In the 11 years Fishers High School has staged an event as part of Black History Month, this year’s Black Heritage Celebration drew a very big crowd.

There was plenty to enjoy – music, dance, poetry and and a true celebration for all in attendance.  The African-American turnout was big, but people all races and cultural backgrounds enjoyed the Thursday evening celebration.

One wonders how Fishers High School students will be able to top this year’s gathering.  Somehow, they always do a better job year after year.

Below is a video featuring one small segment of a dance routine

Bob Segall, investigative reporter for WTHR, says a Fishers High School swimmer at the center of sexual harassment allegations will be competing in the state meet.  You can read the updated WTHR story at this link.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

Duke Energy, the electric utility serving most of Hamilton County, is taking steps to make certain that chemicals from its coal ash holding pit do not contaminate wells of residences in the Riverwood area. Public Service Indiana, the predecessor of Duke Energy, operated a generating plant at Riverwood for many years. The plant was converted from coal to natural gas for generating electric power about 20 years ago.

The ash from the burned coal was stored on site and has remained there since the conversion to gas. Hamilton County Health Department Director Barry McNulty said Duke took it upon themselves to deal with the coal ash to head off any contamination threat. Working with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), Duke has been working on the project for several years.

The project involves the drilling of de-watering wells around the ash storage site. The water from these wells is monitored and to date has shown no underground leaching that would create problems for neighboring properties, McNulty learned.

The water from these test wells will now be discharged into nearby White River. This discharge plan apparently created concern recently on the part of some residents, but the water has been judged completely safe by IDEM, and will continue to be monitored.

The county health department, not involved in the operation, has been made aware of all plans as a courtesy, McNulty said. Meanwhile, Duke is in the process of capping the ash pit in the way a landfill is covered.

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Richie Hall

Sports Edior

Hamilton County Reporter

Fishers got several things out of its trip to Kokomo Wednesday night.

The main accomplishment for the Tigers was a 64-54 victory over the Wildkats. That
gave Fishers a new record for wins in a single season, as the Tigers won their 16th
game of the year. It also gave Fishers a win heading into next week’s sectional, and it
was a nice way for Tigers coach Matt Moore to say hello to his old school; he coached
there from 2014 to 2017.

“It’s fun,” said Moore. “I think Kokomo does a great job of competing. It’s easy to look at their record and have an opinion. But every time we’ve played them, they’ve played hard, they’ve played together. And if they continue to live inside that, they’re going to be a team that has a chance to upset some teams in the tournament.”

The Wildkats played close with Fishers in the first half. The Tigers scored the first
four points of the game off layins by Alex Szilagyi and Jeffrey Simmons, but Kokomo
answered that with a 6-0 run to lead 6-4.

Fishers came back with a 7-0 run, with Willie Jackson scoring five of those points.
Jackson made a 3-pointer, then Szilagyi scored on a putback. Jackson’s layin made
the score 11-6. But the Wildkats’ Jayveon White hit a buzzer-beating 3 to get his team
within 11-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Fishers led 16-11 midway through the second before Kokomo scored seven straight
points to go up 18-16. A pair of Szilagyi free throws tied the game again, but Bobby
Wonnell’s 3 gave the Kats a 21-18 lead.

Justin Long made a layin late in the quarter, so the Tigers went into halftime down by
one, 21-20.

Fishers began to pull away in the third period, scoring 21 points. Szilagyi nailed a pair of 3s to get the Tigers ahead 26-23, and Fishers held the lead from there. The Tigers then scored on back-to-back possessions twice, and Jackson’s 3 got Fishers up 37-29.

“They did a great job of coming out, making sure that ball movement was better,”
said Moore. “I thought we established lane touches a lot better. And we got a string of
stops together. We got a stop right out of the half, led to a bucket. For us, the goal was to
get three stops in a row, put it together a few times, which led to some offense.”

The Tigers led 41-33 at the end of three, and Szilagyi hit a 3 to begin the fourth quarter, giving Fishers a double-digit lead for the first time at 44-33. The Tigers continued to roll until the end, with Simmons scoring back-to-back layins, then Zach Webb came off the bench to make 7 of 8 free throws in the final 1:27 of the game.

Moore said that with Terry Hicks and Geoffrey Brown still out, his team needed another player to make shots, and Webb filled that role nicely.

“Putting him in those positions to get some confidence and see the ball go in the basket will pay dividends for us as we move into the Tuesday game against Anderson,” said Moore.   “I thought Zach did a great job stepping into that role tonight.”

Szilagyi finished the game with three 3-pointers and 17 points, while Jackson made two 3s on his way to 16 points.

Simmons scored 10 and pulled six rebounds; Josiah Matthews led the rebounding with seven. Szilagyi handed out five assists.

The Tigers finished the regular season 16-7 and will take on Anderson in the first
round of the Carmel sectional on Tuesday.

