Three deaths and many accidental overdose cases have led Fishers Police to issue a public warning about counterfeit pills containing the drug fentanyl.

Police officials say overdoses are not only attributed to an individual abusing fentanyl, but also individuals consuming a drug they believe to be originally distributed by a licensed pharmacy. Pills such as oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and alprazolam (Xanax), or other stimulants like amphetamines (Adderall), are being marketed as legitimate prescription pills and often sold on social media platforms.

Popular apps like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, and Whisper allow teens to connect with local, as well as national drug dealers, and often remain anonymous.

Last month, officers assigned to the FPD Crime Reduction Unit seized more than 25,000 counterfeit pills believed to contain fentanyl.

The Fishers Police Department urges all Fishers’ residents to be aware of the dangers of counterfeit pills and to only take medications prescribed to them, by a medical professional, and dispensed by a licensed pharmacist. For more information, visit www.DEA.gov/onepill

I recall an issue before the Fishers Town Council early in my time covering local government – a municipal investment in a new operation named Launch Fishers.  It was introduced and quickly passed by the council at that time.  I later discovered council members had hashed-out the proposal in a public work session.  I learned my lesson and tried to be there when town council work sessions were scheduled.

Launch Fishers marked a way a small business, not quite ready for an office of its own, could move from the kitchen table to an environment of high-speed Internet connections and human connections that led to other opportunities.

The high-tech sector dominated, but was not the only business populating Launch Fishers.  Many companies that have grown within Fishers were hatched at Launch Fishers.

There has been a new emphasis of economic growth in the city of late – the life sciences.  Fishers announced several week ago that Stevanato, an Italian bio-tech firm, will locate a manufacturing facility in Fishers near 126th Street and Cumberland Road.

It was recently announced that a South Korean company, List Therapeutics, will locate in Fishers not far from the Stevanato facility.  According to city officials, both firms will have manufacturing facilities in Fishers.

Yet another firm, Genezen, described by the company as a cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization, plans a big expansion to its manufacturing plant in Fishers.

All of this development will be partially financed through state and local incentive packages.

There is another business announcement I believe is worth noting.  Mojo Up is a marketing firm that started in Launch Fishers and plans to expand into the heart of downtown, part of the Nickel Plate Cultural District, in the Switch Building.

Mojo Up is a Black-owned and minority operated company.

“The City of Fishers provided incentive support for Mojo Up through the City’s master lease program, which provides flexible, short-term lease options for growing businesses,” says a city news release.

The economic development of Fishers is continuing fall-speed-ahead under the leadership of Mayor Scott Fadness.  The development along 116th Street downtown, which includes the First Internet Bank headquarters, is moving along and should be opening in the coming months.  This will make a marked change in the feel and atmosphere of downtown Fishers.

The City is close to naming a design group for he new City Hall, which is likely to include an indoor facility for the arts.  Another facility is being planned not far from downtown for indoor and outdoor sports.

One thing I have learned about Mayor Fadness is his desire to move forward.  He is moving on life sciences, public facilities and minority-owned businesses.    I do not expect any slowing down of that commitment anytime soon.

The reporter covering northside suburban education for the Indianapolis Star, M.J. Slaby, has run some numbers on the amount of compensation for four Hamilton County school districts.  Her figures show the highest paid school leaders and not tied to the size of the school corporation but more tied to the tenure in the job.

The highest paid superintendent is Beth Niedermeyer in Noblesville.  She has been in her job the longest.  Mike Beresford in Carmel is second, but could jump to #1 if he hits incentives in his contract.  Both Niedermeyer and Beresford were assistant superintendents with Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools previous to their current positions.

Yvonne Stokes, HSE superintendent, is the lowest paid, but she has also been on the job the shortest length of time..

You can see more details on all this by reading the IndyStar story at this link.  Note that you must be an IndyStar subscriber to access this story.  I encourage you to subscribe to your local media.  You can sign-up initially for a Star subscription for as little as $1 a month for the first few months.

Mayor Scott Fadness was out of town working on an economic development project and missed the October City Council session, the final meeting for Councilman David George.  He resigned his seat and David Giffel was selected by a Republican party caucus to finn-in the remainder of Mr. George’s term

The mayor asked David George to return once more time to City Hall for a council meeting so Fadness could present a small commemoration of Mr. George’s long service to Fishers.

Mayor Fadness pointed to the way the councilman was involved in the development of Fishers, which has led to a $1 billion total investment here.

“He was a staunch advocate for his constituents and his neighborhood,” Fadness told the City Council.  “He always, always cared about our employees.”

David George was the longest-serving council member, going back to the days of Fishers as a town.  He was a council member for 19 years.

Fred Glass has had an amazing career as a staff person to a governor and Indianapolis mayor, as well as Athletic Director at Indiana University.  He has taken all that experience and written a book, Making Your Own Luck.  For full disclosure, Fred Glass is also my brother-in-law.  Here is my conversation with Fred.

As we move toward the holidays, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, the City of Fishers is full of holiday events.  The city just released a listing.  You can view that listing, as provided by the city, below:

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Fishers approved 2 5G Verizon small cell towers in Fishers neighborhoods and tabled 2 more.

The Board of Public Works and Safety, consisting of the mayor and his 2 appointees, approved a new 5G tower for the Harrison Park subdivision over the objections of a resident that says the tower will be placed in his front yard.  The board said the placement of this tower was within the guidelines of other similar tower placements.

