Patrick Mapes is now officially the Superintendent of Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools following a unanimous board vote approving his employment contract Wednesday evening.  Also, Board President Juanita Albright announced that Dr. Matt Kegley, who served as interim superintendent since September, will be promoted to the position of Deputy Superintendent.  Dr. Kegley said at the time of Dr. Yvonne Stokes’ resignation that he would apply for the superintendent position, but was not hired by the board.

After the vote, Mapes spoke before the board and described his visits to 16 HSE District buildings the past few days, saying he was “amazed at the instruction that’s taking place.”  He described the teaching staff as very welcoming, and said interactions with students have been “fabulous.”

“I just appreciate the opportunity,” Mapes told the board.  “I see a very strong team of teachers and administrators in the district that I have met so far.”

Mapes served 7 years as superintendent at Perry Township Schools in Marion County.

Before his hiring as HSE Superintendent, Mapes was Vice President of School Academic Operations for Stride Incorporated.

A report of shots fired Friday at Top Golf in Fishers resulted in the arrest of an Indianapolis man.  Anthony Hurd Jr. was arrested by Fishers Police on charges of being a serious violent felon in possession of a firearm and criminal recklessness.

Authorities received a report of possible shots fired at Top Golf Friday.  When officers arrived, most of the group had dispersed and fled the area. Through investigation and witness interviews, FPD investigators identified Anthony Hurd Jr. as the suspect.

In an update late Wednesday afternoon, Angela Ellison, Public Information Officer for Fishers Police, says –  “…after the video review, this is not believed to be intentional.”

Ellsion adds that Hurd is “a serious violent felon who had a gun, and he is a prohibited person, per Indiana Law, from possessing a firearm. We are glad to say another unlawful gun is off the street, and Fishers remains a safe place to live, work, and visit.”

Officers served a warrant Tuesday and took Hurd into custody.

This was a news conference with Scott Fadness weather.  The mayor is known to have grown-up on a North Dakota farm and almost never dons a winter coat in any weather.

When the Indy Ignite professional women’s volleyball team (the first in Indiana) announced formally Wednesday they will play their home games in the new Fishers Events Center, the temperature was 29 degrees, with a wind of 25-30 miles an hour.  I cannot remember when I have been that cold.

The news conference was held near the entrance of the under-construction Events Center,  slated for a November opening this year.  The wind was cold and there were times speakers had trouble getting their words out in the conditions.

But the aim of the event was to announce the third professional sports tenant for the Fishers Events Center, the Indy Ignite women’s volleyball squad.  They join the Indy Fuel hockey and Fishers Freight indoor football teams calling the new center home.  The three teams will keep the center busy more than 100 times each year.

Joining Mayor Fadness on the speaker’s platform were Pro Volleyball Federation CEO Jen Spicher, Indy Ignite Co-Owner Jim Schumacher, Former Husker Volleyball Player Kenzie Knuckles, and Indy Ignite General Manager Mary Kay Huse.  Also in attendance was the HSE High School girls’ volleyball squad, consecutive state champs and undefeated in their last season.

All I can say is this….it’s a good thing women’s volleyball is played indoors!

An Indianapolis man is under arrest after Fishers Police received a phone call from the YMCA on 126th Street about a peeping tom in the women’s locker room.

According to a police Facebook post Tuesday afternoon, Fishers officers were following up at the YMCA this morning, when police received another call that a male was looking in the showers. Police quickly entered the facility and arrested John Deramus II, from Indianapolis, who, according to Fishers Police, confessed to being in the women’s locker room.

Any decisions on charges will be made by the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s office.

The Fishers Board of Works and Public Safety took the first action toward a possible city-wide trash collection service Tuesday morning by adopting a proposed Request for Proposals (RFP) to be used in taking bids from trash collection firms interested in contracting with Fishers.  Residents and Homeowners Associations (HOAs) have seen increased fees in recent years and many have been lobbying the City of Fishers to explore such a pact..

Nearby cities such as Westfield, Carmel, Noblesville and Lawrence all have city-wide trash collection arrangements.  Fishers has never had such an arrangement.  When one was proposed by the Town of Fishers more than 10 years ago, the idea was scuttled due to widespread public opposition at that time.

As things stand now, Waste Management and Republic are the main two companies providing trash collection services in Fishers, with individuals and HOAs negotiating their own contracts.

Jordin Alexander, Chief of Staff for Mayor Scott Fadness, tells LarryInFishers she has received interest in submitting a bid from both Republic and Waste Management, but she has also received interest from other firms, such as Priority, which holds contracts with Zionsville and Lawrence.

To view the preliminary 72-page Request for Proposals and Qualifications, use this link.

Here is the expected timeline for the process of accepting and evaluating bids for a city-wide Fishers trash collection services, provided to the Board of Works:

Board of Works (“BPW”) Adopts Proposed RFP—-Feb 27, 2024

City Publishes Notice of Intent to Issue RFP——— March 4, 2024

Deadline to Submit Comments on Proposed RFP—-April 3, 2024

BPW Adopts Final RFP——————————— April 9, 2024

City Publishes Notice of RFP————————— April 15, 2024

Deadline to Submit Proposals————————– June 1, 2024 (Due by 10:00 AM)

Negotiations With Offerors (if any) ——————- June-July 2024

BPW Public Hearing on Contract & Resolution—– July 9 or 23, 2024

Common Council Rate Ordinance & Public Hearing —–Aug-Oct 2024

Services to Begin—————————————– January 1, 2025

There has been a long line of editors for the weekly publication Current in Fishers.  The current editor has been there about 1 year.  I invited Leila Kheiry to sit down with me and talk about her time covering Fishers.

