The City of Fishers is offering a series of educational opportunities for its youth to gain insights into local government and potential career paths through three upcoming programs: the Mayor’s Youth Academy, the Fishers Police Department Teen Academy, and the Fishers Health Department Teen Public Health Academy. These initiatives are free for participants and aim to provide students with hands-on experiences and insights into public service.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness emphasized the importance of engaging and educating young people in the community. “Investing in the education and engagement of our youth is essential for cultivating the next generation of community leaders, said Mayor Fadness in a city news release. “The City of Fishers is proud to offer these unique academies as a gateway for young people to gain hands-on experience in careers in government operations and public service. Through these programs, students have the opportunity to understand and contribute to the city they call home.”

The Mayor’s Youth Academy is designed for local high school juniors and seniors with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and an interest in public service. The program provides opportunities for students to work alongside Mayor Fadness and other city leaders on important issues facing the community. Participants will take part in behind-the-scenes tours and discussions on policy questions, culminating in a presentation to Fishers City Council in spring 2025. Registration for the 2024-2025 Mayor’s Youth Academy is open through June 28 on the city’s website.

The Fishers Health Department Teen Public Health Academy offers a one-week experience for high school students to explore various public health disciplines. Students will interact with health department staff and city officials while participating in activities such as retail food inspections, water sampling, and vector control. The program runs from July 15 to July 20, and registration is open through May 31.

The Fishers Police Department Teen Academy provides law enforcement training for students in grades 7 through 12 attending Fishers-based schools. The program covers roles and responsibilities of police officers and introduces students to specialized units and skills such as the K-9 Unit and crime scene investigation. The four-day program runs from July 8 to July 12, and applications are open through May 17.

These programs reflect Fishers’ commitment to nurturing the next generation of community leaders and providing youth with the opportunity to explore careers in public service. Interested students can find more information and register for the academies on the City of Fishers website.

Christi Thomas has spent the past 11 years serving as the Geist Elementary School Principal, but will be moving into a new position when the current school year ends.  Ms. Thomas will join the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools Central Office as the new Director of Student Services.

Ms. Thomas has a total of 25 years experience as an educator.

This announcement is a part of the Central Office staff restructuring since the current school board majority assumed office in January of 2023.

“I am extremely excited to take my K-12 experience and viewpoint to positively impact the entire district through guiding and implementing student services for PK-12,” says Thomas in a school corporation news release. “I greatly appreciate the support and commitment I have received while serving the GES community and look forward to expanding my reach to provide essential services to all students so they may thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.”

In her new role, HSE Schools say Thomas will oversee aspects of student welfare, including enrollment, attendance, and student discipline procedures. Thomas will also serve as the designated authority for Title VI and Title IX filings and support the needs of homeless students as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act liaison.

Thomas plans to finish this school year as principal at Geist Elementary before taking on her new administrative position.

Fishers plans to resurface roads this summer in a number of neighborhoods, particularly Sunblest.  Two main throughfares are to be resurfaced – both 126th Street and Promise road, in the area of Fishers High School.  The $2.9 million bid was under the engineer’s estimate.  The funding will come from the Indiana Community Crossing Matching Grant of $1.4 million, with the wheel tax and other local sources rounding out the funding.  The Board of Public Works and Safety approved the bid acceptance at its Tuesday morning meeting.

In others actions by the Board of Works:

–Federal funding is now approved for roundabout construction at 96th Street & Cyntheanne Road, along with 131st Street and Howe Road.  Construction is expected in 2025.

–10 Verizon 5G towers will not be constructed in Fishers since it has been 2 years since initial approval of the rights-of-way.  It is another sign Verizon may not plan to construct any new 5G towers in Fishers.

