County Board seeks scenic byway

The Crawford County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday signed on with a proposal to seek national Scenic Byway designation for U.S. Highway 69 throughout eastern Kansas.
Craig Hull, director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau, presented the proposal to the commissioners. The U.S. 69 corridor between Leavenworth and Baxter Springs already has state designation as the Frontier Scenic Military Byway.
"That allows us to market the corridor for people traveling through Kansas who are looking for beautiful scenery," Hull said.
The state Scenic Byway designation was approved in 1990, spearheaded by residents of Linn and Bourbon counties to the north of Crawford County, Hull said. Recognition of the corridor as a National Scenic Byway would expand the marketing potential, particularly of Southeast Kansas as a potential tourist destination, across the country, he said.
Hull needed resolutions of support from the county, as well as from communities along the U.S. 69 corridor. Designation as a National Scenic Byway would impose some regulations on how the appearance of areas along the corridor are maintained. But the state regulations for byway designation were copied directly from the national requirements, so there'd be little if any change, said Todd Kennemer, representing the City of Pittsburg, who accompanied Hull to the meeting to answer questions.
Of particular interest to the commissioners was how the designation would affect plans for a proposed four-lane highway along the existing corridor in Crawford County. Kennemer said development of the corridor has not been affected by the state designation and could foresee no impact from a national Scenic Byway designation.
According to a Frequently Asked Questions sheet from the Kansas Scenic Byway Web site, www.ksbyways.org, which Hull presented, a corridor management plan would be developed and administered by local communities and local governmental agencies. Corridor management plans rely on existing zoning and land use regulations to preserve scenic qualities along the byway.
If no local management regulations are in place, the plans rely on local land owners to maintain the beauty of the byways, the document said.
Kansas currently has nine Scenic Byways, totaling 578 miles of highway. Two of the nine have received National Scenic Byway designation, according to the Web site. Attractions along the state's byways include arts, wildlife, Native American and Civil War history and culture heritage.
On a motion by Commissioner Tom Moody, seconded by Bob Kmiec, the commission voted unanimously to approve the resolution of support for the proposal.
In other business:
• County Clerk Don Pyle reported early turnout at poling sites he'd visited Tuesday morning was brisk. But, due to some voters who hadn't updated their registrations, a greater than anticipated number of people were having to vote with provisional ballots. Pyle said he wasn't sure his staff could have all the provisional ballots sorted and ready by Friday, the day scheduled to canvass the votes of the general election.
 He asked commissioners if they wanted to postpone canvassing the election until Monday, the final day the canvass could be completed. Pyle wasn't sure there would be a problem having the ballots ready by Friday, but he wanted commissioners to be aware a delay could be necessary.
 The commissioners decided to wait until later in the week to decide if the canvass would have to be postponed. Pyle said he would know before Thursday if the delay was necessary. The commissioners will meet, as originally announced, for their regular meeting at 9 a.m. Friday and proceed with the canvass, if the ballots are ready for review.