I have been covering Fishers news since January 2012, when we had a town council and no mayor.  I tried to move away from local news blogging in March, but with the novel coronavirus and racial issues at the forefront, I felt a responsibility to continue, at least for a while, as these large issues are being handled locally.

Now I am asking myself why I even bother.  The city is facing major health issues and we are finding that local citizens are not able to follow what is happening in our government.  That includes me.

I am a high risk individual.  If I contract COVID-19, I am at risk for major health problems.  With all these big issues locally, I have limited covering local events in person, although I have attended two outdoor demonstrations centered on racial issues.

Meetings of the school board and city government sessions have been reviewed by me through video live streams.  However, the city is stretching my patience.

A recent city council meeting was held at Launch Fishers.  I was assured that there would be a video live stream of that meeting.  That live stream never happened due to what the city described as “technical difficulties.”

Late Monday afternoon, the Fishers Health Department posted a Facebook message saying COVID-19 test results could take up to 10 days.  I had to scratch my head on that one.

One of the major reasons, maybe the most important reason, the city established its own health department a few months ago was to provide novel coronavirus testing available free to local residents and for a fee to local businesses.  A COVID-19 test that takes 10 days is of virtually no value – you might as well have no testing program at all.

I wanted to learn what the city officials had to say about all this.  I wanted to hear their side of the story so I could understand the situation more completely.

The city council had a work session scheduled Monday night all about the Fishers Health Department and I wanted to listen to it.  Once again, the city (or its contractor) was unable to provide the sound to the council work session.  I tested my equipment and everything was in working order, YouTube videos and podcast audio were coming through my computer just fine.  The city council meeting audio was not.

Since I could not hear the health department presentation or the questions from the council members, I cannot illuminate you on any of this and I wish that I could.

I have not always agreed with Mayor Scott Fadness on everything but we have agreed more than disagreed since he has been town manager, then mayor of Fishers.  I had always been complimentary of his ability to do the job of mayor and always felt he had competent staff.

Sadly, that confidence in the city’s competence has been shaken.  I wonder why I even try to blog about local news at all anymore.

I hope the city starts to get itself together.  I’m just not sure I will be writing about it, except in commentaries like this.  I am very sad to write this, but that is the view from here.

I will continue blogging about subjects like entertainment and will write commentaries on a variety of subjects.  I also plan to continue podcasting in some form.  I made a mistake even trying to cover local news at all.  Lesson learned.