Lane County to dispute termination of $19.5M grant for 6 resilience hubs

Presenter: Lane County will dispute the termination of its big EPA grant to build six resilience hubs across the county. With an update for commissioners May 6, Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky:

Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator): On Friday, May 2—this happens to be my birthday, happy birthday to me—I received a letter from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that our $19.5 million grant that Lane County was awarded and for which we fully executed a grant agreement in 2024—so we had a signed agreement, went through the process of applying for, awarded, signed the agreement with the EPA—we received a memo on Friday that that grant was terminated.

[00:00:42] You will recall that the grant was designed in partnership with the United Way of Lane County and six facility owners around the county, the cities of Florence, Veneta, Cottage Grove, Oak Ridge, Bethel School District, and the Willamalane Park District.

[00:00:58] Those six agencies identified facilities where we would utilize this $19.5 million to invest in what we call HVAC. These are heating cooling systems, air ventilation systems within buildings to make upgrades to these facilities to allow for emergency shelters in the event of an emergency.

[00:01:21] So this was largely in support of our rural residents in response to natural disasters and emergencies.

[00:01:30] Over the next three years—this was going to be three-year investment of funds to retrofit these public facilities with upgraded HVAC systems, with filtration and backup power to provide with much-needed emergency shelter space that we lack in Lane County.

[00:01:47] We’ve worked nearly as hard in the aftermath of receiving the grant as we did in the actual application and approval of the grant. The grant has been frozen and in suspended status largely since January.

[00:02:01] The chair and vice chair and I were in Washington D.C. late February / early March and leaned into this effort to advocate for these funds at the NACo (National Association of Counties) legislative conference as well as at our United Front team that Vice Chair (Ryan) Ceniga was at.

[00:02:19] We’ve worked diligently with our federal delegation as well as the governor’s office, very much appreciate the support from our federal delegation and the governor’s office in advocating to the administration and the EPA for those funds.

[00:02:31] After a court order on April 23, the Environmental Protection Agency and several other federal agencies were directed to open funding portals for all the frozen Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure and Jobs Act grants.

[00:02:45] On Tuesday, April 29, the portal opened, and we were able to draw down $105,000 of this grant to cover staff time that had been expended on the grant since the March 1, 2025 start date, and to purchase some of the supplies for our Public Health Reserve Corps.

[00:03:04] Following the termination memo that we received on May 2, our portal status, this is the federal system you go in online to the portal, status changed again to ‘Suspended.’

[00:03:15] So after receiving the memo, we alerted all of our county staff that are affected. We have county staff that receive funding in support of this grant, as well as our partner agencies, those cities, school district, and Willamalane Park District, to cease spending immediately.

[00:03:30] We do have before us a period in which we can dispute the EPA termination, and we intend to file a letter of dispute, so we will protest this ruling.

[00:03:42] And sorry that I have to share that with you, but it is an important impact on our community to not have that roughly $20 million to invest in those facilities for our residents. But we will continue to advocate for the funding and support that we need from our federal agencies going forward.

[00:04:00] Presenter: Commissioner Heather Buch:

[00:04:02] Commissioner Heather Buch: I’m actually quite disgusted with the federal administration that they would take this action. I mean, it’s critical lifesaving infrastructure in times of emergency. And this was really going to change the way that we help our residents when it comes time for them in a really challenging environment.

We could have used this critical infrastructure in any of our snowstorms, ice storms, fires, and we know that that will continue to be inevitable for our region. I’m happy to hear that there’s way to dispute it. However, I don’t have a lot of confidence in that, given the current administration.

[00:05:01] So I’m looking forward to some enforcement actions because it was a valid signed contract. And I know when we sign contracts, we honor our contracts, and so do most people. And in a court of law, I would like to see the administration fulfill their duty of a signed contract. I don’t know how to go about that. I’m sure we’ll have further discussions about that, but I can’t reiterate enough how disgusted I am that this has been terminated without validity.

[00:05:33] Presenter: Commissioner Laurie Trieger:

[00:05:35] Commissioner Laurie Trieger: I completely echo Commissioner Buch’s comments. Not only was this grant to build resiliency in terms of emergency response and support healthy communities, but it was also a vital economic engine. It was going to create jobs and economic activity because these were infrastructure construction projects.

[00:05:52] So it flies in the face of everything the current executive branch of the federal administration claims to stand for. And so it’s puzzling as well as deeply distressing and makes me angry that this has happened.

[00:06:06] Presenter: County Counsel Rob Bovett:

[00:06:08] County Counsel Rob Bovett: Just briefly, just to let the board know, this particular EPA grant fell into a category of grants that the administration has been terminating around the nation. There are literally hundreds of them that have now been terminated. Our Deputy County Counsel Mallory Beebe is looking into our options.

She runs our litigation team and so we’re already on it and we’ll be reporting back to the board in some form about the various options the county might have. But I guess my message is: We’re not alone on this one.

[00:06:46] Presenter: Commissioner David Loveall:

[00:06:48] Commissioner David Loveall: Well, wonderful. Not great news, but I’m glad that we have those in the dogfight that are willing to fight it out so, get what we need for our community and press on.

[00:06:56] Presenter: The Trump administration tells Lane County it has terminated a $19.5 million EPA grant awarded last year to develop resilience hubs.

This story produced by John Q for Whole Community News, KEPW 97.3, resistance radio for Amazon Creek and the Long Tom.