Two Tuesday Meetings

On Tuesday there was a special meeting of the Park Board in the City Council Chamber. The two trustees of the Blacker Trust gave a short presentation of what they were doing and what they wanted. 

They agreed to the Park Board's recommendation that renovation of Brookside Park is where the money should be spent. The highest priority was two ball diamonds where the soccer field is now. The next priority is a multipurpose building by the new ball fields, then renovation of the restrooms. The soccer field will have a temporary location in the northwest part of the park where the JC Cruisers have their annual car show, but the final stage of the project would be to find a permanent location for the field. 

Architectural plans are being prepared and they will be detailed so that construction bids can be made from them. The plans should be available soon and there will probably be a special December Park Board meeting to review and discuss them. Financing for this project will begin with the money currently in the Blacker Trust and some money that Blacker put in another fund at the Jasper Foundation. The Board or the Trust will seek additional funding from the Jasper Foundation and the trustees then suggested that the Park Board needs to conduct a fund-raising drive to get the additional money that will be required to complete the project. This last suggestion was met with some resistance because some members of the Park Board did not think that they could or that they should be fund raisers.

Less interesting was the second meeting of the evening, the monthly County Council meeting. The Animal Control Board wanted approval to buy materials for an Eagle Scout who wants to upgrade the dog kennels at the DeMotte Police Department. Currently they are not fit to house dogs on very cold nights, so Animal Control staff has to make trips to DeMotte to transfer animals in off hours. The Council could not move on this request because it had arrived too late. However, the Council did approve using donation funds to reimburse expenses for a parade float.

There were three requests for transfer of funds. The only one that got any discussion was for the Coroner's Office and that was because the Coroner was there to update the Council on what his office was doing. The new morgue near DeMotte is in operation and 22 cases have used the new facility.

Councilman Price wanted the Council to consider at a future meeting adjustments to the business personal property tax for small businesses. He argued that the cost of complying with the tax often exceeded the amount of the tax and thought there should be a way to reduce that burden on small businesses. Councilman DeFries disagreed, saying that any reduction in business taxes would result in a greater burden on individuals. Jasper County gets about $2 million from the business personal property tax (which is a tax on equipment), but the vast majority of that is from larger businesses.

The Council had a discussion about meeting times for 2015, Usually it meets the third Tuesday of the month, but when there are conflicts, it will meet either earlier or later. 

And in other news, I notice that the detour signs on SR 114 are gone. 

November 3, 2014

We got some really cold weather over the weekend, with temperatures dropping to the low 20s. Any plant that is frost sensitive should be dead.

This morning the County Commissioners met in what was an uneventful meeting with no big surprises. When I got there a representative from Midwest Restoration was discussing how work on fixing problems with the exterior stonework was progressing. He mentioned that the company had applied a sealer to two test areas of the Court House. An hour and a half later the meeting took a recess and two of the commissioners went out to see one of the test areas. The Midwest Restoration representative splashed some water on the area and below is what the commissioners saw. Can you see what area had been treated?

 After the break the commissioners then took up the question of whether they should approve applying the sealer. It will take three or three and a half days to apply, and the application should be done on dry walls with the temperature above forty degrees. If it is not done this fall, someone from the company that makes the sealer would have to come in the spring to determine whether the walls needed to be washed again before the sealer is applied. The sealer has a ten-year guarantee. After discussion, the commissioners approved the application of the sealer this fall provided it did not cost more than $58,390.

What else did you miss by not being there? The Commissioners approved a new lease for eleven large function printers. The county is also buying for $1.00 each three of the old printers that it had been leasing. These printers will not have a maintenance contract, so the county will have to pay for any supplies or repairs.

Soil and Water asked to replace their district coordinator, who is leaving. The request was approved. Animal Control asked about the volunteer policy that they had submitted to the Commissioners. The question of insurance came up and also the question of whether any volunteer policy should cover all volunteers for all county divisions. The issue will come back at some future meeting.

