HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council came to a consensus that due to the slight drop in property valuations, the mill level will have to increase by a fraction to keep the budget at this year’s level.

The council will ask for a .31 mill increase for 2020. “ It’s pretty much a revenue-neutral from the property tax revenues that we received for 2019, we’ll receive in 2020,” City Manager John Deardoff said. “ To get to that point we did a lot of work…well over $2 million worth of cuts from proposed budgets to get to that number.”

With that increase, the average tax bill for a $50,000 home would go up $1.79 for the year. The council did agree to add another $10,000 to the Chamber of Commerce budget raising their funding to $210,000.

The Council hopes to set a public hearing date on the budget during their first meeting in August.

NICKERSON, Kan. — After numerous meetings and interviews, the Nickerson USD 309 School District has its Interim Superintendent.

During last nights meeting, the district approved the hiring of former Hutchinson USD 308 administrator Jeanne Stroh.

Stroh will serve in the interim for Dr. Dawn Johnson who will be in military training for the next year. Stroh was the director of elementary education and an assistant superintendent for the Hutchinson school district when she worked for from 2009 to 2013. In 2013, she left to become superintendent of Ottawa USD 290. She retired from that post at the end of June 2018.

Stroh has a doctor of education degree in educational administration and supervision from Kansas State University.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After mounting frustration with the rental inspection program led to one member resigning, the Hutchinson Housing Commission will continue to work on the program during its Wednesday meeting.

Last month, the commission received the first draft of the revised program. According to new Planning Director Ryan Hvitlok, city staff provided the commission feedback on the draft ordinance. The efforts to try to get such a program in place while trying to find ways to better enforce it brought frustration to the point that commission member Tony Finlay resigned his seat.

The City Council is scheduled to meet in August to try to come up with solutions to keeping the program running and come up with ways to make sure landlords have safe rental property.

Wednesday’s meeting begins at 4 p.m. in the Hutchinson city offices.

NICKERSON, Kan. — Nickerson officials will try once again to appoint an interim superintendent for the district during a special meeting this evening.

The district has been trying to find a replacement for Dr. Dawn Johnson, who is leaving this week to attend the National Defense College in Washington, D.C.

The board has held several meetings over the past month, but has been unable to come up with Johnson’s replacement.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 5 with an executive session followed by the regular agenda session at 7 p.m. An interim could be named at that time.

The regular agenda session also includes the start of the year housekeeping duties, including naming a new board president and vice president.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It is still the greatest achievement of mankind: the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon on July 20, 1969.

This weekend the Cosmosphere celebrates with a full day of activities. Cosmosphere President Jim Remar says this is a chance for the museum and science center to really show its best stuff. “It’s exciting because we’re reliving one of the greatest achievements known to humankind,” Remar said. “Hopefully that really begins to ignite a spark in the future of space exploration.”

The Cosmosphere will host the Landing on the Lawn event to cap off the Apollo 11 celebration Saturday night. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for families to come out,” Remar said. “There’s going to be tons of activities and it will really just be a time to celebrate the accomplishment of Apollo 11.”

The landing of Apollo 11 will be followed of course by the 50th anniversaries of the other six Apollo moon missions that started with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 1 in January of 2018. Remar says he hopes the celebration of the six successful moon landings will reinspire those who were not around to witness those events. “We’re reaching a point in the country where there are more people who were born after the Apollo landings than were during it. So we’ve really got to educate the public today about what happened and get them excited about where we’re going,” Remar added.

Remar will spend the anniversary in Washington, D.C., to help with the celebration of the Apollo 11 landing event at the National Mall.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Regional Medical Center announced this week that Brian Rowan, Clinical Engineering Supervisor, addressed the American Society of Healthcare Engineers annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

Rowan joined 4,000 other delegates from across the nation at the meeting offering suggestions on developing board of director leadership, volunteer engagement and strong operational practices.

Rowan also accepted a Platinum Award on behalf of the Kansas Healthcare Engineers Association for successful efforts in training participating hospitals on best methods in achieving Joint Commission accreditations, compliance with Fire Marshal guidelines, and maintaining mechanical aspects, boilers and other mechanical needs necessary to efficiently run a hospital.

Rowan joined the engineering department at Hutch Regional in 2012.

HAVEN, Kan. — The Haven USD 312 School District and its teachers will try to close the distance between them when it comes to a new base salary when they meet in negotiations Friday.

The two sides are $2,000 apart when it comes to a base pay increase for the faculty. The teachers originally asked for a $6,014 increase. The district offered an increase of $2,014. That was rejected by the teachers who have countered with a raise of $4,014.

That offer was discussed during last week’s school board meeting. No details were disclosed from that executive session.

The teacher’s request would raise their base pay to $40,000 per year.