The QBS Express

QBS_Ep29_MattVolz
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Scott Heidner: [00:00:00] Welcome listeners to the QBS Express, the ACEC Kansas podcast. I am your host, the ACEC Kansas executive director, Scott Heidner. And it is my pleasure to have with us today, Matt Volz, who is a fairly recently been brought on board to lead the Kansas infrastructure hub, which is the subject of today's podcast.

Matt, thanks for making time to be here.

Well, thanks, Scott. Thanks for having me today. Appreciate it.

Absolutely. I think listeners not only will have an interest in this, but I think by the time we're done, hopefully a lot of them will understand that there's a huge value and pure business proposition to them and having a lot of this information. We're always with our guests before we get into the nuts and bolts of the topic. ~We always like to get a little background on you. ~Tell us your brief version of your [00:01:00] life story. Where'd you grow up and what'd you do as a kid?

Matt Volz: Yeah, well, I grew up in northern Minnesota. I still have ~a little bit of my accent. I grew up, okay. I grew up in Northern Minnesota, still ~a little bit of my accent. I remember when I moved down to Kansas, I talk like this there and had a big, heavy, heavy, Northern Minnesota accent there. And people knew I wasn't from around here, but I've lost a lot of that, but~ grew up in ~grew up in Minnesota ~again ~and went to school up there and I became a civil engineer because of my grandfather.

He was a civil engineer in the state of Minnesota, and he was a civil engineer by just by taking the test, but you didn't have to ~have ~have gone to an accredited university at that time. You could just take the test, if you passed, you were a professional engineer. That was it. So he did all of that with a 9th grade education.

And he just spent a lot of his career surveying~ he surveyed ~the Alcan highway, surveyed a lot in Minnesota, and so he really inspired me to become a civil engineer, and that's why I went into the field.

Scott Heidner: I take it he talked to you about it too, ~you got some~ exposure to it as

Matt Volz: a kid?

Oh yeah, absolutely, ~yeah, ~yeah, I mean that was his business, and he got into construction, heavy construction of [00:02:00] highways, and you know, so I've just been sort of living and breathing

~yeah.~ transportation and civil engineering all my life.

Scott Heidner: That's awesome. ~We~ we won't tell our friends in KSPE about these looser times ~of, ~of access to licensure. Yeah. Well, what brought you from there to here?

Matt Volz: So I went to North Dakota State University up in Fargo and I got my degree in 1991. And at that time the job market was really tight up in the Dakotas and Minnesota.

But Kansas was hiring and we had a comprehensive hiring program back then. And so they were recruited real heavily up in North Dakota state, South Dakota state, University of Minnesota. They were trying to pull as many engineering people as they could. ~What year ~

Scott Heidner: ~would that have been? ~

Matt Volz: That was 1991.

Scott Heidner: Yeah.

~Yeah. ~So ~that was the. Original, ~that was the Kansas, the CHP, Comprehensive Highway Program, the first of the ten year, yeah, okay, continue.

Matt Volz: Yep, and they were trying to staff up a whole bunch of design squads interviewed I think with three different bureaus, ~and, and, You know, ~they all offered me a position, and I chose road [00:03:00] design that's what I really wanted to do.

And so I did road design for six years at Kansas DOT, and then this new position popped up on the job board one day called the Intelligent Transportation Systems Engineer. And I didn't even know what it was until I sort of looked it up and looked at the technology aspect of it. And it was ground floor, it was new, it was exciting, and nobody was really doing it.

And I thought, you know, that's what I really want to do. ~And, and ~So I got the job as the first state ITS engineer at KDOT. ~And, and that's, you know, that, ~That career move has taken me all over the world and back again. ~And ~It's exposed me to folks ~all over the, ~all over the country. And, and really, you know, again, it's brought me kind of the, the forefront of technology for transportation at a time when people really didn't believe in transportation technology.

I mean, trust me, ~it was a, ~it was an uphill battle to get people to believe in this ~and to, ~and to want to implement technology on our highway system. And, you know, of course, nowadays, I mean, technology is everywhere, right? And it's just a second nature to us. So, you know, [00:04:00] I like to think that we at least had some part in getting introduced here in Kansas.

