As we entered the month of October, there were many families in Fishers asking this question – will we even have a Halloween this year with the pandemic?  The answer is yes, but there are recommendations for parents

The hours for Trick or Treating will be 6-8pm October 31st, which is a Saturday this year.  Police Chief Ed Gebhart has a number of tips for those venturing out Halloween night.

Here is the information, as provided by the Fishers Police Department:

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• A parent or adult should accompany children when they are trick-or-treating.
• Stay within your neighborhood. Only visit homes where the porch lights are on, indicating a home that is handing out treats.
• Only go to houses where you know the owner.
• Give and accept pre-packaged candy only. Homemade treats should not be handed out or consumed.
• Have children bring treats home for adult inspection before they are eaten.
• Carry a flashlight.
• Choose costumes that are flame retardant.
• Wear light-colored clothing, short enough to prevent tripping. Add reflective tape to dark colored costumes.
• Watch for vehicular traffic and use caution when crossing the street.

The Fishers Health Department’s Public Health Director, Monica Heltz, DNP, MPH, shares health-related safety recommendations to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 on Halloween. Those recommendations include:

• Do not participate in trick-or-treating or handing out treats if you have symptoms of COVID-19, a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the past 10 days, or have been notified that you have been in contact with COVID-19 within the past 14 days.
• All trick-or-treaters and all persons handing out treats should sanitize hands frequently and if possible, between each contact. Hands should also be sanitized prior to consuming any edible treats.
• All trick-or-treaters and all persons at home when answering their door should wear a mask or facial covering made of two or more layers of breathable material.
• All treats should be individually wrapped.
• Do not dispense treats from a common bowl or receptacle. Consider no-contact methods for dispensing treats (i.e. treats in individual bags in the yard, treats in plastic eggs dispersed in the yard, etc.) Trick-or-treaters should look for treats outdoors around the house before knocking.
• Trick-or-treat only with individuals from your household or smallest social bubble.
• Consider lower risk activities for celebrating Halloween as an alternative to door-to-door trick-or-treating, especially for high-risk individuals. Ideas include a neighborhood scavenger hunt, virtual costume contest, or family movie night.

The complete list of Halloween recommendations is available at this link.

My wife Jane & I voted absentee in the primary election earlier this year and are eligible to vote absentee in the general election but decided to early vote instead.  It’s hard to explain why.  Maybe it is the shared experience of being there, in person, with other people in your community, gathering to experience democracy.

We decided not to try voting the very first day, but the second day instead.  We live a bit closer to the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, as opposed to the downtown Noblesville location, so we chose the Fairgrounds.

We arrived at the location 30 minutes before the scheduled opening time for the polls.  Parking is easy at the Fairgrounds.  There were about 25 people lined-up in front of us as we took our place in the queue.

The weather was pleasant and that made waiting outside a much nicer experience.  Everyone in line that I could were wearing masks.  All the poll workers were wearing masks.  There was a sign as you walked into the building saying mask-wearing is mandatory.

It was good to see that as you verify your identification, there was plexiglass to separate the voter and the poll worker.  You are given a card with data on it and a small paper printout.

Once that was done, I was headed to a voting machine.  One glitch that was impacting many voters (including myself) was the discovery that many of the data cards had been cleaned with hand sanitizer, and it appears the sanitizer wipes the data from the card.

The poll worker, a very nice lady, had to seek some help and finally had to enter a code printed out on the piece of paper I was given at check-in in order to setup my voting machine.  Once that was done, I cast my ballot and was on my way.

Even with the short delay, I was out of the building at 9:30am.  I had arrived to get in line at 8:30, the doors opened on time at 9:00am, and I was in my car by 9:30.

Hats-off to the workers staffing the polling site at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds.  They were doing their best to get voters through efficiently, while also ensuring all the equipment was working for the voters.

As I left the fairgrounds, the voting line was very long.  It is good to see people living in my local community love democracy.

When I announced a few weeks ago that I would not be able to record podcast interviews for all the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) school board candidates, I received an offer from a brother-sister combination at Fishers High School.  Izzy is a senior and her brother Casey is a freshman at FHS.  Both are alumni of Mike Fassold’s “We The People” program at Fishers Junior High School.  Both Izzy & Casey were members of national championship teams at FJHS.

“We The People” is a program centered on civics and knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.  Teams compete by presenting a four-minute paper, reading it verbally to the judges, then taking questions from those judges.

Both contacted me with an interest in helping with the production of candidate podcasts.  So, last week, Izzy sent me eleven audio files of candidate podcast interviews.  It took me several days to complete the post-production work on all eleven audio files and turn them into podcasts for posting on this blog.

All eleven candidates agreed to be interviewed by this high school duo.  Izzy and Casey definitely brought a different perspective to those discussions than an adult such as myself would do.

So, just how interested are people in these podcasts?  I checked the numbers as of noon Monday, less than 24 hours after all podcasts were posted.  The stats are unbelievable.

The number I will cite is a measure of “listens.”  A listen means one person listened to most or all of a podcast.  So far, all podcasts combined have a total number of listens exceeding 650.  That breaks all records for listens this soon in the process.

It is clear residents in the HSE School District want to hear what the candidates have to say, and like the approach Izzy & Casey took to these discussions.

I posted each podcast one at a time Sunday, October 4.  If you want a handy listing, here are links to all the candidate podcasts, by township.  Remember, this is an at-large election, so all registered voters in the district may select one candidate per township when voting this cycle.

Here are the links:

FALL CREEK TOWNSHIP

Clint Wilson

Chauna Leigh Holder

Suzanne Thomas

Matt Stolle

Jason Arnold

Delaware Township

Amanda Shera

Tony Bagato

Sarah Donsbach

Wayne Township

Sarah Parks-Reese 

Tiffany Pascoe

Ron Thieme

The general election of 2020 is the at-large race for seats on the Hamilton Southeastern School Board.  One candidate for school board is Ron Thieme.  Izzy Alexander spoke with him in this podcast.

In the 2020 Hamilton Southeastern School Board election, Tiffany Pascoe’s name will be on the ballot.  She spoke with Izzy Alexander in this podcast.

Sarah Parks-Reese is seeking a seat on the Hamilton Southeastern School Board.  Here is her podcast interview with Izzy Alexander.

Sarah Donsbach is running for Hamilton Southeastern School Board in this at-large election.  Here is her podcast conversation with Izzy Alexander.

Tony Bagato is running for Hamilton Southeastern School Board.  Izzy Alexander talked with the candidate in this podcast.

Amanda Shera seeks another term as a member of the Hamilton Southeastern School Board.  Here is her podcast conversation with Izzy Alexander.

Jason Arnold is one of 5 people running for the at-large HSE School Board seat from Fall Creek Township.  Casey Alexander talked with the candidate.