TOURISM ATTRACTION
SUB-GRANTS FOR KANSAS

Task Grant 2

2022 TASK Grant Awardees
 

City of Great Bend Convention & Visitors Bureau

Project Description: Expansion of current sporting complex, an already successful and fully booked Sports Complex for softball and baseball. The expansion will include the addition of  2 turf Soccer Fields, 2 turf football fields, and 1 turf softball field. Each field will include bleachers, score and video boards, and shade areas for spectators and players.  The project will also include perimeter fencing and gating, all-season ADA restrooms, concessions, a meeting room, first aid and storage, and an asphalt parking lot.  These additions will expand the possibilities for youth sports tournaments. 

City: Great Bend
County: Barton
Region: South Central

TASK Grant Amount: $225,000.00
Patterson Family Foundation Amount: $112,500.00
Total Amount Awarded: $337,500.00

Flint Hills Discovery Center

Project Description: Addition of a 250 sq. ft. "Stepping into the Prairie" exhibit immediately outside the exit door of the Immersive Experience Theater, so that guests will seem to walk immediately into the Flint Hills.   This all-ages exhibit is a one-of-a-kind memorable experience that brings the Flint Hills to life. Particular attention will be paid to young visitors with the level and type of interactives. 

City: Manhattan
County: Riley
Region: North Central

TASK Grant Amount: $200,000.00
Total Amount Awarded: $200,000.00

Grassroots Art Center  (GAC)

Project Description: Convert the second floor of the current Arts Center building into a new dedicated Kathy Ruth Neal Gallery, a self-taught, outsider artist internationally known for woodcarvings that depict American Life. The space will include a touchscreen video production and a suspended metal rotating display for the artist's yard environment work. This additional exhibit will help solidify the Grassroots Art Center and Lucas KS as a Midwest regional center for “Outsider Art.”  

City: Lucas
County: Russell
Region: North Central

TASK Grant Amount: $114,837.00
Patterson Family Foundation Amount: $57,418.50
Total Amount Awarded: $172,255.50

HorseThief Reservoir Benefit District

Project Description: The addition of 5 yurts for glamping accommodations.  This project will allow more travelers to experience unique lodging while they enjoy the fishing, boating, kayaking, hunting, hiking, and archers at the park.  With the recent addition of the event venue, public stage and open-air pavilion, these additional glamping sites will allow larger attendance for weddings and other events. 

City: Jetmore
County: Hodgeman
Region: Southwest

TASK Grant Amount: $199,945.00
Patterson Family Foundation Amount: $99,972.50
Total Amount Awarded: $299,917.50

Johnson County Park and Recreation District

Project Description: Upgrades to fields and renovations at the Mid-America Sports Complex, that will include converting 4 natural grass surface baseball and softball fields to turf to extend hours of play and the ability to attract tournaments. Will also add LED lighting, perimeter fencing, a backstop, and rebuilt dugouts to improve the user experience and increase the spectator sightlines. 

City: Shawnee-Mission
County: Johnson
Region: Northeast

TASK Grant Amount: $201,168.00
Total Amount Awarded: $201,168.00

Miners Hall Museum Foundation

Project Description: Relocate, restore, and preserve a Page 618 Walking Dragline.  The dragline, a unique piece of coal mining machinery that was used to dig for coal in Cherokee County, will be moved from Pittsburg to Franklin to the Miners Hall Museum and will help preserve the mining history of SE KS.  This is only one of eighteen Page 618 Walking Draglines to be built and only one of two Page 618s  still in existence. When restored, it will be the second and largest dragline and the only known Page 618 to be preserved for public display in the United States.

City: Franklin
County: Crawford
Region: Southeast

TASK Grant Amount: $225,000.00
Patterson Family Foundation Amount: 112,500.00
Total Amount Awarded: $337,500.00

STRATACA: Kansas Underground Salt Museum

Project Description: The addition of 4 engaging exhibits that will enhance the visitors' experience to the 650 ft. underground attraction.  The four new exhibits will:

1. Mini Miner Interactive Zone (4 mini excavators rides, 1 mini crane ride, and several STEM interactive tables)
2. BlastZome: Dr. Nobels's Laboratory – educating on the life of Dr. Nobel and his discovery of dynamite. Guests can experience the percussion and rumble of what a dynamite blast would feel like in the safety of the “Boom Room.”
3. Permian Perions – focusing on the development of the earth when Kansas was under seawater and helping guests understand why salt is located in Kansas.
4. Science of Salt - examines the impact that salt has on the body and will include “The Big Tongue,” an interactive experience that allows guests to touch a section of the tongue.

City: Hutchinson
County: Reno
Region: South Central

TASK Grant Amount: $174,750.00
Total Amount Awarded: $174,750.00

The Nature Conservancy

Project Description: Visitor Experience Improvements at the Smoky Valley Ranch to transform the way visitors interact with the largest nature preserve in the state.  The project will include developing interpretive and wayfinding signage,  a new self-guided audio tour, available in both Spanish and English, that will allow visitors to learn about the area’s rich history through multiple occupants – from Native Americans to westward expansion, from the post-slavery migration to pioneers to today.   This 18,600-acre cattle and bison ranch is adjacent to the Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park.

City: Oakley
County: Logan
Region: Northwest

TASK Grant Amount: $159,300.00
Patterson Family Foundation Amount: $79,650.00
Total Amount Awarded: $238,950.00