Scott Heidner: Yeah. Full disclosure to listeners, Matt, first time you and I met right about the same time you took the ITS job, became the first one to have that. I was law clerking. Mm-Hmm. at in Office of Chief Counsel at Kdot and Law clerking specifically for Leslie Fowler, who handled all the contracts for ITS.

~Yes. ~And just to further, you know, round out the, the circle one of your teammates at that time was my dad.

Matt Volz: Yeah two people that I have great respect for, Leslie Fowler and Terry Heidner. Leslie ~taught me, ~taught me everything I know about contract law. You know, as much as an engineer can learn about contract law.

But it was a really good experience. She was with me every step of the way as we developed all of our technology contracts. A lot of contracts with state of Missouri, cause we had Kansas City scout that we were planning and designing at the time, and just trying to figure out how we were going to fund and operate that system between two states.

And trust me, that was a lot of [00:05:00] back and forth with Missouri and their legal team and Kansas's legal team, and a lot of meetings where ~we, ~we hashed out the details and sometimes we were just, ~we were ~editing on the fly in meetings with them, these contracts and agreements.

Scott Heidner: You really were cutting from whole cloth at the time.

~You know, it was all new. Yeah. ~Well, what about post KDOT? You left KDOT and then have had a multi step journey on the consulting side. Tell us about that.

Matt Volz: Yeah. I spent 12 years at Kansas DOT and again, 66 of the last years were as a state ITS engineer. Then went over to the private sector side. Worked over in St. Louis for a couple of different companies and PB being one of them and did ITS engineering around the country. And we were bought out by another company. ~So, you know, it was a Spanish conglomerate. ~I then went to work for a smaller firm out of Minnesota, and then eventually I landed with a firm ~out of~ out of the Northwest in Seattle called Transpo Group, who offered me a position over in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi.

~and, ~and Dubai area, United Arab Emirates. ~And, and I, ~I jumped at the chance and I had two great years [00:06:00] working over in the Middle East, still living and working there, doing ITS planning and design work over there and a great culture, great people. It's a definitely a memory of a lifetime.

Scott Heidner: That's awesome.

I'll say to listeners too, if you get a chance to, ~excuse me, ~have a separate conversation with Matt, just about this time in the UAE, it's worth your time. A pretty cool story. And then came back from there.

Matt Volz: Came back in 2015 went to work for HDR engineering over in Kansas City and spent the last eight years working over there ~doing, again, ~doing ITS planning and design and traffic operations work.

~And, ~And eventually about four or five years ago, I got into grant writing. And slowly that sort of took over my position and I started doing a little bit less on the technology side. Still did a lot of design build work ~for ~with ITS, but then I really started doing a lot more grant writing and I really enjoyed it, really loved it.

My clients loved it 'cause they like winning money ~and and I, ~and they appreciated all the work that we did for them. ~I was really it just, ~I just [00:07:00] found it was something I was very successful at. I think right now I'm, I'm, I'm won. For my clients, just over 350 million dollars in federal grants over the last five years.

And you know, some bigger projects locally, 22 million out in Salina, Kansas for the Old Smoke Hill River renewal project. Eighty one million dollars for the Rocheport Bridge on I 70 in Missouri. Ninety three million dollars for the Improve I 70 program in Missouri. And then some other smaller grants along the way.

But ~anyways, ~yeah, just something I really enjoy doing. And again, ~you know, ~clients really appreciate it. ~Right. When, when, ~when you bring federal dollars to them.

Scott Heidner: And maybe little did you know then, but a tremendous foundation for What was to come back on the public side, but ~let's ~let's finish that story and then get into the Kansas Infrastructure Hub You thought you if listeners could see I'm using air quotes here retired From HDR and then

Matt Volz: yeah, yeah, so I and so in February ~I ~I sort of hung it up with HDR ~and, ~and was kind of [00:08:00] do my own thing.

~And, and ~then I got a call from Secretary Reed over at the Kansas DOT and he said, Hey, I've got ~this, ~this office that I need some help with. I need somebody to come in ~and, ~and help me ~get, ~get it organized, kind of moving in the right direction. And~ I, you know, ~I said, yeah, sure, ~I, you know, ~I can do that.

