Student musicians provided the soundtrack as local dignitaries gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating Everwise Credit Union’s new Olio Road branch in Fishers.

During the festivities, Everwise presented a $5,000 check to support the Hamilton Southeastern High School band and the Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation.

The new office, at 12330 Olio Road, expands Everwise’s presence in Fishers, where it also operates a branch at 10998 Allisonville Road.

The donation connects with the credit union’s roots in education. Previously known as Teachers Credit Union, the institution announced its change to the Everwise name in 2023 to reflect a membership extending beyond educators.

The Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation supports learning across the school district through grants for classroom and school projects.

The HSE band closed the celebration with a performance of the school’s fight song.

Young adults in Hamilton County will see a new kind of political ad on their screens between now and Election Day — one with no candidates, no parties and no scripts.

The nonpartisan, nonprofit group ReCenter Indiana launched a six-week video campaign Monday aimed at residents ages 18 to 24 in Hamilton, Marion and Boone counties. The videos feature real young voters filmed outside polling places during last May’s primary, talking about what casting a ballot felt like.

The campaign is built around a single invitation: “Hey, can I vote with you?”

Some of the footage was shot in Carmel, alongside sites in Lawrence and Zionsville. Young adults in each of the three counties will see ads made for their own county — three 30-second spots apiece — directing them to a county-specific ReCenter Indiana webpage covering voter registration, ID requirements, early voting, Election Day voting, wait times and the Election Protection Hotline.

The ads will run through Nov. 3 on YouTube, Instagram and connected TV services including Netflix, HBO and Peacock. The group projects more than 1.5 million impressions. A $50,000 grant from the Glick Fund paid for the campaign.

“Instead of actors reading scripts, our videos feature authentic, young Hoosier voters — saying in their own words — why they’re enthusiastic about voting,” said Jocelyn Vare, executive director of ReCenter Indiana. “And, importantly, these voting experiences are built around the invitation, ‘Hey, can I vote with you?'”

The turnout problem

Indiana is perennially among the lowest-turnout states in the country, and young Hoosiers lag even that. In the 2024 general election, 39% of Indiana young adults voted, compared with 47% nationally, according to the Tufts CIRCLE youth voting report.

The campaign grew out of ReCenter Indiana’s 2025 Young Adult Non-Voter Research Study, funded by the Nicholas H. Noyes Jr. Memorial Foundation and conducted jointly by Bellwether Research and Hart Research. Researchers surveyed 307 residents of Hamilton, Marion and Boone counties between 18 and 34 — all registered to vote in 2024, none of whom did — and convened a focus group.

The findings pushed back on the idea that young nonvoters simply don’t care. Participants said they were invested in their communities but often felt government wasn’t listening or that their votes wouldn’t change outcomes. Nearly half, 45%, said they had never voted, and those respondents were more likely to say they distrusted the electoral process or lacked information about candidates and issues.

They also cited practical obstacles: work schedules, limited voting hours, long lines at polling places and missed deadlines.

“Young adults matter, and their voices belong in every election,” said Adrianne Slash Tucker, ReCenter Indiana’s vice president. “Our research helped us understand the obstacles young Indiana voters face. We designed this campaign to build confidence in the voting process and remind young Hoosiers that their votes matter.”

Why the peer approach

The group points to a 2019 Turnout Nation study finding that registered voters steadily encouraged by someone they knew were 13.2 percentage points more likely to cast a ballot — an approach researchers found more effective than any other method tested over two decades.

All nine videos are available to watch and download on ReCenter Indiana’s YouTube playlist, and the group is asking Hoosiers to share them with a young adult and then ask the question themselves.

Key dates for the Nov. 3 general election: Indiana’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 5. Early voting begins Oct. 6. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

More at ReCenterIndiana.org.

Libraries across Hamilton County are joining the first-ever Give Like Dolly Day on Friday, Sept. 25, a worldwide effort created by the Dollywood Foundation to support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library programs.

Locally, the money goes to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Fund at the Hamilton County Community Foundation. Organizers say every gift stays in Hamilton County and pays for free, high-quality books mailed to local children from birth to age 5.

“Dolly dreamed it, but local communities make it possible,” said Sheryl Sollars, executive director of the Westfield Washington Public Library. “Give Like Dolly Day gives Hamilton County residents a meaningful way to honor her legacy and lifelong commitment to children and literacy.”

Fishers families take part through the Hamilton East Public Library, one of the county library systems backing the campaign.

“Dolly Parton showed us what can happen when you put a book into a child’s hands and give their imagination room to grow,” said Melissa Loiselle, library director for the Hamilton East Public Library. “Our hope is that Hamilton County will help us carry that vision forward for many years to come.”