The Commissioners then had a webinar with people from First Empire Securities in New York about how they could help the county invest its money. The presentation took fifteen minutes to explain what could have been said in five. Changes in state law allow counties to invest some of their funds in securities with maturities longer than two years and this increased flexibility allows a higher rate of return. Empire Securities suggested investing in some shorter term Indiana municipal securities and some U.S. government agency issues, saying that could raise the return on the portfolio from .25% to .6%.

A benefits specialists who seem to be connected with Aflac wanted the county to offer supplemental dental insurance as an option to employees. The cost of the policies would be completely borne by the those who opted for them and they had a limit of $1200 in benefits. He suggested there were tax advantages to the plan.

The commissioners approved a zoning change and then approved Richard Kalenback as the attorney for the Animal Control Board. The jail update had good news, that the utility bills were lower as the result of the work that has been done to fix the heating and cooling systems. The airport had done a title search that seemed to reveal that a plot of land used by the airport might actually belong to the State of Indiana and not the county. At the end of the meeting the Commissioners' attorney said he had read the document and thought that it was pretty clear that the land actually did belong to the county because it should have reverted back when the state did not build an armory there. A member of the audience addressed the Commissioners about the problems of thefts from farms. It seemed he had two problems he was concerned about, the theft of anything that could be sold as scrap metal and people driving through fields as a form of recreation.

The Commissioners discussed calendar issues and scheduling of meetings and then turned to the question of what. if anything, they should do with updating heating and cooling in the Court House. The Council had approved a budget of $250,000 for this. Finally the Commissioners discussed how to proceed with the demolition of the old Johnny Rusk building. A number of contractors are eager to bid on the project. The County now has possession of the building, the tenant having moved out, and after the meeting the Commissioners were going to go over and inspect the building.

After the meeting I went over to Potawatomie Park to see how the planting of the rain garden was going. The crew had arranged all the plants that they were going to plant, and after each was put into the ground, the container was turned upside down over the plant. The reason for doing this was that after all the plants were set, the crew were going to mulch the area, and with the planters protecting the plants, it would be easy to apply the mulch.

 What is being planted? Wild columbine, swamp milkweed, butterflyweed, sand coreopsis, purple coneflower, rattlesnake master, blue flag, marsh blazing star, foxglove beard tongue, and showy black-eyed Susan are the forbs. The grasses are little bluestem and prairie dropseed. I offered some wild sunflowers that grow to about ten feet tall and spread aggressively, but my offer was declined.

Next year there should be flowers blooming in the swale for most of the summer. I look forward to seeing how this rain garden develops.

Health fair

On Thursday the Jasper County Hospital and Saint Joseph's College had a health fair at Halleck Center. Going in people could not miss the Marine Corp exhibit, which may not have been part of the health fair. The three marines were challenging the college men to see how many pull-ups they could do and the college women to see how long they could keep their chin above the bar.

 Inside the ballroom there were many exhibits, most giving out information (and freebies). There were also stations to have your blood pressure read, your blood tested for sugar, cholesterol, and oxygen, and your BMI bone density measured,

 On the way home from SJC I passed through Potawatomie Park to see how preparations were going for the volunteer day on Friday to plant a swale with rain garden plants. If you wondering what will be planted, you can check out the work from 10:00 till 1:00. My guess is that the plants will be similar to those planted in the rain garden at the water treatment plant (see here and here).

Meetings and openings

The monthly Commissioners Meeting took place Monday morning.  Here are some of the items that I thought interesting.

Midwest Restoration reported on progress on the work on the exterior of the Court House. Presently they are patching limestone and doing additional tuck pointing. When they pressure washed the exterior, there were two places where water entered the building and the representatives from Midwest said the problems had been addressed. They talked a bit about the retaining wall around the square and said that because the stones were set so close together, freeze-thaw cycles and expansion-contraction of the stones had gradually chipped them and moved them out of alignment. They were going to increase the gap and put in expansion joints. Finally, the Commissioners decided not to have a sealer applied because the sealer being proposed had not been used by Midwest Restoration previously and there was uncertainty about whether there would be adverse side-effects.

The County will have an auction on November 15. Among items for sale will be three vehicles from the sheriffs department.

