SALISBURY, Conn.—The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, which encompasses 29 towns from Lanesboro, Mass., to Kent, has put a temporary hold on new grant applications until it can learn more about its federal funding status.
“We have many smaller grant applications that affect regional towns in many ways,” Executive Director Dan Bolognani said after a Board of Director’s meeting Wednesday, April 9.
Bolognani said that Congress’ continuing resolution extending the 2023-24 federal budget through the end of this fiscal year has left uncertainty about local funding and how it will be distributed.
The federal budget runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 of the following calendar year. President Trump signed a full-year continuing resolution on March 15, which continues federal spending at the same level as last year.
“They opted not to have a federal budget this year,” Bolognani said. “Theoretically, the continuing resolution is a carbon copy of every little entity included in last year’s budget, but we have heard—but can’t confirm—that the administration has asked for discretionary powers to determine how the money is divvied up. The top-line number is the same, but how it will be distributed is uncertain. There are so many unanswered questions and the impact is being felt right here.”
He explained to his board that the federal funding is handled differently in different heritage areas. Some of the areas are unable to carry over funding from one year to the next because of the structures under which they work.
“They need to draw down their funding in the year in which it is appropriated,” he said. “When there is a long delay in federal funding, they run out of money.”
Continuing resolutions make funds available as the CR’s are extended but the affected heritage areas must fill out paperwork each time to get their funding.
“As far as can tell, they have been getting their CR money, but we don’t operate that way,” Bolognani said. “We are not able to obligate money not already obligated to us and there is no money this year. We kind of do this every year, but this is an unusual delay with so many unknowns.”
The National Heritage Areas federal program operates within the Department of the Interior and is specifically included in its overall spending. But in January, funding to maintain National Heritage Areas, which are managed by the National Park Service, appeared to have had their funding paused as part of the OMB order.
An OMB memo requested that hundreds of recipients of federal grants submit information regarding their plans by Feb. 7, after which the agency would decide which programs merited continued support. Over a dozen grants given by the Department of Interior investing in National Heritage Areas and other Park Service areas, were on the list.
Since 1984, Congress has established 61 national heritage areas (NHAs) to “conserve, enhance, and interpret nationally significant natural, historic, scenic and cultural resources.” NHAs partner with the National Park Service, states and local communities in their preservation efforts. The Park Service supports the local initiatives with both seed money and technical assistance.
At the local level, the Housatonic Heritage Area has been involved in a variety of projects that have illuminated and preserved local cultures and heritage. “We continue to move our programs forward,” Bolognani told his board.
Among its largest initiatives has been fiscal assistance in the restoration of the Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church in Great Barrington, Mass., a spiritual, cultural and political home for the local African-American community for nearly 130 years, and a place of significance for famed author and civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois, who was raised in Great Barrington.
Bolognani said there had been “delay after delay” in bringing the 19th-century building up to code, “but that phase is about to change. It’s looking much nicer than it has in a long time and we should be closing out our grants on that project.”
The church, soon to be a Dubois interpretive and conference center, is among the 48 sites located on the heritage area’s African-American Heritage Trail, which also includes sites such as the John Ashley House in Sheffield, Mass., where slave Mumbet began her journey to freedom and the destruction of slavery in Massachusetts, and the Samuel Harrison House in Pittsfield, Mass., home of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment chaplain who protested discriminatory pay practices.
The heritage area has also formed a partnership with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community of Mohican Indians to bring recognition to Native American history and culture in the region. The Upper Housatonic Valley Native American Heritage Trail introduces visitors to the histories of the region’s indigenous communities through interpretive experiences and promotes open discussions to erase long-held stereotypes.
Bolognani said he was contacted a week before the meeting by an author writing a book on how heritage areas have had dramatic impacts on their regions through a specific projects or programs.
“I think the program that has had the most impact here is the African-American Heritage project, which is now 28 years old,” he said. “As result of the project, many notable African-Americans in the Berkshires have been made known by telling their stories. Throughout Berkshire County people have had the resources to move forward these stories.”
He noted the oral history center established in partnership with Berkshire Community College and an upcoming oral history webinar by project partner Peter Vermilyea, a Housatonic Valley Regional High School teacher, who is focusing on the use of oral histories as teaching tools.
The heritage area has also been a backer of the annual Troutbeck Symposium, which perpetuates the early-20th-century gatherings of creative thinkers and activists held at the Amenia estate.
The symposium includes two days of discussions and programs by students from 14 schools who are uncovering local history through student documentaries, art exhibitions and conversation. One such documentary, created by Marvelwood students, was recently selected for a Black History Month film festival in Washington, D.C.
“The symposium has grown,” said Bolognani. “It is big and noteworthy. Students are allowed to choose their own research projects and how they are presented. I’ve seen prints, sculpture, documentaries—all different ways they have present their ideas.”
Planning is also underway for this year’s Heritage Walks, a popular draw for tourists each year. This year more than 70 walks have been listed.
