Haines Friends of Recycling says construction on a new recycling facility foundation is paused indefinitely due to federal funding uncertainty.
The new site, purchased last year at the intersection of the highway and Main Street, has been prepared in anticipation of a foundation being poured as soon as the ground thaws this spring. Friends of Recycling chair Melissa Aronson said the nonprofit had about half a dozen proposals out for about $500,000 in federal grant money to fund construction of the facility structure, but have been told by administrators at federal agencies that all of those funds are on pause. Aronson would not relay the exact wording of the responses but said the general reason given by the administrators was “unknowns at the federal level.”
This follows a series of recent executive orders by the Trump administration pausing a range of federal funds, including broad categories of climate and sustainability funding disbursed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Aronson would not say exactly which agencies the grants were from, but confirmed much of the funding was set to come from the EPA.
Aronson says the total planned cost of the facility is around $3 million. An initial $325,000 has been raised through community and private fundraising and has been spent on site preparation.
Federal funding remains tied up in legal fights at the national level, and Aronson says HFR has not gotten word about when, or if, their grants might convey. “The contractor bid has already been accepted,” says Aronson. “As soon as funding can come through, work can start again.”
In the meantime, Aronson said the group is exploring local and corporate funding sources as a replacement, similar to what funded the initial site purchase.
The new facility, if completed, would have more capacity than the current one, would be able to accept a broader range of recyclable materials, and be able to upcycle. The upcycling is set to include conversion of plastics into a building material called ‘Grizzly Wood,’ but this requires power, running water, and rain cover that the current facility doesn’t have.
Aronson said that this is about sustainability, but also practicality. “We want to serve the community and the more we can recycle the slower the landfill will fill up. That’s going to save people a lot of money in the long run.”
Haines Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Cindy Zuluaga Jimenez said she also got notice that a $19 million grant she applied for through the EPA to potentially fund a new public safety building was also on hold.
According to an email Jimenez received on Dec. 12, the federal agency received 2,700 applications requesting more than $40 billion in funding – significantly more than the $2 billion originally allocated for the grants. The agency anticipates it would take well into the spring of 2025 to evaluate all of the remaining applications.
But Jimenez said she doesn’t anticipate the grant application will be considered now, given that it has been managed by the EPA Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.
“Unfortunately, the reason it’s going to get flagged is because it’s for underserved communities,” she said.
Most of the EPA staff who worked in that office, which was focused on underserved communities and integrating equity and civil rights into environmental regulation, were put on leave in early February and told their jobs were not secure.
While taking the grant off the table would represent a setback, Jimenez says the funding was never guaranteed, and adjusting to the priorities of the day is just a part of grant-writing.
“It’s a little like tightrope walking,” she said.
According to Jimenez, there are other potential funding sources for a public safety building. The borough also recently hired a new grant writer who could use the currently stalled grant application as a basis for seeking other grants.
Still, there might not be an easy fix: A whole range of federal funding sources for the borough have also been shuttered, including the EPA’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities, which helped the community create an outdoor recreation strategy.
“It’s not a good time to depend on federal grants,” Jimenez said.