An Eagle article last week showed again how misguided the Sedgwick County Commission was in backing off support for public access sites to the Arkansas River. At the urging of some landowners, the commission voted last month to halt all work on the project from 53rd Street North to the county line. But the commission didn’t properly consider the views of the public, which actually owns the river and wants to be able to utilize it. Nor did it apparently consider all the work that other local governments and groups have done on this 105-mile project, or the desire of the city of Maize to have an access site near it.
The decision was also based on the false fear that providing access points would increase trespassing on private land. As canoeist and WE blogger Ben Huie noted, “the more citizens we get on the river, the more eyes we will have watching the river.”
Commission Chairman Kelly Parks and Commissioner Karl Peterjohn seem ideologically opposed to the access project and unable to listen to reason. But the three other commission members should be willing to reconsider the issue and reverse course.
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33 Comments
In light of the current economical downturn, constructing access points along the Arkansas River would be a good place to stop the spending of tax dollars. If the City of Maize or Derby wants to build an access point, let them do it at the municipal level.
When a higher level of government gets into these projects, the cost to taxpayers increases exponentially. Already there has been a giant cost for consultants to prepare a study of the entire length of the Arkansas River from Hutchinson southeastward to Wichita and Derby.
Farmer along the river out of reach of city police departments are rightly concerned about security in their vicinity.
Even more important, 90% of the time, the Arkansas River doesn’t run enough water to make canoeing feasible. And its water at low flow is so polluted, its dangerous to the health of recreational boaters.
The Arkansas River “dry line” continues to move eastward towards Wichita. The Arkansas River channel from the Colorado/Kansas state line to Garden City and Dodge City hasn’t carried a drop of water for some twenty or more years. I’ve been told the river starts to pick up water at about Kinsley and Great Bend from sewage treatment plants and rainfall runoff through agricultural chemically sprayed fields. And Arkansas River water suffers from salt brine introduced in the Hutchinson area.
So bottom-line, its not rocket science. Let each local government along the Arkansas River do what their citizens want.
Gotta be wary of those canoers, they have such a dangerous reputation. They wield quite a mean paddle.
This is simply a recycled list of CON talking points that failed when bicycle paths along abandoned railroad routes were built.
The council’s decision is wrong-headed and should be revisited. The river is public property and access to it should not be held hostage to a few cranky farmers. Condemn the land as a flood plain. Pay off the whiners and let’s use one of the few resources this state has!
I’ve lived on the Arkansas for a year now. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to risk their health by getting into the river during the warm season. It looks like pea soup. But in the winter, the river changes. The algae dies off and the river looks pretty good. You can see the bottom when the water runs cold. Guess that’s not saying much; the river only runs 6-8 inches deep.
Still, the river belongs to the people and there’s a lot to see. I love to sit out on my deck on weekend mornings and watch the wildlife come awake as the sun rises. It’s a shame to deny that experience to my fellow Kansans.
Perhaps we should restrict access to those farmers who continue to pollute the river and cause the excessive algae growth with their fertilizer runoff.
“90% of the time, the Arkansas River doesn’t run enough water to make canoeing feasible”
NOT TRUE. Canoes and kayaks don’t require much depth.
“If the City of Maize or Derby wants to build an access point, let them do it at the municipal level”
Problem is – as you know – most of the needed sites are in unincorporated SedgCo.
“Farmer along the river out of reach of city police departments are rightly concerned about security in their vicinity”
All the more reason to enect the crime reduction plan we developed. Go READ the ARCAP. BTW – outside the city limits we have a Sheriff Department.
a landowner up there: “dump where we want to. always have, always will”
And that trash and garbage is what flows downriver. And THAT is the Parks/Peterjohn agenda. They want to turn over OUR river to people like that.
““dump where we want to. always have, always will”
And they don’t want eyes on the river to maybe report on what they are doing. That doesn’t surprise me.
My experience with with canoeists in other areas of the country — southeast Texas, California, mid-Illinois, etc…. — was summed up with:
“They take nothing but pictures. They leave nothing but footprints.”
BlueJay – you are 100% correct. And THAT is the Parks/Peterjohn agenda.
GOOD on you for being at that rather surprise of a meeting the other day there bth. I read all about it in the paper. Sneaky stuff that on the council’s part.
It seems the landowners are better organized at advancing their agenda. Particularly when they get to decide when sudden, surprise decisions like this are made.
