Fishers is preparing to construct a new police headquarters, which will require the demolition of the building that once housed the local state auto license branch, and now is home to the Fishers City Court.  The city has announced that the court has now been moved to City Hall.  Below are details in the announcement:

As construction commences on the new Fishers Police Department headquarters, Fishers City Court has been relocated inside of City Hall. Effective immediately, court will be held in the City Hall auditorium. All correspondence to the court, or in-person payments will take place at 1 Municipal Drive, Fishers, IN 46038. There will not be public computer access for online payments within City Hall.
 
Due to a pre-existing scheduling conflict with the City Hall auditorium, all cases set for December 9^th will be moved to December 30^th instead. Anyone who received a ticket for December 9^th does not need to appear on that date, but must appear December 30^th instead.

The court will eventually move to the old police headquarters, once law enforcement moves into new digs.

You can find more information at this link.

This is the time of year I travel around Indiana and spent a good deal of the past week in South Bend, Indiana.  The biggest surprise was the weather, with temperatures in the 60s & 70s during my stay there.  There was a lot of excitement about Notre Dame’s last home game of the year (the loss to Virginia Tech will be a tough one for the Irish fans to stomach).

Back here in Fishers, our local community was officially recognized by the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce for being their Community of the Year.  The announcement was made several weeks ago, but the official recognition was part of the chamber’s annual awards dinner this past week.

There was another sad railroad announcement this past week.  After the state fair train was cancelled this year for the first time in many years, The Indiana Transportation Museum announced the cancellation of the popular Polar Bear Express.  The Transportation Museum, a nonprofit organization, hopes to have train safety improvements completed by spring of 2017, allowing train service along the line to resume.

Deloitte Technology has named local Fishers high-tech firm Cloud One as number 190 in its listing of the Fast 500 technology firms in America.  The listing by Deloitte measures the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America.

When posting a story on this news blog, I never know which stories will strike the fancy of my readers.  The most recent surprise came when I wrote the piece on Harley-Davidson of Indianapolis coming to Fishers with a new dealership building near 126th & State Road 37. I immediately began to see plenty of comments and a large number of people reading the story.  If this interest is any measure, this motorcycle store will have plenty of customers.

As most of my regular readers know, this blog and my podcasts are purely a volunteer activity for me.  So, when I invited all 9 Hamilton Southeastern School Board candidates to appear on podcasts, I had no idea how many would agree.  They all said yes.  That is good news in the sense that they all wanted to appear.  The tough side was scheduling the recording sessions, preparing for each and doing all the post-production work needed to get those podcasts posted.  So, thanks to the candidates for appearing.  Also, thanks to the audience for listening.  The number of people listening to one or more of those podcasts is nearly 800, which is a large number for a locally-focused set of podcasts.

Finally, I invite you to listen as I posted a podcast interview with Fishers City Councilman Eric Moeller November 19th.  You can listen by using this link.

Eric Moeller is a member of the Fishers City Council and chairs the council’s Finance Committee.  Larry talked to Eric about his work on the council.

Copy editors are very important.  All you have to do is ask a blogger such as myself.  Blogs are normally solo endeavors, including this one.  That means I have one editor – myself.  Sadly, I make mistakes that would not happen if I had a good copy editor.

When you have a talented copy editor, familiar with your own community and the news operation, the finished product is high quality.  Sadly, with income falling for most newspapers, copy editors have been cut or done in geographic places far from the city where the paper is published.

This is a troubling trend for the news business.  Less good, quality copy editing means a product that is not as good.

I have heard many readers of the Indianapolis Star tell me they have detected a serious reduction in the quality of the copy produced by the newspaper.  Reducing the number of copy editors and placing them in other cities has contributed to the lowering of the quality.

Now, the Indianapolis Newspaper Guild, the union representing those on the editorial side of the Indianapolis Star, is sounding the alarm that the Star’s parent company, Gannett, is aggressively pursuing a change that would transform the copy editors at the Star from being company employees to independent contractors.

The Gannett management is threatening layoffs of five more journalists from the Star staff (the previous layoffs have dwindled down the number of journalists so much, Gannett is running out of reporters to layoff) if the Guild does not agree to changing the copy editors to contract status, the layoffs could begin next month.

On this issue, I side squarely with the Guild.  Switching the copy editors to independent contractors will make them less a part of the editorial team.  It’s just a bad idea.  And threatening to layoff more reporters is a bully tactic.

If you agree, spread the word.  You can read more about this on the Guild Web site at this link.

A new planned elementary school near HSE Intermediate/Junior High School on Cyntheane Road could be welcoming students at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year.  That’s what administrators told the Hamilton Southeastern School Board in a Tuesday morning work session.

Timelines put the start of construction in late 2017 or early 2018.  It is expected to take about 18 months to construct the building.

Major renovations at Cumberland Road Elementary will likely begin during the summer of 2017, with the project to be completed by the end of 2018 at the latest.

The administration building is slated for major remodeling, starting in the summer of 2017, with all work to be done in the last quarter of 2018.

Board member Sylvia Shepler asked about the status of improvements at Durbin Elementary, and administrators say Hamilton Southeastern Utilities plans to extend lines to the area in 3-4 years, unless the school corporation is able to work out another arrangement with the local utility before that time.  Water and sewer hookups will be needed to expand Durbin.

All work session discussions about facilities were preliminary.  Superintendent Allen Bourff says his staff will prepare a recommendation for board action to move forward with these building projects.

The board also heard a presentation from Community Health Network on its proposal to provide mental health services to students in the school system.  Assistant Superintendent Mike Beresford told board members there were three proposals submitted and Community’s bid is the administration’s recommendation for board approval .

