Mural week is here

Murals

Mural week has begun. One of the new murals will replace the bird on the back of Embers.

Mid-day the bird was still visible.

By the evening the bird was gone.

The flamingos on the back of the Republican building have been covered over but not new mural has started.

The back of the Horton.Yallaly building had a sketch early on Monday.

In early afternoon the new mural had a promising beginning.

But in the evening it appeared that some patching to the wall had been necessary.

The octopus on the side of Anders Water will be replaced with a dog.

It will be a very colorful dog.

The back of City has been changing colors.

Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission meeting

The Rensselaer Advisory Plan Commission met Monday evening at 6:00 to have a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan and to vote to recommend passage by the City Council. At the public hearing the project manager for the plan said that it was funded by an OCRA (Office of Community and Rural Affairs) grant of $50,000 with a City match of $5560 and the grant had been managed by KIRPC. No members of the public spoke. The meeting lasted about ten minutes.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The Rensselaer City Council met on Monday evening at 6:30. Its first order of business was to swear in Kevin Armold who is replacing Bill Hollerman, who resigned as of July 1. In Citizens' Comments a gentleman with concerns about swimming pools made a return visit to point out that many existing pools did not abide by regulations. 

The first numbered item on the agenda was the swearing in of two members of the Redevelopment Authority, Avery Douglas and Loren Berenda. The Council then passed the Comprehensive Plan approved at the earlier meeting of the Plan Commission. 

Next on the agenda were five items of tax abatement. Apparently the Council had not done all the steps correctly in passing them earlier, so at this meeting it began the process again. At this meeting they passed declaratory resolutions and at future meetings will have public hearings and pass final resolutions. 

The Council passed an ordinance to establish a fund for a community development block grant and it ratified a telephone poll that approved paying its grant matching share for the OCRA grant that funded the comprehensive plan. The Council approved two Council appointments to the Rensselaer Redevelopment Commission, Jeff Webb and Kevin Smith. The Council approved $9150 to remove 15 trees along the bank of the River in Pottawatomie Park. The stumps will be left in place to make IDEM happy. 

The Council had no problem with some redoing of the mural on the retaining wall along the River; no funds were requested. The Mayor said preliminary work on the budget had begun and there will be a 3% increase (in wages and salaries, I believe). Work on lead line replacement has begun. All the streets that were being redone with the Community Crossings grant money have been finished except part of Weston, which will be finished when utility work is completed.

Jasper County Plan Commission meeting

After the meeting I went to the CourtHouse to hear the end of the Jasper County Plan Commission meeting. I missed the discussion of the first item on the agenda, which was a rezone from A1 to A2 to allow for a subdivision along McCoysburg Road. I asked about the item earlier in the day and found it was not the usual two-lot subdivision but had more parcels. The owner only wants to develop one or two, but thought that if he was going to go through the process, he might as well do more in case he wants to develop more in the future. I arrived just as the discussion of the second item, a rezone from A1 to A3 to allow for a fertilizer plant, was finishing. This plant will use the cow manure from Windy Ridge Dairy, which is along the Interstate, and one other dairy. The location will be very near the SR 14 and I-65 intersection. The rezone was approved contingent on drainage board approval of the plans.

The next item was an amendment to solve a problem. People can build residences in highway commercial and general commercial zones if they get a variance. However, if their house is destroyed, they would need another variance to rebuild. This need for a second variance bothers mortgage companies, who will not loan money for purchasing existing houses in these zones. The amendment will allow for homes to be rebuilt without a second variance. A member of the public who was being affected by this problem brought this to the Commission.

The Commission then approved an update to its flood hazard ordinance bringing it in line with the revised State model ordinance. The next meeting will be August 21.

Notes

EDP Renewables had a booth at the Fair. They are the company that wants to build a wind farm in Carpenter Township. I think they are responsible for the turbines that you see along US 24 as you travel east. 

Paving on College Avenue was completed on Saturday.

High school seniors are painting their parking spots at the high school. When I stopped by on Sunday there were several students busy painting but only two or three of the spaces had been finished.

County fair

Fair week

This is County Fair week and lots of activities are paused to focus on the fair. In the 4H hall the dioramas were perhaps the most popular exhibit.

Bob's Bumpy Barrels were popular during the first days of the fair but disappeared late in the week.

During the day people could watch a wood carver make things with a chainsaw.

