TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly and the Kansas Water Office have announced an $18 million investment into 34 municipalities and special districts related to water across Kansas. Nineteen Technical Assistance Grants and 15 Water Project Grants are being awarded.
Milford will receive $388,000 as one of the technical assistance grant recipients. Flint Hills Regional Council member Trish Giordano noted that the Council helped Milford with the grant funding that they received.
“This investment is vital to the water resources and livelihoods of Kansans in these rural communities,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “By working together, we are making progress on our water crisis while ensuring communities have access to the resources they need to address their pressing water issues.”
The grants were made possible through the 2023 Senate Substitute for House Bill 2302, signed by Governor Kelly in April 2023.
That bipartisan legislation invested a record $35 million into the State Water Plan. It added $18 million on top of the annual $8 million for the State Water Plan and $17 million for the two grant funds. This year, the Kansas Legislature added $1 million to the program to meet the needs of additional requests that were made.
The first round of funding, which was released on November 1, 2023, received over 122 Technical Assistance applications and 187 Water Project applications. Applicants with emergent water issues, socioeconomic and community factors, conservation plans, and populations of fewer than 2,000 residents were prioritized in the review process.
“The Kansas House Water Committee, in 2023, introduced HB 2302 to increase the Kansas Water Office funding, with a portion dedicated to helping leverage cost share match with federal funds to study and improve small municipal water systems,” said Chair of House Water Committee, Representative Jim Minnix, House District 188. “The Kansas Water Office did a commendable job of organizing the loan/grant program in a very short time to be able to take applications in just 5 months. Obviously, the volume of applications demonstrates the extreme need.”
The Fiscal Year 2025 solicitation is anticipated to open in Summer 2024.
The following are recipients of this year’s funding:
Technical Assistance Grant Recipients:
- Bern: $30,250
- Deerfield: $464,000
- Dexter: $159,500
- Effingham: $300,000
- Fowler: $70,000
- Harveyville: $75,650
- Keats: $359,100
- Mankato: $461,548
- McDonald: $150,000
- McPherson County Rural Water District #3: $98,700
- Milford: $388,000
- Ogden: $404,710
- Osborne County Rural Water District #1a: $8,300
- Paxico: $618,240
- Protection: $78,000
- Randolph: $650,000
- Republic: $202,400
- Tescott: $407,500
- Waterville: $53,092
Water Project Grant Recipients:
- Atwood: $2,305,000
- Burden: $823,055
- Burr Oak: $1,028,749
- Chetopa: $3,704,506
- Logan: $500,000
- Paul: $505,000
- Timken: $385,035
- Wakefield: $2,521,440
- Williamsburg: $84,292
Water Project Loan Assistance Grant Recipients:
- Downs: $336,303
- Moran: $141,275
- Miltonvale: $352,500
- Ness City: $130,918
- Osborne: $92,390
- Wilson: $88,552