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Hutchinson Sports Arena To Be Renovated

http://www.hutchgov.com

Voters in Hutchinson overwhelmingly passed a sales tax increase earmarked for $29 million worth of renovations to the Hutchinson Sports Arena. KMUW’s Deborah Shaar has more...

Unofficial returns show nearly 75 percent of the voters supported a .35 percent increase to the local sales tax. That means when it takes effect in July, the city of Hutchinson’s overall sales tax rate will be 8.75 percent.

The tax will pay for additional gyms, a brand new entrance and infrastructure improvements among other things.

The Hutchinson Sports Arena opened in 1952 and has hosted the National Junior College Athletic Association Men’s National Basketball Championship for more than 60 years.

With the renovations, city leaders expect the tournament to stay another 25 years at the arena.

The sales tax increase will last about ten years.

Hutchinson Community College has pledged $4.5 million for the project.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.