A tale of two meetings (updated)

On Tuesday (7-12-2016) the Alcohol Review Board held its monthly meeting in the Council Room of Rensselaer's City Hall. (It meets pretty much every month on the second Tuesday at 10:00 am.) Only two members of the Board were present--apparently a couple of others were missing. There were three renewals with no issues and they were immediately approved. The renewal for Wagon Wheel had a violation--they had had a NASCAR race board, which involves some kind of gambling. They had been cited, paid a fine, and removed the item. Their renewal was approved. The last item on their agenda was a liquor license for Mount Hood Pizza and Grill. No one from Mount Hood was present so the item was continued to the next meeting.

In the evening the County Council met. The first item was an additional appropriation for highways. This was needed to provide the matching funds for state grants for improving county roads. This is the first year of the program and it may become a permanent program funded by the gas tax. The state has two pools of $50 million, one for large counties and the other for smaller counties with populations less than 50,000. There are 64 counties in the group including Jasper County and about 250 governmental units (counties, cities, and towns) that can apply for grants. Some units do not have the money needed for matching and others do not want to jump through the hoops needed to apply for the money. Jasper County has a lot of money for matching because we pay a very high local income tax and the state has for several years been putting some of it into a stabilization fund. This year much of that money was refunded to the counties, but unlike most refunds, it came with restrictions on how it could be spent.

It is estimated that only about 10% of governmental units from the small counties will make grant applications, so Jasper County officials have been aggressively working to get as much money as they can this year when the competition will probably be a lot less than in future years.

Judge Ahler attended but was not on the agenda. He gave the Council a heads up on his employment situation. His court recorder had resigned to become the clerk-treasurer of Remington, so his court had only two employees. He said that the three had been doing the work of four but with the loss of experience he will be seeking to an extra employee next year. He is advertising for a new court recorder but said that the skill set needed is not easy to find.

There were also an appropriation for overtime in the Sheriff's department and several transfers of funds.

Gerrit DeVries highlighted some of what he and two other commissioners had learned at a recent conference. He pulled slides from a presentation that is on the Internet here. The whole structure of local income taxes is being changed. Jasper County has both CAGIT and CEDIT levies but not COIT levies. The various buckets are being altered as this picture from the presentation shows.

The State of Indiana has not done much to explain how the changes to county officials. I suspect that this year there will be no changes in the county income tax because the Council will want to see what is going to happen in the transition. (If you want to learn more, click through the whole presentation linked above--it has over 100 slides.)

There was a short discussion of the problem of drug addiction, especially heroin, which is cheap and very addicting. Much of the county jail population is the result of addiction not evil, violent people. There is a cycle of people being arrested, cleaned up, released, and then drifting back to drug use, resulting in arrest again. There is no easy solution. There was also brief mention of a recent Department of Labor regulation regarding overtime that may affect the county.

On the wall outside the Commissioners room were notices that Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals was meting Thursday at 9:00 am and that the Commissions had continued their July 5 meeting to July 19 at 8:30 am. (I wonder if they will be discussing roads.)

Leaving the meeting, we saw a rainbow in the eastern sky.

More picturesque were the clouds in the western sky.

Update: The PTABOA meeting for Thursday morning was canceled. Whatever case they were hearing was settled.
Cullen Street has been re-opened. The paving is finished but center lines still must be painted.
The parking lot at the County Jail has been resealed and repainted.
The Bowling Alley has re-opened. Old owners, new managers.

City Council July 11, 2016

Despite a very short agenda and some aborted attempts to adjourn early, the City Council meeting on Monday night lasted over half and hour.

The first item, which was not on the agenda, was closing a block of Weston Street for the Chesek Circus, which was being held an hour later. On the agenda was an increase of $.05 for the July gas tracker and a transfer of funds that allows payment for bonds related to the Melville Street project. There were questions about why this transfer was needed because it should have been properly budgeted, and the answer was that for reasons not understood the budgeted amounts were incorrect but that the City's financial advisor was investigating. The final item on the agenda were a couple of Weston Cemetery deeds.

Councilman Barton raised a question that had been brought to him about the eligibility of the most recent appointment the Council made to the Rensselaer Central School Board. There was some discussion noting that the School Board has often ignored requirements in the past and did not care. Apparently there is a committee of some sort trying to figure out what the legal requirements are for the school board. Eventually the Council decided to let the School Board sort the matter out.

The City has received permission from building owners along Washington Street to take out trees that are dying. There was some discussion of the request of a resident for a refund on her sewer bill. The sewer line was damaged when the city installed a storm sewer and the resident had hired Roto Rooter twice to fix her sewer, not knowing that the city had damaged the pipe. The Council agreed to reimburse her.

In noting that Clark Street was being milled today and that segment of SR 114 was closed, it was also noted that moving SR 231 a bit east at the Mt Calvary intersection was a 2018 project.

One more picture. One of the pits on Lincoln is being prepared for some concrete.

A busy Saturday

Saturday was an unusually busy day and to make it more busy, we had guests. In the morning we watched cars arriving at the JC Cruiser car show in Brookside Park. Their Facebook page said that they had 137 entries.

I did not stay very long because I wanted to see the ribbon cutting at You'll Never Guess at 10:00 am. Below you see the "ink" of their printing process.

The big moment.

