The City of Fishers announced two additional staff members to Mayor Scott Fadness’ economic development team.

Brandon Dickinson comes from Indianapolis city government where he served as Director of Enterprise Development.  As Director for Economic Development in Fishers, he will oversee all Fishers Advantage economic development initiatives including the further redevelopment of the Nickel Plate District, expansion of Launch Fishers and growth along the I-69 business corridor.  Dickinson is a graduate of Regent University School of Law and Indiana University-Bloomington where he majored in Public Policy and Legal Studies.

The second addition to the staff is Assistant Director of Economic Development Megan Baumgartner.  Before joining the Fishers department, she worked at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).  At the IEDC she collaborated with regional economic development organizations to grow and attract new business to the State of Indiana.  Baumgartner is a Purdue University graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in political science and Spanish.

“Part of being a smart, vibrant community is having experienced leadership to move Fishers forward,” according to Mayor Fadness in a city news release. “I’m excited to work with our economic development team to bring more entrepreneurial opportunity to Fishers and strengthen the long-term sustainability of the city.”

Fishers city government has seen some reorganization with the departure of Community Development Director Tom Dickey to the private sector.  The hiring of new Deputy Mayor Leah McGrath has also been part of the staffing chart changes.

Cellular smartphone service has required large towers to connect with consumers in the past.  Those towers are not going away, but new technology using smaller, microcell systems may slow the need for more large cell phone towers.

The microcell antennas and support boxes are small enough to place on street light fixtures or utility poles.  Some of the support boxes will be placed on the ground level, at

the base of the pole.    These microcell units can enhance the quality of your cell phone connections and, in some cases, replace the need for some future large antenna construction.

The Fishers City Council has referred a proposed ordinance governing these microcell towers to the Fishers Plan Commission for a recommendation.  The Plan commission has formed a subcommittee to hammer out proposed ordinance language.

The subcommittee has been working with industry representatives to hash out language for the city ordinance.  At the July 8th meeting, the subcommittee discussed at length what technical features would be needed in such an ordinance and the rules for ensuring the antennas and related boxes have no aesthetic issues for the neighborhoods involved.

Subcommittee member Rich Block, also a member of the Fishers City Council and Plan Commission, voiced his desire to ensure Fishers has enhanced connectivity to wireless networks as part of this upgrade.

The Fishers Plan Department staff will draft ordinance language for consideration at the next subcommittee meeting in August.  Once the subcommittee agrees on a proposed ordinance, it will go to the Plan Commission for a public hearing and recommendations, then on to the City Council for final action.

On November 3rd, 2015, all precincts will be open for voting in Fishers during general election day.  The Hamilton County Elections Office confirmed for LarryInFishers that there will be only one contested Fishers race on election day, and that is for City Council At-Large.

That means Mayor Scott Fadness, City Clerk Jennifer Kehl, City Judge Dan Henke and all the district city council members are officially elected to four-year terms in office, beginning January 1, 2016.  Greg Purvis, who was unopposed in the May Primary, will be the only Democrat candidate on the general election ballot in Fishers.

There will be four names on the ballot for city council at-large – Republicans Rich Block, Cecilia Coble and Todd Zimmerman, along with Democrat Purvis.  The three highest vote-getters are elected.  All Fishers city registered voters are able cast their ballots in the at-large council election.  Block, Coble & Zimmerman are incumbents.

Purvis ran in the South Central City Council District in 2014 and was only able to garner 27.76% of the vote.  Republican John Weingardt won that race.

Fishers held a municipal election in 2014 with one year terms at stake in the transition from a town to a city form of local government.

The Hamilton County Democrat Party has the right under Indiana law to appoint candidates to office where no one ran in the primary election, but the deadline to do so expired at noon, July 6th.  The Hamilton County Elections Office says no appointments were made by Democrats by the deadline.

The election office also confirmed there were no Libertarian Party or write-in candidates filing for office in Fishers.

Fishers has now been a city for 6 months.  How is it going so far?

Here’s my Current in Fishers commentary at this link.

Mayor Scott Fadness told the Fishers City Council Finance Committee he will have the first preliminary 2016 budget figures available in August.  In a previous session, Fadness told committee members he plans to submit a flat budget to the city council for the 2016 budget cycle.  He emphasized the first set of numbers will only be preliminary.  The city operates on a calendar year budget, so the spending plan now being formulated would begin on January 1, 2016.  Final budget approval is up to the city council.

The city’s request to have the new Launch Fishers Building declared a Certified Tech Park by the state is still pending.  Mayor Fadness said one member of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) board that had earlier voiced reservations about the designation appears to have softened his stand.  If Certified Tech Park status is approved by the IEDC, most or all of the money the City of Fishers is spending on the new Launch Fishers building would be reimbursed by the state over a number of years.

