Category — Eco-Futures Tidbits

Somewhere along the way I’ve managed to get into poison ivy. My arm is slightly swollen with one nasty looking rash painted a flaking chalky pink. Lovely. I also twisted my wrist funny while biking along the river yesterday so I’ve got this nappy wrist wrap on, too.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be filming some of the Wetland Learner activities as well as being photographed myself for a feature in the Lawrence Magazine later this summer. I think I’ll wear long sleeves.

I have to say that the poison ivy at the river seems to be thriving while the tomatoes I cleverly planted before July this year seem to be getting paler by the day. The trials of gardening in Kansas.

In today’s Dragonfly Messenger I reported on the availability of a number of historic publications through KSU’s Research & Extension. I took a lull in the afternoon to flip through Walter Balch’s 1937 bulletin on Home Vegetable Gardens. He included a horse-drawn-cultivator-friendly layout for the average 1/2 acre Kansas home garden, encouraged the autumn application of well rotted manure, and discouraged the use of imported seedlings suggesting it would be better to focus on overall production quality than force early production. My tomatoes are looking even paler now!

From Johnson County, Kansas Homepage January 2008
Funding for construction of a Riverfront Park overlooking the Kansas River in De Soto was approved Thursday, January 24, by the Johnson County Board of Commissioners.

The Board authorized $56,685 from the county’s Stream Maintenance Fund for public improvements in connection with the new park. Vote to approve the funding request was unanimous by the Board.

The Stream Maintenance Fund receives royalty payments from sand removed from the Kansas River as it flows through Johnson County. The funds can be used for the cleaning and maintenance of the river upon approval of the Kansas Division of Water Resources and for development of public park lands along tributaries of and along the Kansas River.

The fund was last used in 1996 and 1997 by the Johnson County Park and Recreation District to construct a boat ramp near Cedar Creek.

Thursday’s funding authorization by the Board will be used by the city of De Soto to help finance phase one of its 50-acre Riverfront Park located along the banks of the river with a connection at Ottawa Street. The site of the park is on property of the former commercial sand dredging business operated by the Kaw Sand Company in the 1990s.

De Soto’s concept plan of the park includes a stage for festivals, concerts, and other attractions; hiking and biking trails; an informational kiosk or monument with De Soto history; picnic shelters; playground equipment, including a disc-golf course and sand volleyball area; parking areas, including a site for recreational vehicles; public bathrooms; and shower facilities for campers and RV users.

The first phase of the project now is under way, including site clearing and rough grading for the regional festival and concert viewing area to accommodate up to 2,500 visitors. That work is expected to be completed by mid-February.

Construction of a performing stage overlooking the Kansas River, grass seeding, and final grading work will start in March with completion by early summer. The first concert in the new Riverfront Park is scheduled October 11, featuring a Blues and Barbecue Festival.

Other work in the first phase, with an estimated cost of $700,000, will involve construction of the loop drive snaking through the park, public parking areas, a storm water system, and potable water system along with installation of electrical service and an irrigation pump to provide water from the river to irrigate grass, trees, and plantings at the park.

The project, which is the first Johnson County park along the banks of the Kansas River, is being developed in five phases by the city over five years with a final estimated cost of $3.5 million.

Funds for new Riverfront Park in De Soto authorized