The offices have been much changed since a couple weeks ago when I visited. I did not stay around after because there was another ribbon cutting that morning, at the airport for the new fuel farm. The ribbon cutting was part of the annual fly in.

I got to the airport earlier than I expected so I walked around and talked to people. I met the new manager of the airport, who is currently living in Kansas and will assume duties on August 1.

 I was happy that I did not have to buy aviation fuel for my car.

There were a great many people at this ribbon cutting because there were a lot of people who at one stage or another contributed to the project. (You can get a bigger version of the picture by clicking on it but it is not a great photo. The center of the picture is in focus but the edges are not.) Among public officials who were there I recognized Mayor Wood from Rensselaer, Gerrit DeVries from the Jasper County Council, Doug Gutwein, our State Representative, and Todd Rokita, our Congressman.

Not everyone snipped at the same time.

The medical evacuation helicopter left not too long after 11:00. I think they had a call.

My guests wanted to pick blueberries, so after the pork chop dinner at the airport, we drove north and picked several gallons of blueberries. On the way back, I stopped at the new location of Sydney Jacobs Auto LLC. I discovered that the company has been selling cars for several years from the old Schumacher Building but the signage there suggested a different name. The owner of the company is a fan of old Chrysler and Dodge cars, so it is appropriate that he has relocated to part of the former Chrysler-Dodge dealer building.

In the afternoon my young guests wanted to swim, so we did that. There were a number of events in town that we missed, including the The Farmers Market and the High School Band yard sale and dinner fund raisers.

In the evening we missed Cruise Night because we attended the Fendig Theaters production of The Wizard of Oz. I was reluctant to put a picture on the blog--there were so many really good photos posted on Facebook.

The play ran three nights and every performance was oversold. Perhaps a fourth night will soon be added--for many years there were only two nights. The costumes and the set were spectacular. (I was especially impressed with the apple-tree costumes.) Every community has some things for which it can be proud and I think the excellence of the Children's Summer Theater is one of those things for which we can be proud. (Summer Swim team is another.)

There were too many events happening on one day.

Miscellany 7-8-2016

We have a big weekend, with lots of events on Saturday.

Meanwhile, paving work is finishing on US 231. On Thursday the crew was paving the approaches from city streets to the highway.

The west-facing facade of Halas Hall is now undergoing demolition and rebuilding. The east side is still not finished.

The building at Washington and Weston is now empty. Recently it was a tattoo studio. Before that it was Elks Investment and the Elks Investment sign is still in front. Many years ago it was Hickman Ice Cream store and someone on Facebook was looking for a picture of it when it was Hickmans. Do you have one? (The ice cream was excellent--I was sorry it only lasted a few summers.)

At the other end of the block sits a magnificent old house that has been vacant for years. I do not understand why someone keeps a property and does not use it. The annual property tax is almost $800.

Wagner Lumber has put up a sign. No mention of seeds.

On the corner of McKinley and Merrit there was until recently a small craft store. I did a post on it when it was Dees Custom Art. The sign in the window says, "2nd Home has moved to Jasper Junction. Look for the red booth!"

Just to the south of this in part of the old Chrysler-Dodge building, a company called Sydney Jacobs Auto LLC is setting up shop. I do not know anything about it but they are celebrating their opening on Saturday with free hot dogs starting at 11:30.

There are many pictures of the Thursday night's performance of The Wizard of Oz on Facebook.

Dollar Tree opened today (Friday) at 10:00 am.

Park Board meeting 7-5-2016

The Rensselaer Park Board and the Rensselaer Park Corporation met on Tuesday evening in the old Monnett building once known as Rensselaer Hall. (For an explanation of Board and Corporation, see here.) After some preliminaries, they discussed and approved a re-roofing of the gazebo in Hal Gray Park.

It was noted that former head of the Parks Department, Hal Gray, was celebrating his 90th birthday.

A discussion of soccer focused on the lack of response from the soccer people. They have not signed a lease for using the fields nor have they presented proof of liability insurance. The Park Board wanted to sponsor the soccer program but it is still being sponsored by Saint Joseph's College even though the college no longer provides facilities for them. The Board decided since the lease had not been signed, they could change it. If the soccer program wants to continue as a SJC program, the lease will be $1000 plus utilities rather than $1 plus utilities. The question was then how would it be enforced if the soccer program ignored the lease. That discussion was not conclusive but the Board was adamant that the program needed to show proof of liability insurance or else there would be no soccer this fall. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

The transfer of Staddon Field is still not complete. It just drags on and on and on and on and on and on. I am sure there is an interesting story here but I doubt if the many lawyers involved will ever share it. Because the property is not in park hands, fundraising for improvements has stopped. There was then a lengthy discussion of fundraising.

The Board continues to be frustrated by the lack of communication and cooperation with the Blacker Trust, which contains funds to improve the parks. Having watched this frustration for a couple years, I think the Park Board needs to realize that they are never going to see money from this trust and move on.

Glen Allee proposed that the Park Corporation hire a part-time program director who would be charged with developing programs that use the park. The pay for the person would be partly determined by how successful he or she was in developing programs. The members attending agreed to begin with an informal search for candidates for the position and if they cannot find anyone, the search would be publicized.

The Board approved purchase of a mule vehicle and some metal frames for picnic tables. The park currently transfers old wooden picnic tables for various events but they are heavy and subject to rot. Tables with metal frames would be lighter and less subject to rot.