My wife Jane and I never had the chance to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary with an out of town trip.  2 1/2 years later, we finally had that chance.  But that meant I was not in town for the September 17th Fishers City Council meeting.  Although I was unable to attend the session in person, I did watch the video of that meeting posted online by the city.  Below is a story written based on watching that video.

For the past several months, Fishers city officials have been working on a spending plan for 2019.  At the September 17th City Council meeting, Mayor Scott Fadness laid-out his more than $108 million budget for next year.  Following his presentation, a public hearing was held for people to comment on the budget proposal.

One resident asked what study had been done on building a trail alongside the railroad tracks on the Nickel Plate line, allowing both rails and trails.  The mayor responded that not pursuing both the rail and trail on the Nickel Plate was a policy decision made by the city.

“We’ve also looked at it from an engineering perspective, and the amount of homes or properties that would have to be taken to accommodate (the rail and trail), plus the additional cost, we did not find it to be a viable project from the start,” Mayor Fadness said.  Someone in the audience yelled something at that time, but it is not possible to discern what was shouted at the mayor from the audio on the recording.

Several other issues were raised at the public hearing, including how the wheel tax money is being spent by the city and a sidewalk near 126th and Olio Road.  The wheel tax is being spent only on local roads, and the sidewalk should be built in 2019, according to the mayor.

The city council will vote on the 2019 budget at the Monday, October 22nd meeting.

There were other matters raised at the council session:

–Council approved a 3% pay raise for city staff and elected officials in 2019.

–An increase in the storm water rate in Fishers, with the roughly 27,000 homes using the service paying $20.52 per year more, was passed by council members.  This will raise additional money for needed capital projects and ensuring financial solvency for the utility in the next few years. Most commercial users will be paying much more, with HSE Schools seeing the largest increase among nonresidential customers.  Commercial rates are computed on a formula, based on the size of rooftops, driveways and parking lots.

–A change was made in the golf cart ordinance, carving out an exemption for people doing public service work with the carts.

–City Council members have decided to leave council districts unchanged for next year’s municipal election.  Council members are choosing to wait until the 2020 census numbers are available before making any changes, according to a statement read at the meeting by Council President Todd Zimmerman.

–Finally, in the comments allowed at the end of the meeting, people residing in the area of 116th Street & Allisonville Road voiced concerns about the economic state of that area on the west side of the city and a feeling that their area is being neglected.  Mayor Fadness responded that he and his economic development team are aware of the issues in that area of town and take it seriously.  He said timing is what is needed, and the timing has not been right to bring all the parties together needed to make development projects happen there.  Fadness also cited the decision by Kroger to pull back on a number of new projects, when their stock dropped recently after Amazon announced new plans to expand its grocery offerings, as another reason development has not happened as planned.   Kroger had planned a new grocery across Allisonville Road, but decided to remodel the current store instead at 116th & Allisonville.