Fishers City Council President Todd Zimmerman takes some time out of his busy schedule to talk with Larry about a number of issues.

There will be a meeting Tuesday, May 15th, 6pm, to update the public on the progress and plans for the improvements coming to State Road 37 in Fishers.  The gathering will be held at the Delaware Township meeting space on 131st Street, between State Road 37 and Lantern Road.

That is part of the information provided in the weekly road construction update from the City of Fishers.  There is also information on lane restrictions for Allisonville Road as preparations are made for that lane expansion project and a closure on Eller Road connected to the 106th Street project.

Below is the entire listing, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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STATE ROAD 37 

A public meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Delaware Township Trustee Office. Additional information is available on the project’s new website. The State Road 37 improvement project is a $124 million joint project between Fishers, Hamilton County, Noblesville, and INDOT. Questions or concerns may be directed todrivefishers@fishers.in.us.

136TH STREET   

136th Street is closed between Southeastern Parkway and Prairie Baptist Road for the construction of a new roundabout. See the Detour Map.

NICKEL PLATE DISTRICT  

On Saturday, May 12, between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m., road closures will take place along the east side of the Municipal Circle along Municipal Drive for the Fishers Farmers’ Market. Access to Municipal Drive from North Street will also be closed during this time. Farmers’ Market parking is available in The Depot and The Switch garages (see the Parking Mapfor more details).

The Board of Works has passed an ordinance for no parking in the Nickel Plate District between the hours of 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., beginning on May 1 (there will be a 2-week grace period where no tickets will be written). See the Parking Restrictions Map for more information.

GEIST RIDGE DRIVE   

Geist Ridge Drive at Florida Road is closed as Hamilton Southeastern Utilities has contracted Culy Contracting to perform sanitary sewer repairs in this area. Access into Valleys at Geist subdivision is available on Olio Road and 104th Street. Temporary lane restrictions on Florida Road may occur in this area due to construction traffic.

106TH STREET   

106th Street is closed to through traffic from Eller Road to Allisonville Road and from Allisonville Road to Hague Road for the 106th Street Infrastructure Project. 106th Street is also closed to through traffic between Hague Road and the Crosspoint Boulevard/Lantern Road roundabout. For more info on this project, view the Fact Sheet.

131ST STREET   

Beginning on May 29, the intersection of 131st and Cumberland Road will close for 45 days to construct a new roundabout.

Periodic lane restrictions will occur at the intersection of 131st Street and Cumberland Road as utility relocation work is completed.

Expect lane restrictions, weather permitting, along 131st Street between Allisonville Road and Lantern Road for the construction of the Conner Trail from Conner Prairie to the Municipal Complex. Lane restrictions will also take place on Lantern Road between 131st Street and Municipal Drive.

ELLER ROAD   

Eller Road is closed to through traffic south of White Horse Lane for concrete work associated with the 106th Street Infrastructure Project.

ALLISONVILLE ROAD RESURFACING & INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT  

Lane restrictions will be in place, as weather permits, along Allisonville Road from 126th Street to 131st Street for utility work ahead of the start of the roadway expansion project. Restrictions will be in place between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and flaggers will be on site directing traffic, as necessary. For more info on this project, view the Fact Sheet.

I-69   

As part of a $92 million design-build contract, Milestone has added a third lane in each direction to the median, repaired and resurfaced existing pavement, and rehabilitated bridges and drainage structures on 15 miles of I-69 in Hamilton and Madison counties. Construction of an additional auxiliary lane between the 116th Street entrance ramp to I-69 South and the I-69 South Exit 204 ramp to 106th Street will continue through next spring.

I-69 South will be temporarily reduced to two lanes to allow space for the State Road 37 and 116th Street entrance ramps to safely merge while construction continues on the southbound auxiliary lane between the 116th Street and 106th Street ramps.

Questions about this project should be directed to INDOT via email or at 1-855-463-6848.

As the writer of this blog, every now and then I take a point of personal privilege and write about another subject, sometimes of a personal nature.  This is one of those occasions.

Every time I look at the picture above, I ask myself, who is that guy with a dark beard and plenty of dark hair?  Could that really have been me 27 years ago?

I do know one thing for sure.  The lady standing next to me, Jane, was the best thing that ever happened to me.

It was 27 years ago today that I was a nervous wreck…not about getting married, but about getting through the marriage ceremony.  Because of that lady next to me, standing next to me throughout that marriage ceremony, I got through everything fine.

