Hutchinson council condemned five structures and authorized up to $235,000 in bonds for demolition

Hutchinson's City Council condemned five structures as unsafe and dangerous on Tuesday, Aug. 18, and authorized borrowing up to $235,000 in general obligation bonds to pay demolition costs at a sixth property. Both votes were unanimous, according to the meeting minutes, which reached the public in the packet for the council's Tuesday, Sept. 1 meeting. The condemned structures are at 102 W. 9th Ave., 300 E. Avenue E, 315 1/2 N. Cleveland St., 615 E. Avenue A and 1109 N. Elm St.

According to the minutes, Finance Director Angela Richard told the council that 211 E. 4th was already on the city's demolition list, that a bid had been awarded at just over $218,000, and that staff were asking for authority to issue up to $235,000 in general obligation bonds to reimburse the city for that demolition. Citizen Journal's Aug. 24 coverage put the demolition figure at $218,615 ahead of the condemnation hearing. The minutes do not say whether the bond authority can also be drawn on for the five properties condemned that night; Richard's remarks addressed only 211 E. 4th, which was not among them.

The minutes record no deadline for the owners of the five condemned structures to repair or remove them before the city demolishes, and no mechanism for charging demolition costs back to the properties. Citizen Journal has asked the city for both. Until any cost is recovered, the borrowing the council authorized is the city's debt.

According to the minutes, Building Official Jason Lady presented information on each of the structures and answered a question from Council Member Stacy Goss about funding at the public hearing that preceded the condemnation vote; the minutes do not record what he said. The council opened and closed the hearing on unanimous votes, and no one is recorded as speaking for or against the condemnations. The minutes also conflict on one address: the hearing notice and the approved motion both read 300 E. Avenue E, while the heading of the resolution item reads 300 E. Avenue F.

The minutes show the council approved its Aug. 18 consent agenda — the Aug. 4 minutes and a $2,009,490.35 appropriation ordinance — on a 4-1 vote, with Goss voting no after questioning expenditures to the Cosmosphere.

The Aug. 18 minutes sat on the Sept. 1 consent agenda alongside an appropriation ordinance of $1,419,475.95. That agenda also attached a bracketed $3,995,000 to General Obligation Improvement Bonds, Series 2026-A, a separate borrowing for zoo, fairgrounds and street work that Citizen Journal reported on Aug. 24 had carried no dollar figure in the record when the council authorized the sale. The Sept. 1 meeting was set to begin at 5:30 p.m. and to take up the 2027 budget and a resolution to levy property taxes above the revenue-neutral rate — the rate that would raise the same amount of property tax as the year before — but only the agenda was in the packet, so no outcomes are available.

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