The area in front of the fair office was nicely decorated with flowers. There is a tremendous amount of work involved in putting on the fair, something that people who have never been involved in organizing an event might not appreciate.

The south end of the fairgrounds is where the horse people hang out. It is a bit of a world unto itself.

The sheep look like they are ready for a fashion show.

Perhaps the oddest booth in the Commercial Building was a toilet-paper toss.

I always like seeing the tractors. Two of my uncles and a grandfather were in the farm implement business and sold John Deere equipment. Perhaps they even sold tractors as old as this one, which is a 1931 model. (I did not inherit their mechanical abilities.)

There seem to be more food vendors than usual at the fair this year.

Notes

The exterior of the new EMS building is almost finished.

Paving of College Avenue is underway.

The path along Lincoln Street now is finished at the entrance to the lift station and the rest has been seal-coated.

I meant to attend the ribbon cutting for the Dave Day basketball and tennis courts on Monday but was distracted and forgot. The Rensselaer Republican has pictures and a story. I will try to remember the ribbon cutting for the Rensselaer Schools first electric bus on August 7 at 2:00.

I had heard rumors that Dollar Tree was planning a move to the former Walgreen store. This week's Rensselaer Republican says that the rumor is true.

The crop dusters are flying in and out of the airport, but there seems to be less activity this year than in past years. Helicopter rides have replaced the biplane rides from the past few years.

I spoke too soon about Japanese beetles. They are back, but do not seem to be as bad as some previous years.

The rains in the past few weeks have greened lawns and made grass grow on the ground disturbed by the construction of the new lift station.

Meetings before the fair

 Joint Commissioners-Council meeting

The Commissioners and Council held a joint meeting on July 11 at 5:00. They briefly discussed  County health insurance; the County switched providers this year. They then noted that EMS would require more dollars in the future and suggested a few ways that those dollars might be found.

Construction work is continuing on a new EMS building across the highway from the Fairgrounds entrance. Here is a picture from Tuesday.

The last item on the agenda was a discussion of a grant writer. There is the impression that the County could obtain more grant money if there was a person tasked with finding grant opportunities and writing grants. At Tuesday's discussion the sentiment was to hire an individual rather than contract with a company. 

In the other-business part of the meeting, a suggestion was made to construct a pole-barn type building behind Community Corrections that could be used for storage for the maintenance staff, space for the County Coroner to use, and space for training for Community Corrections. All three have been requesting additional space. The building might be funded by ARPA money. (Some of the remaining ARPA money will be used for sidewalks on two sides of the Courthouse and some to get City utilities to the west side of the Interstate.) The Health Department is willing to pay for an expansion of this parking lot at the Sparling Annex. 

The new horse barn will be ready for Fair use. Below is a picture from Tuesday.

The meeting ended at about 6:00. Unfortunately the County Council meeting did not start until 7:00 so there was a long wait. During that wait the Airport Authority Commission had its meeting at the Airport. I am not sure what it did, but before the meeting there was an executive session to discuss personnel. They may have hired an assistant manager.

County Council meeting

The County Council meeting approved a list of additional appropriations. Several were to allow the Sheriff to purchase an X-ray machine to examine incoming prisoners to detect any illegal drugs they might try to smuggle into the jail. The Council members have been given budget books so they can prepare for their August budget hearings, the big event for the Council.

Special Park Board meeting

The Rensselaer Park Board did not have a meeting scheduled for July. However, an issue came up that needed immediate attention so a special meeting was called for the 12th. That issue was where to place a mural in the parks. The Board approved $2500, which matches the amount approved by Jasper County Tourism, for Rein Bontreger to put a mural on the bath house at the LaRue Pool during Art Week. 

New mulch has been delivered to the playground at Brookside Park and was being spread this week. The Blacker Field Tournaments went well this year and none were rained out. Filson Park improvements are on hold pending more detailed engineering drawings that have to be submitted to the State. Those improvements need a conditional use variance from the City BZA that will not be on the agenda until an August meeting. Sports equipment has been delivered to Brookside Park and can be checked out when the Pool is open. On Monday at noon there will be a dedication ceremony for the Day courts, tennis and basketball. There will be a dedication for the Blacker Fields in August but no date has been set. The next Park Board meeting is scheduled for August 6.

I learned at the meeting that there are six murals scheduled for Rensselaer and four for Wheatfield this year.

