Fishers City Council President Todd Zimmerman & Vice President Richard Block Talk Family, Community & Goals
Writer: Jon Shoulders
As leaders of the nine-member Fishers City Council, President Todd Zimmerman and Vice President Richard Block are excited to be serving the local community that both have been part of for more than 25 years.
Zimmerman’s family moved to Fishers in 1989 when he was 16, and in recent years, he’s had the opportunity to forge relationships with many local businesses in his professional capacity as an insurance broker and advisor with Brown & Brown. With three children in fourth, sixth and ninth grade, Zimmerman serves as a board member and coach for the Southeastern Program of Recreational Team Sports (S.P.O.R.T.S.), spending many a weekend coaching and refereeing basketball games.
A City Council member since 2015, Zimmerman was elected to the presidency in early January.
“My family has grown to really appreciate what the city has to offer,” Zimmerman says of his wife Nikki and their sons, Joshua, Elijah and Benjamin. “We love the outdoor movies at the amphitheater, and I love taking the kids sledding at Flat Fork Park. The city has had a lot of success lately and the council is going to keep an eye on infrastructure and make sure funding is at appropriate levels, so the mayor and the city are able to keep that success going.”
Block grew up in New York State and Connecticut before finishing his master’s degree in business administration at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1988 and relocating with his wife Betsy to Indy the following year. By 1993 the couple had settled in Fishers as one of the first to move into the Hamilton Proper neighborhood.
As president of Paragon Realty, Block has seen firsthand the development strides Fishers has made commercially and hopes the Council, alongside Mayor Scott Fadness, can help foster not only the city’s commercial and residential development but also its social well being.
“With the social things that the council doing, including what (Council member) Cecilia Coble is doing in the disability area and the Mental Health Task Force that’s been formed, creating a stronger social fabric within our community is something that we’re trying to help along,” says Block, who has three sons living in Denver and Chicago, and a daughter attending Hamilton Southeastern High School. “It’s not just about economic development.”
Both Zimmerman and Block feel Fishers is poised to improve on its status as a diverse, family-friendly setting, and Zimmerman says starting this year, the last 30 minutes of each City Council meeting will be devoted to comments, concerns and questions from the general public, to further engage residents throughout the city.
“I really want Fishers to be that place where you can be born and raised here and go to excellent schools, and then have an opportunity to come back even if you leave for college and find a good paying job that meets your skill sets and passions,” Zimmerman says. “I want it to be a community where people want to work, live and play. That’s what keeps me motivated as a member of the Council.”
For more on the Fishers City Council and city-related news updates, visit fishers.in.us.
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