By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutch Rec is hoping that they see continued recovery in the summer events that were slowed by the pandemic over the past two years. Even with COVID, the summer rec programs were still steady.
“We found there was still a need for that during that time and so we were able to maintain those tournament levels,” Hutch Rec Director Tony Finlay siad. “We’ve added more tournaments over the years since we took over operations in 2015.”
Finlay says the city’s efforts to make improvements to Fun Valley have added to the growth in the summer baseball and softball tournaments at the complex.
“We’re just excited to be able to provide that facility to the Hutch residents, then use that facility on weekends to bring people to Hutch,” Finlay said.
Finlay adds that the new bleachers and other improvements have made Fun Valley a place where out of town teams want to come play on weekends as well as supporting the local youth leagues.
“When we run our local and competitive recreation leagues we have 800 to a thousand kids utilizing those facilities,” finlay said. “Then just being able to offer tournaments on the weekend that bring 30, 40, 60 teams into town for the weekend.”
One change that was approved during this week's joint meeting between the city council and Hutch Rec was to reallocate funds that were to be used for the new concession stand at Hobart-Detter Field in Carey Park. Because of high construction costs, that project has been put on hold.
“It was just not responsible with the amount of funds that are available to us, so we are reallocating those to the renovation of the Fun Valley concession operation,” Finlay said. “Hopefully we’re able to design a concession stand that has multiple windows, our lines will be shorter, and our food will be faster for those residents coming out during the week for our local leagues and of course for our tournament operations for the weekend.”
Finlay says when construction costs level out they will re-address the concession stand at Hobart Detter Field.
CLICK HERE to download the HutchPost mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily HutchPost email news update.