GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Gov. Tony Evers is suing the Trump administration after the president's Department of Government Efficiency cut nearly $400 million in grant funding to AmeriCorps, a federal agency for volunteers. The city of Green Bay voted Tuesday night to use ARPA funding to keep the local AmeriCorps environmental conservation team going until August.
- Meet the people behind Green Bay's Conservation Corps
- The city's common council was unanimous in its decision to fund the Conservation Corps with $115,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding which was not being used for anything else
Green Bay has more than $1.5 million in ARPA funding
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
Green Bay Common Council votes unanimously to give American Rescue Plan Act funding to the city's Conservation Corps so they can keep trying to help the environment until August.
Watch Pari Apostolakos' full broadcast story here:
I'm Pari Apostolakos at City Hall where I heard why corps members say the Trump administration's funding cuts could undo years of work.
State representative Amaad Rivera-Wagner, who has worked for AmeriCorps in the past says Green Bay's Conservation Corps is the first municipal conservation corps in the history of Wisconsin.
"What's [even] more powerful is that for every dollar invested in a year of service, we get $17 of positive economic impact in the city," Rivera-Wagner, the democratic representative for assembly district 90, said.
Conservation Corps Coordinator Maria Otto says in the more than two years since its inception, the Conservation Corps has helped with environmental issues like flooding in parks and removal of invasive plant species.
But, she says these are not problems which can be solved overnight.
"If this work were to stop, the past two and a half, three years of work and the time and the money and the investment would slowly go back to what we saw before this program started," Otto said during a news conference at city hall. "So, you know, our parks would be invaded with invasive [species of plants], our trails would be less usable, less accessible."
The $115,000 in American Rescue Plan Act reserve funds being used to pay the stipends of 13 corps members and three city employees were not budgeted for anything else. The city's solution is essentially replacing federal money with other federal money.
"We are mulching your trails and your rain gardens," Conservation Corps member Cailie Kafura said. "Installing bio-filters to mitigate flooding and improve water quality, serving our frog populations in the dead of night. Hand planting miles of food sources for our pollinator corridor and building relationships through volunteer events."
Because of the city council's vote, the Conservation Corps will now get to continue to do that and more until August, but the program's future beyond the summer is still uncertain.
Because of the DOGE cuts, the Green Bay Conservation Corps workers are also losing scholarship funding promised to them for continuing their educations.
