I was out of pocket for a few hours today, but once back on my e-mail, I found that the Indiana Department of Transportation opened the Brooks School Road Bridge over I-69 Friday.  That is great news for motorists living in that part of the Fishers.

It is good to see some of the big road projects beginning to wrap-up as we head into the month of August.

One project still underway is the closure of Brooks School Road for 30 days south of 116th Street between Desert Glen Drive and Club Point Drive. The detour route is Hoosier Road and Fall Creek Road.

Matt Kegley, long-time principal as Hamilton Southeastern High School, has moved to a position at the school district’s central office.  Charlie Hoover has been named as the interim principal.  The announcement was made late last week to teachers and staff.

School Superintendent Allen Bourff said at the last school board meeting he would be looking at all options in filling the open principal’s job, and apparently has decided to name an interim principal for the time being.

HSE School District spokesperson Emily Abbots says administrators will begin the search for a permanent principal soon, but local school officials are not sure when that search will officially begin.

Ever since I moved to Fishers in 1991, road construction has been a constant.  I suppose that goes with living in a growing community.

One project is now complete that will make traversing the western part of the city much easier…that would be at 131st Street and Cumberland Road.  The traffic signal at the intersection has been replaced with a roundabout.

There were two important reasons this construction project was done now.  First, city officials wanted the work to be underway while students were away on their summer break, because many schools and the district’s bus barn are located along Cumberland Road, just north of this intersection.

Secondly, the major construction on the rebuilding of State Road 37 is scheduled to begin during the spring of 2019.  Mayor Fadness has made it clear he wanted the roundabout completed at Cumberland and 131st before major construction begins in State Road 37 project.  Once the work begins on 37, people will be looking for detours, and Cumberland Road will likely be one of those detour routes.

The current plan is to rebuild the intersection of State Road 37 and 126th Street first.  That will likely take one full construction season in 2019, with the east-west traffic likely blocked, or at least severely limited, during next year’s construction.

Then, 131st & 141st Streets will be blocked in later years to construct roundabout intersections with State Road 37.  A new intersection will be constructed at State Road 37 and 146th Street, with a traffic signal interchange much like the interchange at I-465 and Allisonville Road in Indianapolis.

Be aware that the order of the work has already changed, so the order of how this work will be completed may change again before the earth-moving equipment enters the scene.

So, the 131st Street roundabout at Cumberland Road, and the widening of Allisonville Road up to 131st Street, are projects being completed this year to prepare us for the reconstruction of State Road 37 that will take several years.  It will be painful, but living in a growing community does exact a price.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

(NOTE: This is a commentary written by Fred Swift of the Hamilton County Reporter. The views expressed are those of Fred Swift and do not necessarily reflect the views of LarryInFishers.com.  This opinion piece is posted here as part of a partnership between the Reporter and LarryInFishers.com) 

A newspaper reporter who apparently needs more to do has come up with a list of what he calls crazy ideas, which he implies make too much sense to become reality. Tim Swarens, a writer for the Indianapolis Star, has suggested as one of his ideas that Hamilton County and Marion County should merge to become one county.

Indianapolis political leaders would probably like the idea. Fortunately for Hamilton County, such a merger would take state legislative action. It is highly doubtful our local state legislators would take kindly to the idea.

The reason the idea might find favor at Indy’s City-County Building is the fact that the city is short on money to fix streets, fix sewers, fight crime and probably everything else they’d like to spend money on.

But, Swarens puts a more pleasing face on his idea. He claims a merged county would make it easier to compete for economic development, as if we need Indy to compete for development, and also he suggests to “equalize the vast differences between incomes and opportunities.” That probably would involve taking our money to assist Marion County. It’s hard to imagine what Hamilton County would get out of a merger.

It sounds more like a one-way street headed south.

Swarens suggests that Indiana’s 92 counties are too numerous for efficient operation in today’s world. He says California has only 58. With all their problems that might be a poor example, but it probably is true that 92 counties are more than needed in the 21st century.

But, since there are 88 Indiana counties with smaller populations than Hamilton, might it be reasonable to merge some of these smaller ones rather than the largest and the fourth largest if one is truly concerned about efficiency?

Yes, it is not only crazy, it’s a really bad idea for Hamilton County.

Now that the court proceedings and condemnation process have ended, the City of Fishers is moving toward getting comments from the public on what they want at Geist Waterfront Park, the only public space on Geist Reservoir.  The Fishers Board of Works and Safety approved a professional services agreement with the firm of Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf to begin that process.

Deputy Mayor Leah McGrath told board members public input sessions will be held later this fall.  “We hope to bring some designs forward for the community to respond to later this year and heading into early 2019,” said McGrath.

Mayor Scott Fadness emphasized that this professional services agreement is not part of the full design process, and that contract will come later.

In other news from Monday’s Board of Works session:

–The city is in the process of installing flashing lights at all public schools in the city to warn motorists when the school zone speed limits are in effect.   The board approved a an amendment to the ordinance setting all school speed limits, while school is in session, at 25 miles-per-hour.

— The new Fishers Police Headquarters building should be completed by the end of August.  Originally, the completion date had been set at August 1, but some change orders have moved the date back.

–There were two items related to the State Road 37 project.  The first names Imavex as the Marketing Coordinator during the construction phase of the rebuilding project.  The second approves an agreement among the State of Indiana (INDOT), The City of
Fishers, City of Noblesville and Hamilton County,  determining the responsibility
of drainage trunk lines that will be installed for storm water flow.