I've done that before with the ITS office at KDOT. Started up a new office and, I agreed to come do it. I started on April 1st, April Fool's Day. It's full of its own irony, isn't it? Yeah, but it's been a good experience. I'm at the three month point right now, and we're getting things put into nice, neat little boxes and getting our administrative processes figured out.

Scott Heidner: Well, that's a good segue. You talk about being there in that position, a new organization. We are talking specifically about the Kansas Infrastructure Hub, which is new. A lot of our listeners will be familiar with it just because they're very proactive, and you all have been proactive in getting the word out, but I suspect a lot of our listeners either won't know about it or they won't know near as much as [00:09:00] they would like to and should because it is new.

Can you give us the background on the creation of it and how it came to be?

Matt Volz: Sure. So it really started back in 2022. It was something that was Governor Kelly ~and, ~and Secretary Lorenz at the time really thought up this idea for having this infrastructure hub, essentially a clearinghouse for information about infrastructure projects ~and, ~and it's, you know, water, transportation, broadband, energy, cybersecurity, covers all infrastructure projects.

I tend to call it like ~the, ~the base ~or ~of the pyramid if you will, you know, it's a foundational infrastructure that we need to really build anything off of. And then it got funded by the legislature in 2023. ~They, they, ~Senate Bill 25 funded the HUB, as we call it, we'll call it the HUB for short funded the HUB for the next four years.

~And, ~and when I say funded~ we, ~they not only funded the operational dollars, they also funded what we call the Build [00:10:00] Kansas Fund, which is a fund which will provide match dollars for federal grants for our local agencies here in Kansas. And the funding levels of that is we have 200 million. in the Build Kansas fund to help agencies meet their federal match requirements.

And then we have another 15 million in operational funds ~over the, ~over the four fiscal years of the infrastructure hub. ~And you know, ~and then at the end of the fourth fiscal year in fiscal year 27, ~end of fiscal year 27, then ~we'll be sunsetting the office. ~So, you know, ~hopefully we'll have distributed all of the Build Kansas fund by that time and helped ~provide ~Bring a lot of federal dollars here into Kansas.

And that's really the governor's goal is to bring as much of the federal dollars as we can. There, there's formula dollars that are part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and there's discretionary dollars. 60 percent of the bipartisan infrastructure law is formula funds. 40 percent is discretionary.

So we want to try and bring in as much of those discretionary dollars as we can into Kansas. It's roughly 500 billion dollars in discretionary [00:11:00] funds that are being distributed across the U. S. So we want to try and bring as much of that as we can into the state.

Scott Heidner: I think, it's certainly my perception, Kansas has a pretty strong history in leveraging federal dollars and not leaving those on the table.

You know, you hear stories from other DOTs about funds that were available that just got missed because they didn't have the resources or they missed deadlines. You know, Kansas, I think, historically, has been strong in that area in anticipation. for participating that and putting, putting us in a position to seize those.

A couple of specific comments you know, even after working around it for the last, you know, couple of years, ~which, ~which I and my team have, as it went through the legislative process, I still have to remind myself, the Kansas Infrastructure Hub is the organization that's your team. The build Kansas fund refers to the funding stream that the Kansas infrastructure hub or the hub uses.

I do want to give one quick shout out, a little bit of a sidebar, but when the [00:12:00] legislation was introduced to create this, a discussion took place and, and it was not a gimme, it was not a layup on from where should these funds be pulled from. No, no. From where should they be sourced? And there was a thought, a relatively strong one that, well, let's take them from the Ike program.

So to some extent, you know, robbing Peter to pay Paul, perhaps, although I think you could certainly make an argument if you take 200 from Ike, but then you use that to leverage an additional 500. You're not. But the point of the story is we got the best of both worlds. The funding was provided, but it was not taken from Ike.

It was appropriated independently. And for listeners many of you may not know this name, and that's okay, but Representative Troy Waymaster, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, deserves extraordinary amounts of [00:13:00] credit for holding strong on that. His vision was This is worth funding, and it doesn't need to be taken from Ike.

This stands on its own merits. You know, Ike already, you know, we can use every dollar in Ike productively already. We could use more. Don't take from Ike to do this. Fund it independently. And thanks to the leadership of Representative Waymaster and some others, we were successful in having that be the outcome.