The Rensselaer Plan Commission and BZA met Thursday evening but I did not attend because I took family members to the Children's Summer Theater performance. On the agenda at the Plan Commission meeting was a recommendation to the City Council to approve the new Comprehensive Plan, a revision of the ordinance on swimming pools, a revision to the zoning ordinance that will allow some residential uses in business districts, and a re-plat application. On the agenda for the BZA was a resolution to adopt a filing deadline for conditional use and variances of uses petitions, and a conditional use application to allow the sale of portable buildings on a property on North McKinley. 

Notes 

I noticed activity in the former Walgreens building on Friday.

The new sidewalks along College Avenue were almost finished on Friday.

Most or all of the meetings that would normally be scheduled for next week were moved because of the County Fair.

Cars show, ribbon cutting, and meetings

 JC Cruisers 28th Annual Car Show

The 28th annual KC Cruisers Car Show took place on Saturday and as always there was a large collection of strange and unusual vehicles.

I do not know what this vehicle was. It looks like it was pieced together from a variety of other cars.

I asked how old this well-maintained vehicle was and was told it was a 1930 model.

There were a number of low-rider vehicles, but none outdid this one that looked like its body was sitting on the ground. I was told it would raise when driven.

Not a lot of the vehicles on display are older than I am, but this one was.

Some cars on the north end of the show.

I do not know what this was, but it looks expensive.

The oldest vehicle there was a 1908 Buick.

It drives at about 25-30 miles an hour but the owner said it has reached 40 mph. The headlights are carbide lights, the kind of lights once popular with miners and cavers. It travels in its own special trailer.

A Rensselaer native had an important role in promoting the Buick brand in the 1940s. His story is recounted here.

Ribbon cutting Sorrel & Rye Mercantile

Sorrel & Rye Mercantile had its ribbon cutting on Friday. It occupies the building that was The Briar Patch and before that an office supply store. 

The store offers women's clothing, antiques, and home decorations.

Notes

The County Clerk recently published the ballot for November's municipal elections. Most races are uncontested. The results of the primary told us that the Mayor's race and Councilman for fourth district would be contested, but now there is another. Jeff Rayburn will run as an independent against Zyan Miller who beat George Cover in the Republican primary.

Titan continues work on the power plant. Last week as I went by, a cement truck was leaving but the vehicle that pumps the concrete to the far interior of the building was still on site.

Several weeks ago a robin built a nest on the outside window sill of our kitchen window. I would have loved to have gotten a lot of pictures but the camera would focus on the window screen and would not show what was in the nest. Last week the chicks finally left the nest and flew away. I find myself expecting the birds to still be there.

The sign indicates that Not Your Typical Wingz will soon be locating in the south part of the building that houses Mount Hood Pizza. The previous occupant was a hairdresser. This is the space that Ayda's began as a Mexican grocery before it quickly shifted to becoming a restaurant.

The Farmers Market now has an assortment of garden produce and the Tuesday night markets are starting.

The horse barn got its certificate after the July Commissioners meeting and construction has resumed. It may be ready for the Fair.

The Fendig Theater performances begin Thursday.

Tourism Commission meeting

The July Tourism commission meeting began with and was mostly filled with a presentation and discussion of Yodel, a web-based approach to encourage community participation in the events of the community. The company (website here) has its headquarters in Columbus Ohio and most of the cities and counties it serves are in Ohio, but it is expanding into Indiana and currently has three Indiana clients. It presents itself as a centralized hub for locating what is going on locally. It has a calendar of local events which it gets from member organizations or from scraping the calendars of local organizations. Currently it is web only but the company is working on an app for smartphones. The cost to the community to set up the system is $4300 with a monthly service fee for a county the size of Jasper County of $330. There is no cost to the organizations that use it or to individuals using the website. You can learn more by browsing the Yodel website.

Success of Yodel depends on the number of organizations and individuals that use it and it has to be promoted to gather those organizations and users. The Tourism Commission is not willing to gather participants but the Jasper-Newton Foundation is. There was concern that this would not readily lend itself to increasing tourism, but it could be valuable for community development. There is another vendor, WhatsUp24/7, with a calendar solution but those who have looked at it and Yodel thought that Yodel had better features and was cheaper. WhatsUp24/7 is used by a couple of neighboring counties.

No decision was made at this meeting and Yodel will give the members of the Commission more information.

