(TOP LEFT) No. 10 on Facebook: Jake Chesney was named Sheridan’s new football coach in January 2025. (TOP CENTER & RIGHT) No. 1 on Facebook: April Phillips, pictured above right, said that during the call the family made to the HOA, they were “made to feel kind of criminal” for asking about getting approval for a wheelchair ramp for her son, Corban, shown above center. (ABOVE LEFT) No. 7 on Facebook: Parkview Health, headquartered in Ft. Wayne, has entered into a management partnership with Riverview Health, based in Noblesville. (ABOVE RIGHT) No. 6 on Facebook: Noblesville’s sweetheart couple Aaron Head (Noblesville’s Community Engagement Manager) and Lindsey McVey (Co-Founder & Marketing Director of the Indiana Peony Festival) found that Hallmark kind of love in the heart of Noblesville at the Indiana Peony Festival.
Top 10 (times 2) stories from 2025
Observing the tradition of hometown newspapers across the country and across the decades, The Reporter looks back at the top stories from 2025. Many newspapers pick what they think the most significant stories were, but this is your hometown newspaper, so we let our readers decide what mattered most.
The following list was compiled from our website, ReadTheReporter.com. In the spirit of Hoosier native David Letterman, we are counting down our Top 10 list from No. 10 to No. 1.
Senate Enrolled Act 1 (SEA 1) is the so-called “property tax relief bill” that reduces individual homeowner property tax bills by a minor amount. It continues to cause problems for government entities across the state. One of the problems coming from the 345-page document that is SEA 1 arose from the sheer complexity of changing too much too fast with too little actual tax relief. Hamilton County tax revenue was found to be just under $625 million less than originally anticipated, which meant Hamilton County is going through a recertification process for 2026 tax revenue coming from the net assessed value of real estate.
In March, Kroger broke ground on the Kroger Marketplace located at the corner of 146th Street and Howe Road. There was enough reader interest in getting a grocery option with wider aisles, a Murray’s Cheese, a Starbucks, and other amenities to land this article firmly in our Top 10. Helping them make the cut was a $10,000 donation Kroger and Coca-Cola Consolidated combined donation to the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville on the day the shovels hit the dirt.
In January, the announcement that the Fishers Community Center was set to open in November and membership pre-sales would begin Feb. 10 was wildly popular news. The fee schedule for memberships was either complex or complicated (depending on your perspective), which may account for the number of readers who came back to this article again and again for details.
Also in January, five young women from Hamilton County earned their spots at the first-ever IHSAA state finals for girls wrestling. Three Hamilton Heights wrestlers qualified out of the Rochester regional, and two wrestlers from Carmel qualified from the Alexandria regional.
Heading into Severe Weather Preparedness Week in central Indiana back in March, Hamilton County Emergency Management (HCEM) encouraged residents to prepare for severe weather season. HCEM played host to the National Weather Service’s Storm Spotter training. This year’s event was held virtually.
In March of 2024, The Reporter spoke to Marty Irby, who serves as the president of Competitive Markets Action and as board director for The Organization for Competitive Markets about the growing Chinese control of the American food supply. While this story was published in 2024, it is firmly in the middle of this year’s Top 10 list for all the obvious reasons, and perhaps a few less-than-obvious ones.
Maggie Baugh, usually labeled as a rising country music star, is a multi-genre entertainer who sings and plays several instruments. She was in Carmel for one night only, Friday, Oct. 17, at Feinstein’s at Hotel Carmichael, 1 Carmichael Square. A couple weeks before the show, The Reporter had the chance to talk to Baugh about her life, her music, and what to expect at the show, which sold out completely shortly after we published our story.
Signs of Life: The American Pink Floyd – a tribute to one of the most legendary rock bands of all time, was the free inaugural concert at The Arena at Innovation Mile in August. Our preview article with details on how to get tickets to the show landed at the number three position in this year’s Top 10 list.
Our second weather-related article on this list made it all the way up to the No. 2 spot. Just before a blizzard that dumped foot of snow fell on parts of Indiana in January, we published an article about how Hamilton County and the Indiana Department of Transportation were preparing for the storm.
Coming in at No. 1 was an article about Dr. Robert Malinzak performing Indiana’s first cementless partial knee procedure. No one at The Reporter had any idea this story would get the kind of (pardon the pun) traction it takes to be the most-read story on our website for the year.
Social media followers’ picks
Newspaper subscribers and social media followers are very different creatures. Thus, our social media Top 10 is a very different list. Those who prefer scrolling through social media might click that “see more” link to at least get to the end of the first sentence, and if their interests are piqued they will even click again for the full story on our website if they are interested enough or have the time in our now-hectic world for the details. The following are stories behind the top posts on our social media account this year.
The announcement that Jake Chesney had been named the next head coach of the Sheridan Blackhawks football program was the 10th most popular post among our social media followers this year. Chesney stepped into the role following the legendary tenure of Coach Bud Wright, who led the Blackhawks for an incredible 59 seasons.
Indianapolis surgical sales specialist David Rivotto and his wife Shayre are new restaurateurs who opened Indiana’s first Voodoo Brewing location at 8729 Front St., Fishers. Our interview with the owners in September, long before Voodoo opened, was the ninth-most engaging post of 2025.
Sometimes statistics and coincidences are fascinating. This story, which is also No. 8 on our top website engagement list, is also No. 8 on social media for 2025.
After readers reached out to this newspaper with questions and concerns about the potential fate of Riverview Hospital now that it has entered into a managed service agreement with Parkview Health, The Reporter spoke with Dr. Greg Johnson, chief physician executive of growth and emerging markets for Parkview Health, and with Dr. William Kirsch, vice-chairman of the Riverview Health Board of Directors, about what this working relationship means for Hamilton County’s hometown hospital.
Noblesville’s sweetheart couple Aaron Head (Noblesville’s Community Engagement Manager) and Lindsey McVey (Co-Founder & Marketing Director of the Indiana Peony Festival) found their “forever” in the heart of Noblesville. They first met at the Indiana Peony Festival vendor tent at the Noblesville Main Street Farmers Market, and they got engaged at Seminary Park. In a world too focused on negative news, it’s nice to see a feel-good story firmly in the Top 10.
The Carmel High School aquatic center was the first of three stops on the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup 2025 North American tour.
In February, Hamilton Southeastern Schools (HSE) announced that for the first time in its history, families living outside the district’s boundaries will have the opportunity to apply for enrollment. Hamilton Southeastern Schools is Indiana’s third largest school district, serving more than 21,000 students across Fishers and parts of Noblesville.
The announcement that Hague Road just north of the intersection with State Road 32 would close as crews constructed a new roundabout as part of the Reimagine Pleasant Street project in Noblesville came very close to taking the No. 1 spot. Even in a county that is weary to the point of numbness over constant road construction, which now appears to go on year-round, this garnered lively debate.
The population of Atlanta is approximately 760, but on the weekend of New Earth Festival each year, 60,000 to 100,000 visitors come to town for a festival that started all the way back in 1974. Our preview of this year’s festival was firmly in the No. 2 spot.
In the No. 1 spot is an article from our news gathering partners at WISH-TV Channel 8. Corban Phillips was partially paralyzed while on a trampoline during gymnastics practice in Westfield. When his family was preparing to move to a new home in Noblesville, they were denied approval from the homeowners’ association (HOA) for a safe wheelchair ramp because of the way it’s designed.
