Decorations

City crews were putting up Christmas street decorations this morning.

Not all the light poles got wreaths. Some got holiday banners.

About two weeks ago I drove to Logansport and noticed a couple towns along the way that already had their street decorations up. I think Remington was one of them.

A larger crew of city workers was busy for much of the day digging near the intersection of Madison and Clark. It looked like a water main problem, but it might have been something else.

While downtown I noticed that the corner office in the Horton Building was empty and for rent. Until recently it was a day care, A Home Away From Home. The space above Unique Finds (the Princess Store) is not longer for rent--Unique Finds is using the space for home decor items.

More meetings, more tidbits

The Rensselaer City Council met Monday night. After voting to transfer some funds, the Council heard a short presentation from two representatives from Commonwealth Engineering about the storm water treatment plant. They met with the mayor about early designs in early October. The final design should be complete at the end of January or the beginning of February and it will then be submitted to IDEM. By April contracts should be bid, with construction beginning in early summer of 2015 and completion early summer of 2016. There was a question on odors from the plant, and they should be minimal. The plan will only operate when there is extremely heavy rain, and any sewage should be quickly discharged and sent to the treatment plant. The remaining water will be storm runoff.

The supply committee recommended Ceres Solutions as the provider for gasoline and diesel fuel and CTS for tire repair. I do not think Ceres was the low bid, but it has been a long time supplier and it has been very reliable. The Council approved these recommendations.
The police chief reported for the committee appointed to investigate replacing a squad car. The recommendation was for a 4-wheel drive vehicle from Thomas Dodge for $23,217 with trade in. The Council approved.
The Council approved spending $350 from the public relations fund for a float for the Christmas parade. The Park Department had expressed interest in a new truck at a previous meeting, but there is no money in the budget for it so it will not be pursued at this time.
The mayor expressed concern about a bill in the state legislature that would change the rules for boundaries for electric utilities. He said it would hurt municipal utilities such as that of Rensselaer.
A motion was approved to allow a police escort for the Bomber football team on their trip to Indianapolis this week.
Utilities reported that electricity has been provided to the construction site of MacAllister Equipment, but sewage and gas hookups have not been completed. In reference to a gas hookup to Blockbuster, mention was made that the owner of Blockbuster wanted to add a Noble Roman's Pizza; apparently other Blockbuster stores have found sales increase with this addition. Thursday trash pickup this week will be moved to Wednesday and Friday pickup will be moved to Monday next week. There will be a wage hearing for the Gasper project, which will extend the road going toward Fountainstone Theater east and then loop it back to the main road. The wood chipper will be attacking the brush pile next week. Remington is planning on extensive annexations which will more than double the area of Remington. Remington has already extended its utilities to the intersection of I 65 and US 24. Finally, Parmele Farms plans to auction off some of its frontage on SR 114.

The meeting was over a bit after 6:30 and there was some time to wander the downtown before the meetings of the Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals started. The balloon in front of Landmark Realty is lit at night. Also lit was the inside of the old Hoover House building. The "For Sale" signs are gone, the windows are covered, and there was someone doing some sort of construction inside.

The Board of Zoning Appeals had one item on its agenda, an exception for a property in Barkley Township so that the owner can operate a small business of hydrographics. (Follow the link to find out what that is.) A member of the audience objected not specifically to this item, but rather to say that the rules for the Board are contradictory and that the Board does not follow the procedures that it is supposed to follow, especially those rules regarding findings of fact.. The Board, however, proceeded to act as it always does with the findings of fact. The exception was granted.

The Planning Commission approved a switch from A1 to A2 zoning for a lot in Jordan Township that will be split in two and made into a two lot subdivision. The land in question had never been farmed, and the farmer who owns the adjacent land supported the application.

Before the meeting one of the frequent attendees at these meetings told me that the South Shore Air Show will not be held at Fair Oaks Farms next year. Gary has reclaimed it. (Apparently the decision to move it out of Lake County got the people in Lake County motivated to do the things needed to keep it there.) Here is a link to an article in Times.

A lot of pictures

Last week I published a bunch of pictures of the IBEC plant but did not have a picture of the steam stack. Here it is.

