With Halloween a few days away, Fishers is offering a number of activities for families.  Fishers will have Trick or Treat hours October 31st, 6-8pm.

Here is a full listing of activities, as provided by the City of Fishers”

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Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza 
Residents will show off their jack-o-lantern carving skills with the Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza on Tuesday, October 27 from 4-7 p.m. at the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater (NPD AMP). Fishers Parks will provide the pumpkins and carving tools for this sold-out event, and all pumpkins will be displayed at the Boo Bash event on October 31! Pre-registration is required, and this event is currently full. To join the waitlist, visit www.playfishers.com/BooBash.

Boo Bash
This Halloween enjoy a new, socially distanced Boo Bash Trick-or-Treat Trail. Fishers’ annual Halloween tradition will take place on Saturday, October 31 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the NPD AMP. The free event features outdoor, socially distant trick-or-treating at over 50 vendor booths, bewitching giveaways, and lots of spooky fun for the whole family. 36 Teal Pumpkin Project booths will offer non-food items for children with food allergies and special needs. To ensure attendees comply with social distancing and COVID-19 guidelines, guests will be asked to wear masks (ages 5+) and follow a one-way pedestrian pathway and event entry will be monitored to limit attendance to ensure appropriate distancing. For more information on the COVID-19 precautions for the event, visit www.playfishers.com/BooBash. No registration is required for this event.

Trick-or-Treat Hours
Fishers’ citywide trick-or-treating hours will be from 6-8 p.m. on October 31. The Fishers Police Department and Fishers Health Department have provided community recommendations to stay safe and healthy on Halloween, including tips on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Visit www.fishers.in.us/Halloween for the full list of recommendations. The FHD strongly recommends avoiding gatherings of more than ten people.

WHEN/WHERE: 
• Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza: October 27, 4-7 p.m. at the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater
Boo Bash:  October 31, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater

• Citywide Trick-or-Treat Hours: October 31, 6-8 p.m. throughout Fishers

We are now just a little over one week before election day.  Voters will be choosing a president, governor, members of congress and many local offices.  In Indiana, there are school board elections.

Here in the Fishers area, all registered voters residing in Fall Creek, Delaware and Wayne Townships are eligible to vote in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board election.  The city of Fishers takes up large parts of Fall Creek and Delaware Townships.

I won’t comment on the state of the various campaigns.  There have been some good, solid discussions and some not so good.  But this election will have a major impact on the school age children attending public schools in those three townships.

I have evolved a bit on how I personally evaluate candidates for my local school board.  For years, I looked at the positions taken by each of the candidates.  That is still a factor, but it has been trumped by another consideration for me.

I explained this as part of my hour-long video discussion with Cameron Geesaman recorded in early September.  All voters need to evaluate candidates on their ability to make good decisions as situations change.

For example, I spent time with all current members of the HSE Board and never thought to ask any of them how they would handle a pandemic.  No one could foresee that.  The ability of each board member to evaluate the situation before them and make good decisions is key for me.

If you do not think your vote counts, allow me to provide just one fact for you.  In 2016, Mike Bottorff defeated Howard Stevenson by 41 votes, about one-tenth of one-percent (.01%) of all votes cast in the Fall Creek Township at-large election.  All votes counted in that race.  Mr. Bottorff resigned from the board in May of 2019 and board members chose Clint Wilson to fill-out the remainder of the term.

A couple of reminders – if you vote a straight party ticket, keep going….you will find the at-large Hamilton County Council election, then the school board candidates will be before you.  Also, this is an at-large school board election so all voters may choose one candidate for each of the three townships.

Please allow me to once again compliment and thank Izzy & Casey Alexander, Fishers High School students that offered to record podcast interviews with all 11 candidates for school board.  As of early Monday afternoon, October 26th, I have set a podcasting record.  Combining the number of listens for all candidates, the count exceeded 2,700.  That means at least 2,700 people listened to most or all of a candidate podcast.

I see that people in Hamilton County, Indiana and many parts of the nation are voting early, enduring long lines and long wait times to cast their ballots.  It is clear that Americans love democracy.

If you have not yet voted and want to know more about our local HSE School Board candidates, I have a handy listing below of the candidate podcasts with links.

Remember, our local school board election is of great importance to school-age children in all three townships and the health of our school system is key to the health of our community as a whole.  Vote in the school board election!

FALL CREEK TOWNSHIP

Clint Wilson

Chauna Leigh Holder

Suzanne Thomas

Matt Stolle

Jason Arnold

Delaware Township

Amanda Shera

Tony Bagato

Sarah Donsbach

Wayne Township

Sarah Parks-Reese 

Tiffany Pascoe

Ron Thieme

As I watched the presidential candidate debate Thursday night, my mind took me back to late March, 2014.  Fishers was about to elect the new city’s first mayor.  There were six people running in the Republican primary and it didn’t seem likely a Democrat would step forward to run (no Democrat did).

So, this primary election was going to select our first mayor.  There had already been two debates, or “joint appearances” as many would describe them.  The Fishers Chamber of Commerce and the local League of Women Voters hosted the previous events.

That’s when I received a message from the Fishers Arts Council.  That organization was being encouraged to sponsor one more candidate debate.  The Arts Council asked me to be the debate moderator.

I had participated on a panel of reporters asking questions of the mayoral candidates in Columbus, Indiana back in 1979, but was not the sole moderator.  It was made clear to me I would be the moderator…I would pose all the questions.