~So, sidebar, but a strong success story as we got it passed.~

Matt Volz: Yeah, think about it this way. A lot of these federal grants have a match percentage and the match percentage varies from some are 10%, some are 20%, some are 25%, some are higher, up to 75%. So these match dollars are real important here in Kansas.

~I mean, a lot of ~A lot of our smaller towns and communities and MPOs and rural planning organizations can't really afford these match dollars. So that's what the Bill of Kansas Fund is here for. We're here to help people fund those match dollars for these grants that come through the bipartisan infrastructure law.

And that is one of our [00:14:00] rules, is that the grant must come through the BIL. In order for us to be able to fund it, as far as leveraging funding goes think about the average grant match you say is 20%. Well, that 200 million that we have for the Build Kansas fund, that could, ~you know, ~eventually result ~in, ~in 800 million dollars in federal grants coming to Kansas.

We're trying to get as much as we can into Kansas because it has such a ripple effect on our economy when you bring these federal dollars in for projects~ and, and, you know, that, ~that impacts our engineering firms, planners, designers, suppliers, contractors, you know, again, it just has this ripple effect through our entire economy.

Scott Heidner: Well, put a, put a pin in that. Cause I want to talk a little bit more about that as we go. But let's maybe start with the building block here while the ripple effect goes. ~You know, almost in, in limitless directions and reach. ~Let's talk about who is actually eligible to ~you know, ~come to the hub and to utilize these funds and the expertise [00:15:00] you provide.

Who is it that you're marketing to directly? I understand that in many ways you can and should be marketing to a huge swath because so many people will benefit, but who is that client core target audience?

Matt Volz: Yeah, I think what you're asking is who can apply. Yes, it is. ~So, and, and the simple answer is, ~if the grant says that you're an eligible entity to be able to apply, you can apply to the Build Kansas Fund.

Most of our grants will say you must be a local agency. And by the way, the Bill Kansas Fund, ~we, we, we ~only provide matching funds below the state agency level. So it's~ it's all, you know, this again, it's, ~it's for our local communities here in Kansas. So that's cities, counties, MPOs, rural planning organizations.

If the grant says that, you know, non profits can apply, non profits can apply to the Bill of Kansas Fund. That includes like a local chamber of commerce? Local chamber of commerce. Yep. Eco devo groups? If, if the, you know, again, if the grant is, is, Has that is their rules, you know, and that's really the guideline we have to go by.

So what will happen is with a typical grant program, they'll publish what [00:16:00] we call a NOFO or a notice of funding opportunity. ~And, ~And it will give all of the rules and regulations that you need to go by for that particular grant. That's really sort of ~our, ~our Bible for all these grants. And it'll tell you whether you can apply or not.

But again, ~we, you know, ~we've got. Everything from, ~you know, ~local agencies to private sector as long as they're eligible to apply they can apply to the Bill Kansas Fund.

Scott Heidner: So let's talk about then, that's who can apply, but what kind of projects are eligible. You know, you and I talked a little bit at lunch that there tends to be almost a reflexive, unintentional thought of transportation, ~transportation, which is certainly true, ~but it's so much more than just that.

Matt Volz: Yeah. Let me go back just a little bit. So again, we talked about secretary Reed, you know, calling me and asking me to come in and help him out with ~this, ~this particular office for the hub. Okay. So we are housed under the Kansas DOT. In fact, my office is over in the building, the Eisenhower building where the Kansas DOT resides, but

~you know, ~that's our only connection to Kansas DOT. We have a multi [00:17:00] agency steering committee that controls what the hub does and the projects that we approve. So we have got the Kansas Corporation Commission, we have got the Office of Information Technology and Services, we have the Department of Ag.

Department of Commerce KDHE obviously KDOT, the Kansas Water Office, and the Kansas Division of Emergency Management. ~ we've got, ~We've got eight agencies that really control what we do. And no one agency has any more influence on us than any other. ~And, and, and ~We as a group. Get together. We look at the projects that are applying to the Build Kansas Fund every two weeks ~and ~and the group ~as ~as a whole approves ~or ~or a lot of times they'll just ask questions, but for the most part, you know It's pretty low bar to be able to be approved for the Build Kansas Fund as long as you meet all of our rules. ~And and ~those get then passed on to the Legislative Advisory Committee for approval then later on.

