Steering committee forwards six Build Kansas Fund applications, accepts one revision for federal review

The Kansas Build Kansas steering committee on April 9 reviewed six applications for state Build Kansas Fund support and accepted one requested adjustment to a previously approved award, advising staff to forward the new and revised applications to the relevant federal grant programs for consideration.

Matthew Volz, executive director of the Kansas Infrastructure Hub, opened the meeting saying, "Our agenda today is gonna focus on Build Kansas Fund, application review. We have 6 of them to review today. We also have 1 modification request, and then we will do some hub updates, towards the end." The items reviewed included three Airport Infrastructure Grant (AIG) applications, one WaterSMART-style water infrastructure request, and two projects tied to FEMA's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.

Why it matters: Build Kansas Fund awards are intended to help local applicants meet federal match requirements and unlock federal grant dollars. Committee advice to forward these applications moves them on to federal agencies; final federal awards and use of Build Kansas dollars remain contingent on federal grant decisions.

Key items reviewed

- Wichita Airport Authority — Jabara Airport land acquisition (application id in the packet: "2020Five-zero82"). The request: $51,750 from the Build Kansas Fund; local contribution $5,750 (reported as 5% of the match); applicant contribution $450,000; federal funding unlocked stated as $1,092,500; total project cost $1,600,000. Volz noted the parcel is shown in the application materials and that the acquisition would support hangar expansion on the east side of Jabara Airport. The application states 25.69 acres for the tract. The committee had reviewed this project at its March 26 steering-committee meeting and advised forwarding to federal review.

- Great Plains Development Authority (Parsons / Labette County) — regional water pipeline and tower rehabilitation (application id: "2020Five-eighty9"). The request: $1,413,264 Build Kansas contribution; local contribution $74,382 (listed as 5% of the match); federal funding unlocked $4,462,938; total cost $5,950,584. The project would install about 8 miles of 12-inch PVC pipeline to connect Parsons to a rural water district treatment plant (creating redundancy), rehabilitate a water tower and add 18 hydrants. Volz described the plan as improving system redundancy for Parsons and growth capacity for the industrial park (which the application identifies as hosting Day & Zimmerman).

- Nemaha (Neemaha/Niemaha) Marshall Electric Cooperative — BRIC request for installation of oil-free automatic reclosers (application id shown in packet as "202-5095"). The request: $427,500 Build Kansas Fund; local contribution $22,500; federal funding unlocked $1,350,000; total cost $1,800,000. Volz described reclosers as automatic devices that interrupt faults and attempt to restore power, improving reliability and wildfire mitigation. Committee members asked for clarifying details (number of reclosers and line miles covered); Volz said staff would follow up with the applicant.

- City of Garnett — Garnett Municipal Airport runway reconstruction and land acquisition to support runway 1/19 improvements (application id: "2025-096"). The request: $15,331 Build Kansas Fund; local contribution $15,332; federal funding unlocked $275,960; total cost $306,005. Volz said land and easements on the north and west sides of the airport are needed for runway relocation, lighting and navigation aids.

- Nemaha (Neemaha/Niemaha) Marshall Electric Cooperative — BRIC request for load centers and transmission-line poles (application id: "2025-098"). The request: $950,000 Build Kansas Fund; local contribution $50,000; federal funding unlocked $3,000,000; total project $4,000,000. The project would install spun-concrete and steel poles and modern pad-mounted load centers to improve wind resilience serving roughly 3,300 customer homes, according to the application. Volz noted the concrete poles are manufactured in Kansas (Ashland) and steel poles by Valmont in Salina.

- City of Newton — Newton City-County Airport runway rehabilitation (application id: "2025-099"). The request: $73,150 Build Kansas Fund; local contribution $3,850; federal funding unlocked $1,463,000; total project $1,540,000. The application proposes pavement patching and crack repairs to the east–west runway (Runway 8/26), with an eventual plan to upgrade it to an instrument approach.

Modification request accepted

- Stevens County / Hugoton Municipal Airport — an adjustment to a previously approved Build Kansas Fund award (packet references original and revised Build Kansas amounts). The county reported a calculation error (they had applied 5% to total project cost rather than 5% of the federal match). The revised Build Kansas Fund request increased from $18,249 to $34,673 (difference $16,424) while the federal totals and overall project cost remained unchanged. The committee accepted the correction and recorded advice to proceed with the revised allocation.

Committee process and next steps

Committee members asked clarifying questions on acreage for the Jabara parcel (Volz referenced the application page listing 25.69 acres), whether the Parsons pipeline could enable future regionalization (Volz said interconnects would allow that in principle but the application did not propose new lines to other towns), and for the Nemaha Marshall recloser project, how many reclosers or miles of line would be covered (Volz said the application did not specify and staff would follow up). Where the committee raised no objection, members advised staff to forward the applications to the relevant federal agencies for award consideration.

Quotes and attributions in this article come directly from meeting remarks by Matthew Volz, Chair Waymaster, Senator Schallenberger, Representative Vaughn, Senator Billinger and Representative Hoffman as recorded in the meeting transcript.

The applications and the accepted revision will now await federal-award decisions; if federal programs authorize awards, Build Kansas Fund allocations would be used as the state-side match as specified in the applications.