m
Recent Posts
Business
Community Reporting, Culture
Connect with:
Saturday / May 3.
SECTION
logo
mobile-logo
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 64)
City News, Uncategorized

Construction and Engineer Manager Justin Karam talked about the construction plans for phase ll of the Woodie Seat Freeway project with a community member. The feedback session for phase II was held in the SW Bricktown district at Ave. A school on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. CREDIT EMMI BOESE

By Emmie Boese

The City of Hutchinson hosted a feedback session on the Woodie Seat Freeway Phase II Improvements project at Avenue A School on Monday night. However, the session was heavily focused on how phase II of the project will affect the S.W. Bricktown neighborhood. 

City staff displayed poster boards with questions for those in attendance who reside in the SW Bricktown district. Residents had the opportunity to post their feedback to each question on sticky notes regarding details about phase II of Woodie Seat. Questions for resident feedback included what works well for sidewalks, medians and curbs, what will work well for detour routes during construction and feedback about what would be best for lighting and tree planting on the Woodie Seat Freeway. 

The city’s construction and Engineering Manager, Justin Karam, said phase II of the project will involve Ave. A, Ave. B, and Ave. C. 

“With this project, we are going to be tying into the North end of Ave. C and that will be the start of the new trajectory to the roundabout at (Ave) A,” Karam said. “So basically, we need a tie in there to get the correct slope to tie into the roundabout at a safe angle. So with that process, Avenue B bridge will be removed, and it’ll basically be a sloped roadway across where there is currently Ave. B bridge. So with this project, we are going to be adding sidewalk connectivity over into Madison over to Adams and then also up to Sherman and Jefferson and then also improve connectability down and underneath Ave. C bridge to help the neighborhood stay connected.”

The SW Bricktown neighborhood’s boundaries are set between Ave. F and Fourth Ave from Washington St. west to Cow Creek. Karam said phase I of Woodie Seat involved improvements to a portion of Woodie Seat south of Ave. C and down to the river. 

The biggest part of the project is taking out this trumpet loop and this will improve the safety of the intersection,” Karam said. 

Other planned improvements in the constructed area of phase II include water line improvement and traffic control improvement. 

“We are going to be doing a water line improvement connect all through (Ave.) A to improve that while we are there,” Karam said. “So doing some utility improvements while we have everything ripped up.”

Karam said traffic control improvements will be made at the intersection of Ave. A and Adams St. 

“So we are going to be improving the camera. It’s going to go from a timed intersection that’s really slow and clunky to where you pull up, and it’s responsive, so it’s kind of a modern take on that,” Karam said. “That should really help improve the efficiency of that corridor.” 

Karam said phase II of the project is worth $4 million as of now. On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the city will hold a bid-letting for the project, during which the contractors will submit their bids. The city will then consider finalizing the cost of the project. 

So when we get those in we will select the very low bidder, we’ll bet the bids and we’ll start lining them up to get a contract with a selected contractor,” Karam said. 

The city plans to be under contract by the end of the year, Dec. 31, 2024, in order to have ARPA funds allocated in time. 

0 Comments

Construction and Engineer Manager Justin Karam talked about the construction plans for phase ll of the Woodie Seat Freeway project with a community member. The feedback session for phase II was held in the SW Bricktown district at Ave. A school on Monday, Nov. 25,

Sports

You are unauthorized to view this page.

0 Comments

By John Mesh The No. 3-ranked Hutchinson Community College football team is Georgia-bound. The Blue Dragons (9-1) are the third seed in the NJCAA Playoffs and will play No. 2-ranked Georgia Military College (10-1) Sunday, Dec. 8, at Davenport Field in Milledgeville, Ga. It is the first matchup

County News

From left: Reno County Commissioners John Whitesel, Ron Hirst, Randy Parks, Don Bogner and Daniel Friesen CREDIT SANDRA MILBURN/RENO COUNTY

The Reno County Commission will tackle a busy agenda on Wed., Nov. 27.

Resolutions to extend the solar power moratorium and to adopt the FEMA emergency management regional plan will be discussed.

The commissioners will consider a separate resolution to merge all Reno County fire districts into one county-wide district.

Representatives of the Make My Move program, which recruits people to live in Reno County, will give a presentation.

The meeting agenda and supporting documents are available on the commission’s website.

The Reno County Commission meets at 9 a.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month and on the fifth Wednesday if one falls on the calendar in the Veterans Room in the Reno County Courthouse.

