Update: Friday afternoon, city officials made the following announcement on Twitter:

Keep Fishers Beautiful has become an annual mid-April event with neighborhood cleaning, service at Ritchey Woods and a day to bring in items for recycling.

Volunteers are tapped by the city to take care of the many tasks, but one unpredictable part of the plan is the weather.  The National Weather Service is calling for isolated storms in Saturday.  Hopefully, they stay away from Fishers.

For more information on the April 14th Keep Fishers Beautiful plans, use this link.

The Fishers City Council released its agenda for the Monday night session on the preceding Thursday, and on that agenda was a new office building, with the only clue as to who might be behind it was a firm named AMP Northwest.  The city announced Friday morning that office building will house the new headquarters of a local technology firm, Flexware Innovation.

This new structure will be a $3.5 million project,  featuring an office building containing 24,000-square feet of space.  Ground breaking is projected for the fall of this year.

12,000 square feet of office space will be set aside for Flexware, with the remaining space available for other tenants.

100 parking spaces will be available to the office building employees during the work day, with that parking available to the public after 6pm week days and on weekends.

“Scott Whitlock and his team are dedicated to growing in Fishers and have been part of our community since the beginning, and I look forward to having Flexware Innovation join the Nickel Plate District’s growing list of companies that call it home,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness in a city news release. “The Flexware Innovation Building is a great addition to our downtown as we continue to fulfill the vision of a vibrant downtown center.”

Indiana state government is offering Flexware  conditional tax credits and training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. These incentives are performance based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim those incentives.  the Fishers City Council is scheduled to vote on this incentive package Monday night.

Fishers city government is offering more than $266,000 in incentives, including impact fee waivers and a tax abatement over a five-year period.

Flexware specializes in using technology to aid manufacturing businesses, particularly in the areas of life sciences, food & beverage and industrial concerns.

The City of Fishers has been reviewing possible uses for vacant areas on the north end of the municipal ellipse, behind the Amphitheater, and the City Council will vote Monday night on a proposal from AMP Northwest LLC.  The plan calls for a 20,000 square foot office building, to be constructed on about 3-tenths of an acre on the northwest end of the ellipse.  The city says this proposal is the “most advantageous to the city for acquiring and developing the western side of the ellipse.”

As part of the deal, with city will construct a parking lot with 97 spaces, to be used by those working in the new office building during business hours.  The city also is  committing to providing up to 30 parallel parking spaces in the adjacent right of way.

Also part of the package is a 5-year sliding scale abatement in the following amounts:

Year 1: 100%;

Year 2: 80%;

Year 3: 60%;

Year 4: 40%;

Year 5: 20%

The city estimates that the value of the parking, waived impact fees and tax abatement for this project at  $570,000.

In other items up for city council consideration Monday night:

–Council members will consider a tax abatement schedule for Thyssenkrupp North America.  It was announced in December that the firm would be have a work force of 84, with 64 more expected by year 2020, in space once occupied by Comcast.

–Council is set to vote on a drive-through window proposed by Copper Moon Coffee, which will be located in The Yard development.

Hamilton County Reporter

In 2017, Prevail provided services to 3,478 individual victims of crime or abuse. This is a 15 percent increase in the number of people served in 2016 and the highest number of individuals served in one year in the history of the agency. Due to this increase in services, Prevail has announced an expansion of their Noblesville office in order to accommodate the growing community and support the increase in needs of the survivors they serve. None of this growth would be possible without the support of the community.

To celebrate this community support, come visit from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 24 to see the expansion and learn more about Prevail’s programs and services, including tours of the entire agency with one of their dedicated team members. The official ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 2 p.m.

For more information, contact Natasha Robinson, Marketing and Event Coordinator at natasha@prevailinc.com or (317) 773-6942.

Hamilton County Reporter

On Wednesday, Hamilton County Superior Court 3 Judge William Hughes struck down a controversial sign ordinance recently passed by Hamilton County Commissioners.

