The weather forecasters have been correct this time around.  As of 8am Thursday morning, Fishers has a few inches of snow and some ice underneath.  City crews have been out battling the storm and likely will continue well into Friday morning as another round of snow is forecast Thursday.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness assured the community that his Department of Public Works is ready for this storm.  The Fishers Emergency Operations Center will be activated if the situation warrants, according to the mayor.  Hamilton County announced Thursday morning that their Emergency Operations Center has been activated.

The National Weather Service says 4-7 inches of additional snow may fall today.  The Winter Storm Warning remains in place through 1am Friday.  As of 8:15am Thursday, no power outages have been reported in Fishers by Duke Energy.

City Hall is closed for in-person business Thursday and the COVID testing and vaccination sites are closed today.  Call 317-595-3211 for any questions.

Fishers city crews do plow snow in local neighborhoods.  In a Twitter message, the city suggests removing vehicles from the streets to allow the city crews to 1) completely clear roadways 2) plow safer and more efficiently and 3) keep your vehicle from being “snowed in” from plowed snow.

We are in the early days of February, but the City of Fishers has already announced plans for Disability Awareness Month, celebrated in March.

The 2022 event lineup includes the following, as provided by the City of Fishers:

Continue reading Fishers announces March schedule for Disability Awareness Month →

It was late August, 2021, when a big grand opening celebration happened at the Round Room, the former Roche office building one can see clearly from I-69.  Now, TCC, a part of Round Room, has been awarded Top Workplace USA honors from Energage, an employee engagement company.  This is the second consecutive year TCC has been so honored.

“We are incredibly honored to be named a USA Top Workplace again,” said Scott Moorehead, President and CEO of Round Room, TCC’s parent company. “We take employee engagement very seriously and understand that our employees want to feel connected to our company and the people they serve.”

More than 1,100 organizations nationwide participated in the 2022 Top Workplaces USA survey. Winners of the Top Workplaces USA list are chosen based solely on employee feedback gathered through an employee engagement survey, issued by Energage. Results are calculated by comparing the survey’s research-based statements, including 15 culture drivers that are proven to predict high performance against industry benchmarks.

TCC is one of the nation’s largest Verizon authorized retailers with nearly 850 locations in 39 states.

For the second week in a row, there is good COVID news from the Fishers Health Department (FHD).

“It’s the second week in a row that we’re seeing quite a quick and precipitous drop in the number of Omicron cases, or COVID cases, that we’re seeing reported across our Fishers community,” says Fishers Health Department Epidemiologist Josh Robinson in his weekly video update.

Robinson reports a 62% decrease in reported COVID cases among the Fishers community over the past 2 weeks.  Last week, Fishers saw a 26% decrease in the number of COVID cases compared to the previous week and this week shows a 51% decrease in cases compared to the week before.

Fishers is showing a larger drop in COVID cases compared to Hamilton County, which reports a 29% reduction compared to the previous week.  In the entire state of Indiana, reported COVID cases are down 28% compared to the week before.

In another measure, the Hamilton County unique individual positivity rate is down to 40%.

The Fishers testing site COVID positivity rate is down to 33.8%

The case incidence rate, a 14-day rolling average, is down from 262 to 190.

Testing demand is down here in Fishers, according to Robinson, particularly school prioritized tests.  Same-day testing is available and results are generally ready within 1-3 days.

Robinson says hospital capacity in our area is improving some, with Intensive Care Unit (ICU) availability up slightly.  There is a 2-week trending decrease in Emergency Room (ER) visits, hospitalizations and ICU admissions for COVID.

Due to winter weather, the Fishers Testing & Vaccination site will be closed Thursday,  February 3. The Testing & Vaccination site will be open normal hours on Wednesday, February 2. The department will update social media if weather causes Friday closures. FHD will reach out to reschedule appts or you can call COVID hotline at 317-595-3211.

Also, with HSE Schools on an e-learning day Wednesday, come in the Fishers Vaccination site (12520 E. 116th Street) and get your vaccine or booster before the snow hits. The vaccination site in Fishers is open 9am-4pm.

Here is the full video update from FHD Epidemiologist Josh Robinson.