Scott Heidner: So Transportation projects, transportation, water,

Matt Volz: energy, broadband cybersecurity resilience. And in the water category, ~it's, ~it's storm [00:18:00] water, it's wastewater, it's, ~it's it's water~ drinking water~ and, and, ~and flooded resiliency. We do a lot of grid resiliency projects where we actually help people improve their grid infrastructure.

We do a lot of airport projects, roadway projects, broadband, and that's a whole other category. Next year you're really going to see that explode here in the state of Kansas with the new BEED program coming out from the Office of Broadband Development. And you're going to see lots of conduit and fiber read installed all over the state trying to get connectivity for rural Kansas.

Scott Heidner: So the Kansas Infrastructure Hub is aptly titled. ~It is infrastructure of ~

Matt Volz: ~every stripe. Yep. ~Like I said, it's really, it's that foundational infrastructure that you need ~to ~to build everything off of. I get asked, ~well, wait a minute, ~what about schools? What about police stations? What about fire stations?

What about hospitals? Isn't that infrastructure? Yep, that's infrastructure. But, you know, really what we're doing, again, we're putting down that foundation, you know, giving you the roads, the power, ~the, ~the water, the sewer the broadband you need to build those things off of. So ~we, you know, ~we try to stay in our lane, but again, ~we're that, ~we're that base level [00:19:00] infrastructure.

Scott Heidner: ~I'll probably ask you this question again at the very end of the podcast to leave listeners with it. But if you are either. A local unit of government or, and the next thing I'm going to ask you after this is let's talk about what this means to engineering firms. But ~if you are a local owner or somebody that serves a local owner and you want to learn more, I'm sure they can pick up the phone and call you.

But what is the, talk to us a little bit. And in asking this question, I'm not just asking what is your website, although you can certainly Kshub. org. Kshub. org, there you go. And I'll ask you to, I'll give you another chance to repeat that at the end. But talk to us about all the avenues You are exercising to get the word out.

You know, just for example, I see your stuff on social media all the time. I see some press releases talk to us about, ~about the~ the effort to get the word out.

Matt Volz: Yeah. ~And that, ~and that's really the toughest part. I mean, we still have some agencies applying for grants ~and, ~and they don't even ask us for matching dollars.

And even though they're eligible and we go to them, we say, well, why didn't you ask us for matching dollars for this grant? They're like, well, we didn't know about it, you know? And so it's really been a struggle. I mean, it, it,~ I mean, it, it, it, it, ~the word is getting out it's getting out quickly and we [00:20:00] have a summit that we do every year, an infrastructure summit, where we invite folks from the public sector and the private sector.

To that summit, we present lots of programs about the Infrastructure Hub and about the Build Kansas Fund and about grant writing and opportunities that are out there for grants. And so we try to get the word out that way. We really rely on our consulting partners to be able to get the word out.

You know, this is a great tool and the folks that are taking advantage of it right now are out there selling this to their clients and they are going, Hey, guess what? We will have you write the grant. ~And, ~And we know of a way for you to get match dollars over here too. And we'll help you get that too.

~And, and, and ~So they are, they're full service shop for their clients. ~It you ~

Scott Heidner: You are hitting full stride. That is going to be the next question and maybe the most important one for our listeners on the entire podcast. Is what does this mean to consulting engineering companies? But to wrap up before we move on to that, you know, in addition to all of those things, I know you and your team are out at other venues, [00:21:00] just trying to be present and get the word out.

For example, we have a partnering conference with KDOT each year. And you guys were there last year with a vendor booth, you know, just making yourselves available. Well you started down the path and it's, I think it's the most important topic in question of the day.

~But, and you and I talked about this a little bit at lunch before the podcast. ~The people eligible to apply most of the time, not always, but most of the time will be local public owners, maybe some eco devo groups, things like that. So if you're the ACEC Kansas listener hearing this podcast right now, why should you care?

And of course the answer is huge and expansive. But tell us more about that. ~And, and let me make one more comment. To reiterate to listeners, ~Matt has a perfect background for this job in a lot of ways, but not the least of which you've spent a lot of time in public service at KDOT, but you've also spent a lot of time as a consultant where you only eat what you kill and you are competing all the time and searching for every angle to differentiate yourself.

