Delano Fall Fair

Mark your calendars now!

Delano Fall Fair

Sunday, September 28, 2008

High Noon - 5:oo p.m.

The Delano Fall Fair is a Chisholm Trail event celebrating the Old West.  Step back in time and see how the early settlers and cowboys lived.

For more information on the 2008 Delano Fall Fair, visit our website at www.historicdelano.com/fallfair.

Pizza Hut Returns

The Delano Pizza Hut (located at 1016 W. Douglas) closed several years ago after a fire, and never reopened.  The building was eventually torn down along with a small office building next to it.  Now a brand-new (in 2000) Subway restaurant sits there.

Now, after an 8 year absence, there are plans for Pizza Hut to return to Delano.  No official word on when the new store will open, but it will be located in the old Wichita Billiard Supply building at 700 W. Douglas (corner of Oak and Douglas).  There will be limited seating available, and the store will offer carryout and delivery.

Watkins Steel Demolished

On Wednesday, July 9th, workers began demolishing the Watkins Steel building at the intersection of 2nd Street and McLean Boulevard.

The building is being torn down to make way for a new City Library

which is expected to be completed in 2011.

Here are a few pictures of the demolition in progress:

Railway Corridor

There are plans to develop the abandoned railway corridor from Seneca to the river into a park-like trail.  The plan includes some areas (near Seneca) which will be useable for overflow parking when there is an event in Delano.  The other end of the trail would connect with the new city library being planned for the old Watkin's Steel property at 2nd and Sycamore.  From there it would continue to the river and connect with the bike trail.

These plans are not new.  In fact the concept was included in the Delano Neighborhood Revitalization Plan which was adopted by the city in 2001.  The proposed plan was completed soon after and has been waiting on funding ever since.  The project has been submitted for a transportation enhancement grant for the past several years but has consistently not been chosen to receive any of the limited funds available.

On Tuesday, July 15th the planning department received approval from the City Council to submit the project to a different funding source.  Hopes are high that it will finally be approved so that the project can be done along with the new library, which is projected to be completed sometime in 2011.

We should know in the next few months and will keep you posted.

Welcome to the Historic Delano Blog

This blog is intended to be a discussion forum for a wide variety of topics relating to Delano.  Topics will include such things as historical tidbits, current events and our hopes and plans for the future. We will also post news items of interest; and a calendar of events is in the works.

If you have a topic for discussion, you may e-mail us at blog@historicdelano.com and we will post it and open a discussion about it.  Readers may submit their own comments on any topic, but this blog will be moderated to reduce spam and off-topic posts.

This blog is our first attempt at blogging, so please contribute; let us know how we are doing.

We are certain that the blog will grow and mature as we go, so let's get started!