The local Imagination Library is not running on fumes. It is funded through July 2028 with support from the Hamilton County Council, the State of Indiana and the CenterPoint Energy Foundation. Friday’s push is aimed at extending that runway.

To make the case for small donations, organizers offer this math: if every household in Hamilton County gave just $9.25 on Sept. 25 — a nod to the date — the total would fund the program for roughly four more years.

The Imagination Library mails one free, age-appropriate book each month to every enrolled child, from birth until the child’s fifth birthday, regardless of family income.

Contributions made through the Hamilton County Community Foundation are tax-deductible. Residents can donate at hamiltoncountycf.org.

Hamilton County Council members have wrapped up two days of hearings on the proposed 2027 county budget, with most of the discussion centered on staffing two new courts and the county’s new Public Safety Center, both scheduled to come online next year.

County Financial Consultant Mike Reuter opened the Sept. 1 hearings by laying out the revenues and resources available heading into 2027. The county has a cash balance of roughly $115 million and is projected to receive about $15.4 million in interest income.

“Hamilton County remains in a strong financial position, but we’re operating in a different environment than we have in years past,” County Council President Brad Beaver said. “Property and income taxes remain our largest revenue sources, but assessed values declined this year. It makes careful budgeting and long-term planning even more important as we look ahead.”

Much of the proposed new spending is tied to facilities and services starting up in 2027. Hamilton Superior Courts 8 and 9 are scheduled to begin operating in January, and staffing them means adding positions across the justice system.

Beyond the two judges to be elected in November, department requests include four new employees in the Clerk’s Office, seven employees for the two new courts, two deputy prosecutors and one support position in the Prosecutor’s Office, and three additional Sheriff’s Office employees assigned to the Judicial Center — 17 positions in all.

The county is also preparing to open its new Public Safety Communications Center in 2027. The $85 million, three-story building will provide 108,000 square feet for 911 dispatch and emergency operations.

Later in 2027, the new Public Safety Training Center is expected to be available to police, fire and EMS agencies from municipalities and towns across the county — Fishers among them. At least seven new Buildings and Grounds employees have been requested to help operate and maintain the new facilities.

The council is scheduled to adopt the final 2027 budget at a special session Oct. 19, after which it goes to the state of Indiana for approval. Once approved, the budget takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Fishers Freight head coach and general manager Dixie Wooten sat down with LarryInFishers for a wide-ranging conversation about a season that ended one incomplete pass short of the playoffs.

The Freight finished 8-8 in 2026, an improvement over the 7-9 mark in the franchise’s inaugural season. But Wooten said the record does not tell the story. Fishers lost on the final play of games against Tulsa, Jacksonville and Orlando.

“If those games are different, we’re in the playoffs,” Wooten said. “We could have been in the championship game ourselves.”

The season ended at home against Orlando, with a playoff berth on the line for both teams, when a Felix Harper pass into the end zone fell incomplete. Wooten’s first move afterward was to cross the field and congratulate the Orlando coach.

He described what follows a loss like that inside the locker room.

“The first thing I do is I acknowledge everything that we did good,” Wooten said. “These guys left their families. They dedicated their whole lives to me as a coach. It’s all about building guys up.”

Wooten’s contract has been extended through a third season, and he said the expectations he and ownership discussed are straightforward: playoffs and a championship.

The Freight have hired Rod Miller as defensive coordinator for 2027, a move Wooten said will let him manage game situations rather than call both sides of the ball.

“In this game, if you get three stops, you have a chance to win the game,” he said.

Roster work is underway. Wooten said both running backs are returning, along with several other players under contract, and that he and Harper are in conversations. Free agency negotiations open Sept. 15 under league rules. Community involvement remains a requirement, he said: “If you’re not a community person, you can’t come to Fishers and play here.”

Wooten also discussed the Indoor Football League’s move to Yahoo Sports, which the league says drew 6.1 million viewers this season. The most-watched game of the year was Fishers Freight versus Jacksonville.

The IFL will add four franchises in 2027 — Little Rock, Arkansas; Athens, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia; and Austin, Texas — bringing the league to 18 teams.

The conversation also covers on-field camera work, sideline reporters interrupting play calls, and why the onside kick math is different indoors.

This podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the podcast at this link or the link below.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness and Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren go before the City Council Monday evening with the city’s 2027 budget proposal. Earlier that day, both men sat down at City Hall for a wide-ranging conversation about what’s in the spending plan — and about the state tax changes reshaping how it gets paid for.