On my 27th wedding anniversary, I cannot say enough about the woman who said yes when I asked her to marry me.  Our love produced a set of twin daughters, Allison and Mary.  Jane and I are so proud of those young women.

To my wife of 27 years, Jane, I say one important thing.  How in the world have you put up with me for 27 years?  I honestly don’t know, but I am so glad you did.

Thank you, Jane, for 27 wonderful years, and there are more to come.

Fishers city officials and a private nursery are joining forces to encourage local reforestation.  The Fishers Parks and Recreation Department and Wasson Nursery will work together on the Set Roots program.

Organizations can select their donated tree based on tree species or park location. Wasson Nursery will install the trees during spring and fall Keep Fishers Beautiful days of service.

The City of Fishers Department of Public Works will maintain the planted trees and track using GIS maps to record and manage planting numbers and data.

“We are so excited to be part of this project,” said Wasson Nursery Marketing Director Alyssa Quyle in a city news release. “After setting our own roots in Fishers in April 2017, we look forward to becoming an active part of this growing community. We could not think of a better way to get involved than helping aid in creating a lasting legacy in Fishers parks.”

Several local Fishers operations have committed to the Set Roots program, including Purdue University, OneZone Chamber of Commerce and Meyer Najem.

In 2017, Fishers Department of Public Works planted 210 trees in the community, and the City hopes to increase that number in 2018.

Available data indicate the average office worker uses 10,000 pieces of paper per year, and with one 15-year-old tree producing only a half box of paper, Fishers Parks & Recreation hopes the new initiative will highlight not only the need for additional tree planting, but also raise awareness to reduce paper consumption.

If you want more information on the Set Roots program, use this link.

When the Hamilton Southeastern Schools received a large grant from the Lilly Foundation to look at different ways of counseling  students, the school district hired Freedom Kolb from her post heading-up the local schools foundation to help oversee how the grant would be carried-out.

Wednesday night, Kolb went before the local school board and reviewed where the process stands now.  The program Guiding All Kids (GAK) looked at what needs to be done, tapping everyone from the top school officials to citizens drawn from the community, serving on teams brainstorming ideas.

Some of the general ideas include having students participate in community service projects and reducing student stress.

Some grade-specific ideas include:

—Elementary: Respect people who are different than they are.
—Intermediate: Participate in sport, club, or activity.
—Junior High: Have academic goals for the coming school year.
—High School: Participate in job shadowing or internship.

The GAK program is part of the Indiana Department of Education’s Gold Star Certification process.

In other actions taken at the Wendesday Hamilton Southeastern School Board session:

–Board members approved the Discovery Education Science TechBook, for grades K-6 as a replacement to our current resource, Fusion Science.

–The turf for the football fields at both high schools will be replaced, beginning when school ends, with the goal of having both fields completed by early August.

–The Board approved matching funds to install playground equipment at Durbin Elementary.  Durbin parents raised funds that will be matched by the school corporation.  This is the first use of money gained from the sale of land at 131st and Cumberland Road.  Those funds have been set aside by the board to match fund-raising by school PTOs for projects such as playgrounds.

–The board gave first reading approval to some minor changes in school policies.  The final vote on those changes will come at a June board meeting.

The board has no scheduled public meetings for the remainder of the month of May.  There is one executive session scheduled later this month.

School Superintendent Allen Bourff expects several issues to come before board members during the next public session, June 13th, including the KSM contract for data management and the  Community Health proposed contract for nursing services.

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When you think of a suburban school system like Hamilton Southeastern, farming does not always come to mind first.  However, HSE as a school corporation has a solid history tied to the industry of agriculture.  That connection continues to this day.

That connection was on full display at the Wednesday meeting of the Hamilton Southeastern School Board.  Two graduates of local high schools demonstrated the leadership and public speaking skills they have gained as state-wide officials of FFA.

The current FFA Indiana President, Claire Baney, and Sneh Jogi, northern Indiana vice -president of the organization, told the board how FFA had steered them in their educational experience.  Baney is a graduate of HSE High School, Jogi is a graduate of Fishers High School.  They each deferred their respective college educations to serve as FFA officials.

Hamilton Southeastern High School has a new wrestling coach, and his name is Courtney Duncan.  He comes to HSE from Frankton High School where he coached wrestling.  He won a state wrestling championship while a student at Frankton in 1995.

