By NATE KING
Salina Post
Salina Mayor Mike Hoppock is no stranger to the title of mayor- but titles aren't why he continues to serve as commissioner and now mayor for the second time. For him, it is a matter of community service.
Salina Post sat down for an interview with Hoppock to discuss community concerns, his goals for the term and where he sees the city in 10 years.
Listen: KINA community profile interview with Mayor Mike Hoppock
First term as mayor
In January of 2020, The World Health Organization announced a mysterious coronavirus disease was spreading in China. By November of that same year, Kansas was seeing a surge in cases and more people dying of COVID-19. Hoppock said his first term as mayor was full of tough decisions and a constantly changing information regarding the pandemic.
Yet despite a year of businesses being closed and students moving to remote learning, the City of Salina emerged on stronger financial footing than before the pandemic.
"One of the things as a city we weren't sure of is how strong our sales tax would be," Hoppock said. "Because the unemployment insurance relief the government came out with, we were able to furlough and job share some employees and keep them- that was important to us."
Hoppock said by maintaining a strong sales tax and "weathering the storm" the city was able to increase the general reserve fund considerably.
"Our sales tax numbers were actually stronger in 2020, then it was in 2019," Hoppock said. "We just got numbers from the finance department, and the numbers are up in 2022, over 2021. We are just excited about the direction the community is headed."
City of lights, a brightened downtown
In 2017 the City of Salina began a downtown revitalization project aimed at adding entertainment venues, retail, dining locations, residential spaces and hotels to give downtown Salina a new look. Mayor Hoppock said the improvements helped reenergize Salina's sense of identity and town pride.
"Downtown is everybody's neighborhood," Hoppock said. "When I look back at some of the older pictures, downtown was looking tired."
One example was The Phoenix Motel, a dilapidated building located at N. Fifth Street and E. Iron Avenue. Hoppock said through private and public partnership part of the property became the home of the Salina Fieldhouse.
"I know people now moving back to Salina that have been gone for a while and they are just amazed with our downtown and amenities," Hoppock said.
Although some people opposed the overhead, lighted structures on Santa Fe Avenue, Hoppock said they were well worth the money.
"The overhead structures at night when they are lit up says, 'This is Salina, Kansas.' I think it’s a big plus to downtown," Hoppock said.
Blighted buildings
Located at 139 N. Penn Avenue is a blighted building with an ever-changing owner: the former St. John's Hospital.
Built in 1913, St. John's Hospital was pitched by Rev. Father Maher of the Sisters of St. Joseph who then brought the idea to non-Catholic citizens of Salina who agreed there was a need.
Decades of births, surgeries, and life-changing events took place within St. John's Hospital and eventually the name evolved into St. John's Regional Health Center. Leading up to the completion of Salina Regional Health Center on S. Santa Fe Avenue, St. John's became more and more obsolete. By 2010, the campus was entirely empty. From 2002 until 2015, Salina Regional had made several failed attempts to find a potential developer for the property.
In 2015 the City of Salina denied a request by Salina Regional to demolish the St. John's facility. During a city commission meeting, Jim Ravenkamp protested the demolition idea. He and others in the community believed there was some way the historic facility could be used. Subsequently, the city called off the demolition.
In 2023, the building still sits abandoned with no plans announced on redevelopment.
"It is a blighted property, and we are not sure what we're gonna do and it has recently changed hands again," Hoppock said. " I've been through it and there's not a room that hasn't been vandalized and it has mold in it. Some individuals have looked at trying to redevelop that. But it's really, really expensive. It's small rooms, thick, thick, concrete walls, and I'm sure it has asbestos in it. Asbestos removal is very, very expensive."
Hoppock said he was not sure how the city would address the blighted property, but he did say the city will do everything it can to help a developer make something of the property. Hoppock also said so far the city hasn't had anybody come to them with any good ideas for the property.
Schilling chemical cleanup site update
The Salina Airport Authority, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have conducted numerous environmental investigations and some limited remedial actions at the former Schilling Airforce Base since the mid-1990s.
In April of 2021, the Salina City Commission approved the consulting and engineering contract with Dragun Corp., which has drafted plans to clean up pollution at the former base.
