2023 was just too full for one Top 10 list to hold it all, so Hamilton County’s Hometown Newspaper is bringing you the Top 23 for 2023! If it were a traditional Top 10 list, we’d count them down like Dave Letterman. Instead, we are starting at the top and working out way down.
There were more than a few surprises on this list, which is cultivated from both most-read posts on our website and most-engaging posts on social media. That is why three items on this list all come from our editorial cartoonist: Tim Campbell. While his panels are not news items themselves, they are his visual commentary on the news.
- Feeshers
By a wide margin, the most engaging item from The Reporter this year came from Campbell. When the proposed $50 parking fee for non-Fishers residents visiting Geist Waterfront Park was originally proposed, Campbell nearly broke the internet with this panel. Not only did social media explode with reactions, but this one was shared on the radio.
Art provided
Think about that: a single-panel editorial cartoon gained so much momentum that radio stations across the state were talking about it on the air and sharing it on their websites and social media pages. We can verify that well over half a million people saw this panel after it appeared in out pages.
- Matchbook
Coming in at number two is another Campbell toon, this time about the Hamilton East Public Library reshelving policy. After John Green’s young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was moved to the adult section of the library, there was a great deal of media coverage across the country about the policy behind that move. This image was seen by just over 300,000 people following our publication.
Art provided
In early August, the Speedway gas station across from the entrance to Riverview Health Noblesville closed suddenly. Reporter Photographer Nik Roberts snapped a few photos the day the station was being shut down and the signage removed. Those pics and an 84-word newsbrief were seen by more than a quarter of a million readers.
Noblesville High School senior Maggie Hoppel on being named a national Scholastic gold medalist in writing for her piece “That Should Have Been the End of It.” That was was not the end of it, as her accolade earned her the fourth most-popular item in our pages in 2023.
The sale of the Bolden’s Dry Cleaners building, 151 N. 8th St., Noblesville, became a point of contention between Hamilton County and Noblesville city officials. In the end, Noblesville bought the property, and you can read all the details you may have forgotten at the link above.
The annual Indiana Peony Festival this year included “Peonies in the Park” the evening prior to the festival. The level of interest in this announcement earned it the number six spot on our list.
The Promenade Trails groundbreaking on a 30.25-acre site adjacent to Promenade Apartments, near the northeast corner of Little Chicago Road and State Road 32 was our seventh most-read item of the year. The buzz over this new community designed for people ages 55 and older put it firmly in the Top 10.
While it is no surprise that a sports item made the list, it is interesting that it was a story about golf. Noblesville and Carmel both defending sectional titles on the same day at their respective courses clearly interested readers across the county.
Early in the year we were fortunate enough to have some coffee-centric columns from Sydney Schmitt. Her “Coffee Chat” series was quite popular, and no entry was more engaging than the one about her trip to sip at Wheeler’s Cafe and Market.
On May 8, the City of Noblesville announced a partnership with Pacers Sports & Entertainment to bring the Mad Ants, the company’s affiliate in the NBA G League, to Noblesville. To accommodate the move, Noblesville plans to build a new 3,400 seat, 85,000 square-foot arena on the east side of the city.
It is not often that a small business defeats the state in an eminent domain dispute, but Wilson Farm Market, 720 E. 256th St., Arcadia, did just that. The plan to demolish the business for U.S. 31 projects was neither an idea that came from nor was supported by Hamilton County officials, though misinformation on some social media accounts made it seem that way. With a huge outcry over the proposed destruction of this beloved market, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) backed off and the market survived.
Editor’s note: Now get up there and buy some of their delightful cheeses!
No. 11: Wilson Farm Market lives on – Thanks to the relentless work of a small business and its faithful supporters, INDOT backed off an eminent domain dispute. (Photo provided by Wilson Farm Market)
Locally-owned Chariot Automotive Group (CAG) has launched a new educational initiative, Chariot Automotive Institute, to support meeting the need for skilled employees for Indiana’s retail automotive industry.
Beginning in August and in collaboration with Ivy Tech Community College, high school juniors and seniors are participating in hands-on training through the inaugural class of the Automotive Technician Education Pathway (ATEP), which offers students an opportunity to earn college credit toward an associate degree in automotive technology.
When Noblesville High School’s jazz director and assistant band director Bethany Robinson was named a national semifinalist for the 2024 GRAMMY Music Educator Awards, our readers took note.
Robinson was previously a GRAMMY finalist for the 2022 award and a semifinalist for the 2023 award.
Thousands of high school bands across the country applied to perform in the 97th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and just six were selected for the coveted iconic tradition.
One of the chosen bands is the city of Fishers’ very own: Fishers High School Marching Tiger Band.
This coverage was so popular among our readers that we had top print extra copies of the Monday, Nov. 27 edition to accommodate early requests for families to have keepsakes!
For 37 years, the Noblesville community has had one of the best people in the state: Kent Graham. He served his community and elevated local sports both as a teacher and a photographer. You’ve seen his sports photos in these pages since The Reporter started a decade ago. Earlier this year, Graham moved to California and Hamilton County has been a little dim without his flashbulb and his delightful presence ever since.
- His & Hers Thanksgiving
Campbell earns his third appearance on this list with this panel from the week of Thanksgiving.
Art provided
This year, Cicero crowed its first Lights Over Morse Lake Festival Queen. In late June, when that announcement hit our pages, readers gravitated toward the story with enough force to land it on our top stories list.
The Reimagine Pleasant Street Project has Linda Budnick reimagining what her retirement will look, sound, and smell like. Budnick lives in Westbrook Village on Cliff Overlook Road, and her back porch is only a few feet away from the south side of the path of the Pleasant Street project.
Linda Budnick looks at a city-placed stake in her back yard showing the edge of the right-of-way for the new road. The edge of the road itself is expected to be 15 feet from that right-of-way stake. (Reporter photo by Stu Clampitt)
Jim Wafford, owner of Hamilton County Television, was inducted into the Hamilton County Basketball Hall of Fame during halftime of the Noblesville-Fishers girls basketball game. He is a large part of the reason female high school sports has the popularity it does across Central Indiana, and The Reporter is exceptionally proud of our friendship with Wafford and our partnership with his company, Hamilton County TV.
Conner Place is a Noblesville High School sophomore who launched his first business this year CP Detailing is an auto detailing service Place launched in April.
When Costco’s newest location opened in Noblesville, there were massive crowds that over-filled the parking lot and packed the aisles for 12 solid hours.
We have a fair bit of fun in headlines, especially when local police departments are asking for the public’s help in finding suspects for local crimes. Our most popular posts tend to be packed with these calls to action from local law enforcement. We suspect the reason this one was the most popular one of the year was because of that headline. It is so generic that it stood out from all the ones that seemed more clever.
Strange things happen on the Nickel Plate Express sometimes. Sometimes you get on a train in Noblesville in 2023 and find yourself at a speakeasy in 1923 where there is a murder to solve. Sometimes you are taken back to prom night in the 1980s where these is a murder to solve. And once that train went all the way to Hawai’i … where there was a murder to solve. But in Hawai’i, taking selfies with the victim proved to be more entertaining than sleuthing around Magnum P.I. style to find the killer. Who knew?