Fire agencies in Hamilton County have joined forces to find entry-level firefighters.  Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville and Westfield Fire Departments are all part of this effort.  If you successfully apply, you will be placed on the hiring list for a two-year period.

During that two-year period, all candidates could be contacted by any of the four agencies about open positions.

You can apply at this link.

Once contacted by any of the departments about employment, job seekers are subject to additional background and physical considerations.

The social media posts were coming throughout the past weekend that Fishers Police officers were concerned about the well-being of a fellow officer after a serious vehicle crash.  Now, we have more information about what happened.

A Fishers Police Department news release identifies the injured officer as Binh Dennis.  He and his wife Mary were injured shortly before noon Saturday morning when their motorcycle left the roadway and struck a tree along State Road 135 in Brown County (IN). Medical personnel and The Brown County Sheriff’s Department responded.

Paramedics transported Mary to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Officer Binh was air lifted to an Indianapolis Hospital for potential life threatening injuries. Mary has since been released from the hospital. Binh remains in critical condition and his long term prognosis is unknown. According to Binh’s medical team, the next few days are critical as they continue to closely monitor his condition.

“Fishers police ask that the community continue to keep Binh and his family in your thoughts and prayers,” according to the news release. “The outpouring of support has been greatly appreciated.”

A second forum for Hamilton Southeastern School Board is slated for Tuesday, October 23rd, starting at 6pm.  The event will be held at the Ji-Eun Lee Academy, near 126th Street and Cumberland Road.

The first forum held September 19th was sponsored by the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association.  The October 23rd event will be sponsored by the Fiscal Conservatives of Hamilton County.

Long-time school board member John DeLucia will moderate the forum.  If you have questions for the candidates, you can submit them in advance, by October 18th, at the following e-mail address –  fcohcindiana@gmail.com

Tom Britt’s Towne Post Network will provide a live video stream of the forum.

Hamilton County Reporter

This year’s Ryan White AIDS Walk at Hamilton Heights High School raised over $3,000 for the Ryan White Scholarship Fund. The Hamilton Heights High School Student Government Organization has been hosting the Ryan White Fundraiser for over 20 years.

More than 600 students, faculty and staff paid $1 to walk around the high school track during one class period on Homecoming Friday in his honor. Money raised from the walk continues to help preserve White’s legacy: “Help me beat the odds and together let’s educate and save the children of tomorrow,” while raising funds for the scholarship fund created in his memory in 1991.

White became a poster child for HIV/AIDS in the United States after being expelled from his Kokomo middle school in 1985 because of his infection.  A hemophiliac, White became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment. He lost his battle to the disease in April 1990, one month prior to his high school graduation.  This year marks the 31^st anniversary of his first day at Hamilton Heights High School.  This is also the year, a historical marker in his name will be installed at the Hamilton Heights Middle School (formerly the high school).

To date, the Ryan White Scholarship Fund, provides scholarships for deserving seniors who plan to pursue a degree in the fields of health, education and/or medicine, has awarded more than $55,000 in scholarships.

Money for the Ryan White Scholarship Fund are generated through the annual AIDS walk fundraiser and private donations. Donations can be mailed to: The Ryan White Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 379, Arcadia, IN 46030, Attn: Kim Kaiser.

by

Richie Hall

Sports Editor

Hamilton County Reporter

The Hamilton Southeastern boys soccer team has now won four sectional championships
in a row.

That fourth championship was a close one, as the Sectional 8 host Royals were
given a tough battle by their cross-town rival Fishers. The game went into overtime, and
it was a goal by senior Zaden Eby-Holmes that lifted Southeastern past the Tigers 2-1
and allowed the Royals to lift another sectional trophy.

“It’s unbelievable to be one of the only few, and to share with my brothers each and
every year just gets better and better,” said Chayton Davidson, one of the senior captains
on the HSE team. The Royals seniors are thus champions all four years, and it was
the seniors that stepped up, as they scored both goals.

Early in the second half, senior Sean Williams played a corner kick to fellow
senior JP Suarez, who booted it into the net to get Southeastern on the board with 36:30
remaining. But the Tigers kept the pressure on, and tied the game with 14:31 left. Junior
Reese May found the equalizer for Fishers.

The score would stay at 1-1 through the end of regulation, which meant overtime –
two seven-minute periods, no “golden goal.”

Neither team scored in the first overtime, and a finish by penalty kicks loomed as a
possibility.

But Eby-Holmes took care of that thanks to a perfect kick with 4:41 remaining in the
second overtime. The Royals held on from there to preserve the win.

