Flint Hills Regional Council

Specific Need

The Flint Hills Regional Council’s goal is to stretch our local dollars further by using donations from Wamego Match Day and apply these dollars toward grant match requirements—expanding our capacity to bring additional grant funding to our region.

Most of our funding comes from restricted grant funding. Your support of the Flint Hills Regional Council not only empowers Pottawatomie County and the region overall, it enhances our ability to use your donation for match dollars. This year, the Flint Hills Regional Council has been managing a total of eight active grants totaling $2.1M in federal funds, which was made possible with only ~$155,000 in local match funding!

Our largest challenges are two-fold: 1) We have limited access to funding to meet match requirements; 2) The use of grant funding is significantly restricted, and unrestricted funding is required to meet basic operational expenses. Approximately a third of the awarded funding helps to protect and preserve our region's largest employer and economic generator--Fort Riley.

Active Grants & Projects

This year, Department of Defense funding and FHRC match funding is assisting with community and economic development projects including a Multi-jurisdictional Military Infrastructure Resiliency Analysis, a Green Valley Transportation Plan, a Junction City housing condition assessment, an Unmanned Aircraft Corridor project, and much more!

The Flint Hills Regional Council serves as an official economic development district, which enables us to apply for invitation-only/ non-competitive funding through the Economic Development Administration (EDA) in support of our region and implementation of our regional economic development plan serving Chase, Geary, Lyon, Morris, Pottawatomie, Riley and Wabaunsee Counties. We are currently updating the Flint Hills Economic Development District Plan, which will be submitted to EDA in November.

In 2022, our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfield grant provided more than $500,000 in environmental assessments for commercial private property owners interested in ultimately making improvements and revitalizing their property. A Wamego commercial property owner benefited from about $30,000 of this funding to assess their site. These funds have also been used to remove gas tanks in Junction City and provide area revitalization plans with in Junction City and at Plaza West in Manhattan. FHRC also assisted Pottawatomie County in obtaining technical assistance grant to conduct an adaptive reuse assessment and structural study of the Courthouse as well as Environmental Assessments in Onaga and Wamego.

The FHRC also received a non-monetary grant through the National Park Service (NPS) to provide technical assistance in developing a regional river and trail plan along the Kansas River--identify specific improvements that could be made at boat ramps and other public spaces to make better connections to downtown and other key activity areas.

This year FHRC led a Regional Committee to review potential projects to submit in this year's Defense Community Infrastructure Program. The Committee reviewed three potential projects and assessed and selected Ogden's Riley Avenue as the most competitive project to move forward.

We cannot do this alone! Your Match Day donation would help support our overall operations and mission to enhance economic vitality and improve quality of life in the Flint Hills. The Flint Hills Regional Council exist to collaborate, advocate and empower communities.

You can help support this important work taking place in our communities with a gift to the Flint Hills Regional Council. Your gift is tax deductible. Consider making a donation today to take advantage of the Wamego Match Day benefits so we can stretch our local dollars further and keep applying for additional grant funding!

Mission

Enhancing the economic viability and improving the quality of life through regional collaboration in the Flint Hills.

Profile

The Flint Hills Regional Council is a voluntary service association consisting of 25 member jurisdictions working in partnership to enhance economic viability and improve the quality of life in Pottawatomie, Geary, Riley, Morris, and Wabaunsee County and beyond. The Flint Hills Regional Council works hard to bring in millions of external dollars to support our region, with the vast majority of the funding being applied toward projects that directly benefit the region. We serve as an official economic development district, which means we are able to access non-competitive funding from the Economic Development Administration to implement our regional economic development plan.

We also provide community planning, grant, and technical assistance to our member jurisdictions. We understand and value the importance of working collaboratively, as we are stronger together and more effective. Industry markets, workforce, public health, access to healthcare and mental health services, emergency services, and environmental issues do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. These issues require cooperation and coordination between communities. The Flint Hills Regional Council exist to support the facilitation of collborative efforts that bring mutual benefit to the region.

Your support of our efforts would be greatly appreciated.