Revisiting SJC

Signs of spring keep appearing. Turkey vultures are back. The thermometer hit 60 degrees on Thursday. Sap is rising in the maple trees. A few days ago multiple flocks of sandhill cranes flew high overhead. Some heavy rains passed through the area on Thursday and we had high winds.

And today we had snow falling.

On Thursday evening JCEDO sponsored a workshop called "Supporting Small Businesses in Rensselaer." From the title I was not sure if my attendance would be appropriate (I do have some small businesses, but they are hobby-businesses, not real businesses; this blog is an example), but when I mentioned my concern to JCEDO Director Stephen Eastridge, he said that I should attend.

The meeting was in Room 108 of the Core Building, which was a computer lab when I taught at SJC but was remodeled either shortly before I retired or shortly after.

The workshop was not a how-to-do discussion but rather focused on the overall environment for business in Rensselaer. The discussion facilitator did, however, have one tip for business owners. She noted that in preparing to come to Rensselaer, she pulled up Google Maps to look for a coffee shop. She found the Little Coffee Shop on 231 and noted that the owners had claimed the profile and filled it out. She said that was something every business owner should do. It is free and it is often the introduction people have to a business.

The people attending were then divided into two groups and asked to list strengths and weakness that Rensselaer had for small business or businesses in general. Among the strengths that people mentioned were location near I-65 and transportation links, being the county seat, the hospital, media (local radio and newspaper), nearness to Fair Oaks Farms, reasonable cost of living, utility infrastructure, Internet access (though lacking in some rural areas), and the library. Among the weaknesses listed were limited shopping, limited early child care, sketchy public transportation, the current state of Saint Joseph's College, and poor aesthetics downtown.

The discussion then turned to actions that could be taken to improve things. Suggestions were listed and then people were allowed to vote on those they thought were best, with each person getting three votes. The results are shown below.

The event was interesting but it remains to be seen if anything will come of it.

I did pick up some good news and bad news that residents of Rensselaer should find interesting. First the good news. For much of April, May, and June the daily parade of garbage trucks going through Rensselaer will cease.

Now for the bad news. The reason that the garbage trucks will not be coming through Rensselaer is that INDOT will be replacing the bridge or culvert over the Yeoman ditch that is just to the east of Kentucky Fried Chicken (or to the West of Dairy Queen). That means that to get the interstate from Rensselaer you will go on 114 to CR 850 W (next to Memory Gardens), go south a mile, then west on CR 600 S to CR 1000 W, then north to SR 114, and then east back to the Interstate. That will inconvenience a lot of people.

Trying to check this out, I found a map of the upcoming road projects for INDOT. You can see the dot on the map for this bridge project, but it is not in the right place. Searching for the project number leads to the identification of the bridge as "Bridge over Sayler Ditch, 0.41 mi. E of I-65" and a bit further search leads to this report on the bridge.

Taste is returning

Monday's City Council meeting had a large crowd. Included were Boy Scouts from Brook. I am not sure why they attended.

There were several Citizen's Comments before the Council got to its main agenda. Barb Lucas representing the Prairie Arts Council requested and received permission to use Potawotamie Park for the Sixth Annual Rock the Arts Festival. It will be earlier this year, on June 22. Brienne Hooker of the Jasper-Newton Foundation highlighted some of the projects that the Foundation has supported. Team Mission Jasper County helps a lot of people during a week in the summer and the Foundation has given them money for construction materials. Community Services has joined with Phil's Friends to make blankets for local cancer patients. An elementary school PE teacher has designed a Run for Fun program that has raised about $5000 for the local food pantry. The Lilly Foundation is matching gifts to the Foundation's Community Funds on a 2 for 1 basis during this and next year.

The Safe Kids Halloween program that sponsors the Trunk or Treat Program is joining with Fenwick Brewery to revive the Taste of Rensselaer event. The parties involved requested use of the City parking lot south of Fenwick's and also part of Front Street for the event and it was approved. Taste of Rensselaer will happen on June 8.

The first item on the main agenda was the gas tracker. It will be a five cent decrease per hundred cubic feet for the March billings. The Council retroactively approved a USDA budget submission that has to be done every year. (I did not understand what this one was about.) Action on a City Hall recording system was tabled to the next meeting. The Gas Department submitted two quotes for a new welding truck and one, from Gutwein Motors, was approved. About 80 trees, mostly ash trees, need to be removed from City right-of-ways and approval was granted for getting quotes for removing them. A request for money from the public relations account to be used to help fund the purchase of flags that will displayed along US231 from the Bowling Alley to Vine Street was approved. The flags will be displayed on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Veteran's Day, and Memorial Day.

The mayor reported that he has had calls about utilities using the City's right-of-way. He and Mr Miller explained that Federal and State agencies want to encourage broadband in rural communities and the State has decided a way to do that is to limit what local governments can do on the matter. A committee reported that moving the Clerk-Treasurer's office to the old police station could be done for about $8000. The Council approved their proceeding to obtain  quotes for the work needed (painting and removing a non-load-bearing wall).

