NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A public meeting last week in South Hutchinson was designed to get more thoughts about the community's branding. That's one thing City Administrator Jeff Schenk saw was inconsistently executed as he came into the office.
"The green on my business cards didn't match the green on the sign out front," Schenk said. "The City Hall sign doesn't match the nature trail sign. The green on that doesn't match the water tower, which doesn't match the green on our website. It was just kind of a frustrating thing for me. Then, trying to start organizing things, picking Word fonts and things like that, I started getting out into the community and talking with residents and business owners, trying to figure out, kind of, what they wanted to see, kind of finding out that, really, nobody really felt like the Southern Hospitality, Kansas Style and the green and gold, they didn't feel like it represented them."
There is now a survey out to try to figure out the best direction for the community when it comes to messaging and color concepts.
"If we chose to stay with the same one, there's still going to be a cost to consolidate colors and try and match the schemes that we have," Schenk said. "The big thing with that, though, is looking at it as a cost or as an investment. We have two water towers that are going to need to be painted, we have all of the buildings that need to be updated and redone. We have a fleet of vehicles that need to have some logos and stuff put on them. When you're looking at the millions of dollars that you're going to end up spending, it's really a really small price and it's something that we get to keep for a very, very long time."
The City Council will still need to approve going forward with any changes, and in fact, there are even going to need to be some changes to where they meet.
"We have to redo the council chambers, just to bring it up to today's standards, being able to televise," Schenk said. "Different things that kind of are becoming an industry standard. I don't want to tear apart a room and paint it one color, then have something change. I want to do everything one time."
The next meeting of the South Hutchinson City Council is Monday, Feb. 26.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.