Planning for the future at the City Council meeting, 3-28-2016

The City Council meeting Monday evening was unusually long (75 minutes) and almost entirely focused on the future.

The first big item on the agenda was a public hearing was the OCRA Water Project. The city will be filing for an OCRA (Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs) grant for $550,000 to finance connecting the new water well to the city water system. KIRPC will be helping with the grant and a person from that agency spoke for a minute or two. The main presentation was from a representative of Commonwealth Engineers. He said the plan was for a 12 inch water line going along Sparling to Milroy, Milroy to College, and then along College to to the water treatment plant. The total cost of the project is estimated at $1,115,000 and over $900,000 would be for the water main. The water quality from the new well tests as good with low sulphur. In answer to questions, the Mayor said that the City would go ahead with the project even if the grant is not funded because the City will need it in five to seven years. The last two times the City applied for OCRA grants they were rejected because the City did not meet the low-income requirements but this time it is using Census data that does meet the requirements. There was a question about replacing the walkway along Sparling with something that people would actually use and this may happen if there is enough money.

The next big item on the agenda was a presentation from an advisor to the gas department from Utility Safety and Design Incorporated, a company that has been advising the gas utility for fifty years. At present all city gas comes to Rensselaer through a six inch main from the south, where it connects to a trunkline. There are some branches off that main as it comes to the city, and at McDonalds there is a regulator station that reduces the pressure. The trunk line heads to Pleasant Ridge from the City tap site on US 231 and the proposal the consultant suggests is to tap into the trunk line to the north and east of the present tap. It would result in a shorter feed and thus less pressure loss, and would also have the advantage of a duplicate feed should something disrupt the pipeline coming from  the south. It would tie into the city line somewhere around Saint Joseph's College.

At present when we have very cold winter weather and many homes are using furnaces, there is not enough pressure and volume for the city to generate electricity. Two winters ago the pipeline prohibited the city from generating, which it can do by the contract. The City generates when it is asked to do so by its electric power provider, IMPA. There are not yet cost estimates for this proposal and there is much uncertainty what the trunkline would charge for the tap. The advantages of the additional line would be better pressure, more volume, and a back up route in case anything happens to the one and only current route. The Council approved proceeding with the planning.

Next on the agenda was John Julien, the City's financial consultant with three presentations. First was his look at the gas pipeline proposal. Assuming a cost of about $2 million, he said that the city should borrow and the financing costs would be about $140,000 per year. To pay that, the cost of gas would rise by three cents per hundred cubic feet. That increase is not large compared to the month-to-month changes in the gas tracker.

His second presentation was about a study of trash fees. Currently the money from trash stickers does not fully cover the costs of trash pickup. Many communities are going in the direction of having the user fee cover all costs of trash pickup. The study would find what the fee would have to be to fully cover the costs of the service. Councilman Odle said that he had doubted the need for a study but in trying to find the numbers needed to learn the cost, he came to the conclusion that a study was needed. There was also mention of the possibility that the city could get out of the business and have a private company provide trash-pickup service and mention that the city trucks were getting old. The Council approved the study.

Julien's final report was short, noting that the city had authorized more borrowing than it needed for the water main to the Interstate and that that authority could be used for borrowing for the Sparling Well project. This summer the financing needs will be better known.

The next big item was what the Mayor termed the Brad and Kristen Show, a presentation of the proposal to develop the Monnett area land as the Jasper Foundation Park. Much of what they said was reported in an earlier post. Mrs Ziese said that in reaching out to potential donors, she found interest in funding soccer fields, benches, the concession stand, and the plaza. There will be a special Park Board meeting next Monday (April 4) at the Carnegie Center at 7:00 requesting public input about the plans. If you are interested in the Parks, be there.

And one final item about the future. Construction of the fire station is nearing completion and thoughts are being given to what should be done with the current fire station. The Police Department is interested in the space, primarily because they need to store the many abandoned and found items that they accumulate. The Chief of Police asked for $3500 to have Titan Builders provide a floor plan of how the space could be used by the Department. The request was granted.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

(Magnolia trees are blooming at Saint Joseph's College.)

Oddyssey at the Fendig

The annual exhibit SJC faculty and seniors show is now on display at the Fendig Gallery of the Carnegie Center. The exhibit this year is titled Oddyssey: New Work by Saint Joseph's College Senior Artists & Art Faculty.

 There are at least six students showing work. Each has a statement in the section that has their works that explains a bit about what they are trying to do in their pictures and sculptures. This student who did these is creating other worldly landscapes to encourage viewers to question the world around them.

 Another student wants people to better understand the world of those with depression.
The exhibit will run until April 8 with a closing reception scheduled for April 1 from 6:30 to 8:00. The Gallery is open from noon until 2:00 Monday thru Friday (and until 4:00 on Tuesdays).

