Victims of child and elder abuse in Hamilton County will have round-the-clock access to specialized services under a new three-year partnership approved by the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners.

The agreement with the Cherish Center, a nationally accredited child advocacy center in Carmel, provides forensic interviewing and victim advocacy services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The services will assist victims as well as local law enforcement agencies and the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office investigating abuse allegations.

“Our goal is to make sure victims and the professionals helping them have the resources they need when they need them most,” Hamilton County Commissioner Christine Altman said. “We want victims to have access to highly trained professionals in a safe, supportive environment right here in Hamilton County.”

The county will invest up to $619,800 over the life of the agreement, which runs from Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2029. It is the first formal contract between the Cherish Center and a government entity in Hamilton County.

The center served 302 victims of reported child and elder abuse in Hamilton County in 2025.

Forensic interviews are conducted by specially trained professionals and are designed to gather information from victims in a single, child-friendly setting, reducing the number of times a victim must recount what happened. Child advocacy centers bring investigators, prosecutors and victim advocates together under one roof.

Jordan Teeple received a standing ovation at Wednesday night’s Hamilton Southeastern Schools board meeting as district leaders celebrated his selection as HSE’s 2026-27 Teacher of the Year.

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools Jason Urban praised Teeple before the board, highlighting the seventh-grade math teacher’s commitment to his students and leadership at Riverside Junior High.

Teeple, who also serves as Riverside’s math department chair, is known for balancing high expectations with genuine care. He creates a classroom environment where students feel supported, confident and willing to take risks as learners.

Beyond the classroom, Teeple provides leadership across his department and remains deeply involved in the Riverside community.

In May, Teeple received a $1,000 award from the Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation. He will now represent HSE Schools in the statewide Indiana Teacher of the Year competition.

Two exchanges Wednesday night revealed sharply different perspectives among Hamilton Southeastern school board members: how the district should refer to students who do not have a regular home, and what belongs on the walls of HSE classrooms.

A policy title, and the words inside the policy

The first came during the board’s review of policy updates recommended by its Policy Committee.

Sarah Parks Reese asked why the committee had recommended changing the title of a policy from “Homeless Students” to “Children Experiencing Homelessness,” but had left the older phrasing in place throughout the body of the policy itself.

She moved to send the item back to the Policy Committee so members could consider whether the language inside the policy should be changed as well, noting the committee had not discussed that question at its most recent meeting. The board voted 5-2 to return the issue to committee, with Ben Orr and Board President Tiffany Pascoe voting no.

The Policy Committee is made up of two board members — Dawn Lang and Juanita Albright.

Reading from a prepared statement, Orr argued the person-first phrasing is tied to national advocacy organizations he said carry a political agenda. Parks Reese asked whether there was alternative wording he would recommend that did not stigmatize the children involved. Orr said “Homeless Children” was a “fine description.”

Latrica Schooley said she did not think arguing over terminology was a productive place for the board to be, but added that words matter — particularly when the students in question have experienced trauma.

Context: Both phrasings appear in official use. The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which guarantees enrollment, transportation and school stability protections for students without fixed, regular and adequate nighttime housing, uses the statutory term “homeless children and youths,” and the federal grant program districts draw from is titled Education for Homeless Children and Youth. Person-first constructions such as “students experiencing homelessness” have become common in state guidance, district policy and the materials of advocacy groups that work on the issue. Indiana school districts are required to designate a homeless student liaison under the federal law regardless of which term the policy uses.

Criticism of the board president’s post

Later in the meeting, during the portion set aside for individual board member comments, Parks Reese and Schooley criticized Pascoe over a social media post that read:

If there are any politics or ideation rhetoric in any HSE classroom please message me directly the teachers name and building so I can address.

In times of RIFs and looking for support from the community to pass a referendum, this is not in alignment for earning the community’s trust nor acceptable (at anytime). I take your tax dollars as well as the environment your child learns in seriously.

