NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The two candidates for the northeast city council seat for Hutchinson agree on the general top issues, though they may mention them in a different order.
"We have a housing shortage," said incumbent Stuart Conklin III. "That's on two fronts. We need new housing development and new incentives to encourage that. We also have significant needs for rehabbing houses. When I say houses, this includes apartments, duplexes, etc. in the town, that are already here. Some are unoccupied, but many are kind of falling down in their liveability. In order to increase the population, we've got to have more housing available. We've also got to have more jobs, in order to bring more people that want to live here. In addition, you've got the child care problem. That is being worked on. The housing's being worked on. All these things are actually being worked on, including attracting new companies. So far, we haven't got this turned, and it needs to be."
Challenger Scott Meggers listed child care first.
"I really feel like child care is probably our number one priority," Meggers said. "We can't draw and hold employees or attract new employees to Hutchinson without quality child care. The other thing we have is, you know, we need affordable housing. We have a lot of housing that needs rehabbed and we also need new housing built. These issues are going to require collaboration from all sorts of entities of government the city council, the chamber and the county commission to make this happen. I feel like, if we can all come together and work on this as a joint venture, we can make a lot of these things happen."
Below are the podcasts of the full interviews with Mr. Conklin and Mr. Meggers, so you can hear their responses on multiple city issues before you vote Nov. 7.
Here is Conklin's interview:
Here is Meggers' interview:
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.