NIPSCO had a contingent of people there who wanted the County to vacate CR 250E between 1450N and 1350N. They plan to expand their landfill for fly ash in five to seven years. If the expansion has to be approved as a new landfill, it will take five to seven years to get all the regulatory approvals completed, but if it is approved as an expansion of an existing landfill, the regulatory process only takes 18 months or so. NIPSCO owns both sides of the road, and if the road were not there, the expansion would be viewed as an expansion, but if the road remains, the expansion will be classified as a new landfill. There were questions about fly ash, and NIPSCO said that some of the fly ash is used. The sulfur scrubbers produce the gypsum product used by Georgia Pacific and the fly ash from one of the four units at the Schaffler plant is used as a concrete substitute. One member of the audience said that farmers use the road. The topic will be the subject of future meetings, not just of the Commissioners but of the Planning Commission and the Drainage Board.

At the end of the meeting a citizen who lives in the Prairie Ridge subdivision near SR 10 complained about 14 unsold lots that were rarely mowed. One of the commissioners said he would take care of it.

As I left the Court House, I noticed that a person was being carried out and put into a Prompt ambulance. I learned later that she had fallen down the stairs.

In the afternoon the Drainage Board met. There were two longer discussions. One involved a contractor who had sprayed ditches to kill trees and brush and who had not been paid because the surveyor had found his work unsatisfactory. At the end of the meeting there was a discussion about people who repair tiles or ditches and then want the surveyor to reimburse them. The new policy is that if you want reimbursement, you need to talk to the surveyor before you begin work.

Leaving the meeting, I stopped in Demotte Carpet, which opened its Rensselaer branch on Monday. If I had been a customer, I would have been the third one.

 The store is misnamed--it carries other types of flooring besides carpet--tiles, linoleum, and wood flooring. The store if full of samples but does not have any actual carpet for sale--you chose what you want and they install it or they will bring what you want from DeMotte and you can install it. The store is narrow and very long--it stretches all the way to the alley.

 Demotte Carpet did a considerable amount of remodeling to the building. The back section had been an unheated store room. Now it has more samples of flooring.

The other opening for Monday was Franciscan Urgent Care.

On Monday evening the Park Board met. The primary item discussed was their plan to revamp Brookside park by putting two ball fields where the soccer field is now. The financing would need to be done from the Blacker Trust, which has two trustees who must approved any expenditures. There was a lot of frustration at the slow pace of events early in the meeting, but the meeting ended on a more optimistic note as the members decided that they would ask the trustees to have a set of blueprints drawn up. The blueprints will be costly and will require financing from the trust, but it seemed that they are necessary to move forward.

A few more meeting notes

On Wednesday evening the Airport Authority Board met for its monthly meeting. They mostly discussed routing things--drainage, the proposed fuel farm, a nepotism policy, the courtesy car. One new item was the approval of the purchase of a new truck and snow plow that will be used to clear the runway in the winter. They hope to get ten years of use from it.

The airport manager challenged them to come up with goals for the next two to four years. They will apparently take this up at future meetings. One member suggested that a goal should be a website. Presently neither the airport or airport authority has a website.

Across the road, something has happened at the MacAllister site. A green box is in place--one of the essential items on any construction site.

On Thursday evening the Park Board had its monthly meeting. There was discussion about the Staddon Field. The School Corporation owns the land, and earlier this year the Park Board or maybe the city offered $40,000 for it. That offer was rejected on a 5-2 vote. The School had the land appraised and the result came back at a bit more than $90,000. One member of the Park Board wanted to see if negotiations might move ahead if the Park could get the Blacker Trust (or the City--the Park Board does not have the money to purchase the property) to offer about $60,000. This idea was met with resistance. One member said that the School should be left to sit on the property, maintaining it. If they decided to sell it, it would not fetch $90,000, but it would fetch a lot of criticism for the school board members. There was agreement with this sentiment, so the matter did not go further.

Then there was more discussion of proposed ball field in Brookside Park. Again, the Park Board has no money to do this, but it is trying to put together a proposal that will be acceptable to the lawyer who controls the Rex Blacker Trust. The Park Board will try to get cost estimates for the various parts of their plan.

There was some discussion of the proposed Dog Park in Iroquois Park and how that project could be advanced.

