I was not able to watch Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s news conference update on COVID December 29th live (it is available online at this link).  Watching it later, the message from the governor and his top health officials could be summed up this way – the COVID situation is bad in our state and will not get any better over the next several weeks.

Perhaps it took an outbreak on our local NFL team, the Colts, to wake everyone up to the fact that COVID is making a comeback with a much more communicable variant that is quickly filling up our local hospitals and Intensive Care Units (ICUs).  This isn’t just a crisis for those with COVID, it is scary for anyone with a health emergency needing access to a hospital and ICU bed quickly.

The Fishers Health Department is stepping up to the plate.  The vaccination site on 116th Street, just east of Brooks School Road in a former Marsh Grocery location, has expanded hours, open December 30 until 7pm and has just announced additional hours on December 31, New Year’s Eve – 9am-1pm.

The Fishers Health Department says its hotline (317-595-3211) is receiving an influx of calls about walk-in testing availability – the Health Department  does not offer walk-in testing. Appointments are required for all COVID-19 testing and can be made at this link.  Anyone can walk-in at the Fishers Health Department vaccination site.  So, walk-in during any open hours for a vaccination, get an appointment for testing.

I recall a recent conversation with a former member of the Hamilton Southeaster (HSE) School Board about the process used in 2014 when Brian Smith resigned as superintendent to accept an offer to become the Executive Director of Indiana School Boards Association.  The HSE board needed to set criteria on selecting Dr. Smith’s replacement.

As one of the largest school districts in the state, the HSE board felt it was necessary to require all candidates to have a certain amount of experience already as a superintendent.  That former member of the board lamented that, looking back, that may not have been a good decision.

Why?  Because at that time, Beth Niedermeyer was already serving as Assistant Superintendent of HSE Schools.  However, she had never been a superintendent so she could not be considered at that time.

It didn’t take long for Noblesville Schools to hire her away from HSE to be the superintendent at the school system to Fishers’ north.

Allen Bourff was chosen and just recently retired as HSE superintendent and by all accounts did a very good job in that post.  However, that former board member wishes the search committee could have at least considered Dr. Niedermeyer.

My dealings with Beth Niedermeyer impressed me in my dealings with her covering HSE Schools.  She was personable, approachable and was always willing to answer my questions as a reporter.

I am writing about her because I just read a story posted today by Indianapolis Star reporter MJ Slaby about the announcement that Beth Niedermeyer, after 8 years at Noblesville, is planning to retire.  You can read the Star story at this link.  (Note…you may be limited on how many Star stories you can access if you are not a subscriber…again, please subscribe to your local media if you do not do so already)

I wish Beth Niedermeyer all the best as she prepares to retire after a solid career in education.  We need more people like her running our public schools.

The Fishers COVID testing site near City Hall is seeing long lines of vehicles waiting for a test.  The Fishers COVID vaccination site on 116th Street just east of Brooks School Road is expanding their hours (9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Tuesday, December 28 through Thursday, December 30) and is accepting walk-ins.

In the state of Indiana, officials report 3,058 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Monday, up from 2,982 the previous day. COVID patients occupy 38.7% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds.  170 deaths were reported Monday.

The COVID challenge is real and the numbers tell the story.

Fishers Health Department Epidemiologist Josh Robinson released his weekly video update Tuesday afternoon and there is not much good news there.

The most important number is the availability of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in our area of the state.  The availability number is 7.1%, “….”among the lowest it’s been since they’ve started posting this online,” said Robinson.  “We expect that this level of low ICU bed availability will continue as Omicron further starts to take hold.”

According to Robinson, the overall community case incidence rate has gone way up…from 65.6 to 82.01.  In the last 14 days, 966 new COVID cases have been reported.  December 22nd, 2021, recorded the 4th highest daily case total…153 cases.

There was some good news in the health department’s weekly report.  The Hamilton County positivity rate is down from 20.2 to 18.5.  The Fishers testing site has seen a slight decrease in positivity…16.7 to 16.

The epidemiologist says the best protection from hospitalization and serious illness is the vaccine.  Robinson recommends the exercise of “mitigation measures.”  That includes wearing a mask when outdoors or out and about, in indoor settings with other people and the general practice of safe hygiene measures.

Even though the demand is high for COVID testing, Robinson recommends checking the Fishers Health Department Web page on testing at this link.  For any questions, call the department at 317-595-3211.

