by

Katie Wisely

WISH-TV/Hamilton County Reporter

It’s been a rough spring for farmers with the constant rain. A lot of the seeds aren’t even in the ground yet. Farmers are feeling the pressure, and consumers could see the impact on prices later this year.

According to a new report, only 22 percent of the state of Indiana is planted. Normally, this time of year it’s 94 percent.

Nathan Davis is a farmer in northern Hamilton County. He farms about 3,000 acres of corn every year. Right now, only 500 of that is planted. Davis uses that corn to feed the thousands of hogs he raises.

He says it takes about 180,000 bushels of corn to feed all of his hogs. On average, he sells about 18,000 a year. Davis says he needs at least 1,300 acres of corn planted.

This year he’s had to take new measures. He says he’s had to spend nearly $60,000 to buy contract corn for the fall just to feed the hogs. Davis says it’s due to the fact that the weather hasn’t been in their favor this year.

“It just doesn’t affect the crop,” he said. “I mean you have all of your inputs, your equipment costs, you’ve got your seed cost, your land cost and all that kind of stuff, so it’s huge. It affects everything really.”

Davis says the ground has to dry out before they can get the planter back out. He says the impact the weather has had on planting will increase the cost of corn. As of right now, Davis says it’s nearly $4 a bushel.

Some farmers are saying there’s a chance they may not get a crop in the field, or once they do plant, it fails due to the wet ground. Most farmers have some type of crop insurance, but the insurance doesn’t cover everything.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

(NOTE: This is a commentary written by Fred Swift of the Hamilton County Reporter. The views expressed are those of Fred Swift and do not necessarily reflect the views of LarryInFishers.com.  This opinion piece is posted here as part of a partnership between the Reporter and LarryInFishers.com) 

Joe Hogsett, mayor of our big sister city, Indianapolis, has a big problem with his streets, and he’s come up with an idea to have surrounding counties help him out of it. Of course, it’s an election year. Joe needs to get votes, and there’s nothing like telling the voters that you’ve found somebody else to pay for their needs.

So, Joe wants to have his surrounding counties, like Hamilton County, put some yet-to-be determined amount of their Local Income Tax money into a fund that would fix crumbling streets. Supposedly, Hamilton County would get some of its money back. But, likely not much.

This “regional” approach to road repair would require state legislation. It is true that a lot of our county’s residents use Indy’s streets; about 58,000 of our people commute into the city. And, about 15,000 Indianapolis residents commute to Hamilton County. Indy would benefit greatly by using those numbers in some kind of a formula that is yet to be devised.

And, there are a few other problems with Joe’s idea. Chief among them is the fact that commuters from our county already pay four tenths of one percent of their income in Marion County as their Deputy Auditor Drew Carlson told me yesterday. That might not sound like much, but by my conservative calculations it amounts to between $5 million and $6 million per year. You can fix a lot of chuckholes with that along with the money from the other surrounding counties.

There’s another consideration. While we have 58,000 commuters to Indy, we have about 318,000 people in Hamilton County. That means a vast majority, 260,000 more or less, do not commute and may not want to pay to fix Joe’s problem.

And, then we should consider that many commuters use largely interstate highways like 69 and 465 to get to work. Indianapolis does not maintain these roads, the state highway department (INDOT) is solely responsible.

The Local Income Tax (formerly known as COIT) is a big part of Hamilton County’s life blood for public services and facilities. Our county, cities, towns, townships and libraries get more than $156 million from this tax each year. Giving up part of it would potentially reduce local government’s services at all these levels.

Our local officials and legislators have a lot of serious thinking to do before agreeing to any “regional” approaches that Marion County politicians propose in an election year.

by

Richie Hall

Sports Editor

Hamilton County Reporter

BLOOMINGTON – By literally a few millimeters, Hamilton Southeastern’s Noah
Malone became a state champion on Friday.

The junior won the 200 dash by a margin of two-thousandths of a second – .002 – at
the IHSAA boys track and field state championships at Indiana University. The 200
dash was easily the race of the night and among the highlights of Hamilton County
athletes.

Malone helped the Royals to a fourthplace finish as a team, their best result since
winning state in 2013. Meanwhile, Fishers also landed in the top 10 and claimed a state
title in the 4×800 relay. Carmel, Westfield and Noblesville all had medalist performances as well.

Coming into the 200, Malone had already put together a nice list of accomplishments at state. He was the runner-up in the 100 dash and part of HSE’s fourth-place
4×100 relay, joining freshman Stephen Sydnor, sophomore Gage Pratt and junior
Caleb Durden in that race.

Malone’s biggest competitor was his friend and fellow junior, Jahn Riley of Pike.
Riley was working on his third medal of the night, already placing seventh in the 100
dash and winning the 400 dash. The two were side-by-side throughout the entire 200
dash, including right at the end.

It took a few seconds to figure out the winner, but it would be Malone. Both times
flashed on the scoreboard as 21.31 seconds, which were rounded up from the precise
times. Malone finished the race in 21.307 seconds, Riley finished in 21.309.

