NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — William Nusser, a Hutch native and mayor of Larned, came to speak to the Hutchinson City Council about the meeting Tuesday night at Rice Park to hope to save the historic half-mile oval at the Kansas State Fairgrounds.
"With proper promotion, this should be a draw for the City of Hutchinson," Nusser said. "This should be something, we can bring in five to ten shows a year, bring in World of Outlaws and something that Hutch can actually maybe compete against Wichita in actually bringing dollars in versus seeing it go up 96 all the time. What they presented was, it was lack of use and return on investment. I quickly learned that was probably a moving goalpost that day, that really wasn't maybe their initial concern."
Nusser understands that it was a Fair Board decision and that it was made last November, but the plan for the extension of the VIP seating area and putting in a permanent stage that would necessitate the closure hasn't really been fleshed out at this point.
"Their plan is developing now, what to do with the space," Nusser said. "Financially, they don't have the money to develop the space. They kind of mentioned, when I met with them, we're going to have to do some fundraisers in there. They've basically budgeted $300,000 to demo the track and that's it. Last year, they went to the State Legislature and asked for $14.5 million in an appropriation for a lot of development, Bison Arena, great things. I'm very supportive of the fair. I want those things to happen, but nothing was mentioned for the development of that area. As we know, when you go to state legislators and grant funding, you go with a one-time bullet like that, and you're doing a huge request that they funded, they're not coming with another $14.5 million for that. The idea one of the guys proposed yesterday was, what if we had three years? As you develop your plan, as you develop the finances for that plan, just let us continue to use the racetrack until that is ready, but to demo it without a future plan is a little bit of our frustration. That's why, when we call for the meeting, we want them to articulate what their plan is for the space. At this point, there is no direct plan."
One of Nusser's continued concerns is that there is not a local representative with a seat on the Fair Board. In fact, his group had to file an open records request to even get a list of the members from the fair. It remains to be seen if the Fair Board will choose to explain themselves further. Kansas State Fair General Manager Bryan Schulz is aware of the meeting and he is scheduled to be on the radio later this week on KWBW, as well.
Tonight's meeting is at the Rice Park Community Building at 1801 Swarens at 6:30 p.m.
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