At the last meeting the Commission agreed to spend $5000 to EyeDart Marketing for the development of a website. At this meeting they agreed to allow the Director of Tourism to spend an additional $5000 for other marketing services that EyeDart offers.

There were no funding requests. The next meeting is scheduled for August 8 at 10 am at the Sparling Annex.

Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting

The July meeting of the Rensselaer Board of Public Works lasted about ten minutes and in those few minutes the Board approved for the Water Utility Improvement Project:

Grimmer Change Order #1 that adds 128 days to the project because Grimmer cannot readily get brass fittings,

Maguire Iron Change Order #2 which saves $7000 because it eliminates the need for a trailer,

Maguire Iron Pay Application #2 for $974,409.12, and 

three Commonwealth Engineering invoices totally $37,727;

and for the Main Lift Station & Unsewered Areas Project:

Thieneman Change Order #6, $23,679.84 for a variety of things,

Thieneman Pay Request #14 for $327,441,03, and

Commonwealth invoices for $8926.31.

The Board also approved paying an invoice of $13,200.09 from Commonwealth  for work on planning removal of phosphorus from wastewater. Finally the Board heard that there is an IDEM mandate about removing phosphorus and the estimated cost will be about $1.3 million. The City has some funds left from the sewer project, but will need close to $800,000 more. The City will explore ways to get these funds.

Rensselaer City Council meeting

The first July Council meeting began with approval of a 79¢ increase per hundred cubic feet in the gas tracker. Before the meeting I was told that the large increase was because the City did not use the amount of gas for which it had contracted, but that this increase would be offset in future months when it uses more than the amount for which it agreed to purchase.

 

The Mayor presented a key to the City to Bill Hollerman in recognition of his 23½ years of service. Expect pictures in a future Rensselaer Republican. His seat will be filled this week by a Republican caucus. Next the Council approved spending $1624 for a protective coat on murals that will be on two walls behind City Hall.

There was a brief discussion of GIS. The County is moving to a new system because their current system will no longer be supported. The City uses a system called WTH and there is no desire to abandon it. 

The Council approved limiting access to 150 feet of the northeast section of the alley next to Unique Finds. Delivery trucks will have to back out of the alley on the other end.

Cruise Night was busier this year than in the past few years. The burn ban was lifted at the beginning of the month. The Fire Department has responded to 62 more calls this year than last year at the same date.

There will be a special Park Board meeting on Wednesday at 6:00 pm and Rensselaer Plan Commission and BZA meetings starting at 6:00 on Thursday evening. The Park Board meeting will be in Iroquois Park and the other two in City Hall.

Rain!!!!

 Rain!!!

We finally got much needed rain. 

On Thursday the radar showed an impressive band of rain coming across Illinois. It had a front of very heavy rain with a large area of moderate rain behind it. In the afternoon the dark clouds arrived. But the rain dissipated as it reached us and what had looked so promising gave us about a tenth of an inch of rain.

On Friday there was thunder in the afternoon and we got a few drops of rain. The thunder made the guards get everyone out of the pool, but then the thunder passed. By 3:45 when I went to the 15 minute adult swim, the pool was empty. Unfortunately ten minutes later there was more thunder so again the guards ordered the pool to be cleared. We got a few sprinkles as the main rain passed to our south.

Finally on Saturday morning a line of heavy rain hit Rensselaer, dropping more than a half an inch of rain. The rain delayed the start of the baseball games in Brookside Park, but they did get a nice afternoon for games. The games also had good weather Sunday morning and early afternoon. However, at about two o'clock a narrow band of showers began to train over Rensselaer and stopped the games. We got about another half and inch.

All that rain raised the Iroquois River by a whopping 3 inches. The ground was dry so there was little runoff. Now grass will start growing again and people will have to mow. This year the corn is only knee-high by the Fourth of July, and it was the knee of a person standing in the field, not of a person on horseback.

I have seen a few dead Japanese beetles in the water at the LaRue Pool, but they are not infesting my bushes and plants like they do on most years. Are they delayed this year or did the dry weather kill most of them?

Notes

I was sad to see that the wonderful mural on the back of the Horton/Yallaly  building has been scraped, apparently to make room for a new mural. This was one of the gems of the mural walk. I know that some of the paint was starting to flake off, but it still was one of the best murals we have or had.

I do not know if the I'm OK mural was also scraped or if the damage is natural deterioration. It is not one of the better murals that we have.

Big patches of paint on the mural in the alley next to Unique Finds are coming off. I never understood why one would want a mural on a road.