Talk to us about why this, the Kansas infrastructure hub, ~and, ~and knowing about this [00:22:00] is critical to ACC Kansas members who probably won't be applying directly.

Matt Volz: Yeah, to ~answer your, ~answer your last question there first, I mean, that whole idea ~of, ~of Getting out there in front of your competition is so important.

And I've always kinda lived that in my consulting career. You know, again, doing ITS. I mean, I worked for one of the firms that was one of the only firms that did ITS ~back in, ~back in the early two thousands. ~And, ~and then everybody else sort of caught up to us and then we started doing grant writing and I started doing grant writing ~and.~

You know, eventually everybody sort of catches up to that too. ~And, ~and so ~you got to, you know, like you said, ~you got to reinvent yourself and you got to find some new avenues. The reason that this is so important though for our consulting community. Okay. So think about this. Think about all the dollars that grants can bring into the state of Kansas.

Well, that's going to have an impact on our consulting firm because you're going to be doing the planning, the engineering. The design work maybe doing some operations work, maybe supporting for construction administration, maybe project administration work. So again, bringing these dollars in has such a massive impact ~on our, ~on our consulting community and provide so much work.

And, ~again, we're, ~we're, [00:23:00] multi types of infrastructure, ~you know, ~it's water, it's wastewater, it's transportation, it's broadband, ~it's, ~it's energy. So there's something for everybody there. Then think about this. ~Okay. So. ~All of these small towns in Kansas, ~big, ~big towns in Kansas too, need grant writing support, need grant writing administration support.

~Getting into the, ~Getting your foot in the door and talking to your clients about the grants that are available out there, about the money that's available out there. They're helping them fit their project to the right grant program or helping them sort of elevate their project to the point where they can apply for a grant.

A lot of times these grants will say, Hey, ~how much, ~how much outreach have you done with the community? How much of the NEPA work have you done ~with, you know, ~already on this? So you can start to do some of those preliminary steps to help get those projects ready for that grant application. That takes you a long ways.

And then if you are successful and you win grant money for your client, you are golden. ~You know, you, we talk a lot about how the fact, you know, ~if you write a planning study and it kind of gives you a leg up on the design work. Well, guess what? If you write a grant application that's successful and you bring in money to ~that city or ~[00:24:00] that community, you are super golden.

And ~that, ~that is definitely, ~you know, I mean, again, that's kind of ~one of the reasons I love grant writing is because the clients really appreciate it when you win money for them. And I really appreciate that.

Scott Heidner: Like gratitude and I might rewind it even a step before that, you know, you said when the planning can often help you get the design, winning the grant might even help you get the planning to go a step before that, even, you know, I think so much of what our member firms have to do ~is, ~is distinguish themselves in ways beyond just the design approach they bring to a program.

And if you are the city of X, Y, Z, and there's a consulting firm that comes to you before there's even a grant to be written just to be the one to come to that city and say, Hey, did you know about the Kansas Infrastructure Hub? Let me tell you about it and let me help educate you about the opportunities that are out there.

You know, this is before a grant proposal is [00:25:00] even, ~You know, ~filled out. But if you're the one that tells your client and makes them aware of all of these things and starts that mental process for them, That's distinguishing yourself.

Matt Volz: Yeah. We even have a packaged slide ~for, ~for our partners to use. You ~can have, anybody ~can have it.

It tells you about the Kansas Infrastructure Hub office, what we do. And then also talks about the bill of Kansas fund and, ~and what, ~how that works and it's got notes in it. ~I mean, it's really, ~it's just a simple slide. You can ~just. ~Put it into any presentation and present to your clients. And I assume that's on the website.

I'll have to check. I'll see if it's up there, but I mean, anybody can contact me and I can just send them the one slide. ~So yeah, ~that sounds good.

Scott Heidner: ~Well, that's awesome. ~Well, hopefully that our, our listeners are a sophisticated group. We probably didn't have to spoon feed them why it matters so much to them, but I thought it was awfully important to talk about cause you know, that is our constituency on this podcast and why is it important to them?

Well. Let me ask you one more question about the implementation of the fund. Before we [00:26:00] close, we talked a little bit about how it was formed. We've talked about who it was for. We've talked about how to access it and what some of the values are and the ripple effect of all this investment, but let's finish this with.

