As the May 8th primary election draws closer, several candidate endorsements have been announced, according to my news-gathering partner at The Hamilton County Reporter .

Here are endorsements provided in the April 18th edition of the Reporter:

–Paul Ayers endorses Christine Pauley for County Council, describing her as a conservative with backbone who will be “beholden only to the taxpayers.”  Ayers currently serves on the County Council

— Rick McKinney is endorsing Mark Hall for County Council, citing Hall’s business background and his understanding of the need to be independent.  Mckinney also currently serves on the County Council.

–Former Fishers Police Chief, now retired, George Kehl endorses Jeff Heinzmann for Judge of Hamilton County Superior Court 1.  Kehl says Heinzmann is “a public servant who is a proven and trusted decision-maker. “

Fishers Police Chief Mitch Thompson went before the City Council Monday night to present two officers with their 20-year service awards.

Officers Bradley Myers and Tony David received the honor at the regular Monday evening council session

The Fishers City Council had a lively work session Monday evening with talk of a possible bicycling ordinance and discussion of the local sign rules.

After a local resident asked the city to consider an ordinance dealing with cycling, city staff began researching.  Lindsey Bennett outlined what state law says about cycling.  That statute says cyclists may not ride more than two abreast, are required to have both hands on the handle bars and there are other requirements for lighting on the bike.

Bennett told council members the city could, if the council chooses, supplement the state laws.  Police Chief Mitch Thompson explained what his officers deal with regularly such as cyclists weaving in and out of traffic and riding more than two -abreast.  On the other hand, vehicle drivers are sometimes in the bicycle lanes or turn in front of the bicycles.

Any proposed ordinance would attempt to deal with the rights and responsibilities of both cyclists and motorists, according to Mayor Scott Fadness.

One proposal would call for a $35.50 fine for motorist violations and $20 for cyclists running afoul of a city ordinance, city officials said.

Chief Thompson told the council he wants an even-handed ordinance dealing with both bicyclists & motorists.

“The incidents we deal with, with bicyclists and motorists, are almost always road rage incidents” said Chief Thompson. “The bicyclist does something that upsets the car, the car then retaliates, and we’ve had collisions, we’ve had fist fights.”

One idea is to have a three-foot ring surrounding a bicycle as a safe zone where a vehicle is not to encroach, but Thompson says that provision is very difficult for his officers to enforce unless new technologies come on line to help.

There was a discussion of how difficult it can be for motorists to deal with cyclists on the narrow former county roads that are common on the east side of Fishers.

Councilman Brad DeReamer said his constituents want some roads where cycling is not allowed, such as 136th Street, due to the dangers involved.

Mayor Fadness told council members he will instruct his staff to prepare a draft ordinance for their consideration.

On the issue of signs…..City Attorney Chris Greisl briefed the council on a recent Supreme Court case stemming from a measure passed in the municipality of Gilbert, Arizona.  That decision severely restricted local government’s ability to limit the content of a sign.  Greisl said the city has been eliminating any local sign ordinance provisions relating to content and limiting any regulation to number and size of signs within certain areas.

Then, Greisl explained a new state law enacted by the General Assembly last year.  It says 60 days before an election, even ordinances governing size and number of signs cannot be enforced during that 60 day period, and 6 days following the election.

We are within 60 days of the May 8th primary election now, so unless there is a public safety issue on certain signs, the city should not be enforcing the size and number ordinance.  This applies to private property and neighborhoods, according to Greisl.

Greisl emphasized that the state law applies to private property only.  The ruling on the Hamilton County ordinance by Judge William Hughes does not set a legal precedent, according to Greisl.

Fishers does not regulate content on signage within the city right-of-way.

“We have a public safety standard that says there are no signs to be allowed in our right-of-way,” said Greisl.  “I think, from that standpoint, we’re still going to be okay going forward.”

When the City of Fishers removes a sign in the municipal right-of-way, city staff will dispose of the sign.  This policy began in the previous election season.  Before that, the confiscated signs were kept and the owners were allowed to retrieve them.

The magic date for downtown Fishers is June 1st…that is the projected date when all the renovation work on the Fishers Downtown Amphitheater is supposed to be completed.

As of April 16th, you can begin to see progress being made, despite the unseasonably cold weather this spring.

The upgrades include a larger and more functional amphitheater stage, the addition of The Cube is a meeting room with additional rest room facilities and a sloped green area, which will allow better viewing further back from the stage.

In May of 2016, the Fishers City Council approved plans for a Starbucks Coffee Shop near 116th Street and Olio Road – now the shop is under construction and set to open in August.

Stephen Zinkan, of Zinkan & Barker Development, tells LarryInFishers in an e-mail message that the Starbucks is under construction at the site and is scheduled to be open for business on August 8th.

The Fishers City Council wanted assurances that the traffic signal just west of Olio Road on 116th Street was installed before approval of the plans.  That traffic light has been in operation for a while.

The Fishers Redevelopment Commission passed a resolution Monday evening,  funding additions to The Yard complex that add $6 million to the project’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) debt.  The commission held its second public hearing, with no members of the public offering to speak on either occasion.

