The City of Fishers is moving forward with a public-private partnership with Hagerman Group (through a separate entity “Hagerman Police Station LLC”) by beginning the pre-construction process of designing the new police headquarters structure.  The Board of Works and Safety approved a “scoping agreement” with Hagerman to begin the process.

City Attorney Chris Greisl told the board a request for proposals (RFP) was issued in September to “design, build and finance a new police station…to design, develop, build, finance, maintain, manage and operate a new public parking garage…and remodel the interior of the city’s current police station for future use.”  This will all be done consistent with Indiana’s Public-Private Partnership Act, the city attorney said.

The new police station is envisioned as a 50,000 square foot facility with 3 or 4 stories and a 240 space parking garage.  The old Bureau of Motor Vehicles building, most recently used for the Fishers City Court, will be demolished to make way for the new police building.

As part of the public-private partnership, the developer selected will plan, design, construct, operate, manage and finance the building on behalf of the city, ultimately transferring the entire facility to the City of Fishers, according to Greisl.

With Hagerman being selected by the mayor for the “Scoping Agreement,” Hagerman will do the preliminary work and plans for the new police building.  There is a $510,000 ceiling on what Hagerman will be paid during the Scoping Agreement period.

Then a developer will be selected to continue the project to its completion.  If Hagerman is not selected as the project developer, Mayor Scott Fadness says Hagerman will be paid 75% of its costs, up to the $510,000.

Fadness says the scoping agreement provisions provide language to give Hagerman  incentives “to be realistic about the scope” of the police headquarters building project.

IKEA wants a left turn access lane into its new Fishers store from USA Parkway, and has offered to reimburse the city for the cost of having it done.  The Board of Public Works & Safety approved a Memorandum of Understanding with IKEA to build the northbound left-turn access lane.

The city estimates the cost of constructing this left-turn lane will be $56,059.66.  This will be built during a period next year when the entire area will be under construction

Work on the project should begin in 2017.

To see a map of the area, use this link.

Fishers Police pursued two suspects early Saturday morning and, with the help of IMPD andf State Police officers, apprhended both.  It all started with police responding to an alarm at Coast to Coast Motors on 131st Street, just west of State Road 37.

Below is the full news release fromt the Fishers Police Department:

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Fishers police officers arrested two burglary suspects during the overnight hours.

Shortly after 3:00am Fishers police officers responded to a business alarm at Coast to Coast Motors located at 9200 E. 131^st Street (131^st Street and State Road 37). Upon their arrival officers observed a man inside the building. The male suspect ran from the business and got into a black Dodge truck occupied by a female suspect. Both suspects fled the scene and officers pursued them.

The pursuit ended, a short time later, on the 56^th Street exit ramp from I465 South. The suspects stopped the Dodge and surrendered without incident. Both of the suspects were transported to the Hamilton County Jail. No one was injured during this incident. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Indiana State Police both assisted in the pursuit and apprehension.

Anyone with information regarding this incident or these suspects is asked to contact the Fishers Police Department at 317-595-3300.

Arrested #1 –            Myles K. McMahan

                                    22 years old

                                    Greenfield, Indiana

Charge(s) –               Burglary – Level 5 Felony

                                    Resisting Law Enforcement – Level 6 Felony

                                    Resisting Law Enforcement – A Misdemeanor

                                    Theft – A Misdemeanor

Held –                         Hamilton County Jail

Arrested #2 –            Terryn A. Crittenden

                                    18 years old

                                    Indianapolis, Indiana

Charge(s) –               Burglary – Level 5 Felony

                                    Resisting Law Enforcement – Level 6 Felony

                                    Theft – A Misdemeanor

Held –                         Hamilton County Jail

When one is asked to write an Op-Ed piece for the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ), it is quite an honor.  I have been asked to do so on a couple of occasions  and was surprised to have that opportunity.

In the November 28-December 4 edition of the IBJ, the mayor of Fishers has an op-ed piece everyone should read.  It reveals a lot about the mayor’s thinking on how a state-wide economic development strategy should be developed for Indiana.

Scott Fadness makes the point that Indiana will not likely be able to rely on the three components of the current economy in the future.  He describes the three pillars as manufacturing, agriculture and distribution.

