Fishers has a number of current federal employees and retirees from the civil service (such as myself). An issue has arisen impacting federal workers that I believe deserves some attention.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a new government-wide nondisclosure agreement for federal employees, a plan the agency says is aimed at protecting confidential government information and reducing unauthorized leaks.

OPM says the proposed NDA would apply to employees and contractors whose duties involve routine access to sensitive systems or protected information. If finalized, the form could become a standard part of the federal onboarding process and could also apply to current employees at participating agencies.

The argument in favor of the proposal is straightforward. Federal employees often handle private, sensitive or security-related information. That can include personnel records, procurement information, law enforcement material, operational plans and other internal documents not intended for public release. Supporters can argue that a standard NDA would make expectations clear, create uniform rules across agencies and remind employees that unauthorized disclosure of government information can damage public trust, compromise investigations or put people at risk.

OPM also argues the NDA would not eliminate legal protections for whistleblowers. The agency says the proposed form is intended to protect confidential information while still allowing disclosures that are authorized by law.

But the arguments against the proposal are stronger.

First, calling the agreement voluntary becomes questionable if refusing to sign could place an employee’s job in jeopardy. News accounts describe the proposal as applying to current and future federal employees, with violations potentially leading to discipline, termination or even civil and criminal penalties.

Second, the definition of confidential government information appears broad. Reports say it could include internal agency operations, personnel matters, procurement processes and sensitive pre-decisional or deliberative material. That could go well beyond classified information or truly sensitive records.

Third, federal employees already operate under laws and rules restricting the improper disclosure of classified information, personal data, procurement-sensitive material and other protected records. A sweeping NDA may add more intimidation than protection.

The American Federation of Government Employees has sharply criticized the proposal, calling it an attack on nonpartisan federal employees and warning it could be used to silence dissent or discourage workers from raising concerns.

That is the heart of the problem. Even if whistleblower rights technically remain in place, a broad NDA could chill employees from speaking to inspectors general, Congress, journalists or the public about waste, fraud, abuse or misconduct.

Federal employees should not be free to leak private or protected information. But the public also has a right to know when government is failing, abusing power or hiding facts that matter.

After weighing the arguments on both sides, this proposal looks less like a necessary protection and more like a tool that could discourage accountability. Bottom line: it is a bad idea, in my view.

Fishers residents are reminded that trash collection schedules shift during holiday weeks.

Republic Services, which provides residential trash collection under contract with the City of Fishers, operates on a one-day delay following certain holidays. That means if your regular pickup day falls during a holiday week, your trash will be collected one day later than usual.

Memorial Day is one of those holidays, so residents should expect trash pickup this week to be delayed by one day.

The same one-day delay will apply during the remaining holiday weeks on the city’s trash collection calendar this year. Residents are encouraged to place trash carts at the curb by the usual time on their adjusted pickup day.

Here is a calendar  listing the remaining holidays triggering this holiday trash collection schedule (impacted holidays listed in red).

Sangrita Grill & Cantina, a Mexican restaurant in Fishers, located at 11547 Yard Street, will reopen Saturday under new leadership and with a revamped menu and beverage program, the restaurant announced.

The cantina closed Monday at 8 p.m. and is scheduled to reopen at 11 a.m. Saturday after what owners described as a brief refresh of the menu, bar program and overall guest experience.

Josh Ratliff, the restaurateur behind BlackSheep Craft Pizza & Cocktails, is joining the Sangrita team to lead the changes. As part of the transition, the restaurant will become part of Upland Hospitality, the group that operates Upland Brewing Company, BlackSheep Craft Pizza & Cocktails, CV Tap House & Kitchen and CV Proper Kitchen & Bar.

Ratliff said the reimagined restaurant will move away from a traditional Tex-Mex approach and toward coastal Mexican cuisine, with a focus on a beachside grill and ceviche.

“We’re taking Sangrita to the coast — beachside grill and cevicherías, celebrating authenticity in the ways people tend to overlook, like the Caesar salad being a Tijuana original,” Ratliff said in a statement. “We’ve also built something one-of-a-kind: an 80-bottle tequila and mezcal program, all additive-free, paired with fruit and chocolate.”

