The Trump administration’s on-again, off-again federal funding freeze sowed widespread anxiety and confusion across the country and around Oregon. In Mapleton, locals feared a delay in federal grant payments would jeopardize efforts to rebuild their failing water system.
“We literally went into panic mode. Because that directly and immediately affected $5 million that we already thought we had.”
Mapleton Water District board member Art Donnelly co-authored several federal grants to repair damaged water lines and build a new water treatment plant. The grants include an Emergency Community Water Assistance Grant (ECWA) through the Department of Agriculture, an EPA Community Grant, a FEMA BRIC Grant and allocated funding from the American Recovery Plan Act. He said any delay in approved funding puts the whole project in jeopardy.
Donnelly explained that they’ve been getting by with a rented treatment skid, which is machinery used to treat the drinking water for about 850 community members. He said they can only rent the skid through April.
“We currently owe $450,000 to the contractor working on the new water treatment plant. And all of a sudden, we had to get ahold of them and say—‘hey-we don’t have any money.’”
“That sounds pretty dramatic-- but it’s [even] more dramatic than that. If this treatment plant project comes to a halt right now, we don’t have any water in Mapleton, come April,” he said.
Even as the White House has backtracked on its call for a funding pause, Donnelly said there’s still a lot of confusion over grant payment schedules and whether or not proposals are subject to additional review.
“We’re still not getting any indication from program officers of when the money is coming,” he said. “They’re not getting clear answers from Washington.”
Elsewhere in Lane County
The Board of Lane County Commissioners met Tuesday night when they briefly discussed the federal funding pause. Commissioners voiced concern, specifically about county medical services which rely on federal grants.
“This federal government has made promises to this local government that it seems they are potentially willing to break," said Commissioner Laurie Trieger. "And we have made promises to community organizations and other municipal entities, perhaps that hinge on the federal government keeping its promises, which we now can’t rely on them doing.”
Commissioner Pat Farr noted that the funding freeze order was coming from the top rung of the administration. “And this is an effect that is affecting people's lives—men, women, children, human beings all over Lane County.”
Commissioner Heather Buch added, “It sounds like a lot of these policies that are being rolled out by the new administration are unclear, conflicting at this moment. And not everybody fully understands where it's going or it's leading. What kind of strain does that put on our budget?”