Support for the dispatch software that the Police Department uses will be discontinued in a year or two and the Police Department will find out how the County plans to adjust. The Department has completed interviews for a dispatcher to fill a vacancy and will make an offer this week. It is in the process of filling an opening for a patrolman and there is the possibility that another patrolman will leave. If he does, they may fill both positions from the one pool.

The Council approved buying new shades to replace those in the utility office. Some of the blinds are broken and cannot be repaired. Kenny Haun reported that the Fire Department had received its new command truck and it is in operation. In his role as building commissioner he said that there were a couple of neglected or unsafe structures that he is working on getting torn down. The process to do so it long and involved. There is an unsafe building committee that has not met for some time and it is unclear if the people on it still want to serve.

Well #8 has reached substantial completion (which means that it is in operation). There is still some grass to be planted and final completion is scheduled for March 17. With no further business or announcements, the meeting adjourned.

Beavers have been active downstream from Weston Cemetery. Below are a couple of pictures showing what they have been up to.

The weather has turned from bitterly cold to seasonal. The Great Lakes reached their maximum ice coverage on March 9 when they were 80.9% covered. Lakes Michigan and Ontario never had much ice but Superior and Huron were largely iced over. Now that the temperatures are a bit higher, the ice is rapidly receding because much of it was quite thin. It was a cold winter.

The Community Garden had its organizational meeting on Monday night. If you would like a plot, contact the Extension Office on North McKinley.

Correction: The event is Taste of Jasper County, not Taste of Rensselaer.

Meetings 3-3-19

The March meeting of the Jasper County Commissioners had lots of small items with no big item dominating the agenda. It began with three buried cable requests. The only one I found interesting was one about a company putting optic cable in Rensselaer. A tiny bit of the project involved County roadways east of the quarry. I think this is the same project that I mentioned here.

Wheatfield Township received a grant a while back of $500,000 to help build a fire station. They have put the project to bid twice, but apparently found those bids too high so they solicited a third round of bids. No one submitted any bids for this round.

The Solar Power ordinance sent to the Commissioners by the Plan Commission was approved with no changes. There followed a discussion of the remodeling of the former PNC Bank building. Preliminary quotes were high enough so that the project must be bid competitively and it will be bid as an "as-built" project, a way to give more flexibility in remodeling the building. Councilman Andrew Andree, who is an experienced contractor, is doing much of the organizational work on this project. Before he left, he gave the Commissioners a map of the Military Operations Area (MOA) of Grissom Air Force Base. Commissioner Culp will meet with Air Force officials soon to hear what they have to say. Apparently they will show him a map but he cannot take a picture of it.

Beth Warren had three quotes for a new plat cabinet. The Commissioners approved going forward with one of the quotes. Mr Wakefield of Community Corrections wanted approval for submitting a grant proposal, which was granted. The Commissioners approved a few minor changes to the County Code where items were out of date or no longer in compliance with state law. There was a short discussion of a restrictive covenant that is in the County's title to the Jasper County Youth Center. The County would like the restriction on possible uses for the facility removed and apparently SJC is willing to agree. A variety of training and travel requests were approved. The Commissioners approved an agreement with an engineering firm to prepare for rebuilding one bridge and repairing another in Wheatfield Township. Overall the County's 126 bridges are in good shape, with the County rated third best in the State.

Karen Wilson from Emergency Management reported on two grants that her department had received. One was for $100,000 for radio equipment. However, she did not follow correct procedure in making the grant and the Commissioners were unhappy about that.

There was time for some public comments and several were made about the wind ordinance. There was a sizable crowd at the meeting that attended just in case the topic of wind came up.

The public session was then closed and the Commissioners went to executive session.

I stopped by the Recorder's office to ask about what kind of historical records they had. I was shown a room lined with books recording title transfers. Opening one from the 1880s, I found everything was hand written and some of the ink had faded so much that pages were almost unreadable.

In the evening the Rensselaer Park Board and Corporation met and both had quorums. After hearing Rick Odle suggest that they pay to get a plan for which species of trees to plant at Staddon Field, they reappointed Corporation members Musch and Pickering. They had two responses for the open Corporation member and appointed one. They then reappointed the officers from last year and approved minutes for the November Board meeting and the January Corporation  meeting. Because the February meeting did not have a quorum, there were no minutes to report but the discussions about soccer and softball that took place in February were summarized.

They discussed the latest set of plans for Brookside Park, which include three regulation sized ball fields. The three fields will allow the facility to attract tournaments. How much gets built and when depends on finances.

Heather Hall reported on plans for summer programs. In addition to keeping all or most of the programs from last year, 2019 will have a garden club for kids, a series of programs on birds and butterflies, health and fitness programs, a 70th birthday bash for the pool, and a summer solstice overnight camp-out. Something that may happen is cup-in-hand kickball, which is for adults. Players must hold a cup of beer at all times, which makes catching the ball a challenge. If you want to know more, search youtube for "cup in hand kickball".

In other news, CDC Resources, which has offices in Rensselaer and Monticello, has a new executive director. The Monticello paper wrote about her last week. See here.

The recent cold weather has frozen some slow-moving sections of the Iroquois River.

