The Fishers firefighting crew trains on a regular basis, and the department is alerting local neighborhoods that there will be training all around Fishers this summer.

“Crews will put hose on the ground, spray some water and be available to speak with those in the neighborhood about what we do and the equipment we use,” according to a Fire Department news release. “This is a great opportunity to meet and see up close, the community’s firefighters and the work they are prepared for.  The drills will start at 7pm and will last about an hour.”

Below is a schedule for when firefighters will appear in neighborhoods.

*Subject to change due to emergencies, weather or other unforeseen obstacles.

Station 391

06/23/2022         Shoe Overlook Drive                       Lantern Woods

07/22/2022         Fawns Run                                          Fawnsbrook Woods

08/26/2022         Oak Tree Lane                                   Hickory Woods

Station 392

06/24/2022         Talon Crest Dr/Duval Dr                 Gray Eagle

07/23/2022         Sanderling Trace/Merlin Ct          The Hawthornes

08/27/2022         Straightwood Ln/Dekoven Dr      Tanglewood

Station 393

06/21/2022         Briar Stone Ln/Heather Ln            Berkley Grove

07/20/2022         Dover Ct/Stratford Way                 Oxford Park

08/24/2022         Sunnybrook Pl/Riverside Way     Riverside

Station 394

06/22/2022         Windbreak Ct                                     Valley Springs

07/20/2022         Claymount Ln                                     Walnut Creek

08/23/2022         Whitetail Cir                                       Windermere

Station 395

06/23/2022         Meadow Lake Dr/Aurora Ct         Auburn Springs

07/22/2022         Gilbert Lane/Pearce Pl                   Sedona Woods

08/26/2022         Tybalt Dr/Sweetbriar Pkwy          Sweetbriar South

Station 396

06/22/2022         Milton Ct/Brookfield Dr                 Brooks Manor

07/18/2022         Chrisfield Ln/Springstone Rd       Springs of Cambridge

08/25/2022         Madera Ct/Sedalia Dr                     Bridger Pines

Projects on Fishers area roads continue as the summer wears on.  135th Street is now closed to east-west traffic as part of the State Road 37 project.  Also, watch for traffic restrictions connected with the Spark Fishers Festival.

Below is the full listing of road news, as provided by the City of Fishers:

Tabatha Miller is the Director of Fleet Management for the City of Fishers and when she presents vehicle purchases before the Board of Public Works & Safety, it is normally a routine agenda item.  That was not the case last Tuesday.

When Ms. Miller presented a purchase of three Chevrolet 2500HD Trucks for the Department of Public Works, each cost $38,129.01.

Mayor Scott Fadness asked about the significant increase in price for these vehicles, Miler responded that the increase is $13,000 over a vehicle she had bought for the city a week ago.  “All municipal discounts are almost gone,” Miller added.  “Next year is going to be ugly.”

The city had two motors die on vehicles recently and Miller said it took 9-12 weeks to receive the motors due to supply chain issues with parts.

Even with the increase in pricing, Miller told the board the three vehicles in her request won’t be delivered until late 2022 or early 2023.  “This is a national, world-wide problem,” Miller said.

With that information, Mayor Fadness, who had inquired about delaying the purchase with the hope of lower pricing in the future, said he would “unfortunately” move to approve the purchases, and the board voted unanimously to move forward with buying the three trucks..

When COVID hit, Fishers quickly ramped-up a local testing program.  The federal government later offered reimbursement to local governments, in an effort to defray the costs of that testing.

Fishers City Controller Lisa Bradford told the City Council Finance Committee federal reimbursement for the testing program has been received, in the amount of just under $6 million.  The money came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  The reimbursement is for testing expenses the city incurred in 2020 and 2021.

In other items from the Wednesday night Finance Committee session, the panel voted to provide a favorable recommendation for a proposed transfer of funds allowing the city’s street resurfacing program to move ahead as planned.  This covers a budget shortfall due to the costs of the project, part of higher costs for most everything.

Finance Committee Chairman John Weingardt said that when the city enters into preparations for the 2023 budget, increasing costs will need to be factored-into any spending plan.

The discussions have been going on since Fishers was a town – what to do about privately owned roads, often in commercial areas, that go into disrepair with the owner not maintaining the roadway.

The Fishers Board of Works & Public Safety started the process of utilizing the Barrett Law in bringing private roads into the city’s inventory, meaning the city would be responsible for maintaining those roads.

Many of these roads are in such disrepair the city does not want to absorb them in their current state, but bring them up to a minimum engineering standard before accepting the roads into municipal responsibility.

The Barrett Law is a legal procedure allowing impacted property owners to pay for items such as road repair.  The city would issue a bond and the impacted property owners would pay off their part of the bond over time.

