The construction of Maine’s first Asian American community center may be endangered by spending freezes and cuts ordered by President Trump.
The executive director of the Cambodian community group, Khmer Maine, says the actions by Trump have caused a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about the center’s fate.
“It’s having a little bit of a chilling effect,” Marpheen Chann said.
As AsAmNews reported, the planning board of Westbrook, ME approved the plans back in August.
Together with the Cambodian Buddhist Watt Samaki Temple, Khmer Maine hoped to raise $7.5 million dollars in donations to supplement the $2.5 million in federal funding for the project.
Construction was scheduled to be completed in five years on 30 acres of land owned by the temple, according to the center’s website.
It says the goal of the center is to “increase accessibility to legal services, translation, citizenship support, and other important community resources.”
Calls to Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) who applied for federal funding have not been returned. Maine’s other senator, Susan Collins(R-Maine) serves as chair of the Senate appropriations committee. She referred calls to Sen. King.
“Our hope is resting a lot on Sen. King and Sen. Collins,” said Chann.
There are 25,000 Asian Americans currently living in Maine with about 10,000 Chinese and 6,000 East Indians.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
Happy Lunar New Year. Great news. We have met our $5,000 matching grant challenge with less than 3 full days to go. Now let’s get to the next milestone. Let’s surpass our goal by 20%. With your help, that’s achievable. All tax-deductible donations will go toward fully funding an editor position at AsAmNews and to support our reporting. You can make your tax-deductible donations here via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo. Stock donations and donations via DAFs are also welcomed.
Please also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X.
