Hamilton County Reporter

Hamilton Southeastern won its fifth straight game Tuesday, running past New
Castle 56-29 at the Trojans’ Fieldhouse.

The Class 4A No. 6 Royals got off to a fast start, leading 25-2 after the first quarter.
Southeastern held a 36-8 advantage at halftime, and maintained that margin throughout
the second half.

Amaya Hamilton led the HSE scoring with 20 points, while Sydney Parrish added
15. Parrish grabbed seven rebounds and Tayah Irvin collected five. Irvin also made
four steals, while Molly Walton dished out six assists.

Southeastern is now 11-2 for the season and travels to Fishers on Saturday evening
for the Mudsock game.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

The first step toward a new bridge over White River at Pleasant Street was accomplished Monday by Hamilton County Commissioners. Following several years of discussion with the city of Noblesville, commissioners entered into an engineering agreement with USI Engineering for preliminary engineering services for the bridge. It will be the fourth span over the river in Noblesville and is key to a bypass of the city’s downtown area.

Estimated cost figures have not been announced. But, the county has a Major Bridge Fund with several million dollars. County government is responsible for building and maintaining major bridges throughout the county whether they are located inside or outside a city.

Noblesville city officials have already begun plans for improving Pleasant Street between 10th Street and White River along with a connection to River Road to the west of the river. Ultimately, plans call for a bypass-type thoroughfare linking State Road 37 with State Road 32 where Hague Road currently meets SR 32.

The idea of the partial bypass is to relieve traffic congestion in the downtown business district. Currently all SR 32 traffic moves through Noblesville over the Conner Street bridge. There is a second downtown bridge at Logan Street, and a third at Field Drive on the north side of the city.

In a flurry of year-end highway improvement measures, commissioners also signed an engineering agreement with the firm of Beam, Longest and Neff for designing a “curve correction” on Strawtown Avenue at Prairie Baptist Road, entered into an interlocal agreement with Carmel for assisting in construction of an interchange at Keystone Parkway and 96th Street, and another interlocal with Fishers for a bridge over the Shoemaker Ditch on Allisonville Road.

And finally, the board signed an agreement with the Lochmueller Group for construction inspection of the planned Lowes Way Extension, also known as a flyover connection to allow 146th Street traffic to access southbound Keystone Parkway. Construction on the project is expected to begin early in 2018.

In other action, commissioners announced the contractual employment of Tammy Sander as the county’s new public relations representative. She will start in her part time job immediately, spending the next three weeks acquainting herself with county government, local officials and various upcoming projects, according to County Commissioner Steve Dillinger.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

If all goes well Hamilton County youngsters will begin using the latest Koteewi Park attraction on Saturday. It’s a ‘tubing hill’ designed for snow sledding, but with inner tubes instead of sleds. County park department employees, using a snow-making machine, are preparing a heavy base of snow on the hill for season long winter use at the county’s largest park west of Strawtown.

* * *

Darren Murphy was sworn in as a court magistrate on Monday afternoon at the Government and Judicial Center. He takes the position formerly held by David Najjar who became judge of Hamilton Superior Court 5 last month. A reception hosted by Murphy’s former law firm followed the swearing-in administered by Superior Court 6 Judge Gail Bardach.

* * *

The Carmel School Board held its last meeting of the year Monday without making any decision on the future of school superintendent Nick Wahl. He was placed on administrative leave in October pending a performance review according to school board spokesmen. No date has been announced for a decision on Wahl who continues to draw his salary while on leave. Roger McMichael and Amy Dudley are acting superintendents.

* * *

The Hamilton County Republican Party is moving its headquarters from Fishers to Westfield. The new offices will open in January at the new Edge Rock Development west of U.S. 31 and south of State Road 32, according to GOP County Chairwoman Laura Campbell. An open house at the new headquarters will be announced later.

* * *

A public retirement party for George Kristo, longtime director of the Hamilton County Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs, is planned for Jan. 5 at the county Government Center. Kristo has served 22 years with the council which works to discourage drinking and illegal drug use by county youth. Kristo’s successor has not yet been named.

* * *

In only four weeks the 2018 election season begins. Candidates for 52 local offices ranging from state legislator to township board member may begin filing for office on Jan. 10. Some candidates have already announced their intentions to run in the May primary. Filing runs until noon on Feb. 9.

Residents received an update on the State Road 37 project Monday night, and officials had a lot to talk about.  The intersection designs for 141st Street and 146th Street have both changed dramatically, the sequence of when intersections will be constructed is now up in the air and officials are working to keep the project within budget.

First, the two major design changes.

141st Street was originally designed to be a two-lane roundabout.  The new design calls for a single lane roundabout.

The 146th Street interchange with State Road 37 was originally planned to be a two-lane roundabout, but engineers are now drawing-up a traffic signal interchange, much like the one at Allisonville Road and Interstate 465 in Marion County.

The design changes come as a result of studying traffic projections for both 141st and 146th Streets along State Road 37.

