2025: A year of growth and community-building in Newton

Published on December 22, 2025

As this year draws to a close, I reflect with great pride on all that our community has accomplished together. Each milestone, large and small, has been a testament to the hard work and dedication of our residents, businesses, and City officials, and it’s an honor to celebrate these successes with you.

2025 has been the Year of Downtown! It’s been exciting to watch the transformations, physically and socially, as our Main Street community has worked to revitalize itself for a new era.

We’ve seen beautiful façade and remodeling work at many downtown locations, including Prairy’s four stores, the new Gallery Mostaza, Et Cetera Shop, Druber’s Donuts, Ironstone Financial, and The Gathering at the Fox Theatre – four of which were funded by the City’s façade improvement program.

The revamped Third Thursdays, including the Wine Walk in March, have brought a whole new audience to downtown, offering not only evening shopping but activities for families and a chance for the community to gather. And the monthly Connect Downtown events have provided business and property owners the opportunity to collaborate and share resources.

New businesses, new storefronts, new events – downtown is reinventing itself with the help of our Main Street program and bringing new life to the heart of our city.

We also saw the demolition of the old Dillons store at 320 N. Main. We’re still gathering input about what the community would like to see there – shopping, dining, nightlife, green space – and we’ll be working on some design concepts early next year as part of our new Comprehensive Plan. Together with future redevelopment of the depot, this project could be a game-changer for downtown Newton.

And speaking of game-changers, GAF began construction this year on its new world-class shingle manufacturing facility at the Kansas Logistics Park. The plant is expected to begin production in 2027 and reach full production capacity by mid-2029, creating more than 130 high-skilled manufacturing jobs, spanning management, engineering, and operations.

To serve GAF and other industrial developments, we began the design of a rail extension in the Logistics Park, with a $2.6 million grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation. Newton’s access to multi-modal transportation – including both short-line rail (KO) and Class 1 rail (BNSF) and our great highway network – has been a strong selling point for industrial development.

This fall, Hillsboro-based truck bed and trailer manufacturer Hillsboro Industries began production in its new 56,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on East First Street, bringing an $11 million investment and approximately 50 full-time jobs to Newton.

Shield AI, an aeronautics technology manufacturer specializing in artificial intelligence drones, also announced plans to come to Newton, bringing 30-60 more high-tech jobs. The company’s latest innovation, the X-BAT, is the world’s first AI-piloted, vertical takeoff and landing fighter jet, and they plan to use their Newton operations for testing and potentially future manufacturing.

Other new industrial companies coming to Newton this year include Integrated Soil & Plant Technologies, Heartland AV, Beran Concrete, and Joe Bravo Aviation. Clearly, the word is out that Newton is an excellent place to do business.

Among our existing local manufacturers, we celebrated Full Vision's building expansion and new powder-coating paint system, as well as Bunting’s new printing cylinder manufacturing facility. These are world-class companies continuing to invest here in Newton.

Along with all the job growth, robust housing development continued this year, with 81 new housing unit starts. New specialty housing developments are also in the works for EmberHope and Mennonite Housing. This strategic work will help alleviate the continuing housing shortage at all types and price levels. In the coming year, we’ll complete a new study of our housing market and identify the evolving housing needs for our community.

Our outstanding medical community also saw expansions this year, including the new Emergency Department at NMC Health and the dental clinic at Health Ministries Clinic. We can’t emphasize enough how fortunate Newton is to have health care assets like this in our community.

We’ve welcomed many new service and retail businesses this year, including Rincón Latino Restaurant, La Cava Tacos & Tequila, Salt Light Confections, the new Cadillac Jack’s Steakhouse, a new south-side McDonald’s, Prairy Toy Store, Twisted Bookstore, and Dustin Remme State Farm. Other local businesses celebrated new locations or expansions, including Moyo Clothing, Creation Station, Harvey County Now, Ironstone Wealth Advisors, Kansas Christian Home, Edward Jones Financial Advisor James Burkett, Railway Clubhouse, Faith Temple Church of God in Christ, and more.

This fall, we kicked off our new Comprehensive Plan initiative, Newton Next. The community-centered plan will serve as a roadmap for how the city grows, preserves its unique character, and prepares for future needs in housing, transportation, land use, and economic development. We’ve already had hundreds of Newtonians share their perspectives through our community survey, visioning sessions, and online feedback. In February, we’re planning a two-day Planning and Design Workshop – watch for announcements about how you can get involved or visit NewtonNextPlan.com to sign up.

City staff and Commissioners this year also launched our new community engagement series City Desk, which brings City Hall out into the community for casual conversations and questions, and Fresh Air Friday, which highlights Newton’s natural outdoor assets like our parks and bike trails. We will visit a new host of new locations in 2026 – bringing City Hall out where you are to hear your questions and engage on the topics that matter to you.

Newton also made progress this year on infrastructure projects, including mill and overlay on East 12th Street, paving still underway on South Hillside, completion of the new water tanks on West First, reconstruction of Runway 8-26 at Newton City/County Airport, and KDOT’s bridge replacement at 36th Street and I-135.

Parks and recreation also saw new improvements, including new swing sets at multiple parks, new batting cages and press box at Railer Field (in partnership with the Rec Commission and NHS Booster Club), and design work on the Sand Creek bike path extension south of First Street. We also refined the public/private partnership to improve Themian Park so the City can help pursue grant funding for the first phase. The Railer Foundation has already raised more than $180,000 in private donations to transform Newton’s oldest park into an incredible space for the neighborhood, Santa Fe school, and the whole community.

As you can see, Newton has had an incredible year. I am honored that my fellow City Commissioners have entrusted me with the role of mayor for another year, and I’m excited to see what new growth and opportunities are to come in 2026.

Thank you again for the opportunity to represent you. I wish you all a very happy holiday season!

Rich Stinnett has served on the Newton City Commission since 2019. He can be reached at rstinnett@newtonkansas.com.