March is Disability Awareness Month and Fishers is once again planning a busy month of activities.  The Fishers Advisory Committee on Disabilities is a big part of the March events.

I spoke with 2 key members of that committee, Stacey Oldham and Cecilia Coble, on this podcast to talk about plans for the 2024 Disability Awareness Month plans in Fishers.

For more details, use this link.

Listen to the podcast at the link below.

Many call Elvis the king of rock and roll, but those that study music history carefully will tell you  Chuck Berry was the real king of rock and roll.  One of my favorite Chuck Berry songs is “You Never Can Tell.”

One lyric often repeated in that song is – “C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.”

What I have discovered in the off-and-on times I have worked in media is how often something I have done years ago will be remembered.  That happened in the past few weeks.

From late 1975 through about 1977, I hosted a late-night radio talk show called “Night Action.”  I did not come up with that name, it was coined by the first host of that show, a man named Gary Lee.  Mr. Lee fell out of favor with the general manager of the radio station at that time, so he was shown the door and the station hired a man from Massachusetts, Art Murphy.  Art had a successful run with the show and went on to another job.  The next host once again fell out of favor with another general manager and the station was pondering  whether to even continue the program.

I was going to college and working part-time at the radio station when the general manager came to me and basically said he wanted me to take over the show, and I was the only one he trusted.  If I turned the gig down, the Night Action late night talk show would end.

i agreed to try it and the next two years were quite a roller coaster.  It was an experience.  I learned a lot.

Why do I bring this up?  It’s been about 47 years since I hosted Night Action but a couple of times a year, someone reaches out to me remembering my time hosting that program.

The latest was a comment on this blog when I linked to the very nice cover story Leila Kheiry wrote about me for the weekly publication Current In Fishers.  The comment was written by a person named Kathy who wrote that her mom was a big fan of Night Action, including the time I had the show.

My point is this.  For most of us on the public stage, once we are gone 10-15 years, people forget about us, for the most part.  But my time as Night Action host will be remembered, and I am not really sure why.

I had another instance in recent days that surprised me.  The new Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Superintendent attended his first board meeting Friday morning.  Once the session was over, I walked over to Patrick Mapes and introduced myself.  To my surprise, he has been reading my blog for the past 10 years on the recommendation of someone once working for him living in Fishers.

While you are hosting and producing a radio talk show or writing a local news blog, you don’t have time to think about what long-term impact, if any, your work will have. One is focused on what is happening at the moment.

Surprises keep coming on that front.  But as Chuck Berry once sang & wrote, “C’est la vie”, say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.”

When Gerald Ford was vice president at the time Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974, he assumed the presidency and ran for the White House in 1976.  He had a regular message in his stump speeches during that campaign – what the government gives can always be taken away.  Former President Ford was not wrong, even though he lost that election to Jimmy Carter.

I do not profess to know a lot of information about the sale of the IndyStar to the Gannett chain in 2000, but some people working for the Pulliam family at the time let it be known around town that Gannett, at least at first, wasn’t interested in buying the Star, the firm wanted the Phoenix newspaper owned by the Pulliams at that time.  The Pulliam family’s response was this –  Gannett, if you want the Phoenix newspaper, the Star comes with it or no deal.

As you know by now, Gannett ended up buying both the Indianapolis and Phoenix newspapers in 2000.  There are some media watchers in the Indy area who feel Gannett has done nothing but cut journalists at the Star.  Many say that when Gannett took over the Star, there were about 300 journalists on the Star’s payroll…now, it is believed that number is under 60.

That is why an announcement Wednesday from the IndyStar raised a number of eyebrows in Central Indiana.  Gannett announced a $2 million investment in the Star, $1 million for news coverage and $1 million going to sales and marketing.  It makes sense to invest in both the product and the sales staff at that same time.

There is no question the Star has been bleeding journalists to other news outlets.  There are the commercial operations that have popped up lately, such as State Affairs and Axios Indy.  Then there are the nonprofit business models, such as Mirror Indy, Capital Chronicle and public broadcasting’s WFYI.  That is not an exhaustive listing, there are others.

The Star has lost a number of reporters to these operations.  For example, an excellent education reporter, Rachel Fradette, has just moved from the Star and joined the news team at WFYI, where former Star reporter Eric Weddle is a managing editor.

Don’t get me wrong, there are excellent journalists at the Star.  John Tuohy has been covering Fishers for a few years now.  Kaitlin Lange is leaving State Affairs and joining the Star as an editor.  Both are very good at what they do.

(Note:  I incorrectly wrote that Chris Sikich is an editor at the Star in a previous version of this story.  He left the Star and is now with Indy Mirror.  Hard to keep up with all this without a scorecard.)

It is very encouraging news that the Star is beefing-up its staff of journalists.  Anything other than layoff announcements will be welcome.  The added sales staff, if successful, would support the added reporters over the long haul.

This is very good news for consumers of journalism in Central Indiana.  When I started this local Fishers news blog in 2012, I said I would do the blog until another news organization proved it can cover news in Fishers effectively, or I just was unable to do it anymore.  That hasn’t happened yet.  Will the Star get serious about covering Fishers with added reporting staff?  Time will tell.

Just remember, Gannett is providing the staffing boost at the Star.  Gannett, if it so chooses in the future, can take the extra journalists away.  Let’s hope that does not happen.