The engineering team drawing up the construction plans is now saying the sequence of bridge construction, or which interchanges will be constructed in which order, is now unknown.  At one point, the team said it planned to construct the roundabouts over SR37 at 131st and 141st Streets first and at the same time.  That is no longer the plan.  During construction of the bridges, east-west travel at SR 37 would be blocked along those streets.

Construction of the bridges should begin in 2019.  Work is now projected to be completed sometime in 2021.

One reason the 141st Street roundabout has been reduced from two lanes to one lane is part of an effort to keep the project within budget.  Fishers City Engineering Department Director Jeff Hill says those designing the plan are doing everything in their power to keep the construction project within the approved spending.  The project is budgeted for $124 million, with the state providing $100 million – Hamilton County and the City of Fishers are chipping-in $12 million each.

There was an extensive discussion of drainage.  Expect more drainage work along State Road 37 in 2018, with some lane closures needed.

Speakers at the update session included Troy Woodruff of RQAW Corporation, Jeff Hill with the City of Fishers and Eric Farny of American Structurepoint Inc.

Four local members of the Indiana General Assembly held a town hall meeting Saturday morning in Fishers, and there were plenty of issues raised by members of the audience.  The seats in the Fishers City Hall Council Chambers were roughly 75% full of constituents, many with questions for their state lawmakers.

The back and forth became so heated at one point a lady in the audience walked out in frustration over what she viewed as the lack of response to questions posed to the legislators.

The first question centered on a recent State Board of Education vote to create new standards for high school graduation.  Teachers in the audience were clearly concerned about the lack of the state board’s consideration of educators, who largely testified against the new testing standards.  Senator Victoria Spartz showed a crowd a very thick book of regulations governing schools in the state.  Senator Jim Merritt said he is ready for a discussion about the board’s decision, but emphasized this comes as a response to employers in the state, who claim high school graduates lack basic skills after graduation.

The issue of doing away with gun permits in the state was raised by one audience member.  Senator Merritt, with a part of his district in Marion County, said he is very concerned about the violence in the City of Indianapolis and cannot see himself supporting the proposal to do away with gun permits, and Representative Todd Huston agreed.  Gun permits are often required once one crosses state lines.

The issues of voting, absentee ballots and mail-in voting were discussed at length.  Senator Spartz claims there is fraud in mail-in voting systems.  Senator Merritt says it’s taken him 27 years, but he is beginning to change his mind on voting laws due to low voter turnout numbers in recent elections.

The Save the Train organization was at the event with several members pushing to keep the Nickel Plate line, from Tipton to the north down south to 22nd Street in Indianapolis, a rail line.  The cities of Noblesville and Fishers are moving forward with plans to convert that rail line to a trail from downtown Noblesville south to 96th Street.  The state lawmakers said this is a local decision that should be handled by local officials.

Solar energy was raised as many in the audience opposed the measure passed in the 2017 session to lower the solar energy incentive when selling excess power back to a public utility.  Senator Merritt chairs a key senate committee on utilities, and argued the law was a way to “level the playing field.”  Merritt says he has always been focused on how state law impacts rate payers.  Senator Ruckelshaus said he voted against that bill.

Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt says all Indiana counties are experiencing issues with overcrowding in their jails, saying some of that prisoner population is now mandated by state law.  Merritt agreed with the county commissioner, but admitted he had no answers.  Huston believes the state needs to look at sentencing standards and community corrections as answers.

It should surprise no one that the subject of Sunday alcohol sales came up.  Merritt says he favors Sunday sales but wants the package liquor stores to continue their monopoly on selling cold beer.  Huston generally agreed that Sunday sales can be worked out.

Several audience members expressed support of a Hate Crimes Law in Indiana.  Ruckelshaus said he sponsored the last proposal that did not become law and will work hard to enact a Hate Crime statute in the upcoming session.  Merritt is concerned about the impact on law enforcement from any such law but plans to pay close attention to the issue during the 2018 session.

Merritt, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, says he expects the short session, which starts in early January, will end by March 14th.

Hamilton County Reporter

Less than 24 hours after winning a close game against a top-level team, Hamilton
Southeastern…won a close game against a top-level team.

This time it was Center Grove, which the Class 4A No. 5
Royals faced Saturday afternoon in the Forum Tipoff Classic at Southport.
Southeastern needed overtime to get past the Trojans, who are
getting votes in the 4A poll, but ultimately prevailed 65-63.

The Royals led for the majority of the game, first making a 7-0 run to go ahead
12-7 in the first quarter. Aaron Etherington scored five of those points. Southeastern led
by as many as nine points, 43-34, in the third period, before CG went on an 8-0 run
that carried it into the fourth quarter.

The Trojans led 53-52 late in the game, but a Noah Smith free throw tied it at 53-all,
and that’s where regulation ended. Center Grove led 58-56 with under two minutes
left, but the Royals used a 6-0 spurt to regain the lead and held it until the buzzer.
Smith and Nick Bowman made baskets, with Mabor Majak hitting a pair of free
throws in between.

Etherington finished the game with 23 points, with Smith scoring 16 and Majak
10. These three Royals were also the rebounding leaders: Smith had seven
boards, Etherington pulled six and Majak collected five. Bowman handed out five
assists, while Smith and Chris Grubbs both dished out four. Majak made two blocked
shots.

