NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce CEO Debra Teufel is looking forward to the unveiling of the Downtown Hutch Master Plan with Olsson Studios.
"They are putting the finishing touches on that plan," Teufel said. "They looked at dates in November and it looks like we will be hosting a public unveiling of the plan on November 30. Everyone mark your calendars for that. We're hoping to host that at Memorial Hall. That is not confirmed as the venue yet, but that's tentative."
The work on this has been ongoing since last fall.
"We're going to see the culmination of really, the last year of work that Olsson Studios has done with their team, with their economist, with local input from the local charettes that they held here in April," Teufel said. "We're really excited to see what they unveil. It's going to be everything from kind of creating downtown districts that coalesce, and what the needs are in those districts to really bring them to further life. It's capitalizing on the momentum that we already have. It's taking opportunities, like the Landmark, under new ownership and what we can do with the Landmark."
There are all sorts of economic development opportunities that could be used, but one previously used in Reno County came to Teufel's mind.
"We had a STAR Bond District years ago with the STRATACA Underground Salt Museum," Teufel said. "Maybe we can create momentum with a new STAR Bond District related to downtown and the corridors that feed into downtown, that would give us some new tools to apply to projects in downtown, that can really bring those to even greater life."
According to an audit of STAR Bond Districts conducted in 2021, the $4.8 million STRATACA project retired its bonds in 2013.
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