Thank you in advance for advocating for our schools and a neutral learning environment.

The post included Pascoe’s personal cell phone number.

Parks Reese said the post amounted to acting outside the authority of an individual board member and that established rules should be respected. Schooley said the post did not reflect a consensus of the board and that complaints about a teacher should not bypass the superintendent and the district’s human resources staff. Under Indiana law, school boards act as a body, and individual members hold no authority to direct district operations on their own; personnel matters run through the superintendent.

Orr, again reading a statement, said all students should feel welcome in HSE classrooms, but said some signage can be construed as signaling that certain students are not welcome. Signs that may appear on their face to be welcoming, he said, are part of a partisan political agenda.

Pascoe responded briefly: “I am not going to entertain the false accusations, unprofessional.”

Context: Pascoe’s reference to “RIFs” points to the reduction-in-force process the district carried out this spring, when 18 teachers received notices amid declining enrollment; Superintendent Matt Kegley later said attrition had opened enough positions that none of those teachers would lose a job. The referendum she mentioned goes before voters Nov. 3, and would replace the operating referendum approved in 2023.

As Hamilton Southeastern Schools officials begin making their case to the community for a new operating referendum, Chief Financial Officer Tim Brown told the school board Wednesday night he will recommend a lower referendum tax rate for 2027 than the district projected earlier this year — the result of new assessed valuation data from Hamilton County.

The county’s numbers show the assessed value of property inside HSE boundaries will come in higher than originally projected. A larger tax base means the district can raise the revenue it needs at a lower rate. Brown will recommend the board adopt a rate of 22 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for 2027, down from the 22.75 cents he outlined this spring.

For a home valued at $400,000, the practical difference is modest but real. Under the earlier recommendation, that homeowner would have seen an annual property tax increase of about $37. Under the new recommendation, the increase drops to roughly $26 a year — a little more than $2 a month.

Why HSE is asking

HSE is one of roughly 40 to 50 Indiana school districts expected to put a referendum question before voters this fall, including Hamilton County neighbors Carmel, Noblesville and Westfield. The common cause is Senate Enrolled Act 1, the 2025 property tax overhaul signed by Gov. Mike Braun, which phases in substantially larger homestead deductions between 2026 and 2031.

Those deductions do not change a district’s tax rate. They shrink the assessed value the rate is applied against — meaning the same rate now yields significantly less money. Consultants project HSE will collect about $45.3 million less than previously expected between 2026 and 2031.

In the past, a district could ask voters for a single rate that would bring in sufficient revenue for the life of the referendum. The new deduction regime has changed that calculation, and state law now requires the ballot to show the maximum rate a district might need across the full term. For HSE, that ballot figure is up to 36 cents per $100 of assessed valuation over eight years. District officials have consistently said they do not expect to levy the maximum in any year; the board sets the actual rate annually.

Timing matters

Under the new law, school districts set the referendum tax rate as part of the annual budget process, which must be completed by Nov. 1. The referendum, however, is on the Nov. 3 general election ballot — two days later.

That sequence means HSE will build its 2027 budget assuming the referendum passes. If voters reject it, the district’s existing rate of 19.95 cents, approved by voters in 2023, remains in place, with a significant impact on 2027 revenue and a hole the district would have to close through further reductions.

SEA 1 also narrowed when districts may ask. Referendum questions may now appear only on general election ballots in even-numbered years, so a defeat on Nov. 3 would leave HSE without another opportunity until November 2028.

Superintendent Matt Kegley and Brown are presenting the proposal to community groups through the fall. The district has posted a tax calculator and a set of frequently asked questions on its Referendum 2026 page.

Much of central and eastern Indiana spent Wednesday under water. Fishers spent it with one wet road.

As storms rolled through Hamilton County and a Flash Flood Warning stretched into the late afternoon, the City of Fishers reported high water along 106th Street, where the roadway runs close to a creek. That was it — the only trouble spot the city flagged as of Wednesday afternoon.

