An unexpected stop, but at least I could stop

I was planning on writing about local meetings today, but early this morning I had to go to West Lafayette to sign some bank papers. What should have taken a few minutes took about an hour--pretty normal for a lot of bank transactions these days. Leaving West Lafayette, I noticed that my brake pedal did not feel right. I had to press down further than I thought I should and I made mental note to myself to schedule an appointment at my mechanic when I got home.

As I was driving up US 231, the red brake light came on and there was a message on the dashboard that I had low brake fluid. I was not sure what to do, but I knew that between where I was and Wolcott, there was only one stop light. I guessed that I had a brake line leak and that I had a very limited number of stops left before the system would be dry.

I was delighted to discover an auto parts store on the south edge of Wolcott. I was able to stop without a problem and bought some brake fluid. I filled the reservoir  and hoped that I would be able to make it back to Rensselaer. However, the brakes still felt bad and the brake light came on immediately. I pulled across the highway to a conveniently located garage. And a few minutes later my car looked like this:

I was very lucky that I found a conveniently located service station that provided quick and efficient service.

While I was waiting at Farney's Service Center, I took a look at the Wolcott and Monticello papers. Their top story was the groundbreaking for a 60,000 square foot building shell that is supposed to attract business to the 600 acre Mid-America Commerce Park. The new building will be just over the Jasper-White county line, on the White County side.

I left Rensselaer at 7:00 in the rain and I returned at noon in the rain. There is water in the fields and there are places where there is water on the roads, though the only one I encountered was on the highway in Wolcott. My rain gauge says that we have received about two and half inches since Sunday.

In completely unrelated news, a close relative of mine who grew up in Rensselaer has a new book on Amazon called The Great Basin for Kids. The Great Basin is the area of the Western United States that has no rivers that reach the ocean. I reviewed a digital copy of a preliminary version and was very impressed with it. 

Another water main break

The crews were busy fixing another water main break today in almost the same spot as the break two days ago. There will be another 48-hour boil order that will start before the old one elapsed.
The Families of the JCYC have closed because the law requires them to, and I suspect some restaurants may have to close as well.

For a really good picture, check out the one that Visit Rensselaer has posted.

Old, odd, and new

The new Dollar General opened this morning. It has more food items than I expected, though much of it is convenience-store food

 On the way back from the DG I noticed a couple of odd squirrels. Maybe they had visited one of our local hair salons.

 The library program on eagles eagles earlier this week gave a web link to a camera showing the nest of an eagle in Decorah, Iowa, There were three eagles early this week and now there is but one. They probably are very close in age to eaglets in Jasper County.

Here are some more pictures form early Rensselaer Telephone books.

 Why were there several people buying poultry, eggs, and dairy products?

 Below are illustrations from a publication that was not a phone book, but something that one of the local lawyers had printed before 1950. Parr had a business. Note the college tuition.

The Pass Garage was opposite the stock yards, Does that place them on Maple Street?

Rensselaer is under a boil order as a result of water main break. I saw the city crews assembled on Wednesday morning, but did not know what they were planning to do.

Tuesday night, June 17, 2014

The Jasper County Historical Society had its annual carry-in dinner on Tuesday night. The attendance may have been bigger than they expected--they almost ran out of seating space. At the table I was at, a couple old telephone directories were passed around and I could not resist taking some pictures. These are all pages of the Rensselaer telephone directory from 1956.

 I do not remember anything about the businesses listed above. Perhaps they were all gone by the time I arrived in 1974.

The Jasper County Abstract Company is still in business. Established in 1928, it must be one of the oldest businesses in Rensselaer. I remember Brusnahan's, which is the ancestor of Superior Sales and Service on Vine Street. I think they were out of the coal business by the time I came to town. The bottling plant had at least two locations, but was probably at the corner of Clark and Cullen in 1959. The building later was a laundry and is now empty and for sale.

 I know nothing about this camera shop/photography studio.

 George Warden, manager of Talbert-Schaab, used to live on the same block as I do. When my oldest son was pre-school, Mr Warden befriended him and was nice to him. He was retired and quite old at the time. I do not know anything about the shoes, though the x-ray fitted sounds interesting.

