I have posted a Larry’s Log podcast 5 nights a week most days for about 12 weeks.  I had audience goals I was meeting in the first few weeks, and since then there ave been some episodes that have surpassed by goals.  But in recent weeks, the number of listeners top this podcast series has not been up to my minimum goals.  I very much thank those loyal listeners to this podcast series, but there were just not enough of you to keep it going.

School board members and local administrators were on the edges of their seats Wednesday….what would Governor Eric Holcomb do about grades K-12 education spending for the coming school year?  They have their answer, and it was all smiles.

Hamilton County Reporter

A fire at the Hamilton County Jail on Tuesday evening is being blamed on a malfunctioning solar panel located on the jail roof.

Noblesville fire officials did not provide an estimate of the cost of the damage, but said the fire was limited to the roof’s rubber membrane and two solar panels.

The fire was first reported to 911 dispatch by passing drivers who could see smoke coming from the roof of the jail.

The solar panels, installed in September 2018, are part of an $8 million project which features 9,346 solar panels on building roofs at the Correctional Campus on Cumberland Road and three acres of county property near the main public safety radio tower on the east side of State Road 37.

The history of Fishers and support of nonprofit organizations is an interesting one.  When I began covering the Fishers Town Council in 2012, I recall Conner Prairie asking the council in 2013 to up the city’s contribution to the nonprofit from $30,000 a year to $40,000, and the council approved it.  The other nonprofit group the city financially supported at that time was the Fishers Freedom Festival.

In a podcast interview recorded in 2017, City Councilman Brad DeReamer said he was the one that pushed for the creation of a city council nonprofit committee and the end of city subsidies for the Fishers Freedom Festival, which was an independent nonprofit organization at that time.  The nonprofit committee chose to fund other local nonprofit groups, but not the Freedom Festival.  The city later created the Spark Fishers Festival at the same time of the summer as the Freedom Festival had been held.

Since 2017, the council’s nonprofit committee has approved how much each organization will receive from the next year’s city budget.  There have been years when last-minute adjustments to the annual spending plan would require a reduction in the amount available to the nonprofit panel.

For example, in 2019, the nonprofit committee doled out $255,000 in city grants.

With all that in mind, the city is now accepting applications for nonprofit grants as part of the city’s 2021 budget.  According to a city news release, criteria for selection includes:

• Whether the Organization is located in Fishers and if not located in Fishers, the potential impact of the grant and the benefit from the project or event on the Fishers community.
• The commitment, capacity, and ability of the applicant to carry out the program or project and to give an accounting of how the money was spent.
• The applicant’s fiscal responsibility and management qualifications.
• The number of matching dollars that the applicant has and is willing to contribute.
• Grant project funding may not exceed 50% of the total cost of the project or event. If the funding from Fishers and the portion provided for by the receiving applicant is not sufficient to complete the project, then the receiving applicant is responsible for raising the difference. The intent of this grant is not to completely fund projects, but to assist with as many projects and events as possible throughout the community.

For more on the work of the nonprofit committee, use this link.

In order to submit an application for a grant, use this link.   The application window is open now through July 17, 4:30pm.

Fishers Police found a 71-year-old man dead near his kayak floating on Geist Reservoir, at about 1:00am Wednesday morning.  Authorities are saying this 71-year-old man appeared to be a drowning victim

Indianapolis officers notified Fishers of a missing person at 11:00pm Tuesday night.

The identity of the man will be released by the Hamilton County Coroner’s office.

One of the toughest jobs in America the past few weeks has been editing a sports section of any newspaper, national or local.  Richie Hall has been writing feature stories for the Hamilton County Reporter.  We talk about those challenges, plus how the pandemic may or may not impact high school sports in the coming months, in this podcast.

A local conservative Political Action Committee is saying the State Road 37 upgrade now underway in Fishers is running over budget, while city officials claim all intersections will be completed as planned.

Bill Smythe, President of the PAC Fiscal Conservatives of Hamilton County, posted on the group’s blog Monday that a recent meeting of Hamilton County elected officials, county commissioners presented a revised budget requiring $42 million over the original  $124 million spending plan.

