Federal budget cuts from DOGE impacting the valley

AmeriCorps slashed this week…

[  By Mark Reaman, Kendra Walker and Katherine Nettles  ]

Federal budget reductions, many through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, are having impacts throughout the country as well as here in the valley. Locally, cutbacks in backcountry rangers on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land has gotten the most attention, but other federal cutbacks are suddenly coming without much warning and are also impacting local programs. These include nonprofit programs, government programs, school and child services and more.

AmeriCorps slashed

The federal government announced last week just before the weekend that contracts associated with AmeriCorps were being terminated. Local non-profit organizations like Mountain Roots and local government including the town of Crested Butte employ AmeriCorps personnel.

As reported in the Washington Post on April 25, “Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has ordered AmeriCorps to terminate close to $400 million in grants — roughly 41% of the national service agency’s total grant funding. It’s the latest blow to the organization, which deploys thousands of young people to work on community service projects across the United States. The decision to eliminate millions of dollars in grants affects 1,031 organizations, and 32,465 AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers…”

Across the Gunnison Valley, AmeriCorps members are embedded in organizations like GV-HEAT, Western Colorado University’s Center for Cold Climate Food Security and Gunnison Country Food Pantry, filling gaps where staff capacity and resources fall short. 

Mountain Roots was hit especially hard. Executive director Holly Conn said the move puts these and other local non-profits into a state of deep uncertainty. 

“Mountain Roots Food Project currently hosts 25 AmeriCorps members across six rural Colorado communities — with 18 members serving right here in the valley,” Conn explained. “These members are the boots on the ground: coordinating food distribution, cultivating school and community gardens, educating youth, managing conservation projects, supporting low-income families and building resilient local food systems.”

Conn continued “One of their most visible impacts is food security. Every week, AmeriCorps members help pack and deliver more than 100 boxes of fresh, healthy food to local neighbors in need. People don’t realize how high the need still is. We’re still serving twice the number of households we did before the pandemic — and it’s rising again.”

Mountain Roots AmeriCorps members described the work they were doing as not always easy, but fun. They noted they helped harvest 3,000 pounds of food last season and helped at-risk households secure food. They also mentioned the importance and success of building trust with local immigrant families.

“In a small rural community like ours, AmeriCorps members aren’t just helping — they’re essential,” concluded Conn. “The need for services is growing, not shrinking. If this program disappears, our neighbors — children, seniors, immigrant families — will feel it immediately.”

Another such AmeriCorps member impacted is Alexa Luger who is working in the Crested Butte town hall through CivicSpark, which is a subset of AmeriCorps focused on community identified priorities such as sustainability. Her work is largely focused on establishing CB data tracking for energy use and emissions.

Crested Butte town manager Dara MacDonald said that because the Crested Butte Sustainability department is a one-woman department, they knew Dannah Leeman Gore who heads it up would be out on maternity leave this summer. 

“We brought on Alexa to keep some of these ongoing sustainability efforts moving forward during Dannah’s leave that starts in May,” explained MacDonald in an email this week. “Her work is largely focused on establishing our data tracking for energy use and emissions. She is also taking on a number of smaller projects such as outreach on things like the composting program, Town clean-up and rebate programs. Alexa’s work is ongoing in the Town’s exploration of possible steps to reduce single use plastics in the community. She will also be helping Astrid this summer as we go into the building code update to compile data and report back on the impact (good and bad) of the electric-only code that we adopted almost three years ago.”

MacDonald said that Luger is from Greeley and a recent graduate of the University of Colorado. She heads back to grad school in the fall. “It’s been a win/win as she has been able to get some on the job experience and we have benefited from her bright mind and hard work for a very low cost to the Town. She really wants to stay and finish out the summer and the various projects she has underway so we are looking at ways we can find the needed money to get her through the summer.”

On Wednesday, the State of Colorado filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s abrupt cuts to funding and services that help Colorado prevent wildfires, support student success, and ensure Coloradans’ access to mental health care through AmeriCorps. 

“In Colorado, AmeriCorps members are on the front lines: supporting wildfire mitigation, helping students succeed in school, and expanding mental health access. Their work touches every part of our state and these cuts are taking important services away from Coloradans and our communities,” said Governor Jared Polis.  

Other impacts

Gunnison Valley Regional Housing Authority (GVRHA) executive director Melissa LaMonica said another federal budget cut impact being felt at the food pantry is that a Mountain and Plains Environmental Justice (MAP EJ) grant GVRHA’s GV-Heat program was awarded has been put on hold. “It is a new EPA grant that we have never applied for, and was not budgeted or allocated internally yet, so it only effects potential program expansion,” said LaMonica.

The GV-Heat program facilitates several energy assistance programs in the valley, including energy assessments, energy efficiency upgrades and rebates and weatherization improvements for income-qualified households to help reduce energy bills in an extreme climate. 

The Gunnison Watershed School District has also seen support services pulled back and as an example, the Gunnison Valley Mentors program had to cut two full-time staff positions this week and two additional staff are slated to phase out over the summer due to funding cuts. Gunnison Valley Mentors’ School-Based Mentoring program provides support to students where they are matched with a mentor who works closely with them to improve attendance, study habits, communication, organization and homework completion.

Prior to the cuts, Gunnison Valley Mentors executive director Tina McGuinness said the organization employed eight paid mentors, three full-time and five part-time. One mentor is dedicated to Crested Butte, two mentors work with youth in both Gunnison and Crested Butte and the remaining five work with Gunnison youth.

“We will be reducing paid mentor hours in the fall unless we can find funding to replace what’s been lost,” she said.

McGuinness said their current budget loss of $8,000 per month does reduce the amount of funding available for school-based mentors, but doesn’t eliminate it. “Right now, with no additional cuts, we can continue working in the schools with limited capacity. Each full-time school mentor works with about 12 students, so we’re looking at 24 fewer students receiving services,” she said. 

However, McGuinness said there is possibility of losing another $10,000 a month. “If we lose this funding, combined with what’s already been cut, we’ll likely be forced to eliminate any paid mentoring that is specifically in the schools,” she said. “We’ll still (hopefully) have some paid mentoring staff in community-based matches who can provide limited support for their mentees in school.

“We are all trying to keep our boats afloat with holes breaking out unexpectedly,” concluded McGuinness. “None of us are untouched by the changes, regardless of industry, and all of us are working hard to make the necessary pivots. Like everyone, we’ll have to make adjustments, and also like everyone, we will continue to do the best work we can with the resources we have.”

Gunnison County is dealing with contract reductions in their health and human services department, and general lack of clarity on what is coming.  

“At the end of March we received a stop work order for three contracts from CDPHE [Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment],” said Gunnison County assistant county manager for health and human services Joni Reynolds.  “In early April, we received a suspension for the issued stop work orders.  We have heard potential impacts to local public health and human services funding but have not yet seen correspondence or direct information on any impacts for Gunnison County,” she summarized. 

“We work closely with many State and Federal agencies,” continued Reynolds. “We have heard about staffing cuts and federal organizational changes but are unclear on the direct impacts for Gunnison County.” 

County manager Matthew Birnie commented that while the county has yet to see major impacts, “We remain concerned given the lack of clear communication and clarity.”