The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Uncertainty in the federal government over what programs, if any, will be funded has begun to seep into official Franklin Township.
Between the aggressive cost-cutting efforts of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency and wrangling in Congress over the next budget, township officials have to take a wait-and-see stance on programs that rely on federal funds.
That’s normal, of course, but this year has an added wrinkle: the new Republican administration’s promise to severely cut money that Washington doles out.
At the February 25 Township Council meeting, for example, during her annual Community Development Block Grant program overview, Deborah Mitchell, the Township’s CDBG program administrator, told the Council that she should have the Township’s CDBG grant amount in a month or two, “provided we get funded this year.”
The CDBG program is administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The money – Franklin last year received nearly $350,000 – is targeted for programs designed to help low- and moderate-income people.
In addition to rehabilitating more than 100 homes over the years, the money has been used to help organizations such as the Franklin Food Bank and The Center for Great Expectations.
Mitchell told the Council that HUD generally tells her how much the Township will receive in March or April of a given year.
“But no one knows what’s going to happen at this point,” she said.
Om February 24, during an Environmental Commission meeting, the Township’s open space consultant, Tara Kenyon, told commissioners that a grant for which she applied may be in jeopardy.
The grant, she said, is administered through the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring, which is under the National Integrated Heat Health Information System. The Center looks at ways to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat, she said.
The money, she said, comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, passed during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Kenyon said she applied for one of 10 $10,000 grants to aid the Township’s research into heat mitigation.
“We’re supposed to find out March first,” she said. “I did receive an email from them that basically said, right now, obviously with what’s going on, we don’t know where we stand 100 percent, we’re still working every day until we’re told not to.”
“So as of right now, apparently, they’re still processing the applications, the people are still working there,” Kenyon said.
“This is the first time they did it,” she said. “So we applied for it, and we’ll see if we get it, and if we do get it, we’ll see if they’re still in business in a few months.”
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