The city is in the process of issuing bonds to pay for a number of street and road projects over the next few years.  Most of these contracts will be eligible for 80% federal funding (in some cases 90%) but the city still must come up with its matching portion of 10% or 20% of the cost.  Mayor Fadness said he and his staff will be watching closely to ensure any such bond issue does not result in a property tax increase.

City Controller Oscar Gutierrez told the committee he is in the process of realigning employees in his office.  This is part of transitioning from a separately elected clerk-treasurer’s operation under the town form of government, to a city controller’s office under the purview of the  mayor.

The city should know sometime next week whether there will be a special census in Fishers.  The proposal is awaiting the Census Director’s approval.  Fishers is asking for a scaled-down partial census to just count the growing areas of the city.  City officials say this will be considered on a cost-benefit basis.  A larger population can increase the city’s funding from certain state payouts and other funding calculations.  Gutierrez said if the special census happens, census workers may be housed in the Fishers Library building.

Fishers Fire officials say fireworks is the suspected cause of an overnight residential garage blaze.   Firefighters responded to the Bristols subdivision on EndZone Court.  The five family members all made it out of the house safely, with the homeowner suffering a minor injury.

Firefighters found the garage heavily involved in the fire and the blaze extended into the kitchen area.  After what was described as an “aggressive stop,” the fire was put down before it could spread upstairs.

The fire is still under investigation, but in a news release, the Fishers Fire Department described fireworks as a possible cause.

The biggest party of the year at Geist is reserved for the 4th of July.  The bridge over Geist Reservoir is closed to traffic and a large party ensues.  It’s all capped off with one of the most elaborate fireworks displays you will find anywhere.
The crowd looked to be a good one, comparable to last year.  The weather was perfect.

The event was sponsored by the Geist Coalition.

We are now deep into the summer road construction season.  Below is a list of projects scheduled to be in progress in the week starting Monday, July 6th…

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Burberry Place

Concrete repair work will continue in Burberry Place for approx. two weeks.

Eller Road Closure

Eller Road between 106tjh Street and 116th Street will be closed for the replacement of the bridge over Cheeney Creek. The road will be closed to traffic through early August. During this time a detour will be available along 106th Street, Allisonville Road and 116th Street. Fishers Heritage Park will be accessible during construction, and local traffic will be able to proceed south on Eller Road as far as Round Up Trail and White Horse Lane. This is a Hamilton County Highway Department project and questions can be directed to their department at (317) 773-7770.

Georgia Road

Restrictions continue the week of July 6 on 104th Street between Georgia Road and Florida Road to allow for shoulder work. There will be flaggers onsite during construction.

96th Street Power Lines

Power line transfers and old pole removal will be taking place the week of July 6 along 96th Street going east from Cyntheanne Road to Fortville city limits. This project is ongoing and updates will be posted as they become available. Flaggers will be onsite to help direct traffic.

131st Street Construction

Road and shoulder construction will be ongoing along 131st Street between Parkside Drive and Cumberland Road. Updates on this project will be posted as they become available, and flaggers will be onsite to direct traffic.

116th Street Restrictions

• The westbound lane of 116^th Street just west of Municipal Drive will be restricted from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. on July 6th to install lights.  Flaggers will be in place.
• The westbound lane of 116^th Street just west of the railroad tracks will be restricted from July 6th to July 10th between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.  Flaggers will be in place.

North Street

Lane restrictions will be in place starting on July 9th through August 6th for North Street between Municipal Drive and the railroad tracks.  Flaggers will be in place.

Fishers Police say there was a robbery at Sally’s Beauty Supply in the 8300 block of 96th Street in Fishers.  No injuries were reported.

A black male suspect was seen running south on foot.  No other description of the suspect was available as of Friday night.

An extensive search did not turn up a suspect.

Police continue to investigate.

On April 13th, Mayor Scott Fadness announced a major new development in the City of Fishers, a $74 million Sports Pavilion in the Saxony area near 136th Street and Olio Road. There was a great deal of excitement because the facility would feature an arena and a fieldhouse, capable of hosting major national events.  Local residents and local youth sports activities would have access to these facilities.

There were 3 public forums to discuss the proposal.  The last meeting was held May 7th. There was speculation the Fishers City Council would vote on the city’s part of the project in June.  That didn’t happen.

There hasn’t been much news about the Sports Pavilion for a number of weeks.  Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness told LarryInFishers that the sports complex is not in any trouble and is still on track.  The reason for the delay, the mayor says, is tied to the fact that appraisals normally look at other similar facilities to determine the appraisal figure.  This pavilion doesn’t have many, if any, similar structures on which to base a certified appraisal.

As a result, the appraisers must dive into some complex math calculations to come up with a certified appraisal.  The developer does have financing in place, but the financiers cannot move forward with backing the project without a certified appraisal.

Since I receive many questions from people around Fishers about the status of the Sports Pavilion, the bottom line update is this – the project is still on track, but the appraisal is taking a long time.