Anthony Wren, a Libertarian Party candidate for the Hamilton Southeastern School Board of Trustees in District 1, says school safety is the main reason he is running. He talks about it in the latest LarryInFishers.com podcast.

Wren said news reports about guns in schools, including recent incidents in Noblesville and at North Central High School in Indianapolis, pushed him to run.

“I made a promise,” said Wren, whose daughter graduated from HSE. “If I can do anything to stop this one time, I’ve done my job.”

His main proposal is weapons-detection scanners at every entrance of every HSE school, like the ones used at the Fishers Event Center. He also wants the district to eventually form its own police department instead of relying on school resource officers from the Fishers Police Department. Wren said he has met with the HSE superintendent to discuss his concerns.

Wren praised the education his daughter received at HSE. She played in the marching band and served as drum major in her senior year.

He is skeptical about the operating referendum on this fall’s ballot. It would fund teacher salaries, class sizes and school safety. Wren said he is torn on the question and wants an audit of district finances before more money is requested. He also questioned whether HSE applies for grants. Lannan noted that the district regularly applies for grants, and that most Hamilton County districts are pursuing referendums after state changes to property tax law.

Other positions Wren discussed:

• Cell phones: Students would have to keep phones in their lockers, and school Wi-Fi would block social media. He supports the medical and disability exemptions in state law, as long as they are not abused.
• Academics: He wants more focus on reading, writing and arithmetic, including handwriting and cursive.
• School meals: Wren raised concerns about folic acid in enriched flour, citing YouTube personality Gary Brecka. Lannan asked him about Brecka’s qualifications. Federal health agencies have required folic acid in enriched grain products since 1998 to help prevent neural tube birth defects.
• Discipline: Wren said teachers he has spoken with feel they have lost control of their classrooms. He acknowledged that the examples he cited came from outside HSE.

Wren said he left the Republican Party because he was frustrated with both major parties. He does not agree with every Libertarian position, including on the death penalty and abortion.

In college, Wren served as vice president and then president of student government. He said that experience taught him how to organize and get things done.

“We may disagree on how to get there,” Wren said, “but I will work to secure our schools.”

The LarryInFishers.com podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the full conversation at this link or the link below.

Eunice Desjardins served in the Women’s Army Corps, raised a family and, this month, marked a milestone few people reach. She turned 105.

On Monday night, the Fishers City Council made sure she did not celebrate quietly.

Desjardins was recognized at the council’s meeting, where she received honors from the Indiana House of Representatives and the Indiana Senate, along with a commendation from Gov. Mike Braun.

Her military service places her among a generation of women who changed the American armed forces. Congress created the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps on May 15, 1942, and the unit was granted full military status as the Women’s Army Corps the following year. More than 150,000 women served in the WAC during World War II — the first women other than nurses to serve in Army ranks. They worked as switchboard operators, stenographers, drivers and mechanics, and a small number were assigned to the Manhattan Project. The corps was dissolved in 1978, when women were folded into the regular Army.

Two officers honored for decades on the job

The council also recognized two members of the Fishers Police Department for long service.

Officer Todd Crowder was honored for 35 years in uniform. When he began his career, Fishers was a town of about 7,500 people, according to the 1990 census — smaller than many of the subdivisions that now fill its map.

Assistant Chief Mike Taylor was recognized for 20 years of service. He joined a department policing a community that was still a town; Fishers did not become a city with an elected mayor until Jan. 1, 2015. The 2020 census counted 98,977 residents.

Mayor Scott Fadness had a one-word review of his own spending plan when he stood before the Fishers City Council Monday night: boring.

He meant it as a compliment. Fadness used the same word earlier in the day in a podcast interview, and he repeated it for the council — the 2027 budget contains no crises, no surprises and no dramatic course corrections, and that is precisely the point.

The $224 million proposal is about 10% larger than the $203.6 million budget the council approved for 2026, but much of that growth sits in one place: Public Works, up 21%, with capital spending for wastewater infrastructure more than doubling following the city’s acquisition of HSE Utilities. Strip that out and the plan looks a great deal like last year’s.

