MANHATTAN (KSNT) – Spring has arrived in northeast Kansas, and many cities and counties are preparing for a boost in tourism ahead of some summer fun.
Working for you, 27 News took a trip out to Manhattan on April 15 to see what they are doing ahead of the anticipated tourism rush. Staff with the City of Manhattan’s Parks and Recreation works on preparations year-round for the 30 miles of local trail systems, with vegetation control to make sure everything is well kept and maintained.
Cody Cramer with the City of Manhattan Parks and Recreation department said that for their vegetation process, they do not use fire.
“We do a lot of mowing back,” Cramer said. “We mow back a lot of vegetation, and we do mechanical means by cutting it down either by hand or machine. A little bit of chemical to push that back, that usually is a little bit more in the fall with some honeysuckle abatement that we are doing. But that is also in the springtime with a little bit more of our noxious weeds that we try to keep under control. It’s a little tougher, but we are making strides in that in that area.”
Why are flags at half-staff Friday in Kansas?
Back in 2019, Parks and Rec received approval for its master plan by the city commission to make improvements on the trails. Today, at Warner Memorial, crews are wrapping up the Warner Memorial Park trailhead and loop project, where they have added a new pedestrian bridge over the ravine in the middle of the park.
“We had inline construction out of Marysville. They were our contractor here for this, and they started back in February,” said Alfonso Leyva, park planner with the City of Manhattan. “They did the trailhead concrete there, they did the pedestrian bridge, and then they wrapped up late last month, last March. And then our trail crews are now making that connection to the bridge.”
The Parks and Recreation team is hopeful this addition will be ready to go for the tourism rush on May 1. You can learn more about the City of Manhattan’s recreational opportunities by clicking here.
For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.
