Slowly rising

Life has been busy with non-blogging events and activities, and I just have not been in a blogging mood lately. Winter is on the way and there are lots of little things that need to be done before it gets really cold--so cold that people have to put away their fall jackets and don their winter coats.

Every week or two I pass by the Babcock Quarry. The water is very slowly rising and today I could for the first time in weeks see that it was a bit higher than it had been. Below is a picture taken September 16, 2014.

 Here is a picture from October 19.

 And here is one from today, November 6, 2014 with gray skies overhead.

 In a few more weeks the turn in the road will be completely underwater.

At the end of October the Jasper County Historical Society had some pictures of the now demolished Hanging Grove School. I passed by a couple weeks ago but did not stop to take a picture.

Speaking of the Jasper County Historical Society, they keep putting mystery pictures on their Facebook feed. Here is one that they have not done. Do you know where this is in Rensselaer?

Election results

Election results are here: http://www.jaspercountyin.gov/egov/documents/1415204139_91992.htm

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.

Tales from the graveyard (updated)

The site findagrave.com is a database of graves throughout the United States and in many other parts of the world. It relies on crowdsourcing, that is, anyone who wants can contribute to the database. One result, unfortunately, is that the entries are of uneven quality and they often contain mistakes. However, when the entries are done carefully, they can contain a great deal of information to those who are trying to trace genealogies. (It is no accident that ancestry.com purchased findagrave.)

Looking through the many thousands of graves that have been recorded from Weston Cemetery for findagrave, one can find interesting bits of Rensselear history. For example, do you know the contribution that Abraham Leopold made to building Rensselaer?

Another pioneer business man in Rensselaer was Fritz William Bedford who had a general store and also a brick and tile manufacturing business. He died in 1915. A bit later in 1934 Benjamin Fendig, part of an important family of retailers died.  James Chapman, one of the organizers of the State Bank of Rensselaer, died in 1935. Just a year later was John Eger, an early grocer passed away.

Weston Cemetery also has graves of people who were prominent elsewhere but are for some reason buried here. For example, Samuel Foster, prominent in Madison Indiana, died here visiting his daughter and is buried in Rensselaer, not in Madison.

There are also stories of personal tragedy in the clippings attached to some of the graves. (Very few of the graves have anything attached to them. Less than one third have a picture of the grave marker.) There were car wrecks and airplane crashes, fires and electrical accidents.

The story of a woman who died undergoing a Caesarean is very sad, but I think a suicide is even sadder.

(For maps of Weston Cemetery and lists of people buried there, go here and click on the links at the bottom of the page.)

Update: The trees were in the Halloween mood today, putting on their ghost costumes.

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).

Cars and candy at the city council meeting

The City Council meeting on Monday night had no big surprises. Cars and candy were the main topics.

The Park Department wanted authorization to look for a replacement for a 1994 pick-up that is starting to have issues. The Electric Department gave an update on its search for a replacement for an old SUV that no longer is reliable, and at this point two citizens, one a car dealer, objected to the way the search was proceeding. The council had previously authorized bids for a new vehicle, but the two members of the audience argued that an lightly used vehicle would be as good and would save money. Further, they argued, the city should try to buy locally, supporting local businesses. The council responded by amending its motion of the past meeting to allow for used vehicles with 15,000 miles or less.

Planning has been going well for the upcoming Trunk or Treat event that will be held Friday evening at the Fairgrounds. About $7000 has been donated to the Truck or Treat or the Haunted House (14 rooms!) that the Fire Department is sponsoring. Lots of people are involved, and among other things, McDonalds will have a bouncy house there.

There will be Veteran's Day ceremonies on Nov 11 at 11:00 at Weston Cemetery. The Council approved some spending of public relations funds for a breakfast to honor RCHS athletic teams that have won their sectionals (so far boys soccer and girls cross county). The fire department's aerial truck seems to be working again. Soil borings will be made Monday for the new fire house. LED street light have been installed on Owens and Mattheson Streets.

Play

Today may have been the last great day of autumn, with temperatures in the mid 70s. What a great day for the local schools to have fall break I saw some kids enjoying the day in a very unusual way--they had a bounce house in their front yard.

High school soccer may be finished but some soccer league was still playing in Brookside Park on Sunday. The park was busy over the weekend.

 The farmers also appreciate the nice weather, but not for play. They work. The elevator was busy even late on Sunday with grain trucks delivering corn. Around Rensselaer it appears that more than half of the fields have been harvested.

Back to play, but of a different sort. The Columbia Players at SJC put on their production of Arsenic and Old Lace late last week. The play is a comedy about serial killers, some well-meaning and some not.

The leaves have been raining down all day and a lot of trees are now bare. This may have been our last great day of autumn, but we should have a few more good ones in the weeks ahead.