The turmoil in Washington, D.C., over federal funds being frozen and restarted is not expected to impact the city of Shawano when it breaks ground on renovating and expanding its recreation center this summer.
According to City Administrator Eddie Sheppard, some concerns were expressed about whether the $4.25 million Flexible Facilities grant would still be coming to Shawano, even though the state issued the grant. It came about after the state added some wording to the final agreement signed recently.
“They added some language into the state agreement, which is basically that the state doesn’t hold these funds,” Sheppard said. “They’re actually held by the (U.S.) Treasury. They added some protection language for themselves. Our agreement is with the state. They administer the program. We then do the project. They submit to the treasury and then are reimbursed.”
Sheppard said the city checked with other municipalities receiving funds this year from the Flexible Facilities program to gauge if the federal upheaval was giving them indigestion, too. He said that the officials he has spoken with are moving forward on their own projects, because they have not received any notification from the state that the funds won’t actually materialize.
“We feel good that this is really just legal language that they felt they needed to add to protect themselves,” Sheppard said to the Shawano Common Council at its March 12 meeting. “There has been no indication from the state or any other grant recipients that funds are actually in jeopardy, but since there was a change from when we signed the draft agreement to now signing the final agreement, we wanted to bring that to your attention.”
City Attorney Keith Steckbauer supported Sheppard’s statements, noting that he also serves as attorney for the city of New London, which recently received a $3.9 million Flexible Facilities grant to build a new library.
“They had the same concerns, because, if you have to front that cost, that’s a bad thing,” Steckbauer said. “What I did was look at a list of all (federal) programs, the last known list of what was on the table … there were 2,600 programs that were cut. Fortunately for us, these monies are held by the Department of Treasury. This is not one of the agencies that has been getting a lot of attention. It’s not homeland security, and it’s not some of the other agencies that have been getting a lot of publicity.”
Steckbauer said there was still risk involved, because the state was saying, “We’re going to give you this money — if we get it.”
“That’s the risk, but that’s always been the case,” Steckbauer said, noting the situation is similar in every state where there are improvement funds. “I’m relatively confident, but you need to go into this with your eyes wide open and know that there is a risk.”
Mayor Bruce Milavitz noted that he was in Washington the day after the executive order went out on freezing federal funds, and he was able to sit down with congressional officials.
“I can tell you with no hesitation whatsoever is that on the chopping block were the grants that were already awarded,” Milavitz said. “The take at Washington’s level, from what I understand, is they thought it was the state level turning it into a political football. They were genuinely surprised that it was brought up by many communities.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
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