By summer, Buckley was arranging meetings to find the funding. He approached County Executive Steuart Pittman who offered financial help, but couldn’t fund the entire acquisition. Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Jeannie Haddaway Riccio took a meeting and was interested in the project but couldn’t promise to fund the entire purchase.
The meetings were useful and Buckley was making progress, collecting funding promises here and there, including state funding from the Maryland legislature at the behest of State Sen. Sarah Elfreth. By the end of 2021, Mayor Buckley hadn’t raised enough to fully fund the acquisition. Buckley set his sights on a meeting with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. The POS funding he was seeking had a steep price tag - more than $5 million.
At a January 5, 2022 meeting with the governor, less than a year after meeting with Rogers, Buckley got a tentative promise to find the funding to make the acquisition. By February, the Project Open Space funding was secured.