In Morgan Meadows, there was a request to move the tower further north.  Verizon had previously said no to moving the tower south, so the board tabled the request to allow Verizon a chance to consider moving the tower north.

The board approved one permit for a tower in the River Glen subdivision, but tabled an additional tower request.  This will allow the city engineering department to evaluate the light fixtures on the proposed tower location.

In other items before the board Thursday morning:

–The city accepted a $1 million state grant to help pay for resurfacing of Technology Drive in the Northeast Commerce Park.  The entire project to replace the concrete pavement with asphalt will cost a total of just under $3 million.  The bid was awarded to Morphey Construction.  The project is expected to be complete by June of 2022.

–Residents in the neighborhoods of Cottingham Estates and Harrison Green will be allowed more grant money for improvements along the Nickel Plate Trail adjacent to their property.  The additional grants will be financed through the bond money for the trail construction.  City staff says the situation in those 2 neighborhoods justify the need for additional city funds.

–The Wellington Banquet and Conference Center will take over the management of Saxony Hall.

–The Fishers Vaccination Center on 116th Street near Brooks School Road will go to a month-to-month lease beginning in January.  The city is unsure how long the vaccination center will be needed.  The location is a former Marsh grocery store.

–The Fishers Town Hall Building Corporation will work with Hub & Spoke to construct additional parking.  This should allow enough parking space for the businesses located at Hub & Spoke and residents using the Nickel Plate Trail.

–The board approved a project agreement with Rebar to develop and construct office space and renovate existing office space along the Nickel Plate Trail with a $7.2 million investment. Incentives will go through the Fishers Town Hall Building Corporation.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, the Fishers Health Department says we have seen an increase in COVID cases locally.  The department says after 6 consecutive weeks of decline, the past two weeks have seen an increase.

The Hamilton county unique individual positivity rate went up from 9.9% last week to 13.2% this week.

The case incidence rate, which is a 14-day rolling average of cases per 100,000 population, is up for a second straight week – 21.2% last week to 30.07% this week.  Fishers Health Department Epidemiologist Josh Robinson says over the 2-week period, the case incidence rate is up by a whopping 82%.

According to Robinson, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) availability has been going down in our local arear.  The availability rate is now at about 21%…it had been closer to 30% previously.

There was one piece of good news – the Fishers testing site has seen a decrease in positive cases from 13.38% to 10.23% over the past week.

Among those in Fishers age 18 and older, 85% have at least one COVID vaccine dose.  Even with that high vaccination rate Robinson says “there still remains a large number or residents in our community that have not yet initiated the vaccination process.”

Robinson encourages all eligible Fishers residents to get the vaccine.  “The case rates in unvaccinated residents is five times higher than the case rates in vaccinated residents” said Robinson.

Below is this week’s entire video message from Josh Robinson.

In the 10 years I have covered the Fishers town and city councils, I have witnessed many a debate about taxes, development and other major issues facing the city.  But Monday night I saw something I have never seen before covering news here – a sharp difference of opinion over the meeting minutes – you read that correctly, the meeting minutes.

It all began when Councilor Jocelyn Vare pointed out that the most recent meeting minutes up for approval were not written in the detail that she had seen in previous minutes.  For example, when there was a discussion among council members, the minutes only noted the discussion, not a summary of what was discussed.

Pete Peterson responded that the city provides a live stream and recorded video of each council session for the public.  Vare said residents should not need to sort through a long video to find a particular discussion.

Peterson then referred to Vare’s recent announcement of her intention to run for the District 31 State Senate seat.

“We’re not running a campaign here,” Peterson said.  Vare argued she was pushing for transparency, but Peterson said the city has been very transparent.

“This grandstanding stuff needs to stop with me,” said Councilor Peterson.  “I’m not going to tolerate it, it wastes our time.”

Council President Selina Stoller says she has spoken with City Clerk Jennifer Kehl and sometimes council members forget to turn their microphones on and cannot be heard clearly.  There are also instances, according to Stoller, when councilors lean back in their chairs even when the microphones are working and cannot be clearly heard.  This can also an extra burden on Clerk Kehl’s staff.

Council member Crystal Neuman supported Vare’s position on the minutes as an educator, saying people consume information in different ways and adding discussion summaries should not be “a huge deal.”

Clerk Kehl then said she had asked her employee filling-in for her at council meetings when Kehl must be away to “be a little more thorough in taking the minutes.”

The proposal by Vare was defeated by a vote of 7-2, with Vare and Neumann, the only Democrats on the council, voting to amend the minutes.  Therefore, the meeting minutes remain as originally submitted.

The Fishers City Council gave final approval to a mixed-use residential and commercial development at 106th Street, east of I-69.  The Highline at Delaware Park passed on a 7-2 vote, with new Councilor David Giffel joining Jocelyn Vare in voting no.

Giffel says he knocked on more than 100 doors in the area of the development and says 66% of those he asked opposed the apartment component of this development.

Vare argued that the recently revised Fishers 2040 comprehensive plan envisioned commercial development in that area, but Planning and Zoning Director Megan Vukusich responded that the language in the 2040 Plan does support mixed use development in that area, including commercial on the first floor and apartments in the upper floors.  Vare responded that this is not clear to residents when reading the comprehensive plan.

A majority of the council members voiced support for this project, saying the apartments are needed in Fishers in that particular area of the city.