Hultgren said the all-in proposal, combining operating, capital and debt service, totals about $224 million, up from the $203.6 million the council adopted for 2026.

Fadness said operating costs grow incrementally while capital spending swings year to year, because the city banks cash and then spends it on large one-time items. That matters more now, he said, with municipal borrowing costs running much higher — a change from years when the city financed fleet vehicles at about 1% and now buys them with cash.

Property taxes remain the biggest question mark. Hultgren said the city expects about $72.8 million in property tax revenue in 2027, while the state’s Senate Enrolled Act 1 homestead deduction phase-in steadily reduces assessed value. Fadness said the city is forecasting a property tax rate increase of about 6.7 cents, its first in years, even as the homestead deduction climbs toward 66% of assessed value.

“I can’t even really articulate to the individual homeowner what it’s going to mean to them specifically,” Fadness said. Generally, he added, residents should see a marked slowdown in property tax increases, and in many cases an actual reduction.

Department highlights from the conversation:

Public works. Capital spending more than doubles. Hultgren tied that largely to sewer work that wasn’t in the 2026 budget — panel replacements and pump station projects — following the HSE utility acquisition that took the city from about 100 miles of sewer pipe to more than 400, and from 29 lift stations to 53.

Streets. The city is setting aside $1 million to begin work on failing concrete streets in two or three older neighborhoods, where reconstruction runs $800,000 to $900,000 per 1,000 feet. Resurfacing holds at 15 to 18 miles. Fadness said the 116th Street traffic signal is “on the priority list” but not committed for 2027; staff are checking whether poles pulled from intersections converted to roundabouts can be reused. A new signal costs $500,000 to $700,000.

Police. Body camera contracts alone run about $750,000 a year — “equal to having six additional police officers,” Fadness said. Asked about Flock camera misuse cases elsewhere in Indiana, Fadness said Fishers has had no such incidents and no related discipline, and that officers who misused the system would be held accountable.

Fire. Thirty recruits started this month, mostly replacing retirements. The city plans a fourth ambulance, likely at Station 93 on Allisonville Road.

Parks. Agri Park West is scheduled to open in spring 2027, and a country store is coming to the original Agri Park.

Community Center. Projected 2027 net income tops $257,000, reaching self-sufficiency ahead of the three-year timeline. Fadness said the revenue stays in that fund for building upkeep.

On staffing, Hultgren said departments requested roughly a dozen new positions. The budget funds one — an additional detective.

Fadness summed up the plan this way: “I think this budget is boring in some regard, and I think the world needs a little more boring right now.”\This podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the full conversation with Mayor Fadness and Deputy Mayor Hultgren here, or at the link below.

Mayor Scott Fadness will propose a total city budget of $224 million for 2027 when he addresses the Fishers City Council Monday night.

That compares with the council’s approved 2026 spending plan of $203.6 million.

The mayor and Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren confirmed the bottom-line number in a podcast interview early Monday morning.

Department presentations were made to the City Council Finance Committee earlier this month. The biggest single driver was Public Works, which requested about $17.9 million, up 21%, largely on a doubling of capital spending for wastewater infrastructure following the city’s acquisition of HSE Utilities. Police sought $2.46 million, up 10%, while the fire department’s request was essentially flat.

A public hearing on the budget is also set for Monday night. Council adoption is scheduled for Oct. 12.

This story will be updated later today with a link to the podcast.

Jim Shella covered the Indiana Statehouse for WISH-TV, Channel 8, for decades. He retired several years ago, but he never stopped paying attention. He still writes commentary for Forefront, the opinion section of the Indianapolis Business Journal.

His most recent column, published Sept. 18, is mostly about data centers and the bipartisan anxiety they are generating across Indiana. But the part that stopped me cold came at the end.

Shella wrote that he checked his voter registration online and discovered he had been removed from the rolls. So had his wife. He has voted regularly for 40 years.

If it can happen to Jim Shella, it can happen to anyone.

I checked my own registration the moment I finished reading his column. I am still registered. The whole thing took about a minute.

Indiana has been working its voter rolls hard. The secretary of state’s election division mails address-confirmation postcards as part of routine list maintenance, and a registration can be canceled when that mail comes back undeliverable and the voter never responds. Separately, House Enrolled Act 1680, in effect since July 1, 2025, requires county officials to demand proof of citizenship from anyone who registered using a temporary BMV credential number. Court filings reported in June by the Indiana Capital Chronicle showed 1,625 of those registrations had been rejected or canceled.

None of that necessarily explains what happened to the Shellas, and I am not going to guess. The point is simpler. The rolls are changing, and the voter is usually the last to find out.

