HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council will give consideration to two utility projects during Tuesday’s agenda session.

The first is for maintenance on two of the city’s water towers. The first is at Adams and Avenue A. Work includes repairs to the structure and new lighting along with new graphics.

The second is the tower battery at Orchard Park along 43rd Avenue. Work includes routine maintenance and a check of the tower’s interior lining.

The other utility project is work at the wastewater treatment plant. The project includes replacing pumps and pipeline at the plant at a total cost of just over $342,000. Work should be completed by June of 2020.

The board will also discuss any possible name change to Avenue A Park after two proposals came forward for renaming the park. After some study, the recommendation to the council was to keep the name and name a future park after civil rights leader and Hutchinson resident Chester Lewis.

Tuesday’s Hutchinson City Council meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Hutchinson city offices.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After being brought up in open forum in the last meeting, the Hutchinson City Council will now take action on whether to change traffic patterns along South Main from Avenue C to Carey Park.

The matter first came up for discussion during the board comments portion for the agenda. Councilman Steve Dechant voiced the idea of eliminating two lanes of traffic on South Main then installing two bike lanes and parallel parking. The change would not cost the city anything since the road is being restriped anyway.

Both Dechant and Mayor Dave Inskeep wanted to bring the matter up for a vote at that time, but several members of the council balked at the idea stating that the matter needed to be brought before property owners along the corridor. A Facebook page was set up over the past week asking for opinions on the matter. Several other letters have come into City Manager John Deardoff’s office. Most are against any change. That includes Tyson, who has a processing plant on South Main. Councilwoman Jade Piros de Carvalho said the council can’t just change something because they are supporters of bike trails or the Complete Streets concept.

The matter got put on the fast track because city public works needs an answer by July 4.

The issue comes before the council Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the Hutchinson city offices.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Horizon’s Mental Health Center announced Thursday that Dr. Veronica Amey-Perrin, has been named its new Medical Director. She will join Horizons July 8.

Amey-Perrin completed her Psychiatric residency at the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education and received her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

At Horizons she will serve as Medical Director, as well as seeing a mix of inpatient and outpatient cases, along with patients in nursing homes. She will provide services in Reno and Kingman counties and in Anthony, Kansas. Most recently, Dr. Amey-Perrin worked with Ozarks Medical Center in West Plains, Missouri.

Mike Garrett, CEO at Horizons Mental Health Center, said Amey-Perrin was selected following a national search.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Mounting frustration with trying to hammer out a new rental inspection program for the city of Hutchinson lead to one member of the Housing Commission threatening to resign.

On Wednesday, the Housing Commission received the first draft of the revised Rental Registration and Inspection ordinance that has been drafted by a sub-committee over the last few months. This draft was accompanied by a red line from the City Attorney that included his comments on the enforceability and legality of the proposed ordinance. That’s been the sticking point ever since the City Council sent the matter back to the Commission questioning whether to continue the program beyond 2019. The changes were necessary after the state restricted the ability of the city to inspect a rental property.

According to new Planning Director Ryan Hvitlok, city staff provided the Commission feedback on the draft ordinance. The efforts to try and get such a program in place while trying to find ways to better enforce it, brought frustration to the point that commission member Tony Findlay threatened to resign his seat. Hvitlok stated Thursday morning that Findlay has not submitted his resignation from the board at this time.

“Understandably there has been a great deal of work put into this program on all sides,” Hvitlok said. “There is frustration from some members regarding the change in state law to how the City can do inspections. That frustration came out when the City Attorney and City Staff reiterated concerns regarding enforceability.”

No action was taken in the matter with the Commission. The City Council scheduled to meet in August to try and come up with solutions to keeping the program running and come up with ways to make sure landlords have safe rental property.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The HutchCC Board of Trustees will go over several business matters during tonight’s monthly meeting. Up for possible action is the renewal of insurance for the college.

If approved, rates would increase by more than $22,000 to $439,907.

The board will also go over the second reading of a new appeals process for grades and academic records for students.

The board will also go into executive session for contract negotiations.

Tonight’s meeting of the HutchCC Board of Trustees begins at 7 p.m. at Shears Technology Center on the college campus.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Housing Commission will hold its regular meeting this afternoon with the rental inspection program on the list of agenda items. The commission has been working to revamp the program over the past year and is preparing to make some recommendations to the city council later this summer. The change was necessary after the state took most of the teeth out of the current inspection program by restricting the way the city inspects a rental property.

The discussion that will come during the meeting includes a requirement that a landlord notifies the city 48 hours before the unit is vacant in order for an inspection to occur.

If the landlord provides the city the required 48-hour notice and an inspection is unable to occur before the tenant moves in, a non-inspection certificate will be issued and the landlord will inform the tenant that an inspection was unable to be completed. The tenant may be able to request an inspection within 15 days of move-in.

The changes are still in draft form and the intent is to prepare a final draft based on Housing Commission discussion as well as any public input.

If all goes as planned, the Housing Commission and the council will meet in a study session in August to discuss a course of action on the program.

Today’s meeting of the Hutchinson Housing Commission begins at 4 p.m. in the Hutchinson city offices.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The rainy, cool weather has not only closed off many parks and lakes, but it has also eaten into the swimming season. Ted Nelson with Hutch Rec says attendance at the Salt City Splash is down sharply from this time last year.

He attributes the downturn on the rain and cooler temps in May and early June. As of Monday, the total attendance at the Splash was at 11,364 compared with 13,718 last year. That’s a drop of 17%.

Nelson says things are rebounding as attendance in June is down only 6%. He hopes the hot weather will kick up the use of the pool.

The season also started slowly at the Buhler city pool, which is now run by Hutch Rec. Attendance in the month of May was only 199 with total attendance so far in June of 1,124.