I don’t think it has to be a done deal. If more people KNEW what was really going on and knew when the meetings were, the council might be forced to make a better, or at least more representative decision.
Don’t give up!
As ever, it’s the money. The moneyed landowners get the first place at the table. In this country, you get the best law-making that money can buy.
BTH: Perhaps your canoes and kayaks could be outfitted with wheels and engines to be usable when the Arkansas River water level is down or gone.
Actually friends in Dodge City tell me the totally dry sandy Arkansas River channel out there is mostly used by off-road vehicles for racing, etc. Next month, I hope to drive west to Greensburg, then north to Highway 50 and west into Kinsley to see where the Arkansas River begins to pick up water. Then perhaps down to Dodge City to follow Highway 56 southwestward to Montezuma and Satanta. My parents bought a gasoline service station in Satanta in 1935 as the western Kansas dust storms zeroed in there.
The disasterous “Gov. Mark Parkinson coal fired power plant” he just approved for Holcomb/Garden City will go a long way towards bringing back those dust storms of yesteryear and bleached bones of cattle carcasses in the dry arroyos of the western Kansas counties of Finney, Ford, Scott and Gove counties.
But not to worry, Parkinson will be long gone by the time the power plant is put on line … another Kansas “music man” taking the money and not producing any band uniforms.
Unfortunately I was not at the meeting. A few others did get wind of it.
By the way – Kelly Parks has indicated he plans another such ’star chamber’ hearing for the area south of 53rd St but will not divulge when. As I noted – their agenda is the complete conversion of this pubic waterway to their private constituents.
What’s that saying, something to the effect, “Ordinary people make ordinary mistakes; people in high positions make extraordinarily big disasterous mistakes.”
BTH: Perhaps your canoes and kayaks could be outfitted with wheels and engines to be usable when the Arkansas River water level is down or gone.
Not needed. Reno/Sedgwick/Sumner counties there is sufficient water. That is the ARCAP study area.
And JWink – a lot of private donations went into funding that study.
Ben — I remember growing up, on Summer Sunday afternoons, the many boating enthusiasts who would get out on the River, and have family outings in the Parks… It was always a great thing to see… Also, on the “little” river, when the old Boathouse was on Murdock, and they rented canoes…
It was great… I think its something that needs to be brought back to the wider culture of Wichita, and other places along the River…
At one time, North High was one of a very small number of High Schools in the entire country that offered canoeing as part of the Phys. Ed. program…
And who can forget that the original “River Fest” was the North High Water Carnival… Brings back lots of memories… I took part in the old Water Carnival for a number of years, in Jr. High, AND in High School… Great times!!
bth: I have a suggestion for the Sierra Club which I often times sympathize with but do not belong to. That is, mark the spot water begins running in the Arkansas River. I call it the dry line. I’m told it is moving gradually but exorbitantly eastward towards the big bend in the Arkansas River at Great Bend. It will then move southeasterly towards Hutchinson and Wichita.
To slow this movement, the Ogallala underground water aquifer should be protected by our state government. But instead, our elected representatives of Kansas people, our politicians, keep selling out the so-called “water rights” as though this water will last forever. I give it ten years and the underground aquifer water will be gone forever.
Kansans will have no choice but to drink recycled sewage effluent and chemically dangerous river water that is still left. But no matter … NASA’s shuttle crews are doing it now.
BTH, you take the first drink.
Perhaps this is the proper place for a request.
My basement floods.
It would. The water that hits the roof ends up all around the foundation.
Does anybody know where to get empty 55 gallon plastic drums?
I want to build a rainwater storage and even distribution system to keep my basement dry and the aquifer wet.
I want to get ahead of the curve as I believe water is the gold of the future in Kansas.
Blue Jay, you might check with Lowes, Home Depot, or Sutherlands… I’m not sure how safe “used” drums would be, depending on what they were used for originally…
BJ: Install a sump pump. The plumber will install a plastic liner in the pit that he digs in your basement floor in which to set the sump pump and collect the water.
If you live in an older house, there might be an old cistern outside near a corner of your house for the very purpose of catching rain water for washing clothes, etc. Most were filled in many years ago.
Another alternative: when it is raining, take a large plastic bag outside and catch the rain in it as it pours off your roof!
