What do you think of when you think of Hutchinson?
For Chandlerthinks, a Tennessee-based marketing and branding company the city hired to help with a branding initiative, the answer was "A City On Purpose." On Aug. 25, the City Council approved the phrase as Hutchinson's new official tagline.
The tagline comes with a new logo designed to be easy to read with a clean font and three arches to symbolize the waterfall at the downtown Crow River dam. It's meant to be an uplifting logo with a flow that draws the eye from bottom to top. Both the tagline and logo will be used as a key part of a marketing and branding plan to be developed moving forward. Work will continue over the next four to six months with additional focus group meetings, refinement of the overall branding message and more work in relation to the city's story.
"We still have a lot of work to do on this project," said City Administrator Matt Jaunich.
Council Member Mary Christensen said the overall project is important to Hutchinson, and that the components offered by Chandlerthinks came after, "they looked at every aspect of our community."
"I was really curious what they would come up with," said Council Member Steve Cook. "We don't have one thing. We just have a great quality of life and things that add into that."
The logo and tagline have an extra component: a story to go along with it. In summary, the story submitted by Chanderthinks reflects on the foundation of Hutchinson by the Hutchinson brothers, opening with the three standing on a hill overlooking the Crow River. They had found the perfect place to establish a city that stood for the values and human rights they had for years expounded through their popular music. The city's early laws pushed back against slavery and pushed for women's rights, creating a reputation of trailblazing in Hutchinson.
More than 160 years later, the city stands with a vision for the future, the story says. It has a commitment to decisions to improve the quality of life of its residents, is home to many festivals and attractions often associated with large cities, but maintains a small town spirit and acts as a regional manufacturing hub.
The story, logo and tagline are the result of a marketing and branding study that began in May. City staff and elected officials were looking for new tools to promote the city.
"Cities do this every day," Jaunich said. "We're always marketing or branding our city whether we know it or not, whether we're talking about how great our park system is or our school system."
The survey included more than 800 participants, 24 interviews with community stakeholders, 47 participants in focus groups and the completion of 312 community surveys. The study found four key insights it used to create the tagline, logo and story:
- The personality, values and reputation of Hutchinson reflect that of a small, rural, blue collar town: honesty, hard work and a safe, friendly and supportive environment.
- Hutchinson has a strong history of progressive collaborative thinking that juxtaposes with its conservative nature, as seen through the tenants of its founding, the city's sale of compost and the school's TigerPath program.
- Downtown Hutchinson, the Crow River and area parks and trails create an aesthetic that draws the community together.
- Hutchinson is a rural hub to other small towns for jobs, dining, healthcare, shopping and social activity.
Jaunich noted a community survey showed locals found the city is lacking on options for shopping and dining, but research found people who visit Hutchinson do so because they see it as having those options. He also pointed out that in conversations, locals used both the word "conservative" and "progressive" to describe Hutchinson's values.
"That's just not something that's (normally) combined in the same conversation," he said. "That was something (Chandlerthinks) highlighted."
"And really, that is why it is a city on purpose," Christensen said. "Because we are."
Students at Hutchinson Public Schools started class Monday morning but things looked a bit different. They arrived with masks on, and went directly to their classrooms to start the day socially distanced. Classrooms, such as this one at Hutchinson Middle School, had students spread out at every other desk, maintaining a six-foot distance in the hybrid learning model. That means half of the student body is learning from home while the other half is at school. The two groups switch places each day. Hutchinson Middle School Principal Brenda Vatthauer said classrooms would begin livestreaming Wednesday. Schools will have a better idea of what learning may look like in coming weeks when new state COVID-19 data is released Thursday.
The first day of school has a different look this year
The Hutchinson School Board meets at City Center at 5:30 p.m. on the second Monday of every month.
Chris Wilke
Byron Bettenhausen
Brian Pollmann
Should the compensation of Hutchinson School Board members be increased?
Outgoing Board Member Chris Wilke broached the subject during an Aug. 24 quarterly meeting. He cited the stipend of School Board members — $3,500 a year — and compared it to school districts of a similar size as well as other Hutchinson boards and commissions. For instance, Hutchinson City Council members are paid roughly $6,200 a year, local Utility Commission members are paid $5,300 a year, Princeton School Board members are paid $5,400 a year and Fergus Falls School Board members are paid $5,400 a year.
“I just wanted to tee up the conversation with the board,” Wilke said. “I took a look at my personal meeting load as a board member and I’d like us all to do that at some point in the future.”
He said he attend 40 meetings a year without accounting for negotiations.
Wilke said he and other board members serve to improve the district, but noted it had been 15 years since pay had been adjusted. The subject is visited each January, but board members decline to make any change.
“I understand this topic can be seen as self-serving,” he said. “I want this board to be a vibrant board, to maintain professional candidates moving forward, to always be perceived as one of the best boards for its public service opportunities.”
Wilke said the time seemed right to discuss board member compensation because five seats are on the ballot this November, and there could be five new board members with 10 candidates on the ballot. Board members Wilke, Byron Bettenhausen and Brian Pollmann did not file for re-election. Wilke proposed making a decision before the end of the year, with any change to take effect in January.
Bettenhausen said it is unlikely any new board member would vote to increase their own pay, as doing so may look like a conflict of interest.
“It looks better from my standpoint,” he said. “I won’t be coming back on the board, so if I vote to increase the pay to get better candidates in the future and keep this viable with other boards in the community, I won’t be getting a raise.”
