After talking with many of the writers at the Local Author Fair at the Hamilton East Library in Fishers Saturday, most of them told me how useful Instagram has been for them to get the word out about their respective books.

As a result, I have tried to setup an Instagram account.  My user name is LarryInFishers2012 (2012 being the year I began this news blog).  So, if you want to follow me on Instragram, feel free to do so as I continue trying to figure out how to use this platform.

I went to Fishers City Hall Friday to vote early.  There were no voters there other than myself.

One of the poll workers looked at me and asked, “Is there any way we can get more young people to come out and vote?”  I had no answer then and I have no answer now.

In my estimation, past data are clear, few people of any voting age bother to show up and vote in our municipal election here in Fishers.

Yes, it’s true we have no mayor’s race and many city council districts have unopposed candidates.  However, everyone voting in the city of Fishers can vote in the at-large City Council election.  There are four candidates, 3 incumbent Republicans and one challenger, a Democrat.

I received a very pointed comment when I posted Fred Swift’s commentary on the upcoming election, which was posted on the front page of Sunday’s Hamilton County Reporter  (the Reporter has a news-gathering partnership with me and Fred Swift’s commentary was posted on my blog as part of that partnership).  Mr. Swift was looking at local elections throughout Hamilton County.

The person posting the comment argues that election ballots should have an option equating to “none of the above” which would be a sort of protest message that none of the candidates are acceptable to an individual voter.  This proposal has been around a long time.

There was a time, as a Political Science college student in the 1970s, when I thought that idea had some merit.  Perhaps delivering such a message to the political parties might nudge them into providing better candidates and better choices for the voting public.

In the ensuing years, I have changed my mind.  No, I am not saying voters always have good choices.  For the record, in the Fishers city election this year, we have some high quality candidates and perhaps a few that are not of such high quality.

But I no longer believe the “none of the above” ballot option would end up doing much good or changing anything for the better.  It may make some voters feel better, but it would not likely make any positive changes to the election system.

In some cases, elections present imperfect choices.  But to live in a democracy means, in my view, you have some basic civic responsibilities.  I think voting is one of them, even if you are dissatisfied with the choices.

But, again, that’s just my opinion and others are entitled to their own.

So, in that spirit, if you are a registered voter and live within the city limits of Fishers, I would urge you to educate yourselves about the candidates and vote.  The actions of your city government impact your life, no matter what age you may be.  I recorded podcasts with all the candidates and you find links to them at this link.

FYI, LarryInFishers.com plans to be in Noblesville to report on the election results.  Watch this space, as well as my Twitter account (@LarryInFishers) for the latest election returns Tuesday night.

Now, one more thing.

I had the distinct pleasure of walking around the Hamilton East Library in Fishers Saturday and talked with most of the local authors on hand for the Local Author Fair.  I was amazed at the variety of work being put on display.

One man wrote a book about a gambling, bank robbing relative that did most of his criminal work during the Great Depression, and was a good friend of gangster Pretty Boy Floyd.  Another researched his Great Great Grandfather who fought in the Civil War, then returned to Indiana.

Then there were plenty of fiction writers, from romance novelists to one writer that concentrates on stories of biker gangs.

They were all fascinating people and I had the chance to record brief discussions with over 20 of them.  You can access the podcast featuring all those interviews at this link.

A tradition is beginning to build in the City of Fishers to recognize military veterans on special days, such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  On November 11th, 10am, at Fishers City Hall, there will be a community celebration honoring local veterans.

The event is free and open to the public.

Fishers city government has supported a special program for a number of years, Hometown Help for Heroes.  The city marshals the community’s public and private resources to alleviate some of the practical burdens that families of a deployed head of household will face.

Fishers Department of Public Works (DPW) manages the program.  It offers families with deployed head of households services, including driveway and sidewalk snow removal, as well as lawn mowing and trimming services during the summer months.

In order to register for this program, use this link.  Families must meet the program requirements to be enrolled.

I have been asked many times to help local nonprofit groups with fund raising and I help when and where I can.  But planning and staging an event has challenges.  You must often rent space and encounter other expenses just to put the event on to raise money for the cause.

Then, those attending normally need to get dressed and venture out into the community to attend the event.  There is some work and effort on everyone’s part to get this done.

HAND is once again asking people in our local area to just stay home and support the local group.

HAND, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Noblesville, specializes in providing low-income housing in Hamilton County and some surrounding areas.  HAND tried this fund-raising technique before and it is back this year.

It is sort of a fund raising version of a stay-cation.  You can support HAND just by staying home and relaxing.  The news release announcing the “nonevent” says this is “the only one of its kind in central Indiana.”

If you are looking for tickets to the November 9th HAND “nonevent,” find out more at this link.

Proceeds from this nonevent will go toward support for HAND’s housing-development, home-repair and community-building programs.

