March is Disability Awareness Month.  Larry invited Cecilia Coble to join the podcast and talk about what is planned during March.  Also, Sarah Buckner joins the podcast, she is Director of Community Engagement for Hamilton County Tourism.

You can listen to the podcast at the link below.

Mayor Scott Fadness called this “the longest anticipated ground breaking in the history of Fishers.”  He spoke just before ground was broken Thursday afternoon on the new Fishers White River Park, bringing 85 acres of land into the city’s park inventory.

The city had originally planned to have the ground-breaking event in the fall of 2024, but weather kept getting in the way.  Fadness described this project as “a truly transformative park on the west side of Fishers”

The mayor praised Chris Reed, a Fishers resident, for stepping forward and developing the area west of 96th Street and Allisonville Road  with residential property.

The mayor was clearly pleased with the park plans, saying it is “truly, truly extraordinary.”

Anytime I would attend a hockey game, I noticed many youngsters in the crowd were fascinated by the Zamboni machine and thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to someday be the Zamboni driver.  For those of you not hockey aficionados, the Zamboni machine lays the ice on the skating rink before warmups, before the game, during period breaks and before any overtime period(s).

Bottom line, you do not have the ice on which to skate and play a hockey game without the ice laid down on the rink by the Zamboni machine.

The Indy Fuel scheduled an unusual starting time for a game Tuesday, 10:30am.  I cover as many Fuel games as possible, but had a news event to cover Tuesday and couldn’t make it.  Turns out, there was no game Tuesday after all.

Seems there was a Zamboni breakdown.  As I just wrote, no Zamboni, no ice on the rink and no hockey game.  The statement from the Fuel only says the game was postponed due to “a mechanical issue with the Zamboni.”

The game with the Bloomington (IL) Bison will be rescheduled at a later date.  The Tuesday game was to have been Education Day.  “School administrators who purchased tickets on behalf of their school group will be contacted directly with further instruction,” per the Fuel statement  Those buying tickets through Ticketmaster can be refunded directly through Ticketmaster.

After 18 public comment speakers and plenty of written submissions, the Fishers Board of Works and Public Safety acted unanimously to begin a planning exercise aimed at identifying where a traffic signal is best suited for 116th Street between Cumberland and Hoosier Roads.  The decision was met with thundering applause from over 30 people in the audience, most either residents of the Spyglass area or attorneys representing the neighborhoods.

Mayor Scott Fadness recommended the action, and his appointees to the board, Jeff Lantz and Stee Orusa, joined in supporting the proposal.  The mayor said part of the equation as to where such a signal will be placed will be based partly on land in the area that is currently for sale and Fadness expects will be residentially developed.

Of those providing public comments, all were opposed to a recommendation from the city revealed last month,  creating a connection street from Laurel Falls to Knightsbridge Lane.  Fadness decided not to support that recommendation, but provide what most residents supported, a traffic signal on 116th Street allowing residents easier access in and out of the subdivisions.

The mayor set a deadline of July for the city engineering department to come up with a recommendation for a specific location for the traffic signal.

Steve Orusa wasted no time in taking a new job after his retirement as the long-time Fishers Fire & Emergency Services Chief, this one being part-time.   He has been named by Mayor Scott Fadness to serve on the Board of Public Works and Safety.

Orusa replaces Jason Meyer, who resigned from the board when he moved from Fishers for family reasons.  The board is made up of the mayor and his two appointees.

The City Council recently passed a measure allowing Board of Works members to be paid for the first time, in line with municipalities in our surrounding area.  The compensation cannot exceed $4,000 in one year.

The Fishers City Web site lists the following as responsibilities of the board:

Public ways and sidewalks; laying out, opening, and changing grades.

1. The works board may lay out, open, change, and fix or change the grade of any public way, sidewalk, or public place in the city.
2. The works board may keep a record of the grades of all public ways and sidewalks in the city.

Pursuant to Ind. Code § 36-8-3-2, the Public Works and Safety Board has exclusive control over all property relating to the following:

1. Police department
2. Fire department, fire alarms, and fire escapes
3. Animal shelters
4. Inspection of building

The Public Works and Safety Board may purchase the equipment and supplies and make the repairs needed by the Police and Fire Departments.

The Fishers City Council acted on two measures related to public records Monday night.

One action was first reading on public records requests.  City Attorney Lindsey Bennett told Council members the city receives hundreds of public records requests every year, with a large number tied to furthering commercial interests.  This requires the city to expend resources responding to such requests.  Bennett asked Councilors to pass an ordinance limiting the use of public records to non-commercial use.  The Council had first reading Monday and will have second reading in March.

When parties request videos from law enforcement, the city charges for copies of these recordings, up to $150 each.  The Council passed an increase in the per-minute charge, reflecting increased staff costs.  As a result, the cost will be $.62/minute for Fishers Police Department review and $.92/minute for attorney review, for each video that is requested.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness announced Monday night before the City Council that Jonathan Valenta will replace the late Eric Pethtel as Department of Public Works Director.  Valenta then presented employee Ron Sawyer with a 25-year service award.

New Fishers police officers were sworn-in during Monday’s Council session.  They were: Kenneth Graham, Eric Guzman, Benjamin McGinnis, Caleb Ferris, Greg Dewald, Shane Stephens, Cameron Theobald, Brandon Trimarco, Brandon Biagini, Izaiah Bond, Emylio Romo, Keith Freer, and Jeffrey Krider.

Fishers Junior High School was honored for another in a long string of state championships in the We The People competition, a way to measure students’ civic knowledge.

IU Health presented honors to Fishers first responders for their life saving work.

The City of Fishers is moving forward with plans to limit the number of rental homes at 10 per cent per neighborhood.  Chief of Staff for Mayor Scott Fadness, Jordin Alexander, explained the proposed ordinance before the City Council during a first reading Monday night.

The proposed timeline calls for a final vote on the ordinance by Council members in March.  In April, the city would begin the process of registering all rental homes within the city limits.  There would then be a period of educating the public and outreach to local homeowners’ associations (HOAs).

The ordinance enforcement would begin in January of 2026.  All rental homes in Fishers would be required to register with the city at that point and the caps would be enforced.

The ordinance would require rental home owners to register with the city and apply for a permit.  Once granted, the permit would be valid until the home changes ownership.

Permits would be granted only if the 10% cap had not been reached in that subdivision.  HOAs are allowed to enact lower caps if they wish.  Rental homes in place before December 31, 2025 will be considered legacy and not subject to the city ordinance cap.

Alexander listed several exemptions from the caps, including renting to family, job relocation, military deployment, failure to sell a property after 6 months and causing an undue burden (such as a divorce situation).  There will be an appeal process if a permit is denied.

Failure to register would bring a $250 fine.  If your rental is over the 10% cap a permit would normally be denied by the city.  If a landlord somehow did operate a rental above the 10% subdivision limit, fines start at $1,000 and could go as high as $7,500.

During the Community Comment period at the end of the Council session, former Councilor Jocelyn Vare suggested the city conduct a town hall on the rental cap proposal.  Council President Pete Peterson said the city would take that under advisement.

You can read the entire proposed ordinance at this link.