By LARRY LANNAN
I still remember moving to the then-Town of Fishers in May of 1991. The 1990 census had pegged the town’s population at just over 7,500. The town hall was in a building now housing an art gallery on 116th Street, just across the street from where the Depot building is now located.
It was not long after my move to Fishers when the new town hall opened for business. The town staff was excited to have much more room for a growing community.
In a recent podcast interview with Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, he says the town never expected the structure to be the center of municipal government for a long period of time. The town council at that time constructed the building not with steel, but with a wooden frame.
“It’s built like … a large house,” the mayor said. “That’s a lot of wear and tear on a commercial building.”
The town and city tried to deal with a building that has been sinking. The mayor said city hall is “falling apart.”
Fadness made it clear to the city council and to me in the podcast that building a new city hall was never a priority for him as mayor, but “there does come a point when you’re putting money into a building that really is not a sound return on investment. I think we’ve reached that point on a variety of levels here at city hall.”
So, it would appear that the city of Fishers will be conducting a study on how to build and finance a new city hall.
“I think there is a good chance this [city hall] building will go away in the foreseeable future and we will build something different here,” Fadness said in the podcast interview. “I don’t think you are going to see any Taj Mahal because, frankly, our footprint hasn’t grown that significantly.”
This is not a matter of a need for more space, Fadness says, just a need to stop the financial bleeding from the constant requirement to handle the structural issues with the current hall.
In Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren’s presentation to the city council’s recent work session, estimates on the cost of a new city hall range from $18 million to $21 million.
The mayor says he is working on a financial strategy to build a new Fishers City Hall without burdening the city’s taxpayers. At the same time, Fadness is working a financial plan to create a city community center as well. One proposal would have the new city hall contain a performing arts component within the plan.
The mayor expects a busy summer as he works with city staff and consultants on how a new city hall would be built and financed.
So .. poor planning & foresight resulting in a municipal building that doesn’t make it to fifty years.
Two traits that were the hallmark of the then-City Counsel & now continuing those grand traditions into the age of the ‘smart & entrepreneurial’ city.
Don’t forget the all important self-congratulatory plaque on the new building, Mr Mayor.
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