Ratliff said he had personally tasted every spirit on the new list. “Tex-Mex has its place — but we want you to taste and smile, not just feel full,” he said.

Sangrita has operated in Fishers as a neighborhood Mexican restaurant and bar. Upland Hospitality, based in Indiana, operates brewpubs and restaurants across the central and southern parts of the state.

The restaurant said it will welcome guests back to its Fishers location Saturday morning.

I am one of those people who commuted between Fishers and downtown Indianapolis for years, until my retirement from federal civil service in September 2011. For me, State Road 37 was always one of the most difficult stretches of an already challenging daily commute.

There were projects over the years aimed at easing the bottlenecks along SR 37, but none seemed to make a lasting difference.

That has now changed.

After at least eight years of planning and construction — with some tracing the origins of the concept even further back — motorists can now travel on State Road 37 between I-69 and 146th Street without encountering a traffic signal for north-south traffic. East-west drivers at 126th, 131st and 141st streets are now using roundabouts, while a signal system is in place for east-west traffic at 146th Street.

The final piece of the Fishers portion of the project, the 141st Street interchange and roundabout, officially opened Tuesday morning during a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by a host of dignitaries. Among those on hand were Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, Hamilton County Commissioners and other state and local officials.

The project’s original price tag was set at $124 million, but costs rose sharply in the post-COVID inflationary period. Braun said the final cost came in at $185 million.

The ribbon was cut in two ways. First, a vehicle carrying special guests drove through a ceremonial ribbon. That was followed by the traditional ribbon cutting, complete with scissors and officials gathered for the moment.

Speakers at the ceremony emphasized the partnership among the City of Fishers, Hamilton County and state officials that helped get the project approved eight years ago and brought to completion Tuesday morning.

Braun was especially complimentary of Fishers and its growth.

“I love the enterprising communities,” the governor said.

Braun noted that inflation hit concrete and steel especially hard, two of the key materials needed for road and bridge construction.

“We’re here today to celebrate what I think is the example for Hoosiers across the state — keep your economy strong,” Braun said. “If you don’t keep growing, you won’t be able to do this in the future. I’m going to keep citing what you have done here in Fishers.”

Fadness praised the team effort among different levels of government, saying the project was aimed at improving both quality of life for residents and economic opportunity for the business community.

The mayor also singled out Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt for his role in helping launch and complete the SR 37 project in Fishers.

With the opening of the 141st Street interchange, Fishers has now completed one of the largest construction projects in the city’s history. For motorists who remember years of backups and stoplights along State Road 37, Tuesday marked a major milestone.

And as Fishers reaches the finish line, attention now turns north. Noblesville is next in line to begin improvements along its section of the State Road 37 corridor.

Here are additional photos from the ceremony:

Continue reading SR 37 Project Reaches the Finish Line in Fishers →

After helping open Fishers High School and guiding its athletic program for two decades, Jim Brown is stepping away. Brown is retiring as athletic director at FHS, capping a 41-year career in Indiana high school athletic administration.

The Hamilton Southeastern Schools Board of Trustees confirmed Brown’s successor at its April 15 meeting, hiring Tyler Nicole, the former athletic director at Westfield High School, to fill the position.

Brown’s name has been tied to Fishers High School from day one. He came to Fishers for the school’s opening in the 2006-07 academic year and helped oversee facility renovations in 2009 and 2013, building the foundation for what has become one of the largest high school athletic programs in Indiana.

Before Fishers, Brown spent 21 years as athletic director at Triton Central in Shelby County, where he also served as assistant principal beginning in 1988-89.

His influence stretched well beyond the Tigers. Brown is in his 12th year on the IHSAA Board of Directors and has served as board president, vice president and executive committee vice chairman. He is in his 34th year as an assistant director of the IHSAA boys basketball state finals and has worked state finals events in track, volleyball and soccer. Fishers also served as a host school for the IHSAA soccer state finals from 2019 to 2021 and hosted the 2025 Indiana All-Star Futures Games doubleheader under his watch.

Earlier this school year, the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association named Brown its 2026 District 2 Administrator of the Year, recognizing his decades of support for high school basketball in Indiana.

He has also been a longtime leader within the Indiana Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, serving as president in 1996-97 and as treasurer and conference chairman from 1998 to 2015. The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association honored Brown with its State Award of Merit in 2001 and its Distinguished Service Award in 2012.

