The Hamilton County Health Department is seeking seven additional staff positions, saying population growth has pushed demand for services back to — and in some cases beyond — levels before Fishers established its own health department in 2020.

In a Sept. 8 news release, the county department said increased workloads have strained staffing and filled its primary building to capacity.

“Many people assumed we would become a smaller organization,” said Jason LeMaster, the department’s administrator. “What we’ve experienced instead is tremendous growth that has stretched our staff, our building, and our resources.”

The department cited countywide population growth of nearly 9% since 2020, from approximately 349,000 residents to nearly 380,000. It also cited projections that the county will exceed 500,000 residents by 2050.

Demand has increased across environmental inspections, water quality programs, mosquito surveillance, vital records and community health services, according to the department.

Its Food Safety Program is handling its highest workload on record, the department said, as more restaurants, temporary food vendors and community events generate additional inspections and compliance responsibilities.

Space is another challenge. The department said seasonal employees, interns, public education programs and expanding services routinely exceed available workspace. Its Vector Control Program continues to operate from temporary facilities.

The seven positions were requested for the upcoming budget cycle. The release did not specify their cost or whether they have been approved.

The department is also pursuing state and federal grants to help cover rising costs for supplies, equipment and services. LeMaster said the department is prioritizing staffing requests while considering financial pressures on taxpayers and local government.

Fishers-based Spokenote has named Steve Johns, former CEO of Carmel-based fundraising technology company OneCause, as executive adviser to its board of directors.

Johns will work with founder John Wechsler and the board to strengthen operations and guide long-term growth, according to a company announcement.

Spokenote’s platform allows nonprofits, colleges, associations and consumer brands to create and distribute personalized video messages. Organizations use the technology for donor communications, fundraising, student recruitment, membership engagement and customer outreach.

“We’re now entering a new chapter focused on scale,” Wechsler said in the announcement. “Bringing Steve into the organization shows our commitment to building a leadership team capable of realizing the significant opportunity ahead of us.”

Johns led OneCause before its acquisition by Bonterra in 2025, according to the release. He also serves as board chairman of Indianapolis-based Boardable, which provides nonprofit board management software, and wrote the book “Fearless: Leadership Lessons at the Crossroads.”

“I see a tremendous opportunity to expand that success and help more organizations take advantage of the next generation of personalized communication,” Johns said.

Spokenote said its technology has powered engagement campaigns for organizations including the Indiana Pacers, Anheuser-Busch and Berkshire Hathaway.

As part of the company’s growth strategy, Wechsler will devote more attention to strategic partnerships, market expansion, enterprise customer relationships and long-term innovation while working alongside Johns on execution.

Hamilton East Public Library is asking residents to help shape its planned third branch, and one of two public input sessions will be held at the Fishers Library.

The new branch is planned for Noblesville’s Wayne Township, off Olio Road between 146th and 156th streets. HEPL expects to break ground in 2027.

Before that happens, library officials want to hear what residents want inside the building. HEPL is asking for ideas on the branch’s design, atmosphere, spaces, services and amenities — everything from meeting rooms and cozy seating areas to gathering spaces and a coffee shop.

Two open house-style focus groups are scheduled:

• Tuesday, Sept. 22, 5-7 p.m., Fishers Library
• Wednesday, Sept. 23, 5-7 p.m., Noblesville Library

No registration is required. Residents can stop in anytime during those two-hour windows.

“We’re excited to take the next step toward bringing a third HEPL location to the community, and we want residents to have a voice in what that library becomes,” Library Director Melissa Loiselle said in a written statement. “This is an opportunity for our community to help us imagine what this branch can look like and what it can offer to the people who will use it.”

Hamilton East Public Library serves both Fishers and Noblesville, and Fishers cardholders would be able to use the third branch the same as the two existing locations.

More information on the project is available at hamiltoneastpl.org.

The Fishers Board of Public Works & Safety approved a notice of award Tuesday for the Lynnwood Hills sewer project, with construction expected to begin in about a month.

TSW Utility Solutions, LLC submitted the lowest construction bid at $2,788,140. The award is contingent on the city receiving project funding from the Indiana Finance Authority.

The project will provide sewer service to 160 lots in the neighborhood, with owners of 150 lots signed up to participate.

