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History of Kensington, Kansas - Centennial Edition,
1987
Recreation
Sports had their part in the lives of the pioneers.
Kensington's baseball team had some professional
players and was second to none in this part of
Kansas. There was also a race track in the west part
of town, where horse racing was a popular sport.
Sports are still an important part of the Kensington
community's social and recreational lifestyle.
School sports provide a major source of community
entertainment during the school year. Kensington
schools still offer football, volleyball, girls and
boys basketball, and track. Summer baseball programs
are available for boys and girls who have finished
Kindergarten, up through age 15. Boys aged 15-19 may
play American Legion baseball at the county seat.
In the summer of 1982, Kensington entered the
"satellite age", when cable television service
began. Kensington Cable TV, Inc. was incorporated on
March 19, 1982. The purpose of the corporation was
to furnish the City of Kensington with cable TV
service. In the process it was determined to
position our equipment and tower half way between
Kensington and Agra and serve both communities. The
work began and cable TV was a reality for both
communities of Kensington and Agra in July of 1982.
The corporation then decided to expand the service
to other small communities that did not have cable
TV service. In March of 1983 Almena Kansas received
cable TV. In June of 1984, the corporation expanded
to Hildreth, Nebraska. Wilcox, Nebraska was added in
December of 1985. Axtell, Nebraska was completed so
the list of communities has grown to the current
total of six.
Kensington is very
proud of its municipal swimming pool, completed in
the summer of 1984. The council members of the City
of Kensington had an idea that the City would have a
municipal pool for the benefit of the citizens. The
first part of this project was the necessity of
funds to build the facility. To accomplish this it
was decided to make application to the Kansas State
Park and Resources Authority for a matching grant.
The original application was filed in May of 1982.
The other half of the funds was to come from the
citizens if they approved of the project. We held a
community meeting in March of 1983 and the decision
of the patrons in attendance was to proceed with the
pool project. In April of 1983 the citizens voted to
approve a Bond Issue for $75,000 for the city's half
of the construction of the pool. On June 1, 1983 we
received word that our grant application had been
approved by the Kansas State Park and Resources
Authority then on September 13, 1983 we received
word from the federal level that our grant was fully
approved and that we could proceed with the
construction of the municipal pool. Construction was
under way in early spring of 1984 and we opened the
pool in July of 1984. The main pool holds 160,000
gallon of heated water, has a wading pool for
younger children and a spa for use by all ages young
and old. We are one of the few to have the pleasure
of a heated pool and the spa. This has been a great
asset to the community in the way of making jobs
available for managers and lifeguards as well as
drawing people to our community which benefit our
businesses.
More
to Come Soon!
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