Community plans to have a mental health professional in each school 2.5 days per week, with each high school assigned one full time.

The contract is not finalized so the board has taken no action on this proposal.

Harley-Davidson of Indianapolis is planning to build a new dealership building in Fishers near 126th Street and Reynolds Drive, just east of State Road 37.  The motorcycle establishment is asking for a zoning variance at the November 16th meeting of the Fishers Board of Zoning Appeals.

A 43,000 square foot Harley-Davidson dealership is planned for the site, with two other plots of adjacent land included for future development.

Along with planned improvements on State Road 37, the city will be changing the Reynolds Drive entrance onto 126th Street into a right-in/right-out entrance and extend Parkside Drive south of 126th Street.  This is expected to ease the problem of vehicle backups on Reynolds Drive during busy traffic hours, by connecting Reynolds Drive to the Parkside Drive extension.

The petitioner is Donna Dellen.

The Hamilton Southeastern School Board election is now history…..here are some previous podcast sound bites from the winning candidates…

The new work week begins Monday, November 14th, and a number of road construction projects continue around Fishers.

Below is a listing of what is continuing, based on information provided by the city:

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CUMBERLAND ROAD

• There will be periodic lane restrictions the week of November 14th on southbound Cumberland Road at the entrance of Bradford Knoll for utility work.
• There will be periodic lane restrictions on northbound Cumberland Road at the entrance of Spyglass Hill for utility work.

EXIIT FIVE PARKWAY

Exit Five Parkway closed on Tuesday, September 6 to reconstruct the road as part of the 116th Street widening project. The road remains closed to all traffic. Trucks needing to deliver to businesses will need to go up to Cumberland Road to Exit Five Parkway and come in from the north. The road will be closed for approximately two months, and a detour map is available online.

I-69 AND CAMPUS PARKWAY

Milestone Contractors has begun mobilizing cranes and other equipment and setting a temporary concrete barrier wall along I-69 at Campus Parkway Exit 210. Work will require alternating lane closures on northbound and southbound I-69 between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Lane closures may recur each night through the end of the week depending on weather and progress. Questions about this project should be directed to INDOT at eastcentralin@indot.in.gov or 1-855-463-6848.

I-69 TRAFFIC RESTRICTIONS

INDOT is overseeing an overnight closure on multiple traffic lanes on I-69 overnight this week. Weather permitting, lane closures, traffic changes and rolling slowdowns of traffic will begin after 9 p.m. and are expected to end before 6 a.m. the next day. Construction schedules and traffic restrictions are subject to change, and questions should be directed to INDOT at indot.carsprogram.org, 1-800-261-ROAD (7623) or 511 from a mobile phone. Please drive with caution as a new traffic pattern is in place.

OAK DRIVE

Oak Drive south of 116th Street has closed for 50 days while the new road is being constructed. Through traffic will need to use USA Parkway.

106^th STREET & CUMBERLAND ROAD ROUNDABOUT

The new roundabout at 106^th Street and Cumberland Road is now open to traffic. Motorists are encouraged to drive with caution, this site is still an active construction zone.

106th STREET INTERCHANGE

INDOT has begun work on the 106th Street interchange. A lane shift is currently in place on I-69 and 106th Street is closed as construction continues. Additional details about this project will be released through INDOT and shared on the weekly construction update. Please be advised the speed limit from 82nd Street to 116th Street has been reduced to 55 mph and there are lane shifts on I-69. Please travel with caution and pay close attention to signage in the area.

116th STREET

• There will be temporary lane restrictions on eastbound 116th Street just west of Olio Road for utility work.
• There will be temporary lane restrictions on westbound 116th Street east of Cumberland Road for utility work.
• There will be daytime and nighttime lane restrictions on 116th Street between Commercial Drive and Exit Five Parkway while road work is being completed.

126th STREET

There may be temporary lane restrictions on 126th Street between Allisonville Road and Lantern Road while shoulder work is being completed.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Superintendent Allen Bourff proposed a facilities plan to the school board, which includes the construction of a new elementary school building next to HSE Intermediate / Junior High on Cyntheanne Road, along with an extensive maintenance schedule for school buildings.  The plan also includes a renovation and expansion of the school administration building.

The plan was approved by the board 7-0, but the move only allows planning to continue. The board has not given any final approval to any part of the plan.

The administration proposal includes managing the school district’s debt load and keeping the debt tax rate constant while this work is being funded.

To review the presentation given to the board by Dr. Bourff, access this link.  To see the reasons a new elementary building is being proposed , use this link.

In another board action, approval was given to submit a letter to state lawmakers on behalf of the board asking that the general assembly allow educators to be involved in any new testing regime to replace ISTEP.  You can read the letter at this link.

Finally, three teachers in the HSE district were honored by the board Wednesday night.  Kelly Watson of Fishers Junior High traveled to Cambodia to conduct teacher training.  Mike Fassold, also from Fishers Junior High, was named 2016 University of Chicago Outstanding Educator.  Holly Miller of Riverside Intermediate is a 2016 Mike Neden STEM Champion Award.  You can see more at this link.

217  of 217  Precincts reporting (county-wide)

FALL CREEK TOWNSHIP

Mike Bottorff                            14,797                                      40.79%

J. Kent Everett                         6,721                                            8.53%

Howard Stevenson                14,756                                        40.68%

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP

Adam Harness                       5,770                                               16.18%

Bradley Jones                        5,627                                                15.78%

Amanda Shera                      14,014                                               39.30%

Frank Whelan                        10,247                                               28.74%

WAYNE TOWNSHIP

Sylvia Shepler                       21,009                                                 59.91%

Charron Wright                     14,056                                                 40.09%