The Fishers City Council joined Mayor Scott Fadness in a work session Monday to discuss annexing an area in the far southeast section of unincorporated Hamilton County, mostly adjacent to the City of Fishers. The session also reviewed the innovation grant program for Hamilton Southeastern School District teachers.
The tract of land Fishers is looking to annex in the southeast area is unincorporated Hamilton County, although residents in the area have Fortville addresses with the Postal Service. There are 960 parcels of land that Fishers is eyeing to annex, but 710 of those have remonstrance waivers. This is mostly tied to a zoning designation granted to the developer in 2009, according to the mayor’s Chief of Staff Jordin Alexander.
Public sessions with the those residing in the neighborhoods will be held this month and in August. The City Council will vote on the fiscal plan for annexation at the August meeting. A public hearing will be conducted in October, with the adoption of the annexation ordinance subject to a City Council vote in December. The remonstrance and appeal period is a long one, extending to May of 2025. The entire annexation process will not likely be completed until June of 2025.
Mayor Fadness indicated that once this annexation is complete, he will likely call for a special census. The last official census in 2020 put the City of Fishers population a tick under 100,000. Fadness believes the current Fishers population is about 105,000, with 110,000 coming soon. A special census could help by allowing the city to up money it receives from state government.
Council members and the mayor turned to the HSE Schools Innovation Grants the city is funding. Fadness emphasized this program is not in competition with the money provided HSE teachers by the HSE Schools Foundation, but can fund requests for projects the Foundation is unable to handle due to the dollar amounts. The fund started this year with $500,000 and has handed-out $80,000 in grants. Fadness says the $500,000 amount was for one year only. He hopes to fund the grants by providing smaller funding each year, but with enough money in the fund to approve a large project if the committee sees fit.
Retired HSE teacher Mike Fassold outlined for the Council how the committee he chairs considers each request for project funding. He highlighted one HSE High School teacher proposing a virtual reality system that has so far been very successful.