It was noted that Kentland spent about $1.5 million to update their swimming pool. It apparently has added water-park features. As for the Rensselaer pool, on the last weekend the water level was unusually low. After the pool was closed, a crack in a pipe under the pool was discovered as the reason that the water level was not what it should have been.

And in completely unrelated news, a very long utility pole was delivered to the Melville substation this morning.

Nature, Parks, and Gardens

    Last week I was surprised to see a frog attached to a window. It did not seem to mind when I took a flash photo of it. It may be an eastern gray tree frog, which can change colors to some extent to match its background.

For the past few years I have been trying to get some prairie flowers growing along the street by my house. This year I got yellow coneflowers big enough to bloom--a lot of prairie perennials do not bloom the first year.  In the background are false sunflowers.

 I walked through the high school prairie area last week to see how their plants were doing and noticed that there was a lot of giant ragweed and wild carrot invading their fields. I thought that natural prairies were resistant to invasion by these interlopers, so I wonder if their planting is not balanced quite right.

I have been traveling a lot recently, one reason posting has been erratic. One place I stopped was at a Lebanon city park where they have a hill as an attraction. Such a simple thing yet kids enjoy it. Two boys were using the hill to launch kites while I was watching. They would run down the hill with their kites and that would get them up into the air. There are a lot of things kids can find to do with a hill.

 Another simple park feature that many communities are adding are splash pads. They can be quite small or fairly elaborate. Often they are activated by pressing a button and then they stay on for a few minutes. To continue playing, the button has to be pressed again. They are like fountains but people are encouraged to play in them instead of staying out of them.

The Rensselaer Republican had an article on July 14 about the RBI softball league's new home, a field that volunteers and parents built behind Bethany Free Church. I finally got out there to see what they had done.

 While I was on the east side of town I took a look at the raised bed gardens that CDC Resources had installed last year for their consumers. One of the beds was mostly beans and cucumbers and they were doing well. They were a bit surprised at how much cucumbers spread.

The raised bed gardens were constructed last year by the Teen Mission group. This year they laid the foundation stones for a small greenhouse. The foundation is visible above the garden.

If you want to do a cheap version of a raised bed garden, find some five gallon plastic buckets, cut off their bottoms, place them on the ground, and fill them with good soil. Plant whatever you want to plant and see what happens. My daughter-in-law tried sweet potatoes last year and was surprised by how much they yielded.

This evening I noticed a drilling machine next to Lincoln Street. My guess is that it is doing drilling cores to test for the foundation of the storm water treatment plant that the city is required to build. It has gone beyond the talking.

Do you know what a banner stone is? If you collect Indian artifacts, you certainly do, because banner stones are highly collectable. However, the purpose of these objects remains the subject of controversy. They almost certainly were associated with atlatls, the dominant weapon and hunting device prior to the bow and arrow. The banner stones were developed only in North America (though atlatls were used throughout the world). Rensselaer resident David Volken has had an article published in an archeology journal that argues that banner stones were not attached to the atlatl or spear thrower itself as many in the field believe, but to the dart or spear to give it more momentum and thus striking power.

People today think that we are much smarter than people in the past (after all, we have cell phones), but despite all of our technology, there are bits of lost technology that we are still struggling to understand and recover.

(The frog likes my window. It is back again tonight.)

Water rising

The water is rising in the Babcock Quarry.  Compare the picture below (taken Saturday, June 14) to the one from two weeks ago.

 The temperatures will be rising this week. A place to cool off is Brookside Pool, where there is something new this year thanks to funds from Farm Credit MidAmerica and the Jasper Foundation.

New tables have replaced the old fiberglass tables that had been there for decades.

People told me that here has been a lot of activity around the newly-constructed Dollar General Store. I stopped by on Sunday and peeked in. Many of the shelves have been stocked, but many still remain empty. I have not seen an announcement for an opening date yet, but that probably will be determined by how long it takes to finish filling the shelves. There are signs in the windows noting that they take SNAP and that they sell cigarettes, so the signage seems complete.

Update: The Farmhouse Restaurant at Fair Oaks Farms is nearing completion. Here are pictures from the FOF Facebook page.