A popular federal-stimulus program that put 240 Surry County youths to work last summer won’t be offered again this year due to budget cuts in Washington.

“I just got my official notification,” Polly Long, the program’s local coordinator, said Thursday of a congressional decision that means no repeat of an effort that also provided free labor to 129 different businesses, non-profit organizations and governmental units.

It was hoped that hundreds of Surry youths from low-income families, ages 16 to early 20s, would again be hired this summer. Long said her office has received “hundreds of phone calls” from people wondering about the program’s status.

And though a bill was in place to continue it — the Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010 — that measure was passed without money for the summer jobs program.

“It’s a little complicated exactly what happened,” Long explained Thursday of the bill that included $600 million for youth employment nationwide. “It was in the Appropriations Committee in the Senate, and it had been passed by the House. They amended the bill and stripped it of the summer jobs.”

Federal lawmakers later restored the funding in question, but designated it for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq instead. “It doesn’t make sense to me, but that’s the way it is,” Long said.

Thursday’s news means another economic defeat for Surry County, where unemployment has exceeded the 13-percent mark for months. It darkens the summer job prospects for students, who now often find themselves competing with out-of-work adults for a limited number of positions available.

Last year, in contrast, local youths received tax-free paychecks that allowed them to save money for school and help out their families, while also funneling hundreds of thousands of stimulus dollars into the local economy.

“Maybe another summer we can do it,” Long said, “but it will not happen this summer.”

Along with its monetary benefits, the program allowed young people to gain valuable experience, with numerous success stories emerging among last year’s participants.

One such story surrounded the experience of Venessa Garcia, a North Surry High School student who worked last summer at Talley’s Custom Frame and Gallery in downtown Mount Airy, and also throughout this school year due to a program extension. She had been unable to find a job despite applying to about 15 businesses.

“I am real disappointed that it’s not going to occur,” Talley said Thursday of the program that matched up Garcia with his business, where she learned to prepare photographs and artwork for framing and handled other tasks. “It was very beneficial to me and to her.”

Talley added, “She is very bright and I’m just real disappointed that something so beneficial is not going to be continued.”

As do many small businesses nowadays, Talley’s Custom Frame and Gallery faces challenges, and Talley said that having the extra employee allowed the operation more scheduling flexibility with personnel.

“It’s going to throw a wrench into that,” the shop owner said of the curtailing of a program he hopes somehow can be restored.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.