DOGE cuts put county park work on hold

Many of Ozaukee County’s ambitious plans to develop new parks or improve existing ones may be on hold this year after it was announced last week that volunteers with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps won’t be coming to help with the work, as they have for many years.

The program fell victim last week, it was announced, to President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has halted many government programs in an effort to slash the size of the federal government.

“Hopefully, this is just a temporary pause,” and the federal money will begin to flow again, county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck said Monday.

“Officially, we’ve been told the AmeriCorps NCCC program that we work with is on a ‘pause,’ but no definite timeline. This ‘pause’ will most definitely affect our work as we had hoped to have a team for spring or fall to assist with many of our restoration projects,” he said.

It may be a long wait, he said.

“We don’t expect any teams to be awarded or placed this year now,” he said.

That’s bad news for projects like the Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve on the Lake Michigan bluffs on Port Washington’s south side.

Plans call for planting more than 60,000 trees in the preserve, with much of the work done by volunteers supplied by AmeriCorps.

Struck said county staff or volunteers from other organizations will have to be recruited to do the work that was planned for this spring and coming fall, the only times of year suitable for tree planting.

A delay in tree planting and other work at the preserve could set back its opening to the public and development of trails, boardwalks and bathrooms and other amenities.

Hopes were that the preserve would be partially open to the public this year.

The preserve is considered ecologically significant because of its unique vegetation and habitat for a variety of species, including the short-eared owl, which is a species of specific concern.

It also will be connected to Lion’s Den Gorge in the Town of Grafton by a beach trail and when combined with the Ansay Family Preserve west of Highway C will help form what in effect will be a regional park.

Other parks that could be affected by the loss of AmeriCorps volunteers include Tendick Nature Park in the Town of Saukville and Virmond Park in Mequon, Struck said.

Other work AmeriCorps volunteers do for the county includes eradicating invasive plant species.

AmeriCorps was created in the mid-1990s under the Clinton administration and focuses on disaster relief, aid to veterans, environmental services and education.

AmeriCorps is just one way federal funding affects county services.

For instance, many of the county’s park projects and other work such as improving fish passage in local streams are funded by federal grants.

Struck has told county supervisors that he has had no word that any of that funding will be halted.

In February, however, supervisors suggested that Struck take steps to minimize the impact if the Trump administration follows through on its pledge to pause allocations for many programs.

The administration has clarified that programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP (food stamps), as well as funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance and “any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause.”

That would appear to leave social programs administered by the county Health and Human Services Department off the hook, but the county also uses federal dollars for many other purposes.

Some of those funds are administered by the county for health services, aid to farmers and other programs.

In all, the county received $19 million in 2024 in “intergovernmental revenue,” about 99% of it in the form of federal grant funds passed through the State of Wisconsin.

Some federal money for 2025 is already in hand, officials have said.

The 1% of federal grants that come directly to the county from the federal government are all within the Planning and Parks Department, headed by Struck.

“(A pause) could be significant to Andrew’s department,” county Administrator Jason Dzwinel said in February.

Direct grants to that department include those from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies to pay for such things as improving fish passage in county streams, testing for water purity and improving wildlife habitat.

For most of those projects, the county is reimbursed for its expenses as the money is spent and invoices are submitted.

Supervisors recommended that Struck shorten the time between when it pays vendors and submits receipts to the federal agencies for reimbursement in case a temporary pause does take effect.

Struck also has noted that it’s standard that contracts for work being paid for by the federal government include something akin to the phrase, “subject to the availability of federal funds,” which protects the county from being liable to pay contractors when it doesn’t have the money.

So far, Struck has had no word that anything is changing with regard to those grants.

“At this time, I have not heard any more regarding our various existing grant funding,” Struck said Monday.