It is a quiet week. The Rensselaer Republican had an article about the Newton County Government clearing the way for a hotel and a cheese factory at Fair Oaks Farms. I heard that recent high winds had knocked down the nest of one county's breeding eagles, something that happened two or three years ago to a different pair of breeding eagles.

Have a joyful Easter.

2016 Regional Middle Level Art Show

The last of the K-12 art shows is now on display in the lobby of the Core Building at St. Joseph's College. It will run until April 10.

Most of the items are class assignments, such as this one where the students were filling in the missing half of a picture from a magazine.

Or this one, an exercise in perspective.

This is an example of print making.

Here is a link to the post on last year's show.

Special Park Corporation meeting

On Friday the Rensselaer Park Corporation met in a special session to see and discuss a draft proposal for the Monnett School/Staddon Field property. The transfer of the School Board property (Staddon Field) has not yet been finalized, but is apparently close to being finished. However, assuming that the transfer is near, plans are being made for this area.

The draft presented by Brandon Schreeg, who works for a company that does this sort of planning as a business, would put nine different soccer fields into the area, with some of the fields usable in more than one way. The largest field would be a U-12 field in the northwest corner, where the Monnett School building formerly stood. It would have a north-south orientation, but the field could also be divided in two to provide two U-10 fields running east west. This area has a lot of rock and glass, debris from the demolition of the Monnett building. Two small U-4 fields were fit into the outfield of Staddon Field, which would remain a ball field and be improved. (U-12 stands for under twelve and the other U designations are understood in the same way. The designation has nothing to do with German submarines.) A couple U-6 fields would be to the west of the ball field and would require that the restrooms now there be relocated. A U-8 field would be to the  north of the ball field, on the east side of the property. Another small U-4 field would be just north of where the basketball court is now, and a final field that could serve as U-8, U-6, or U-4 would be on the northeast corner. It location assumes that the present Monnett building will be demolished, which may or may not happen. The city has the property listed for sale and apparently there is some interest.



Parking would be increased for the park primarily by increasing the width of Frances Street to allow angled parking on both sides and also increasing the width of the old parking area on the north of the lot to allow parking on both sides. The design has 182 total parking spaces.

The basketball court will be retained and expanded to two courts. The playground area near College Avenue will be kept and there is a space for a small splash park on the plan. If it is built, it would require nearby restroom (state regulations), and the restrooms and a gazebo-like shelter  would be built where the east end of Monnett School formerly stood. Extending from the shelter to the south is a mall/walkway lined with trees and benches with planters in the center. Around the whole property there would be a walkway/sidewalk about 1/3 mile in length. The park will be separated from the highway with fencing similar to that used in the downtown parking lots and the name of the park, Jasper Foundation Park, will be displayed there, perhaps over an entrance.

The members of the Park Corporation were enthusiastic about the plans and only nitpicked a little. Several members were not able to attend, and pdfs of the draft will be sent to them with requests for comments. The plan going forward is to present a revised plan at a public meeting (all board meetings are open to the public but usually there is only one member of the public attending them) at the Carnegie Center on April 4th at 7:00. If you are interested in learning more and perhaps making a donation for a paver, a bench, a soccer field, or something else, attend.

A few notes on other meetings this week: The Animal Control Shelter has expanded hours. They are open on weekdays until 5:00. Also the animal control ordinances are now on-line; see here. The Jasper County Historical Society is worried about the state of their log cabin at the fairgrounds. Some of the logs have considerable rot and should be replaced and the caulking between logs has gaps. Below is a recent acquisition, a Rensselaer marching band hat from 60 years ago.



 I attended the PTABOA (Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals) organizational meeting on Thursday morning. They had no appeals on the agenda but did pass a couple of exemptions for cemeteries. The procedure for an appeal, but way, begins with an request made to the assessor, Dawn Hoffman. If a mutually acceptable agreement cannot be reached, the property owner can take the matter to the PTABOA. Last year they heard 26 appeals requesting $7 million in reductions. They accepted $2.5. If the property owner is not yet satisfied, the next level of appeal is to the state. It sounds as if they may be hearing some interesting cases. I will try to get back to some future meetings.

There are about 21,500 parcels of property in the county. The website gateway.ifionline.org/report_builder/ allows one to find a large amount of data on local governments and government entities such as school districts. (Click on Report Builder.) Looking at property tax collections in Jasper County, I was surprised to see that the largest payers for 2014 were residential homeowners, paying a bit over $7 million. Next was personal property, which is actually business property, at a bit over $5 million; then agriculture, a bit over $4 million; commercial, almost $2 million; industrial, almost $1 million, and utilities, about $.5 million. The total collection was a bit shy of $28 million. Over half went to schools. The county got about 20% and cities/towns about 10%. (If you add up the amounts paid, the total does not equal the $28 million that is dispersed. I do not know why.)