The original TIF debt to construct just the culinary center, which has already been enacted, is $9.2 million, according to the city’s bond attorney Rick Hall.  The $6 million in additional TIF debt will be used to finance a parking garage, which will be needed with the addition of multi-family housing s part of the plan, Hall told LarryInFishers.

The financing plan approved by the Redevelopment Commission must still go through more approvals before the decision on the additional TIF debt is  final.

Joe Weingarten is someone publicly active in the Fishers and Geist area.  He was involved in the effort to fight annexation of Geist by the then-Fishers Town Council.  He was a major figure in the City Yes movement that successfully advocated for a Fishers city government with a strong mayor’s office.  Now, Joe serves as Chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.

But Joe is being recognized for something apart from all those activities.  He is set to receive the National Alumnus of the Year Award from the Boy Scouts of America at a national meeting in Dallas during May.

He started his Boy Scout career while growing up in New York City, within the borough of Manhattan.

“The troop was kind of different from most in New York City in that we were a camping troop,” Joe says. “Every month we went up into the Catskills or Adirondacks, except for once a year when we had to go to a Boy Scout camp.”

Joe Weingarten is the 8th person to receive this honor.

John Tuohy of the Indianapolis Star wrote a story posted to IndyStar.com April 13th about early voting.  If you haven’t read it, it is worth your time.

We in Hamilton County have a very good situation because we have three early voting centers in the county plus the courthouse in downtown Noblesville. There is one early voting location  here in Fishers.  But compare our situation with that of Marion County, which has three-times the population compared to Hamilton.

Indianapolis has one early voting location, at the City-County Building downtown.  That’s it.  Why is that the case?

Tuohy reports it is all set by state law.  Each county has an election board, and all members, composed of Democrats and Republicans, must unanimously agree to establish satellite voting centers.  In Hamilton County, Democrats and Republicans agree on establishing voting centers outside downtown Noblesville.  In Marion County, the Republican Party is vetoing the extra voting sites.

There is a pending law suit challenging the state law requiring a unanimous county election board vote to establish satellite voting centers.  Common Cause of Indiana and the Indianapolis office of the NAACP are plaintiffs in the legal action.

State lawmakers could fix this quickly if they have the desire to do so.  I do not believe either party should have veto power over establishing more voting sites in any county.  If you believe in democracy, it is hard to understand why anyone would support the status quo.

It is just sad that a lawsuit is required in order to get consideration of early voting sites because our state lawmakers have failed to fix a broken system.  State legislators have a special session coming up.  They could act if they choose.  Sadly, they likely will not.

I realize this subject is not one normally discussed on this blog, but I am taking a point of personal privilege to write about a man named Art Bell, who died late last week at the age of 72.  Why write about Art Bell, a man I never met?  Allow me to explain.

I worked at radio stations in the mid 1970s while attending college.  I happen to be working at one station that was 24-hours-a-day, which didn’t happen all the time in those days.  The owner was petrified that someone would file a competing application and take his station away during license renewal.  So, the station staged an overnight talk show five nights a week, ostensibly to discuss public affairs…that meant newsy-type issues and such.

But you can’t easily fill 4-5 hours a night with serious stuff. You need to have some fun, especially at those hours of the late night and early morning.  You had to talk about strange subjects.

While working away during my college days, the station manager, a great guy and former Green Berets, asked me to take over the overnight talk show.  I thought about it.  It fit my class schedule and guaranteed me more hours than I was getting at the time.

So, in the mid-1970s, I spent two years staying up all night and talking about serious, and some not so serious, issues.

I had serious guests to talk about the economy, foreign affairs and politics.  But most of the 4-5 hours featured me answering the phone and talking about whatever that caller wanted to talk about.  and that could be anything.

I had some fun guests.  I had people claiming to be psychics, I had self-proclaimed “experts” on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and lots of other goofy subjects.  I remember one guest claimed there were thousands of aliens among us that look and talk just like humans, poised to take over the world.  I cut that interview short.

I mention all this because the late Art Bell was a syndicated overnight “talk jock” that only talked about the fun stuff.  Conspiracy theories were high on his list and his callers talked about plenty of them.

Art Bell lived in the small town of Pahrump, Nevada, not far from Las Vegas.  He lived in a remote home with satellite communications allowing him to produce the program from his home.  It’s a great gig if you can get it.

Art Bell was the darling of insomniacs and all-night over-the-road truck drivers.  He had a huge fan base for a show on at such odd hours.

I guess I am just a little jealous of Art Bell.  He lived the dream for a long time.  He started in radio broadcasting in 1945, syndicated his talk show in 1988 and retired for good in 2007.  He enjoyed plenty of good years having fun with his audience.

I only had two short years to enjoy the all-night talk show genre as host at the local level, but I had to be serious enough of the time to calm down the radio station ownership about anyone successfully challenging their license to broadcast.   Art Bell had fun ever single night.

I hope Art Bell is remembered as someone that knew how to entertain his audience, one of the real characters of radio.  My sympathies go to his surviving family members.