Fishers City Judge Dan Hanke handled the ceremonial duties as all Fishers elected city officials, incumbents and the newly-elected, gathered at Fishers Fire Headquarters for the once-every-four-year swearing-in ceremony.

Mayor Scott Fadness had no opposition in the primary or general elections and was sworn-in first, after offering opening remarks about the accomplishments and challenges the city has faced in the past four years.

Judge Henke and local Pastor Darryn Scheske offered remarks before the ceremony got into full swing.

Below are more photos from the Wednesday evening event:

Continue reading Swearing-in ceremony for Fishers elected officials →

A new Indiana state law is set to start January 1, 2024, and the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board was briefed Monday evening on how the local district plans to setup a system for handling requests for removal of library materials in the schools, under the new statute.

Executive Director of Elementary Education Danielle Fetters Thompson and Executive Director of Staff and Student Services Ryan Taylor, explained the new procedure by presenting an algorithm explaining the process, which is available at this link.

They also reviewed the written procedure, citing state law, which also included the form used to file such a request.  Both are available at this link.

To be eligible to make a request to remove library materials, the requestor must be a parent of a child in the school system or a member of the community residing within the school district boundary.  In order to ask for removal of school material, under the state law, the person making the request must show the material is either contains obscene matter or performance….or matter or performance harmful to minors.

In order to successfully ask for removal, one or both of these provisions of state law must apply.  The statutory language going into more detail is part of the form and procedure.

Once the form is filed, the issue is to be discussed with the school librarian and building administrator.  If the issue needs resolving after that, the building principal reviews the form to ensure it is complete and forwards the form to the superintendent.

Three central office administrators will, as a committee, review the request and issue a recommendation.  If the person making the request is not satisfied at that point, an appeal is filed for a school board decision.

The procedures and form were fashioned by school administrators with help from attorney Chris Greisl.

As the Monday night Fishers City Council meeting was nearing the end, the 3 outgoing Councilors briefly spoke.  All 3, Democrats Crystal Neumann & Jocelyn Vare, alomg with Republican David Giffel, all lost in their bids for another council term in the November election.

Giffel congratulated the new members to be sworn-into office Tuesday.  Vare challenged Mayor Scott Fadness not to be afraid of questions and pushback on his ideas, arguing that if it is a good idea, it will withstand any criticism.  Neumann thanked the city staff for all their help when she brought issues to them from her district.

January will mark the first Council session for Republicans John DeLucia and Tiffanie Ditlevson, as well as Democrat Bill Stuart.

There will be a few year-end stories on this blog as 2023 comes to a close.  My first attempt is to juggle the numbers on my LarryInFishers.com local Fishers news blog and try to understand which stories posted on the blog were read the most during this year.

This can get a bit complicated.  First, I posted many stories on some issues.  Second, a number of people check my blog in general, not linking to individual stories, and there is no good way to track which stories get the most attention from those readers.

However, I took the data I have and made an attempt to determine which local issues where read the most by you, the people reading my blog.

Also, remember this is just a data analysis of which stories are  most popular.  I will be posting what I think are the most important Fishers stories in 2023 later on.

So, with all that in mind, here are the 5 most-read stories on this blog, as best I can determine from the data available to me.

5.  HAND Breaks Ground

The Fishers City Council narrowly approved a rezone allowing affordable housing to be constructed at Cumberland Road and 141st Street, Cumberland Cottages, on the far north end of Fishers.  Some of the 11 units will be market rate, others affordable.  The Noblesville-based nonprofit HAND is constructing the project.  It is expected to be complete in 2024.

4.  Bastian Solutions coming north of 141st Street 

Just to the east of Cumberland Cottages on 141st Street, Noblesville plans a major economic development project right on the border with Fishers, near Promise Road.  A large facility will be constructed by a firm named Bastian, which is a supplier to Toyota.  Residents south of 141st Street on the Fishers side, particularly residents of the Sedona Woods neighborhood, have voiced concerns about how Bastian will impact their homes, traffic and other issues.

3.  Fishers Community Center plans revealed 

A Fishers Community Center has been in the works for some time.  The city asked for comments from residents and they received plenty of feedback.  The complex is to be built at 121st Street and Hoosier Road.  Construction is expected to begin in 2024.