Checking takes almost no effort. Go to indianavoters.in.gov. You can confirm your registration status, find your polling place, preview your ballot, or register for the first time — all in the same place.

The deadline matters. Indiana closes its rolls 29 days before Election Day, one of the earliest cutoffs in the country. That means Monday, Oct. 5. Online applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. that day, and mailed forms must be postmarked by then. Early in-person voting in Hamilton County begins Tuesday, Oct. 6. Applications for a mailed absentee ballot are due Oct. 22. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.

There is plenty on the Hamilton County ballot to justify the trip: four Hamilton Southeastern Schools board seats with no incumbents running, the Indiana Senate District 31 race, the contest for county sheriff and the 5th Congressional District.

As always, my message is this. Register, educate yourself, then cast your ballot Nov. 3, or earlier if early voting suits you better.

That is how democracy works.

Josh Perry credits Hamilton Southeastern Schools with preparing him for college. Now, as an HSE parent and candidate for the District 2 school board seat, he wants to help preserve that academic preparation while expanding opportunities for students pursuing other paths.

Perry joins me on the latest LarryInFishers podcast to discuss his candidacy, school finances, teacher retention and how board members should handle disagreements.

An HSE High School graduate with children attending Harrison Parkway Elementary, Perry studied agricultural education at Purdue before building a career in insurance. He says managing a team has taught him the importance of listening, working through competing ideas and making people comfortable disagreeing.

Those lessons shape a central theme of his campaign: bringing a steady, collaborative approach to the school board.

Perry says board members should be able to cast different votes and explain their positions respectfully. Once a decision is made, however, he believes members should help carry it out and avoid continued political grandstanding that he says can damage the district’s reputation.

We also discuss Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness’ endorsement of Perry. Asked how he would respond if city and school interests diverged, Perry says his responsibility as a board member would be to do what is best for the schools, while maintaining honest communication with city leaders.

On finances, Perry supports the operating referendum, citing district presentations outlining projected budget shortfalls. He says competitive teacher pay and benefits, academic programs and opportunities beyond the traditional college pathway should be priorities.

If the referendum fails, Perry says protecting a competitive compensation package for teachers would be important. Before supporting changes to staffing, programs or building use, he would want to examine long-term enrollment projections.

Teacher retention, in his view, also depends on workplace culture. Perry says greater stability and less board infighting could help make HSE a place where educators want to work.

Our conversation explores his support for the HSE Network Model and opportunities in the skilled trades. Perry says partnerships with employers could help the district determine whether programs prepare students for worthwhile careers.

We also cover his experience as an instructional assistant working with students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, school safety and artificial intelligence. On AI, Perry favors teaching students how to use the technology as a tool and recognize when its answers are wrong.

Asked how voters should evaluate him after a year in office, Perry points to following through on campaign commitments, collaboration and progress toward a strategic plan.

The LarryInFishers podcast series is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the full podcast at this link for the link below.

What would Cyrus Keck bring to the Hamilton Southeastern School Board? In my latest LarryInFishers podcast, the District 2 candidate discusses why he is running, his priorities for school spending and how he would approach the board’s responsibilities.

Keck says friends who are teachers encouraged him to enter the race. With two sons in HSE schools, he also has a personal interest in the district’s future. He points to his experience chairing the board at Grace Church as preparation for setting budgets, reviewing policies and overseeing leadership while leaving daily operations to administrators.

Supporting teachers is a recurring theme throughout our conversation. Keck says compensation, benefits and a culture that values educators are important to retaining staff. If the district faces further budget reductions, he says protecting teaching positions would be his first priority.

Keck also expresses strong support for the operating referendum, encouraging listeners to vote for it even if they choose another school board candidate. He acknowledges that he would need a deeper understanding of the district’s expenses before making specific spending decisions.

We discuss financial accountability and how a board should evaluate its superintendent. Keck identifies budget performance, student outcomes and staff satisfaction as areas he would examine, along with clear annual goals and regular progress reviews.

On charter schools, Keck says he is not fundamentally opposed to the concept. But before supporting a proposal, he would want a clearly identified problem, evidence that a charter would offer a better solution and an understanding of the financial impact on other students.

The conversation also covers the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association’s endorsement of Keck. He says he made no promises of specific pay or benefit increases to secure that support and would exercise his own judgment if he disagreed with the association.

Other topics include college and career pathways, artificial intelligence in education, support for students with additional needs and civil discussion when families disagree about school policies.

Asked how voters should judge his performance if elected, Keck offers a straightforward wish: “I think we need to get back to the school board just being kind of boring.”

The LarryInFishers podcast series is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen at this link, or the link below to the full podcast.