I was surprised to see a new building on the former site of the Indiana Department of Transportation on Oak Street. The site was sold by INDOT in October and the building is listed for lease.

Also in that neighborhood, a wall of concrete blocks is going up around a big lot on Walnut Street. The property will be used for vehicle storage by D1. The property was approved for this use in a Rensselaer BZA meeting in February and the wall was part of the conditions for the use.

Steve Tuohy celebrated his first anniversary as the owner of the local radio station. Congratulations.

CSX has been working on rail crossing. On Friday they had finished the Jefferson Street crossing 

but the Matheson Street crossing was torn up and the road impassable.

On Monday they were working on the Cullen Street crossing.

The fence for the Hyper Center looks finished.

The statistics that blogger keeps say that the number of views of this blog was the second highest ever in June. The only month that surpassed it was December of 2017. I am not sure what happened that month because I had no posts that had huge numbers of viewers. There was a train derailment that month and I was out of town when it happened so I only reported about it days later. Perhaps people were checking the blog to see if I had written anything about it?

I mentioned that my post on the Forsythe house was number 12 in all-time views. The post that is 11 is Horse Nettle, a very short post about a weed. I do not know why it got so many views but there was a large spike in views in 2022.

Commissioners meeting

The July meeting of the County Commissioners had a short agenda but most of the discussion was about things not on the agenda. After a couple of buried cable permits were approved, the Commissioners heard a request to sign a service agreement with Schneider to assess the Counties GIS system. The software used now is obsolete and will soon lack support and the data in the GIS system is used by other County systems. Data in the system will need to be converted to new software. The Commissioners approved the agreement but the Council will need to appropriate the money, probably in August.

The lady from Lakeside who last month complained about lack of County inspections of her home was back and said that even though she had been promised a visit, no one came. At the end of the meeting a fellow resident of Lakeside supported her complaint. Apparently her manufactured home was set too low. She has been promised another visit with the warning that she may not like the final results. 

There was a short discussion on the need for a grant writer. The Commissioners agreed that it would be better to hire a firm than an individual and will check with KIRPC to see what they recommend.

There was a short discussion of how the H.R. office should be located in the Courthouse and the Commissioners will meet with the H. R. officer next week to see what can be done. 

The Health Department wants to hire two part-time employees, one for emergency preparedness and the other for communicable diseases, and both can be paid from grant monies. The Commissioners approved. Later there was a discussion of how the Health Department might be rearranged to give these new people office space.

The Commissioners heard a presentation on the renewal quotes for County insurance. They reviewed a large packet. County property that is insured is valued at $66 million. The total insurance bill will increase by about 5%.

Construction of a new horse barn at the fairgrounds is being held up because it needs a permit from the Department of Homeland Security. It is required because the building will be open to the public. It is very unlikely that the building will be finished by Fair time.

In public comments a woman from the southern part of the County spoke about a proposed gun and noise ordinance. She has neighbors who have improvised shooting ranges on their properties and she was concerned not just about the possibility of stray bullets but  also the noise, especially when it continues throughout the night.

 A man from the northern part of the County wondered if he could get the County to install a "Slow Children at Play" sign. He was told that signs of this sort of signage for a specific residence was discouraged but that he could put up a sign on his own property.

The meeting was continued until July 11 at 4:45 if necessary.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board meeting on Monday afternoon had nothing of great public interest but still lasted almost an hour. A resident of or near Parr had a neighbor who was resisting having a mutual drain repaired. The Board attorney will write the neighbor a letter telling him that legally he has to allow the drain to be fixed.

At the last meeting there was a discussion about a ditch by the Pleasant Ridge subdivision that was overgrown but one resident objected when the farmer on the other side tried to mow it. The solution at this meeting was to have the farmer act as a contractor doing work for the Surveyor's office. A long discussion followed about the need for insurance. A date was set for a public hearing for the abandonment of a tile. It will be September 5 at 8:15 am. A petition to reconstruct a tile was referred back to the Surveyor so he could prepare a report. The Board decided to ordinarily have the Drainage Board meetings immediately after the Commissioners meetings. If there is a public hearing, it will be scheduled at 8:15 because public hearings need to be advertised with a specific time. Finally there was a discussion about whether lines over ditches for the NextEra solar project had been approved or not and other NextEra issues.

I hope you have an enjoyable Fourth.