The bond proceeds would be used to bring the identified roads up to a minimum standard, allowing the city to take the roads into its inventory, meaning the city would be responsible for maintenance from that point on.

City Attorney Chris Greisl told board members the process provided in statutes includes an opportunity for impacted property owners to remonstrate.

Pubic hearings on the Barrett Law will come before the Board of Works, but any bond issuance will go before the City Council.

The board passed a resolution at the Tuesday meeting starting this process.

The resolution listed the following private roads impacted:

• Britton Park Road (north of 135th St)
• Enterprise Drive
• Fishers Crossing Drive (and associated access roads)
• Fishers Landing Drive (and associated access roads)
• Fitness Lane (near 96th and Lantern Rd)
• Parkside Drive
• Publishers Drive
• Trade Center Drive
• Village Square Lane (near Allisonville and Easy St)

The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board had a busy agenda during the Tuesday morning session, but one item enacted impacting families in the coming school year is the setting of student fees.

This has been traditionally called “textbook rental fees” but in today’s world also encompasses technology, as well as other fees.

Here is what the board unanimously passed Tuesday.

Elementary and Intermediate   

Kindergarten through 6th grade consumable and material fees have been revised due to a new adoption or a change in pricing.  Textbook fees have been revised to reflect the literacy adoption. There are many “pieces” to a literacy adoption that result in significant costs to HSE families. In lieu of passing on the full weight of these purchases to students and parents, HSE Schools are offsetting the costs by using referendum fund dollars. The school district’s goal was to keep the increases at an average of around $50 per student as opposed to $80 – $120 per student.

Find more details at this link.

Junior High Schools 

Fees have been revised either due to a change in price or change in resource selected.  Textbook fees have been revised to reflect the world language adoption.

For more, use this link.

High Schools

At the high school level, changes in fees may be due to the addition of new courses or changes in the selection or pricing of consumables or materials.  Textbook fees have been revised to reflect the world language adoption.

There may be some variation in high school fees due to the selection of consumables or materials used at each building.

The consumables and materials used by the K-12 Lifeskills program, 5-6 Functional Academic program, and the Transition program have been revised due to a change in resource selection or change in pricing.

For more details on Fishers High School fees, use this link.

For more on HSE High School Fees, access this link.

Technology fees can be found at this link.

Other fees are available at this link.

PFLAG is an organization that supports the LGBTQ community.  In Fishers, there is a PFLAG group.  I spoke with the local PFLAG President Cathy Goldman and Secretary Lindsay Mazurkiewicz in this podcast.  They discuss how the local organization supports people in Fishers.

Sarah Sandquist if the Director of the Fishers Parks & Recreation Department – Gabe Amick is a member of the department’s Experience Team.  They team up to talk about the Spark Fishers Festival.

When Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools narrowed the search for a new HSE High School Principal down to two candidates , Assistant Superintendent Matt Kegley described the process for the selection committee, and Superintendent Yvonne Stokes, in making the decision to hire Reggie Simmons.

“After considering the interview process and information gained in the interview process every step of the way, it was felt that Mr. Simmons possessed the qualities and experiences needed and required to lead Hamilton Southeastern High School,” Kegley told board members,

Mr. Simmons has led the Hamilton Southeastern Fishers Academy the past two years.  He began his career with HSE Schools in 2005.

Simmons told the board he already knows much of the staff at HSE High School and is looking forward to getting to know all the staff there as he assumes his new responsibility.

Also, the board formally approved Quentin Hunter as the new Assistant Principal at Fishers Elementary School.

There are decisions to be made about how to utilize school buildings in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School District and the local school board held a lengthy Tuesday morning work session looking at options to consider.

The future of Fishers Elementary School was discussed at length and the board appears to be forming a consensus around keeping the staff together, whether at a newly-remodeled structure at the current site or a new building at a nearby location.  The board also appeared to move in favor of turning the current Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate & Junior High (also known as the HIJH) into just a junior high school and construct another building nearby to house an Intermediate school (grades 5 & 6).

The future of Durbin Elementary School is also part of the mix, with possible future uses as a preschool, professional development center, a home for the Academy, Transition & Focus Day programs or a possible return to an elementary school.  Buying a current commercial building is also a possibility housing the Academy, transition or a possible preschool.

There were discussions of how each option, or mix of options, would impact the school district financially.  Administrators Matt Kegley and Katy Dowling told board members they were looking for direction to guide next steps.  Adding a new Intermediate School will provide some operational challenges, due to the need for administrators, security and guidance staff to be placed in the new school building, according to school staff.

There were no votes taken or actions by the board during the work session.

Superintendent Yvonne Stokes told board members the staff will move forward based on the guidance from board members and will provide more specific proposals, including more precise cost estimates, at a board meeting in August.