“I got a lucky bounce,” said Eby-Holmes.

He credited sophomore forward Harsahil Gandham with making “a good run through”
to set up the score.

“I was just able to get a touch on it and get it past the keeper and I kept my composure
and beat the defender,” said Eby-Holmes.

The championship was the sixth in school history for the Royals, who are now
14-2-2 for the season. And of course, it was the team’s first ever four-peat.

“Over the last three, four years, we’ve had a lot of firsts in our program,” said HSE
coach Chris White. For example, last season was the first time Southeastern had been
ranked No. 1 in the state, and won a Hoosier Crossroads Conference championship.

“These seniors have been a part of that, but this year they hadn’t been able to experience
something that was a first for our program,” said White. “So this was the opportunity to be the first class to come through and say they never lost a sectional championship. Winning four in a row’s really special whether you win it on the road or home. Obviously being at home, it’s great to be able to have that kind of turnout from the fans and the support.”

Meanwhile, Fishers finished its season 12-3-3 in the first year for coach Phil
Schmidt.

“Fishers is a great team,” said White.  “What Coach Schmidt did with them this year is remarkable.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of our kids,” said Schmidt. “We had a young team. Proud
of our seniors, but young team that got to learn a lot this year and I cannot wait for
next season. I cannot wait for the future of Fishers soccer. I thought we had an outstanding
season and our future is extremely bright.”

Southeastern will play in the Kokomo regional next Saturday. The Royals will play
the winner of the Homestead sectional, either Huntington North or the host Spartans.
That championship game was delayed to Monday due to weather.

by

Richie Hall

Sports Editor

Hamilton County Reporter 

When the Fishers girls soccer team looks back on its 2018 Class 3A Sectional 8 championship, it can honestly say that the trophy was won the hard way.

The No. 9 Tigers had already won a penalty kick shootout with the host
and No. 2-ranked Noblesville in Thursday’s semi-final, and that put them in
Saturday’s final with Pendleton Heights. The Arabians played Fishers
incredibly tough, taking the Tigers into overtime and back to – penalty kicks.
Fishers needed nine rounds in the shootout before finally prevailing 8-7.
The Tigers thus won their first sectional since 2015 and will advance to next
Saturday’s Logansport regional.

“There’s a lot of composure on this team and a lot of belief in one another,”
said Fishers coach Ben Beasley. “It’s taken everything we had to get by a
Pendleton team that’s been working hard for three years.”

The game was scoreless in the first half and for the majority of the second
half. It was the Arabians that got the first goal of the game, when Taylor Stone
put the ball in the right side of the net with 14:12 left. Kennedy Carrithers made
the assist.

The Tigers got the equalizer with 5:33 left in the half, when Delaney
Whelan crossed the ball over to Maya Turner inside the goal box. Turner was
able to touch it into the net.

“We know we’re going to have to grind out every win,” said Beasley. “We
have the players that can do it. They stepped up. I think the Noblesville game
took a lot out of us and it was evident on the field. And we knew that. We knew
that going in. But the girls found a way.”

After that, there was no score in the remainder of regulation, nor in both
overtime periods. That sent the game to the shootout, where there would
ultimately be nine rounds of penalty kicks. Fishers converted eight of its nine
kicks, with Samantha Bird making the kick to put the Tigers up 8-7. Jordan
Imes then blocked the Arabians’ final attempt.

“It’s a quality program, quality players,” said Beasley of Pendleton. “It’s
one of those teams that you walk off and you’re happy you won, but you feel
for how hard they worked in that game. Want to root for a team like that.”

Fishers is now 11-3-1 for the season. The Tigers will play Harrison in the
second semi-final of the Logansport regional at noon, this after the first (10
a.m.) semi-final between No. 7 Homestead and No. 14 Fort Wayne Carroll.

By

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

For those interested in history as I am, it may be of interest to note that the centerpiece of what community promoters call “historic downtown Noblesville,” the county courthouse, has reached its 140^th birthday this year. Only a half-dozen courthouses among Indiana’s 92 counties are older.

I’ve been around the courthouse in one capacity or another for 50 years, and have learned a lot about the building.

Most of the courthouse construction was done in 1877, but it was not dedicated and occupied until 1878. County officials at the time promised to keep the cost under $100,000, so there were few frills.

