The registration deadline for the 2009 Built Environment and the Outdoors Summit in Topeka is September 23. One workshop of particular interest to rails-to-trails advocates is "Resources: Kansas Rail-Trails-An Exciting Adventure" with speakers Trent McCown and Frank Meyer. To register go to: www.krpa.org and scroll down to the announcement.
The next meeting of Sunflower Recreational Trails will be held on Saturday September 12 in Marysville. SRT Board member Steve O'Neal and his wife, Carole, will be hosting a BBQ at their home from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for all SRT directors, SRT members and other trail advocates. In case of inclimate weather, the meeting will be held at the Wagon Wheel restaurant. After the meeting, a field trip will be held on a newly-completed section of the Blue River Rail-Trail. Three national historic trails pass through Marysville: Pony Express, Oregon-California and Mormon trails.
The O'Neal residence is located at 1174 11th Terrace. Directions are as follows: Go to 1124 Pony Express Highway and then head north on a private drive until you run out of road. Or go to Penny's Diner & Oak Tree Inn on the south side of of US 36 (Pony Express Highway) and turn north at this intersection. Camping is available at the city park (home to the famous black squirrels) and rooms are available in the newly-restored historic Weaver Hotel in nearby Waterville.
Work crews are removing the rails and ties along the former Santa Fe Burlington Northern spur in eastern Lawrence which will be converted into the Burroughs Creek Trail in late September. The salvage value of the steel is considerable. Circa 1990, the City of Lawrence was able to acquire the tracks of the southern portion of the spur from the Santa Fe Railroad and plow the proceeds from the salvage of the tracks into developing the Haskell Rail-Trail. The two trails will link up at 23rd Street east of Leonard Ave.
Longtime Kansas rails-to-trails advocate, Larry Rhodes of Topeka, is relocating to his home state of North Carolina. Larry was first active in the Rails-to-Trails Coalition of Kansas (RTCK) in the late 1980s when it first acquired the Landon Trail. Later he served as an officer and director on Sunflower Recreational Trails (the successor to RTCK) and Kanza Rail-Trails Conservancy (which is now developing the Landon and Flint Hills Nature Trails). Larry's insights and hard work will be missed by the Kansas rails-to-trails community. We wish him luck in his next new adventure and hope he will be active in the North Carolina rails-to-trails organization.