This rendering shows the final plan for upgrades to the playground at Fireman’s Park, which will be installed in three phases as funds become available.
Fireman’s Park in downtown Hutchinson, along the river next to Wells Fargo, is expected to receive $116,000 worth of renovations over the next few years thanks to the Hutchinson Fire Department. Plans include upgrades to the shelter and a new playground.
Work on shelter upgrades at Fireman’s Park have already started, including a new bike path.
The small playground at Fireman’s Park will look completely different following about $115,000 worth of new equipment.
Hutchinson park lovers will soon have a new reason to visit downtown Fireman’s Park. The Hutchinson Fire Department, which sponsors the riverside park next to Wells Fargo, has plans for $116,000 of renovations, including upgrades to the shelter and a new playground.
“We think it’s a good location for a new park just because of the location downtown,” Randy Abelson, assistant chief of the HFD, told City Council last week. “From talking with the parks department, that shelter does get used by people now. We think we can get more use out of it by doing upgrades and doing playground upgrades.”
The project has already started with work on the shelter. New countertops have been built, new wiring for electrical upgrades is in the ground and awaiting a new paint job to be finished, and a new cement sidewalk was installed from the bike path to the shelter
“We still have some work to do, but we’re working on it to get it looking nice,” Abelson said.
The biggest part of the project is the new playground, which Abelson said the HFD plans to execute in three phases, with each phase building up the playground and expanding on the previous phases.
Estimates for each phase of the playground work are $29,936 for Phase 1, $48,651 for Phase 2, and $36,523 for Phase 3. The plan is to try to complete one phase each year, or as funds are available.
“These are all approximate numbers,” Abelson said. “We do know there is going to be price increases with annual costs of stuff.”
Funding for the project comes from multiple sources. The Southwest Initiative Foundation provided funds for the shelter upgrades, while funds for the first phase of the playground renovation come from the Fire Department Relief Association ($15,000) and the city parks department ($20,000).
“We’re actively seeking donations from businesses and foundations in the town,” Abelson said. “With the open house we had this last weekend, we had pictures of our park up. We had a lot of good input from, obviously kids are really excited about it.”
While the goal is to use funds from the fire department and private donations to pay for the remainder of the playground upgrades, members of the City Council discussed the possibility of contributing an additional $40,000 from the Community Improvement Fund to help complete Phase 2 of the playground sooner.
“I think it can become more of a flagship park,” said Council Member Chad Czmowski. “I really like it when organizations do a lot of legwork on the front end.”
“There’s people always there, having lunch, kids playing,” Council Member Mary Christensen said. “It is a nice little place to put this. It will be utilized.”
The Council approved the project and an agenda item to discuss a larger contribution will be added to a future City Council meeting.
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The Hutchinson Area Community Foundation uses Founders’ Pathway in Library Square to raise funds. Although the foundation recently hit its $1 million endowment goal, pavers are still available for donors who contribute $5,000 or more.
Nick Studer from TerHaar Stained Glass works to remove a stained glass window from Hutchinson’s historic St. John’s Episcopal Church back in 2019. The work was part of Historic Hutchinson’s efforts to restore the church, made possible in part by a grant from the Hutchinson Area Community Foundation.
Unless you win the lottery, most of us will never know what it feels like to have a million bucks in the bank. The good news is that as residents of Hutchinson, we can bask in the glow of the Hutchinson Area Community Foundation’s recent achievement of hitting its Founders Fund $1 million endowment goal.
The effort has been a long time coming. The foundation launched its $1 million capital drive in 2003. According to Roger Stearns, the president at the time, the endowment fund would ensure the foundation’s longevity.
“The foundation exists to keep Hutchinson the best possible to live, work, play and raise a family,” Stearns said at the time. “That’s about as simple as it gets. If there are groups that want to hear about us, we’ll do it. This is a unique venture. This is the keystone of our whole project. A million dollar endowment generates a lot of money. Thirty years from now, it will generate an incredible amount of money for Hutchinson.”
Although that $1 million isn’t in our accounts, we have access to its annual earnings through the programs of local nonprofits. If you have used the automated door at the Hutchinson Public Library, looked up a newspaper article on the microfilm printer/reader at the McLeod County History Museum, or visited Law Enforcement Park, Elks Park or Veterans Memorial Park, you’ve experienced the foundation’s largess.
“We attempted pre-COVID to put something together as we were getting close to $1 million Founders Fund endowment,” said Jon Block, board treasurer. “We were planning a marketing blitz — ‘The Drive to a Million.’ COVID derailed that. We couldn’t meet in person and we couldn’t get the momentum we wanted.”
While the pandemic slowed things down, it didn’t stop the effort.
“We had a number of very nice gifts to the fund and we’ve been included in some donors’ estate planning,” Block said. “We got a really large gift from a donor last year and it put us over the $1 million mark. We’ve been building toward that and recognize those who helped make that happen.”
When the capital campaign was launched, the vehicle the foundation created to raise funds was the Founders’ Pathway, along the north side of Library Square. It features 200 granite pavers where donors who contributed $5,000 or more are recognized. If all sold, it would generate the $1 million for the endowment fund. According to Block, there are pavers still available.
FUNDING PROJECTS
The foundation also raises money through an annual pledge drive. Once a year at holiday time it reaches out to a list of 300 names of probable or possible donors to the Founders Fund. According to Block it turns out tens of thousands in donations.
