire consultants to study the issue, the city would then be in a good position to apply for a grant to do the actual construction. Working against the City is the low level of vacancy in downtown, about 10% of the commercial space, but working for the City is that Rensselaer has an active Main Street organization. The resolution passed three for and one against.

The Council acknowledged an e-mail poll of September 16 approving a bid for a new garbage truck. The total cost will be a bit more than $151,000. The power plant had awarded a contract for a new roof but the contractor backed out because of employee problems. The project was rebid and the Council approved accepting a bid for $77,612. The Mayor noted that there were issues with the roof on City Hall and that something will have to be done with it.

The Council accepted the recommendation from its committee that examined the street resurfacing bids that had been opened at the previous meeting. They accepted two bids from two contractors doing different types of road repair. The total was over $700,000 but almost $300,000 of that will come from a state grant.

The Trick and Treat hours on October 31 will be from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Trunk or Treat at the Fairgrounds will be from 5:00 until 7:30 with activities both before and after that time.  The Haunted House will be open Oct 27, 28, and 29.

The quote for removing the elm tree across from the post office was $2600. It was approved.

On November 1 there will be some kind of event at the solar farm with school kids.  IMPA would like to do a two megawatt project in Rensselaer and that would require 13 or 14 acres. (The existing solar farm is a one megawatt project.) The Rensselaer Urban Forestry group was planting trees in Potawatomi Park on Tuesday morning and the work on the gas line on the Grace Street Bridge finished up early, also on Tuesday morning. October 7 has been set for Coffee with a Cop. The time is 7:00 to 8:00 but the location is not yet determined. On October 11, the day the Bicentennial Torch is scheduled to pass through Rensselaer, there will be a bicentennial truck with displays at the Court House Square.

Our picture today is of a ribbon cutting for three new vehicles that CDC Resources has recently acquired. The box truck has a number of uses and was partially funded by gifts from the Reg Shireman family, the Carroll-White REMC, and the Newton Community Foundation. Reg Shireman was a former White County Sheriff who was serving on the Board of Directors of CDC Resources when he died two years ago. 

The vans were partially funded by grants from the Indiana Department of Transportation. One of them has a route in White County and the other picks up clients from DeMotte and Wheatfield and brings them to Day Services at the Rensselaer CDC Resources facility at the east end of Angelica Street. The driver of this van was very enthusiastic about her new wheels. There are also three other bus routes that bring clients to the Rensselaer facility, routes through Newton and Benton counties.

In the past the CDC Resource's vans have always had the CDC Resources name and logo on them. These do not and there are no plans to add them. If you see a van with the CDC Resources logo, it is an older van. Below is a better picture of the new vehicles with only three board members in the way. (They are friends of mine--I am also on the CDC Resources Board. It was a bit strange being in the photograph rather than taking it.)

WLQI has more pictures and even a video on its Facebook page.

The Treasure Keepers pre-school and daycare has closed. For several years it has been using space in the CDC Resources building on Angelica Street. CDC Resources has added enough new clients in the past couple years to need some of the space that Treasure Keepers had been using.

Oktoberfest and more

Rensselaer OktoberFest 2016 had wonderful weather. The event has two bands, one for the old people and one for the younger crowd. The old-people band was a German band and they looked like they were having a lot of fun.

 The old people did not dance but the little kids did.

Visit Rensselaer, which sponsored the event, has more pictures on Facebook plus some videos.

On Saturday I was able to get a picture of what is being constructed by the lift station next to Weston Cemetery. I held the camera up over the fence and clicked.

 Superior Sales has moved to the old Buick Dealership. From the rumors I heard, this move will be followed by some additional changes.

 The sign on the door at their old location informs customers of the move and the sign in front announces an auction for the end of the week.

 I missed the Homecoming parade but saw what was left of the class floats at the football field. The seniors had a float with the slogan, "Torch the Pioneers".  Such a violent thought. Wouldn't that be a microaggression on some college campuses? Or is it OK because most of the pioneers were white?

 It appears that there is a roof on the expansion at National Gypsum. The last few times I stopped by, I could see daylight through the windows.

 There is a dumpster next to what was Devons and it was mostly full on Sunday. It appears that the interior is being remodeled. I have not heard what, if anything, is going in.

I stopped by the Farmers Market on Saturday morning. There were only a few sellers there, though the ones that were selling vegetables had a lot to offer. At the community garden many of the plots have been cleared. We have not had a frost yet so there should be many different plants still producing.

On Monday maintenance began on the gas pipe attached to the Grace Street Bridge. The pipe is being recoated and some of the bolts holding it to the brackets are being replaced.

 What you can see from the road holds a platform below on which the workers can stand.