Fishers Police are alerting local residents, after receiving a report of a vehicle theft in the parking lot of Brooks School Elementary Thursday evening.

The owner of the car says she parked in the school lot at about 4:40pm and went inside the school building.  When returning to the vehicle a short time later, she found the driver’s side window broken and her purse missing, along with other personal items.

Police provided a picture of a vehicle parked next to the victim’s vehicle, an older model Blue Chevy Tahoe or Suburban SUV parked next to the victim’s at 4:47pm.  (See picture above)

The person reporting this theft discovered her credit car had been used in two Washington Square stores.  Detectives are working to get security camera images from those establishments.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is asked to contact Fishers Police Department Detective Edgar Holmes at 317-595-3300

Fishers Police are taking this opportunity to remind local residents the following:

Lock it, Hide it, Keep it.

This habit will help ensure that you do not become a victim of this crime. Lock your car every time you exit. Hide valuables. Never leave items of value in plain sight. Keep personal property and items of value with you when you leave your vehicle.

It is also likely someone possibly observed the suspect(s) and/or the suspect vehicle. In addition to implementing simple, common sense safety precautions we also encourage residents to immediately call 911 whenever they see suspicious people, cars, and/or activity. People sitting in parked cars on public parking lots is an example of suspicious activity. The police department should be notified immediately. 

The Pasta Bowl food drive is over, with a record-setting amount of pasta being donated to 7 different local food banks.  HSE School Board member John DeLucia says more that 21,000 pounds of pasta have been collected throughout the local school district.

Last year’s total was just under 14,000 pounds of pasta.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools will see a nearly 4% increase in the 2019 district budget, but the tax rate will decline slightly.  HSE Chief Financial Officer Mike Reuter told board members increased assessed valuations of property within the district boundaries is allowing for the increased spending with little impact on the school corporation’s tax rate.

The $242.85 million 2019 budget will contain some big changes in the local school corporation’s accounting system. Capital projects, transportation and school bus replacement will now be lumped into one Operations Fund.  Reuter says he favors the state law changes allowing more financial flexibility for school corporations.

A public hearing on the budget was held, but no one chose to speak.

The school board is expected to give final passage to the 2019 budget next month.

A body found near the docks of Geist Marina Tuesday morning has been identified. Fishers Police say there are no signs of foul play at this time.

According to my news-gathering partners at the Hamilton County Reporter, the body has been identified by the Hamilton county Coroner’s Office as Barry Ramage, 44,  from Fishers.

A man contacted Fishers Police about 10am saying he saw what he believed to be a dead body floating in the lake.  The Fishers Police & Fire Joint Rescue and Recovery Team responded and found a male body in the lake.

Fishers Police spokesman Tom Weger tells LarryInFishers the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office will perform an autopsy.

Although Weger says there are no signs of foul play at this time, this is still an active police investigation.

I’m no expert on translating dog years to human years, but I know enough to say 8 years of K9 service is a long time.  According to my news-gathering partners at the Hamilton County Reporter, K9 Scout of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department retired Monday after years of faithful service to the residents of Hamilton County.

Since entering active service in July 2010, Scout and handler Deputy Neal Hoard answered approximately 363 calls for K9 service resulting in 33 finds of criminals, missing persons, mental health and suicidal subjects.

Scout and Deputy Hoard also impacted thousands of lives through 149 demonstrations conducted over the years.

by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

Volunteerism has traditionally been a strong and revered part of American life, and certainly strong in Hamilton County. But, there is a problem. The participants are getting older, and new, younger faces are few.

My definition of volunteerism includes folks who belong to service clubs and community organizations as well as those who volunteer individually at a hospital, volunteer fire department, food pantry, animal shelter, etc.

In a few years, a lot of community and charitable organizations are going to run out of manpower to keep their services viable. It has the appearance of a coming crisis. Can be it averted? Of course it can be, but the current trend is not encouraging.

As I see it, the problem is simple: Too many younger folks are addicted to the TV or computer screen. To their credit, high schools in this county are encouraging kids to get involved in groups and programs benefiting the community. But, after their school days many young adults don’t continue volunteering.

I notice the people working at church programs, the local fish fry, delivering Meals on Wheels or helping at political events. So many of them are well into middle age and beyond. Obviously this is going to create a problem in coming years if younger folks do not involve themselves.

I suspect organizations are going to need to launch recruiting drives to engage new volunteers, and some have done so with notable success.

Habitat for Humanity, the county parks Youth Advisory Council and the Hamilton County Humane Society have involved new people. But, most every community group needs to generate more participation, and certainly there is plenty of talent and potential help in a growing area such as ours.

It’s just going to take some effort to motivate the many who are “sitting out” this time of growing need.

