Co-Chairs Joe Grieshaber, President of Dillons Stores, and Dennis Queal Senior Vice-President and CFO of Data Center, Inc., talked with us after the Chamber Breakfast Thursday morning at the Ramada Inn Conference Center in Hutchinson. 

The Hutchinson-Reno County Chamber of Commerce began their new campaign Thursday called, “Building on Success.”

This picks up where the, “Spirit of Success” ended which lasted nearly 8-years, much longer then the intended five years, according to Chamber President Dave Kerr.

The group is trying to raise 1.5-million dollars from area businesses to add to the successes they’ve had over those 8-years, including bringing the Siemens plant to Hutchinson. As of Thursday morning, they had already raised over 900-thousand dollars.

Officials say they want to work on bringing new business to the area, retain existing business, add to the workforce, market the communities vibrancy, and have a contingency reserve.

They want to add 2-thousand jobs over the next 5-years, but also argue that it will have a ripple effect with another 1,900 indirect jobs, and a projected injection of 125-million dollars in new payroll earnings, and a projected increased sales tax revenue of 3.5-million for Hutchinson and Reno County.

Over the next five years, they hope to increase retail sales by 10%, add to the population by 1.5%, or a thousand more residents. They say the population of Hutchinson and Reno County has remained flat. They also want to attract younger people to Hutchinson, namely people in the 25-to-44 age group. They would like to increase that number by 3%.

They plan to continue asking local businesses to contribute to this campaign which would be payable over the next 5-years.