It was graduation night for about 30 participants in the Fishers Citizens Academy.  The grads completed several weeks of experiencing various city departments and how local government works.

Dan Domsic, Community Engagement & Volunteer Manager for the Fishers Parks and Recreation Department, described the program for the council members.  Then, Mayor Scott Fadness and City Council President Todd Zimmerman congratulated each graduate.

Here is the list of Citizens Academy graduates, as provided by the City of Fishers:

Each month of May, since 1959, the 500 Festival has selected 33 princesses (for the 33 cars that start the race) and from among that pool of royalty, one queen is selected.  In 2018, that 500 Festival Queen hails from Fishers.

According to my new-gathering partner, The Hamilton County Reporter, Natalie Murdock (in the picture above with the flowers, to the left of Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness) received her crown at the annual Breakfast At The Brickyard.

Murdock is a graduate of University High School and currently is a sophomore at Purdue University majoring in Public Health with a concentration in Social and Behavioral Sciences and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The members of the Fishers City Council spent a lot of time on economic development matters Monday night, but also found time for a number of other issues, such as regulation of excavation projects and a cycling ordinance.

First, councilors approved an impact fee waiver and a 10-year tax abatement for the developer of the Nickel Plate Ellipse office building, planned near the Amphitheater.  The $10 million development has no lease agreements at this time, but the city’s Economic Development Director Brandon Dickinson said several firms have expressed in interest in leasing space, even before the plans were announced Monday morning.

The Yard project is expanding its scope, adding multi-family housing and a parking garage.  Council members approved a revised project agreement for The Yard, along with the additional revenue bonds to fund the expanded plans.

The City Council discussed a cycling ordinance at the April work session, and agreed to have staff attorneys draw up a proposed ordinance, and that measure was presented for first reading Monday night.  Unless council members unanimously suspend the rules, this ordinance will be back for two more council meetings.  You can read the entire proposed ordinance presented Monday night to the council at this link.

After one company ‘s contractors cut into several natural gas lines in Fishers last year while excavating, the council approved first reading of an updated ordinance governing this type of project. The  requirement of obtaining a permit to excavate within the right-of-way
remains, but the information requested now includes items such as registration
with the State to do business in Indiana, Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission training and a safety plan. The permit fee would increase from $25 to $50. Performance and maintenance bond requirements would be unchanged. A new section regarding underground pipeline hits has been added, which more thoroughly sets out the City’s expectations for safety and allows for fines and stop work orders if the excavator does not comply.   The proposal will come back to the council for further consideration.

The 1990s group Sugar Ray will be the first big event of the new Spark!Fishers Festival June 29th.  The remodeled Nickel Plate Amphitheater will not be ready June 29th, so the concet will move near Witten Park in the Saxony Area.

For more details on that, Spark!Fishers and happenings at the Parks and Recreation Department, listen to my podcast discussion with Tony Elliot, at the link below.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness had a message for the Fishers Junior High School “We The People” team – it’s important to care about your community and have organic ideas to improve that community if you want to run for public office.  Just wanting to be in office or arguing public policy issues should not be the reason you to become a political candidate, the mayor said.

The team won the national championship, the second straight year a “We The People” team from Fishers Junior High School has earned that national honor.

Mayor Fadness urged the students on the team to use the skills they have learned to express and argue public policy issues and someday run for public office with very specific ideas on how to make the place in which you live a better place to live.

“The fact that you put Fishers on the map is outstanding,” Fadness told the students on the team.  “My hope is, in the future, you would apply that one narrow skill set towards pushing a particular idea that can make either your community, or your state, or your country better.”  Fadness downplayed the use of political rhetoric.

Fishers City Council members Todd Zimmerman, Cecilia Coble and Eric Moeller asked the students about the competition and their trip to the nation’s capital.  Mayor Fadness and Council President Zimmerman handed out Community Achievement Awards to each of the students.

“We The People” is a civics competition where students prepare a paper and answer questions from judges about law and the United States Constitution.

Below are a few more pictures from the event at Fishers Junior High:

Continue reading Fishers City Officials Honor The Fishers Jr Hi “We The People” National Championship Team →

The Ellipse is the circular street that provides access to places such as City Hall, Police and Fire Headquarters, the Post Office, the library and many commercial developments.  There is another commercial development coming to that complex and it is very simply named the “Nickel Plate District Ellipse.”

The City of Fishers published an RFP (request for proposals) on how to develop part of the Municipal Drive Ellipse area.   BW Development’s plan was selected by the city, and will feature up to a 45,000-square feet of office building space, with plans to break ground in the  fall of 2018.

The building will be located on vacant city-owned property on the east side of the northern ellipse of Municipal Drive. The 1.76 acre parcel will include build-to-suit office space for companies looking to expand or move to Fishers. The adjacent parking lot will add to the inventory of free spaces after 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday and all weekend hours.

