It is good to see restrictions continue to ease and movie theaters throttling up for the summer film season.  In this week’s podcast….Adam reviews Zola and Black Widow….Alec reviews a new Netflix offering – Fear Street Part 1: 1994….and Larry goes back to the 1950s for a review of a John Ford directed movie.  And there is much more….

It is difficult to find a local family that has not had at least one youngster involved in youth sports.  The largest organization for youth athletics in the Fishers area is Mudsock Youth Athletics.

If you have not been involved for a while, you may have known this group as the HSE SPORTS organization.  It is one in the same, just rebranded with a new name.

Methodist Sports Medicine announced Wednesday a partnership with Mudsock.

“We are extremely excited to be forming this partnership with Mudsock Youth Athletics. They are an organization with a rich tradition of developing well-rounded youth that are destined for success”, said Methodist Sports Medicine CEO Marty Rosenberg in a Mudsock Youth Athletics news release.

Methodist has been around a while with its sports medicine operation, including six locations in the Indianapolis area.

“Mudsock Youth Athletics loves to partner with community organizations that align with our mission,” said Executive Director, Scott Spillman. “Methodist Sports Medicine is a great
example of that. With their comprehensive orthopedic care and expertise in the sports
medicine space, we know that our families will be in great hands.”

This partnership is an outgrowth of a pilot program by the Hamilton County Sports Authority, a division of Hamilton County Tourism.

The Fishers Health Department has some good news for local residents  – the community risk rate has been lowered to the lowest level, green or Level 1.  That’s the word from the latest Health Department video from epidemiologist Joshua Robinson posted Tuesday.  This is the first time Fishers has been at the lowest risk level since the pandemic began.

Robinson cites consistent lower positivity rates and case incidence rates for the city over the past few weeks.

There is a 4-Level system to gauge the COVID community risk.  Fishers was at one time in the highest, Level 4, or red category.  The numbers of have going down and the city’s risk level has also been headed down (a good thing) for the past several months.

The high vaccination rate in Fishers has contributed to the better risk numbers, according to Robinson.  The city’s full vaccination rate is at least 66%.

The positive cases Fishers health officials are seeing tend to be in the 16-19 year age group, which has been eligible for the vaccine the shortest amount of time for any eligible vaccination grouping.  Robinson encourages everyone eligible, particularly in the younger age group, to get the vaccination.

I have had many questions posed to me about the trees cut around the Hamilton East Library in downtown Fishers.  I was aware of plans for improvements.

The library posted a statement on its Web site Tuesday, explaining the construction that is on the way.  Here is part of that post:

Renovation to redesign the north entrance to become our new 2-story main entrance is underway. Construction of the north and east parking lots is progressing to improve traffic flow, add parking spaces and integrate the south entrance with the Nickel Plate Trail. In the coming week, a construction barrier will go up in the study room area to fully close the construction zone.

The library Teen Zone is relocated.  Look for more changes in that area as construction continues.

For those using the Ignite Studio in the library’s lower level, the entrance most-used to access that space is closed.  Use the main entrance to access Ignite.

The fence around the east and north library parking lots is there to allow for the construction project to improve parking and traffic flow.

Government leaders like to speak about the state of their governments.  Governors make a State of The State Address.  Mayors give State of the City Addresses.  During Fishers time as a town, the town council president traditionally provided a State of the Town Address.

So it should not be a surprise that the county does the same.  Tuesday, Hamilton County Commissioner Steve Dillinger made his State of The County Address in his role as president of the commissioners.

He started out the speech talking about how great it was to see so many people he knew at the Noblesville Chamber of Commerce Luncheon held in the Embassy Suites Hotel.  During the pandemic, personal interactions have been rare.  He touted the vaccination rate in the county and the low COVID positive test rate.

The county provided about $1 million in grants to struggling local businesses during the pandemic, according to the commissioner.  He also pointed out that 442 people in Hamilton County have died from COVID.

Here is an item of interest to residents of Fishers – there are big plans to improve the intersection of 146th Street and Allisonville Road.  No decision has been made whether 146th Street will be constructed over or under Allisonville Road, but it will be one of those designs.  The county expects that project to begin in the spring of 2023 and end in the fall of 2024.

If Boone County cooperates, Dillinger envisions 146th Street as connecting Interstates 65 & 69.

A decent part of the address dealt with the State Road 37 project, a joint endeavor involving the county, the state of Indiana as well as the cities of Fishers and Noblesville.  146th Street remains a construction zone and is expected to be done by the spring of 2022.

He touted the completed 126th Street roundabout and State Road 37 underpass at that location as already easing traffic tie-ups on the highway.  131st Street and SR 37 intersection is under construction and that underpass and roundabout should be done before the end of the year.