Plans for a series of monthly sessions sponsored by Fishers City Council leadership “in no way is being done in reaction to anyone.”  That’s the comment from Council President Rich Block when asked his view of a recent statement by Logan Day, a Fishers mayoral candidate in the GOP May 7th primary election.

Tuesday morning, Fishers announced a series of monthly meetings named “Council Connect” with the first session scheduled for February 25th.  The news release announcing the meetings said Council Connect will “allow residents an opportunity to ask questions or voice concerns directly to council leadership.”

Later that same day, Logan Day sent a statement to LarryInFishers saying the timing of the Council Connect meetings looks “suspicious” to him since Day has been pushing city transparency in his campaign.  Day described the Council Connect idea as “platform plagiarism.”

Council President Block told LarryInFishers the Council Connect idea came from the new council Vice President, Eric Moeller.  The council president and vice president have been discussing this Council Connect idea for the past 30-40 days, Block says.

Block also says he is unaware of any position Logan Day has taken on the transparency issue.

“I have never seen anything from Logan Day about the transparency, therefore it’s pretty hard for me to say that this is being done because of that when I wasn’t even aware of it,” Block told LarryInFishers.

Block defended the council’s record on transparency, citing regular meetings with residents and representatives of local Homeowners Associations.  He cited Moeller, David George and Brad DeReamer as council members regularly holding such meetings.  Block said he and other at large council members, along with people from the city staff, regularly attend these meetings.

Some of these meetings are not well-attended, and Block hopes the Council Connect session will bring residents to participate.  But he quotes what Eric Moeller says about transparency – “…it’s a two-way street.”

“I’ve not heard this complaint from people until, literally, in the last week or two, that there’s a transparency issue,” Block says.  “To me, it’s also incumbent on members of the public to be informed, read, and if they have questions can attend council meetings or other (meetings).”

Logan Day says the announcement of “Council Connect” community meetings in the coming months has the appearance of “platform plagiarism.”  The Republican candidate for Mayor of Fishers in the May 7th primary election says he finds the timing of the Council Connect announcement “suspicious.”

Council leaders announced Tuesday morning a series of community meetings each month beginning in late February, running through December, allowing citizens to comment before the council.

“One of the single largest complaints I’ve received from residents is the lack of transparency in City Hall” said Day in a statement. “That’s why I made transparency a cornerstone and promise of my campaign. If the idea of better civic engagement was truly a priority for our current leadership, why have they not implemented plans like this over the past four years?”

Day says he posted this basic idea on his campaign Web site before the city announced the Council Connect meetings.

“I hope to see this level of resident engagement continue with our elected leaders beyond this election,” Day said.

Logan Day is challenging incumbent Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness.  According to the city news release announcing Council Connect, Fadness plans to attend those monthly sessions.

Jackie Bowen is challenging the incumbent Fishers City Clerk in 2019….here is my podcast conversation with her…

Jennifer Kehl has served nearly 5 years as Fishers City Clerk and she is seeking another 4-year term…..I talk with Jennifer Kehl about her campaign in this podccast…

The Fishers City Council has announced a series of meetings allowing public comment called “Council Connect.”  According to a city news release, these sessions will rotate each month as morning or evening gatherings.

According to the release, this plan will “allow residents an opportunity to ask questions or voice concerns directly to council leadership.”  Mayor Scott Fadness plans to join Council President Rich Block and Council Vice President Eric Moeller at the first “Council Connect” event February 25th.  (This is a correction…the mayor plans to attend the first session only, not all of them)

The locations of these meetings will vary each month.  All are open to the public.

Here is the schedule of Council Connect meetings as listed by the City of Fishers:

The Fishers City Council struggled to find an answer to an issue centered on the city, housing developers and Homeowners Associations (HOAs) and decided to work on new ordinance language to consider at the next council meeting.

City Councilman Brad DeReamer, also a member of the Fishers Plan Commission, submitted a text amendment proposal to the Plan Commission last November to change city ordinances in line with a recent change in the Carmel city ordinance.

The proposal would have called for an independent inspection of common areas before a developer hands over a housing project to the local HOA.  DeReamer expressed concerns that some, but not all, developers were walking away from housing developments and leaving HOAs with large expenses.

The proposal was sent to the city planning staff, which came back with no recommendation, but a list of options.  The Plan Commission voted 8-1 to send the proposed ordinance change to the city council with no recommendation.  DeReamer was the lone no vote.

Monday night the city council had a lively discussion, including a couple of public comments allowed by the council, about a number of issues surrounding the proposed ordinance, including the city’s liability should the change be approved.

Mayor Scott Fadness suggested that DeReamer was most concerned about developers guilty of noncompliance with city ordinances and neglect of assets, such as properly maintaining retention ponds.  DeReamer replied he agreed with the mayor’s comments.

As a result, the mayor suggested that he and the city staff look at language that would address noncompliance and neglect by developers and bring it back to the council at a future council session.  As a result, council members tabled the ordinance, allowing it to be brought back at a future council session.