The Royals are 5-0 for the season and get a few days off before another big game:
Southeastern hosts Fishers Friday in the annual Mudsock contest.

By

RICHIE HALL
Sports Editor

Hamilton County Reporter

Fishers has been re-established for over a decade now, but every once in a while, the
Tigers accomplish something for the first time.

On Saturday, the Tigers’ boys basketball team got a first victory over Carmel at the
Greyhounds’ Eric Clark Activity Center. Josiah Matthews made a steal with five
seconds to go and raced down the court to make an easy layin as time expired. With
that, Fishers had the win, 49-47, the only time in the game the Tigers held the lead.

“We hit some shots that went our way tonight, we executed pretty well,” said
Tigers coach Matt Moore. “You play to the last possession, anything can happen and
Josiah made a great play.”

“After Willie (Jackson) got that nice defensive stop, I looked up at the clock,”
said Matthews. “I knew I had enough time to finish at the rim.”

It was a remarkable comeback win for the Tigers. Carmel led 12-0 four minutes
into the fourth quarter, with Andrew Jackson scoring eight points, including two 3-
pointers, during the run. But Fishers scored the last six points of the period, including
baskets off steals by Matthews and Jeremy Szilagyi.

The ‘Hounds worked their way back to a 26-15 lead late in the second quarter before
Fishers scored eight unanswered points to cut the Carmel lead to 26-23 at halftime.
Willie Jackson started the run by making three consecutive foul shots after being
fouled while attempting a 3-pointer. Hicks then added a layin, and Matthews drained a
3.

Fishers tied the game up at 30-30 late in the third after Hicks made a 3-pointer.
Carmel worked its way back up to 34-34 by the period’s end, thanks to foul shots by
Luke Heady and Jackson.

A 3-pointer by Owens put Carmel up 39-33. Brendhan Russom cut that lead to
four with a basket, but two free throws from John Michael Mulloy kept the ‘Hounds
ahead 41-35. After that, Fishers ended the game on a 14-6 run. Szilagyi helped out with
a pair of 3s.

“He’s a guy that we just need to keep hunting shots,” said Moore. “He’s put in a
lot of work. He’s earned the right to take those shots. We got to do a great job of
getting him in position to make them and he made a big one there late to give us a chance.”

Matthews finished the game with 15 points, while Szilagyi and Russom each
scored 12.

As for Carmel, Mulloy scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Jackson scored
12 points and Heady made five rebounds.

“We competed,” said ‘Hounds coach Ryan Osborn. “We made some mistakes
late. We had two starters out tonight. We’re a little bit banged up in just about every
position and ultimately didn’t take care of the ball like we should. When we did take
care of the ball, we got shots. We shot at a pretty high percentage. But to have, I think,
16 or 17 turnovers in a game like this puts you on your heels a little bit.”

Fishers is now 2-3 for the season, and travels to Hamilton Southeastern on Friday
for the Mudsock game. Carmel is 3-2, and hosts North Central on Friday in a
Metropolitan Conference game.

This week, Adam leads a group discussion all about Star Wars

Hamilton County Reporter 

Hamilton Southeastern picked up another tough win
Friday night, edging out old rival North
Central 65-62 in an away game.

The Class 4A No. 5 Royals had been involved in a backand-forth
contest with the 4A No. 10 Panthers, and found themselves trailing by two with less than a
minute to go. But Southeastern’s Nick Bowman hit a 3-pointer within the last 30 seconds to put his team up by one.

North Central then turned the ball over right away. The Royals’ Noah Smith was
fouled, and he made both his free throws. The Panthers got the ball back with seven
seconds remaining, but couldn’t get a shot off and called timeout with 1.5 seconds left.
NC tried for one last shot, but the Royals challenged the shot and it was no good.

The Royals led 13-8 after the first quarter and 29-27 at halftime. Three players
reached double figures: Bowman scored 17 points, Chaz Birchfield scored 16 and Smith
had 13.

“Anytime you get a team that’s balanced, it just makes it so much tougher for teams
to defend,” said HSE coach Brian Satterfield. “We’ve generally had three or
four guys in double figures or close to double figures.”

Birchfield came close to a double-double with nine rebounds, while Aaron
Etherington and Mabor Majak each pulled six. Bowman dished out six assists and made
four steals. Etherington handed out four assists, and Smith had three steals.

“When it counted, we were able to knock down shots when we needed to,” said
Satterfield.

The Royals are now 4-0 for the season. They are back in action this afternoon,
taking on an unbeaten (5-0) Center Grove team as part of the Forum Credit Union Tip
Off Classic at Southport. Southeastern’s game starts at 3 p.m.

Hamilton County Reporter

The Hamilton Southeastern girls basketball team got a big
Hoosier Crossroads Conference win over Avon Friday, 51-31.

The Class 4A No. 6 Royals led 20-14 at halftime, then jumped
ahead 38-21 after three quarters.

With the victory, Southeastern improved to 2-1 in the
conference and 10-2 overall. Pictured are Amaya Hamilton
(10), Malea Jackson (3) and Sydney Parrish (33) defending
an Avon player.