Science fiction lovers have been waiting…now the wait is over.  The film Dune is in theaters and on HBO Max.  Does it live up to the hype?  Here is my review.

The Fishers City Council has a new member.  A Republican caucus has elected David Giffel to replace David George as the SouthWest District member.

The announcement came from a Hamilton County Republican Party  Facebook post Thursday evening.

Giffel has been serving on the Delaware Township Board.  David George recently announced the decision to resign his council seat.

Precinct officials in the SouthWest Council District voted to choose Mr. George’s replacement.

You have likely read accounts and watched television footage and analysis of what happened at the U. S. Capitol Building January 6.  A new HBO documentary film, Four Hours At The Capitol, takes a closer look by unearthing video not seen before and by talking with those there at the Capitol.  They all tell their own stories.  It is up to you to make sense of it all…if you can.

Here is my review.

The City of Fishers created an Arts & Culture Commission, which began meeting in 2019.  Since then, the commission has been bringing the artistic community of Fishers together.  It is expected to have some say on the new arts facility preliminarily planned to be a part of a new City Hall complex.

In July of this year, the commission handed out $43,000 in grants to local artists and art organizations.  Now, the commission is announcing a new partnership plan.

The new partnership will include local businesses, non-profit organizations, or individuals identified by the Commission as going above and beyond in supporting, showcasing, and advocating for public art or art programming in the Fishers community.

The editors at the Indianapolis Star and its focus (or lack thereof) on Fishers has been something I have watched over the nearly 10 years I have written this local Fishers news blog.  There have been stretches of time when the Star barely notices Fishers at all, and other periods where Fishers finds lots of attention from Indiana’s largest daily newspaper.

Lately, the IndyStar has been focusing on Fishers.  Perhaps it’s because we have grown into one of the largest cities in the state, with a population, as measured by the 2020 census, just short of 100,000.  Or perhaps Fishers is just making more news.

For whatever reason, two recent articles written by Star reporter John Tuohy indicate the newspaper is paying more attention to Fishers.  One deals with the 98 acres Fishers purchased recently with development in mind.  Tuohy also focuses on a dispute among members of the Fishers City Council about appointments to boards and commissions.

I have reported on the city’s purchase of the 98 acres along the White River near 96th Street.  Tuohy digs deeper, talking to the developer eyeing that area and also addresses opposition to that development from the Hoosier Environmental Council.

Democrat City Councilor Jocelyn Vare voiced her concern about the process used by the council in making appointments to boards and commissions back in January of this year.  She argued that there was little diversity among council appointees.

Since then, Howard Stevenson, an African-American attorney and former member of the Hamilton Southeastern School Board, has become President of the Fishers Plan Commission and has received high marks by local observers in his handling of that job.

Council President Selina Stoller formed a group to look at the entire committee system and council appointment process.  That proposal calls for the council president to make the final decision on appointments to boards and commissions.

Democrat Crystal Neumann, a member of the group issuing the report, criticized the proposal to have all appointments in the hands of the council president.  Republican Pete Peterson voiced his opposition to that proposal, saying the full council should continue to vote on the appointments.

Reporter Tuohy does a nice job of recounting the debate, which is not over.  The council  appointment process has only had first reading, meaning there could still be changes.

I appreciate all the nice comments I receive from people about this blog.  It is a labor of love for me, my volunteer work in giving back to the community in my retirement years.

But I am a one-man-band.  I can only do so much as a local volunteer journalist.  I welcome news coverage of Fishers from whatever news operations chooses to pay attention to our community.

By the way, kudos to M.J. Slaby, a very good reporter for the IndyStar that attends every HSE School Board meeting.  That is another way the Star covers Fishers.

I will repeat something I have said and written many times before.  SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR LOCAL MEDIA!  The Star offers specials where you can begin a subscription for as little as $1 a month the first few months.  If you watch local business, government and politics, subscribe to the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Consider subscribing to the Hamilton County Reporter and The Times, both local Hamilton County newspapers.  It does not cost much to subscribe to either or both.

I am sure I’ve left some news sources out, and I will hear about it if I did.  Just consider subscribing to you local news.  That is the only way those news sources can survive financially.  We need them.

Fewer than 3.5% of students have opted-out of taking the Panorama Survey conducted by Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools.  That’s according to Brooke Lawson, Mental Health Coordinator for HSE Schools.  The deadline for parents to opt-out of their children taking the survey was October 15.