The State of Indiana is providing $100 million for the project, with Hamilton County and the City of Fishers paying $12 million each.  The city is handling the construction.

Fishers acknowledged that an update on the construction was recently provided to a joint meeting the the Hamilton County Council and county commissioners, outlining current costs and projected costs for phases of the project yet to be bid.

“All original intersections will be completed as proposed,” says Fishers city spokesperson Ashley Elrod, in an e-mail message to LarryInFishers. “This includes NOT changing the interchange at 141st to a right-in, right-out. Roughly half of the project still remains to be bid, in addition, we are currently enacting cost savings measures that we anticipate will reduce the overall project cost. The city is proceeding as planned and will wait to make any additional cost estimates until the next bid package is released.”

Minutes from a Hamilton County meeting early this year indicated that city and county officials were at least contemplating the possibility of changing the design for 141st Street and State Road 37 from a roundabout to a right-in, right-out design, where motorists could not cross 141st Street at State Road 37, if there is a budget shortfall.  Based on today’s statement from the City of Fishers, the city, which is in charge of construction, plans to construct the roundabout, over 37 at 141st Street, are still in place.

The intersection of 126th Street and State Road 37 is currently under construction.  Three other intersections are scheduled to be rebuilt as part of the project, including 131st and 141st street.  All three will feature a roundabout and underpass for State Road 37 traffic.  Another intersection, 146th Street, will have traffic signals along 146th Street and an underpass for State Road 37 traffic.

For more information on this project, as provided by the City of Fishers, use this link.

COVID-19 has complicated our lives for months now.  It appears local high school graduations may be impacted as the city & school officials talk this week about how to handle the details of the ceremony.  I cover that, among other things, in tonight’s Larry’s Log commentary

With movie theaters dark and shuttered, it has been over 2 months since we posted this film podcast.  With at least the promise of theaters reopening in some form during July, I welcome my partner Adam Aasen and his blogging partner, Alec Toombs, to Hamilton County Goes To The Movies.  In one update since we recorded this podcast, the Motion Picture Academy announced the Oscar awards ceremony has been moved from February 28th to April 25th, 2021.  Any changes in eligibility for an Oscar will be announced later.

We are juggling many crises in America right now.  The issues of race relations and the novel coronavirus are front and center, and should be.  But coronavirus has caused another issue impacting millions of Americans – job losses.

Last Thursday, the federal Labor Department reported 1.5 million new unemployment claims have been filed.  The federal reserve just issued a statement to Congress about the outlook for the economy Friday, saying, “The path ahead is extraordinarily uncertain.”

Some  may remember the 2009 film “Up In The Air” starring George Clooney.  It’s all about a company that makes its money sending specially trained people to companies laying off employees, so the local management doesn’t have to break the bad news.

New York Times opinion columnist Jennifer Senior cites research done by economists in England and Australia, concluding it takes longer to adapt to the pain of losing a job than it does to adapt to losing a loved one.

Senior writes that we must not only think about the economic loss when one loses a position, but the emotional and spiritual considerations as well.  It does not help that most employers, including major corporations, are not very good at informing people being laid-off.

One example provided by Senior is WW International, once named Weight Watchers, informed laid-off workers with a series of Zoom calls lasting three minutes each.  She also cites a scooter rental company in California for laying-off workers by luring them to a Zoom “webinar” which featured a slide with a disembodied voice announcing the job losses.

Here is the final paragraph in Jennifer Senior’s Times opinion piece:

“A number of cautionary tales are going to emerge during this annus horribilis. But if we want to survive this recession with our dignity and our sanity intact, it’s clear we should keep two things in mind: How people are laid off matters. And layoffs should be a last resort. They’re often the lazy way out.”

As we all try to cope with people close to us coping with a layoff, keep in mind the stress they are under, which is much more than economic.  In America, our work is a lot of who we are and related to our self-worth.  Let’s keep this in mind as we cope with an economic challenge that is sure to get much worse before anything starts getting better.