This is an important week for the City of Fishers, but it brought back memories of 31 years ago for me.
That’s when I married Jane and moved to Fishers. The year was 1991. I had to conduct some business with the town. It’s been so long I honestly do not remember what that business was, but I had to find the Town Hall.
I found Town Hall in an old house along 116th Street. It has housed an art gallery and botanical garden in recent years, located just south of the current Depot Building.
The new Town Hall was nearly completed and the town staff I saw that day in 1991 could not wait to move into their new offices. Keep in mind, the 1990 census gave the Town of Fishers population as 7,508, compared to just short of 100,000 in the 2020 census count.
The downtown Fishers I encountered in 1991 was nothing like what we see today. The major downtown growth began under the leadership of the Town Council, then as Fishers transitioned to a city, Mayor Scott Fadness and the 9-member City Council continued the aggressive march to development.
Our old Town Hall became City Hall in 2015. But there was a problem with the old hall. It was sinking into the ground.
Daniel Bradley of the Indianapolis Business Journal wrote a story (Page 3 of the July 29 edition) about how our city is transitioning out of the old City Hall and why. There are many quotes from local historian David Heighway about how Fishers was built upon what was once a swamp. That water table beneath the surface caused part of City Hall to slowly sink into the ground.
This became expensive over time. That’s when Mayor Fadness told the City Council the only fiscally responsible answer is to demolish the current City Hall and replace it with one that will have the construction plan to prevent the structure sinking into the ground once again.
August 1 is the official closing day for City Hall but most of the staff is out of their offices by now. A small contingent of the mayor’s staff will be housed at the new First Internet Bank Building just south of the municipal complex. Many staffers will crowd into the City Services Building next door, others will work out of the co-working space Launch Fishers. And, of course, some will be working at least part of the time out of their homes.
The City Council will hold meetings at Launch Fishers. Other boards and commissions will meet at the Fire Department Headquarters nearby, the City Services Building and other locations between now and the spring of 2024, when the new structure is projected to be complete.
City officials are not calling the new building City Hall. Instead, it is now named as the “Arts & Municipal Complex.” There will be an arts center on the ground floor and city office space will be built on the upper stories.
So, the old Town & City Hall has been vacated. For the next few weeks, staff will recover electronic equipment that can be used in the new building. Then public safety personnel will conduct training exercises.
It is expected that the wrecking ball will be swinging on the building in October.
I have been covering meetings in City Hall and have conducted more interviews there than can be counted. There are plenty of memories in the old City Hall for me.
But there is plenty of excitement about the new complex set to replace it in a little less than 2 years. There will be a new set of memories to come in the new Arts & Municipal Complex.