The fermentation tanks are on the left, the control room and the equipment that grinds the corn is in the building to the right of the tanks, the building that dries the DRG is to the right of the stack. The elevator and bins to store corn, which were not shown in the original post, are behind the stack, and the room where DDG was piled is hidden behind the fermentation tanks.

More than a week ago I went to the reception for the new art exhibit. Not part of the exhibit but for sale were items that a local man makes from natural materials. I had not seen his dragonflies before.

Last week the Friends of the Library had their Fall Fest, with games and activities for all ages, but especially the kids. I think we bought the cake on the left in the silent auction.

The Families of the JCYC had an open house last week to celebrate their first year of operation. Elsa from Frozen. and many kids had their pictures taken with here. (I have never seen the movie, but my grandkids seem to have seen it several times because they can sing the songs that were in it.)

The Youth Center is collecting plastic bottle caps, the things that you are not supposed to put out in recycling. If they can collect 400 pounds (about a million caps?), they can get a bench made from recycled caps, though they have to pick it up in Evansville or some place in southern Indiana. If you want to help them, their collection box is in the entranceway to the center.

On Saturday I rode past Brookside Park and saw little kids playing soccer in front of a lot of parents. On Sunday afternoon others were out. The Park Board wants to convert this field into two ball diamonds and I have heard people suggest that as a result there will be more people using the park. The ball fields are used intensively for about six weeks and then they sit idle for the rest of the year. The soccer field is used throughout the spring, summer, and fall. If the parks convert this field to ball diamonds and do not replace the soccer field, I am pretty sure that usage of the parks will actually fall.

This past weekend was a busy day for sports in Rensselaer.  The boys soccer team won its sectional, a first for the program. Girls soccer fell a bit short and did not win their sectional. The football team defeated Central Catholic 9-0, the first conference defeat CC has suffered since they joined the league several years ago. (However, CC may get a chance to avenge the loss because barring an upset, the two teams will meet again in the tournament.) Finally, Rensselaer  hosted cross country sectionals on Saturday. The boys team finished sixth and will not advance, but the girls had five runners in the top ten to easily finish first. Only six of the eleven teams had enough runners to score as teams.

Progress is being made on the MacAllister  building. I could see what looked like a foundation. There are lots of building supplies on the site.

Last week Town and Country Paving was busy resurfacing roads throughout Rensselaer.  They still have some left to do, but driving will be a lot easier this week than it was last week.

The longest stretch of road to be resurfaced was Walnut from US 231 to the recycling center between Rachel and Melville. Several of the lots of land along the north side of the railroad and south of Walnut have been on the market recently. I think the lot between Franklin and Webster sold earlier this year. A few weeks ago crushed stone was spread over most of the lot and on Sunday I noticed a new sign on the building.

The remodeling of the front of the Fase-Kaluf  building seems to be finished.

In the downtown the paint is being scraped and sanded from the woodwork of the building that houses the Beaver law offices.

Below are some more pictures from the Oddfellow building. The door to the northern apartment has a peep hole in it. This would not have been the main door to the meeting room, but rather more a back door. I am not sure what purpose it served.

Here is the same door from the other side. The cover could be swung to open the hole and look out.

I thought the two signs on the second floor tattoo studio made an interesting contrast.


Here is another picture of asters for no reason other than I think these little asters are very pretty.

The days are getting shorter and it feels like autumn. There are so many things to do to get ready for winter.

Finishing the highway

I was wrong in my last post to suppose that the DOT was finished with Grace Street. Yesterday work began on the westbound lane.

When the trucks were there, progress was fast. By noon work was almost finished.

There has been a lot of pavement sealing in Rensselaer lately. For the past few days parts of the parking lot at the College Mall have been taped off so they can be sealed.

I missed the Homecoming parade due to another commitment. Looking at the floats at the high school today, I thought the senior class had the best one. Where did they get the coffin?

 The Van Rensselaer Street is being prepared for Oktoberfest.

I believe that one of the items around that court house that will be fixed in this round of repairs is the retaining wall. There are spots in it that are in bad shape.

The ash trees are beginning to turn. I think fall would be my favorite season if it were not that it ushers in winter.

More odds and ends, Sept 22, 2014

"Odds and Ends" is becoming a common title.

Work has started on the MacAllister Machinery building east of the airport. At this point all that is happening is moving dirt.