Duncabn will be a special education teacher at Fall Creek Junior High School, grades 7 & 8.

“I’m excited to be a Hamilton Southeastern Royal,” Duncan told the school board after his hiring was approved.  “I’m excited about the opportunity, where I can lead the direction of Hamilton Southeastern wrestling and special education department.”

(NOTE:  Earlier versions of this story had an incorrect name for the coach.  The story has been corrected)

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

The most striking aspect of Tuesday’s primary election was the fact that in a county with a third of a million residents, a mere 10,000 votes will choose a Superior Court judge and 12,000 can elect a sheriff. This is not a criticism of the winning candidates for these or other offices. They did all they could to encourage folks to vote.

The problem lies with our general public which does not seem to understand the importance of a primary election. There is almost no use in preaching to the choir on this because we can be reasonably certain that most readers of the Reporter voted. But, there are tens of thousands of our citizens who don’t get the message.

Hamilton County votes reasonably well in the November election. But, if folks want to help choose their elected officials, they must vote in the primary. That is where the choices are made. In this county, most local primary winners will be elected without opposition in November.

The most overarching issue of the recent election was attention given to the spreading opioid epidemic which is both a local and national crisis. Most candidates for prosecutor, sheriff, judge and even county council promised that if elected they would attack the problem with renewed energy and new ideas.

County Coroner John Chalfin said Tuesday night during election returns that 18 county citizens are likely fatal victims of the drug so far this year. The coroner’s grim news, as a coroner’s news usually is, was that deaths are running well ahead of this time last year.

On the lighter side, one candidate on Tuesday’s ballot made the unusual request that he not be elected. That was Mike McConnell who was on the ballot for Cicero Town Council. He had told his friends and neighbors that due to recent personal issues, he would rather not win. They heard him. He got 122 votes of the 1,651 cast in the Cicero voting.

The closest election was in Sheridan where only three votes separated Bill Curl from Steve Fisher; however, both earned at-large seats on the town council. Another close vote saw Paul Hensel, a member of a longtime political family, defeat incumbent Paul Bolin for a seat on the Clay Township Board by 26 votes in a four-way race where 23,322 votes were cast.

And, if you think the campaign for the U.S. Senate nomination was nasty, apparently 2,452 of our voters thought it was nasty enough that they chose not to cast a ballot for any of the candidates. Since 43,021 voters went to the polls, but only 40,569 ballots were cast at the top of the ticket where the greatest number is usually found, we can assume that the 2,452 did not want to vote for anyone of the three candidates.

The Sunday before election day, I wrote a piece on my blog, once again making the case that I believe every vote is precious in every election, but low voter turnout elections present a special opportunity for those heading to the polls.  With fewer votes cast, each vote tallied has even more significance.

The 2018 Delaware Township Board Republican primary election provides a specific case in point.

Township government is the most local, the smallest form of government under Indiana law.  Townships have several responsibilities – among the major ones are providing fire and emergency services, supporting poor relief and managing some cemeteries.

Township trustees are the administrators, with the township boards providing oversight, including budget decisions.

The City of Fishers straddles two townships, Delaware to the west and Fall Creek to the east.

In the Republican primary election for Delaware Township Board, David Giffel defeated incumbent board member Rich Fain by 3 votes.  Giffel received 1,173 votes, Fain 1,170.  If you voted in that election, the ballot you cast had a huge impact on who will represent you on this township board.

Speaking of the Delaware Township board election, Democrats had a primary contest, a rare local occurrence.  There were four Democrats seeking 3 slots to run in November.  The one Democratic candidate that failed to make the cut was Kent Nelson.

One Hamilton County Council race that was very close came in District 1, which takes in part of Fishers’ west end.  Incumbent Councilman Fred Glynn defeated Sue Maki by 139 votes out of 7,995 votes cast in that race, meaning Glynn won by just over 1% of the vote.  The final count showed Glynn with a total of 4,067, Maki with 3,928.

My congratulations go to all the winners and a great deal of appreciation goes to all candidates, even the losers.  Not everyone can win in competitive elections, but it is the competitive elections that continue to keep our democracy thriving.

Just under 19% of all registered voters chose to cast ballots in this primary election.  If you use the eligible voters pool the percentage is even smaller.

The next time a primary election comes around, consider voting.  There are close contests, and you can make the difference.