The concept surfaced this week in public meetings; among other things, the Riley County Commission agreed to support the concept, without committing any money.
The idea is to build a trail along the river, the origin of which is at Junction City. (History lesson: The reason for that city’s name is that it’s the location of the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers. Those two merge to form the Kansas River.)
The trail itself is envisioned as partly paved and partly unpaved. It’s 44.5 river miles in the region we’re talking about. It’s also potentially part of a network that would include Topeka and Lawrence, so that there could be a network along the entire river’s length, east all the way to Kansas City, according to Christy Rodriguez. Ms. Rodriguez is the head of the Flint Hills Regional Council, the entity that’s trying to move forward with the concept.