 Forms are in place to pour a foundation for the building trades house on Scott Street.

 This afternoon two workers were busy pressure washign the southeast side of the Court House. This is the first of several steps to preserve the exterior.

This morning there were about five crews of NIPSCO workers at the substation on Melville working on hooking up the new 69K transmission lines. They should be about finished. Maybe there will be a progress report at tonight's city council meeting.

At SJC trenching around Halleck is almost complete. The trenching is installing drainage tile to prevent water from entering the basement. Several weeks ago I saw the start of this project, but did not recognize what it was.

 More trenching is in the future. SJC finally announced to its community that the power plant is converting from coal to gas and the gas line installation will begin Sept 29. It will run down Kenkel Road, not the route I would have predicted.

SJC homecoming took place this past weekend. (SJC won its football game.) I took the opportunity to visit their new business classrooms that have lots of fancy electronics and lots of clocks. Though it is not an issue for me, I do wonder if I would have found good ways to use this stuff if it had been available when I was teaching.

Weather may have dampened homecoming spirits a bit. The high winds kept the climbing wall on the ground.

The rain did interrupt the St. Augustine Fall Frolic. We can hope that Oktoberfest will have better weather.

Addendum: Last week my son sent me a clipping from the Illinois Agrinews, a newspaper covering agriculture. The article was about Fair Oaks Farms, and it listed what the Farms sees in the future: the Pig Adventure building opening in March, 2015, then a crop education building opening mid to late 2015, and finally an egg farm and education facility opening late 2015 or early 2016.

Odds and Ends, September 16, 2014

On Sunday the Friends of the Library sponsored a free music program at the Rensselaer Library. What was supposed to be the Hip Harp Trio became the Hip Harp Duo because one of the members of the trio could not make it.

 The two played a wide variety of music. The harpist teaches music at one of the Indianapolis high schools, and when she was younger spent a year as a musician on a cruise ship, an experience she seemed not to ever want to repeat. There was a respectable turnout for the performance of between 40 and 50 people.

Before I left town a few days ago, someone asked me what the big roll of tubing near the intersection of College and Grace was for. I still do not know.

 At SJC a new entrance to Raleigh Hall is almost finished.

 The city is still working on storm sewer connections on the intersection of Scott and Vine. At the substation on North Melville, workers from NIPSCO were connecting wires. The very long utility pole that I noticed more than a week ago really is quite a bit taller than its neighbors.

 We are headed for fall--or maybe we are already in fall. Some of the corn is almost mature.

I noticed a large preying mantis in my garden. He was wondering what I was doing when I pushed my camera in his face.

It is still over a month until Halloween, but on the east side of Rensselaer one house has decorations out.

News from downtown

The Embers building has new windows on the second floor. The trim was being painted this morning.

Notice the Rock the Arts sign on the side, this weekend's big event.

The front of Unique Things is also getting new paint. After this picture was taken, a coat of white was applied, but that is a primer, not the final colors.

Larry Meiser , owner of Larry's Shoes, died ten days ago. He celebrated fifty years in business in April.  The shoe shop will remain open, but it will no longer do shoe repairs.

The City Office and Pub has changed ownership. Rumor says that it will also be changing menus.

The Stuff the Bus campaign to collect school supplies for students in need will take place until August 2. This year there is also a group that wants to bring the backpack food program to Rensselaer. They are having an organizational meeting on the 28th.

I finally figured out what is happening with the library re-roofing--it is more than just a new roof. After laying a layer of tar paper, about three inches of stiff foam insulation is added, then a layer of particle board, and finally new shingles.

Below workers are putting up a frame to raise the elevation of the roof, preparing it for the insulation sheets. The purpose is obvious--prevent another episode of burst pipes.

Rensselaer has had a lot of problems with the new public buildings it has built recently.

In early August the weekend event will be the Moveable Feast. Below is one of the houses that will be on the driving tour. Do you recognize which one it is?

Tonight is Kids Night at the Tuesday Night Farmers Market.

A couple of other things of no real importance--workers are tuck pointing St Augustine Church and new parking lot stripes have been applied to the parking lot of Brookside Park.

I just noticed that even though there is a county council meeting tonight, there is no mention of it on the county website. It seems that when they update the site, it wipes out what is happening on the current day.