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Kansas Highway Patrol seeks $4M headquarters move, $26.8M for Salina troop facilities and wellness funding
Summary
Merle Bridal, chief of staff for the Kansas Highway Patrol, told the Corrections and Public Safety Subcommittee the agency supports the governor's budget recommendations and requested funding to relocate its general headquarters to the Curtis State Office Building, relocate two troop facilities in Salina and replace the South Olathe scale house; the panel approved several amendments and forwarded the budget to full committee.
Merle Bridal, chief of staff for the Kansas Highway Patrol, told the Corrections and Public Safety Subcommittee the agency's FY2026'27 budget priorities include a $4,000,000 headquarters relocation, IT upgrades and large facility moves for troop operations.
Bridal said the governor recommends $2,000,000 in FY2026 and $2,000,000 in FY2027 to relocate the KHP general headquarters to the first floor of the Curtis State Office Building in Topeka. "That new facility will enhance communications capabilities and provide improved working conditions for our dispatch personnel," Bridal said, adding the move consolidates roughly 120 employees currently scattered across multiple floors and two leased buildings.
Why it matters: Bridal told the committee the Curtis move meets the agency's needs at a fraction of the cost of a previously proposed new…
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