This spring, Fishers hosted the third annual Jim Brown Unified Track Invitational, an event named in his honor that has become a fixture of the FHS athletic calendar.

A 1973 graduate of Southwestern High School in Tippecanoe County, Brown earned a bachelor’s degree from Ball State, a master’s in education from Indiana State and an administrator’s license from Butler. He began his career as a physical education teacher at Rushville Junior High in 1978-79 before moving to Triton Central in 1981.

Brown and his wife Gretchen have two adult children, Liz and Nick, and eight grandchildren.

As Brown closes out his career, his fingerprints are on nearly every corner of FHS athletics — from the original buildout of the program to the facility upgrades, the state finals events hosted at Fishers and the generations of Tiger student-athletes who came through during his 20 years on the job.

Fishers residents seeing more golf carts on neighborhood streets as warm weather returns should know the city ordinance allows them only under limited conditions.

Under Fishers City Code Section 94.02, golf carts may be operated on city-maintained neighborhood streets only after the city determines they can be used safely, the neighborhood’s homeowners association or developer conducts a vote, at least 75% of all lot owners vote in favor, the result is certified to the city, and city-approved signs are posted designating the streets where golf carts are allowed.

That means golf carts are not automatically legal on every neighborhood street in Fishers. According to a previous Fishers Police Department reminder, the neighborhoods that had met the ordinance requirements were Britton Falls, Thorpe Creek, Intracoastal at Geist and Graystone. I was unable to locate a newer publicly available list showing additional neighborhoods approved under the ordinance.

The ordinance defines a golf cart as a four-wheeled motor vehicle originally designed and intended to transport people for the purpose of playing golf on a golf course. The ordinance does not restrict golf cart use on golf courses, private property or official city use on municipal property.

There are also operating rules. Golf carts may be operated only on designated streets from sunrise to sunset unless the cart is equipped with headlights, taillights, brake lights, seatbelts, turn signals and a rearview mirror. Only a person with a valid driver’s license may operate a golf cart on city streets. Golf carts are not allowed on city sidewalks, non-designated streets or other public ways.

The ordinance also includes a limited public service exemption. A resident may apply through the Police Department for permission to operate a golf cart for a public service purpose, but the decision rests with the chief of police. Anyone receiving such an exemption must carry verification while operating the cart.

Violations can result in fines. The ordinance sets the penalty at $50 for a first offense, $100 for a second offense within one year, and $250 for a third or additional offense within one year. Unpaid violations may be referred to City Court.

For residents, the main point is simple: unless a neighborhood has gone through the city’s approval process and the proper signs are in place, golf carts are not permitted on Fishers public streets.

The Fishers Memorial Day service has grown into one of the largest in the area, drawing a large crowd to the Nickel Plate Amphitheater Monday morning in perfect weather to honor those who died in service to the nation’s Armed Forces.

Mayor Scott Fadness told the gathering he had watched the massive pre-race ceremonies at the Indianapolis 500 a day earlier and wondered how a community like Fishers could ever match that scale. Some things, he said, matters more than spectacle.

Having local people honor local families, Fadness explained, is the best way to pay homage to military service — and to those who have lost loved ones in armed conflict.

The keynote address came from Alex Kor, the son of two Holocaust survivors. Both of his parents have died in the past six years. Kor spoke of how American GIs rescued his father Mickey from a Nazi concentration camp and later helped him become an American citizen. Mickey went on to serve in uniform during the Korean War.

El Ahlwardt, co-chair of the Fishers Armed Services Commission, handled his master-of-ceremonies duties with his usual aplomb, keeping the one-hour program moving briskly. The service closed with the playing of “Taps” and a flyover by Indy Biplanes.

The ceremony is one of many events the City of Fishers sponsors throughout the year to honor military veterans — and, on Memorial Day, those who made the ultimate sacrifice for America.

Additional photos of the Fishers Memorial Day ceremony appear below.

Continue reading Fishers Memorial Day service draws large crowd to Nickel Plate Amphitheater →

After nearly five decades shaping young minds in Fishers classrooms, Janet Chandler is closing the book on a remarkable career at Hamilton Southeastern High School.

