GAS — A quarter-mile-long walking track will be installed this summer at Fees Park at the west edge of Gas. The trail will be four feet wide and circle the park.
City councilmen accepted a $21,544 grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Tuesday evening to pay half the project’s $43,088 cost. Gas will be responsible for the remainder, with a good portion coming in labor, equipment use and base rock that Mayor Darrel Catron said he hoped Allen County would provide.
The grant application was prepared by council member Jennifer McDermeit, who described particulars of the project.
Three inches of compressed shredded rubber from vehicle tires will lie atop a crushed rock base, capped with a half-inch-thick layer of rubberized material. According to KDHE, the surface will “provide people of all ages a slip resistant and clean area to exercise while reducing impact on joints and the lower back.”
“The walking track is a feature that a lot of our citizens are going to like,” Catron said, “and may even draw people from elsewhere.”
Some arrangement may be made to tie the walking track to a swinging bridge recently installed by city crews over a swale in the middle of the park. The bridge will provide access to children going from a picnic area to playground equipment.
DESIGNATING a city storm shelter was put on hold.
“I think we should wait and see what happens with Crossroads” alternative school, at the northwest edge of town, Catron said. “The school district may move out of it,” which could make it available for refitting as a storm shelter. “It’d be a good place with lots of parking.”
If that doesn’t materialize, councilmen may look at constructing shelters near City Hall and in Fees Park.
A public hearing for the city’s neighborhood revitalization program was set for 6:45 p.m. on May 11, before the council’s next meeting. Catron reported Allen County, Allen County Community College and USD 257 had signed on to the effort, which will provide property tax breaks to residents or businesses making improvements worth $5,000 or more or building new structures.
Allen County crews spent three days sweeping dust and loose rock from city streets that been chip-sealed last summer.
“That helped quite a bit,” said Councilman Mark Henry, who voiced concerns about dust from the streets at the council’s March meeting.
Councilmen voted unanimously to advertise for bids to have a condemned mobile home at 410 S. McRae razed, its basement to be filled and the property cleared of debris and undergrowth.