“With the storm we received today, we did experience high water/flooding along 106th Street because of the proximity of the creek to the road,” said Ashley Elrod, public relations manager for the City of Fishers. “That said, the stormwater infrastructure improvements we began several years ago have drastically improved our situation and we have very limited closures due to flooding comparatively.”

Compare that to what was happening elsewhere. Parts of east central Indiana picked up as much as 10 inches of rain, Wayne County went to a Level 3 travel warning through Thursday at noon, and schools closed across several districts. Delaware and Henry counties were under a Flash Flood Emergency. Thousands of Hoosiers lost power.

Fishers used to be part of that story

Longtime residents will remember when a heavy rain meant more than one closed road here.

Fishers grew up fast, and a lot of it grew up before modern detention and drainage standards were the norm. Water coming off all that new pavement had to go somewhere, and it went into creeks — Mud Creek, Cheeney Creek, Fall Creek — that were never sized for a suburb of 100,000 people. Low-lying streets flooded. Basements took on water. Neighborhoods built in the 1970s and 1980s ended up with drainage systems that were undersized almost from the day they were finished.

The town’s answer was to stop treating stormwater as an afterthought and start treating it as a utility, with its own bill, its own staff and its own capital plan. That is the money that has paid for storm sewer upsizing, drainage repairs, stream restoration and flood control studies over the past decade-plus.

Today the city’s stormwater division owns and maintains roughly 17,000 storm sewer pipes and 19,000 storm drains, sweeps 800 lane miles of street to keep debris out of the system, and runs a floodplain management program that includes a matching Stormwater Grant to help property owners fix private drainage problems — including elevating homes or getting them out of the floodplain entirely.

None of that shows up on a sunny day. It shows up on a day like Wednesday.

What it does not fix

Infrastructure has limits, and 106th Street is a good illustration of one of them. When a road sits that close to a creek, no amount of pipe upsizing changes the fact that the creek is going to leave its banks in a big enough rain. That is topography, not engineering neglect.

The reminder stands regardless of the ZIP code: do not drive through standing water. It takes very little of it to float a vehicle, and you cannot see whether the pavement underneath is still there.

Residents can report drainage problems, clogged storm drains and standing water through Fishers Connect. Weather permitting, the city expects conditions to improve as the system moves east.

Heavy thunderstorms have already produced up to 3 inches of rain, creating the potential for life-threatening flooding across central Indiana.

The National Weather Service has extended a Flash Flood Warning for Boone and Hamilton counties until 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.  This includes Fishers.

At 2:01 p.m., Doppler radar showed thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 3 inches of rain had already fallen, with rainfall rates of 0.5 to 1.5 inches per hour expected. Up to another half-inch of rain is possible.

Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly, according to the weather service. The flooding could affect creeks, streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.

Communities included in the warning area include Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Lebanon, Zionsville, Westfield, Cicero, Fortville, Whitestown, Sheridan, Arcadia, Thorntown, Jamestown, Atlanta, Advance, Ulen and areas near Morse Reservoir. Indianapolis is also listed among the locations that could experience flooding.

Drivers should never attempt to cross a flooded roadway. The National Weather Service advises: “Turn around, don’t drown.” Most flood-related deaths occur in vehicles.

New program will connect emerging professionals with business executives and community leaders while helping local employers develop and retain talent.

OneZone Chamber of Commerce has launched NextGen, a new leadership initiative designed to help emerging professionals build relationships, strengthen their skills and become more involved in Hamilton County’s business community.

Operating under the tagline “Creating Tomorrow’s Leaders,” OneZone NextGen will combine professional development with networking and hands-on leadership experiences. The chamber said participants will have opportunities to meet CEOs and community leaders, develop practical skills and expand their professional networks.

“NextGen is about investing in the people who will shape what our communities and workplaces look like in the years ahead,” OneZone President and CEO Jack Russell said. “We want to create a place where people can build genuine connections, learn from established leaders and have opportunities to step up and make an impact.”

