Successful USDA Appeal
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 10:06AM Finally, some encouraging news.
Last fall, on the cusp of our expected funding from the USDA, we were told that we had been deemed ineligible for the program to which we had applied (even though we'd been given a letter over a year earlier assuring our eligibility). As we've reported, as recently as our update from the appeals hearing, we have appealed this decision to the USDA's appellate division. We have been advised this week by the USDA, and confirmed in a conference call yesterday, that our appeal was successful and we are now eligible for the program.
The Board would like to give a special thanks to Aaron Krauss of the law firm of Cozen O'Connor, who handled the appeal "pro bono" for CreekSide and did a tremendous job. Aaron reviewed all the paperwork, collected evidence, prepared and questioned witnesses, and traveled to Harrisburg with several Board members to represent CreekSide at the hearing. Great job Aaron!
With this major achievement, we can now move forward again. We are updating our budget to determine the appropriate level of funding needed, and expect to resubmit next week. Once we do, the USDA's PA office will forward our application, with their recommendation, to DC for final approval. The other major hurdle is getting the federal budgets for 2011 and 2012 passed so that the USDA will know if there is funding available this year or next (or not at all, which remains a possibility).
The CreekSide Co-op Board will meet on Sunday to further detail our action plan. We expect to have more news later next week so please visit www.creekside.coop for the latest details.
This is certainly great news and a major step forward for the Co-op. It does not yet mean that we have funding, but this is definitely cause to be more optimistic about the future of CreekSide.