Verizon applications for two 5G towers were denied in the Fawnsbrook neighborhood, but 4 towers in other subdivisions were approved Tuesday morning by the Fishers Board of Public Works and Safety.

The board had approved one tower previously in Fawnsbrook, but the towers under consideration Tuesday, located at 12956 Fawns Ridge and 13013 Fawnsbrook Drive, were voted down by the board.

“I am not supportive of any of these locations,” said Mayor Scott Fadness, a member of the 3-person panel.  “They don’t fit the criteria we’ve given Verizon.”  The two proposed towers are not at intersections or in common areas, but rather in the middle of residential areas.

“I’m not going to demonize Verizon about that,” according to the mayor.  “That may be just the logistics of the topography.”

The first tower approved in Fawnsbrook meets the criteria established by the city but these two do not, the mayor added.

Four residents of Fawnsbrook spoke on the proposed towers, all arguing against placing them in the proposed locations.

Russell Brown, legal counsel for Verizon, told the board these towers have a directional signal and are intended to cover narrow areas in the neighborhood with the 5G signal.  Other locations suggested by the residents do not meet the signal coverage objectives, according to Mr. Brown.

“Our objection to the (city’s) criteria utilized in locations like this is, by establishing, utilizing, those criteria, that forces Verizon to, we believe, effectively prohibits coverage from being provided in this area,” Brown told board members.  He cited the trees in the neighborhood as impacting the signal strength in the Fawnsbrook neighborhood, creating the need for more towers there.

All three board members, the mayor, Jeff Lantz and Jason Meyer, all voted to deny the Verizon tower location request.  Mayor Fadness reminded the Fawnsbrook residents at the meeting that nothing in the law prevents Verizon from coming back to the board with another tower location plan for their neighborhood in the future.

Here are the Verizon 5G towers approved at Tuesday’s meeting:

–One tower at 11069 Stratford Way in Oxford Park

–One tower at 10738 Briar Stone Lane in the Berkley Grove subdivision

–One tower at 8699 Royal Drive in Morgan Meadows

and

–One tower at 12693 Mustard Seed Court in The Reserve at Lantern.

The City of Fishers has been busy preparing for the upcoming winter storm, starting Monday morning, and Mayor Scott Fadness says the seasonal and part-time snow-fighting staff is being gathered to battle the storm.

The National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning Tuesday morning, effective 7am Wednesday through 1am Friday.  Between 6 and 10 inches of snow is predicted, along with one-tenth of an inch of ice (which is a lot a ice).

According to the Weather Service, travel could be “difficult to impossible” during the warning period.

City crews are getting all the equipment ready to hit the Fishers streets once the precipitation begins to fall.  Also, the city is preparing the Emergency Operations Center, putting it on standby, if the situation escalated to a point where than would be needed.  That would allow all the Fishers decision-makers to be in one place if events move quickly and action is needed.

“We’re prepared, we’re ready ,” Mayor Fadness says.

I still recall the iPods my daughters had when they were young.  I figured that podcasts went away once new technology made the iPod obsolete.  I was wrong.

It was likely the cell phone that rejuvenated podcasting.  Since I had a radio broadcasting background, I wondered whether producing podcasts was something I could try.

So, it was February 3, 2016, when Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness agreed to appear on the first installment of the LarryInFishers.com Podcast.  My podcast series began then and continues to the day of this blog post.

I have experimented with many themes.  With my tax background, I started a daily tax podcast.  Let’s just say the audience did not respond, that that one lasted only a few weeks.

I tried something named “Larry’s Log,” just a daily commentary on whatever was in the news at that time.  I tried that several weeks and the audience wasn’t there in significant enough numbers to justify producing a daily podcast.

Once reason for starting Larry’s Log related to my decision in 2020 to end the news blog.  But COVID hit and that ditched my plans to start a local entertainment blog because everything was shut down.  Then in late October, 2020, I contracted COVID and it was not kind to me.  As the virus robbed most of my energy, I had several days to do nothing but think.  It was that period that caused me to continue the news blog.

Writing a regular local news blog as a one-man-band is a lot of work, and that’s why I decided to end it all in 2020.  However, although I’ve cut back my time commitment a bit, the news blog continues and I thank everyone that continues to read this blog.