Mayor Scott Fadness described the pricing as “some pretty good news” during the Sept. 8 meeting.

Sanitary Engineer Jeremy Schmitt said “the numbers came in very good, right at what we expected.”

TSW’s bid was the lowest of three received Aug. 31. Daystar submitted a bid of $2,839,651.08, while Morphey’s bid was $7.7 million. BF&S reviewed the bids and recommended awarding the work to TSW.

The construction bid, combined with $1,061,250 for grinder equipment, brings the total construction cost to $3,849,390. Fishers is receiving a $1.4 million grant and financing the remainder through a 20-year loan at zero interest through the Indiana Finance Authority.

Schmitt said the contractor has 11 months to complete the work, though he hopes it will be finished sooner. Most of the installation will involve boring, which he expects to limit disruption in the neighborhood. Existing septic tanks must be removed or crushed as part of the conversion.

Cunningham restaurant planned for The Union

The board also approved a Riverfront District Designation Permit application for a Cunningham Restaurant Group location planned at The Union development.

The application was filed by CRG Unit 61, LLC for 9302 Union Place Drive, Unit 100. The agenda materials did not identify the restaurant’s name or an opening date.  Cunningham has a number of eatery brands, including (but not limited to) BRU Burger Bar, Livery, RIZE and Stone Creek Dining Company.

Fishers established the riverfront development project area in September 2023. The designation allows qualifying businesses within the district to seek alcohol permits without the usual limits on the number of permits in a community.

The board’s approval is one step in that process. The Indiana Alcohol & Tobacco Commission will review the company’s application and issue the actual liquor license if approved.

The permit would remain within the development if the restaurant closes in the future, according to Economic Development Director Megan Baumgartner.

Elmer Drive connection tied to Culver’s expansion and roundabout work

The board approved a right-of-way dedication and drainage easement related to a parking lot expansion at Culver’s, 13691 Olio Road.

The restaurant plans to remove its existing right-in/right-out driveway on Southeastern Parkway and construct a connector road, Elmer Drive, between the parkway and a new parking lot entrance.

The city needs Elmer Drive to extend beyond the proposed Culver’s driveway to East 136th Street to help maintain traffic during construction of the Olio Road and Southeastern Parkway roundabout.

The approved right-of-way dedication covers land on the Culver’s property. An accompanying dedication on the Hy-Vee property to the east would complete the width needed for Elmer Drive.

The drainage easement, also on the Culver’s property, will accommodate storm sewer infrastructure for the road.

Fishers residents and Hamilton County businesses have until Feb. 1, 2027, to file certain federal tax returns and make qualifying tax payments under disaster relief announced by the Internal Revenue Service.

Hamilton County is among 21 Indiana counties covered by the relief following severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding that began Aug. 11. The IRS announced the postponement Sept. 2 following a federal disaster declaration.

The relief generally covers eligible filing and payment deadlines falling on or after Aug. 11, 2026, and before Feb. 1, 2027. Individuals who live in Hamilton County and businesses whose principal location is in the county qualify under the geographic eligibility rules.

For residents who received a valid extension to file their 2025 federal income tax return, the filing deadline moves to Feb. 1. However, the relief does not extend the deadline for paying taxes owed on those returns. Those payments were due April 15, 2026.

Estimated income tax payments due during the postponement period also qualify. Affected taxpayers can avoid penalties for missing those installment deadlines by paying by Feb. 1.

For local employers, the extension includes quarterly payroll and certain excise tax returns normally due Nov. 2, 2026. The relief does not broadly postpone payroll tax deposits or all information returns, so businesses should check which obligations qualify.

The IRS automatically applies filing and payment relief to taxpayers it identifies within the covered disaster area. If an eligible taxpayer receives a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice for a covered deadline, the agency advises calling the telephone number on the notice to request removal of the penalty.

Taxpayers outside the designated counties may also qualify if records needed to meet a deadline are within the disaster area. They can call IRS Special Services at 866-562-5227 to request relief.

Affected taxpayers may also be able to claim eligible, unreimbursed disaster losses on their federal return for either the disaster year or the preceding year.

Details and exceptions are available in the IRS disaster relief announcement.

A renewed proposal for an Atwell Suites hotel in Fishers’ Saxony area has cleared the city’s Planned Unit Development Committee, following a prolonged dispute over an earlier design.