So what type of projects does the foundation fund? According to Block, they are looking for projects that promise a long-term benefit to the Hutchinson area.
“Our first grantmaking cycle was 2004,” he recalled. “We gifted $4,000. That was a pretty exciting time when we were able to give money away. We have gifted every year since then. There was one lean year after the housing crash of 2008. 2010 was a tough year, but we gifted $1,500. We worked very hard at it. We have gifted over $368,000 through 2020.”
The foundation likes to spread its money around, too. It gave away 15 grants in 2016, 14 in 2017, and 15 in 2018.
The foundation funds projects in the range from $500 to $10,000. Typically it receives 25 to 26 requests and funds 12 to 18. In 2019 the average grant size was $2,200, and in 2017 and 2018 the average was $2,300.
“We don’t fund every request every year,” Block said. “We look at history. If we gave you money last year, we make sure we’re covering the different areas: sports, arts, historic things and so on. We try to spread it around and cover the different areas.”
So what can the foundation do with a $1 million? Depending on earnings, it can gift anywhere between $40,000 to $50,000 a year to local nonprofits during its annual fall grant cycle. In fact, the window is open now. To apply, nonprofits or groups with a fiscal agent can apply by Oct. 11. Successful applicants will be notified Nov. 8. Applications are available online at hutchinsonfoundation.org and via the foundation’s Facebook page.
Past recipients range from Common Cup Ministry and Hutchinson Band Boosters to the Hutchinson Center for the Arts, New Century Academy, Wheel & Cog Children’s Museum, Junior High Math League and Hutchinson Girls Softball Association.
The late Irv Burich, chairman of the board of Citizens Bank & Trust, would be proud to celebrate the foundation’s $1 million landmark. He was the mover and shaker behind the creation of the foundation in 1999. He believed in it so much that he gave a $35,000 start-up gift from the Citizens Bank Foundation to get the ball rolling.
It’s been said earning the first million is the hardest, and it gets easier from there. With the success of raising $1 million, Block admitted it was tempting to raise the bar to $2 million or even higher.
“It’s kind of fun when you get to this level,” Block said. “It’s a long time coming. When you see what you can achieve with that $1 million in our endowment — why not $2 million? Why not $3 million? If we had $2 million, realistically we could gift $80,000. This is a fun one to be part of, no doubt.”
Hutchinson park employees are planning for a new splash pad in town and using the Litchfield splash pad that opened in summer 2018 along Lake Ripley as an example. The Litchfield splash pad is free to use and costs about $20,000 annually for maintenance.
Lynn Neumann
Hutchinson residents hoping for a free, outdoor reprieve from summer heat may get their wish. Though it is still in the planning phase, city staff and council members are exploring the addition of a splash pad to the city’s park amenities.
Council members this past week approved a resolution to accept Hoisington Koegler Group’s proposal to plan and design a splash pad at a cost of $151,000. The firm is familiar with Hutchinson’s parks and recreation system as it completed the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Education master plan in 2019. It will help the city develop site plans for each potential location and seek input from residents.
A splash pad was one of the most requested amenities from people who provided feedback for the PRCE master plan, and Lynn Neumann, PRCE director, said it would add toward the city’s goal to be a destination for recreation, art and leisure.
“Splash pads are an increasingly popular parks and rec amenity that benefit the community, that are inexpensive outdoor recreation pieces,” she said. “They do feature sprinklers, fountains, nozzles and other devices based on the play features and the setup of the splash pad.”
Funding for the project would come from the city’s Community Improvement Fund, which has more than $2 million.“That’s why it’s called the Community Improvement Fund, it’s for community projects like this,” said Matt Jaunich, city administrator.
A site for the project is expected to be selected within the next two months. City staff and the PRCE advisory board have narrowed it to two options along the north side of the Crow River: Odd Fellow’s Park on the west side of town and a plot of land owned by the Hutchinson Economic Development Authority near Police Memorial Park.
Once a site is chosen, HKG will begin preparing concepts for the splash pad. Those plans and costs will likely be hashed out in the first few months of 2022, and include a 3D rendering. If the plan continues forward, bidding could start as early as May, with construction oversight beginning in June.
Though Hutchinson already has an aquatic center, Neumann said it caters to a different demographic than splash pads, which tend to be more popular for younger kids and are accessible for day cares.
“We really do have a large enough community to sustain both,” she said. “Splash pads vs. an aquatic center do really fit the needs of different age ranges. The aquatic center has lots of amenities for little to older (children), the splash pads are more geared toward smaller kids.”
There’s also the issue of cost. Neumann said the plan now is for the splash pad to be free.
“I have heard from people that cost is a factor with going to the aquatic center,” said City Council Member Pat May. “So I like the idea that they can go here with no charge.”
According to Neumann, a splash pad does not come with the same costs of running an aquatic center because it can be maintained without staff present. If the city opts for a splash pad with a recirculation system, it would require chemicals and a staff person to apply them. No additional staff would be needed, however, as a timer is used to turn the splash pad on and off at different times of day, and a button activates the water features.
Litchfield’s splash pad that opened in 2018 costs about $20,000 a year to maintain. Because of the lower operational costs, Neumann said the city could operate the pad without a fee.
“We have a great water park that users can pay to use,” she said. “This (the splash pad) would be another amenity in our community that would be a destination, but would also be affordable for families to use.”