“BlueJay” –
Gutters are your friend. Keep ‘em clean and make sure the outflow extends away from the foundation.
Sump pumps are good, too. Just don’t take the easy way out and have ‘em pump their water out too close to the house; otherwise they’ll seem like some perpetual motion machine.
When I lived in Wichita (if you can call that living) I was on the Little Ark’s riverbanks. Loved the trees, the Canada Geese in winter, the raccoons and other critters who got fat grazing the neighbors’ dogs’ food dishes. The fattest possum I’ve seen in my life was down there by our place.
One night, during a glorious spring evening, my kitty strolled into my office from the patio and gave be a look that said, “This is above my pay grade. Your call.”
I walked into the living room and there was a mother raccoon with four pups (kittens?) in tow.
It wasn’t a big deal to calmly negotiate with the mama and persuade her she and her brood weren’t all that welcome in my house.
If you’re gonna live in such a god-forsaken place like Wichita, at least get some shade in the summer and enjoy what semblance of nature still exists near the riversides.
Well,
I have gutters and a sump pump. My brother has gutters but no sump pump.
The idea here is to catch and store the water for more even distribution and use.
I am aware that the drums are recycled because they are plastic and that’s good.
But there must be a way to get safe, used empty ones.
bth: Your remark just gave me an idea. You said something to the effect, “A lot of private funds were donated to fund the study of Arkansas River points of entry for canoes.”
Actually, I attended one of those public meetings. Seems like it might have been held at the “4-H building” at 21st and Ridge. The consultants were from out of town, perhaps Kansas City. It was obvious they didn’t want to answer any questions.
Anyway, Thomas Etheredge should have kept his restaurant going and merely prepared a “study and recommendations” of HOW to build an outdoor recreational park in Park City. Etheredge could have suggested that great site along I-135. He could have sketched his suggestions for rides and placement within the park. He could have suggested food service that would complement the park.
And Thomas Etheredge could have offered to put his Hopalong Cassidy museum in the park AFTER SEDGWICK COUNTY BUILT THE RECREATIONAL VENUE PARK WITH A GIANT SALES TAX.
Then the taxpayers would have picked up the tab with a bottomless pot of money and all this squabbling over the crumbs could have been avoided.
But Etheredge dreamed too big. He jumped in with both cowboy boots slinging mud. His investors saw a man of action and jumped in with him. But now they are claiming they were duped … didn’t know what he was trying to do. They say the wool was pulled over their eyes.
It happens. Bad deal. Now close the case and get on with life.
Wink,
Now we know who wasn’t one of Etheridge’s investors.
Blue,
There’s a home salvage yard on 63rd S. West of K-15 where I bought a couple of used 55gal. plastic drums several years ago. You might check there.
BlueJay – depending on the lay of your yard your best approach might be a low spot on the yard away from the house. Then use downspout extenders to direct the water away from the foundation. This is what I did – result a dry basement and a not-constantly-running sump pump.
‘Passive’ is always best.
JW – all water is recycled water. The aquifer we draw from is recharged by runoff etc. We may as well get used to the idea and then do it right.
bth: Depends on which town or municipality you live in. Some water is more recycled than other water.
Needless to say, if your doctor tries to prescribe anti-biotics or blood pressure medicine, just tell him: No thanks … you get them in your Wichita recycled drinking water!
bth: One of the advantages to those living in Greensburg, Kansas … their drinking water is pumped up from the bottom of the “World’s deepest handdug well.” At the bottom of this circa 1890’s well flows cool, clear, sparkling clean water from the still flowing Ogallala aquifer.
Of course, the new 895 megawatt coal-fired electrical power plant near Garden City/Holcomb will threaten the continued flow of this wonderful water. Only time will tell how much.
JW – ever study the hydrogeology around Kiowa County? Look at their various municipal wells? They do NOT pump from the hand-dug well; they have several other “modern” ones around town. And they have had issues caused by “recycle” through recharge from the surface.
“The well was used as the town’s water supply until 1932″
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensburg,_Kansas
Fill in low spots around the basement walls and elevate around the walls higher than the rest of the yard would help prevent water from seeping into the sump pump.
I also have basement window wells that would catch alot of water, made covers for them and the sump has ran very little even with all the rain we had.
Correct Phantom. I left that part out.
You can buy flexible hosing at hardware stores to carry the water away from the foudations.