Ms. Lawson talks about the Panorama Survey in this podcast.

Fishers is showing encouraging data in the latest COVID community update provided by the Fishers Health Department released Tuesday afternoon.

In a video message, Epidemiologist Josh Robinson says all measures are improving.  The Hamilton County unique positivity rate, Fishers testing site positivity rate and 14-day average case incidence rate are all headed downward, which is very good news.

“Overall, we are seeing the lowest number of weekly cases at our lookback period that we’ve seen in the last couple of months, which is a really positive sign,” Robinson said. “It looks like we may be on a downward trajectory in terms of new cases and we anticipate that our case incidence rate will steadily and slowly start to decline.”

Contact tracing and testing availability in Fishers both look good.  Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed availability is up to 29.1%, the best rate since early August.  Hospitalization occupancy rates are also continue a downward trend in our area.

“Overall, the Fishers community is looking like the cases are going down,” according to Robinson.  “Our vaccination rates continue to go up.  We continue to see uptake in new vaccinations.  We also continue to see an uptake in boosters.”

The Pfizer booster shot is available to those eligible.  The J&J and Moderna boosters are awaiting final approval.

Robinson expects a federal government decision in early November on a possible Pfizer vaccine for 5-11 year old children under an emergency authorization.

View the entire Josh Robinson video at the link below.

As Fishers has grown as a city, the local arts community is becoming more active.  That has also seen growth for a major local nonprofit group, The Fishers Arts Council.

The council has been heavily involved in planning for a new arts center, part of a new City Hall complex.  The organization continues to provide Fishers City Hall new art work each month to adorn the walls.

I talked about that, and much more, with Les Reinhardt, Executive Director for the Fishers Arts Council, in this podcast.

Fishers has boasted about its AAA debt rating from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) for the past several years.  Now, Hamilton County says it is the only county in Indiana to reach the AAA debt rating.

Here is how it is described in a county news release issued Monday:

“S&P Global Ratings raised its long-term rating to ‘AAA’ from ‘AA+’ on Hamilton County’s existing general obligation bonds (GO) and its lease debt not subject to annual appropriation. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings assigned its ‘AAA’ long-term rating to the county’s 2021 general obligation refunding and project bonds, with a preliminary par amount of $38.61 million. The outlook is stable.”

Taxpayers benefit because it allows local governments to borrow money at a lower interest rate.

“This rating saves our residents money, by providing a lower cost of borrowing to finance capital projects. This also makes the county more attractive to businesses and signals a sound and stable economic climate,” says Mark Heirbrandt, president of the Hamilton County Commissioners. “It certainly speaks to the hard work and teamwork of our county commissioners, county council, and finance team over the past three months.”

S&P noted that the county is seeing increased population and commercial growth, contributing to the AAA designation.

Earlier this month, administrators for the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools outlined plans for renovations needed in the next few years at various school buildings, but discussion of one particular structure is key – what will happen to Fishers Elementary School?

There is a lot happening on the elementary school scene.  Students at Durbin Elementary will move over to the new Deer Creek Elementary, under construction in Wayne Township at 156th Street and Bolden Road and due to open in August of 2022.  Southeastern Elementary is already bursting at the seams and will have some of those students head to Deer Creek.

Elementary boundary lines in that area of the school district will need to be adjusted for this to work.  A meeting has been set about those plans for Tuesday, October 26, 6pm, at the HSE High School main cafeteria.

As the local school district looks ahead, Fishers Elementary is on the minds of school officials.  The school structure sets on 8 acres of land, at a time when other HSE District elementary campuses have 20 acres.  Fishers is the oldest school building in the HSE inventory.  Located on Lantern Road, just south of downtown Fishers.  There is plenty of commercial and residential development all around that area.

A few years ago, there were talks between the school corporation and city officials to close Fishers Elementary and construct a new building at Ritchey Woods, land owned by the city.  Nothing after came of that proposal.

In that school board work session earlier in October, it became clear that the board may be coming to a decision – either sink renovation money for Fishers Elementary School or find a way to construct an elementary school somewhere in that general area.

Demographic changes are also part of this.  The last demographic study completed for HSE Schools showed a leveling-off of the school population over the next few years, but it will be uneven, with some areas of the district seeing fewer students and other seeing an increase.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact on future student count projections.

But all of that adds up to this – a decision is looming on what to do about Fishers Elementary School.  Whatever decision is made will have an impact on the HSE Schools, particularly on the west end of the school district.