Josh Perry, HSE School Board Candidate by Larry Lannan

Cyrus Keck, a candidate for Hamilton Southeastern School Board District 2, joins Larry Lannan to discuss his priorities for HSE students, teachers and families.

The conversation covers teacher pay and retention, financial accountability, support for the operating referendum, charter school proposals and oversight of the superintendent. Keck also shares his views on college and career pathways, artificial intelligence in education and handling disagreements over school policies.

A parent of two HSE students, Keck explains why he entered the race and how his experience in board governance would inform his approach.

This episode of the LarryInFishers podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

World Alzheimer's Day is Monday, Sept. 21. This week's guest is Joe Kohler, director of operations for Griswold of North Suburban Indianapolis, which serves Fishers, Carmel, Noblesville, Westfield and the northern suburbs. Dementia accounts for about 80% of his clients, and he joins me to talk about what the disease actually looks like day to day.

We cover the early signs that go beyond ordinary forgetfulness, why that first phone call from a son or daughter is usually a request for respite, why families so often wait too long to ask for help, and what private-pay home care runs when there's no long-term care insurance. We also talk about where treatment stands — drugs like Leqembi and Kisunla can slow decline in early stages, and the FDA has cleared the first blood test to help diagnose the disease, but more than a century on there is still no cure.

The Alzheimer's Association estimates 7.4 million Americans 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's dementia this year. In Indiana, more than 121,000 people have the disease and more than 221,000 friends and family members are providing unpaid care.

The episode closes with a commentary on Canada — my weeks there in the 1980s, the people of Gander who took in stranded air passengers on Sept. 11, 2001, and what we risk losing in the current trade dispute.

Fridays with Larry is sponsored by Citizens State Bank. Learn more about their business and personal banking at mycsb.in.com/larry, or stop by the Fishers branch inside the Thomas A. Weaver Municipal Complex, 9 Municipal Drive, Suite 5. Member FDIC and an equal housing lender.

More local news at larryinfishers.com. Please like, subscribe and comment.

Fishers Public Health Director Monica Heltz joins Larry Lannan to break down the 2025 Fishers Community Health Assessment, released this year. Heltz explains what surprised her most in the data — including that adults 65 and older are the city's fastest-growing age group — and walks through the department's three priorities: mental health, aging well and healthy living.

The conversation covers the city's new mental health support specialist, a no-insurance-required navigation service now taking appointments; the survey finding that roughly 3 in 10 adults screened positive for possible depressive symptoms; the fall prevention program driven by EMS data; social isolation among newcomers, older adults and caregivers; the 23% of households in the two ZIP codes studied that are in poverty or struggling to meet basic needs under the ALICE measure; and racial disparities in low birth weight births. Heltz also discusses the roller coaster of state and federal public health funding and previews the Community Health Improvement Plan and a three-year strategic plan due by year's end.

This episode of the LarryInFishers.com podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank. Learn more at mycsb-in.com/larry or stop by the Fishers branch at the Thomas A. Weaver Municipal Complex. Member FDIC, equal housing lender.

Hamilton East Public Library is planning a third branch on Olio Road. What could it offer, and how can residents help shape it?

Library Director Melissa Loiselle and Assistant Director Molly Mrozowski join Larry Lannan to discuss the location, the goal of opening in 2028, financing plans and possibilities for indoor and outdoor spaces. They also explain why community input—including ideas from teenagers—matters as the design takes shape.

The conversation covers the library’s role in providing public internet access, concerns about potential changes to federal E-Rate support, budget pressures and how libraries balance quiet spaces with active programs.

This episode of the LarryInFishers podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank, member FDIC and an equal housing lender.

The first Meijer inside the Fishers city limits opens at 6 a.m. on Sept. 30, and its store director joins this week's podcast.

Janice Thongvanh, store director of the new Meijer Grocery at 15700 Southeastern Parkway, talks about the 75,000-square-foot food-focused store, filling more than 200 team member positions and 15 leadership roles, opening week giveaways, and her work on childhood hunger and food insecurity in Hamilton County — including what surprised her about need in an affluent community.

The episode opens with a look at how grocery competition is changing in Central Indiana, from Walmart's reshaping of the market to Kroger's price cuts reported by Reuters in May.

Also this week: Hamilton Southeastern and Fishers high schools a few weeks into Indiana's bell-to-bell phone ban, and why settling the classroom may be the easy part when YouTube is now the biggest thing on American television. Plus, robots demonstrate in Poland over AI regulation.

