It has been a long time coming.  Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness referred to the “controversy and turmoil” he and his council members withstood when the former tracks of the Nickel Plate Railroad became the Nickel Plate Trail

Fadness and many of his council members were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 106th Street near Hub & Spoke.  The completion of the south end of this trail takes the Nickel Plate to 96th Street and the border with Indianapolis.

“Ultimately, there will be a bridge on the south end connecting us to Indianapolis,” Fadness said at the ceremony.  “That design is currently underway.  Indianapolis now has funding to bring the trail from 96^th Street all the way down to the (State) Fairgrounds.”

On the northern end of the trail, Fadness said the only obstacle to extending the trail north to downtown Noblesville is a bridge at 146th Street that is currently being designed.

The mayor says the trail also extends to the new Andretti Global Headquarters in Fishers.  The governing body for Formula One racing, FIA, announced Monday that Andretti meets all required criteria to expand into the world’s top motorsports series, clearing a major hurdle.  Andretti is expected to field 2 cars in Formula One.

Mayor Fadness has proposed a node at the trail near 106th Street, including public rest rooms, as part of his 2024 budget proposal now before the City Council.

“This has a huge regional impact for the northeast side of Central Indiana and we are very, very excited about it,” said Fadness.

Ribbon is cut on the south end of the Nickel Plate Trail

You may recall a post on this blog on August 19 all about a small weekly newspaper in Marion, Kansas.  There have been some new developments in that case.

To review, there was a police raid August 11th on the Marion County, Kansas, newspaper office.  Police seized computers, cellphones and other data from the premises of the newspaper. Local authorities also raided the home of the paper’s co-owners — Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother, Joan. Joan Meyer died a day after the raid and Eric has said he believes the stress of the raid led to her death.

The Poynter Project, a highly respected nonprofit that reports on journalism, posted a story at the time summarizing the situation that can be found at this link.

One week after the raid, the county attorney said there was “insufficient evidence” to conduct that raid.  All newspaper property taken by police in that raid has been returned.  The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has been looking into the matter.

Now, the mayor of Marion has suspended the local police chief.  You can read more about that from the Marion Record news Web site at this link.

Journalists and those in the news business have a responsibility to follow the law just like anyone else.  However, a heavy-handed raid for no apparent legal reason is an attack on the First Amendment and is bad for all of us.

It’s hard to believe my involvement in media began around 1970.  I worked at a small town radio station where you did a little of everything…play music, program, music, do some sports, do some news….well, you get the idea.

We experienced a regular stream of politicians and political candidates making their way to the station looking for some free media exposure.  So, I often ended up greeting and sometimes interviewing these people from the political world of that era.

One thing that struck me was the lack of women in the political world of that time.  Their were some women in elective office, but there were just a handful them.

Fast forward to 2023, and you see a number of women on the political battleground.  The current Hamilton Southeastern School board consists of 6 women and 1 man.  Out of the 9 members of the Fishers City Council, 4 are women.

Republicans have controlled local government for some time in Fishers, so in the past, since I moved to Fishers in 1991, the women in local office tended to be Republican.  In the 2019 city election, 2 Democrats, both women, were elected to the City Council.

We are in the midst of another city election season and we see Democratic women preparing for their election campaigns through a program called Hoosier Women Forward.  Incumbent at-large City Council Member Jocelyn Vare is running for re-election and has touted her joining the program in a recent news release.

“I’m honored to be in the company of such diverse, impressive and committed women who share a vision to improve our local communities,” said Vare. “The results of this year’s primary election prove that political change is well underway in Fishers. We need more Democratic women to step forward to lead. Hoosier Women Forward is a training ground for those future leaders.”

Vare lists several women with Fishers connections that are or have been in this Hoosier Women Forward program:  Julie Chambers, former member and president of Hamilton Southeastern Schools Board of Trustees (Class of 2019-2020), Dayna Colbert, Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair (Class of 2020-2021), Freedom Kolb, executive director of The Milk Bank (Class of 2021-2022), Crystal Neumann, Fishers City Councilor for the North Central District (Class of 2022-2023), Meredith Fox, Hamilton County Democratic Party Communications Team Chair (Class of 2023-2024) and Representative Victoria Garcia Wilburn, Fishers Indiana State Representative (Class of 2021-2022).

We have a number of women, from both political parties, involved in our local politics.  In my view, that is a good thing.