The City of Fishers is embarking on two major construction projects and the increased cost of doing business appears to be having an impact on those plans.

Council President and Finance Committee Member Todd Zimmerman asked for an update on how inflation is impacting plans for the Arts & Municipal Complex, replacing City Hall.

Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren responded that about one-third of the construction bidding, the steel for the structure, is completed and within budget.     The next roughly one-third of the construction bids should be due by the end of July.  The remaining bids are due August 15th.

“Delv and Meyer Najem (project contractors) have been joined at the hip as far as every single design detail,” Hultgren told the committee.  “They are budgeting as best they can.  They feel pretty confident.”

Some decisions may need to be made about the details of the building’s design as the project moves forward, according to the deputy mayor.

Zimmerman expressed concerns he is seeing in the private sector, situations where contractors are needing change orders once construction starts as high as 30% due to their suppliers increasing prices.

When Finance Committee Member, Councilor Jocelyn Vare, asked Zimmerman about plans for a new city recreation center, costs are becoming an issue.  Jake Reardon McSoley’s addition to the city staff has helped due to his experience running the local YMCA, according to both Zimmerman & Hultgren. .

“We want to make sure the design is right before we present (the recreation center) to the council,” said Zimmerman.

Hultgren said there has been an issue with aligning what the public wants with the recreation center budget even before inflation took off in recent months.

Committee Chair John Weingardt asked how the city is handling fuel costs, and Hultgren reviewed the new software and hardware programs to city is utilizing to monitor energy use by all departments with an eye on cutting costs where it makes sense.

On the 2023 budget, City Controller Lisa Bradford detailed the process for next year’s spending plan. The state will provide numbers on how much Fishers should expect from the local income tax (LIT).  She will ask the Finance Committee to begin meeting sometime between August 22-26 to begin discussing the 2023 budget.  A session with city department heads is to be scheduled between September 7-9, with another on capital spending September 14. The full City Council will be receiving the budget proposal September 19 with a public hearing, and final Council vote is projected to be October 10th.

Vare expressed concern at the media reports that 141st Street interchange at State Road 37 had bids so high they are expected to be rejected, because it appears the media had the information before council members and the Finance Committee. Chairman Weingardt responded that this will be a delay in constructing that interchange, but the project will be done.  He cited the large number of highway projects in the general area as one reason the bids came in much higher than projected.

Weingardt expressed his concern about how dangerous the intersection is now at 141st Street and SR 37.  He wants improvements at that intersection, but there are financial and safety concerns.

Hultgren said Fishers Engineering Director Jason Taylor will attend the next Finance Committee meeting to further update members on the state of State Road 37 construction.

Vare recommended that Mayor Scott Fadness begin attending Finance Committee meetings, citing the State Road 37 & 141st Street situation.  Wiengardt responded with his view of having the mayor come to each Finance Committee session as “ridiculous.”  He says having the deputy mayor and controller at the Finance meetings should be enough for most meetings outside of the budget season.

Shop Fishers is back this summer with special deals and prices.  Shop Fishers 2022 starts July 16 and extends over one week.

With more on this event, Stephanie Perry joins the podcast.

When students want to report something that concerns them, they have been using the “HSE Report It” system, but that system is about to be updated.  The new system is “Stopit.”

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools Chief Operations Officer Jimmie Lake and Director of School Safety Mike Johnson told the school board Wednesday night the new system will be live monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which the previous system could not do.

The HSE Reports system will look the same on the front end, but Johnson said the “backend” of the system will be changing.

You can view the PowerPoint about “Stopit” at this link.

In other news from the school board meeting Wednesday:

–The board discussed several policy language changes on first reading, and approved previously discussed policies, with one amendment.  Board Member Suzanne Thomas wanted to reinsert language that encouraged outside stakeholders (students, parents, board members to name a few) to participate in job interviews when hiring top administrators.  The board voted unanimously to reinsert that language.

–Executive Director of Exceptional Learners Amy Selby made a presentation to the board all about the Special Education (Exceptional Learners) program in the district.  Selby said her department does have 16 opening as of now, but has applicants on file and is interviewing candidates.  You can see her PowerPoint presentation to the board at this link.   

–The board approved LED lighting for the HSE High School baseball and softball facilities.