2.  The Hamilton Southeastern School Board 

There were so many stories posted related to the school board I wrapped them all into one here.  There was a lot of news generated by this governmental body.  Just a few of the news items posted related to the successful funding referendum, the resignation of Superintendent Yvonne Stokes after reaching a separation agreement with the board, the decision to satisfy a commitment for a community forum on selection of a new superintendent with a 30-person focus group, removal of the microaggression language in the student handbook and the handling of a large mental health grant.

1  The Hamilton East Library Board

It was not just my blog, media outlets throughout central Indiana gave this story plenty of coverage, including the Indianapolis Star.  A new board majority voted to spend at least $300,000 reviewing all the books in the young adult section for possible reshelving into the adult collection.  This effort would take a great deal of time, along with the price tag.  When author John Green objected to one of his books being moved to the adult section, it made national and even international news.  With new appointments and some resignations, the board majority has shifted and the project of reviewing the young adult book collection ended recently.

Again, this listing is based on data of how many people chose to read these specific stories.  You may notice the local city election did not make the cut.  I will be writing about that story and many more with my annual list of the biggest local news stories, as a reporter following Fishers news for all of 2023, in the coming days.

Once again, thanks for reading.

When it was announced that Fishers would gain a franchise in the Indoor Football League in 2025, there were questions…will the team name feature Indianapolis, Indy, Fishers or some other moniker?  Also, what will the nickname be?

Those questions were answered in an early Friday morning news conference at the Fuel Tank.  The team, which will play its home games at the Fishers Events Center, will be known as the Fishers Freight.

The name Freight is a tip of the hat to the Fishers history and Nickel Plate Railroad.

Watch a video of the announcement at the link below.

What was it like to survive in America’s Pacific Northwest as a Native American tribe?  The Hamilton Southeastern School Board highlighted the work of 5th grade teacher Kelsey Renbarger and many of her students told board members how their teacher brought to life the survival skills shown by those Native Americans.  Ms. Renbarger taught a specific book about life for that group of people at that time in history.

The point of view of this book is written from the Wolf, the main character and is also based on a real story of a wolf who journeyed over 1,000 miles in a month. The students read the book and created their own journals – covering comprehension, vocabulary, figurative language, point of view and inferencing. The students were then also able to use the nonfiction story of the real wolf to cover the nonfiction standards tied with the unit.

The school district produced a video that was shown at the board meeting and can be seen at the link below.

Dayna Colbert, the current Hamilton County Democratic Chair, will be leaving that post soon to take the position of Executive Director for the state Democratic Party.  In a podcast recorded Thursday morning with LarryInFishers.com, Jocelyn Vare announced she will be a candidate for that soon-to-be-vacant job of Hamilton County Democratic Chair.

Vare will finish a 4-year term on the Fishers City Council as an at-large member at the end of December after losing a bid for re-election.  She ran unsuccessfully last year for a seat in the Indiana Senate.  She owns a local Fishers firm, Propeller Marketing.

It is not known when a caucus will be held to select the new Democratic Hamilton County Chair.

Jocelyn Vare, David Giffel and Crystal Neumann will be leaving the Fishers City Council at the end of 2023, unsuccessful in their campaigns for another term in office.

I spoke with this bipartisan group about their campaigns, accomplishments and what the future may hold post-City Council.  Listen to the podcast at the link below.

When Fall Creek Junior High School lost its principal, Stacy Swan, for an opportunity in another school district, the search was on for a replacement.  Tim Mankin, a retired administrator, was brought back on an interim basis as the search continued.

After a long search process, HSE Schools ended up promoting the assistant principal to the top job.  Wednesday night, the Hamilton Southeastern School Board unanimously voted to hire Michael Ryan as the new Fall Creek Junior High Principal.

“I am excited to transition into the principal role at Fall Creek Junior High and continue serving our school community,” said Ryan in a school district news release. “We have tremendous students, supportive parents and hard-working staff that make FCJ a truly special place to work and learn.”

Ryan has also served as a teacher and coach throughout his 18-year career in public education.

It is traditional that students provide music for the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board meeting before the holidays.

That meeting was Wednesday and student musicians from Riverside Intermediate & Junior High provided the music, under the direction of HSE Schools Teacher of the Year, Johanna Kitchel.

I arrived for the board meeting in time to hear some of that holiday music, and recorded part of their concert in the video below.