You know, it is new. It's very new in the big picture of things. But you've already had some successes. Tell us a little bit about what you've already landed because of your efforts that is meaningful to Kansas. ~And if you have other things that are in the works that are appropriate to share, tell us about that too.~

Matt Volz: Yeah, and you mentioned earlier The social media and we have a LinkedIn page for the Kansas Infrastructure Hub ~and we try to That's what I follow is the LinkedIn page. ~We try to announce all these grant wins that are associated with the hub. ~You know, there's grant wins all the time, but ~the ones that the hub is funding with the Build Kansas Fund, we obviously try to highlight.

~And ~the Governor's Office really, ~you know, ~takes the lead on these and likes to announce these and promote these. ~But, you know, just ~so far ~right now~ we have got nine projects that have been funded by the Build Kansas Fund. ~And ~that's only in the first year. Amount amounts to around 23 million in funding for the Build Kansas Fund.

The amount of money that's bringing back into [00:27:00] the state of Kansas is just over 35 million, so we've got a really good return on investment right now. Just an example of what we've funded so far resiliency grants BRIC grants for City of Russell and City of Ozaukee airport terminal improvements for Salina. Water Reclamation Projects out in Dodge City more airport infrastructure grants for Manhattan and Concordia SS4A, Safe Streets and Roads for All grants for Topeka recently, ~and then ~the latest one that you might have heard about is the one out in Dodge City, which is ~a, ~a water reclamation project where they asked for 20 million from the Build Kansas Fund.

They put in just over 20 million of their own money, and then they received another 14 million in federal grants for it. It's a very large 57 million project. It had multiple funding sources on it. It's designed to clean up the effluent, the wastewater effluent, but then it will be used to recharge the Oglala Aquifer.

So really, it's kind of one of those projects that [00:28:00] was a good partnership between multiple agencies, state, federal, local, and it's going to have a really big impact on the economy out in western Kansas, but also, ~Obviously ~help recharge the aquifer as well.

Scott Heidner: ~And boy, what a priority that is. I mean, it has been for a long time, but I think it's finally really getting the attention it deserves.~

That's a whole separate podcast, though. Do you find in this short window that you're already seeing an uptick in awareness and interest?

Matt Volz: In the Bill Kansas Fund? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean ~So, we have ~We have an application process. If you go to our website, kshub. org there, there is a process for applying for the Build Kansas Fund.

It's through a software called Submittable, and it really is an easy process. Should only take about an hour to put an application in, as long as you've got all your information in front of you right there, but these applications are starting to come in pretty hot and heavy right now.

I think on the last steering committee meeting we had, we had nine projects that ~we, ~we looked at ~and, ~and reviewed and approved. We have a two step process. So once you submit your application to kshub. org and through the [00:29:00] submittable app it goes to our steering committee. And we have this multi agency steering committee and we meet every two weeks and we review the projects that are~ being, ~applying for Build Kansas funds.

Again, we, ~we You know, ~generally approve most of them~ it's pretty low bar to, to qualify. ~there's some that we do have questions on ~though ~that we will go back to the applicant and ask questions on. And then they go to the Let's Live Advisory Committee for review and approval. And then once they've passed those two committees, ~then ~the award letter ~is~ is put out by the hub and is sent to the recipient.

And so basically they have that in hand. And then what will happen is they ~essentially then ~wait to see if they are awarded that federal grant. And then once they are awarded that federal grant, ~then they can~ they'll develop an agreement with the state treasurer's office that will allow them to get reimbursed for those matched dollars.

I know that sounds like a long, complicated process, but ~that's, ~that's just the way it works.

Scott Heidner: Yeah. It honestly feels a little bit like a pre approval letter if you're going to buy a house. Absolutely. That's, yeah. Bank, you're certifying that you've got access to your portion of those [00:30:00] funds. In pursuit of ~the bigger, ~the bigger loan or the bigger grant in this case.

Matt Volz: Right, right. And then a lot of times the federal agency will ask, ~Hey, Hey, you know, what, ~what is your proof that you have access to these funds and that award letter that we then give the recipient is what they then will give to the federal agency.

Scott Heidner: ~Yeah, very good. ~Well, that's all exciting stuff. And I think our members probably, I would guess a majority of them are already aware of this but we're excited about what you and your team are doing in helping to increase that awareness.