Chandler, who spent 47 of her 48 years in education as a Royal, has retired from HSE, where she taught social studies and built a reputation as one of the district’s most influential educators, mentors and leaders.

During her tenure, Chandler helped lead nationally recognized academic programs at HSE, including We the People and Mock Trial — programs that taught generations of Fishers students the value of civic engagement, leadership and respectful discourse.

Her influence extended well beyond the classroom. Chandler served as longtime president of the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association, where she became a trusted advocate for teachers and a respected voice across the district and the broader Fishers community.

Her work earned her some of Indiana’s highest honors in education. Chandler received the Indiana State Teachers Association’s Hoosier Educator of the Year Award and was named a Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest distinction given by the governor of Indiana.

For HSE Softball fans, Chandler’s voice has been part of the soundtrack of spring evenings at the ballpark. She served for years as the team’s public address announcer, a role the program recognized in a tribute before a recent home game.

“Janet’s voice has become part of the tradition of game nights,” HSE Softball said in honoring her. “She has served as our public address announcer with professionalism, energy and care — helping create memorable experiences for student-athletes, coaches, families and fans alike.”

The softball program offered a playful tribute to what the word “ROYAL” has meant in Chandler’s case — ready and reliable, observant, yielding to weather-dependent schedules, altruistic with her time and legendary as the voice of HSE softball.

Chandler’s retirement closes a chapter that began in the 1970s and touched thousands of Fishers families. From the classroom to the press box, her fingerprints are on much of what HSE has become.

Cadillac’s first Formula One season continued Sunday with a difficult Canadian Grand Prix, but the team with a growing Fishers connection still managed to get one car to the finish in Montreal.

Valtteri Bottas finished 16th for the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, four laps behind race winner Kimi Antonelli, while teammate Sergio “Checo” Perez retired after completing 39 laps, according to official race results compiled by Motorsport.com. Bottas made four pit stops in the race, while Perez also stopped four times before retiring.

The race at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was won by Antonelli, the 19-year-old Mercedes driver who captured his fourth consecutive Formula One victory. Lewis Hamilton finished second for Ferrari, with Max Verstappen third for Red Bull Racing. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, followed by Isack Hadjar and Franco Colapinto. Formula One’s official results listed Antonelli’s winning time at 1 hour, 28 minutes, 15.758 seconds, with Hamilton 10.768 seconds behind.

The most dramatic moment of the race came when George Russell, who had started from pole and battled Antonelli for the lead, retired on lap 30 with a power unit failure. Reuters reported that Antonelli now leads the drivers’ championship by 43 points after five rounds.

For Cadillac, the Canadian weekend offered both signs of progress and reminders of how steep the climb can be for a new Formula One team. On Saturday, Cadillac said Perez delivered the team’s best on-track result to date in the Sprint, crossing the line 11th before a post-race penalty dropped him to 14th. Bottas finished that Sprint 17th after starting from the pit lane.

Qualifying proved more difficult. Perez started Sunday’s Grand Prix from 20th, while Bottas qualified 22nd. Cadillac team principal Graeme Lowdon said after Saturday’s running that the team had shown it could be “in the mix of the midfield” when everything came together, but acknowledged the team could not repeat that form in qualifying.

Cadillac came to Canada with additional upgrades, including new front brake drums, diffuser trim and winglets, and front torsion bars designed to help the car handle the steep curbs at the Montreal circuit. Lowdon said before the weekend that the team’s goal was to build on momentum from Miami, where Cadillac had shown improved performance and completed both the Sprint and Grand Prix with both cars.

The team is of local interest because Cadillac is building a purpose-built Formula One headquarters in Fishers. Motorsport.com reported last year that the team is operating across both sides of the Atlantic, with its 2026 car coordinated largely from Silverstone while the Fishers facility is completed. Lowdon has said the Fishers development is nearly a half-million square feet and that, over time, the headquarters will handle the bulk of the car’s manufacturing.

Cadillac is competing in its debut Formula One season with veteran drivers Perez and Bottas. The team is backed by General Motors and TWG Motorsports and joined the F1 grid this year as the sport’s 11th constructor. Cadillac’s own site lists Perez and Bottas as the team’s lead drivers for its first season.

Formula One’s next race is the Monaco Grand Prix, scheduled for June 5-7.