By Lucky Kidd
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Atrium Hotel and Conference Center Josiah Joseph made his pitch to the Hutchinson City Council Tuesday night with a plan for what he wants to with the property he’s been ordered to repair or demolish and asked the bond he is required to post before proceeding with his plan to convert the former Convention Center into retail space and the former hotel space into self-storage.
The Council wasn’t buying any of it.
Joseph brought with him a civil engineer from Dallas with drawings on what is being proposed, and asked for additional time to finalize those plans, promising he could have some work done by year’s end. He again repeated his claim he hasn’t done anything on the property for over five years because he thought the city would purchase it.
Council members said, in effect, they didn’t believe anything Joseph said or promised on anything at this point. Joseph also told the council no insurance company will issue him a two million dollar bond the city is requiring but might be able to get a one million bond.
Next move in this will come at the Oct. 1 meeting, when the Council could take action to demolish the property it declared unsafe and dangerous Aug. 20.
The Hutchinson City Council approved an ordinance establishing a STAR bond district connected with three projects. Under STAR bond financing sales taxes collected within the designated area are used to pay for designated projects, which for this plan would include the Landmark Hotel renovation and projects at the Cosmosphere and memorial Hall.
The district involved includes Main Street roughly from 7th to Avenue C and the area around Memorial Hall, the Hutchinson Community College campus on which the Cosmosphere is located, and a strip along 17th either side of K-61 that would include the under construction Hilton Garden Inn.
The tabled a proposal to designate the city’s hutchgov.com website as the official publication for most legal notices in lieu of the Hutchinson News. Council members discussed at length the pros and cons of making a change that’s been done by a number of cities, McPherson among them.
Also speaking on the proposal was Hutchinson Tribune publisher Michael Green, who indicated it might be interested in that designation, adding he is looking at the potential of adding a print edition that could handle legal notices. This would be like what Salina did in going with Salina 311, an online news website that has a print affiliate.
Labor memorandums of understanding with Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 and the two bargaining units with SEIU local 513 were ratified after being approved by their respective membership.
For FOP, which will have a two year agreement, officers will move to a new pay scale starting with the first pay period of 2025, and will increase wage scales by six percent on the bottom and 2.1 percent at the top, and for sergeants by 3.35 percent on the bottom and 5.4 percent on the top, plus an additional two percent increase across the board in 2026, along with adjustment to step advancement and adopting new guidelines for future negotiations.
For SEIU’s dispatch unit this provides a five percent base pay increase, none at the top of the sale, with a 4.5 percent merit pay matrix. Those under the main SEIU agreement will get a three percent increase in wage scales plus a 4.5 percent merit pay matrix. This contract also eliminates call-back provisions which start after 5 p.m. and adds language guaranteeing 32 hours of scheduled work during work weeks in which a city-designated holiday falls. The SEIU contracts are one-year agreements.