The committee unanimously approved the hotel’s architecture and site plan Sept. 2. The four-story, 124-room hotel is planned at the northwest corner of East 134th Street and Olio Road, according to

Atwell Suites is an IHG Hotels & Resorts brand. Senior Planner Christy Cashin identified Striving Legacy Fishers LLC as the petitioner and described the hotel as part of a larger mixed-use development.

Plans include suite-style rooms, coworking and lounge areas, a small patio and limited food and beverage service. The revised exterior includes two public art murals, limestone accents and additional lighting. Developer representative Mindy Westrick Brown told the committee that city staff helped shape those changes, including references to local railroad heritage.

The earlier proposal called for 113 rooms near Minden and Erlen drives, southeast of Saxony Lake. That differs from the location identified for the newly approved plan.

In 2024, committee members questioned whether the hotel’s appearance fit Saxony’s architectural character. Developers said they needed to balance local standards with IHG’s preferred brand design. Requested changes included an additional entrance, larger windows and more consistent ground-floor brickwork.

Residents’ objections extended beyond appearance. IBJ reported that a petition included 430 opposing signatures and 13 supporting signatures. Opponents cited proximity to homes, a daycare and a park, along with concerns about traffic, noise and trash. The developer’s representative countered that a hotel was a permitted use within the mixed-use area.

After allowing additional revisions in August 2024, the committee rejected the architecture 5-0 on Dec. 4, 2024. The Saxony Community Association also submitted an opposition letter.

The latest approval clears the committee’s design review. The site already has mixed-use zoning. Fishers’ published process says approved PUD projects may proceed, with construction dependent on applicable permits and resolution of staff review comments. Commercial site work requires an Improvement Location Permit.

For many years, people living in Fishers were on their own when it came to trash. Every household either contracted directly with a hauler or hoped its homeowners association had negotiated a decent deal. As prices climbed, city officials decided it was time to look at a citywide residential contract.

For years, readers asked me a simple question: What is the trash schedule for the holiday? I had to be honest. I did not know. It depended entirely on which company you hired and what that company decided to do.

That changed Jan. 13, 2025, when Republic Services began collecting for all of incorporated Fishers under a 10-year contract with the city. Three haulers bid on the work. Republic, which already served roughly 60% of the Fishers market, came in with the best bid at $16.39 a month for the first year. The rate is $17.33 a month in 2026 and shows up on your city utility bill. Before the contract, city officials said nearly half of Fishers households were paying more than $30 a month, and the single flat rate would mean savings for about 85% of residents.

The contract did something else that is less obvious but just as useful. It gave the entire city one holiday schedule.

So, a reminder: trash collection in Fishers is delayed one day this Labor Day week. If your normal collection day is Monday, your pickup is Tuesday. If your day is Friday, it moves to Saturday.

I hear only scattered complaints about trash service in Fishers, so I think it is fair to call this one a success story for city government.

For future reference, here is how the holiday schedule works.

The holidays: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The shift: When one of those holidays falls Monday through Friday, collection for that day and every remaining day that week is pushed back one day. A Thursday pickup moves to Friday, and Friday moves to Saturday.

What you get: Weekly trash collection with two 96-gallon carts, curbside recycling every other week, yard waste pickup in April and November at 20 bags per pickup, and bundled branch collection. Bulk item pickups cost $25 and extra bag tags are $2.50 each, both arranged directly with Republic.

One caveat worth knowing: the contract covers the incorporated portions of Fishers. If you are not certain your address is included, the city keeps a mapping tool on its website.

Provider: Republic Services, under contract with the City of Fishers.

This Labor Day reflection comes from a man who has sat on both sides of the table, and who is old enough to admit that the view changes depending on which chair you’re in.

For 28 years I worked in federal civil service. Part of that time I was a front-line manager, responsible for the work and the careers of the people on my team. Another part of that time I was an elected union official, responsible for standing up for those same kinds of people when they believed the agency had gotten something wrong.

The two jobs taught me the same lesson from opposite directions. In management, you learn quickly that an organization’s output is not a machine’s output. It is the accumulated judgment, patience and effort of individuals who chose to show up and care. As a union representative, you learn that dignity is not a fringe benefit. People want to be paid fairly, yes. They also want to be treated as though their work counts for something.