More more information about HAND, use this link

Fishers Police report a fatal crash on I-69 on the southbound lanes in Fishers, at mile marker 204.  All southbound lanes were closed as police investigated, but are now reopened .  The accident was reported just after 2pm.  Preliminary reports indicate one person has died and two are in critical condition.  No other details are yet available.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

On the surface, Tuesday’s city elections for many folks may seem hardly worth taking seriously. The voting is only for local offices.

And, candidates for mayor in three of the county’s four cities are unopposed with only Westfield having a contest. But, looking a little deeper, we find there are some important matters at stake.

Republicans throughout the county are taking challenges to city council seats more seriously than in recent years. Democrats are known to be quietly working to get their potential supporters to vote, reportedly, with resources from state party officials, Democrats have been increasing their vote totals in recent elections.

If they can elect even a couple of their candidates it would be seen as a breakthrough and reason to continue to work hard in next year’s big general election.

In Noblesville, there are three contests for city council. Incumbent Greg O’Connor faces Jason Myers, incumbent Megan Wiles faces Jeremy Hawk, and incumbents Brian Ayers, Mark Boice and Darren Peterson are challenged by Paula Gilliam for one of the three seats at large. All incumbents are Republican.

In Carmel, incumbent councilor Bruce Kimball is challenged by Cleaster Davis, incumbent Sue Finkam faces challenger Tigre McNear, incumbent Laura Campbell faces William Howard, and Republican nominee Debra Minott is running against Miles Nelson. All incumbents are Republican.

In Westfield it is a Libertarian, Donald Rainwater, who is challenging incumbent Mayor Andy Cook, a Republican. Cook is taking the contest seriously enough to advertise on television, which is unusual and expensive in a purely local election.

Cook has fostered wide development including Grand Park, the proposed Grand Junction and other public improvements, which Rainwater feels are in some cases excessive and too expensive to taxpayers.

For voters in the Carmel Clay School District there is a referendum question on the ballot seeking several million dollars for school security. Voters will decide whether or not to raise their property taxes by as much as five cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation.

In Fishers, Democrats are challenging Republicans in four city council races. It’s Eric Moeller (R) vs. Lane Skeeters (D); David George (R) vs. Adam Kaps (D); Rich Block (R), Cecilia Coble (R) and Todd Zimmerman (R) vs. Jocelyn Vare (D).

In Sheridan, Arcadia and Atlanta there will be no election since there is no opposition to candidates who filed for town board and town clerk positions.

And, for residents of unincorporated areas of the county, there is no election since it is a municipal election year only.

During my days hosting radio talk shows, some of my favorite guests were authors.  They were always fascinating people that had put a great deal of research into their prose.  When the Hamilton East Library in downtown Fishers announced a gathering of local authors, I made a note to visit the event, and perhaps record podcast interviews with some of the writers.

Well, I couldn’t help myself, I talked to almost all the writers on hand for the Saturday mid-day event.  I ended up talking with nearly all the authors there.  The only ones I missed were a few that just weren’t available when I sauntered by.

I spent a few minutes with about 22 of the authors, just asking a couple of questions.  I have put them back-to-back in this podcast montage.  I hope you will enjoy listening to these local authors as much as I enjoyed speaking with them.

Here are all the authors I interviewed in the podcast, in the order in which I spoke with each:

Continue reading Podcast: Local authors gather at the Hamilton East Library in Fishers →

Hamilton County Reporter

Carmel won an all-county clash at Hamilton Southeastern on Friday to advance to the Class 6A Sectional 4 championship game.

The Greyhounds beat the Royals 28-14 in a semi-final game at TCU Field.

Carmel led 28-0 after three quarters, scoring all of its touchdowns on the ground.
Zach White got the first two scores on five-yard runs. White found the end zone
midway through the first quarter, then made his way in to score with 7:33 left in
the second. Christian Williams added the Greyhounds’ third touchdown later in the
period, then John Rogers scored on a 35-yard run late in the third quarter. Spencer
Hanna kicked all four extra points.

Southeastern fought to the end, scoring both of their touchdowns in the fourth period off passes from Andrew Hobson.

Nathan Wolf caught a 10-yard TD throw with 5:25 left, then the Royals got the ball back seconds later and Ben Boysen grabbed a 34-yard pass and took it in for the score. Alex Geroulis kicked both extra points.

Rogers led Carmel’s ground game with 67 yards rushing, with Dylan Downing gaining 65 yards. Williams completed 9 of 14 passes for 61 yards; Downing had four receptions.

Hobson had an outstanding game, completing 23 of 33 passes for 263 yards.
DeAndre Rhodes had seven catches, with Boysen, Tony Myers and Wolf all making
five receptions. Boysen led the rushing with 53 yards.

Carmel is 7-3 and hosts Westfield next Friday in the sectional championship game. Southeastern finished its season 5-5.