On June 25th, Mayor Scott Fadness told Pickleball supporters at a city Board of Works meeting, many from the Britton Falls neighborhood, that if $63,000 in donations could be raised, the city would contract for two more Pickleball courts at Cyntheanne Park.  The city was able to approve two Pickleball courts at the June 25th session, but could not fund two more that the citizens on hand at that meeting wanted.

It took less than a month for enough contributions to come through the local parks foundation to fund all $63,000.  What put the fundraising effort over the top was a donation of about $40,000 from one person.  Mayor Fadness says that person’s name will be disclosed in an announcement from the city later this week.

That allowed the Fishers Board of Works and Public Safety to approve the contract for the additional two Pickleball courts at Monday’s meeting.

Scott Spillman has served as Executive Director of HSE S.P.O.R.T.S. for several months.  In this podcast, we talk about local youth sports programs and an upcoming fundraiser, a kickball tournament set for September 22nd

On this Sunday night, I have a few brief items of news around Fishers.

First, I posted a podcast interview this past week with Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness and Rick Farnham, Director of Water Quality for the city.  The subject was the storm water fee increase to be included in the mayor’s 2019 city budget proposal.  The proposed fee hike would cost homeowners in Fishers $20.52 extra per year beginning next year, if enacted.

But the increase will be much larger for many commercial users of the storm water system.  One of the operations most impacted will be the Hamilton Southeastern School District, which could face a $63,000 increase in their annual storm water bill.  IKEA would also see a large increase.

One question raised at the City Council Finance Committee meeting was whether the city should carve out waivers for some entities, such as the school corporation.  I asked Mayor Fadness whether he would be in favor of such waivers, even though the council has the final say.

Fadness responded that the commercial fees are based on usage of the system and he believes this is more of a user fee.

“So, at this time, I would not be in favor of making any kind of accommodation for any of the entities that are out there,” the mayor said during the podcast. “I can’t speak for the city council in that regard, but, in my opinion, I think the rate should be what it is.”

I also asked the mayor about the proposed low-income housing project planned for Lantern Road, near Fishers Elementary School.  The developer behind the 70 unit project is RealAmerica, a local firm that has built such housing around Indiana and other states, but this would be its first apartment complex in Fishers.

Fadness is solidly behind this effort, saying even municipal employees are having a difficult time  finding affordable housing in the city where they work.  The mayor said he believes the city is being “thoughtful” about the location and type of housing planned for the site.  He said some homes would be demolished to make way for the apartments, but no homeowners would be displaced because the developer has had contracts for those houses.

The city council approved up to $100,000 in fee waivers for the project.  The developer is now waiting on state and federal authorities to approve tax credits before the plans can move forward.

On another issue, Fadness says the roundabout at 131st Street and Cumberland Road currently under construction is scheduled to open July 25th, barring any last-minute construction issues.  The mayor could have ordered the roundabout open a few days earlier, but some traffic restrictions would still have been required to finish up the work and Fadness wanted the roundabout to be open later to get it done in final form.

The city is also looking to install flashing lights to alert drivers when school is in session and lower speed limits are in place.  Fishers is waiting on federal funding to install these flashers, and the mayor expects them to be in place and working by the end of the year.

You can listen to the podcast with Mayor Fadness and Rick Farnham at this link.

Also, the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) featured two stories about Fishers in this week’s print edition.  One deals with input the city is seeking in developing the new park on Geist Reservoir, and another about the state’s IOT Lab located in Fishers.

You can read the IBJ story about Geist Park at this link .  

the IBJ story about the IOT Lab can be found at this link.  (NOTE:  If you are not an IBJ subscriber, you may be limited in the number of stories you may access each month)

The time to begin officially filing for the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board election doesn’t begin until July 25th, but we already have two announced candidates in District 2, which encompasses the western section of the HSE District.

Matt Molter, in a letter to the editor published by my news gathering partner at the Hamilton County Reporter, cites his experience as a police officer, entrepreneurial small business owner and parent as reasons for throwing his hat in the ring for a local school board seat.

“This amazing community that we live in has inspired me to give back,” Molter wrote in his letter published in The Reporter. “It is with this in mind that I am thrilled to announce that I am running for the District 2 seat on the Hamilton Southeastern School Board this November.”

Molter served as a police officer for 11 years.  He now owns two small businesses, Agency360 and DogTeamPro, out of the local co-working space Launch Fishers.  His wife is a teacher, and they have three young boys.

“I will work to make life managing kids in school easier for parents and also help empower great teachers to use their incredible skills to reach every child,” Molter wrote in his letter.

Frank Whelan, who ran unsuccessfully in the Delaware Township at-large school board election two years ago, has already announced his intention to run in District 2 during this year’s November election.

You can view the boundaries for all HSE school board districts at this link.

Michelle Fullhart has announced plans to run for re-election in her District 3 seat.  Brad Banks says he will run in District 4, where the incumbent Terry Tolle says he does not intend to be a candidate this time around.

The time to officially file for a seat on the HSE School Board ends at noon, August 24th.

This week, Adam & Larry review the film Leave No Trace, about a father & daughter living in the wilderness, but forced to deal with the system around them….our guest this week is David Dearing, a producer for Sports Radio 1070, WFNI, The Fan.  David loves film and we talk about movies in general and sports films in particular