Fishers City Council President Todd Zimmerman talked about his year pounding the gavel at council meetings during 2018.  He also revealed at Monday night’s council session that he will make a motion during the first meeting in 2019 that Rich Block serve as council president during 2019.

Both Zimmerman and Block are council members at large.

Shari Knox leads an organization facing a big challenge in the coming two years – raise $500,000 to construct an arts facility in Fishers.  I talked with Shari Knox about that and a number of other issues in this podcast.

The Fishers Arts & Culture Commission will begin its work next month, and the city has announced the members of the commission.

Here are the appointees set to serve two-year terms:

Cecilia Coble, an at-large member of the Fishers City Council.

David Decker, owner of ACo, a remodeling company and co-founder of Hub & Spoke

Jeremiah Follis, a social studies teacher at HSE High School, a sculptor  and founder of Olio Productions.

Kathryn Haigh, Chief Operating Officer at Newfields, the home of the Indianapolis Museum of Art

Chris Lingner, founding member of the Indianapolis Ballet

Marisol Sanchez, Vice President & General Counsel at Endress + Hauser

Jocelyn Vare, Owner of Propeller Marketing and former president of the Fishers Arts Council

All members are appointed by the Mayor of Fishers, Scott Fadness.

The Commission was created by a city ordinance enacted in August of this year, with the goal of a more strategic and comprehensive approach to the arts locally.

(Note:  earlier versions of this story said Jeremiah Follis is an art teacher in the HSE Schools…Mr. Follis is a social studies teacher.  LarryInFishers apologizes for the error)

The Fishers City Council moved forward with a number of economic development plans Monday night.  Incentives for the downtown First Internet Bank headquarters, a parking garage, boutique hotel and other projects received approval from council members.

Browning Investments  agreement with the city to develop downtown was also approved by the council.

The council extended the deadline to begin work on the Flexware project, near the downtown Amphitheater, due to unexpected delays dealing with utility lines.

Council members also gave their stamp of approval on a tax abatement for DMC Insurance to renovate and occupy a currently vacant office building at 10500 Crosspoint
Boulevard.  The 5-year abatement applies to property taxes related to the improvements, not the underlying structure.

Serving as a member of any school board can be a thankless and stressful experience.  Add in the fact that your school district has been one of the fastest-growing in the state and now is the 4th largest school corporation in Indiana and the stress level multiplies.

That will create growing pains.  One major pain is the need to redistrict school boundaries.  The Hamilton Southeastern School Board completed that task December 12th and a redrawing of school building boundaries, grades K-8, is ready to implement at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

There are three school board members that chose not to seek another term on the board in the last election cycle.  Presuming nothing serious arises the remainder of this month (and I hope nothing does) those three men have now cast their final votes as school board members.

John DeLucia has served two terms on the school board, which has spanned a period of about 8 years.  Matt Burke and Terry Tolle each served one 4-year term.

I began covering school board meetings for this blog in January of 2012, so I covered most of Mr. Delucia’s time on the board and all the time Mr. Burke and Mr. Toller served their terms as board members.

I had the chance to observe their work, comments and voting records over the past few years.  Now that their work serving the public has come to an end, I feel it is time for me to say something about their experience on the board.

After covering a number of school boards, I can identify school board members that want to serve the public and make the best decisions for everyone in the district.  I can also identify board members in it for themselves, only interested in their own, personal agendas.

I can say, with no hesitation, that each of these three men worked very hard to serve the public that elected them and wanted nothing more than the best for the parents, children and taxpayers of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools.  You may not agree with every vote they cast, but I can assure you, based on my observations and discussions with each of them, they served this board with the best of intentions and acted that way during their entire tenures on the board of trustees.

We have been very fortunate that outstanding people from within our local community have been willing to step forward and run for a seat on the school board.  John DeLucia, Terry Tolle and Matt Burke should be proud of their service to the public.  Residents of the school district are very lucky to have had outstanding school board members such as these three men.

I will add one other comment.  At the December 12th school board meeting, Terry Tolle said the best decision the board has made in recent years was hiring Allen Bourff as school superintendent.  I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Tolle.

I wish all three the best….they all are accomplished professionals in their respective fields of work outside their school board duties.  I, as someone that attends most school board meetings, will miss all three.

I will also welcome back Michelle Fullhart after her re-election win, as well as three new board members – Brad Boyer, Julie Chambers and Janet Pritchett.  They will all by sworn-in at the first board meeting in January.

On December 1st, the Hamilton County Reporter carried a story that the Hamilton County Commissioners had asked the Indiana State Police to independently investigate claims made by a discharged employee in the county treasurer’s office.  A lawsuit filed against Hamilton County and Treasurer Jennifer Templeton alleges that the office allowed county employees and family members to waive penalties on late property tax payments.

Indianapolis Star reporter John Tuohy wrote a story appearing in the December 16th edition of the newspaper saying that the Indiana State Police will investigate these allegations.

You can read Mr. Tuohy’s story at this link.

My news blog has, so far, been a volunteer activity for me and I do not often promote private businesses because that’s what media people do in the commercial world.  But I do make exceptions when I see a company doing something important for the local community.  For that reason, I wish to draw to your attention a new joint effort to support Prevail.

