The Hutchinson City Council on Tuesday approved a permit for Sept. 25 special event near downtown dubbed the Southwest Bricktown Fiesta.
The permit will allow the closure of a half-block of First Avenue north of the SW Bricktown Park for a stage to be set up in the middle of the street and the sale of alcoholic beverages on public property.
Organizers of the 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday night event advised the council that it will feature three “home-grown” bands, food trucks, a beer garden, inflatables, and a mechanical bull. While created by residents of the Bricktown neighborhood, the event will be open to residents citywide.
The Hutchinson City Council spent more than an hour Tuesday hearing from the public and again discussing the pros and cons of a proposed project to modify the Woodie Seat Freeway inside Hutchinson.
In the end, there was no change from a vote two weeks to pursue federal funding for the estimated $11 million project that will require closing Avenue B where the highway now crosses overhead and installing two roundabouts on Avenue A.
This will be the third time in three years the city has applied for the funding. But City Manager Jeff Cantrell said he’d been advised “through back channels” that the city’s chances, which officials previously thought were pretty good, are even better this year for receiving it.