In those days there was no electric power, no city water, no telephone communications and no central heating system. Heating was to be provided by 16 fireplaces installed with gas grates. It must have been a dark and chilly work environment during winter months. But, within months of occupying the building, officials did install a coal-fired boiler to provide steam heat. Water came from a huge tank in the attic. Lighting was provided by wall-mounted gaslight fixtures.

The architectural style of the building is French Second Empire, which is unusual among Indiana courthouses, but a style that enjoyed a brief popularity in the post-Civil War era. The building replaced an earlier small brick structure built about 1835.

The site of the courthouse was given to the county in 1823 by William Conner with the provision that it would remain the location of county government. By 1878, the courthouse square was lined with commercial buildings, most of them non-descript frame structures. The only downtown buildings remaining today that pre-date the courthouse are the Martha Gascho law office, the Smith Jewelry building and the former jail, now the county museum.

Buildings can be old without being historic. History-making events make a place historic. Two of the events helped make our courthouse historic.

The murder trial and conviction of Ku Klux Klan leader D.C. Stephenson in 1925 made history when his conviction resulted in the rapid downfall of the theretofore powerful Klan.

Another court action which attracted national news coverage was the 1965 contempt of court action brought against local newspaper editor James T. Neal. It was portrayed as an attack on freedom of the press, and was eventually overturned.

There have been mysteries such as strange noises heard by after-hours workers in the 1970s. An investigation report claimed it was rats in the ductwork. Exterminators took care of that.

Reportedly two historic documents mysteriously disappeared. The deathbed statement of Stephenson’s murder victim, Madge Oberholtzer, which essentially convicted the Klan leader, and a record of citizens who had assisted Underground Railroad activities both vanished. The opening of the courthouse cornerstone during renovation in 1994 solved a mystery. In a metal box sealed in the stone was an early photo of the 1835 courthouse. No photo of the building has ever been seen before.

By the latter part of the 20th century the courthouse was not only showing its age, but was extremely overcrowded. A complete restoration in the early 1990s preserved as many historical features as possible while providing for modern office space. Several pieces of the original furnishings from the Wooten Desk Company were saved along with an 1868 safe that had served the county treasurer in the 1835 courthouse.

Following restoration, the building became the home of the county assessor, auditor, recorder and treasurer while courts and court-related offices were housed in the new judicial center across the street. The original courtroom was restored and is used for public hearings, other meetings and ceremonies.

The courthouse is now fittingly listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hamilton County Reporter

On Friday, Hamilton County Sheriff Bowen announced the passing of Sheriff’s Office Chaplain Dave Parks.

Chaplain Parks had been associated with the Sheriff’s Office for over 25 years. He was instrumental in helping to establish the Chaplaincy program at the Sheriff’s Office in the early 1990s under Sheriff Dan Stevens.

Arrangements are pending and the details will be communicated when confirmed.

Hamilton County Reporter

Hamilton County officials are preparing for the Nov. 6 General Election. The Election Board met Friday morning to test the voting systems.

Hamilton County Elections Administrator Kathy Richardson said the county needs additional poll workers.

County residents that have an interest in serving as a poll worker can click here, then click the Poll Workers link.

Residents that have not yet registered to vote may do so at indianavoters.com or at the Elections Office located in the Hamilton County Government and Judicial Center.

Hamilton County Reporter

Hamilton Southeastern dropped a back and forth Hoosier Crossroads Conference game at Franklin Central on Friday, 37-28.

The game was scoreless after the first quarter, but then both teams’ offense got going in the second period. The Flashes punched in the ball from the 1-yard line for their first touchdown, then the Royals answered when Jackson Lantz ran off a 95-yard kickoff return for a score.

FC went ahead 17-7 after a field goal and short rush TD, but then Lantz got going again. He caught two long passes from quarterback Andrew Hobson to get Southeastern ahead 21-17 at halftime. Lantz’s first touchdown catch was for 39 yards, then a 28-yard reception gave HSE the lead.

The Flashes got the lead for good in the third quarter on a 14-yard rushing touchdown, then moved ahead 31-21 in the fourth on a short TD run. Hobson got the ball in to the end zone from the 1 to get the Royals within 31-28, but FC finished the game on a 41-yard rushing score. Mitch Hebenstreit kicked all four of Southeastern’s extra points.

Hobson had a great game, completing 12 of 17 passes for 206 yards. Ben Boysen had five of those catches, while Lantz totaled 67 yards with his two receptions. Matt Harris gained 142 yards rushing.

The Royals are 2-4 in HCC play and 3-5 overall. Southeastern hosts Brownsburg next Friday in its conference and regular-season finale.