Gathering a group of people together is a lot easier when you offer everyone breakfast, and that’s what the City of Fishers did Tuesday morning.  Local leaders from many faith communities gathered at City Hall to begin forming the Fishers Multi-Faith Community for Compassion.

Those attending represented a wide range of religious beliefs, including Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Christian.  They all discussed issues that can be tackled together, where all have a common interest.  Some of those concerns included mental health and substance abuse.

Mayor Scott Fadness told those gathered that many mayors choose to shy away from engaging with local religious leaders citing separation of church and state, but Fadness has chosen to tap into the local religious community for initiatives such as his mental health project.

The mayor says he looks at bringing-in faith leaders as a way to build Fishers as a community.  People move to Fishers for a variety of reason, according to Fadness, such as the quality of the schools or just a desire to leave the core of a large city.  But once here, the challenge is to bring those suburban residents into the community of Fishers.

Muzaffar Ahmad, a Muslim originally from Pakistan, now a resident of Fishers, is forming the multi-faith group.  You can learn more in a podcast interview I recorded with Mr. Ahmad at this link.

Fishers Multi-Faith Community for Compassion has established a Facebook page, which can be accessed at this link.

The City of Fishers has hired a firm charged with putting together a preliminary design for the trail, tunnel and drainage along the Nickel Plate Trail.  Following the Monday vote by the Fishers Board of Works and Public Safety,  the firm of Butler, Fairman and Seufert was awarded the contract.  This plan will determine the scope of the final design.  The board approved paying $ 220,350 for this initial work.

In other action by the board:

–The Holland Roofing Group was awarded a $128,550.00 contract to replace the roof on the Launch Fishers building.

–The board approved a resolution authorizing city officials to  negotiate with First Internet Bank, in order to provide banking services for the city’s operating accounts.

My series of podcast conversations with Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board candidates continues.  Here is my talk with Ben Elsbury, one of three hopefuls for the District 1 seat.

My wife Jane and I never had the chance to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary with an out of town trip.  2 1/2 years later, we finally had that chance.  But that meant I was not in town for the September 17th Fishers City Council meeting.  Although I was unable to attend the session in person, I did watch the video of that meeting posted online by the city.  Below is a story written based on watching that video.

For the past several months, Fishers city officials have been working on a spending plan for 2019.  At the September 17th City Council meeting, Mayor Scott Fadness laid-out his more than $108 million budget for next year.  Following his presentation, a public hearing was held for people to comment on the budget proposal.

One resident asked what study had been done on building a trail alongside the railroad tracks on the Nickel Plate line, allowing both rails and trails.  The mayor responded that not pursuing both the rail and trail on the Nickel Plate was a policy decision made by the city.

“We’ve also looked at it from an engineering perspective, and the amount of homes or properties that would have to be taken to accommodate (the rail and trail), plus the additional cost, we did not find it to be a viable project from the start,” Mayor Fadness said.  Someone in the audience yelled something at that time, but it is not possible to discern what was shouted at the mayor from the audio on the recording.

Several other issues were raised at the public hearing, including how the wheel tax money is being spent by the city and a sidewalk near 126th and Olio Road.  The wheel tax is being spent only on local roads, and the sidewalk should be built in 2019, according to the mayor.

The city council will vote on the 2019 budget at the Monday, October 22nd meeting.

There were other matters raised at the council session:

–Council approved a 3% pay raise for city staff and elected officials in 2019.

–An increase in the storm water rate in Fishers, with the roughly 27,000 homes using the service paying $20.52 per year more, was passed by council members.  This will raise additional money for needed capital projects and ensuring financial solvency for the utility in the next few years. Most commercial users will be paying much more, with HSE Schools seeing the largest increase among nonresidential customers.  Commercial rates are computed on a formula, based on the size of rooftops, driveways and parking lots.

–A change was made in the golf cart ordinance, carving out an exemption for people doing public service work with the carts.

–City Council members have decided to leave council districts unchanged for next year’s municipal election.  Council members are choosing to wait until the 2020 census numbers are available before making any changes, according to a statement read at the meeting by Council President Todd Zimmerman.

–Finally, in the comments allowed at the end of the meeting, people residing in the area of 116th Street & Allisonville Road voiced concerns about the economic state of that area on the west side of the city and a feeling that their area is being neglected.  Mayor Fadness responded that he and his economic development team are aware of the issues in that area of town and take it seriously.  He said timing is what is needed, and the timing has not been right to bring all the parties together needed to make development projects happen there.  Fadness also cited the decision by Kroger to pull back on a number of new projects, when their stock dropped recently after Amazon announced new plans to expand its grocery offerings, as another reason development has not happened as planned.   Kroger had planned a new grocery across Allisonville Road, but decided to remodel the current store instead at 116th & Allisonville.