For city hall employees, the headline is compensation. The budget funds a 3% across-the-board pay raise and raises the city’s matching contribution to workers’ 457 retirement plans by $1,000, bringing the annual city match to $4,000 per employee.

Fadness again set holding the municipal property tax rate steady as his central goal — maximizing value for the rate rather than raising it. That is a harder trick in 2027 than it sounds. Certified assessed value growth for the city comes in at just 0.4%, down from 2.7% a year ago, as new state homeowner and rental deductions shrink taxable value even while property values hold up. The state’s maximum levy growth quotient is 6%, and annexation could push the city’s available levy up roughly 9%, but officials have not said how much of that room they intend to use. Local income tax has taken up some slack — Fishers is projected to receive about $47.3 million in certified-share LIT revenue in 2027, on top of a one-time $10 million distribution this year that padded reserves.

Public safety remains the largest area of growth outside utilities. The police budget rises about 10%, adding detective capacity along with digital forensics work and support for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The fire department’s operating budget is essentially flat, but recruits hired in earlier budget cycles move onto operational staff, and the department plans a fourth medic unit, four additional paramedics and a trauma blood program.

The plan also continues the neighborhood vibrancy and teacher innovation grant programs, funds the Fishers Community Center expansion — including a rooftop studio due to open late next spring, at a facility where membership has grown 30% to 4,880 units — and keeps money flowing to roads and sidewalks, with Cumberland Road widening and 16 to 18 miles of annual resurfacing on the engineering list.

A public hearing was held Monday. The council is scheduled to adopt the budget Oct. 12.

Democratic congressional candidate J.D. Ford says he will not pull the financial allegations from his campaign website, and he is accepting U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz’s challenge to debate.

Ford’s response, dated Sept. 21, answers a Sept. 18 letter in which Spartz demanded he remove or correct statements about her finances and congressional record. The two are competing for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District seat, which includes Hamilton County.

“I have read your letter and it raises more questions than answers,” Ford wrote to Spartz. “As you were a CPA, we have to assume your disclosures are correct. If your disclosures are wrong, it does not change the fact that you benefitted from stock trading while in Congress.”

He added: “I accept your invitation to finally debate. I will serve Hoosiers — not myself — in Congress.”

Spartz had said in her letter that she has never personally owned or traded individual stocks, and that transactions cited by Ford involved her husband Jason’s retirement account. Her campaign called the disputed claims “objectively verifiable facts” rather than differences of political opinion.

Ford attached a 495-page response with 15 exhibits drawn from House disclosure filings, Federal Election Commission reports and Hamilton County property records.

The response argues that Spartz filed multiple periodic transaction reports that do not identify her husband as the owner, even though the forms include a place to list owners other than the member of Congress. It cites four filings — IDs 20018952, 20018955, 20019527 and 20018254.

On the airline stocks Spartz described as “a few minor transactions,” Ford’s response says sales of Alaska Air Group and Southwest Airlines stock fell in disclosure ranges totaling between $450,002 and $1 million. It notes Indiana’s median household income of $71,957 and argues most Hoosiers would not view those figures as minor. The response also says no disclosure shows how or when the airline stocks were acquired — the first indication of ownership came when the sales were reported.

Ford’s team further says that when Spartz was a candidate, her disclosure listed no individual stock holdings, but her first report as a member, for filing year 2020, showed stock purchases between $1 million and $5 million, held in a Roth IRA.

Addressing Spartz’s July 22 vote for H.R. 7008, the Stop Insider Trading Act, the response calls the vote “nothing but a distraction,” saying the bill applies the same scrutiny to spouses’ trades and that Spartz is grandfathered in and may still sell stocks she currently owns.

The response raises a new allegation involving a Westfield investment property on Moontown Road that the Spartz family has owned since 2015. It says FEC filings show the campaign paid $30,000 in annual rent to Jason Spartz on Nov. 20, 2025, and made two payments to the Hamilton County treasurer for property taxes — $2,791.01 in November 2025 and $3,115.08 in April 2026 — that match tax amounts due on the parcel. It also points to campaign payments for utilities that it says may relate to the property.

