During Friday’s retreat the Flint Hills Regional Council began the discussion about next years budget.

Gary Stith, Executive Director explained that currently they believe they will roll over around $200,000 into next years budget, but that would still leave them about $100,000 short.

“But we’ve got about three different income sources of funding were working on getting firmed up. I feel pretty good about our ability of getting some of that funding, so we’re fine,” said Stith.

One of the possible funding sources includes another HUD grant that the Regional Council was contracted to write the application for by the Kansas Department of Agriculture. The HUD grant would fund the Wildcat Creek Watershed Resiliency Project.

“It could be as much as $40 million, we haven’t finalized the application. The State, the City of Manhattan, Riley County and the Flint Hills Regional Council are working on this.”

If the grant application is approved Stith believes it is likely that they will be retained to handle a portion of the grant administration process, which would be an additional funding source that could last a couple of years.

Other projects currently being undertaken include developing a new Comprehensive Plan for the City of Council Grove.