There are two lines of podcasting that continue.  First, my Arts&Fishers podcast series.  It is mostly film reviews, although I do review TV, music & live plays on occasion.  I haven’t been able to post as many reviews lately due to personal issues, but post these podcasts when I can.

Then, there is the LarryInFishers.com podcast series that began with the Mayor Fadness interview on February 3, 2016, local discussions with local people.  There are few opportunities for local people to sit down and talk about what they are doing in the community for roughly 30 minutes, so my local podcast discussion aims to fill that void.

Allow me to once again thank Izzy and Casey Alexander.  In 2020, my grandson was born out of state, so my time was limited during the 2020 Hamilton Southeastern School Board election.  These two local students stepped forward to volunteer and, between the two of them, conducted interviews with all candidates for the school board.  They did a wonderful service to the local community.

If you want to sample some of my recent local interview podcasts, here are links to a few of them:

January 28, Fishers City Council President Todd Zimmerman  

January 27, WTHR Investigative Reporter Bob Segall talks about the HSE Schools case that went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court 

January 6, Monica Heltz, Fishers Public Health Director 

December 8 (2021), Kristen Distler, HSE Schools Teacher of the Year 

December 1, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness

November 19, Former IU Athletic Director Fred Glass on his new book, Making Your Own Luck

Monica Evans made it clear early in her Thursday presentation to the Hamilton Southeastern School Board work session that she does believe in discipline.  She retired as a Detroit Police Officer in 2014.  She was a teacher for 12 years before joining law enforcement.  All her sons now are working in law enforcement.

She is an instructor for an organization named The International Institute for Restorative Practices and is part of that group’s Graduate School. 

Ms. Evans says she is absolutely in favor in discipline, but believes it must be done “in a restorative way.”  She emphasizes that there “is a difference between authoritative and authority.”  In other words, discipline “must not be meaningless, everything has to be learned.”  Accountability must be a part of this.

We all have biases, she told the board.  The restorative part is putting that reality on the table for everyone to see and know at the outset.  Conversation and communication is all about what restorative practices.

A big part of restorative practices centers on knowing at the outset what the expectations are, and the consequences of not meeting those expectations.  That sets boundaries at the beginning.

Restorative discipline is focused not on rote punishment, punitive in nature, but finding a way to restore harm that some behaviors may cause.  It is a part of restorative practices.

She talked at some length about the differences in the concepts of equity, equality and justice.  Empathy has a lot to do with restorative practices, Ms. Evans says, and is not the same thing as sympathy.

She told the story of how a Detroit school spent 5 years implementing a restorative discipline program and the result was keeping gang members in school.  Instead of punitive discipline, those gang members were forced to clean up every neighborhood where they had been involved in gang activity, working with their community and learning a skill set at the same time.

There was a lively discussion between members of the school board and Monica Evans.  It will now be up to HSE school officials whether to move forward with restorative discipline.

Hamilton County Republican precinct officials have elected a new county chair.  Mario Massillamany won the election to serve the remainder of the term.

Laura Campbell announced her resignation from the chair position after serving 6 years as chair.

The party announced the election results in a Facebook post Saturday.

As one writing a local news blog by myself, there are stories I just don’t have time to get to immediately.  This story is important, even if I am just a bit behind on it.

After weeks of bad news on COVID in Fishers, our local health department is finally saying the situation is improving.

This week, Fishers has seen a break in the level of new cases with the Omicron variant. Compared to the previous 7-day period, the Fishers Health Department reports a 26% decrease in new cases in Fishers and a 12% decrease across Hamilton County. Statewide, cases have increased 6%, but this local data indicates our area might potentially start to see this decrease reflected in hospital and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) relief.

The Fishers Health Department reminds us that vaccines help provide you with a level of protection, especially from severe outcomes like hospitalizations and death. 

Walk in or schedule ahead and get your free COVID-19 vaccine at the Fishers Health Department Vaccine Site, at your local pharmacy, or various pop-up clinics throughout the city.  Fishers Health Department Epidemiologist Josh Robinson posted a video Wednesday with more details, which you can access in the link below.