With the dawn of the new year, The Fishers Arts Council has announced plans for the Art Gallery at City Hall. Below is a news release detailing the plans, and included is some of the art work itself.
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The Fishers Arts Council announces its 2021 Season of Art at the Art Gallery at City Hall, Fishers. The exhibits will feature 12 monthly exhibits and 4 quarterly exhibits in The Alcove at the Art Gallery. New this year will be a series of Mini Exhibits at the Art Gallery featuring the work of noted Canadian artist, Hugh Syme.
Featured exhibits are the 12th Annual Senior Showcase presented by Star Financial in April; the Hamilton County Artists’ Association exhibit in July; the 2nd Annual Juried Exhibit of Hamilton County Artists in September presented by Jiffy Lube of Indiana; the Calligraphy Guild of Indiana Members Exhibit in October, and The Watercolor Society of Indiana Juried Exhibit in November.
Individual featured artists are Jeremy Mallov with his January exhibit, “Local Splendor;” Freddie Kellen and Tom Mueller with their May exhibit, “Our Dreams, Our Realities;” Romeo Zivion with his June exhibit, “Stepping Back,” and then Ingrid Blount and Olivia Ash in August with their “Painting Words and Emotions: A Story of Sisters.” The Alcove at the Art Gallery at City Hall will feature quarterly exhibits by Rebecca Robinson entitled, “The Art of Bridging the Gap;” Brinton Farrand, entitled, “Embrace the Chaos, Out of Chaos, Comes Order;” Craig Ogden, entitled “My New Paintings;” and Margot Bogue “Paintings by Margot.”
New to the gallery this year are a series of Mini-Exhibits in January February and March featuring the work of noted Juno Award winning artist Hugh Symes, noted for his cover art of the musical band, Rush along with many others.
The exhibits will feature free Friday receptions when the public is invited to meet virtually or in-person to interact with the artist. Live receptions will be dependent on COVID protocols at the time. The January and February receptions will be virtual due to COVID restrictions. The Gallery is open daily from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday thru Friday and from 10 am to 12 pm when the Fishers Summer Farmers Market is open. Groups are advised to give advance notice at info@fishersartscouncil.org.
The administration of Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness came up with an idea that recognizes local people for their acts of kindness while also supporting local restaurants.
The mayor set aside $100,000 in city funds to reward those providing help to others in Fishers. Each person with an act of kindness receives a $50 gift card to a local Fishers restaurant.
What counts as an act of kindness? If you follow the city’s Twitter account, you will find instances galore.
There is Laura, providing treats to her neighbors and friends. Johanna and her brothers put Christmas lights up for their elderly neighbors. Heather and her family made care bags to give out to those in need.
The goal is to showcase 2,000 acts of kindness in Fishers. The city is on its way toward that goal.
City Spokesperson Ashley Elrod says just over 100 gift cards have been handed out so far with 100 more set to go soon.
You can nominate someone for an act of kindness by filling out the online form at this link. If the nominee is selected, a $50 local restaurant gift card will be handed-out to the nominee.
This is your chance to recognize the many people doing wonderful things throughout the Fishers community.
Sarah Donsbach was the winner when Hamilton Southeastern School Board election results were certified by the Hamilton County Clerk’s office by 20 votes. One of her opponents, incumbent Amanda Shera, filed for a recount and the recount resulted in another Donsbach win, this time by 19 votes.
As she prepares to assume her new role as local school board member, I spoke with Sarah Donsbach about what the board faces in 2021.
The novel coronavirus and the many ways it impacted Fishers life was the biggest local story of2020
During the final days of December, I have been mulling the question of how to handle the top Fishers news stories for the year of 2020. In the past, I have ranked the top 20 stories, from number 20 or 25 up the the top news story at number one.
In 2020, that just doesn’t work because we have never had a news year that compares in any way. The novel coronavirus has upended the lives of most people in the world and Fishers is part of that world.
COVID-19 is so pervasive in most of the news stories in 2020 I cannot do the normal ranking. So, here is what I will do in this piece. I will begin with the ways COVID has impacted the lives of those of us living in Fishers.
Then, I will simply list the other news stories in the past year that were important, but not COVID-related, in no particular order, because the coronavirus was by far the biggest story of 2020.