Dillinger took some time to bring up:

–Plans for the new career achievement center

–The start of constructing a domestic violence shelter with the nonprofit group Prevail

–Touted the county’s AAA bond rating

–Talked about his role as the county appointee to the Indianapolis Airport Authority

–Cost savings gains from installation of solar panels

–The new parking garage coming to downtown Noblesville

and

–The Hamilton County Parks.

Most importantly, the speech and luncheon allowed people in the county to connect in person after the long pandemic lockdowns.

The City of Noblesville has just announced bonus payments to city employees – $2,000 each to police and firefighters and $1,000 each to other city workers.  It had been previously announced that those on the Hamilton County government payroll will receive $3,000 each.  This is all related to the extra work and stress created by the COVID pandemic and comes from the federal funds distributed to local governments dealing with the pandemic.

What about Fishers?  I posed that question to Mayor Scott Fadness in a podcast interview posted May 17th.  Last year, as the pandemic was very much with us, the mayor points out that city employees did receive a 3% pay raise.

The city also provided a stipend for workers required to work at the job site during the early days of the pandemic.  These employees could not have adjustments made to their work schedules for schools not in session or other personal reasons.  Each of those workers were paid $500 per week extra by the city.

“My inclination, at this point, is that we would not be using (federal COVID) money for additional compensation, but we’re also going to take this slow,” Fadness said.

The mayor made those comments shortly after the city discovered it would receive just under $7 million in federal aid, not the $19 million originally projected.

“We’ve got some discretionary time here,” said the mayor during the podcast.  “The city is in a sound financial position, so there’s no immediate rush to go out and spend that money.”

The Spark Fishers Festival ended Saturday night with a 10pm fireworks display.  With the 4th of July coming Sunday, more Fishers fireworks are coming.  There will be three locations to view the displays, all at 10pm.

Holland Park will be the location to set the fireworks display closest to the Fishers city center.  The show can best be viewed some distance from Holland Park, such as near City Hall.

There will be another set of fireworks originating from the site of the new Geist Waterfront Park.

Finally, there will be fireworks launched from a barge on Geist Reservoir.  It should be noted there will be no celebration on the Fall Creek Road bridge this year.  In fact, the bridge will be closed to pedestrians during the fireworks.

Whenever there is a festival in Fishers, I try my best to walk around and take a few photos.  That wasn’t possible for the 2021 Spark Fishers Festival.

I had a volunteer duty to staff the public address station at Holland Drive and Ellipse Parkway, at the main entrance to Holland Park.  That was a good distance from the center of the festival at the Municipal Complex, so photos for this year were out for me.  I have included some photos from the city in this post.

Parades are unpredictable events.  There are always units out of order and a few that just don’t show up.  That complicates the work of a public address announcer.  The parade organizers were able to provide scripts for me the day before, giving me time to look them over.

Then there was the wind.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  There was no rain and the the temperatures were fairly comfortable for this time of year.  Kudos to the Fishers City staff that built the tent for my location, it was solid.  Not all the tents made it through that windy Saturday.

Allow me to thank my niece Jenna Petroff, a counselor at Fishers High School, and her husband Phil, a teacher at Sand Creek Elementary, for volunteering to help me out.  Without them, I would not know which unit was coming next and the wind would have swept away my written scripts.

Based on the crowd in and around Holland Drive & Ellipse Parkway, the 2021 parade was a hit.  My understanding was the rest of the parade route had lots of spectators and the festival near City Hall was busy as well.

Just another example of how people everywhere are anxious to celebrate after our lockdown in 2020.  When we were in the depths of the lockdown last year, I wrote that Fishers needed a big party once the pandemic was less of a threat.  We had that party Saturday.

As I was leaving the parade, I had a little girl come up to me, I would guess 4 or 5 years old.  She had some candy that had been handed out during the parade.  She gave me a piece of candy to thank me for the parade.

I accepted, knowing I symbolized the parade for her as the PA announcer.  I accepted not for myself, but on behalf of all the volunteers, paid professionals and sponsors that made the festival possible.

I haven’t had the heart to eat that candy yet.   Once I do, I will think about all the people in Fishers, coming together and making the Spark Fishers Festival possible.

As escapee from the Hamilton County corrections system was taken into custody by Indiana State Police Friday afternoon in Fort Wayne.  Rafael Rosa III, 27, from Noblesville, walked away from custody on June 18th, and has been on the run since.  Rosa was serving a sentence for burglary and theft convictions at the Hamilton County Corrections facility.

According to State Police, Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies worked with them to determine Fort Wayne was the most likely location to search for Rosa.  Once Rosa was found at a Fort Wayne motel, he fled, but troopers gave chase and apprehended him.

Rosa was transported to the Allen County jail, where he remains held pending transfer back to the Hamilton County jail.