The Kiowa County Tree Arboretum (open to the public) will be located at the Kiowa County Fairgrounds (northwest corner of Greensburg, KS).
The arboretum will be planted with over 80 trees that are adapted to the area by student in the Home Horticulture class at Fort Hays State University.
The trees will be labeled to allow visitors to know specifically what variety they are looking at and to see what the tree looks like before opting to plant it in their own landscape. Very few trees survived the tornado that struck Greensburg, so the arboretum will encourage homeowners to plant the best adapted trees for their location.
Assisting the students in planting trees will be the Kiowa County Master Gardeners (a voluntary group, Kiowa County 4-H members and citizens of Greensburg. The tree list was determined by a cooperative effort between the Greensburg City Tree Board, the Kiowa County Extension Office and the Kansas Forest Service. After planting drip irrigation will be installed and the area mulched.
The FHSU students will also be planting an ornamental grass display along the main street in Greensburg.
A ceremony recognizing the efforts of the students and Arbor Day 2009 was held in front of the courthouse. Dignitaries speaking include Kansas House Representative Pat Maloney, Greensburg Mayor Bob Dixson and representatives from U.S. Senator Pat Robert’s Office. A proclamation issued by the Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was read along with a letter of support from Senator Ruth Teichman. (story courtesy of FHSU Horticulure).
As new projects continue to grow around the Greensburg area, the city council continues to pursue new ways to finance projects.
Looking for creative ways to speed recovery is something the city is becoming good at.
Recently, City Administrator Steve Hewitt discussed the concept of creating a Public Building Commission (PBC) in order to come up with gap funding for upcoming building projects as part of the tornado recovery program. The purpose of the PBC would be to plan financing for upcoming projects and issue general revenue bonds. Changes in legislation at the Kansas state level would allow Greensburg to add additional sales tax to help pay off the bonds. The special purpose sales tax would be required to sunset (end) withing 10 years.
The city council voted uanaimously to pursue the conccept of forming a PBC in order to tackle the next upcoming building project, the Big Well Museum.
