Many years ago, I covered a county council meeting in a southern Indiana county, where the local sheriff and the president of the council were clearly at odds over a specific budget item the sheriff very much wanted approved.  The council president was very much opposed to that specific spending item.  All was civil during the meeting.  It was after the session ended when things became more intense.

The sheriff and council president began to raise their voices.  They weren’t screaming, but the exchange became loud.  There were gestures.  The two men were clearly very angry with each other.

When I went back to the radio station and wrote my story, I described the conversation as a “heated exchange” between the two.  The next day, the sheriff and council president were contacted by me for a followup and both could not understand why I would call their conversation a “heated exchange.”  Everything was fine, they assured me, all is well and their budget dispute was settled.  Too bad that was before the days of YouTube and viral videos.  Such a video record would have verified my account of their exchange.

That came to mind when I read a story posted Friday morning online at the Indianapolis Star Web site.  Reporter Chris Sikich describes an unannounced visit to the Lockhart Cadillac dealership in Fishers at 126th Street and State Road 37 by County Commissioner Steve Dillinger.  Sikich uses the phrase “heated exchange” in writing about what happened next at the auto sales complex.

The money is in place to begin the engineering work on the State Road 37 project to transform traffic signals along the highway in Fishers to roundabouts with underpasses underneath, similar to Keystone Avenue in Carmel.  Based on Sikich’s story, Dilinger had the “heated exchange” with a Lockhart manager days after the May 3rd primary election.

I won’t go into all the details, but suffice it to say that Lockhart, along with Honda of Fishers (both located along State Road 37 in Fishers) donated campaign money to unsuccessful County Commissioner Candidate Bill Smythe.  His opponent, incumbent Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt, was and is a big supporter of the SR37 roundabout project.  Smythe opposed it, and organized a coalition of businesses along the highway to oppose the roundabout proposal.  The business coalition failed, as the Hamilton County Council approved funding for the the roundabouts, allowing the project to move forward.

The description of that “heated exchange” at Lockhart differs a bit depending on which side is telling the story.  Sikich points that out in his article.

The IndyStar features a number of points we’ve covered on this blog before….that Fishers wants to work with area businesses on the construction phase and the final design of the roundabouts. Mayor Scott Fadness and Bill Smythe are both quoted in the story.

Mayor Fadness does not want businesses along SR37 to suffer or fail during this construction period.  When large highway projects have been under construction in Carmel in recent years, businesses along the highway have paid a price.  A few of them even failed.

Part of the final action by the Hamilton County Council provided at least $250,000 to market the businesses along the highway in Fishers.  The city may match part or all of that.

I expect State Road 37 to be an issue locally in the coming years, all the way through the final construction phase.  Stay tuned.

To read the Indianapolis Star article, use this link.  (NOTE:  If you are not an IndyStar subscriber, you will be limited in the number of online articles you may access each month)