NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Debra Teufel with the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce said that just because the property for a new industrial park near Crupper's Corner has been annexed does not mean work will start right away.
"The cost of the infrastructure is such that we need some assurances that we have a project in place before the city will start actually putting a lot of money into infrastructure in the ground," Teufel said. "They have invested in a study about what steps need to be taken to get ready for that development."
Some of that has to do with modernizing the water rights they have.
"A lot of those pieces are taking those former water rights, the Carey Salt water rights, that the city has had for years and converting those over and actually starting some of the pieces within the City of Hutchinson, to get that water source to the treatment plant," Teufel said. "That is something that could happen in the next year without having to actually run that line under the river to get to the industrial park."
The annexation is a vital step to allowing large projects to take Hutchinson seriously as a future destination.
"Usually, to land a deal, you have to give assurances that land is annexed and properly zoned before they'll even take a look at you," Teufel said. "We've had the good fortune to be able to submit on some projects that we weren't quite there yet, but they still looked at us. I think this step last week was huge, in order to really be able to say we have an industrial park."
With that in mind, there is no specific project on the table at this point to tell anyone about.
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