Tom Wood Volkswagen and the Hamilton County Reporter newspaper are linking-up to support Prevail, a Hamilton County nonprofit organization.  (Full Disclosure:  I have a news-gathering partnership with the Reporter)

Jeff Jellison, publisher of the Reporter, and Mike Bragg, General Manager of the local Tom Wood Volkswagen dealership, announced their new partnership to support Prevail in the December 16th edition of the Reporter.

Bragg said he’s been looking for ways his business could make a difference in the local community.  He looked into Prevail, an organization that advocates for crime and abuse victims.

“That’s what led me to say we are going to donate a portion of our sales in November and December and at the end of the year present them a check,” Bragg said. “But it’s going to go beyond that. Our partnership is continuing in 2019.

Jellison ran a series of articles about Prevail’s work in the Reporter during the month of October.

“I’ve been friends with Mike (Bragg) most of my life,” Jellison said. “He’s a great guy and always has his heart in the right place. I’m very proud to be able to partner with him to help with great work Prevail does in our community.”

Odle the Dog is the ghost-writer of the Prevail articles in the Reporter and you can read the first one at this link.

Learn more about Prevail at this link.

by

Jim Belser

Hamilton County Reporter

The Hamilton Southeastern girls basketball team overcame a slow start against Fishers Saturday night to blitz past the visitors 65-41 at home in the annual Mudsock game between the two schools, extending its record to 14-1.

“When everyone contributes, this team is tough to deal with,” Hamilton Southeastern coach Chris Huppenthal said.

Led by Sydney Parrish’s 27 points and big second quarter, the Class 4A No. 2 Royals overwhelmed Fishers on both offense and defense. Seven HSE players scored in the game as the Royals shot 50 percent from the field. Southeastern outscored Fishers 24-9 in the second quarter and led by as many as 27 in the game.

Several Royal players had key moments in the game. Amaya Hamilton, who finished
with 14 for HSE, dropped in a pair of threes in the third quarter to keep the momentum
going for her team. Malea Jackson gave the Royals their first led 9-8 with a jumper in
the first quarter before ending the quarter with a three pointer.

It was a difficult night for Fishers (8-5) on both ends of the court. Audra Emmerson
led the Tigers with 12 points on the night and Katie Burton and Tamia Perryman both
finished with nine points apiece.

“They have a lot of girls who can put it on the floor and drive to the basket and kick
it out for threes, so we were focusing defensively on that. I thought overall we did
a good job of stopping that,” Huppenthal said.

A basketball game wasn’t the only thing on the minds of the Hamilton Southeastern
players, coaching staff, and parents on the night as it was reported that a Royals
player’s grandfather had passed away from a heart attack at the school some time before
the game had started.

Calling his toughest night in 23 years as a coach, HSE’s Huppenthal credited his team and the leadership of Parrish for fighting through the tough circumstances after contemplating canceling the contest.

“I couldn’t be prouder of them,” he said. “They all knew something was going on.
Sydney looked me in the eye and said I got this. When she says she is going to do
something, you can put your faith in her.”

idway through the first quarter the contest swung toward Hamilton
Southeastern. After falling behind 8-4 in the first quarter with Fisher’s Audra Emmerson
knocking down a three pointer, the home team went on an 8-0 run and never looked
back.

Malea Jackson drilled a three pointer at the top of the key with 30 seconds left in the
first quarter to enable the Royals to end the quarter up 12-8.

The Royals accelerated the pace and the lead in the second quarter. Sydney Parrish
took control on offense for HSE, hitting three pointers and scoring on drives to finish
the quarter with 15 of her 20 first half points.

Parrish completed an ‘and one’ after being knocked off balance on a scoring drive
in the second quarter to give her squad a 21-12 lead. A few possessions later Parrish
maneuvered under the basket and delivered an offensive rebound put back following a
Royal missed free throw.

HSE plays New Albany in two weeks at home, while Fishers hosts Delta on Wednesday.

Junior High School has a state championship academic team headed for the national finals.  Coach Mike Fassold is preparing his “We The People” group to compete against the best teams in the nation.  “We The People” is a competition where students prepare a paper on constitutional issues and must answer questions about that paper from judges.

As the students prepare, there is a way you can support these students.  A Go Fund Me page has been established to pay the team’s travel expenses to attend the national meet.  If you would like to donate, use this link.

Fishers motorists have been dealing with the closure of the 131st Street and Allisonville Road intersection for the past few weeks, but there is hopeful news.  An update from the city of Fishers says that intersection should reopen in a matter of days, hopefully during the work week beginning Monday, December 17th.  Weather is the only wild card in determining the exact day and time that area of our city will be open for traffic once again.

Also, 116th Street between Municipal Drive and Lantern Road will see lane restrictions Monday, December 17th.  Road crews will show some mercy during the rush hours, with the work scheduled to begin at 9am and end at 3pm.

Finally, large vehicles will be using the construction entrance on Lantern Road, between 126th Street and 131st Street, and may cause some short delays as drainage work continues on the State Road 37 reconstruction. There are no scheduled lane restrictions or closures along SR 37 at this time.