Here is Josh Robinson’s full video message:

COVID cases are increasing and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed availability is the lowest since the pandemic started.  That has prompted the Fishers Health Department to increase hours available for vaccinations, as well as encouraging first vaccinations and booster shots.

The Fishers Vaccination Clinic is located at 12520 E. 116^th Street, just east of Brooks School Road, and is extending hours to 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Tuesday, December 28 through Thursday, December 30.  That site has administered more than 82,000 vaccine doses since its opening earlier this year.

“We are absolutely at a point – again – where we are asking residents and Hoosiers everywhere to take this situation seriously,” said Monica Heltz, public health director for Fishers Health Department, in a city news release. “The number one way to protect yourself and loved ones is to complete your vaccination round and get boosted when eligible. The omicron variant is directly impacting our hospitals and health care systems and these measures can help alleviate this pressure. By the very nature of this virus, new variants will continue to develop until we take vaccinations and boosters seriously.”

In the entire state of Indiana, ICU bed availability at 12.2 percent, the lowest rate since the beginning of the pandemic. In District 5, which represents Central Indiana, the availability number is even lower at 7 percent.

“Not only are these numbers sobering, but they’re real. By opening the vaccination site to more hours this week, we hope we can capture those who might have time off or more flexibility to be able to make an appointment or walk-in,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness. “This is one step each of us can take to protect ourselves and our loved ones.”

For more information on the steps you can take on how to protect yourself and loved ones from the omicron variant can be found at this link. The FHD continues to support CDC recommendations for protection from COVID that include vaccination, masking up, and avoiding large indoor or poorly ventilated gatherings.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Superintendent Yvonne Stokes said in December that the district would be looking into the possibility of changing mask policy from a requirement to an optional policy, but in a letter to parents issued Monday, it appears the mask requirement will be in place once again when classes resume Tuesday, January 4th.

“We will use this time to review COVID-related cases in our individual schools,” the letter to parents says. “Information from the Indiana COVID-19 Data Report and our internal COVID-19 Data Dashboard will also be utilized going forward to determine if masks will be optional or required in schools during the second semester.”

The extension of a federal mandate will require that masks be worn by everyone on a school bus

According to the letter, the school district plans to closely monitor all data provided by city, county and state health officials when making decisions on mask policy as the second semester moves forward.

The letter was signed generically from “HSE Schools.”

Well, it’s that time again.  As 2021 comes to a close, after reviewing an entire year’s worth of posts on my blog, I felt Fishers had a busy year.  Then, I realized, when has Fishers not had a busy year, going back to when this news blog started in 2012?

So, once again, allow me to explain how I went about this task.  After several hours of reviewing my 2021 blog posts, I wrote down what I considered to be candidates for the “most important of the year” list.  Then I started the toughest job – what items stay, which ones go and how to rank the top stories.

This year, I will list 15 stories as the biggest of the year, starting with number 15 all the way up to the number 1 story of the year.  As expressed in previous years, most news organizations have many meetings and plenty of verbal fist-fights about which stories should make the list and how to rank them.

For me, it is all my own doing.  I have those fights in my own mind.  I by no means consider this a perfect list and many of you reading will take issue with this list, and that is fine by me.

With that in mind, here we go…..Larry Lannan’s top 15 Fishers news stories for the year 2021!

15.  Indiana Supreme Court case – HSE Schools vs. WTHR

Rick Wimmer may be retired as a Fishers High School football coach and teacher, but an issue with his past suspension remains an unresolved legal matter.  When Mr. Wimmer’s suspension was announced, the facts revealed about the reason or reasons for that suspension were not spelled out specifically, so local television news organization WTHR partnered with a freedom-of-the-press nonprofit to challenge the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools in an effort to reveal more facts about the decision to suspend Mr. Wimmer.  It all comes down to how a state statute is interpreted.  The Indiana Supreme Court held a hearing on the dispute in 2021 and a decision is awaited as of this writing.  One thing is for sure – the decision reached by the justices will have a wide-ranging impact on Indiana schools and local governments.

14.  New Fishers City Council members 

Two Fishers City Council members left the body in 2021.

Democrat Samantha DeLong moved to Las Vegas with her family and was forced to resign her seat as a result.  Crystal Neumann was appointed by the Hamilton County Democratic Chair to fill the seat when a party caucus failed to muster a quorum for a vote.