–The developer of Cyntheanne Woods plans to dedicate land to the city for a park as part of 61 residential units to be constructed.  Since the city has no current plans for a park in that area, the perimeter path and pedestrian bridge (over Thorpe Creek) across the Cyntheanne Road frontage would be constructed, but not until the park land is developed.  The developer has agreed to incorporate the construction of the path and pedestrian bridge into their residential development plans.  In return, the city will provide Park Impact Fee Credits for the proposed 61 residential lots and a one-time payment for the improvement costs, which exceed the credit amount to compensate the developer for the improvements.

Jamie Nieves will continue to serve as President of the Fishers Economic Development Commission following a commission vote Monday afternoon.  Maggie Sadler has been named a new member of the commission.  There is an opening for a third appointment to the commission that is currently vacant until the mayor makes the appointment.  Sadler will serve as commission secretary in 2024.

The commission approved an economic development project agreement, including a $16 million bond for construction planned in the Gray Eagle neighborhood.  JC Hart plans to develop 160 residential units in that area.  This economic development agreement includes a $12-$14 million upgrade to the golf course clubhouse.

Fishers Economic Development Director Megan Baumgartner told the commission the agreement calls for developer purchased bonds, “which is great for us.  We’re issuing the debt but (the city is not)carrying the liability of it.”

This went before City Council in March where it received a stamp of approval.  The Monday commission action marks the final city approval for the project.

I have written countless times on this blog about how Fishers, Hamilton County and Indiana all have abysmal numbers when it comes to election voter turnout.  Oseye Boyd has impressive credentials as a journalist, having served as editor of the Indianapolis Recorder, Public engagement Editor for the Indianapolis Star and now Editor-In-Chief at the Indy Mirror, a relatively new online local news outlet.

Ms. Boyd has written a piece for the nonprofit local news operation Capital Chronicle, providing her perspective on why Indiana’s voter turnout is so low.  She cites the 2023 Indiana Civile Health Index, which shows Indiana ranking 50th in voter turnout among the 50 states and District of Columbia, and 40th for the number of voters registered in 2022.

The numbers cover the what, but how about the why?  Ms. Boyd goes over the arguments often made as to why one should vote, such as how others died for this right and how your vote counts and does matter.  She argues that, sadly, our vote often doesn’t count for as much as it should.

She correctly cites gerrymandering a major culprit, where competitive general elections are rare.  But she also looks at what she describes as “gatekeeping” by the major political parties.

When an elected leader resigns or passes away during the elected term, it is the political party that gathers a caucus of precinct officials to vote on the person to serve the remainder of that elected term.  Voters outside that realm have no say in that election.

Indiana also has a provision about candidates that may be listed on the ballot in a primary election.  A candidate must have voted in that party’s primary election the last two times that candidate voted in a primary election.  If a candidate doesn’t meet that standard, the chair of the county party decides whether that candidate may be listed on the primary ballot.

Ms. Boyd argues this is a very undemocratic way to run elections.  She cites a specific example in Marion County.

I have no issue with Oseye Boyd’s points here.  It does partially explain why voters do not vote because they believe no clear choices are available.

I would add one more.  Media attention does make a difference.  If voters know more about the candidates from a neutral journalist, as opposed to candidate advertising (which is often not accurate at all), there is a better chance that citizen will choose to cast a ballot.

This is a major reason I started LarryInFishers.com.  Voters need to understand what is going on, not just at election time, but all the time an elected official serves.

An engaged electorate tends to vote.  I fully agree with Oseye Boyd in her assertions that Indiana does not make voting easy or allow all the choices voters likely want in an election.

I am all for ways to increase the voter turnout numbers in Fishers, Hamilton County and the State of Indiana.  Let’s hope people in a position to make a difference are working on solutions.

Saturday, April 20, was the day the Forum Conference Center in Fishers featured the Author Fair, sponsored by the Hamilton East Library.  Local authors are special in my view and I wandered the Forum Center, taking advantage of the opportunity to record brief interviews with many of them

Allow me to apologize to a few authors.  I tried to record my conversations with them but discovered later I had a technical glitch.  To those authors, I send my sincere apologies.

Below is the link to my discussions with 13 authors.  Below that, I have photos of each author I interviewed.

