City officials have approved a program that will help improve access to the Arkansas River recreation areas from Stone Lake.
Assistant City Administrator Dawn Jaeger explained that last June the city applied for the grant that was accepted this week to install a sidewalk, signs and “bollards” to help keep vehicular traffic off the sidewalk.
Jaeger told the Great Bend City Council this week that the grant from Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks for $51,795 will fund the development and that it will also include a vehicle entrance area at that site.
The city will provide an “in kind” match, handling the work.
“We think it’s a pretty good situation,” Jaeger commented about the development that will run from the Stone Lake parking area to the river.
The city was warned earlier this year by Army Corps of Engineers Levee Safety Program Manager Jim Martell that it needs to do more to protect the flood control levees and to keep ATV drivers from causing damage to those areas.
That issue continues under study by the city staff and a special meeting for the council on that issue is expected to be scheduled.
Martell reported to the council that inspections have shown that there have been continuing problems locally with fences being cut, ruts being driven into the levees, damage done to the tops of the levees and even areas where protecting cement block — “riprap” — has been dislodged during recreational use.