“Based on the information contained in her Financial Disclosures, campaign funds have been used by Spartz to support her investment property,” the response states.

Spartz has not responded publicly to Ford’s letter. She has denied using her office for personal gain, saying her financial position has not materially changed because of her congressional service. In a separate Sept. 18 letter, she asked media organizations to verify the disputed allegations against public records before running paid communications containing them.

No debate date has been announced.

Student musicians provided the soundtrack as local dignitaries gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating Everwise Credit Union’s new Olio Road branch in Fishers.

During the festivities, Everwise presented a $5,000 check to support the Hamilton Southeastern High School band and the Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation.

The new office, at 12330 Olio Road, expands Everwise’s presence in Fishers, where it also operates a branch at 10998 Allisonville Road.

The donation connects with the credit union’s roots in education. Previously known as Teachers Credit Union, the institution announced its change to the Everwise name in 2023 to reflect a membership extending beyond educators.

The Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation supports learning across the school district through grants for classroom and school projects.

The HSE band closed the celebration with a performance of the school’s fight song.

Young adults in Hamilton County will see a new kind of political ad on their screens between now and Election Day — one with no candidates, no parties and no scripts.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit group ReCenter Indiana launched a six-week video campaign Monday aimed at residents ages 18 to 24 in Hamilton, Marion and Boone counties. The videos feature real young voters filmed outside polling places during last May’s primary, talking about what casting a ballot felt like.

The campaign is built around a single invitation: “Hey, can I vote with you?”

Some of the footage was shot in Carmel, alongside sites in Lawrence and Zionsville. Young adults in each of the three counties will see ads made for their own county — three 30-second spots apiece — directing them to a county-specific ReCenter Indiana webpage covering voter registration, ID requirements, early voting, Election Day voting, wait times and the Election Protection Hotline.

The ads will run through Nov. 3 on YouTube, Instagram and connected TV services including Netflix, HBO and Peacock. The group projects more than 1.5 million impressions. A $50,000 grant from the Glick Fund paid for the campaign.

“Instead of actors reading scripts, our videos feature authentic, young Hoosier voters — saying in their own words — why they’re enthusiastic about voting,” said Jocelyn Vare, executive director of ReCenter Indiana. “And, importantly, these voting experiences are built around the invitation, ‘Hey, can I vote with you?'”

The turnout problem

Indiana is perennially among the lowest-turnout states in the country, and young Hoosiers lag even that. In the 2024 general election, 39% of Indiana young adults voted, compared with 47% nationally, according to the Tufts CIRCLE youth voting report.

The campaign grew out of ReCenter Indiana’s 2025 Young Adult Non-Voter Research Study, funded by the Nicholas H. Noyes Jr. Memorial Foundation and conducted jointly by Bellwether Research and Hart Research. Researchers surveyed 307 residents of Hamilton, Marion and Boone counties between 18 and 34 — all registered to vote in 2024, none of whom did — and convened a focus group.

The findings pushed back on the idea that young nonvoters simply don’t care. Participants said they were invested in their communities but often felt government wasn’t listening or that their votes wouldn’t change outcomes. Nearly half, 45%, said they had never voted, and those respondents were more likely to say they distrusted the electoral process or lacked information about candidates and issues.

They also cited practical obstacles: work schedules, limited voting hours, long lines at polling places and missed deadlines.

“Young adults matter, and their voices belong in every election,” said Adrianne Slash Tucker, ReCenter Indiana’s vice president. “Our research helped us understand the obstacles young Indiana voters face. We designed this campaign to build confidence in the voting process and remind young Hoosiers that their votes matter.”

Why the peer approach

The group points to a 2019 Turnout Nation study finding that registered voters steadily encouraged by someone they knew were 13.2 percentage points more likely to cast a ballot — an approach researchers found more effective than any other method tested over two decades.

All nine videos are available to watch and download on ReCenter Indiana’s YouTube playlist, and the group is asking Hoosiers to share them with a young adult and then ask the question themselves.

