Federal cuts knock out funds to rehab Bobo Brazil Community Center 

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the Biden administration, appropriated $20 million in grant funds to Benton Harbor to clean up Ox Creek and rehab the Bobo Brazil Community Center.

Mayor Marcus Muhammad said that under Trump, they were initially told the grant was terminated, then informed that this was a mistake, and then told again that the grant was under review, ultimately to be informed that the grant was canceled.

World-famous wrestler of the 50s and 60s, Bobo Brazil, is a Benton Harbor legend, says Mayor Muhammad.

"Bobo Brazil, before Dr. J, before Michael Jordan, before even OJ Simpson and the other national stars, it was Bobo Brazil," he said.

Brazil is the namesake of the former community center along Cass Street, vacant for decades, which was set to be rehabilitated, remodeled, and turned into a community center once again, with help from the EPA grant funds.

"As power changed hands, we were notified by the EPA, under the trump administration, that the grant had been terminated," Muhammad said, "that it did not fall in line with the agenda of the new administration."

Now, Muhammad and all community partners on this project don't know if it can become a reality anytime soon.

Public officials held a news conference outside the center Tuesday, spurred by the group Elected Officials to Protect America.

"The termination of the community change grant was a severe miscarriage of justice," Muhammad said at the conference. "The Inflation Reduction Act was passed by Congress, signed by then-President Joseph Biden."

"The money was secured," said Rep. Joey Andrews (D- St. Joseph). "The federal government promised the money. The state promised money. The state money is coming through, but the federal government is going back on its word."

The community center rehabilitation is part of a larger project to revitalize Ox Creek.

"The creek has been contaminated for a long, long time," Andrews said. "The creek basically glowed in the dark for most of my childhood."

"There's a broader effort to revitalize [the creek]," said Phil Roos, Michigan EGLE director. "What this community center and what the EPA grant were about is really the cornerstone of that effort."

Now, only some of that work can get done with the limited funds available. For example, Muhammad said the Bobo Brazil Community Center can still be brought back up to code, but maybe not operational as promised.

"Part of the EPA grant was clean energy job training and resiliency," Roos said.

"This is an on-the-ground illustration of the negative impacts we're seeing in the federal budget," Andrews said.

Mayor Muhammad is trying to stay optimistic that the community center will once again honor the legacy of Bobo Brazil one day.

"He represents the best of old Benton Harbor," he said.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 19 other attorneys general, filing an amicus brief***earlier this month supporting a lawsuit against the EPA for unlawfully terminating the environmental and climate justice block grant program.