The initiative also is intended to help Hamilton County employers attract, engage and retain workers with leadership potential. OneZone said connecting those employees with local businesses and civic leaders could strengthen the county’s long-term talent pipeline.

That issue is becoming increasingly important as Hamilton County continues to grow. The county’s population reached an estimated 387,036 in 2025, an increase of 11.4% from its 2020 estimate base, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hamilton County added more residents than any other Indiana county during 2025, according to an Indiana Business Research Center analysis.

Rapid population and business growth can create demand for employees who are prepared to move into management, nonprofit and civic leadership roles. It also increases competition among employers seeking to keep talented workers in the community.

“Talent development isn’t just an individual issue — it’s a business and economic development issue,” Russell said. “When people feel connected to their community, see opportunities to grow and have a pathway to leadership, they are more likely to build their careers and their lives here.”

OneZone has not yet announced program dates, participation requirements or costs. The chamber said more information about NextGen events and participation opportunities will be released in the coming months.

OneZone Chamber of Commerce serves businesses in Carmel, Fishers and northern Hamilton County through advocacy, professional connections, leadership development and other business resources.

Sahm’s Hospitality Group plans to bring a new taco and cocktail concept called Mamacita to 11501 Allisonville Road in Fishers, according to original reporting by IndyStar dining reporter Bradley Hohulin.

Eddie Sahm, the company’s vice president of business development, told Hohulin that Mamacita has an ambitious target of opening in November.

The restaurant will take over the former Rockstone Pizza and Big Lug Taproom space. The Sahm’s concepts operated at the location from 2013 until 2025. The retail development also houses the original Sahm’s Restaurant, which has served the Fishers community since 1986.

Mamacita represents a new direction for the family-owned hospitality company, which has introduced more than a dozen restaurant concepts during its approximately 40 years in business.

Sahm told IndyStar that trips to Mexico City helped inspire the new restaurant. He was particularly drawn to the city’s relaxed, welcoming bars, including establishments where clawfoot tubs were used to hold iced beer and wine.

Another influence is Turner’s, a downtown Indianapolis bar in the Stutz building that Sahm’s manages. Turner’s has developed a close relationship with neighboring Julieta Taco Shop, effectively creating the kind of tacos-and-cocktails experience Sahm hopes to offer at Mamacita.

“The food and the energy, it just feels so right,” Sahm told IndyStar. He described the concept as a come-as-you-are bar pairing carefully prepared food with high-quality cocktails.

Mamacita’s menu will focus primarily on the cuisines of Mexico and Central America, with the possibility of seasonal dishes inspired by Brazil and Peru.

Plans also call for the restaurant to source Indiana-grown corn through Lebanon-based Sugar Creek Malt. The corn will be nixtamalized—an ancient preparation process that improves its flavor and texture—and pressed into fresh tortillas at the restaurant.

Sahm said the goal is to combine Indiana ingredients with Latin American approaches to cooking.

Longtime Sahm’s beverage director Steve Simon will oversee Mamacita’s drink program. The selection will reach beyond tequila and mezcal to include cocktails shaped by Simon’s experience and individual style.

Simon previously worked at Vanguard, a now-closed Broad Ripple restaurant, and helped open Half Liter BBQ in Indianapolis’ SoBro neighborhood in 2019.

Rather than relying only on traditional cocktail recipes, Sahm said the team wants to create drinks that seem familiar while offering unexpected or exotic flavors.

Mamacita is expected to become the 12th restaurant currently operated by Sahm’s Hospitality Group. The company is also developing a 13th concept, Handsome Johnny, for a yet-to-be-announced Indianapolis location.

This article was written from and credits original reporting by IndyStar dining reporter Bradley Hohulin. Read this story at this link (you will likely need an online IndyStar subscription to access this story) 

With the midterm election less than three months out, the Hamilton County Elections Office is asking residents to consider spending a day behind the check-in table instead of in line at it.