An unusual tour

Update: I was asked by a person who manages this facility to remove the pictures of the interior because they might give information to potential or current competitors.

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail inviting me to tour the almost completed phase one of the Premier Biosource facility north of Rensselaer. After watching this project proceed through regulatory hearings and going to the groundbreaking ceremonies, I was eager to go.

The facility will raise hogs for biomedical research. (For background, follow the two links in the above paragraph and this one.) The part of the facility that has been completed is phase one of four. Construction of phase two will begin in the next two months. When completely built out, the farm will have about 5000 hogs but this building is only designed for a couple hundred, and I believe that it will need the space in phase two to complete the raising of pigs.

  The tours were scheduled on Monday from noon until 3:00 and I arrived about 1:30. I found the door locked and I had no idea how to get in. Fortunately, someone was leaving soon after I arrived and escorted me into the building and took me to a farrowing room where I joined the in-progress tour.

 The first piglets are scheduled to arrive on April 10. They will be surgically delivered and brought to the room above, where they will be placed in the plastic tubs and hand fed. That may seem a strange way to begin, but the goal is to establish a completely disease-free population. When these first pigs reach breeding age and give birth, they will nurse their young.

We continued down the hall, past a room on the north that will serve as a lab for testing and whatever else needs to be done and then into a group of rooms through which feed and other supplies enter. Items come into a first room where they can be fumigated. They are then moved to a second room where additional decontamination can be done. Feed enters the facility here and is transported to the pigs by means of pipes using augers.

 Initially the feed will be purchased from specialty suppliers. Ultimately the farm will build its own feed mill. Someone on the tour asked if they would purchase locally and was told that they would buy corn and other grains from local farmers, but only from those who did not raise hogs. They want no contamination from any other hog operation.

The control for the door to the fumigation room is similar to the control on the door to the facility. It is operated by a card swipe. Only those with a card can open doors and the control system records who opened doors and when.

 We proceeded down the hall to the gestation rooms at the far west of the building. This hallway runs east-west for the entire length of the building. The pipes are left exposed so that if there is any problem with them, they will be easily accessible for repair. Under the hallway is an empty space through which air circulates back to the air handler.

 There are two gestation rooms. One is for regular hogs. Some medical research is done with the same hogs that are raised for meat and some uses a special breed of dwarf swine called Yucatan pigs. There are strange looking containers that are part of the feeding system. The feed arrives via the pipe with an auger running through it and these containers measure out a set amount of feed. When they are all filled, a flip of a switch will empty all of them into the feeding troughs for the pigs. This room will hold 100 pigs.

 There are slots in the floor that allow pig manure to drop down and be collected. It also allows air to circulate. Fresh air enters from above and old air goes though the floor and returns to the air handler via the air passage under the hallway.

 Across the hall is the gestation room for the Yucatan pigs.

 We then went back down the hall with a quick stop at the second farrowing room, this one on the north side of the hallway.

 We continued to the east end of the hallway and at this point the three people who were on the tour when I arrived left. One of them was a woman who had been busy taking notes. She writes for a national hog magazine. I had asked her if this hog barn was like a normal hog barn and she said that it was completely different. I will be looking for whatever she writes and if I can find it, I will post a link. I am sure she noticed a lot of things that I missed.

The tour continued with three people who had joined the tour after me. At the north side of the east end of the hallway was a storage room and the utility room. The utility room was dominated by a huge air handler. Air from the outside travels along the top going through two filters, the second a HEPA filter,  and a heat exchanger. Air from the facility flows along the bottom, also going through a filter and the heat exchange. In the summer the heat exchange will take heat from the incoming air and transfer it to the outgoing air. In the winter it will take heat from the outgoing air and transfer it to the incoming air.

The entire facility is air-tight and will be pressurized. When the outside door is open, one will feel a breeze flowing out. This is one of the many measures taken for biosecurity.

Several men were working on  pipes in the room connected to two boxes that provide the heat for the entire complex and also supply the hot water. I was amazed that such small units, combined about the size of my home furnace, could heat the entire complex.

Before the animals arrive, the entire building will be cleaned and disinfected. There was a lot of dust on the walls, probably from finishing some of the floors.

We ended the tour in the employee break room. One of the employee perks will be free meals. The provided meals are another measure to prevent contamination.

Leaving I went out the same way I came in but this time the passage out made more sense. Coming in I had to step over the edges of a shower room. I assume that each worker will have to shower and change clothes when they come to work.

Before I left I took a picture of the facility from the west side.

I will never again be allowed in the building.

(I saw a robin on Monday, the first one this year.)

Annual Regional High School Art Show 2019 edition

The Annual Regional High School Art Show is on display at the Fendig Gallery. I thought the fish sculpture below was interesting.

I was impressed with the detail in this drawing.

I have a soft spot for tessellations.

The teacher for this art class was appropriately name Weaver.

The show will conclude on March 10 with an awards ceremony. The Fendig Gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon until 4:00.

I found this map while looking for something else. I think it is for 1909. It lacks the eastern and northern parts of Rensselaer. Many street names have changed since 1909.

Autumn Trace posted an update of construction on its Facebook page. See here.