Key dates for the Nov. 3 general election: Indiana’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 5. Early voting begins Oct. 6. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

More at ReCenterIndiana.org.

Libraries across Hamilton County are joining the first-ever Give Like Dolly Day on Friday, Sept. 25, a worldwide effort created by the Dollywood Foundation to support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library programs.

Locally, the money goes to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Fund at the Hamilton County Community Foundation. Organizers say every gift stays in Hamilton County and pays for free, high-quality books mailed to local children from birth to age 5.

“Dolly dreamed it, but local communities make it possible,” said Sheryl Sollars, executive director of the Westfield Washington Public Library. “Give Like Dolly Day gives Hamilton County residents a meaningful way to honor her legacy and lifelong commitment to children and literacy.”

Fishers families take part through the Hamilton East Public Library, one of the county library systems backing the campaign.

“Dolly Parton showed us what can happen when you put a book into a child’s hands and give their imagination room to grow,” said Melissa Loiselle, library director for the Hamilton East Public Library. “Our hope is that Hamilton County will help us carry that vision forward for many years to come.”

The local Imagination Library is not running on fumes. It is funded through July 2028 with support from the Hamilton County Council, the State of Indiana and the CenterPoint Energy Foundation. Friday’s push is aimed at extending that runway.

To make the case for small donations, organizers offer this math: if every household in Hamilton County gave just $9.25 on Sept. 25 — a nod to the date — the total would fund the program for roughly four more years.

The Imagination Library mails one free, age-appropriate book each month to every enrolled child, from birth until the child’s fifth birthday, regardless of family income.

Contributions made through the Hamilton County Community Foundation are tax-deductible. Residents can donate at hamiltoncountycf.org.

Hamilton County Council members have wrapped up two days of hearings on the proposed 2027 county budget, with most of the discussion centered on staffing two new courts and the county’s new Public Safety Center, both scheduled to come online next year.

County Financial Consultant Mike Reuter opened the Sept. 1 hearings by laying out the revenues and resources available heading into 2027. The county has a cash balance of roughly $115 million and is projected to receive about $15.4 million in interest income.

“Hamilton County remains in a strong financial position, but we’re operating in a different environment than we have in years past,” County Council President Brad Beaver said. “Property and income taxes remain our largest revenue sources, but assessed values declined this year. It makes careful budgeting and long-term planning even more important as we look ahead.”

Much of the proposed new spending is tied to facilities and services starting up in 2027. Hamilton Superior Courts 8 and 9 are scheduled to begin operating in January, and staffing them means adding positions across the justice system.

Beyond the two judges to be elected in November, department requests include four new employees in the Clerk’s Office, seven employees for the two new courts, two deputy prosecutors and one support position in the Prosecutor’s Office, and three additional Sheriff’s Office employees assigned to the Judicial Center — 17 positions in all.

The county is also preparing to open its new Public Safety Communications Center in 2027. The $85 million, three-story building will provide 108,000 square feet for 911 dispatch and emergency operations.

Later in 2027, the new Public Safety Training Center is expected to be available to police, fire and EMS agencies from municipalities and towns across the county — Fishers among them. At least seven new Buildings and Grounds employees have been requested to help operate and maintain the new facilities.

The council is scheduled to adopt the final 2027 budget at a special session Oct. 19, after which it goes to the state of Indiana for approval. Once approved, the budget takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Fishers Freight head coach and general manager Dixie Wooten sat down with LarryInFishers for a wide-ranging conversation about a season that ended one incomplete pass short of the playoffs.

The Freight finished 8-8 in 2026, an improvement over the 7-9 mark in the franchise’s inaugural season. But Wooten said the record does not tell the story. Fishers lost on the final play of games against Tulsa, Jacksonville and Orlando.

“If those games are different, we’re in the playoffs,” Wooten said. “We could have been in the championship game ourselves.”

The season ended at home against Orlando, with a playoff berth on the line for both teams, when a Felix Harper pass into the end zone fell incomplete. Wooten’s first move afterward was to cross the field and congratulate the Orlando coach.

He described what follows a loss like that inside the locker room.

