⛵️ Stolen valor

Good Friday morning. This is Fishers Digest. The local newsletter that guarantees you’ll be the most interesting person in your group chat.

🌧️ Today's weather: Scattered showers, with a high near 59°.

In today’s digest:

• Stolen valor

• Weekend preview

• Community recs

Publishers note: Where are the spooky houses in Fishers? Bonus points if you have pictures and want them shared 👻 Just reply to this email if you want to share!

This issue is 1,164 words, a 4-minute read.

The Digest

Stolen valor

One big thing: Impersonating a police officer is a crime. But that didn’t stop Jonathan Becker from pretending to be one 😂 

Becker owns a traffic operations company. A company could contract them to help manage traffic for road work, funeral services, etc. Every car in his fleet is outfitted to look like a real police car. From the sticker placement, light bars, and radar guns. Some are even real ex-police cars. Try and tell the difference between his fleet cars (pictured above) and real police cars.

Busted: While on a site, Becker pulled over an unmarked police car. This led to an investigation and felony charges.

The worst part: Most police departments are hiring, so why pretend? 🤦 

AWS awards

One big thing: An alternative way to tell how a city is doing would be how its tech looks.

The old news is Fishers winning livability awards year after year. The new news is that it is the only city in Indiana to win the AWS local gov champion award. Only a select few governments received it nationally.

Backstory: In 2006, Amazon created Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their e-commerce. It quickly turned into a global tool businesses heavily rely on today. AWS is by far Amazon’s most profitable arm, making them $23 billion in profit last year.

View the other award-winning cities here.

Local Business

Restaurant report cards: Where are we now?

Over the past year, the Fishers Health Department has worked with businesses to install health grades. Every business is required to display its grade in a visible location near the front.

Here’s how the system works: A point system that starts at 100. Points are deducted for bad practice. You can view how they break down the points here (61 points is the min to pass). Restaurants that received a lower grade can submit for a random re-grade at their own cost. Here’s the tally as of today (# of restaurants)

• Grade A - 294

• Grade B - 30

• Grade C - 13

Today, every business now has its placard up. Food trucks that operate in Fishers will have one next year. You can view the dashboard here.

The Happenings

Weekend Preview

Carmel’s Boo Bash

We’re all used to going door-to-door in the best neighborhoods for candy on Halloween. But have you ever thought about trick-or-treating at the mall? You can at Carmel’s Clay Terrace. 10 and under to participate. No rules on the candy Dad tax being in effect.

There will also be pet costume contests, beer gardens, performances, and more. Happens Saturday from 2 - 6 pm. Learn more here.

On the topic of Carmel, their first winter Farmer’s market happens this Saturday morning from 9 - noon.

The Headless Horsemen Festival is still going on at Conner Prairie this weekend. Hayride tickets are sold out, but normal admission tickets are good to go. Link to tickets here.

🎶 Live Music

Friday
Toy Factory | Britton Tavern | 10 pm
Jai Baker 3 | Parks Place Pub | 8 pm
Surge in Indy | Wolfies
Brad K Trio | Ale Emporium | 8:30 pm

Saturday
Brad McCord | Daniel’s Vineyard | 1 pm
Brothers Footman | Britton Tavern | 10 pm
Halloween Bash (Jai Baker) | Wolfies
Midnight Red Eye | Ale Emporium | 8:30 pm
Alexander Camp | Mashcraft Fishers | 5 pm
Bruce Barker | Mashcraft Fishers | 5 pm

Sunday 
The 78s | Daniel’s Vineyard | 1 pm

➡️ Have an event, live music, or similar coming up? Email us to get featured here. ⬅️ 

Game Corner 🎰 

Weekly recap

Here’s what readers clicked the most this week:

• 96th Street Revitalization

• Mayor telling a 96th Street joke

• Memorial tree signup

• 2024 vibrancy grants for neighborhoods

• Last Friday’s issue (most clicked/shared ever)

Quiz time!

Another week, another quiz! Answer the questions to see how well you’ve retained Fishers Digest this week.

1. What is the grant amount each neighborhood can apply for on November 1st?

2. True or False: A man in Fishers scammed investors with spaceship tech.

3. Who does the pumpkin catapult event support?

4. What is the name of the soon-to-be official police dog?

5. Which city in Indiana has the most used Safe Haven boxes in the country?

Answers at the bottom.

Quick Hits

Hitting snooze has no impact on sleep quality. In fact, hitting that snooze button multiple times can make you more alert than non-snoozers. At least, that’s what a new Swedish study says.

The Indystar is beefing with a new local news company. But they didn’t pick the fight. Free Press Indiana is a non-profit with a $10 million war chest. They’re raiding staff at the IndyStar, like their editor-in-chief (now CEO).

Famous movie theatre Alamo Drafthouse is opening its first location in Indiana. They’re known for their strict no-talking, no-texting policies while delivering good beer and food. The new location will open up in Lafayette Square Mall.

Fishers has been covering spooking stories about the city over the past month. Read the first and second stories here.

Community Recs

This week, I asked readers: What are your favorite places to eat in Fishers? Here are a few of the responses we got:

• Carol loves Tiger Lily 2 and says they always have fresh flowers

• HC Tavern is Thia’s “happy place” with their good vibes

• 1933 is Kassadi’s place — it’s swank and good for a kid-free night (she also has a secret rec, reply to this email for it 🙂 )

Let’s keep the train going. What’s the best thing to give out on Halloween?

✅ My vote: I handed out Pokemon Cards last year (there’s a Halloween pack you can get at Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, etc) and it was a huge hit. I’m pretty sure kids were telling each other to come because we ran out fast. They’re relatively affordable.

Thanks!

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If you found something useful, please share this with someone who prefers vanilla over chocolate.

Answer key

1. What is the grant amount each neighborhood can apply for on November 1st? $15,000

2. True or False: A man in Fishers scammed investors with spaceship tech. False. It was lasers.

3. Who does the pumpkin catapult event support? The Fishers Fire Department

4. What is the name of the soon-to-be official police dog? Archer

5. Which city in Indiana has the most used Safe Haven boxes in the country? Carmel

How’d you do? Leave some feedback if you got all five right so I can congratulate you 👏