Apr 23, 2024

South Hutchinson appoints council member, discusses rebranding project

Posted Apr 23, 2024 4:00 AM
Robert F. Wylie swears in for his new position as a council member for the South Hutchinson City Council. Wylie was sworn in at the city office on Monday, April 22, 2024. Photo by Emmie Boese.
Robert F. Wylie swears in for his new position as a council member for the South Hutchinson City Council. Wylie was sworn in at the city office on Monday, April 22, 2024. Photo by Emmie Boese.

Editor's Note: The original story said Nisly seconded the motion but it failed. The motion actually failed for lack of a second. Hutch Post regrets the error. 

EMMIE BOESE 
Hutch Post 

SOUTH HUTCHINSON, Kan. â€” The South Hutchinson City Council appointed Robert F. Wylie for a vacant position on the council at their regular meeting Monday night. 

President of Council Dina Brislin motioned to appoint Wylie and council member Kyle Cokeley seconded the motion. 

Another important item on the agenda in South Hutchinson was action item No. 3 which included the approval of a contract with Plot Marketing on phase 2 of the city's rebranding project. 

In February, City Administrator Jeff Schenk told Hutch Post that the city was working on an entire rebranding project that includes the South Hutchinson logo, website branding, messaging and color schemes.

The council decided to table the contract for phase 2. Cokeley motioned to approve the contract and it failed for lack of a second. 

The decision to table discussion for the approval of the new contract had to do with what approach was most effective. Council member Valerie Griffin expressed concerns for the cost of branding with the majority of it going towards a new logo.

"I'm still kind of stuck on why that is the cost that it is," Griffin said. 

Schenk explained that the cost would be about $25,000 if Plot Marketing were to create their own design samples for the rebranding. He said if the council were to present their own designs to Plot, the price would go down. He provided council members with an example from the city of Newton. It cost Newton $11,000 because the city already had pre-designed ideas created for the marketing company to work with.

Schenk said his preferred method for the project is to get feedback from the community and then present that information to Plot. 

"Personally I think  it's more organic going that route and then using that to build it out," Schenk said. "I think a couple of creative people might come up with ideas. But a random person like me who is not creative at all, without really being able to offer any ideas for logo design, so I wouldn't feel like I was included in it at all. The way that I think I'm proposing is because bringing somebody else in, they are also the ones that have to decipher all of that information and its coming in from Facebook. If we do it the other way, where we are going to make recommendations, then we are going to need to find some staff with time to decipher through everything, come up with a chart, and present it and go through a board of picking it and  deciphering which information we want to keep in." 

There is a survey available for South Hutchinson community members to take for those who would like to provide input on the city's rebranding process. 

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