De Soto Explorer (Newspaper) - April 15, 2004, De Soto, Kansas SPORTS Girls fall to The bunny comes THE EE SOTO 20 PAGES EXPLORER D E S O T O KAN S A S A P R I L 15 2 00 4 75 CENTS New city pool could be open spring 2005 in City Council to start process Thursday JONES It didnt take long for word to get out that De Soto was in the market for a new swimming Soto City Administrator Greg Johnsons phone was busy the Wednesday morning after De Soto voters approved a million bond issue to build a new swimming pool behind the Community Construction engi neering consultants and design firms called with requests to become part of the De Soto will get back with them Should the City Council act on a proposed letter on its agenda the city will hit the street the next day with requests for proposals from design The Council will also consid er structuring the bond issue in the coming Among those visiting with Johnson on the pool the day after the referendum were De Soto City Councilwomen Mitra Templin and Linda whos involvement with the new pool extends back to her role as chairwoman of a special De Soto Parks and Recreation pool said she and Zindler wanted to get things moving with the bond issue and design so the pool could open for the 2005 During the referendum cam the citys design consult ant said a 2005 open ing was pos s i b 1 e Templin business so we can get this opened by My objec tive is lets get down to Mitra Templin De Soto City I dont think its unreason she My objective is lets get down to business so we can get this opened by We have the basic Its just a matter of who can do it the most most effi and most A 2005 opening was Anderson but it would be tight The keys would be for the City Council to come to quick agreement on details of the pools design and that the design and construction firm understand the importance of a 2005 SEE PAGE 6A PHOTO George Crispen uses a hose Friday to prepare the Miller Park pool for its open ing late next The De Soto City Council will start discussions Thursday that could deter mine whether a new pool replaces the current one in one or two Career fair student effort SARA SHEPHERD De Soto High School seniors Stephanie Manes and Travis Jones agree that next weeks career fair is going to be reward ing and but theyll sure be relieved when its all Manes and Jones are two of six seniors in Amy career class at De Soto High School who spent the spring semester planning a career fair that will include representatives from more than 25 businesses and The fair is open to the public as well as students from other districts and will be from to 11 Wednesday in the De Soto High School During the students distributed posters and invita wrote dozens of letters and made even more telephone calls to make the event They will be pulling everything together this The next couple of days are going to be crunch said the class invit ed a variety of representatives so all students could whether they were going to col looking for a job right still undecided or just SEE DE PAGE 9A County purchases parkland west of De Soto JONES In a move that should have pro found consequences for the future landscape of De the Johnson County Parks and Recreation District has purchased a of property just west of De park district land acquisition said April 2 the park district closed on 255 acres of property owned by the Rieke fam ily and another 115 acres owned by the Dickens The million purchase is west of Sunflower Road and north of Kansas Highway The which Maasen charac as is a mix of grass land and timber on gently rolling ter rain overlooking the Kansas River valley to the immediate The park district did not have plans as to how it would develop the Maasen Were just trying to take tage of some he It wont be open to the because we dont have any facilities to entertain the The district had aggressively purchased land after the County Commission granted the district mills for parkland acquisition in its 2003 Much of that property was seen as needed to fill future and Maasen said the park dis did not have the money to maintain or upgrade much of the newly acquired The De Soto site was not part of the park districts five year capital improvement plan and any development was probably five years down the Maasen Any planning and development of SEE PAGE 3A Anglophile Kobler behind the spreading chestnut trees ELVYN JONES Against the expressed wishes of a curator of a old English the Queens seeds are taking root in Miller The link to the De Soto park and English royalty is courtesy Bud The local Anglophile spent two years in England in the early 1960s while in the Air taking trips most weekends to London to do the things that would appeal to a single When I matured a little it made me so mad what I he I swore if I could afford Id go After his retirement in Kobler had the time to explore what he Now he makes biannual trips to London in the spring and Ive learned how to go and how not to go and how cheap it is if you know he I just get on a plane and go over I can do that or hang around the coffee shop in De During the years and 16 Kobler has become well acquainted with I know it better than the English he The English dont know All they know is how to get to work and back You never want to take directions from an because they do not want to admit they dont know where it Theyll give you directions whether its right or wrong I learned that a long time During one Kobler discovered the Chelsea Physic founded as the Apothecaries Garden in 1673 to train the young drug gist of the day in identifying medicinal As the British Empire plants from its farflung lands were added to the gardens One of those plants caught eye two years I saw a beautiful chestnut tree there and asked if I could have its he England being the young woman I asked took me to the who Absolutely You cant pick seeds off the Queens The reply disappointed who had started a tree in the park the year before from a seed he had picked up from another variety of English Fortunately he guide ignored her superi ors surreptitiously filling Koblers hands with The gift coincided with another of Koblers In the early the De Soto Lions Club paid to have trees planted in the Kobler many of the trees died because they were ill suited for the environ ment or poorly he SEE PAGE 3A Bud Kobler checks on the health of one of the Indian horse chestnut trees he planted in Miller Kobler got the seeds for the tree in London during one of his Frequent visits to that farm PHOTO THE EXPLORER ON LINE Get your hometown news every day with the De Soto Explorers Internet CONTACTING THE EXPLORER DE SOTO EXPLORER 913 5851616 EXPLORER FAX LINE 913 5851316 Advertising 8alcs@dc8otoexplorer.com