That is the part I keep thinking about as the conversation turns to artificial intelligence.

Plenty of smart people predict that much of the labor now performed by humans will eventually be performed by software. Not all of them agree. MIT economist David Autor has spent years arguing that technology historically changes the composition of work more than it eliminates work outright, shifting what people do rather than whether they do anything. His MIT colleague Daron Acemoglu has estimated the near-term economy-wide productivity gains from AI will be considerably more modest than the loudest forecasts suggest. I am not qualified to settle that argument. I am qualified to say that the experts are not speaking with one voice, and anyone who tells you the outcome is already decided is selling something.

Here is what I believe holds up regardless of how the technology lands. The value of labor was never only the output. It is also the accountability that comes with it — a person who can be asked why, who can be answerable to a neighbor, who can be trusted. No model signs its name to the work in quite the same way.

And that brings me home to Fishers. On a holiday built to honor working people, look around this city. The teachers heading back into HSE classrooms. The nurses on holiday shifts. The road crews, the restaurant staff, the police officers and firefighters working today so the rest of us can grill in the backyard. The small business owners who took a risk on a storefront here. Whatever software eventually does, it is not going to plow 116th Street at 4 a.m.

I remain an optimist. Human work has been declared obsolete before, and it has responded every time by becoming something new. My money is still on the people.

One of the great traditions in Fishers is spending part of Labor Day weekend at Blues Fest. In my view, it ranks among the best free music events any city offers.

My wife, Jane, and I have made a tradition of attending one of the festival’s two evenings. This year, our daughter Allison joined us with my two grandkids, ages 3 and 6. Let’s just say the event earned enthusiastic approval from all three generations. Everyone loved the music and the experience.

Now in its 14th year, Fishers Blues Fest brings eight acts to the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater over the September 5–6 weekend. This year’s lineup includes Judith Hill and Grammy-nominated musician Jontavious Willis, with music spanning blues, soul, funk and more. Admission is free, with no tickets required.

That free admission matters. It gives families an opportunity to enjoy live music together and makes it easy for someone unfamiliar with the blues to give it a listen. A community event like this can introduce people to music they might never otherwise seek out.

The blues deserves that audience. Its roots reach deep into African American musical traditions, including field hollers and ring shouts, and its influence runs through rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll. It is one of America’s great contributions to world culture—and, to my ears, some of the best music anywhere.

My hat is off to the Fishers Parks staff and city leadership for continuing to support this annual tradition. An event may be free to attend, but it takes planning, resources and work to make it happen.

For our family, Blues Fest offered time together and music we could all enjoy. That is a pretty good way to spend a Labor Day weekend—and a tradition worth keeping.

The Cadillac Formula 1 Team’s inaugural season continues to be a challenging one, with both cars finishing near the back of the field Sunday in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

While the race itself produced one of Formula 1’s most memorable moments — Italian driver Kimi Antonelli charged from 19th on the starting grid to win his home Grand Prix for Mercedes — Cadillac was unable to keep pace with the sport’s established teams.

Sergio “Checo” Perez finished 18th, while teammate Valtteri Bottas crossed the line 19th after a difficult 53-lap race. The only teams Cadillac finished ahead of were the two Aston Martin entries.

Perez said the team struggled with straight-line speed throughout the race.

“It was a very difficult race for us,” Perez said after the event. “We were losing a lot of time on the straights, which made it extremely difficult to fight the cars around us.”

Despite the disappointing result, Cadillac officials pointed to one positive: both cars reached the finish after reliability problems affected the team at the previous race in the Netherlands. The organization also says aerodynamic and power unit upgrades are expected later this season.

The on-track growing pains have local significance in Fishers, where Cadillac Formula 1 is developing its North American headquarters. The facility is expected to become a major engineering and technology hub supporting the team’s Formula 1 operation and is anticipated to bring hundreds of high-skilled jobs to the city over the coming years.

Although the race results have fallen short of expectations, Formula 1 observers have noted that expansion teams historically face a steep learning curve while competing against organizations with decades of experience.

Cadillac’s focus now turns to next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, where the team hopes planned upgrades will help close the performance gap as it continues building toward long-term competitiveness in Formula 1.