Initial cleanup funding for the project came after a lawsuit was filed against the federal government by the Kansas Board of Regents, USD 305, the Salina Airport Authority, and the city of Salina. The lawsuit resulted in a settlement of $65.9 million.
With the settlement fund now on deposit, the Salina public entities can complete the clean up at little to no cost to existing and future airport and Airport Industrial Center businesses.
According to a release from Salina Airport Authority, the years of military use left behind several different forms of pollution, primarily from the solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, in the soil and groundwater.
TCE, a carcinogen, was used as a degreaser to wash aircraft and weapons at the base. Officials also determined the contamination was creeping, ever so slowly, to the northeast toward city water wells.
Martha Tasker, Salina director of utilities, is co-managing the project with Matt Schroeder senior environmental engineer at Dragun Corp.
"In the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, when the Schilling Air Force Base was here they weren't as cautious about contaminants as we are today," Tasker said. "Now we have the ability to test for PFAS [per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances] out at the airbase, and we actually test down to 70 parts per trillion."
Tasker said there are a total of seven groundwater plumes that stretch diagonally southwest to northeast across the Salina Airport Authority property. She also mentioned that the closest municipal water well to any of the plumes, is 1.5 miles away from the nearest plume.
“This area didn’t get contaminated overnight, and it’s not gonna get cleaned up overnight,” Tasker said. “We look for some of that testing to carry on through 2050. We want to make sure that area is safe. It’s not just protecting the groundwater, it’s also protecting the air.”
Tasker outlined four different remedial ground water techniques the city plans to use.
â—Ź Excavation and off-site disposal
Physically removing contaminated soil and taking it to another location outside the county. Soil that is identified at non-hazardous would be sent to the local landfill and any soil deemed hazardous would be sent to a special facility.
â—Ź Thermal treatment
The process of heating about 6,000 square feet of contaminated soil using heaters placed in underground steel pipes. Once the soil is heated, the contaminants will evaporate into gasses. The gasses are then collected, treated, and discharged. The thermal treatment plan would be completed in 160 days, and would cost $8.7 million.
â—Ź Permeable reactive barriers
Walls of reactive materials installed underground that would react with contaminants in groundwater to form less toxic or harmless chemicals. These barriers would cost $14.6 million.
â—Ź Directed groundwater recirculation
Wells built to extract and treat groundwater and reinject it back into the aquifer. This process is the most expensive part of the proposed remediation, at a cost of $54.5 million.
"We are studying and we're very close to start doing some excavation work at Plume B, which is located behind Salina Area Technical College and near building 614 at the airport," Tasker said.
Tasker said excavation and off site disposal would be used for very small areas that have an identified source point, because it is not logical or feasible to dig up all of K State's campus.
"Depending on what it is, you're going to travel some distance and they [waste disposal sites] come with a very expensive price tag," Tasker said.
While most of the cleanup will be accomplished in the first five years, Tasker said decades of monitoring and spot treatment may be ahead before the project is deemed complete.
"They are there deciding how they're going to go about cleanup," Hoppock said. "There are several different chemicals that take different types of treatment. They have been monitoring to make sure it does not contaminate any residential areas. At this time, there's no residential or business areas that I'm aware of that are in any kind of danger."
Where does he see the city in 10 years?
"I really think we have a lot of momentum right now. And I continue to see us grow," Hoppock said. "If you look at Schwans and Kubota, they both still have expansions in their future. 1 Vision [Aviation] has grown, we have other locally owned companies like Vortex showing continued growth, I can go through the list that have all been very successful, and very quietly continue to add to and grow their businesses."
Hoppock said the City of Salina has positioned itself well and has continued to foster its community relationships to improve the overall quality of life.
"We're right on the edge of western Kansas, and, and if you go west of us, most of the counties are shrinking, and I think Salina has positioned ourselves with the right investments to continue to to improve ourselves. Having Kansas Wesleyan and K-State Salina here also helps."
As the population grows and more businesses expand, Hoppock said he expects more businesses to follow suit.
"I think we'll continue to see businesses come in. We're hoping to get that direct flight to Houston," Hoppock said. "We currently have a flight to Chicago and to Denver. If you're looking to bring businesses in, it is important that people can get in here without having to fly into Wichita, Kansas City and drive. So we're hoping that comes about soon."