The city and county will sign a joint letter of intent for a grant application to address flooding concerns in the Calfskin Creek basin.
The groups had applied for a similar grant last year but learned in August that their effort was unsuccessful. To apply for this year's nearly $2.3 billion in federal funding, the city and county must sign and file the letter of intent with Kansas Department of Emergency Management (KDEM) by Thursday, September 15. If invited, the city and county would have until the end of the year to file the formal grant proposal with the state, who then in turn refers it to the federal government.
The estimated $40 million project would build two dry detention dams, one around 21st Street North and 167th Street West, the other near Pawnee and 135th Street West. Studies done for the city of Wichita say the dams would remove 149 buildings from the flood plain and eliminate street flooding at 7 locations.
Federal funding would pay $30 million of the project's cost, while the city and county would each contribute $5 million.