“What started as an investment in creating downtown vibrancy through the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater several years ago, is quickly growing into a destination for business, bringing investment and jobs to our city,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness in a city news release. “The addition of this building completes the vision for the Municipal Complex to be a robust and vibrant center of business for our city and we look forward to welcoming innovative companies to locate here.”

There is no word yet on what firms will be locating to this building.

The City Council will consider the terms of this agreement at Monday night’s City Council meeting. The City of Fishers, pending approval by the Council, supports this project through a 10-year tax abatement. The terms of the project are subject to clawbacks in the event the project does not proceed.

“This is yet another strong project for the downtown Fishers area,” said Rich Forslund of Colliers International, who will be leasing this project, in that same city news release. “New urbanism and connectivity are highlights of this unique project resulting in high demand from users looking to be in the mix.  Limited space available for companies looking to strengthen their corporate culture and identity.”

This is the final land parcel of the Nickel Plate District’s downtown Municipal Drive ellipse to be developed.

When a mass shooting happens at a school, which it did just days ago in Santa Fe, Texas (near Houston), there are political debates about what should be done to prevent such horrible loss of life again.  I won’t get into all of that here, but as someone that once made my living as a journalist, and now does it as a volunteer effort, I have been paying close attention to a debate over how news organizations should cover these terrible events.

You may have noticed something different about how the Santa Fe shooting has been covered.  It has to do with the person alleged to have committed the crime.  You are not seeing and hearing his name nearly as often.  There is a reason for that.

Family members of past school shooting victims have been making their case to news organizations, and their argument goes something like this – do not name the suspect.   Do not name the person at all.

Their view is that the instant celebrity status of suspects is part of the reason these shootings happen.  I’m not sure that is entirely true, but it is one aspect to be considered.

In a recent edition of the professional journal American Behavioral Scientist, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama, Adam Lankford, makes a strong case that the media should report every detail of mass shootings, with one important exception – the suspects.  Lankford argues that the media should refrain from naming or showing pictures of those charged with such a crime.

The media have a balancing act to perform here.  The public has a right to know, but most news organizations strive to do so in an ethical manner.  I do not believe there should be self-censorship on the part of reporters and editors.  However, taking a look at how we report is important.

Reading and watching the coverage of the Santa Fe school shooting, which claimed the lives of 10 and injured 10, I have seen some changes in the major media outlets.  They are naming the suspect and showing his picture, but not nearly as often as in the past.

I believe it was CNN that, early in its coverage, showed a picture and the name of the suspect, but let the audience know CNN does not plan to use that information much in the future.  That is the direct result of internal debates and discussions about how to cover these tragedies.

It is very sad that these mass shootings continue to happen so often newsrooms are required to plan for how the coverage will be done.  I do expect more refinements about how the mainstream media outlets continue to handle naming the suspect.

In the age of the Internet, even if the major media companies decide to restrain their use of the suspect’s name and picture, anyone can get on Google and find out all those details.  But even understanding that, I am very glad the news business is reacting to the critiques of past coverage.

This may be a bit tricky in the future, especially because the Santa Fe, Texas suspect did not commit suicide and, if there is no guilty plea, there will be a trial and the media is obligated to cover that.  Keeping the suspect’s name and likeness out of the trial coverage will be difficult, but not impossible.

Anyone writing news stories, whether you work for the New York Times or write on a small, local news blog like mine, needs to think long and hard about the ethics of reporting certain information.  I think the changes in handling the naming of a mass shooting suspects is a move in the right direction.

On this week’s Hamilton County Goes To The Movies podcast, Adam & I review the film Disobedience.

We have two guest segments this week.  The first if Nicki Reddington, a local business owner with ties to the film industry.  Our second interview segment features two HSE High School students, Abigail Wirtz and Jake Ledford…they were both involved in the Film Club’s film production of Iris.

Fishers City Director of Engineering Jeff Hill and Assistant Director Hatem Mekky join Larry to discuss plans for the State Road 37 construction project and other road construction updates.

When the renovation project in the area between the Nickel Plate Amphitheater and City Hall began earlier this year, Mayor Scott Fadness was clear that having that upgrade ready by the projected date of June 1st was a very aggressive goal.  It appears the city and its contractors will not only miss the June 1st target date, but the venue will not be ready until mid to late July.

Fishers Parks and Recreation Director Tony Elliot says despite all the best efforts by the city and contracting crews, about 30 days of bad weather set back the construction schedule.

Elliot says city departments have worked on a plan to have the Tuesday and Friday evening concerts on the south side of City Hall, where concerts began years ago in the Town of Fishers, before the Amphitheater was first built, until the renovation is complete.  This will require Municipal Drive to be closed at 116th Street during concert nights.

That means the Amphitheater will not be ready for the Spark!Fishers opening concert set for the evening of June 29th.  The concert will go on, Elliot says, but the event will move to the Saxony area, by Witten Park, near 134th Street and Olio Road.

More details on the June 29th concert are expected to be released on Monday, May 21st