David George, the longest tenured council member, decided to resign his seat in 2021.  A Republican Party caucus chose David Giffel to succeed Mr. George.

13.  Census number

When I would ask people with some knowledge of the situation about what the current population of Fishers might be, in recent months, I would often receive the response of somewhere around 100,000.  The official 2020 census pegged that Fishers  population number at 98,977, very close to the 100K mark.

12.  5G towers in Fishers neighborhoods

Verizon halted 5G tower rollouts in Fishers for several months, but the program was back in 2021.  A number of local neighborhoods are seeing these towers pop-up all around them.  Only a handful have been denied by the city for very narrow reasons allowed by state and federal law.  Expect more towers to come before the city in 2022 as this technology moves forward.

11.  Hamilton Southeastern Education Association elects a new leader   

Janet Chandler has led the local teachers’ union for many years, but decided not to seek re-election this time around.  Abby Taylor has taken over the presidency of the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association in 2021.

10.  Thorpe Creek Elementary selected as a Blue Ribbon School 

Only a handful of schools are chosen for the honor of being a Blue Ribbon School.  In 2021, Hamilton Southeaster Schools had one building selected for this honor – Thorpe Creek Elementary.

9.  City buys HSE Utilities area within city limits

For those of us living within the city limits of Fishers, you could have been served by one of two utility operations – Fishers or HSE Utilities.  In 2021, the City of Fishers purchased the HSE Utilities service area within the city.  As a result, one sewer utility will serve all Fishers residents, the city’s utility.  There was no rate change in this transaction.

8.  Fishers buys 98 acres along the White River 

Fishers took an offer of paying back property taxes to purchase 98 acres of land along the White River, north of 96th Street.  There are long-term plans to have a park and possibly other development on that land.  Fishers late in the year learned that the state will provide READI grant money of $3 million – less than requested but useful.  Those funds will be used on the 98 acres and on a possible roundabout at 96th Street and Allisonville Road, which currently has a “Michigan Left” for left turns.

7.  HSE Schools, teachers agree to one-year contract

The aforementioned Hamilton Southeastern Education Association reached a one-year pact with the local school board, providing a 3.25% pay increase for local teachers.  The parties limited the contract to one-year due to the uncertainties surrounding COVID.

6.  HSE Schools approved new elementary boundaries     

With Deer Creek Elementary to be opened in August, 2022, the school board approved new elementary district lines, but limited the exercise to that school and other elementary buildings in the general area, including the overcrowded Southeastern Elementary.  Durbin Elementary students will be moved to the new Deer Creek building, along with some students at Southeastern Elementary, with other changes in the plan.

5.  Fishers Bioscience boom

Fishers had not been known as a hotbed for the life science industry, but circumstances have lined-up and Fishers is growing in that economic sector.  An Italian and South Korean firm have both announced plans to build facilities in the city and will provide some high-paying jobs as a result.

4.  Warren (Butch) Harling dies 

Warren Harling, known by his friends as Butch, served local government on the Fishers Plan Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals for a very long time.  Mr. Harling passed away in 2021.  He was succeeded as Plan Commission President by Howard Stevenson, a former Hamilton Southeastern School Board member and the first African-American to serve in that post.

3. Yvonne Stokes hired as HSE Schools Superintendent

The retirement of Superintendent Allen Bourff meant the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board was tasked with selecting a new leader for the district.  The board hired Yvonne Stokes, an assistant superintendent in Munster, a school district in the northwestern part of Indiana, as the new HSE Superintendent.

2.  Nickel Plate Trail and downtown development

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness says very little keeps him up at night, but the 2021 summer closure of 116th Street in the heart of downtown Fishers had him concerned.  It wasn’t easy, but the closure came and went.  Work continues on the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel underneath 116th Street.  That part of the trail is set to open in early 2022.

The construction along the downtown area of 116th Street is making progress, with many buildings closer to completion, including the First Internet Bank headquarters building.

The number one news story in Fishers for 2021: 

COVID

This should come as no surprise.  The HSE Schools went through hybrid class schedules to keep students and staff safe, but with some classes virtual and other days in-person, it was a tough time for both teachers and students.  The fall 2021 semester began with students in-person but with a mask-wearing requirement.

Fishers remodeled an abandoned Marsh grocery on 116th Street, just east of Brooks School Road, and established a COVID vaccination center, which remains in operation as we enter 2022.

