BUCKLAND — The future of a Town Meeting-approved historical site survey is uncertain, as the Trump administration has yet to release federal funds used to finance the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s planning and survey grant program.

Debra O’Malley, director of communications for the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office, which manages the MHC, said the state has not received any formal notification that the funding has been frozen. However, it has yet to receive the money from the National Park Service, which funds the planning and survey grant program.

The program is a 50/50 match program, requiring awardees to spend their own funds, then be reimbursed after the completion of the project, O’Malley said. But without confirmation the federal funds will be disbursed, Buckland Historical Commission Chair David Parrella fears the MHC will not be able to fund its share of the project surveying historical sites throughout town to update listing on the National Historic Register.

“I got an email from the State Historical Commission saying that all federal funding from the Department of the Interior for historic programs has been withheld, which includes us,” Parrella told the Selectboard earlier this month. “Even if the town was to make the money available, there is no certainty that there will be federal matching funds.”

Interim Town Administrator Pamela Guyette said the voter-approved $12,500 will be held in an account until the end of the 2026 fiscal year. If the Buckland Historical Commission is unable to get the state’s half of the $25,000 for the survey program by the end of June, the town’s match will be returned to free cash.

The Selectboard noted that even if the federal funds are disbursed as allocated, the town’s match will be held till the end of the 2026 fiscal year per a Town Meeting vote, so the Buckland Historical Commission could potentially apply for the funds again next year. Parrella said he was unsure if the program would be available next year as the Trump administration’s proposed budget for FY26 cut the budget for the Historic Preservation Fund.

“Many historic preservation projects have matching funds from state, local, and private sources, rendering the Historic Preservation Fund highly duplicative,” Russel Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, wrote in his explanation of the proposed budget to the Senate Committee on Appropriations. “Further, the projects are often of local, rather than national, significance.”

President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was passed by the House of Representatives on May 22, recommends cutting the National Park System’s budget for historic preservation by $158 million. The bill still needs to be considered and voted on by the Senate before it will return to the President’s desk for a final signature, meaning amendments can occur and some of the cut funding could be restored.

“The Big Beautiful Bill has ways to go and the funding might work its way back in,” Parrella said.

Selectboard members wondered if the Historical Commission may be able to fundraise to come up with the other $12,500 in case the funding ends up cut. Voters at the May 3 Town Meeting asked the same question, and said they would be willing to donate to support the project.

Parrella said if other members of the town or Historical Commission wished to put together a fundraiser, they could, but he would rather not ask residents for money when there is already allocated federal funds for the project. The commission is expected to discuss the matter further at its June meeting.

“Having spent a lot of hours doing fundraising for the Historical Society as opposed to the Historical Commission, I’m not inclined to do a lot of fundraising,” Parrella said. “I won’t, because we had hoped to be able to do this through a combination of government funding.”

O’Malley said that the MHC is still working with its federal partners to secure the funds.

“MHC staff has been in touch with the National Park Service and is actively working on obtaining more information about the status of these funds,” she wrote in email to the Recorder.

“We’re hopeful that it might be restored, and we’re encouraged and grateful that the town will make the local match available, but I can’t make any promises in terms of timeframe when they’ll make a decision,” Parrella said.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.