The mayor then goes on to provide an example of a company injecting a $90 million investment into an Indiana community.  Years ago, an investment of that size in a manufacturing project would yield as many as 1,000 jobs for that local area.  This time, the total job gain is in the range of 90 to 100 positions.  Bottom line, manufacturing isn’t the job machine it once was.

According to Fishers’ mayor, The “Internet of Things” can be the center of new growth for the Hoosier state.  Fadness makes a compelling case.

I know people such as Governor-Elect Eric Holcomb, House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long all read the IBJ.  My questions is – will they take Scott Fadness’ argument to heart?  Indiana clearly needs an economic development strategy moving forward, and the ideas Mayor Fadness is putting forward make as much sense as anything else I have seen lately.

This IBJ piece does one more thing for Scott Fadness – it raises his profile state-wide.  Many leaders in the Republican Party see Fadness as a part of the younger generation preparing to have a great deal of influence in state politics as the state heads into future election cycles.

You can access the mayor’s IBJ commentary at this link. (NOTE:  If you are not an online subscriber to IBJ, you may have trouble accessing it)

Giving Tuesday is now established as a day after Thanksgiving to support local charities doing good work in your local community.  There are a number of organizations in the Fishers area you should consider supporting on this important day of giving.

One of those groups is the Hamilton Southeastern Schools Foundation.  They are making a pitch for your support.  Below is a news release from the foundation:

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I began my career working in media during the late 1960s.  Like anyone else of that era, I was in awe of the celebrities television had created for us.  When you work in media, even locally, there are stars that come through town trying to promote something.

Let’s just say that the more you get to know these so-called “celebrities” the less you are in awe of them.  In fact, most celebrities are not very nice people.  I went from asking for any assignment to interview a celebrity to asking to stay away from those tasks as much as possible.

If you have lived in the Indianapolis area long enough, you likely remember the Hilton U. Brown Theater on the Butler University campus (since torn down).  It housed the summer series called Starlight Musicals for 30 years.

In 1975, one show that came to Starlight was The Jim Nabors Show.  Nabors had become a national celebrity playing the role of Gomer Pyle on the Andy Griffith Show, then landed his own television series where he (& his character Gomer) starred.

Part of the Jim Nabors Show on stage was a singer who had her own TV series….Florence Henderson, who had a leading role in “The Brady Bunch.”  I was never a big fan of the Brady clan but my younger siblings were.

I was assigned to interview Florence Henderson in her Starlight dressing room in July of 1975.  Since my past encounters with big-name stars were anything but memorable, I wasn’t looking forward to the interview.

Once at Starlight, I was told there would be three other media types interviewing Ms. Henderson at that same time, a sort of mini-news-conference.  That didn’t bother me.  If the interview went south, as it often did with big name acts, at least I wouldn’t be alone.

When we were ushered into the dressing room, Forence Henderson could not have been more gracious.  She was down-to-earth, friendly and answered all our questions.  There were no questions about the Brady Bunch…that show didn’t become really popular until later.

I remember asking about her singing career and if she had any immediate plans to record an album.  She was clearly unhappy about the state of the music business at that time and the lack of interest from record executives (yes, that’s what we called them then) for music she performed.

After the session ended, Ms. Henderson had to ask her assistant for some change so she could call her kids from a pay phone.  This was way before cell phones and Starlight didn’t even have a telephone in the dressing rooms.  I later found out she called her children at least once a day to check in on them while on the road.

Of all the celebrities I had the chance to meet during those years, Florence Henderson was right at the top of my list.  I enjoyed spending time with her and ran the entire interview session on my radio program “Night Action” that same evening.

It is sad to learn of Florence Henderson’s passing.  She had  become a fixture each year at the Indianapolis 500.  She was a big star.  Most importantly, she was a good person.

As American holidays go, Thanksgiving is right up there as one of the most important.  It is a time for families to gather and give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy.

No matter how bad things can be, you can still make a list of what you have in your life for which you can be thankful.  I have had some very low points in my life, but at this time of year, I always thought about what was still good.