–Changes in the fee schedule were approved by the board, including:

• HHS-Increase for Spanish I due to textbook adoption & decrease in consumables
• HHS-Increase for French V consumables due to increased pricing
• FJH & RJH-increase in Spanish consumables due to additional resources
• Jr Highs-Increase for Spanish due to textbook adoption

–The board is adding a regular meeting July 27th to handle start of school issues and a work session July 19th to discuss next steps on the renewal of the district’s operating referendum.  The July 27th meeting will be live-streamed and recorded on video, but the work session will not be available on video.  The July 19 work session is open to the public to attend in person.

–A new event for HSE Schools is set for July 30th.  The “Before the Bell” celebration marks the upcoming start to a new school year.  It will be held at the Nickel Plate Amphitheater.  More details are coming later.

Local school districts received their ILEARN testing scores from the Indiana Department of Education Wednesday, and Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Superintendent Yvonne Stokes told the local school board the results reveal the local schools “are heading in the right direction.”

Dr. Stokes cited a 5% increase in the scores for Language Arts and Math.

The tests included students in grades 3-8 and biology students at the high school level.

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School District is the fourth-largest in the state, so the Director of Nutrition and Food Service oversees a big operation, consisting of 200 employees in 22 school buildings.

The HSE School Board approved the hiring of Karen Ogden to assume that important position.  She replaces Andria Ray in that job.

Ms Ogden previously worked for a private food service operator, serving as the onsite general manager at Ivy Tech Community College and Westfield Washington Schools. While at WWS, Ogden was tasked with menu compliance with all federal, state and local regulations. She also implemented new school meal programs.

“Karen Ogden has a wealth of knowledge, and we believe she will be an asset in continuing to maintain our Food Service Department, said Superintendent Dr. Yvonne Stokes in a school district news reelease. “Our schools are responsible for serving more than 3 million meals a year.”

Ogden holds a BS in food and nutrition from Purdue University. Her first official day with HSE was Monday, July 11.

HSE Food Services is hiring for the 2022-23 school year.

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board voted 4-3 June 8th, adding language to school policies on handling “microaggression.”  At the July 13th school board meeting, President Julie Chambers defended the board’s action on that policy.

Here is the policy approved June 8th:

Microaggressions can be defined as everyday, subtle, intentional
or unintentional interactions or behaviors that communicate some
sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups. While
Hamilton Southeastern High School understands those
individuals communicating a microaggression might not intend
to express bias, the school recognizes the responsibility to educate
students on the reality of bias perceptions. Issues regarding
microaggressions may be addressed through restorative
conversations led by school administration, teachers, and/or
guidance counselors rather than punitive measures. Habitual
occurrences could lead to consequences applicable to
inappropriate conduct as defined in Section 28.

(Section 28 refers to a part of the discipline handbook)

“The recent update to our student handbook provides staff the opportunity to hold restorative conversations about how an intentional, or unintentional, interaction, communicates some kind of bias between students, can be effectively addressed,” Chambers said in a statement read at the July 13 session.

According to Board President Chambers, the policy language was requested by students and has the support of the local teachers’ association, the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association.

Chambers says the policy language “does not include punitive punishments associated with these behaviors and any suggestion to the contrary is inaccurate.”

Ms. Chambers went on to say, “While Hamilton Southeastern understands these individuals communicating microaggression may not intend to express bias, the school recognizes the responsibility to educate students on the reality of bias perceptions.”

School officials will have “restorative conversations” with students not abiding by the policy, but habitual offenses could lead to punitive measures, Chambers said.

Superintendent Yvonne Stokes also emphasized that this is not punitive in nature, and she made clear her goal continues to be keeping students in the classroom with the goal of academic achievement.

The statement was an apparent response to a number of comments made on social media and by people announcing their plans to run for the school board in the upcoming election.  Many have made comments critical of the HSE Schools policy on microaggression.

Candidates for seats on the HSE School Board may begin officially filing July 27th, with the end of the filing period at noon August 27th.

Board member Suzanne Thomas said Chambers’ statement was not shared with other board members in advance.  Chambers responded this was her part of the meeting and the statement was on behalf of the school corporation.

The Youth Mentoring Initiative (YMI) is gearing up for their biggest fund raising event of the year with the Annual Mayor’s Breakfast, set for September 1st, 7:00am, at Heritage Gardens, next to the historic Ambassador House.