I was covering a Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board meeting early this year when the news broke that the NBA was “suspending” its season after a COVID outbreak in Oklahoma City. It didn’t take long to see the impact on all of us as the days rolled along in March and April.
I recall my last in-person podcast with Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, asking him what the experts he consults were telling him in April about just how bad the coronavirus crisis would be. The mayor pulled no punches in saying this will be bad and it is up to all of us to behave in a way that will limit the spread of the virus.
Sadly, many of us have not behaved so well.
So, what stories in Fishers were related to COVID? The start was the decision by Mayor Fadness to create a city Health Department. He did so after discovering that county health officials had no plan in April to implement a COVID testing regime. The mayor was convinced having COVID testing available would be key to promoting health and commerce in his city. So, had it not been for the novel coronavirus, it is unlikely Fishers would have its own health department.
The testing began in late April, free for Fishers residents and available to businesses for a fee. The mayor recently said on a Zoom podcast recording that Fishers had conducted more than 29,000 tests so far.
COVID has crippled the HSE Schools ability to conduct in-person classes. When the pandemic first hit in the spring, all classes went all virtual. Later, a plan was developed to allow grades K-4 to have in-person classes, set up a 50% in and out of in-person classes and virtual for grades 5-8.
Then, the coronavirus numbers spiked in October and November. Substitute teachers were in short supply and the in-person classroom sessions could not be staffed. Classes went all-virtual again.
A new school board will take office in January (more on that later) and will need to decide what to do about the virtual classes now in place through January 15.
That’s just an overview, there are many more aspects. This is just the way of saying COVID was by far the biggest news story of 2020.
Now, let’s look at some other important news for Fishers in 2020, in no particular order:
–The racial issues sparked by the death of George Floyd were felt in Fishers. There were several demonstrations dealing with race in the city during 2020. The City of Fishers offered a program, Interrupting Racism, to any Fishers resident wanting to attend the seminar. This city program was in the works long before the George Floyd death.
–HSE School Superintendent Allen Bourff announced his intention to retire at the end of June, 2021. He and his wife plan to remain residents of Fishers.
–The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board will swear-in three new board members in January. Sarah Donsbach, Sarah Parks-Reese and Suzanne Thomas will take office at the first board meeting in 2021, scheduled for January 13.
–The City of Fishers landed some economic development projects. INCOG, a biopharma firm, plans to locate in a building yet to be constructed near I-69 & 116th Street. The former Roche Building facing I-69 will now be the headquarters for Round Room. Also, the major development in downtown Fishers, along 116th Street just west of the municipal complex, continues its construction with part of the development set to open in 2021. This includes a new headquarters building for First Internet Bank.
–The State Road 37 construction continues, with the interchange at 126th Street complete. The cost of the project rose from the initial estimates, but Mayor Fadness says the extra money can be borrowed with no impact on the city’s property tax rate. The Hamilton County Council voted to provide its share of the extra cost.
–Cecilia Coble was elected President of the Fishers City Council. She is the first woman to assume that post.
–The Fishers Test Kitchen opened as part of the Fishers District development. Many new restaurants opened their doors in that project in 2020.
–A September fire at Sunblest Apartments resulted in no injuries but many families were forced to find other arrangements for a home.
–Finally, I announced in late March my intention to end the news blog after 8 years of writing about news in Fishers. It is hard work to cover news as a volunteer and I just wanted to focus on reviewing films and other arts events in the area. Then COVID hit and I felt a responsibility to cover news a bit longer with so much important news breaking almost daily. Then I contracted the novel coronavirus, testing positive in late October. When you have no energy to do much of anything because the virus sucks all the energy from your body, you have lots of time to think. I made a decision to continue with the Fishers local news blog because it is the right thing for me to do at this time. So, I am still writing.
On a personal note, 2020 had its high point for me. I became a grandfather for the first time on August 11, 2020. My grandson Dakota is a tremendous gift and I love every moment spent with him. So, I look back on 2020 as a very mixed bag personally.
With vaccines being developed for COVID, 2021 holds much promise for better things to come. I sincerely hope that is the case.
