Last week three contracts for local federal grants were officially terminated. Two were for the Vanderburgh County Health Department.
The largest was the nearly $20 million EPA Community Change Grant. This was spearheaded by the Evansville Climate Collaborative and Director Lauren Norvell.
“It was to develop a clean transportation network in Evansville,” she said. “It would benefit the community with micro transit vans that were hybrid and ADA accessible e-bikes that would have rideshare memberships.”
This and EV charging stations, solar panels on the METS building, improved sidewalks and educational programs.
At the time it was announced, Norvell called the grant “transformative” for a city with low income and poor air quality.
But now that’s not happening, due to spending cuts through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“We just found out last week that the contract was terminated by the US EPA, because it didn't ‘effectuate’ agency priorities any longer.”
Norvell said this change in federal priorities is affecting everyone and they’ll have to pivot to move forward.
“We'll do it from the local level if we have to,” she said. “So we might be able to find a funder that would fund just the e-bikes or just the micro transit, and we can start building from there. So we're looking at all the options right now, trying to decide the best route to take.”
Other ‘Low hanging fruit’ for other funding sources could be the $2 million project to install more EV charging stations.
“So it is affecting everyone, and we're no different, but we'll do the best we can going forward.”
The largest single part of that grant was expanding METS Micro citywide for $10 million. This was set to begin expanding now.
Department of Transportation & Services Executive Director Todd Robertson said via email that they’re in a holding pattern and searching all options.
Vanderburgh County also lost grants through these cost reductions.
The Vanderburgh County Health Department (VCHD) had a $529,000 immunization grant terminated, said department Administrator Joe Gries.
“That included money for staff. We had three individuals included in that grant — also supplies. We also used that money to purchase new vaccine refrigerators and freezers to make sure we're storing all of our vaccines appropriately and correctly, so that we can use them over time.”
But unlike that $20 million grant that was set to begin now, the health department has been using the $529,000 since last summer. He contract is being terminated prior to the planned date in June. Technically they only lose between $100,000 and $200,000.
They can keep the freezers, but have to plan for a much smaller $38,000 grant for 2026.
The other health department grant was the $50,000 Produce RX grant to fund fresh produce for families on the Healthy Lifestyles program.
Gries said with some searching and a little ‘belt tightening,’ those both programs can probably carry on without the grant.
“We're starting to look for other grants, private grants, even that we've kind of gotten wind of from different organizations throughout the country and throughout the state that may be able to help us … to provide those services.”
He said grants are very important to local health departments.
“And if they all went away, there would definitely be programs affected, and we would not be able to provide certain services right now. It's just a couple that we're able to, you know, manage and pivot on.”
The VCHD has an $11 million budget. He said $4 million comes from local property taxes and local resources. They get a little over $4 million from the Health First Indiana money for 2025, and then $3 to $4 million from grants.
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