http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/River-story-1-new
River once more?
10/17/2010
By CHRIS HUNTER/Salina Journal
Nearly 50 years after its water flow was mostly cut off by a bypass channel, the Smoky Hill River channel that winds through the center of Salina often is little more than a wide ditch.
“We don’t have a river today,” Jason Gage, Salina city manager. “When you look across town, you see Smoky Hill this and Smoky Hill that, all named for the Smoky Hill River. This community grew up on the Smoky Hill River, it is our history and identity. Our identity has been gone since about 1960.”
The channel, which used to be a gathering place for families and recreation, sits mostly empty, except when water is allowed to flow through it during the Smoky Hill River Festival, or if there is a heavy rain. It’s been that way since the early 1960s when a diversion channel was completed by the Army Corps of Engineers to allow the river to bypass Salina and thus eliminate periodic flooding.
Since that time, several efforts to allow water to again flow in the river have stalled.
But on Nov. 2, voters will have their say on a 0.25 percent sales tax that is designed to pay for the $27 million primary phase to restore flow to the channel. The sales tax is expected to bring in between $25 million and $28 million over a 10-year period.
“It has been a truly deteriorated, eyesore of a drainage ditch since that time,” Gage said of the 7Ôªø1âÑ2 miles of the old channel in the city.
“It is about time we do something about it and bring the city’s identity back, prevent flooding and give people access to the water,” Gage said.
Extensive flooding
Steve Ryan is the Friends of the River Foundation co-chairman and a former Salina mayor. The Friends group is behind the current effort to raise money to revitalize the river through Salina.
Ryan said the river used to be a gathering place for families. Two of Salina’s major parks — Oakdale and Kenwood — are built around the river.
Ryan said the river was a place for renting boats, ice skating, water skiing and picnics in the parks.
While the river had it obvious benefits, it was also the source of major flooding in the city in 1903, 1927, 1938, 1941 and 1951.
According to a study performed by Wilson and Co. in 1978, the 1951 flood covered half of Salina.
“The river is on a flat plain and it just backed up when it rained,” Ryan said. “We really needed flood control.”
Salina looked to the government for help.
Ryan said the Army Corps of Engineers started work on a diversion channel in 1957. That diverted the water east of Salina, near Indian Rock Park, and out of the main river channel through the city. The work was completed in 1961.
In addition, a levee system was constructed around the city.
Didn’t know it was happening
Troy Vancil, president of the Friends of the River, said people didn’t even realize the water was disappearing until boating was no longer possible in 1967 because of extremely low water levels.
“The Corps did a fine job of diverting the water, but we didn’t consider (losing) the water going through the channel,” Ryan said. “It was a wonderful thing that was overlooked.”
Ryan said efforts to restore the water’s flow began in 1971 with a city beautification study, and the city hired Wilson and Co. in 1978 to study the river. In the 1980s, a citizens committee was started to study the river, Ryan said.
Also in the 1980s, another group — Goals for Salina — looked at ways to improve the city, and revitalizing the river was its top goal.
Ryan said both groups were made up of prominent citizens and people knowledgeable about the river.
“We were handicapped by some things we are not today,” Ryan said. “We didn’t have sales tax financing available. We discussed whether we should go to the voters with a mill levy deal, but it was common consensus it would not pass because there hadn’t been a public education program or citizen input on the project.”
With a sales tax option available now, another obstacle stood in the way of water flowing in the old river channel — a recreational water permit.
This time the city does have the permit, which will allow enough water to flow through the channel to make it a river once again.
“It took us 50 years, and you never know if it will take another 50 years to get to this point,” Vancil said. “We have a draft recreational water permit in hand, and that is something we never had. Who knows if in five or 10 years we would be able to get that again.”
One result of the study committee that look at the river was that, in the 1980s, the city spent about $100,000 to dredged silt from the channel, raised the height of the levee and cleaned out limbs and branches.
“It got put on the ‘too-hard pile,’ because seven miles of river is quite a bit and it is going to cost money,” Gage said. “There is no way to avoid that and if it had been free, we would have done it already.”
What the 1st phase does
Even though the city cleaned up the channel, nothing ever came out of the project until the Friends of the River when began a campaign to restore the water flow in September 2007 and hired Wright Water Engineers, of Denver, to create a master plan for the river.