Every time COVID appears to be coming under control, something happens, such as a new variant, and the virus explodes once again.

Mayor Fadness is quite proud that roughly 88% of Fishers adults have had at least one COVID shot.

Fishers, the city, local schools and local residents all tried to deal with COVID in 2021.  We can only hope and pray that 2022 will be a better COVID year for Fishers and all of us.

One of the most difficult projects I take on each year is to review my year’s work and list the top Fishers news stories for the year.  2021 was no different as a went through the same process again.

Here is the product of my work….a podcast listing the 15 top news stories for the year.

Director Adam McKay is best known for the Anchorman comedy films and The Big Short.  He has  new film, Don’t Look Up.   Here is my review.

Predictions are dangerous so I try not to make them whenever possible.  But looking ahead and exploring what may be ahead in the coming year is fair game.

Just so you know, I am finalizing the top news stories in Fishers for 2021 and will have that posted shortly.  In the meantime, let’s look at what we expect will be part of the Fishers news landscape in 2022.

The city is planning a new City Hall with an arts center as part of the new complex.  There is also a recreation center, sometimes described as a community center, in the planning stages.  Mayor Scott Fadness expects some preliminary ideas on what those facilities may look like sometime in the spring of 2022.

The city will see 116th Street downtown begin to come to life with the new development under construction starting to open, including the new headquarters of First Internet Bank.  The Nickel Plate Trail is expected to open in the downtown area, including the tunnel underneath 116th Street, in the spring of 2022.

A long-awaited housing study is expected to be produced next year that can guide local decision-makers on where to go next with housing policy in Fishers.

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools will likely determine the future of Fishers Elementary School.  It is the oldest structure in the HSE school inventory, and is the old Fishers High School of many, many years ago.

But the biggest local story next year will be the election of 4 HSE School Board members, a majority of the 7-member body.  The election will be in the fall (November) and candidates will begin filing in the summer.

There will be county elections and state legislative races in newly-drawn district maps.  Many of you may be in a new legislative district since the lines were re-drawn based on the 2020 census numbers.

Of course, the biggest story locally in 2022 will be COVID.  Will it ease, or will another variant complicate the pandemic?  Will the third year of COVID be better or worse?

This listing is by no means comprehensive and many other stories are anticipated in the coming year.  And, of course, there will always be the unanticipated issues that will surely arise.

This is not a set of predictions, just a few thoughts on what will almost certainly be on the public table for those of us living in Fishers.  Let us hope and pray 2022 is good to us.

With Christmas 2021 now here, I try each year to write what’s on my mind in this special holiday season.  My thoughts this year center on something Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness told me on a podcast recorded December 1st.

As is my custom when interviewing nearly anyone on a podcast, I provide a minute or two at the end to have my guest talk about anything I didn’t think to bring up myself.  On December 1st, the mayor made his case that, in his view, Fishers “is doing very well,” and cited a number of points made in his recent State of the City address.  But he slipped-in another point in his response to me – “As a community, we have some work to do on how we treat each other.”

The journalist in me motivated a follow-up question – just what did you mean by “we have work to do on how we treat each other?”

The mayor again referred back to his State of the City address.  He argues that most Fishers residents do not even realize what COVID has done to them.  “I don’t think people have come to grips with just all they’ve gone through in the last year-and-a-half,” Fadness said.

He senses that people continue to be on edge due to what COVID and dealing with the pandemic have done to all of us in some shape or form.

“We’ve got to get back to the ground game of looking each other in the eye and having an honest conversation,” said the mayor.

Fadness believes we can become a better community if we recognize that most of us are on edge because of the pandemic and what it has done to us.  He envisions a better sense of community where we interact in person and see that human beings may have differences, but we have more in common.

So, as my Christmas message, let’s make a concerted effort to connect in a positive way to our fellow human beings.  We have differences, and that is part of being human.  Making personal connections is important and a genuine effort to find and build on those relationships is certainly part of the Christian Christmas message.  Again, we have more that unites us than what divides us.

Once COVID hit, I changed the sign-off on all my podcasts to a new phrase – “Be safe and be kind.”  I wanted to emphasize that we all should follow practices to keep ourselves and those around us as safe as possible.  I also firmly believe that kindness spreads as each person practices it.  In this time of pandemic, being safe and being kind are both so important.

Let’s think about that as we spread the cheer of the holiday season to one another.

Be safe and be kind.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!