Hutchinson gets federal money to expand industrial park
The city of Hutchinson has been awarded a $950,000 federal grant to develop its new industrial park.
The city applied for the grant in response to recent massive layoffs at Hutchinson Technology, the city's largest employer, according to the city's economic development director Miles Seppelt.
"We had 1,200 people locally that were laid off," said Seepelt. "We need to expand our industrial park, and have the resources available to start recruiting new businesses and begin the process of replacing those jobs."
Seppelt said the city purchased 68 acres to expand its existing industrial park, which is full.
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"The funding is really for the infrastructure to bring that 68 acres into play. We have to build roads and water and sewer and so forth, and get the site ready for development. And that's where these dollars are critical," said Seppelt.
He said the hope is that high-tech manufacturing operations will be attracted to the industrial park.
The project is expected to create 600 jobs and generate $40 million in private investment. The federal grant will cover about 50 percent of the project's total cost.
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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Miles Seppelt's last name because of an editing error.