Commissioner Laurie Trieger: Not only was this grant to build resiliency in terms of emergency response and support healthy communities, but it was also a vital economic engine. It was going to create jobs and economic activity because these were infrastructure construction projects.
Presenter: Lane County will dispute the termination of its big EPA grant to build six resilience hubs across the county. With an update for commissioners May 6, Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky:
Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator): On Friday, May 2—this happens to be my birthday, happy birthday to me—I received a letter from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that our $19.5 million grant that Lane County was awarded and for which we fully executed a grant agreement in 2024—so we had a signed agreement, went through the process of applying for, awarded, signed the agreement with the EPA—we received a memo on Friday that that grant was terminated.
[00:00:42] You will recall that the grant was designed in partnership with the United Way of Lane County and six facility owners around the county, the cities of Florence, Veneta, Cottage Grove, Oak Ridge, Bethel School District, and the Willamalane Park District…