My Ten Cents Worth

In 1999, Salina invited me to come and stay a while. Not literally, of course, but I could hear Salina calling. My wife and I were looking for a place to raise our young family and Salina was opening its doors to us. The community had recently passed a $99 million bond issue supporting education and it offered a quality of life that we were missing in the community we called home. With USD 305, the educational opportunities for our children have been exceptional. The quality of life – arts, entertainment, recreation, and athletics – is a perk that greatly exceeds what we expected.

Fast forward to 2010 and Salina has an opportunity to become one of the marquee communities in the state. To quote Dennis Lauver, “it forever changes the trajectory of Salina in a positive way.” Of course the opportunity that I am referring to is the Smoky Hill River Renewal. This one project has the potential to fundamentally change Salina – and speaking of change, that is basically the cost. For every dollar you spend, you’ll pay an extra one-quarter of a cent. Spend $4 and you’ll pay an extra penny. Spend $100 and you’ll pay an extra quarter. Buy a $25,000 car and your new tax burden will be a mere $62.50.

I’ve heard some people say they’ll drive elsewhere to shop? My question is where? Go to Topeka and you’ll pay 8.95% in sales tax. Manhattan, 8.55%. Lawrence, 8.85%. Junction City, 9.55% (beginning January 1, 2011). Overland Park, 8.65%. Stay home and you’ll pay just 8.45%. You could drive to Wichita and pay only 7.3% but you’ll spend $20 on gas and be charged 43.4 cents per gallon in the form of a fuel tax. You would spend $3.35 in fuel tax to save $1.15 in sales tax on a $100 purchase. You’d have to spend $300 just to break even on tax and nearly $1,800 when including the cost of gas. Just to break even. That’s stickin’ it to the Man!

The best thing about this is one-third of the sales tax will be paid by people who see Salina as a shopping destination! And by continuing to have a lower tax rate than nearby regional shopping hubs, Salina will still be attractive to shoppers.

But enough about the taxes, what do you get for your pocket change? You get Phase I of the Smoky Hill River Master Plan – trails, landscaping, hardscaping, sediment basins, a bridge, and most importantly, you get water in our river! Economic development will likely follow. Your change will contribute to this $27.736 million project that stretches from the Western Star Mill dam (north and west of the Salina Community Theatre) to Bill Burke Park.

If the ballot issue is approved by voters on Nov. 2, the Smoky Hill River will once again play a vital role in the quality of life in Salina. Break down the costs by resident and the cost is a minuscule 15 cents a day per Salina resident. However, since those outside Salina will contribute about a third of the cost, Salinans will pay about 10 cents a day.

But specifically, what do I get for my ten cents per day? What’s included in Phase I? For those ten cents per day you will get water flowing through the city – a real river flowing at 40 cubic feet per second. You get multi-use trails from Bill Burke Park to Walnut Street, including trail lighting in Oakdale Park. You also get a river walk from Walnut Street to the Western Star Mill dam. But wait, there’s more. You also get improvements, including restrooms, in Founders Park/Western Star Mill Plaza.

Your ten cents a day also includes the more technical, but necessary, features of the project. To get the water flowing and keep it flowing the Iron Street bridge will need to be replaced, the dam at the Western Star Mill will be rehabilitated, and provisions for low-flow rates will be in place. Your ten cents will also pay for a new culvert under Ohio Street, a concrete sedimentation basin to keep the water clean, structures for sediment removal in the stream bed, and landscaping and tree-trimming so you and your family can enjoy the river once again.

At that point, Phase I ends. Many of us may never see the completion of the Master Plan. It has taken nearly 50 years for the river to reach the condition we now find it and it could take another fifty to see the entire project through. But one thing is certain: Salina will be forever changed, for just ten cents a day. I say “Send me my bill; I’ll pay my share in advance!”

Dee Warren
President of MarketAide Services, Inc. and Chairman of the Public Relation Committee of Friends of the River