NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — This week is a big week for the Downtown Hutch Master Plan.
"The Olsson Studios team is arriving and will be here Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week," said Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce CEO Debra Teufel. "The first opportunity for the public to gather will be at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday. There we will hear an overview of the process and kind of see where we've come to this stage of the evaluation of our community. Then, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, they are going to take a deeper dive into some of the issues and opportunities for our Downtown Hutch area. The rest of Tuesday they will be at work in their studio preparing for Wednesday."
The public is invited to a Downtown Hutch Master Plan Open House on Wednesday, April 12 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Memorial Hall, 101 S. Walnut. There will be a stakeholder session from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday before that.
"Stakeholders are some of those people who may have been involved in some of the visioning sessions," Teufel said. "It's anybody really that has a stake in downtown. Whether it's a downtown business owner or someone who lives in the neighborhood, or someone who just shops downtown and is curious about what the improvements to downtown might be. Stakeholder is really a wide open term. That will be from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m."
Residents also are invited to have their voices heard in a public survey that is available now online. The online survey is available to take through April 28.
"They will take the results of that survey as well as the online visioning session that we had earlier in February and kind of take all the culmination of that research, but also some of the economic research they have been doing about our community, then over the next couple of months, they are going to be finalizing their report and then will deliver that this fall."
More information about the Downtown Hutch Master Plan and opportunities to get involved can be found on the project website, www.DowntownHutchMasterPlan.com.
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