“We want to be respectful of people’s time,” Pollmann said. “I guess that’s what it really boils down to. The people who work on this board put a lot of time into that, and a lot of energy into that. ... I understand the politics behind it. It’s a very difficult decision to make. It can look bad.”
The School Board plans to discuss the subject during a regular meeting in the future.
Stephanie Zetha, left, one of the owners of New Story Farm, north of Hutchinson, gives visitors a tour of the farm and its gardens, and explains what regenerative farming is about.
McLeod County is filled with farms, and many have stories to tell that in some cases go back 100 years or more. But about 6 miles north of Hutchinson are a couple of farmers hoping to write a new story for Minnesota agriculture. One they say works more closely with ecology and is a natural rebuttal to industrial agriculture.
Daniel and Stephanie Zetah run New Story Farm, a regenerative farm the pair share with Daniel’s parents on the land where he grew up. But what is regenerative farming?
“I would define regenerative farming as a practice of farming that works with nature rather than against it, and a system that is either closed loop or going towards closed loop where there are no off-farm inputs,” Daniel said. “The way Ecology 101 works is, the waste of one species is the food of another. So everything is part of that ecology, and that ecology is a closed loop in a way.”
Daniel Zetah, who grew up on his family farm that is now part of New Story Farm, picks an apple from a tree he helped plant as a child. The farm now has several apple trees, which visitors were invited to enjoy. There was a small price, however, as visitors were asked to help pick up the fallen apples and fill barrels that were later used to feed the farm’s livestock. It’s all part of the farm’s educational goal of connecting people with nature and how their food is produced.
Before the two met and started their regenerative farm, they lived very different lifestyles. Daniel worked in food production and as a compliance officer for chemical spraying in Tasmania. Stephanie, on the other hand, grew up in the South and earned a degree in graphic design.
“I had a corporate job and a house and a car and all that stuff, but I was not fulfilled,” she said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew that 10 years of that was enough, and I wanted to do something else. So I sold my house, most of my belongings and I went searching for something.”
What she found was an intentional community in North Carolina, and that is where the two met. As part of the community, Stephanie’s job was to help with a small veggie garden to feed members of the community, and that was when she discovered her interest in farming.
Eventually, Daniel brought Stephanie back to the farm where he was raised. Although she was hesitant at first, she quickly saw the potential in Minnesota soil.
“All of my farming experience up to that point was down South, where the soil is quite depleted and it’s really heavy in clay, so one must work quite hard to grow even the simplest of things,” she said. “So he brings me up to Minnesota, he leads me out to the pasture and digs down about a foot and he brings the soil up to my face and I say, ‘Wow, this is amazing. This is compost, did you make this?’ And he just chuckled and said, ‘No, this is the soil here.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, this is natural? I did not know soil existed anywhere in the world that looked like compost without human intervention.’ And then he explained that the whole farm is that way, and it goes down several feet, and a lightbulb went off, ‘Oh my gosh, this is where you’re supposed to farm.’ Minnesota is where you’re supposed to farm. The soil is just begging for it, and you don’t have to work as hard.”
And so the couple moved to Daniel’s home and began planning their farm. But unlike some farms, they had a different goal to work with nature.
Daniel Zetah gives Tomás the turkey a hug. Turkeys, chickens, pigs and cows are just a few of the animals living at New Story Farm.
Regenerative agriculture focuses on conservation, topsoil regeneration and biodiversity, among other things. Some of the practices of a regenerative farm are utilizing farm waste and adding composted material from sources outside the farm, which the Zetahs do through an agreement with a local grocery store. They receive produce that the store deems no longer suitable to sell, and they use it for compost or feed if it is not rotten.
It’s all part of reducing waste and creating a closed-loop ecology on their farm.
“What we’re doing is nothing new,” Stephanie said. “We’re just recreating what farms looked like 100 years ago. They were regenerative farmers before the term regenerative farm meant anything, but they were regenerative farmers out of necessity and survival. We’re doing it as a principle.”
Telling the new story
Along with their focus on regenerative farming, the other important part of the Zetahs’ mission is education. They want to teach people, especially children, about where their food comes from, how it’s produced, and how to be good stewards of the planet. They hope their little farm in McLeod County can help start a new story for the future, which is where the farm gets its name.
Stephanie Zetah and visitors to New Story Farm help feed cows fallen apples that had been gathered earlier in the day. Feeding the animals and learning more about farming is what draws many classrooms and families to New Story Farm.
“We’re trying to create a different story so people can envision something else,” Daniel said. “I tell people a lot of times, if I asked you to name five post-apocalyptic novels or movies, you’d be able to rattle off five in a matter of a minute. But if I asked you to list five utopic novels or movies, you’d have a really hard time. It seems like humans have a really difficult time imagining a future where we’re not eating each other or destroying everything on the planet. If we have that lack of imagination toward a future that isn’t post-apocalyptic, then how are we ever going to get anywhere other than that?”
In that spirit, the Zetahs regularly host public gatherings and welcome classrooms and homeschooled children to visit their farm, take tours, feed the animals and learn about food production. One such public gathering is planned for Saturday, Sept. 12. They’re also hosting gatherings at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, and 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18.
You can go online to newstoryfarm.com to learn more about these public gatherings, the Zetahs, their farm and their mission.
“If we don’t share this and we don’t try to help people understand how to connect more to nature and where their food comes from, it seems a bit hollow,” Daniel said.