Last, but not least, my sincere thanks to all my readers of this blog and listeners to my podcasts. I am a volunteer, not in any of this for money. I continue my volunteer work due to the the many comments received from you, the public. The number of readers and listeners is growing and that is what keeps me going.
Happy New Year, Fishers! Let’s celebrate (in a safe manner).
The COVID metrics for Fishers are better this week compared to the previous period, but the Fishers Health Department is not optimistic about what is in store for us during January.
The 13.85% positivity rate and case incidence rate of 92.5 are improvements, but the community coronavirus transmission rate remains in the red, or highest category.
Fishers Public Health Director Monica Heltz says she does not expect these metrics to remain positive. 5 new deaths have been reported due to COVID in the past week.
“Although we have appeared to have leveled off for right now, I do anticipate that that is more a result of kind of erratic activities around the holiday season more than it is around a true decrease,” Heltz said in her weekly video update posted Tuesday evening. “We are very anxiously anticipating further increases into January.”
COVID testing availability at the two Fishers sites is described as good, with appointments available the same day or the following day. Results are available on an average within 2.6 days.
ICU beds in our area are at 20.7% availability. Trends are better this week compared to the previous week, perhaps tied to the holidays, but remain at a high capacity.
“Our healthcare system capacity remains stretched,” said Heltz.
Hamilton County residents are the second most mobile in the state, behind only the Fort Wayne area in Allen County. That is not a good thing, because it measures the number of neighborhood and family events drawing people together, increasing the chances of COVID spreading.
There is great concern at the Health Department about long-term care facilities.
“We have seen COVID go through quite a few of our long-term care facilities and nursing homes again, and it has been disastrous for them, both in staffing and resident outcomes,” Heltz said. FHD is providing assistance to those locations as needed.
Vaccine guidance is expected next week from the state. It will include steps on who will be next in receiving the vaccinations.
You can view the entire video from Monica Heltz at this link.
Indiana State Board of Health data indicates Hamilton County has experienced a decline in number of new daily COVID-19 cases. On Dec. 2, the county reported a record number of 482 new cases, with cases on a steady decline through Dec. 27 with 178 newly reported cases.
A total of 23,282 COVID cases have been reported in Hamilton County since March 15, a total of 270 people have died in the county due to COVID-19.
The top 3 county zip codes with highest COVID-19 cases by percentage of population are:
It began on Christmas Day and will not end until January 8. I am referring to a Public Health Order in place for the City of Fishers closing all restaurants, bars, taverns, nightclubs, retail food establishments, and other establishments providing in-person food and/or drink service to indoor dining and drink service and cleared of customers between the hours of 10:00pm and 5:00am. During these times, carry-out dining is allowed under the order.
This was in response to a recent 40% increase in the number of positive COVID tests in Fishers.
The holiday season does tend to draw customers closer together as the hour is late, which appears to be the target of this order. Public health experts had warned of a spike in positive tests after Thanksgiving and the Fishers numbers sadly reflect that.
Dr. Anthony Fauci has recently said we have still not seen the worst of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the United States. How bad it gets is largely up to all of us.
Practicing the simple advice of the experts will go a long way – wear a mask, distance at least 6 feet and wash hands thoroughly & often.
As someone that contracted the virus and survived, I want to urge everyone reading this piece to heed the expert advice. You are not just protecting yourself, you are protecting those close to you.
This is the year to curtail the large New Year’s Eve parties. Consider not only yourself, but everyone around you every day.
You can read the entire City of Fishers Health Department Public Health Order at this link.
The end-of-the-year holiday season normally sees a flurry of film releases. COVID has made this something less than a normal year, but we have seen some important films released lately. Join Adam Aasen, Alec Toombs and myself for the latest episode of the Grade A Movies podcast. www.GradeAMovies.com
Due to COVID-19 concerns, Hamilton County Clerk Kathy Williams issued the oaths of office to individual county-level elected officials. Normally the county conducts a public swearing-in ceremony that draws nearly 200 onlookers. Newly and re-elected officials begin their term of office on Jan. 1.
Wonder Woman as a superhero has been around for a long time, first as a comic book character in DC Comics. Hollywood brought Wonder Woman back in 2018 for a very good film. Wonder Woman 1984, the first sequel, was released on Christmas Day. So, what is the verdict on the sequel? Here is my review.
