The discussions have been going on since Fishers was a town – what to do about privately owned roads, often in commercial areas, that go into disrepair with the owner not maintaining the roadway.

The Fishers Board of Works & Public Safety started the process of utilizing the Barrett Law in bringing private roads into the city’s inventory, meaning the city would be responsible for maintaining those roads.

Many of these roads are in such disrepair the city does not want to absorb them in their current state, but bring them up to a minimum engineering standard before accepting the roads into municipal responsibility.

The Barrett Law is a legal procedure allowing impacted property owners to pay for items such as road repair.  The city would issue a bond and the impacted property owners would pay off their part of the bond over time.

The bond proceeds would be used to bring the identified roads up to a minimum standard, allowing the city to take the roads into its inventory, meaning the city would be responsible for maintenance from that point on.

City Attorney Chris Greisl told board members the process provided in statutes includes an opportunity for impacted property owners to remonstrate.

Pubic hearings on the Barrett Law will come before the Board of Works, but any bond issuance will go before the City Council.

The board passed a resolution at the Tuesday meeting starting this process.

The resolution listed the following private roads impacted:

• Britton Park Road (north of 135th St)
• Enterprise Drive
• Fishers Crossing Drive (and associated access roads)
• Fishers Landing Drive (and associated access roads)
• Fitness Lane (near 96th and Lantern Rd)
• Parkside Drive
• Publishers Drive
• Trade Center Drive
• Village Square Lane (near Allisonville and Easy St)

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board had a busy agenda during the Tuesday morning session, but one item enacted impacting families in the coming school year is the setting of student fees.

This has been traditionally called “textbook rental fees” but in today’s world also encompasses technology, as well as other fees.

Here is what the board unanimously passed Tuesday.

Elementary and Intermediate   

Kindergarten through 6th grade consumable and material fees have been revised due to a new adoption or a change in pricing.  Textbook fees have been revised to reflect the literacy adoption. There are many “pieces” to a literacy adoption that result in significant costs to HSE families. In lieu of passing on the full weight of these purchases to students and parents, HSE Schools are offsetting the costs by using referendum fund dollars. The school district’s goal was to keep the increases at an average of around $50 per student as opposed to $80 – $120 per student.

Find more details at this link.

Junior High Schools 

Fees have been revised either due to a change in price or change in resource selected.  Textbook fees have been revised to reflect the world language adoption.

For more, use this link.

High Schools

At the high school level, changes in fees may be due to the addition of new courses or changes in the selection or pricing of consumables or materials.  Textbook fees have been revised to reflect the world language adoption.

There may be some variation in high school fees due to the selection of consumables or materials used at each building.

The consumables and materials used by the K-12 Lifeskills program, 5-6 Functional Academic program, and the Transition program have been revised due to a change in resource selection or change in pricing.

For more details on Fishers High School fees, use this link.

For more on HSE High School Fees, access this link.

Technology fees can be found at this link.

Other fees are available at this link.

PFLAG is an organization that supports the LGBTQ community.  In Fishers, there is a PFLAG group.  I spoke with the local PFLAG President Cathy Goldman and Secretary Lindsay Mazurkiewicz in this podcast.  They discuss how the local organization supports people in Fishers.

Sarah Sandquist if the Director of the Fishers Parks & Recreation Department – Gabe Amick is a member of the department’s Experience Team.  They team up to talk about the Spark Fishers Festival.

When Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools narrowed the search for a new HSE High School Principal down to two candidates , Assistant Superintendent Matt Kegley described the process for the selection committee, and Superintendent Yvonne Stokes, in making the decision to hire Reggie Simmons.

“After considering the interview process and information gained in the interview process every step of the way, it was felt that Mr. Simmons possessed the qualities and experiences needed and required to lead Hamilton Southeastern High School,” Kegley told board members,

Mr. Simmons has led the Hamilton Southeastern Fishers Academy the past two years.  He began his career with HSE Schools in 2005.

Simmons told the board he already knows much of the staff at HSE High School and is looking forward to getting to know all the staff there as he assumes his new responsibility.

Also, the board formally approved Quentin Hunter as the new Assistant Principal at Fishers Elementary School.

There are decisions to be made about how to utilize school buildings in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School District and the local school board held a lengthy Tuesday morning work session looking at options to consider.

The future of Fishers Elementary School was discussed at length and the board appears to be forming a consensus around keeping the staff together, whether at a newly-remodeled structure at the current site or a new building at a nearby location.  The board also appeared to move in favor of turning the current Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate & Junior High (also known as the HIJH) into just a junior high school and construct another building nearby to house an Intermediate school (grades 5 & 6).

The future of Durbin Elementary School is also part of the mix, with possible future uses as a preschool, professional development center, a home for the Academy, Transition & Focus Day programs or a possible return to an elementary school.  Buying a current commercial building is also a possibility housing the Academy, transition or a possible preschool.

There were discussions of how each option, or mix of options, would impact the school district financially.  Administrators Matt Kegley and Katy Dowling told board members they were looking for direction to guide next steps.  Adding a new Intermediate School will provide some operational challenges, due to the need for administrators, security and guidance staff to be placed in the new school building, according to school staff.

There were no votes taken or actions by the board during the work session.

Superintendent Yvonne Stokes told board members the staff will move forward based on the guidance from board members and will provide more specific proposals, including more precise cost estimates, at a board meeting in August.

The Hamilton Southeastern (HGSE) School Board will have a meeting Tuesday morning at 7:30 to enact a new student fee schedule, but there will be another item on the agenda of special interest to anyone connected to HSE High School.

The board is scheduled to vote on an administration recommendation to hire Reginald Simmons as the new HSE High School Principal.  Mr. Simmons would replace Janie Ulmer, who is moving on to a job with the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA).

Reggie Simmons is listed currently in the HSE Schools staff directory as Director of Hamilton Southeastern Fishers Academy.

Every time we get into the month of June in Fishers, there is plenty of social media chatter about fireworks – is there a city ordinance, and if so, what does it say?

The Fishers Police Department issued a news release Monday with a reminder of the city fireworks ordinance and what it says.  Here is the release and a copy of the actual ordinance:

Continue reading FPD reminder on city fireworks ordinance →

Construction continues on the State Road 37 project with changes in the traffic configuration.  Below is a posting from the 37 Thrives Web site.

As a journalist, I do my best to provide accurate information as best I can.  Sometimes, I write something that needs to be corrected later.  This is one of those times.

When writing my story on the Fishers Memorial Day observance this year, I included a photo I had taken of a plan flying over the proceedings.  Master of ceremonies El Ahlwardt had said early in the event to expect a flyover and watch for it approaching behind him.

As the ceremony continued, there was a plane that was flying over the municipal complex just as Mr. Ahlwardt said it would.

However, based on comments made at the Fishers Armed Services Committee Meeting a few days ago, the planned flyover was cancelled as the Memorial Day event was beginning.

The plane that did appear above the Fishers City Hall “was not a flyover,” Ahlwardt said.  The planned flyover aircraft was apparently not ready for flight, so Ahlwardt made clear that no pilot should take off in a plane not ready to fly.

This was the second year in a row the planned flyover did not materialize, so the city is looking at other options for the 2023 Memorial Day flyover.

No one knows what the plane was doing that did fly over the ceremony on Memorial Day, we just know it was not the planned flyover.

Again, sometimes things are not what they seem at the time.  Just setting the record straight.