Continue reading Podcast: Talking with authors at the Hamilton East Library Author Fair →

With spring in full swing, the road construction report in and around Fishers remains a long one, mostly updates on ongoing projects.  There is a heads-up on a 5K event coming April 27.

Here is the full listing, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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Continue reading Fishers-area road construction update for the work week staring Monday, April 22 →

It was 29 years ago, the morning of April 19, 1995.  It was a normal day at the federal government agency where I worked at the time.  My duties kept me at my desk, but around 9:30am I noticed a lot of activity around me, with managers wheeling television sets into their offices.

It was later that my manager let me know that the federal building in Oklahoma City had just been bombed and half the building was gone.  It was a wake-up call for us.  We understood that federal buildings in large cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago were targets, but Oklahoma City?

It was then that we knew everyone had become a target.  Then the rumors began to fly that an informant had provided federal investigators with a list of federal buildings to be attacked and the Minton-Capehart building in downtown Indianapolis, my work place, was on that list.

The management instituted what we call in federal employee parlance a “liberal leave policy.”  That meant you did not need approval, if you felt uncomfortable or just plain scared to be at your job, you can take you time off and leave.

I chose not to leave.  I had worked in radio broadcasting as a talk show host and my life had been threatened by radical elements of society at that time.  I realized then you cannot live your life in fear.  I took reasonable precautions, but lived without fear over those threats.  There was no way I would live in fear over the federal threats of 1995.

If you subscribe to HBO, and/or its streaming platform Max, there is a documentary film I would recommend you watch.  The Executive Producer is former Today Show host Katie Couric.  It is called “An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th.”

Directors Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson start with those that died in the bombing and their families and we should never forget them.  They are woven into several parts of the story as told by the film makers.

But the important focus of this documentary is how Americans became so radicalized and grew bitter hatred of their federal government.  The film goes back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.  Then President Jimmy Carter imposed sanctions  on the Soviets that badly hurt American farmers.  When Ronald Reagan succeeded Carter, Congress sent him legislation essentially bailing-out those farmers.  Reagan vetoed the bill quite publicly.  The farmers were beyond angry and turned to radical parts of society.

Then there was the issue of American jobs being shipped overseas.  Timothy McVeigh, executed for the bombing, saw a local plant that provided a good job to his father and grandfather, close in Buffalo, New York.  McVeigh was clearly not well after serving in the first Gulf War in the military.

McVeigh became part of an angry group of Americans arming themselves to do battle with the federal government.  The documentary tells the story of how McVeigh’s radicalization over time led to his bombing the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building.

On the day of the bombing, a local TV news crew came to our office and asked to speak with federal employees and get their reaction to the bombing.  My manager asked me to speak with the reporter and I did.  I knew there was a day care in that Oklahoma building and could only think of my 1-year-old twin daughters in a day care at that moment (not at a federal building).  The brutality of this happening to small children the age of my daughters was a difficult part of this, but I toughed out the interview and I was on the local evening news that day.

Once retired, I decided to drive out west.  I spent the night in Oklahoma City and visited the memorial.  The outside memorial is free with a reflecting pool.  You pay for the museum and decided to shell out the admission price.  It was well worth it.

The Oklahoma City bombing remains the worst terrorist attack on America by an American.  168 people died, 19 of them children, with 680 injured.

Some memories have faded in the 29 years since April 19, 1995.  I have not forgotten.  I hope you do not as well.

Allisonville Road remains closed at 146th Street as construction continues on that site.  Look for upcoming lane restrictions on 146th Street in the coming days.

Here is the update, from the Hamilton County Highway Department:

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Beginning on or after the dates listed below, between the hours of 9AM and 3PM, our contractor will utilize a lane restriction for the delivery of materials in the work area. The lane restriction will take place in the left-hand westbound lane of 146th Street.

Upcoming Lane Restriction Dates:
Saturday, April 20th
Tuesday, April 23rd
Saturday, April 27th
Thursday, May 2nd