Today, I am thankful for my family and friends.  I am thankful for my good health.

But today I want to thank a specific group of people….all of you reading this news blog and listening to my podcasts.  This endeavor has expanded beyond anything I could ever imagine when it all began.

When I retired from the federal government after 28 years of civilian service, I saw troubling trends in the profession where I made my living before entering the civil service.

The changes in the economics of the news business had left many local communities without regular, daily news.  While living in Fishers, I subscribed to the Noblesville Daily Ledger, which covered news in Noblesville, Carmel and Fishers.  I knew what was going on locally from that news source 6 days a week.

The Ledger was sold and eventually closed down after more that 100 years.  That was a signal things were changing.

Once I retired from federal employment in September of 2011, I made plans to work on some way of filling the news gap for people living in my community of Fishers. By January of 2012, I had put together a simple Web page and began publishing news around Fishers.  I started attending town council meetings and wrote summaries of what I witnessed.

I was fortunate to have had some experience in covering events and writing news stories, knowing that those skills were more than a little rusty.  I was a bit superstitious at first by not installing a counter on the site.  I had no idea whether anyone was reading my material.

Then people would approach me at the council meetings, giving me an idea someone was actually reading LarryInFishers.com.  I finally started monitoring the traffic on my site, and found that, for a locally focused news site, I was getting a decent number of readers

I have been writing about local issues on LarryInFishers.com for nearly five years now.  Since starting the site in early 2012, I have done more writing.  I contribute occasional commentaries for Current In Fishers, a local weekly print publication.  I have done some writing for the Indianapolis Business Journal and write commentaries for their online opinion blog, Indiana Forefront.

In February of 2016, I began a series of podcasts.  The listening audience has surpassed any expectations I had at that time.

This has always been, and continues to be, a volunteer activity for me.  I do this simply because the news business has changed and no one else is in a position to do this.  People in Fishers want daily updates on news happening here.

So here is what I give special thanks for this Thanksgiving in 2016.  I thank you for reading this news blog.  I thank you for listening to my podcasts.  You are what makes this work worthwhile for me.  As long as my health is good and I am able to continue, the LarryInFishers news blog will continue, assuming I have  readers and listeners.

So, thanks to all of you this Thanksgiving Day.

John DeLucia talks with Larry about the local school board and other local topics…

Fishers City Council President John Weingardt says council members have been drowning in paper, so the council appears to be moving toward saving some trees and placing more documents on technology rather than paper.  That was the topic of conversation during a council work session held November 21st.

The council, during its regular session later than same evening, gave the okay to students at Hoosier Road Elementary, allowing chickens at the school as part of the educational program for Project Based Learning.

The council also approved a right-of-way grant, road improvements and a fee waiver agreement paving the way for the new Harley Davidson dealership on 126th Street, just east of State Road 37.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board members voted 4-2 to move forward with plans for renovations of Cumberland Road Elementary School and the school corporation’s administration building, authorizing administrators to begin negotiations with the CSO architectural firm for designs on those two projects.  The board also approved the management method for constructing the new elementary school planned along Cyntheanne Road, which is unnamed at this time.

Board members Howard Stevenson and Sylvia Shepler voted against the administration proposal, each saying there were provided with the information just hours before the November 21st session and did not have time to review the plan.  Neither indicated any opposition to the facility projects, they were concerned about not having enough time to fully evaluate the proposal.

The vote only authorized school officials to negotiate a contract with CSO Architects.  Once a contract agreement is reached, that document is subject to board approval.

Both the Cumberland Road Elementary and the administration building projects are expected to cost $8.5 million each.  The new elementary school along Cyntheanne Road is expected to cost about $22 million.  Voters approved a referendum authorizing the construction of a new elementary school years ago that allows for the construction of the new Kindergarten through 4th Grade building.

At a November 15 work session, board members were told the new (as yet unnamed) elementary school on Cyntheanne Road should be ready for the school year beginning in fall  of 2019.  The Cumberland Road renovations are expected to begin construction during the summer of 2017, with completion projected for the end of 2018 at the latest.  Work on the administration building should begin in the summer of 2017 and be finished during the final quarter of 2018.