After serving as Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board President during 2023, Dawn Lang handed the gavel to fellow board member Juanita Albright as president of the board for 2024.  The vote to approve Albright as board president was 5-2, with Sarah Donsbach and Sarah Parks-Reese voting no.

Ben Orr will serve as vice president of the board and Suzanne Thomas will be the board secretary.

Also, as part of the consent agenda, the board approved the resignation of Michelle Brittain-Watts.  Ms. Brittain-Watts had served as Executive Director of Secondary Education for HSE Schools since June of 2021.

The Fishers Arts & Culture Commission has a job to do in 2024, sorting out 26 grant requests totaling $173,000.  The Commission is provided a $60,000 annual budget from the Fishers City Council to support the arts locally.  There is also another fund that the Commission has for supporting the local arts, totaling more than $151,000.  The $60,000 from the City Council must be spent in 2024, with any remaining funds at the end of the year going into the city’s general fund.  The more than $151,000 fund continues year-to-year.

The Commission now has the job of reviewing each funding request and evaluating which projects will be funded and in what amounts.  Each Commission member will be evaluating each request.  You can review the requests at this link.

In one other item, Jocelyn Vare was elected to serve as the Commission’s Chairperson in 2024.  Angie Frazier will serve as Vice President.

When entering the room Tuesday covering the Fishers Armed Forces Commission meeting, there was an air in the room that something was about to happen.  Secrecy was important because Commission Member Eddie Rivers was about to have a big surprise.

His family was hidden from him at the start of the session, then Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness joined Police Chief Ed Gebhart, Eddie’s family, along with many others, into the meeting room.

Governor Eric Holcomb issued the Sagamore of the Wabash award to Eddie Rivers.  This has been described as the highest regular honor to bestow upon a citizen of Indiana.  It harkens back to  Algonqian language American Indiana tribe, where the term “Sagamore” is used to describe a lower chief or a leader among the tribe to whom the true chief would look for advice and wisdom.

There were indications from those in the room that House Speaker Todd Huston may have had a hand in Governor Holcomb’s decision to award the Sagamore of the Wabash Award to Eddie Rivers.

Mr. Rivers is a West Point graduate and holds a degree in Jurisprudence from the Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law. He is currently a business owner and is  involved in Kids Voice of Indiana.

Once the award ceremony was complete, the Commission meeting continued, with one item worth mentioning.  A military Field of Honor is being planned in an area near the under-construction City Hall/Arts Center.  There will be announcements coming soon on how local people and organizations will be able to financially support this project,

Mayor Scott Fadness remarked that going to a music concert is different these days, because rather than looking at the stage, the audience seems tied to their cell phones.  Realizing this, the city approved a contract Tuesday morning with Airwavz Solution.  The firm will provide cell service for those in attendance at the new Fishers Events Center, scheduled to open in November of this year.  This is a 10-year pact that can  be extended.  The pact will be cover physical equipment, network design, installation, and licensee maintenance, resulting in an operational expense of $16,665/month.

In other actions taken at the Tuesday morning Board of Works session:

–Contracts are now in place for the development of art on the Nickel Plate Trail.

–The Health Department has a new contract for marketing and communication services.

–The city has a new contract with Key Bank for lockbox services, processing paper check payments.

–The city has a $707,617.50 contract with Miller Pipeline to rehabilitate approximately 2,000 feet of sanitary interceptor sewer using cured-in-place pipe. This also includes manhole rehabilitation. This rehabilitation project focuses on large diameter concrete pipe in the collection system in two locations: Sunblest Blvd/ Allisonville Road and parallel to Lantern Road north of 106th Street.

–The city agreed to continue upgrades to its Internet service and cloud computing capabilities.

The Hamilton County Commissioners are making news in a couple of ways Tuesday.

First, Mark Heirbrandt has been elected 2024 President of the Hamilton County Commissioners.  Under Indiana law, most Indiana counties have 3 elected county commissioners, that act as mayors for the counties.  In Hamilton County, the Commissioners traditionally rotate the role of president.  Commissioner Steve Dillinger served as president in 2023 and will serve as vice president in 2024.  The third commissioner, Christine Altman, has served as president in past years.

Secondly, the Commissioners are asking for input on how to spend the county’s share of a national settlement with the pharmaceutical industry.

Below is the text of a Hamilton County news release detailing what the county plans:

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The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners, in collaboration with the Hamilton County Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs (HCCOAOD), has opened a Request for Funding (RFF) for the National Opioid Settlement Grant Program. This initiative aims to provide support for evidence-based prevention, treatment, recovery, harm reduction, and other services related to substance use disorders. 

The State of Indiana will receive $507 million as a part of the $26 billion national settlement with Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen – the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors – and Johnson & Johnson, which manufactured and marketed opioids. Hamilton County will receive a total of $10,261,773.96 in annual allocations through 2038.  

County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt emphasized the importance of community collaboration, stating, “We’re hopeful these grant dollars will allow us to break out of the ineffective silos we’ve been working in for so long and encourage our community to work collaboratively toward a community-driven response to substance use disorders.” 