The ordinance was challenged by Hamilton County Council candidate Rick Sharp and his attorney Timothy Stoesz.

Sharp alleged the ordinance causes him legal injury by prohibiting placing political signs anywhere in a right-of-way, as defined by the ordinance.

The ordinance also prohibited placing signs larger than six square feet on private property.

According to the ordinance, county workers and sheriff deputies were permitted to remove signs. Owners of the signs would then be charged a fee for reclaiming the signs.

A written opinion issued by Hughes stated, “Those restrictions and penalties either prohibit speech altogether or have a chilling effect on speech by, without limitation, authorizing Hamilton County personnel to remove such signs immediately and without notice, or requiring owners of signs to pay collection fees to the County to recover signs the County has removed.”

The Court also ruled Sharp is entitled to an award of his reasonable attorney fees.

Sharp was happy with the Judge’s ruling. “This ordinance would have produced a very chilling effect on both political and religious free speech. I am gratified that the judge agreed with our position that this was a case of overreach on the part of county government!”

Local school corporations need better ways to use technology in order to evaluate threat assessments on social media.  HSE Schools Superintendent Allen Bourff briefed board members on his recent trip to a national school boards conference.

Bourff said officials at the conference suggested school districts find ways to analyze social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and e-mails.  The analysis would look for “guide words” and phrases within the database for threat assessments.

The conference also emphasized equity, which was not just about how schools treat all students to promote their “maximum potential,” but equity was described as a “pro-active measure” to address future security issues.

“Resentment is bred by maligned treatment or inequitable treatment,”Bourff said.  “When you have resentment, such as we’ve seen in other districts, it evolves into violent behavior.”

HSE Schools has just hired an Equity Officer, Erica Buchanan-Rivera.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools reduced energy costs 6% from 2016 to 2017.  That’s what Bob Rice, the school district’s energy manager, told the HSE School Board Wednesday night.   That means the school corporation spent $244,000 less comparing 2016 to 2017. When adjusted for weather, the savings are even higher.

“We’ve also reduced the amount of CO2 that we are putting into the atmosphere by 3,800 pounds,” Rice told the board.  “HSE would have had to plant 19,000 trees to make that same impact on the environment.”

Rice added the school system’s energy savings from 2016 to 2017 would be the same as taking 600 cars off the road.

In 2018, Rice says the local school district is on track for a 5% energy savings over 2017.  The energy consumption is going down, even as the student population grows.  These savings were realized despite a utility rate increase.

It has been a very long time since I was in the second grade, but I do not recall anything like the energy project a group of Sand Creek Elementary (SCE) School students explained to the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board Wednesday night.

All ten second-graders memorized their presentations to board members, discussing the results of their energy project.  The group had a goal of reducing their own carbon footprint.

The class partnered with Bob Rice, HSE Schools Energy Manager and utility company Duke Energy.  Duke brought in the National Theater for Children to help present a school-wide convocation, engaging SCE about doing more to conserve energy. Along with Duke and Bob Rice, the students encouraged the community to sign-up to receive free energy kits for their homes. So far, 191 families have received a kit, resulting in a savings of more than 35,000 kilowatts within the local community.

Their own elementary school building also had an energy audit and following the results, the students planned a ‘Turn It Off’ Tuesday, and made a presentation during SCE’s STEAM Night.

For more details on all this, use this link.

Early voting is now underway in Hamilton County. Poll workers Charles Turean (right) and Steve Zell (center) check in Joanne White. White was the first early voter of this year’s Primary Election. (Photo provided)

Hamilton County Reporter

Hamilton County officials on Tuesday broke ground on a $13.5 million jail expansion. Participating in the groundbreaking ceremony were (from left) Councilman Steve Schwartz, Commissioner Steve Dillinger, Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt, Commissioner Christine Altman, Sheriff Mark Bowen, Council Paul Ayers and Councilman Jeff Hern. (Reporter photo by Jeff Jellison)

Hamilton County Reporter