I dealt with two people at the Arts Council to prepare for the debate, Jocelyn Vare and Gavin Fisher (Jocelyn now serves on the Fishers City Council).  We worked on the format and tried to come up with a way to form questions.  The Arts Council opened an e-mail account for anyone to submit questions.   I used at least one question from everyone that took the time to respond to that e-mail account.

Although I had help, fashioning the specific questions was totally up to me.  I viewed that as a big responsibility.

I know that journalists as debate moderators are often a target of the campaigns.  I braced for the worst but it never happened.  If anyone took issue with the way I ran the debate and the questions asked, no one told me. I  suppose that was a success in itself.

That election gave us Scott Fadness as our first mayor and he remains the Mayor of Fishers to this day.

I watched Kristen Welker and give her tremendous credit for a job well done in the final presidential debate.  Few people understand what a tough and thankless job that is, but Ms. Welker showed us why she is so well-regarded by her colleagues at NBC News.

Adam Aasen, Alec Toombs and myself get together once again to talk about film.  We have several film reviews, list our favorite horror films with Halloween on the way and talk about the state of the movie theater business.

As any local motorist knows, road construction is continuing in and around Fishers.  Also, you may have seen paving and other work going on along the Nickel Plate Trail.

Below is the full listing of the road construction projects, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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Aaron Sorkin has a number of film, stage and television successes on his resume.  In this film, he recreates one of the most famous trials in American 20th Century history, “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”  The 1969 trial was about incitement of riot charges brought against the 7 related to violence near the 1968 Democratic National Convention held in Chicago.

Did Sorkin once again come up with a hit this time?  Here is my review.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

A $96.7 million county general fund budget was adopted Monday morning by the Hamilton County Council. The budget is for the 2021 calendar year, and will require a slightly smaller property tax rate than was levied this year.

County employees will receive raises according to a scale that takes into account job responsibility, longevity and performance. County Auditor Robin Mills said there is no overall percentage of increase.

The budget can be funded with a lower tax rate largely because of the ever-growing tax base, up more than $1.3 billion this year. The budget includes funding for county law enforcement, the courts, health department and numerous other services and administrative offices.

Thirteen non-profit organizations that provide various social services will receive nearly $4 million in assistance from the county next year as part of the budget, including some that are mandated by statute or annual contractual agreement.

The organizations are as follows: Aspire (mental health) $2.3 million, Janus (sheltered workshop) $775,000, Humane Society $140,419, and Cherish Center $67,000.

Also, Good Samaritan $50,000, Heart and Soul Free Clinic $15,000, Hope Family Care Center $15,000, Indiana Center for Youth Abuse $30,000, and Meals on Wheels $10,000.

And, Prime Life Enrichment $225,000, Prevail $180,000, Shepherd Center $40,000, and Trinity Free Clinic $15,000.

With the exception of the state-mandated funds, these amounts are granted to organizations that perform community services that might otherwise fall to local government to fund entirely.

If you wanted to vote early in Hamilton County up to now, there were two locations to cast your ballot – the Judicial Center in downtown Noblesville or the Hamilton County Fairgrounds.

Beginning October 21st, more early voting sites are opening.  In 2020, Fishers City Hall will no longer host early voting, but two park buildings will pick up the slack.  The shelter houses at Holland Park and Billericay Park will be the early voting locations in Fishers.

Below is the schedule for when you can vote early at one of those Fishers locations:

Wednesday and Thursday, October 21 & 22 from 2 pm to 7 pm
Friday and Saturday, October 23 & 24 from 10 am to 3 pm
Wednesday and Thursday, October 28 & 29 from 2 pm to 7 pm
Friday and Saturday, October 30 & 31 from 10 am to 3 pm

It was a few weeks ago when I was contacted by a local realtor, Cameron Geesaman.  She has started a video series of interviews featuring people in and around Fishers.  I was honored to be invited as a guest on one of the videos.

This video is a little more than one hour, so be forewarned before you begin watching.  It was recorded in early September.

Cameron does these videos as a service to people in Fishers.  My thanks to her for spending some time with me talking about my news blog and Fishers, Indiana.  The video link is below.

INCOG BioPharma has its local economic development incentives in hand as the firm seeks to finalize a location for its new Fishers facility, projected to employ 150 people in 2024 and 260 by 2026.  City spokesperson Ashley Elrod says no land parcel has been finalized as a location for the new enterprise, but the owners are eyeing the area around the Exit 5 office park, east of I-69 near downtown.

The average wage for INCOG workers was set at $83,000 per year, not including benefits and bonuses.

The city is providing tax incentives for INCOG, allowing 13 years abating property taxes and a 2-year abatement of real property tax levies.  A waiver of sewer fees is a part of the package.

In other city council actions:

–The Maple Del Development, an apartment community planned just west of the Chatham Tap restaurant on 116th Street, received final approval for the economic development agreement with the city.  Several residents of the Charleston Crossing neighborhood near the development complained to council members during the community comment period at the end of the meeting that their neighborhood was not notified of the development and many residents there strongly oppose the plan.

–Final approval was given to the 2021 city budget.

–Changes in the city animal ordinance were given second reading approval.  The final vote will come at third reading.

–Council members approved a proposal to refinance bonds to take advantage of lower interest rates.