0 Comments

From left: Reno County Commissioners John Whitesel, Ron Hirst, Randy Parks, Don Bogner and Daniel Friesen CREDIT SANDRA MILBURN/RENO COUNTY The Reno County Commission will tackle a busy agenda on Wed., Nov. 27. Resolutions to extend the solar power moratorium and to adopt the FEMA emergency management

School Board News

CAPTION: Hutchinson School district’s strategic plan has four main areas of focus, resources, early childhood learning, student achievement, and culture. CREDIT USD308

By Kate Irelan

Hutchinson School Superintendent Dr Dawn Johnson presented the progress the district has made on its strategic plan goals, including increasing staff salaries, increasing graduation rates, decreasing chronic absenteeism, adding childcare and daycare centers and introducing pre-k to kindergarten pilot programs at the USD 308 Board of Education meeting Monday evening.

Johnson explained that the strategic plan has four main areas of focus: resources, early childhood learning, student achievement, and culture. Johnson said that she quantified all the areas except culture because it requires different ways to measure progress. 

She determined that they are 45% complete on reaching goals for school resources, and work on 33% of the goals in this area has not started yet. Some of the goals they’ve accomplished include reducing faculty by about 50, calling it right-size faculty, increasing teacher pay to $46,000 and classified staff pay to $15.25/hour making the district number one in staff pay.

For early childhood learning, Johnson indicated they have started work on all the goals and have completed 33% of those goals including starting construction on childcare and daycare centers, special education serving Head Start and pre-k, and introducing pre-k to kindergarten pilot programs. 

Seventeen percent of the goals are complete in student achievement including raising the graduation rate from 86% to 92.1%, reducing chronic absenteeism from 30.6% to 21.54%, and increasing 3rd grade reading levels from 50% to 51.21%.

Board president Laura Corey reported some anecdotal progress for the strategic plan focus on culture. She said she attended the orchestra festival hosted by Hutchinson schools and there were about 400 to 500 middle school and high school students who attended and teachers and students were helping make the event a success. Corey said, “At events like this I think was a very clear example of how our staff work hard to create an engaging culture we can be proud of. It was nice we got to host it. People were coming to Hutchinson, enjoying the event, staying in hotels, and spending money.”

One action item in the meeting was to consider the final wording of the bond resolution. The board unanimously approved in a roll call vote. Gleysha Mendez-Rosario was absent. The Hutchinson Tribune reported on this bond on November 23.

Other items discussed were:

Board members are to complete their Superintendent evaluation by December 9.

The employee-led benefits committee made a change to the health insurance.

New graphic wraps for 2 school buses with a primarily black design.

The school accreditation model will be changing from every 5 years to annual.

The district will host representatives from Teacher of the Year on December 12.

Operations director Randy Norwood will have a retirement party on December 9.

The USD 308 board meets every second and fourth Monday of the month at 6:00 p.m. in the Administration Center, 1520 N. Plum. For more information and to view the agenda or minutes of the meetings, visit their website, https://www.usd308.com/page/boe.

0 Comments

CAPTION: Hutchinson School district's strategic plan has four main areas of focus, resources, early childhood learning, student achievement, and culture. CREDIT USD308 By Kate Irelan Hutchinson School Superintendent Dr Dawn Johnson presented the progress the district has made on its strategic plan goals, including increasing staff salaries,

Upcoming Events

Thursday Nov 28 THANKSGIVING DAY

Friday Nov 29

  • KSHSAA 2A Football State Championship, 6 p.m. at Gowans Stadium
  • “Wicked,” 7 p.m. on the Carey Digital Dome at the Cosmosphere
  • “Nuncrackers,” 7:30 p.m. at the Flag Theater, 310 N Main St. Tickets available at the box office and on the Family Community Theatre website. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday Nov 30

  • KSHSAA 3A Football State Championship, 12 p.m. at Gowans Stadium
  • KSHSAA 1A Football State Championship, 5 p.m. at Gowans Stadium
  •  “Wicked,” 7 p.m. on the Carey Digital Dome at the Cosmosphere
  • “Nuncrackers,” 7:30 p.m. at the Flag Theater, 310 N Main St. Tickets available at the box office and on the Family Community Theatre website. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday Dec 1

  • Museum Store Sunday, 9 am – 5 p.m. at the Cosmosphere
  • “Wicked,” 5 p.m. on the Carey Digital Dome at the Cosmosphere
  • “Nuncrackers,” 3 p.m. at the Flag Theater, 310 N Main St. Tickets available at the box office and on the Family Community Theatre website. Doors open at 2 p.m.
0 Comments

Thursday Nov 28 THANKSGIVING DAY Friday Nov 29 KSHSAA 2A Football State Championship, 6 p.m. at Gowans Stadium “Wicked,” 7 p.m. on the Carey Digital Dome at the Cosmosphere “Nuncrackers,” 7:30 p.m. at the Flag Theater, 310 N Main St. Tickets available at the box office and on the

Uncategorized

CAPTION: CREDIT HUTCHINSON FIRE DEPARTMENT

The Hutchinson Fire Department responded to the 1200 Block of North Severance for a report of a structure fire with fire showing.