“The first thing I do is I acknowledge everything that we did good,” Wooten said. “These guys left their families. They dedicated their whole lives to me as a coach. It’s all about building guys up.”

Wooten’s contract has been extended through a third season, and he said the expectations he and ownership discussed are straightforward: playoffs and a championship.

The Freight have hired Rod Miller as defensive coordinator for 2027, a move Wooten said will let him manage game situations rather than call both sides of the ball.

“In this game, if you get three stops, you have a chance to win the game,” he said.

Roster work is underway. Wooten said both running backs are returning, along with several other players under contract, and that he and Harper are in conversations. Free agency negotiations open Sept. 15 under league rules. Community involvement remains a requirement, he said: “If you’re not a community person, you can’t come to Fishers and play here.”

Wooten also discussed the Indoor Football League’s move to Yahoo Sports, which the league says drew 6.1 million viewers this season. The most-watched game of the year was Fishers Freight versus Jacksonville.

The IFL will add four franchises in 2027 — Little Rock, Arkansas; Athens, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia; and Austin, Texas — bringing the league to 18 teams.

The conversation also covers on-field camera work, sideline reporters interrupting play calls, and why the onside kick math is different indoors.

This podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the podcast at this link or the link below.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness and Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren go before the City Council Monday evening with the city’s 2027 budget proposal. Earlier that day, both men sat down at City Hall for a wide-ranging conversation about what’s in the spending plan — and about the state tax changes reshaping how it gets paid for.

Hultgren said the all-in proposal, combining operating, capital and debt service, totals about $224 million, up from the $203.6 million the council adopted for 2026.

Fadness said operating costs grow incrementally while capital spending swings year to year, because the city banks cash and then spends it on large one-time items. That matters more now, he said, with municipal borrowing costs running much higher — a change from years when the city financed fleet vehicles at about 1% and now buys them with cash.

Property taxes remain the biggest question mark. Hultgren said the city expects about $72.8 million in property tax revenue in 2027, while the state’s Senate Enrolled Act 1 homestead deduction phase-in steadily reduces assessed value. Fadness said the city is forecasting a property tax rate increase of about 6.7 cents, its first in years, even as the homestead deduction climbs toward 66% of assessed value.

“I can’t even really articulate to the individual homeowner what it’s going to mean to them specifically,” Fadness said. Generally, he added, residents should see a marked slowdown in property tax increases, and in many cases an actual reduction.

Department highlights from the conversation:

Public works. Capital spending more than doubles. Hultgren tied that largely to sewer work that wasn’t in the 2026 budget — panel replacements and pump station projects — following the HSE utility acquisition that took the city from about 100 miles of sewer pipe to more than 400, and from 29 lift stations to 53.

Streets. The city is setting aside $1 million to begin work on failing concrete streets in two or three older neighborhoods, where reconstruction runs $800,000 to $900,000 per 1,000 feet. Resurfacing holds at 15 to 18 miles. Fadness said the 116th Street traffic signal is “on the priority list” but not committed for 2027; staff are checking whether poles pulled from intersections converted to roundabouts can be reused. A new signal costs $500,000 to $700,000.

Police. Body camera contracts alone run about $750,000 a year — “equal to having six additional police officers,” Fadness said. Asked about Flock camera misuse cases elsewhere in Indiana, Fadness said Fishers has had no such incidents and no related discipline, and that officers who misused the system would be held accountable.

Fire. Thirty recruits started this month, mostly replacing retirements. The city plans a fourth ambulance, likely at Station 93 on Allisonville Road.

Parks. Agri Park West is scheduled to open in spring 2027, and a country store is coming to the original Agri Park.

Community Center. Projected 2027 net income tops $257,000, reaching self-sufficiency ahead of the three-year timeline. Fadness said the revenue stays in that fund for building upkeep.

On staffing, Hultgren said departments requested roughly a dozen new positions. The budget funds one — an additional detective.

Fadness summed up the plan this way: “I think this budget is boring in some regard, and I think the world needs a little more boring right now.”\This podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the full conversation with Mayor Fadness and Deputy Mayor Hultgren here, or at the link below.