Baby Hutch Kahl was named after the hometown of his father, Michael Kahl. His mother, Chelsi, was all for it and planned to name the baby Winona, her hometown, if it had been a girl.
How much do you love Hutch?
For Hutchinson native Michael Kahl, the city represents something special.
"Hutchinson turned me into the person I am today," said Michael, who lives in Winona with his wife, Chelsi. "(Hutchinson is) a great place. We wanted to commemorate the town."
That's how he decided on his son's name. Hutch Kahl was born at 6:11 a.m. on Jan. 9 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. He spent the first week of February visiting the city for which he was named.
"It was kind of collaborative," Michael said. "(Chelsi is) actually from Winona. We thought that would be a beautiful name for a girl and Hutch would be a beautiful name for a boy. ... We picked it, too, because we like the back story of the Hutchinson brothers and the kind of people they were. They stood for a lot of things ... women's rights, abolition of slavery. The fact that they were traveling musicians was cool, too."
Though Michael loves Hutchinson, there was one thing that could pull him away — or, as it turned out, one person.
"I chased a girl," he said. "We fell in love with the river. We couldn't build a floating home on the Crow River."
The family lives on the Mississippi River in a floating house also sometimes called a house boat.
"(Hutchinson) is always a good place to come back to," Chelsi said. "We love visiting there. It's definitely got a vibe of home. It feels like home even though we don't live there permanently."
"Pretty much all of my family, my cousins on both side, are kind of around Hutchinson," Michael said. "My mom grew up there milking cows. My dad moved to Hutchinson, farming the late '70s, early '80s."
His parents still live in town, which is one reason Michael, Chelsi and Hutch had to visit Hutchinson.
"Hutchinson gave him an extremely warm welcome," Michael said.
Jeni Silva and Jason Schuch stand amidst the clothes, hygiene products and other supplies their family collected during the past month. The items are being used to stock a free “store” at New Century Academy that aims to make sure students have what they need.
The Hutchinson Fire Department station is at 205 Third Ave. S.E.
Mike Schumann
It's been eight consecutive years without a fire-related fatality in the Hutchinson area, according to Hutchinson Fire Department Chief Mike Schumann's annual report to City Council Tuesday.
Part of the reason the streak continues is because of a new analytical approach the fire department has taken toward its response to fire emergencies.
"We try to get the most efficiency out of it," Schumann said regarding collected data. "It helps us to identify ... the good and the bad of our response time and try to make changes from that."
One of the most significant changes the department has made with its data is maximizing its efficiency. Schumann said he’s able to see what days and hours the department is more likely to receive an emergency call and staff accordingly.
The new data has also helped the department calculate a more precise average response time for its emergency calls. In past years response time was calculated using times for all of the department’s calls, even those that aren’t emergencies.
“The last two years are the first two years we've had really solid data where we're literally looking just at the calls that the trucks roll,” Schumann said.
With more precise data the department was able to drop 20 seconds off its response time, from 6 minutes, 10 seconds in 2018 to 5 minutes, 50 seconds in 2019.
Schumann also highlighted the benefits of a pilot online training program the fire department was selected for in 2020. Having part of a training program online, Schumann believes, will save time. Currently, training classes are held on Monday nights.
“Our hope is to offset some of those nights where it's pure classroom,” he said. “We can have our guys do it on their time and not have to come down Monday night. We can give them a break on Monday night here and there."
One thing is for certain: Firefighters do a lot of different things. In the report, Schumann noted fire calls accounted for only 7.3 percent of incidents reported in 2019. This placed fires at No. 4 on his report.
Rescue and emergency calls, which include responding to motor vehicle accidents and providing medical assistance, accounted for nearly half, 48.6 percent, of the department’s calls. Dealing with hazardous conditions (20.5 percent) and responding to false alarms/calls (15.1 percent) were the second and third most occurring calls for firefighters, respectively.
Mason Primus shows some of the card holder parts he created for Stamp-n-Storage with a laser engraving machine as part of Tiger Manufacturing.
Hutchinson High School senior Mason Primus started his third hour of school Wednesday morning wrapping 50 packs of ink holders. If that sounds a bit more like a job than a class, it's by design.
Primus' independent study period is the current iteration of Tiger Manufacturing, a fledgling student-run company that makes real products for real customers. Its aim is to provide realistic work experience, build soft skills and business skills, and give students the chance to use welding, woodworking, machining and draft and design skills in a real-world application.
"I like being in the tech wing," said Primus. "It's a nice break throughout the day to be able to come and work on things. And it's nice to have the business relations aspect, talking to customers who want these projects."
That's why Primus signed up for the Tiger Manufacturing class this past spring. It had already taken shape over the past few years, which led to it becoming an offering in the high school's business and manufacturing TigerPaths for the 2019-20 school year. However, there weren't enough students signed up to get it off the ground as a full class offering. Those who wanted to participate not only needed sufficient classroom experience, but to be in good standing academically.
"There are definitely enough kids with the skills and ability for it," Primus said. "Word didn't get out quite enough."
"Whenever you have something new it takes a little buy-in time," said Daryl Lundin, one of the technical education teachers who helps lead TigerPath and direct Primus in his independent study. "We've got Mason going this year. Once people see what he profits from it as far as learning, it will hopefully get some more (students)."
Students signing up for 2020-21 classes this spring can select Tiger Manufacturing.
In the meantime, Primus has plenty to keep him busy for all three trimesters of the school year. In addition to the ink holders, Tiger Manufacturing also uses a laser engraving machine to create card holders for Stamp-n-Storage, a Hutchinson business. Tiger Manufacturing previously forged a partnership with the business, but Primus said this year there is a higher demand.
"We just sent 70 of them," he said, adding that he plans to create more inventory for when it is needed.
He's also been busy with other tasks such as building a desk for a secretary. And projects from the Hutchinson Economic Development Authority are in the pipeline, such as repairing a trailer, making a glass display case and building metal step stools. Primus has also been working on high-top bar tables for Bobbing Bobber Brewing Co. He dips his feet into the business end as well.
"Some of the metal things, I've just been pricing those out and helping get that situated so we can figure out how much we'll charge," Primus said.
He hopes his experience with Tiger Manufacturing will serve him in the future as he plans to study electrical engineering in college.
"Like any other business, you have to wear a lot of hats," Lundin said. "The bigger we get, the more you can specialize."
As Tiger Manufacturing grows in the future, the plan is to keep the school's woodshop, machine tool shop and design room busy with a larger variety of projects. Lundin said people occasionally reach out and offer one-time jobs, and with more students Tiger Manufacturing will be able to say "yes" more often.
"We don't want to get in competition with businesses," Lundin said. "It's more of the one-off things that regular businesses and people aren't going to bother another company with, typically."
The long-term vision for Tiger Manufacturing is for students to take on such roles as office manager, marketing manager, machinist, welder, engineer, production manager and maintenance engineer. Revenue generated by the company will be divided up three ways: paying for materials, equipment purchases and upgrades, and profit sharing for the student workers. Profit sharing would be pro-rated based on the number of hours students put into Tiger Manufacturing and would take the form of scholarships students can use after graduation.
“There are more and more school districts that want to do this," Lundin said. "It's just figuring out all the little things. It gives kids purpose to do stuff.”