It's a win for Kansas, it's a win for these communities, but with a little more of a self interest at hat on, it's a big win for our members too. Lot of opportunity there. A lot of opportunities.

Matt Volz: A couple things I would just add is that again, you know, grant writing is such an important part of what we do and getting quality grant applications submitted ~is, ~is really the key for our success here in Kansas.

So to that end we've got plans to get together a grant writers summit later on this summer, get our private sector grant writers together along with some of ~our, ~our partners. public sector as well, and [00:31:00] just sort of talk about best practices for writing grants, do a peer exchange, and just talk about strategies for getting good quality applications submitted to the federal government.

Scott Heidner: That is I suspect that I will see that independently through LinkedIn and everything, but that's something that if you will think to send to us, ~we will~ we'd probably be excited to share that with the troops.

Matt Volz: Yeah, for sure. And then I'd like to let people know we've also added a new staff member to our office Jason Feazell just started this week.

~And he's, he's great addition. He's a grant veteran. ~He came over from the housing resources core. He's worked with some foundations in the past, but he's just started with us and we have another new hire coming on ~in, ~in July. So we're staffing up and ~we're, ~we're rolling strongly right now.

Scott Heidner: Very good.

That's exciting stuff. Well, we're going to victimize you now, as we do all our guests with what we call the lightning round put you out the Rorschach response to a whole bunch of questions to help our listeners know more about Matt Volz, all right, favorite [00:32:00] restaurant.

Matt Volz: Well, I would say my, my favorite restaurants probably our kitchen because well, My wife, Mandy, is an ACEC board member~ we, ~one of our favorite things to do is to just have~ a nice~ a nice wine with some cheese and meat and crackers, ~and ~that's one of our favorite things to do ~is ~sit back, relax, talk, and ~just kind of let ~Let the or evening go by, not so much day, but evening go by with just a nice bottle of wine ~and ~a little bit of food and ~then ~hanging out with the dogs.

Scott Heidner: That's outstanding, especially the dogs part. That's awesome. How about Three things that would likely pop up on your phone if we pulled up your streaming service. And by things I mean, groups or singers, artists. What do you listen to?

Matt Volz: Well, I am a child of the 80s so 80s hair metal and, you know, Hair Nation and Ozzy Boneyard are on my XM radio all the time.

~You know, ~movies from the 80s The Hunt for Red October. My favorite movie of all time. I don't know why, I just, I just, it's one of [00:33:00] those things I just remember growing up and I just love that movie and every time it's on now, I'll watch it. ~That, ~that, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, two of my favorites of all time.

Scott Heidner: Couldn't agree more. Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, right? Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, yep, yep. And then John Candy,

Matt Volz: Steve Martin.

Scott Heidner: Yeah. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles has ~a~ An extraordinary number of lines that my buddies and I still quote to this day. Excellent

Matt Volz: choices.

I'll mention you know, I saw on your list of questions, there was favorite book. I just read a book called The Wager and ~it's, ~it tells a story about ~the ~the ship called the Wager as it was trying to navigate around the southern tip of South America. So it's fiction or non fiction? It is non fiction.

~Okay. ~And it will just astound you what this crew went through. They got shipwrecked ~on, on, ~on the shores ~of, ~of. And when was this? What time period? This was back in the 1700s. ~Huh. ~Yeah. And they survived. Some of them survived and made it back to civilization. ~And, ~and it's just astounding to read the story about [00:34:00] what they went through.

And of course ~they, ~they kept records, they kept logs throughout this whole thing and talked about ~a little bit of ~a mutiny of the crew and disagreements ~and, ~and all things they had to do just to survive, to make it back to civilization again. So the wager,

Scott Heidner: I haven't read the book and I already don't want to get on a ship again, as long as I live, just thinking about it.

Well, Matt, thank you so much for coming on and sharing the story about your organization and what it means for Kansas communities and NRACC Kansas members and listeners. One more time, kshub. org. That's most of what you're going to need, and if you don't, Matt Volz would be glad to hear from you if you've got other questions.

Yep, absolutely. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You bet. It was our pleasure. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. We will catch you on the next episode of the ACEC Kansas podcast.