RENSSELAER — Members of the Little Cousin Jasper committee received approval from the Rensselaer City Council to close a pair of streets for this year’s Little Cousin Jasper Festival at Monday’s council meeting.
The three-day festival is scheduled for Sept. 5-7 this year.
LCJ committee chair Pat Fox asked that Front Street near Potawatomi Park as well as a portion of College Avenue be closed for the event, which will utilize Potawatomi Park for craft booths, the municipal parking lot near the entrance to the park for food trucks and Iroquois Park across from Potawatomi Park for parking.
Fox said the newly-minted Filson Park might also be utilized for the festival, but plans were still being worked out since the event is still six months away. Last year, Filson Park at Van Rensselaer and Kellner streets was set aside for a car show that didn’t perform as well as the committee had hoped.
Fox, who received approval from the city, provided council members a “very tentative” schedule for this year’s event. Among the new activities discussed include a fishing derby, using the Iroquois River that flows east of Potawatomi Park.
Last year, the list of activities featured a zip line station over the river that proved popular.
Mayor Jeff Phillips said the city would likely approve the fishing derby provided the committee obtain approval from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources since the river falls in its jurisdiction as well as the proper liability insurance.
As a side note, Fox said the committee would like to look into digging up a time capsule at the Rensselaer VFW during festival weekend. The capsule was buried during the 2000 festival with the understanding it would be pulled from the ground 25 years later.
Fox said she will approach the VFW about the exact location of the capsule.
Prior to the regular meeting, the council received a preliminary engineering report from Commonwealth Engineers on lead service line replacement proposals.
The city will self-perform much of the work to replace lead lines at homes along city streets. But Commonwealth proposed hiring an outside company to replace 51 lines that are known to be lead lines along state highway 114 and US 231 since replacing those lines will be much more challenging.
The project cost is estimated at $1,051,000, which includes construction and non-construction costs. The work would likely be performed in early 2026.
Phillips and water, sewer and gas department superintendent Bryce Black also opened four bids from companies vying for a project to extend municipal lines across I-65.
Gatlin Plumbing and Heating of Griffith came in with the lowest bid at $3,750,000, with Grimmer Construction of Highland — which was awarded the brick street project last year — offering a bid amount of $3,916,807. Two other companies — one from Indianapolis and another from West Lafayette — had bids just over $4 million.
Black said he and engineers with Commonwealth Engineers will review the bids and provide a recommendation to the council at the next city Board of Works meeting on April 14.
Black later asked the council to consider replacing roofs at both the water treatment plant and the street department building. The council approved a request to repair the treatment plant roof with a silicone cover at a cost of $32,205 from Steve’s Specialized Service in Rensselaer. The work will come with a 15-year warranty, Black added.
The roof on the street department building, which sprung a leak during recent heavy rainfalls, will be repaired by Tried and True Builders at a cost of $12,900. The project will involve removing the metal roof that is currently attached with nails and replacing it with a new metal roof bolted down with screws, Black said.
During the administrative comments portion of the meeting, council members offered condolences to the Robert Schenk family after Schenk passed away on March 17 at the age of 79.
A former Saint Joseph’s College economics professor for nearly 40 years, Schenk was a common fixture at several city and county meetings over the past 17 years, providing news updates on his popular Rensselaer Adventures blog.
Schenk, whose obituary appears on page 3 of today’s Republican, started the blog in 2008.
Council member Jeff Rayburn suggested the city dedicate a bike rack at Filson Park in Schenk’s honor. Schenk often rode his bike to meetings in the downtown district.
