I write this column and really had the idea for this website because of a love for this community. I am the first to profess about the issues this community has... we have our share, but I love it. It's the same type of relationship a parent has with their kids, we love them to a fault, but we know they have faults. I have always thought that as a parent or a member of a community that I should love unconditionally while constantly working to make things better. This community will never be perfect and my kids will never be perfect, but I would feel like a lazy citizen or parent if I didn't try to put my best foot forward every single day to make things better.
A few months ago I pitched the idea of a "online mall" for Hutchinson retailers to the folks at the "Hutch News". (disclaimer: The Hutch News owns this site and writes my paycheck). My thought was that the flood of dollars being lost by our local brick and mortar retailers could be recouped a little if we had a way for those retailers to make sales online. Both local shoppers at home in the warmth of their pajamas late at night and all the folks outside of Hutch who had a potential interest in our merchants products would have the opportunity to buy online.
I got invited to a press conference yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce. (Kinda exciting that WUH is being taken seriously enough to be invited to a press conference.)
The press conference was about the Chamber's new initiative "The H Factor"
Really the details on the initiative are here and John Green does a great job of telling you the idea and details, so go over there and read up and come back if you want my thoughts.
I have an urge to talk about the Rod Run thats coming up ( http://www.hutchrodrun.com ) , but really the website explains it so lets take it a step further and talk about events in general.
Events like this, (and the Juco Basketball Tourney and Tournaments at Fun Valley, The Fair, Concerts at the Fox, Juco Track Meets, Golf Tournaments, etc...) as well as the Attractions we have here in town, are really our biggest chance to not only survive these economic times but in fact prosper while many other areas of the country are not prospering and in fact are floundering.
Let's look at it like this:
1. Our city Government has responsibilities it must attend to. No doubt there right? 2. There is X amount of money in Hutchinson right now. Thats a fact right? 3. Those of us in Hutch spending our money contribute to the city in Sales tax revenue literally every day right. Us locals spending some of our money is crucial. 4. Folks that don't live here spending there money is INCREDIBLE. First: It's not our money, right? Second: It takes that X that is the amount of money in our Town and adds to it. 5. The more folks that come to one of these events, and buy gas and hotels and food and other shopping items, the more X grows specifically from that event.
Mary Rintoul wrote a column here in the Hutch News last Friday.
I have disagreed publicly with Mary a few times over the years, but I really don't on this one.
Well, I kinda do but I don't. I think HCC was perfectly within there rights to ban scholarship students from McGraw's, it was seeming to get outta line over there. I think shes right that McGraw's college night was becoming a huge strain on the Hutch PD. The part where I disagree is with the banning of college night. Every "College Town" in the country has a place somewhere, most of them serve alcohol in some form, that has a "College Night." McGraw's just needs to control the environment better.
(*Please note, my REAL job is working for a web design company and this article is about a client of ours. I don't ever use this column to promote our clients and that is not my intention. My intention is to promote a very efficient new tool that is now accessible for folks in the Hutchinson area.)
As an employer in the Hutchinson Ks area we have over the past several years hired folks as they were moving to Hutchinson. It's been a relatively easy process except for one thing, finding rentals for the new hires to live in.
I haven't written on here in a while, lotsa lame excuses why, but really I have just been busy and not been disciplined enough to get it done, but here I am.
Gonna kinda do a segmented column, hit a few things, so stay focused. hehe.
Whatsuphutch is growing like mad!
Have you checked out the "Non-profit Needs" channel or the "WUH Paws" channel? Both pretty cool causes and it's just kinda neat to see video of people you run into on the street everyday. You could be a serious part of helping our community by just sending an email to friends/family with a link to any one of those videos. You could also just drop of a package of toilet paper at Big Brother/Big Sisters. There a fun crown and everyone would get a kick out of it.