“I actually thought Jahn won,” said Malone. “I thought he won. But when the
screen came up as a tie, it was just insane.  Right now I’m just speechless, but it was a
good day overall. It was a good day. And props to Jahn. He brought me to that time.”

Pratt also earned a medal in the 200 dash, finishing in ninth place. Senior Jacob
Wiggers finished ninth in the 3200 run, giving the Royals a fifth medal. That was
also enough for Southeastern to clinch a three-way tie for fourth place; the Royals
joined Brownsburg and Cathedral in scoring 26 points.

“We’re real proud of the way our guys competed,” said Royals coach Brian Akialis.
“Obviously very excited when we’ve got a guy like Noah first in the 200, second place
in the 1 and then our 4×1 running their best time all year right when it matters most,
finishing fourth today.”

The Tigers finished the meet with 23 points, placing them eighth as a team.
Fishers began the running events with a win, as senior Ethan Meyer, senior Hunter Christy, junior Drew Smith and sophomore Jaylen Castillo finished first in the 4×800 relay. It
marks the second year in a row that the Tigers have won a state event.

Meyer then took sixth in the 1600 run.  Competing at state was a sneak preview for
him, as he has committed to run cross country and track at IU next fall.

“It’s definitely changed my life,” said Meyer as he reflected on his high school
career. “The experience I’ve had is something I’d never trade for anything else.”

Fishers also had solid days from its throwers. Junior Hayden Tobias took fifth
in the shot put, while junior Wyatt Puff finished eighth in both the shot put and the
discus.

Carmel finished in 16th place as a team with 16 points. Junior Logan Sandlin had
the best finish of the Greyhounds by taking fourth in the pole vault. He also competed
in the 300 hurdles, finishing 11th. Not bad for his first appearance at state.

“It’s definitely different than a normal track meet,” said Sandlin. “There are a lot
more people and it’s a lot more pressure. There are just a lot of different factors that
aren’t the same as a normal track meet.”

Senior Jakob Pearson finished fifth in the 110 hurdles, while the 4×400 relay team
of sophomore Owen Schafer, senior Drew Thornton, sophomore Colton Parker and
junior Eli Konow took seventh. Parker was also eighth in the 300 hurdles.

Noblesville finished the meet with two ninth-place medals. Sophomore Andrew
Anderson got his medal first after a top nine finish in the 800 run.

“It was a really fast start and a really tough race,” said Anderson. “I saw a couple
people get tripped up right in front of me. I had a good showing, it was really fun and I
got a lot of great guys here to support me.”

The Millers’ 4×400 relay team of juniors Shomari Rogers-Walton, Shawn Kinslow
and DeVontez Cox, and senior Mitchell Conard took ninth in that event.
Westfield earned an eighth-place finish in the 4×800 relay. That team consisted of
junior Mahamat Djour, senior Max Gutwein, senior Noah Douthit and junior David
Manella.

Guerin Catholic had two competitors at state. Senior Quinn Gallagher placed 11th
in the 3200 run, while senior Billy Freudenthal was 14th in the 300 hurdles.

North Central edged out Pike by one point to win the team state championship.
The Panthers scored 42 points to the Red Devils’ 41. Warren Central placed third with
27 points, giving the Metropolitan Conference a sweep of the top three teams.

The Hoosier Crossroads Conference also did well, with four teams in the top 10.
Southeastern and Brownsburg were part of the tie for fourth place, Fishers finished
eighth and HCC newcomer Franklin Central took ninth, with Mental Attitude Award
winner Malachi Quarles scoring all 20 of the Flashes’ points on wins in the 110 and 300
hurdles.

After several weeks of being closed for construction work, the intersection of 126th Street and Allisonville Road is now open!

Now that the shock is beginning to wear-off on the surprising news that Hamilton Southeastern School Board President Mike Bottorff has resigned his board seat, the question many are asking is – what comes next?

Under state law, the remaining board members will decide who replaces Mr. Bottorff on the board.  But how they go about doing that is entirely up to the board.

I contacted all six school board members late Thursday night, asking where the board should go from here.  As of mid-afternoon the next day (Friday) I have received two responses.  One is still processing what all this means.  The other is busy dealing with personal family end-of-school-year issues.  Neither would comment at this time.

So, why have the other four school board members not responded to my messages?  I do not take that personally.  I don’t believe these remaining board members yet know what will happen next.  I suspect they were taken a bit off guard by Mike Bottorff’s decision to resign from the board.

The board has a wide range of options before it.  I will quickly run through what the board did when there was an opening on the board in late 2013, the last time this happened.

Darren Sink, who oddly enough sat in the same at-large Fall Creek Township seat as Mike Bottorff, notified the board of his resignation in November of 2013.  The board decided to allow anyone living in Fall Creek Township and meeting minimum qualifications to apply for the open board seat.  There were a lot of applicants.

The board reviewed all the applications and chose a set of finalists.  Board members interviewed each candidate in open meetings anyone could attend (I attended them all).