“We didn’t (in the 1980s) have a dedicated citizen’s group with over 80 volunteers that are raising private funds, hiring consultants to help them develop a plan with citizen input, do countless public meetings and get citizen input for a master plan,” Ryan said.
Wright Water Engineers designed a $74 million, multi-phase, project incorporating many aspects into an enhanced river area. The total project is anticipated to take up to 50 years and include a combination of public and private development and funding. The primary phase is expected to cost $27 million.
“The primary phase brings flow to the entire seven-mile channel of the river, cleans sediment out of the area that is already there and works on the ongoing sediment,” Gage said.
To get water flowing into the channel, the current culvert that allows water into the channel under Ohio Street would be enlarged during the first phase.
The project includes a half-mile of downtown river from the Walnut Street bridge to Founders Park designed to be like river walk like in San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Pueblo, Colo.
“We are talking about concrete hardscape, concrete channel and really nice programming for entertainment,” Gage said. “It is just a really nice urban place to be.”
A new Iron Avenue bridge
In the area with the river walk, the city’s Iron Avenue bridge would be replaced to allow water to flow through the heart of the city.
Gage said the river walk will help draw development to downtown, but a three-and-a-half mile concrete path system will help increase mobility in Salina.
Similar to hike and bike paths along South Ninth Street and South Ohio, the 10-foot-wide concrete trail will extend from Bill Burke Park to the river walk, for now.
“We could do the entire stretch of the channel, eight miles with the loop if we get grants,” Gage said. “It makes sense to do it for the entire loop. We will just have to see.”
Gage said a completed trail system would provide residents with the most accessible recreational project in the community.
“It would provide seven miles of access to the pristine and prime nature areas of Salina with a fully accessible trail,” Gage said. “It really does create a huge asset if you are a senior citizen or someone with mobility issues or challenges. It creates an open place you can be at and enjoy.”
Gage said the first phase would give Salina a fully functional river walk and subsequent phases would enhance the area.
“If this (sales tax) passes, we will have water flowing through the river in as little as three years and no more than four years,” Vancil said.
Gage said he believes subsequent phases would be funded more with private funds.
“Once a sales tax gets it going, and the private sector realizes there is a project and it is not too good to be true, they get excited about it and you can leverage a lot of private funds,” Gage said. “Future editions can be financed by private funds. Many times these projects are accelerated and happen a lot faster than planned.
Renewal in a recession?
Even with the recent recession, Gage said, now might be one of the best times for the project.
“The bidding climate is extremely competitive right now,” Gage said. “The bids could be 10-to-15 percent lower than they will be in a few years from now and interest rates are at record lows. When you think about financing a project for 10 years, it is a significant amount of money saved.”
Gage said there is never a good time for a tax increase, but he would also like the city to stay ahead of the recession.
“Even during the recession, Salina has been a city on the move,” Gage said. “We have seen the hospital do some wonderful things for medical care, the two universities (Kansas Wesleyan and Kansas State) in town make some nice improvements to their campuses, as a city we have been able to do some major road projects that are important and with citizen support we have been able to provide the finest outdoor water park in Kansas.”
Even if voters turn down the river plan, Gage said, the city may still have to address drainage issues in the near future. Sediment will have to be removed, and that can be expensive.
“Some of these costs are going to have to happen some time anyway,” Gage said.
Becoming a destination
While river restoration can keep the city from having to clean out the old channel every few years, Gage said, the improvements go beyond that. He would like Salina to become a place where people visit.
“One of the things that bothers me more than anything is that people have their favorite places to go visit for a week or weekend,” Gage said. “Typically, they have mountains, streams, lakes, shopping and forests. Whatever it is, people take their money, get in their car and leave Salina, Kansas and spend their time and money there.”
Gage said Salina can create that here with a project like the river project.
“This is a community that puts a high priority on quality of life,” Gage said. “We don’t want to be any community in Kansas that people drive by. We want to be a premier community in Kansas. This is one other way of making Salina a premier community in the state of Kansas.”
Gage said the city felt the voters should have a choice on the project since it is their money being used for at least part of the project.
Vancil said he believes time is of the essence because of all of the components of the project.
“It is seven miles of long, complicated issues in dealing with this river,” Vancil said. “It takes a lot of getting the stars aligned, and this is the first time in 50 years we have had those stars aligned.”
nReporter Chris Hunter can be reached at 822-1422 or by e-mail at chunter@salina.com.
I hope it passes. If I was still living in Salina I would vote for it. It needs to be done. It would be great for the city.