Fridays with Larry covers Fishers and Hamilton County, Indiana. New episodes every Friday at larryinfishers.com.

Sponsored by Citizens State Bank. Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender. mycsb-in.com/larry

Kelli Hoffman, co-executive director of the Noblesville nonprofit Healthy & Dwell, joins Larry Lannan to discuss what adults with serious mental illness face when they leave treatment and have nowhere stable to live. Healthy & Dwell operates a supportive housing home in Noblesville where residents pay 30% of their income toward rent and utilities and receive life-skills coaching and help navigating benefits — a model Hoffman says has kept residents employed, connected and out of acute care for three years. The organization is privately funded and is now building duplexes to expand.

Larry opens with commentary on why housing insecurity and mental illness are easy to overlook in a prosperous county, and why a discharge plan is not the same thing as a safe place to sleep. Also in this episode: the first successful late-stage trial of a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine from Merck and Moderna, and a South Carolina man with more than 2,000 pairs of socks chasing a Guinness World Record.

Learn more: healthyanddwell.org

More local news: larryinfishers.com

Sponsored by Citizens State Bank — mycsbin.com/larry. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

Fridays With Larry — August 28, 2026

No guest this week. Personal matters have taken up much of my time lately, so this edition is three commentaries from me.

First, journalism and the lines I believe reporters should not cross. I studied the craft during Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, and I was certain American journalism was libertarian — publish and let the chips fall. My teachers said otherwise, and the business taught me they were right. Reporters know far more than they report. I work through a Bob Kravitz column about the online sleuth who disclosed Bills lineman Ed Oliver's family tragedy, Kravitz holding the Chuck Pagano leukemia story in 2012, Adam Schefter's Andrew Luck scoop in 2019, and a local official I declined to report on who was later exonerated.

Second, Meta's settlement with 29 state attorneys general, Indiana among them, over claims Facebook and Instagram were built to hook children. Up to $17.1 billion over 10 years, about $5 billion of it contingent on TikTok and YouTube matching. Indiana's guaranteed share is $296 million and could reach $419 million — and nobody has said yet where it goes. Plus the product changes and how they line up with Hamilton Southeastern's bell-to-bell phone policy under Senate Enrolled Act 78.

Third, Dolly Parton, who died this week at 80 — the songwriter, entertainer and businesswoman who never forgot where she came from.

Fridays With Larry is part of the podcast lineup at LarryInFishers.com, covering city government, schools, sports and community news in Fishers and Hamilton County, Indiana.

https://larryinfishers.com

What does it take to respond to one of the most significant flooding events in Fishers history?

In this special edition of the Larry In Fishers Podcast, host Larry Lannan is joined by Mayor Scott Fadness, Fire Chief Ky Ragsdale, and Police Chief Ed Gebhart for an inside look at the city's response to the August 2026 flooding. They discuss how emergency decisions were made, the challenges of evacuating residents, coordination with neighboring communities, and the recovery efforts that continue today.

In the second half of the podcast, Fishers Police Major Mike Janes and Fishers Fire Battalion Chief Chad Abel take listeners to the front lines of the rescue operation. They explain the dangers of floodwater rescues, the specialized training required, and the teamwork that safely evacuated residents and their pets from rising water.

The episode also recognizes the important support provided by the Fishers Fire Corps, whose volunteers kept first responders supplied with food, drinks and logistical assistance throughout the emergency.

This is a behind-the-scenes account of how Fishers' police officers, firefighters, public works crews, city staff and volunteers came together during a historic natural disaster.

The Larry In Fishers Podcast is sponsored by Citizens State Bank. Learn more at mycsb.com/larry or visit the Fishers branch inside the Thomas A. Weaver Municipal Complex.

For more local news, visit LarryInFishers.com.

Competitive esports has become a major part of high school life, with organized teams, statewide competition and millions of dollars in available college scholarships.

On this episode of Fridays with Larry, Larry talks with Keaton Squires, mathematics teacher and esports coach at Hamilton Southeastern High School, about the rapid growth of esports, how the program operates, the opportunities available to students, and why the school is working to expand its gaming lab through community support.

Larry also shares commentary on America's growing wave of entrepreneurship and closes the program with an unusual story involving BASE jumpers at Seattle's Space Needle.

For information about supporting the Hamilton Southeastern High School esports program, contact:

Keaton Squires

Craig McCaffrey, Principal

Thank you for listening to Fridays with Larry, sponsored by Citizens State Bank.