Hamilton County Reporter

Westfield’s offense was in high gear in the first half, and that led the Shamrocks to a stunning sectional semi-final win Friday night.

Westfield beat No. 7-ranked Fishers 42-14 in a Class 6A Sectional 4 semi-final game at Riverview Health Stadium. The ‘Rocks jumped ahead 28-0 by halftime and sailed through the second half to set up a sectional championship clash at Carmel next Friday.

The Shamrocks scored their first touchdown in the first quarter, with Mason Piening catching a pass from Camden Simons, then running it 64 yards into the end zone. That was merely a preview of the second period, where Westfield exploded for 21 points.

Patchett punched the ball in from the one-yard line just two minutes into the quarter. Micah Hauser was next, streaking 51 yards into the end zone with 7:47left. Finally, Dane Wheeler grabbed a 22-yard pass from Simons and took it in for a touchdown. Sean Sullivan made all four extra-point kicks, and Westfield had its big halftime lead.

The Tigers got on the board with 3:55 left in the third quarter. Geoffrey Brown blocked a Shamrocks punt, and Joey Slimak recovered it, then blasted off 95 yards for the touchdown.

Westfield responded 41 seconds into the fourth quarter, as Patchett scored on a four-yard run. But Fishers got that one back just as quickly, with Marcus Roux tossing a three-yard TD pass to Jeffrey Simmons. Jack Phillips successfully kicked the extra points after both scores.

The Tigers would get no closer, however. Hauser finished the scoring late in the fourth quarter with a 16-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Sullivan kicked the extra points for both of Westfield’s second-half touchdowns, making him a perfect 6-of-6 for the game.

Simons had an efficient game, connecting on 8 of 14 passes for 156 yards. Wheeler caught five receptions, and Piening had the other three catches. Patchett led the rushing with 85 yards.

David Frey led Westfield’s defense with nine tackles, while Benji Welch and Carson Voorhis both had seven stops.

Roux completed 16 of 31 passes for 171 yards. Dylan Scally led the Tigers’ rushing with 88 yards.

Westfield improved to 6-4 for the season, while Fishers finished the year
7-3.

As you may well know, if you have followed my writing in this space, I only sustain this local news blog in Fishers, Indiana because other news outlets have not been paying enough attention to Fishers.  That’s what I thought when I began this blog in 2012, and that is sadly what I still believe today.  LarryInFishers.com is totally a volunteer operation, consisting of me and only me.

Journalism is in trouble at the local level in America, but at the national level, there are major earthquakes rumbling throughout sports reporting.  Yes, sports has journalists.

Sports Illustrated (SI) has had the reputation of being the Cadillac of sports reporting, since I was just a young kid reading about sports (trust me, that was a long time ago).  Sadly, those days are gone.

SI has gone through some ownership changes, with the latest laying off about half the entire editorial staff at the magazine.  The owners have stripped SI of it’s soul, it’s writers and photographers.  Sports Illustrated is gone as we have known it.

The latest casualty is Deadspin.  This started as a wild and irreverent sports blog in 2005 where you could tell the small staff of writers were having fun and readers loved it.  It was bought and sold a few times until something called G/O Media  decided to buy it.

An edict came down from on high at the company, ordering Deadspin editor Barry Petchesky to no longer write about anything political…stick to sports, Deadspin was told.  Petchesky refused to follow the order, was fired and most of the rest of the writing staff left with him.

G/O Media says Deadspin will not go away, it will still be around.  Yes, the same way Sports Illustrated is still around.

For years, newspaper reporters & editors called the sports pages the “candy store” of journalism.  For many years, it probably was.

That was before the major issues of our day began to bleed into the sports world.  That’s why Deadspin could not be true to itself and follow the owner’s edict to stay away from politics.

National sports journalism is on the wane and that is sad for all of us.  But, there is hope.

The best hope I have found is The Athletic, a Web site that charges a monthly fee but does not pester you with advertising.  It has hired many excellent national sportswriters (many are former SI writers).

But The Athletic’s biggest strength is its local stable of writers.  Bob Kravitz, Stephen Holder and many others cover pro and college sports in Indiana.  From all indications, The Athletic is doing very well.  If you are a sports fan, get a trial subscription.  I suspect you will be lured into the subscriber status.  In my view, it’s that good.  (Full disclosure, nobody at The Athletic paid me to write that, I just believe it to be true)

So, journalism is in some trouble, in sports and in local coverage.  For local news, I’m still around for free if you are interested in what’s going on in and around Fishers.  Allow me to add that the Hamilton County Reporter, with which I have a news-gathering partnership, does a nice job covering Hamilton County Sports.  You see some of the work produced by Spots Editor Richie Hall and others at the Reporter on this news blog.

I suppose there is hope.  Just subscribe to newspapers and news services.  Journalism is hard work, labor intensive and deserves your support.  Without that support, journalism goes away.  Do you really want to live in a nation with few or no independent news sources?