FAIRMONT — Rising Stars RESET Inc. looked forward to hosting roughly 20 people at its facility to learn more about their ancestry.
President Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze has them pivoting to keep their project moving forward.
“We work with a lot of grants,” Sherry Radcliffe, program coordinator, said. “So not just that grant scared us. We actually had to call around and check out grants, because we do run off of grant funding. Most of the things here are grant funded.”
Cultivate WV – Fairmont put a pause on mini-grant distribution this week. Rising Stars was one of 24 community projects chosen by the Cultivate program.
Rising Stars is a nonprofit organization that educates and socializes community youth. Their mini-grant project would have connected young people to the genealogical resources provided by Ancestry.com, by defraying the cost of the subscription and also paying for materials and training for any who partook.
However, the pause of the mini-grants has Rising Stars scaling back its aspirations.
“We wanted to bring it into the center, because at the library we’re limited to 10 people at a time,” Radcliffe said. “If we can bring it into our center, we can open it up to more people.”
The Cultivate program is run through the West Virginia Community Development Hub, and empowers communities like the one in Fairmont to improve their conditions by providing mini-grants to residents so they can develop their community. They receive federal funding through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to their form 990 tax filing from 2023, the organization received $2.7 million in contributions and grants. Around $1.5 million of that came from government grants.
“Unfortunately, due to the federal freeze on payments for grants and loans, we are pausing payments on Cultivate mini-grants until we know the reimbursements will be provided,” Community Coaching Coordinator Olivia McConnell said. “We will provide updates as soon as we have more information from the federal agencies.”
The City of Fairmont played a large role in bringing Cultivate here. City Manager Travis Blosser said from their standpoint, the project is still moving forward. The program has had significant benefits, and from talking to the Congressional leadership as well as relationships the City has with certain federal agencies, Blosser is comfortable saying the funds will be unfrozen in a short time period. He also views Cultivate’s pause as precautionary. That said, the City would also rather not have any delays.
“At the end of the day, when you’re dealing with federal agencies and you have a new administration come in — I mean changes occur, and you have to deal with those growing pains,” Blosser said. “I do say to anybody who’s been a recipient of it, just be patient. Those projects were going to take some time to implement anyway, because I think the process is going to play out to the benefit of all.”
Blosser added it was premature to consider whether or not the City would step in and cover the cost of the mini-grants through outside agency funding. Covering all 24 grants would cost $48,000. For comparison, most of the City’s outside agency funds hover around $1,000 to $5,000, however, the City provides $60,000 in funding to Main Street Fairmont, it’s largest contribution by far. Blosser said any move to backfill the mini-grants would require a discussion with City Council and most likely a budget amendment. What fiscal year that contribution would fall in would also have to be considered.
“That is not a discussion we have had internally at all,” Blosser said. “We really don’t have a lot of concern that this process will not unfreeze itself and move forward.”
Although Blosser points out that funding pauses are normal during federal administration changes, the current funding freeze is also the subject of intense debate, including on whether or not the executive order behind the freeze goes beyond normal and oversteps Congress’ power of the purse. So far, the order has been stymied in federal courts. The presiding judge ruled the government’s broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds was likely unconstitutional. He also ruled the Trump administration violated a restraining order to resume funding and kept funds frozen.
However, on Wednesday the same judge reaffirmed the government is permitted to limit access to federal funds in accordance with applicable laws. In the same ruling, the judge continued his hold on a broad application of the president’s powers. Vice President J.D. Vance and unelected and unappointed citizen Elon Musk questioned the judiciary’s hold on the president’s power.
McConnell said any new information she gets will be shared at the next session of Cultivate.
“Our next Cultivate session is Feb. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in room 236 of Hardway Hall at Fairmont State,” McConnell said. “We will be discussing any potential updates and plans for adjusting mini-grant project timelines at this session. Hoping for good news soon!”
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