In January of 2014, Howard Stevenson was sworn-in as a new HSE School Board member.  Mr. Stevenson then ran for the at-large Fall Creek Township school board seat in 2016.  The rules governing at-large elections for HSE School Board say the candidate must live within the township she/he may be representing, but the entire school district votes on each township race.

In that 2016 Fall Creek Township at-large election, Mike Bottorff had 14,797 votes, and Howard Stevenson tallied 14,756 votes.  Bottorff won that election by about one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of the votes cast.  Candidate J. Kent Everett came in a distant third.

I’m already seeing plenty of social media posts supporting this or that candidate to apply for the vacant board seat.  Just keep in mind the board decides how and when to fill that seat.  They could follow the precedent of 2013-2014 or do something entirely different.

At this point, board members have not provided any indication how they plan to proceed.

Then, there is the issue of how to name a new board president.  Sylvia Shepler, as board vice president, will preside over the next regular board meeting scheduled for June 12th (that presumes the board chooses not to call a special meeting, with the proper advance notice under the law).   The board then may choose to vote on a new board president to fill-out Mr. Bottorff’s term for the remainder of this calendar year.

But even that is not certain.  The board could just allow Mrs. Shepler to assume the role of acting board president the remainder of the year.  Once again, this is all up to the board.

Some have asked why Mike Bottorff has chosen to resign from the board so suddenly?  My answer is this.  Unless given a compelling reason otherwise, I take Mike at his word that he is leaving the board for the reasons he provided in the letter to his fellow board members.

“I find I cannot continue that (school board) service and also keep important commitments to my family,” Bottorff wrote in the letter. “I have to set priorities and, in that regard, my obligations to family must come first.”

We did get a hint of this in Board President Bottorff’s statement read aloud at the May 8th school board meeting when the HSE District nondiscrimination policy was approved.  He cited examples of threats made to school board members and their families as the nondiscrimination policy was debated in the local community.

I have always admired anyone willing to run for public office.  The candidate and family face many personal hardships just to run a sound campaign.  Then, once elected, the elected official must be prepared for the harsh criticism that comes when a controversial issue is debated.

No matter how you may feel about Mike Bottorff’s votes on the school board, I admire his willingness to serve and I wish he and his family nothing but the best in the future.

Now, we wait for word from the school board on how his successor will be chosen.  I will be reporting that here at LarryInFishers.com.

After several valiant efforts to save the firm, it appears SteadyServ, a Fishers-based enterprise, will need to sell after trying to reorganize under bankruptcy.

Samm Quinn of the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) posted a story Friday saying the local business, which is best known for developing a draft-beer management and inventory system called iKeg, has failed to meet its sales projections each quarter since 2012.

You can read Samm Quinn’s story at this link.

Road construction in and around Fishers continues for the work week starting Monday, June 3rd.  Watch 136th & Cyntheanne Road for a one day closure Tuesday.

The city now says 126th Street and Allisonville Road, which has been closed the past few weeks to allow construction work, will reopen “soon,” but is no more specific than that for now.

Here’s the latest road construction list, as provided by the City of Fishers:

=================

Mike Bottorff submitted his resignation from his seat on the Hamilton Southeastern School Board, effective the date the letter was submitted, Thursday, May 30th. Bottorff has served as president of the board this year.

“I provided notice to the Hamilton County Clerk that I have resigned as a member of the Board of School Trustees effective May 30, 2019,” Bottorff wrote in a letter to fellow school board members. “It has been a privilege to serve my community as a member of this Board, but, after months of thought and reflection, I find I cannot continue that service and also keep important commitments to my family. I have to set priorities and, in that regard, my obligations to family must come first.”

Bottorff was elected as the at-large board member from Fall Creek Township in 2016.  His seat is up for election in the fall of 2020.

The Hamilton Southeastern School Board will now begin the process of choosing Bottorff’s replacement.  Under Indiana law, when a school board vacancy occurs, the board itself chooses the replacement.

Bob Kravitz has been around local sports in the Indy area for a long time.  He is also a long-time Fishers resident.  Bob now writes for a Web site TheAthletic.com which charges a small monthly fee for a ton of sports content, including Bob’s commentaries.  I talked about that, and a lot more, with Bob on this podcast.

When Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness delivered his State of the City address last week, he emphasized regionalism in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area as a way to solve problems, particularly an issue like infrastructure.  Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett unveiled his vision of what regionalism would look like at his State of the City address, and it appears the two mayors are no exactly together in their vision.

The Indianapolis Business Journal posted a story on their web site (ibj.com) about Hogsett’s plan to fund infrastructure projects throughout the nine counties making up the Indy region.  However, under Hogsett’s plan, Hamilton County would fund 33% of the regional fund but receive just 18% of the proceeds.  You can read the entire IBJ story at this link.

“I’m perplexed by Mayor Hogsett’s proposal that is not consistent with the work the Central Indiana Conference of Elected Officials has been doing collectively over the past year,” said Fadness in a statement released Wednesday night.  “While I agree that regionalism is important, I believe we need to find a solution that will transcend political seasons and ensure the long-term sustainability of our region.”