Deteriorating and dangerous brick streets in Hutchinson will be repaired | Opinion
- Deteriorating brick streets on Avenue B, east and west of Main Street in Hutchinson, are scheduled for resurfacing this summer.
- The project aims to improve safety, parking, and the driving experience in a busy area with heavy traffic to local businesses.
- While the old bricks hold historical value, the upgrade will modernize the streets and bring them up to current standards.
- City Manager Enrico Villegas and Councilman Greg Fast spearheaded the project after years of campaigning by residents.
After taking on railroad reluctance to maintain their property, a school board and administration obsessed with a bloated bond issue and cheering on a totally unnecessary "special election," an ultra-conservative local legislative delegation and public officials working for the costly demolition of an iconic but expensive to maintain local building, it's time for some good news in Hutchinson.
That comes with confirmation that a long-needed street maintenance project we've been campaigning years to obtain is on the way this summer. That would be those deteriorating and dangerous brick streets immediately West and East of Main Street along Avenue B.
Yes, thanks to City Manager Enrico Villegas and behind-the-scenes work by Councilman Greg Fast, those bumpy driving conditions in a busy section of town are scheduled for repairs and asphalt overlay as a part of the city's spring and summer street maintenance program.
While the old bricks have a sentimental and historic value to some in the neighborhood, there's going to be a significantly better motorist and walking experience along with increased safety and added parking once the roadway on both sides of Main are brought from 1900 to 2025 standards.
That's especially good news for increasingly heavy traffic going to and from some of our busiest south side businesses. That would include the Fair Price Clothing Store, Salvation Army Thrift Store, TECH creative center, The Burt ballroom and meeting center. That's not to mention a large number of stores in the Antique District, plus the iconic Anchor Inn Mexican restaurant.
That section of Avenue B has become so distasteful for drivers in recent years that some have avoided the journey fearing vehicle damage or being involved in an accident from people trying to navigate slip-shod parking spaces.
There's no exact timetable when work will begin or be finished, but Villegas and Fast say the big improvement will definitely happen this summer.
The same brick street in front of nearby city hall, only a half block away, has been overlaid for decades, but until now no one has been able to convince the city to do the same thing where there's even heavier traffic just a stone's throw away.
Soon our long driving nightmare just East and West of the B and Main intersection will be over. Another Chamber of Commerce Third Thursday celebration or Memorial Hall party (before that still justified building is bulldozed into oblivion) should be in the planning stage.
Dan Deming, former general manager of Hutchinson radio station KWBW and former Reno County commissioner, can be reached at 620-960-6733 or[email protected].