A $1.5 million grant to repair flooding damage to the Maplewood Memorial Library and other sizable grants to the township from the Federal government that were frozen by President Donald Trump’s executive orders have been restored by a court order.
But local officials are keeping an eye on the situation as the funds have not yet been delivered to the township and U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell said that the Trump administration had initially violated his order halting a sweeping federal funding freeze and ordered the government to “immediately restore frozen funding.”
“We did get a letter from FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] saying that the money was frozen, but the court case overturned that,” reported Maplewood Township Committeeperson Victor DeLuca at the Feb. 18 Township Committee meeting. “So as long as the court case is in place, we just got another notice of an allocation of FEMA money for some work we had from [Tropical Storm] Ida on some roads. So that’s a good sign that the money’s being processed. But you never know.”
“That’s in jeopardy right now,” said DeLuca. “And that also affects the grant that we have for the police heat pump and the grant for the electric buses.”
“And the grant through Mikie Sherrill’s office for sanitation,” added Mayor Nancy Adams.
“It’s been Congressionally allocated,” said Deputy Mayor Malia Herman.
“The word with FEMA is it’s been ‘obligated,'” said DeLuca. “An obligation with FEMA is like a contract. Once it’s obligated, that gives you the sign to go ahead and do the work. All those communities that were devastated by Ida and by all the subsequent storms and what have you, they all relied on that obligation to do work. People spent money and they need to be reimbursed.”
In a memo to Maplewood Township from FEMA, the agency explained, “You are hereby advised that a temporary restraining order has been entered in the case of New York et al. v. Trump. … This case challenges an alleged ‘pause’ of certain Federal financial assistance. … Although that OMB Memo was rescinded on January 29, 2025, the plaintiffs in the above-referenced case allege that the funding pause directed by the OMB Memo is still in effect, including because of recently issued
Executive Orders by the President. In response, the Court has entered a temporary restraining order prohibiting certain actions by the Defendants in the case, which is effective immediately.”
The memo concluded, “As the Court’s Order reflects, the above terms are temporary as litigation in the case is ongoing.
At present, however, the Court’s Order is in effect and must be complied with.”