The HCCOAOD and its nine-member Board of Directors will oversee the community grant award process. Executive Director Monica Greer offered these tips to interested applicants, “The settlement is giving us some freedom to choose new ideas without the similar restraints we’re accustomed to, so we encourage organizations to bring forth innovative proposals that will make a lasting impact. We look forward to reviewing proposals that demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as a sustainable impact beyond the funding period.” 

There will be two rounds of funding. Submissions for the first round are due Friday, February 23 at 4:30 p.m. Awards will be announced Friday, March 22. Projects must run from Monday, April 1, 2024 through Monday, March 31, 2025. Proposals for the second round of funding will be due Friday, August 23 at 4:30 p.m. Awards will be announced Friday, September 20. Projects must run from Tuesday, October 1, 2024, through Tuesday, September 30, 2025. 

The HCCOAOD Board will evaluate proposals based on the criteria outlined in the RFF, with final funding decisions made by the Board of Commissioners. Award recipients do not need to be located in Hamilton County, but all services funded by the grants must be provided in Hamilton County. All award recipients are required to submit quarterly program outcome reports until project completion. Funding will be distributed on a reimbursement basis. 

Interested organizations should submit proposals to Monica Greer via email (monica.greer@hamiltoncounty.in.gov). The subject line of the email should read “Hamilton County Opioid Settlement RFF.” 

The construction work at 146th Street and Allisonville Road continues into the new year.  The next traffic pattern shift is expected sometime early this year, according to officials at the Hamilton County Highway Department.

Below you will find the latest updates on the construction, as provided by the county:

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It was the summer of 2017.  I had posted stories about a series of investigative reports about the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board’s decision not to reveal details concerning the reasons for Fishers High School Football Coach Rick Wimmer’s 5-day suspension.  Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt had issued 2 opinions clearly saying HSE Schools were required to disclose the reason or reasons for Wimmer’s suspension.

Mr. Britt’s opinions as Indiana Public Access Counselor are advisory.  HSE Schools chose at the time to ignore Mr. Britt’s findings.

I was asked to meet with a top official of HSE Schools as this was going on because I had written extensively on this blog, pointing to WTHR Television news 13Investigates team reporting on this issue.  Let’s just say we each expressed our own views on the subject.

WTHR was able to obtain legal help with the Wimmer suspension issue from the nonprofit group, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.  WTHR went to court with that legal assistance and won a ruling from the Indiana Supreme Court, with the justices unanimously saying governmental units in Indiana must, under state law, provide specific facts as to why a public employee is suspended, fired or in some way disciplined.

These court cases can be very expensive and it is unclear whether WTHR would have been able to handle the attorney fees to take this case to the state’s highest court without the support of the nonprofit organization.

Katie Townsend, Deputy Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, wrote an Op-Ed piece for the January 5 edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal.  She announces that her group will launch the Indiana Local Legal Initiative, providing an attorney to local Indiana news outlets in need of legal help in supporting their investigative journalism.  The initiative is made possible through the generosity of benefactors such as the Lumina Foundation.

There is no way my small blog can do investigative journalism.  It takes the support of many journalists, editors and lawyers to conduct investigative work.  My blog is just myself so there is no way I could do investigative reporting.

However, I support news organizations with the resources to do this type of journalism.  I am very happy to see nonprofit organizations doing whatever they can to support good, investigative work by local reporters.

That kind of journalism benefits us all.

You can read Katie Townsend’s IBJ Op-Ed piece at this link. (NOTE:  You may not be able to access this story if your are not an IBJ subscriber)

It is an office building easily seen on the east side of Interstate 69 in Fishers.  It has housed many operations in the past, including a bank call center and a pharmaceutical firm.

The company occupying most of that building now is Round Room, and the company is one of the nation’s largest Verizon Authorized Retailers.  Round Room is letting everyone know how much the firm has donated in 2023.   Round Room’s donation total is $3.1 million.

“Since 2014, Round Room’s nonprofit organizations, including Round Room Gives, TCC Gives and Wireless Zone Gives, have collectively donated more than $22 million to communities across the nation,” said Scott Moorehead, CEO of Round Room, in a company news release. “We are so proud of the impact we are making and our continued growth year after year. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a team that supports our deep commitment to giving back.”

Round Room also points to its best-in-class employee retention, employee engagement and employee satisfaction.

Look for sidewalk repairs in the Sunblest neighborhood starting January 8.  also, look for a road closure on eastbound 106th Street to thru traffic from Fall Creek Road to Hoosier Road on Monday, January 8th.

For more details, see the weekly report below, as provided by the City of Fishers:

Continue reading Fishers Road Report for the work week starting Monday, January 8 →

Victoria Garcia Wilburn represents a district in the Indiana State Legislature encompassing the Nora area of Marion County, Southern Carmel and the West side of Fishers.  She completed her first session serving in the House last year and is ready for the 2024 short session.  Representative Wilburn took time to talk with me about a number of issues in the General Assembly.