That’s according to a press release issued by HFD Sunday afternoon.

HFD E5 arrived on the scene first and found a row apartment with heavy fire and smoke pushing out of all the windows in one apartment. The fire was also venting from the attic over the affected apartment.

Crews started a fire attack on the outside of the structure and entered the apartment. Other crews on the scene were able to search and remove all occupants from the other six apartments. A passerby called the fire in and also started the evacuation of all the apartments.

The fire caused heavy damage to one apartment and the attic space. The other apartments were not affected. The structure did not have a sprinkler system or working smoke alarms. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Hutchinson Fire Department Fire Mashal.

CREDIT HUTCHINSON FIRE DEPARTMENT


HFD would like to thank our partner agencies. Hutchinson/Reno County Emergency
Communications, Reno County EMS, Hutchinson Police Department, Kansas Gas, and Evergy.

0 Comments

CAPTION: CREDIT HUTCHINSON FIRE DEPARTMENT The Hutchinson Fire Department responded to the 1200 Block of North Severance for a report of a structure fire with fire showing. That's according to a press release issued by HFD Sunday afternoon. HFD E5 arrived on the scene first and found

Culture

CAPTION: Marketing & Development Coordinator of TECH KT Gates thanked supporters and attendees of TECH's annual gala, hosted at Memorial Hall Saturday evening. CREDIT MICHAEL GLENN/THE HUTCHINSON TRIBUNE By Michael Glenn TECH hosted its annual gala Saturday evening at Memorial Hall, helping raise funds for […]

You are unauthorized to view this page.

0 Comments

CAPTION: Marketing & Development Coordinator of TECH KT Gates thanked supporters and attendees of TECH's annual gala, hosted at Memorial Hall Saturday evening. CREDIT MICHAEL GLENN/THE HUTCHINSON TRIBUNE By Michael Glenn TECH hosted its annual gala Saturday evening at Memorial Hall, helping raise funds for TECH’s mission

Opinion

By Gina Long

Reno County has some interesting roads. Despite its reputation as a flat area, the area north of Hutchinson to the county line is hilly, and we do have quite a few roads that curve to avoid natural features such as creeks.

A few of our manmade intersections defy logic. Fourth Ave. and Plum St. turns into a game of automobile chicken when someone doesn’t understand the lane markings.

The crazy double lights westbound at 17th and Main St. are confusing. When the lights turn red and I’m already under the first set, do I stop for the second set? Do I back up? Someone please explain this to me.

The westbound lanes at 11th and Plum St. near the Cosmosphere are confusing for many people unfamiliar with the intersection, and the right-turn-only lane sneaks up fast. The NJCAA Men’s National Basketball Tournament and the state fair bring newcomers to Hutchinson, who invariably wind up trying to go straight through the narrow westbound intersection.

I dread the 30th and K-61 and 23rd and Lorraine intersections because of the number of drivers who hurl themselves at high speed through red lights. I have seen the aftermath of too many avoidable accidents at both.

But the intersection I fear most is Main St. and Highway 50 in So. Hutchinson. The Love’s truck stop, the Kwik Shop, and McDonald’s bring a lot of commerce and thick traffic to the highway on- and off-ramps with obstructed views, primarily due to the highway’s bridge supports. Using the westbound on-ramp involves a short distance, uphill, and along an obstructed curve. Turning south onto Main St. requires X-ray vision and a lot of luck.

I haven’t sought the traffic data to see which Reno County intersection draws the most accidents, so my observations may be inaccurate.

It seems that poorly planned and constructed intersections often require a body count before modifications are made. Traffic control signals would be an excellent start to facilitate safe left turns from both off-ramps.

Traffic signal lights at Love’s would help larger vehicles, such as semi-trailers and recreation vehicles, enter and exit and help motorists turn northbound on Main St.

I hope the City of South Hutchinson and KDOT are working on a solution. The intersection is a vibrant commercial area that generates a lot of revenue, and making it safer should be a priority for upcoming economic development.

4 Comments

By Gina Long Reno County has some interesting roads. Despite its reputation as a flat area, the area north of Hutchinson to the county line is hilly, and we do have quite a few roads that curve to avoid natural features such as creeks. A few of