Posted on November 20, 2018
The Smoky Hill River Renewal Project envisions a future where people can walk or ride bikes alongside a clear, flowing river, or row down the winding river through Salina in a canoe or kayak.
Construction on phase one of the multiphase project isn’t scheduled to begin until 2020, but planning is already well underway. More than 120 people attended a meeting at Tony’s Pizza Events Center Thursday evening to learn about Salina’s plans to revitalize the Smoky Hill River.
Goals
Salina Utilities Director Martha Tasker introduced planners from HDR, a company that is helping city officials design the project.
HDR landscape architect Troy Henningson said the project seeks to restore the Smoky Hill River to its former glory.
“The old Smoky Hill River used to go through downtown,” he said. “Due to some flooding events earlier in the 1900s, the Army Corps of Engineers built a bypass channel. It removed all the water from the center of town, but it still does receive some storm sewer inputs.”
The current Smoky Hill River is often a dry, muddy river filled with debris, trash and sediment, Henningson said.
The goals of the River Renewal Project are to improve water quality, mitigate current algae and odor problems and create a community asset that drives the revitalization of the river, downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
Features
Henningson said the Saline County Demonstration Garden, maintained by K-State Extension, would have to be moved downstream closer to Tony’s Pizza Events Center. He said the new garden would be about four times as large.
A plaza being planned near the intersection of Fourth Street and Iron Avenue will include walking and bike paths as well as a seating area. Henningson said this area will likely be one of the first parts of the project the city will build.
A dam located at Founders Park, near the Salina Community Theatre, will be replaced with a series of step pools and a canoe slide to be located in the middle of the river. The five step pools will be two or three feet high and will replace the current 11 foot drop, which would pose a risk for people riding down the river in a canoe or kayak.
The project also will seek to reconnect the Smoky Hill River with Lakewood Lake and allow canoes and kayaks to travel from the river to the lake.
Funding
HDR Project Manager Eric Dove said city officials and others working on the project are “looking for every dime of grant funding out there.”
Tasker said the city has received a grant for $450,000 from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which requires the city of Salina to provide $350,000 in matching funds. She said the city has also applied for a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Source: Salina Journal
