The Munson family of Junction City and rural Geary County has donated a 12.7 acre tract land located next to Highway 77 and adjacent to Helland Park.

The donation stems from talks about the 8th Street walking trail with Kaw Valley Engineering. According to the staff report to the City Commission Leon Osbourn, President of Kaw Valley Engineering spoke with Robert Munson about the project and Robert then offered to donate the land. The City Commission accepted that donation Tuesday night.

Allen Dinkel, City Manager explained that long-term plans will be to eventually include the land with Helland Park, but in the near future they hope to put a retention pond on that property,”to solve some of our problems.”

“Our hope is also that maybe some of this material from the pond can actually be dug as part of the Highway 77 project. Of course that Contractor is going to need a substantial amount of fill material, and we hope this is a borrow pit they can use and develop a pond along with it,” said Dinkel.

The City has been looking into a regional retention pond in that area to help alleviate storm water issues downstream of Prices Ravine, avoiding potential costly projects in the future.

The commission unanimously accepted the donation, and city staff will now begin working with KDOT to work on adding the retention pond to the US 77,/K-18 Interchange project.