I left the historical society meeting early and headed over the the court house for the County Council Meeting. As I approached the Court House, I noticed that the tattoo shop that had been in the same building as Long's Gifts was now on the second floor of the old Oddfellows Building (which has a new owner as of a couple months ago.) It is in the space vacated by the Monfort Law office, which is now in the old Sears Building or Town Mall Building.

The County Council meeting was short. They approved a number of things that the commissioners had approved or initiated: transfers of some funds, agreement to purchase the old Johnny Rusk building, and renewal of the cumulative bridge and cumulative capital fund rates.  (Some actions require approval of both the commissioners and the council.)  The Council appoints one member to Board of Zoning Appeals, and they seemed unprepared for that item. After a bit of discussion, they decided to come back to it at next months meeting.

Then there was a discussion of a motion passed last month but which exceeded the authority of the council, being a matter under the jurisdiction of the commissioners. The Council had voted to shut down part of the county website that contains tax information; that is not their decision to make. They moved to rescind that motion, and then to pass again the part of the motion that was in their jurisdiction.

The director of the JCEDO reported the expansion plans of ConAgra that will add up to 80 jobs at the Rensselaer plant. New product lines should be running in October. Taco Bell will probably not open until late July or early August, but the Dollar General may open this week, possibly as early as Wednesday. (We will see.)

(While on the topic of websites, the state now has a list of all reported meth lab sites. The one for Jasper County that is most odd is the Rensselaer Police Department Pistol Range.)

Update: Dollar General will open on Thursday.

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.

Construction update Taco Bell

The walls are up at what will be a Taco Bell restaurant near the Interstate.

Ribbon cutting Franciscan Working Well

On Thursday the newly opened Franciscan Working Well office in Rensselaer had its ribbon cutting and an open house. There were quite a few Franciscan people from the north, but few of them got into the picture.

Before the ribbon cutting, the office had a blessing, and you can see a picture of that here. Because it was scheduled an hour before the ribbon cutting, I did not attend.

Working Well is an occupational health clinic. What that means is that it is a clinic that does examinations and urgent care for businesses. Its medical services are not much different from those of any other clinic, but it tracks everything with specialized software, and that tracking makes it easier for businesses to meet the various OSHA and Workman's Compensation requirements. This type of clinic would not exist if it were not for a variety of state and federal regulations.

The local office is across the highway from the Jasper County Hospital in a building that was built by Dr. Greene and more recently occupied by Dr. Beaver. I had never been in the building before, but those who had said that it was completely remodeled and redecorated. The clinic has four examination rooms like the one below and a procedure room on the west end.

 On the east end is a room that will house the x-ray equipment when it arrives and some testing equipment for hearing. There are OSHA rules that require workers in especially noisy workplaces to have annual hearing tests. The booth is soundproof, and it would make a good place to send your teenagers who want to play their music at extremely high decibels.

 The office will start with a staff of four: the doctor who had been in their Munster office but who lives in Lowell, two technicians, and a office supervisor. Two of the staff live in the Rensselaer area and one is from Wheatfield. I did not get to talk to them until the very end because a worker from a local company came into the facility with an injury when the open house was starting and it took about an hour to get him fixed up and ready to leave.

I asked why they located in Rensselaer and was told that there was a demand for their services. There is no other occupational medicine office nearby, so they will serve the region. Though they will be only occupational medicine for the time being, they may add other services in the future.

One of their people at the event was a lady whose job it is to get new offices up and running. She has contacted many of the area businesses telling them about Working Well's services. A few weeks ago she gave a presentation to the Rensselaer City Council. This new office is attractive to businesses because it cuts their costs. It should be something that will make Rensselaer more attractive to businesses thinking of moving here.

This is as far south as the Franciscan Alliance group that is headquartered in Lake or Porter Counties has come. Their previous most southerly location is a clinic in Demotte. St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette is part of the Franciscan Alliance, but has separate management.

For more information on Working Well, see their website. You might also want to look at the website of the Franciscan Alliance.

The office is decorated with pictures that are in the collection of the Jasper County Historical Society. The wagon says "Jasper County Telephone."

 There was food catered by a company from St. John. They brought this odd contraption to serve punch.

 The office is open five days a week from 8am to 4:30 pm.

At the open house I asked a city official what was happening with the solar panel farm on the east edge of Rensselaer. She said it was almost finished, but needed some kind of equipment that would act as a backflow regulator. I did not understand what that meant.