NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Interim City Manager Mary Grace Clements on Wednesday noted the ability for the city to do additional work in its SAFE Sidewalks program this year.
"This year we had 55 applicants that came in, requesting over $170,000 worth of work to the sidewalks in the city," Clements said. "Out of the 55, we were able to award 17 of them. You had awarded a budget of $50,000. That came in a little bit over the $50,000, but we were able to work with the different commissions to find the over $4000 balance to be able to approve the 17 addresses."
The city was able to approve nine applicants in 2022.
"It's a five percent match from the homeowners to get the sidewalks redone," Clements said. "It's a 20 percent match from the landlords to get the sidewalks done. It's a great program to be able to improve around the community and we did take time to kind of focus on some of the major thoroughfares. You'll see, there's about five of them that will be done on 17th."
Clements encourages those who applied this year but didn't get awarded funds to apply again next year.
"It was put out for bid in March," Clements said. "It was approved in June and we'll have, that work will be done by the end of this year."
Clements also said they are working on other innovative ways to expand the program, but those still need to be fleshed out before she's ready to publicize them.
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