Fishers movers and shakers will be on hand for the event, along with mentors and other friends of YMI, celebrating the impact of school-based mentoring in Hamilton Southeastern Schools.

In the next school year, YMI expects to provide mentoring for over 250 students, providing them with a mentor that will listen, support, and connect them to another caring adult in their community.

Tickets are now available for individuals at $50 each and several levels of sponsorships are available as well.

To register, use this link.

When the Hub & Spoke building was finished, it was not only home to the Fishers Parks & Recreation Department, but also provided a “Maker Space.”

That Maker Space is now award-winning, and will host an important competition.

See Fishers the city news release below for more details.

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The Maker Playground, a maker space created and managed by Fishers Parks, was awarded ‘Best Innovation in Design’ by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). The Maker Playground was also recently announced as host of the 2022 Make48 City Series Competition, the subject of Make48 docuseries currently syndicated by PBS.

The Maker Playground opened in 2019 as an interactive park property with equipment and programming for woodworking, metalsmithing, and technology to build and create projects in a collaborative space.

The NRPA Innovation Awards recognize park and recreation agencies nationwide that improve and strengthen their communities through innovative practices in park design, health and wellness, conservation, and social equity. The Maker Playground was selected as top in its category.

The Maker Playground was also unveiled recently as the host for the national Make48 competition. The celebrated docuseries brings its 48-hour collaborative inventor and maker challenge to Fishers after a successful run in 2021. The Fishers Maker Playground will host the event, scheduled for September 9-11, 2022. Now open to teams nationwide, competitors from Indiana and beyond will be able to participate in the unique maker competition, which helps participants discover what is possible in just 48 hours.

The winning team will win $2k and advance to compete at the national competition, slated for March 2023, where one team can win $10k. This year’s challenge theme is Food Preservation & The Supply Chain – Food at the Right Place at the Right Time, as determined by United Way of Central Indiana. The event is sponsored by Corteva Agriscience.

Corteva Agriscience™ will serve as the competition’s Challenge Sponsor, helping craft the teams’ competition objective. Corteva is a leading, global pure-play agriculture company headquartered in Indianapolis.

The Innovation in Design award will be officially presented to Fishers at the 2022 NRPA Annual Conference, in Phoenix, AZ in September 2022.

For more information about the Maker Playground, visit this link.

Fishers motorists navigating the construction on State Road 37 should only have a few more weeks of pain.  Hatem Mekky, Assistant Director of Engineering for the City of Fishers, told the Board of Public Works and Safety Tuesday morning that the current construction projects should be completed and open in early September.

That includes the work on 131st Street and 146th Street.  The roundabout at 131st is nearly completed and the traffic signal configuration on 146th Street should also be open at about the same time.  135th Street will open then as a right-in, right-out design.

Mekky told LarryInFishers that his department continues to work with design teams and county officials, along with other stakeholders, looking for a way to complete the roundabout at State Road 37 and 141st Street.  The city is expected to reject the bids submitted as too costly, but Mekky says Fishers officials continue to look for ways to get that project completed.

In other news from the Board of Works meeting, Fishers has approved a contract to provide fire protection and emergency services for the unincorporated areas of Fall Creek and Delaware Townships.  This is an agreement that has been renewed each year for a number of years, between the city and the township boards.

Fishers Police credit alert neighbors in the 11400 Block of Timberlane Drive (south of 116th St. near Hague Rd.) for an arrest made in the early hours of Sunday morning for vehicle theft.

Authorities received 911 calls reporting two suspicious men in the neighborhood.

“As police arrived in the area, they observed two men standing outside of a vehicle matching the description given by the resident,” according to a police department news release. “The two men quickly entered the vehicle and drove away. The officer initiated a traffic stop however the suspect vehicle refused to stop. Fishers police officers pursued the suspects until their vehicle became disabled on 82^nd Street. Three suspects fled on foot. Police searched the area and located one of the suspects. The suspect was taken into custody and transported to the Hamilton County Jail without incident.”

Police found 18 victims and were able to return stolen property to the owners.  Two handguns were found in the suspect’s vehicle.

Under arrest is Joshua Morilla, 23, from Indianapolis.  He faces several charges, including felony and misdemeanor counts of theft, several counts of unauthorized entry into a vehicle and possession of marijuana.

Fishers Police add a reminder that residents should remove all items of value from unattended vehicles.