The office marked National Poll Worker Recruitment Day on Tuesday, an annual push organized by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to fill the ranks of the temporary workers who make in-person voting possible.

“This National Poll Worker Recruitment Day, we encourage residents to sign up to be a poll worker,” said Beth Sheller, Hamilton County elections administrator. “Becoming a poll worker not only provides a behind-the-scenes look at how elections are conducted, but also offers an opportunity to serve alongside friends, neighbors, and coworkers.”

It takes a small workforce to run an election in a county this size. Hamilton County deployed 730 election workers across its voting locations during the 2026 primary, and the general election typically draws heavier turnout than the spring contest.

Poll workers set up polling locations, greet voters, verify registrations and issue ballots on the county’s voting equipment. Teams are bipartisan by design, with Republicans and Democrats working side by side at each site — a structure Indiana law builds in as a check on the process.

To serve, a person generally must be a registered voter in the county, at least 18 years old, and able to read, write and speak English. Candidates on the ballot in that precinct are not eligible. Students who are 16 or 17 can take part through the state’s Election Day Live program.

The county also added a new position for 2026. The Hamilton County Election Board voted earlier this year to place a sheriff — a poll worker role, not a law enforcement officer — at every polling location.

The jobs are paid. Election Day clerks receive $130 for the day, plus $15 for completing the county’s online training and a $20 food allowance for workers who bring their own meals. Early voting and absentee workers are paid hourly. Prospective workers should confirm current rates for the position they want when they apply.

Residents can apply through the county’s Election Worker Portal, a system Hamilton County rolled out to handle applications, scheduling and communication in one place. The portal is available through the Elections Office page at hamiltoncounty.in.gov.

The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Early voting is scheduled to begin Oct. 6, with 12 early voting sites planned across the county.

Election officials across Indiana have leaned harder on recruitment in recent cycles as longtime poll workers age out of the role. Counties that come up short have to consolidate sites or stretch crews thin — both of which show up as longer lines on Election Day.

Fishers Blues Fest will return to the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater for two nights of free live music over Labor Day weekend.

The all-ages festival is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, at the amphitheater, 6 Municipal Drive. Gates will open at 4 p.m., with performances beginning at 5 p.m. each day.

Now in its 14th year, the festival will feature eight local, regional and national acts performing blues, soul, funk and rock.

“What makes Blues Fest special is the range of artists audiences can discover in one weekend, from internationally recognized musicians to emerging talent,” Fishers Parks Director Marissa Deckert said in a news release. “Keeping the festival free gives everyone the opportunity to experience great live music right here in downtown Fishers.”

Indianapolis-based Mojo Gumbo Band will open Saturday’s schedule at 5 p.m., followed by the JR Clark Band at 6 p.m. Blues Award winner Dylan Triplett will perform at 7:15 p.m.

Saturday headliner Judith Hill will take the stage from 8:30 to 10 p.m. The vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has worked with Prince, Michael Jackson and Elton John. Her solo music blends blues, soul, funk and rock.

The Blues Brothers Triumphant Tribute will begin Sunday’s performances at 5 p.m. King Bee + The Stingers will follow at 6 p.m., bringing a mix of original music, funk, soul and interpretations of blues standards.

Houston musician Mathias Lattin, who won the 2023 International Blues Challenge and its Best Guitarist award, will perform at 7:15 p.m.

Grammy-nominated musician Jontavious Willis will close the festival from 8:30 to 10 p.m. His music draws from his Georgia heritage and Delta, Piedmont, Texas and gospel blues traditions.

No tickets are required, and lawn seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Guests may bring chairs, blankets, outside food and nonalcoholic drinks. Food, beverages and alcohol will also be sold on-site. Outside alcohol is prohibited.

Free parking will be available in garages and along streets throughout the Nickel Plate District. Accessible parking will be offered at the south City Services Building lot, 3 Municipal Drive.