16-day federal government shutdown may have grinded federal services, including Wayne National Forest, to a halt, but many of Athens’ local entities felt very little effect, officials said.
While her colleagues were stuck at home, forest supervisor Anne Carey was in charge of making sure the forest was shut down and reopened in an orderly manner.
“We’re glad the furlough is over,” Carey said. “Me, I’m glad to have some people working with besides myself.”
An estimated 60 workers were furloughed during the shutdown. Just last week, Congress passed a bill — which President Barack Obama signed into law — that it would pay furloughed employees their full pay for work missed during the shutdown, according to media reports.
Outside of a few dirty restrooms and trashcans presumably damaged by forest animals, Carey said she received no complaints of vandalism or forest destruction.
Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, 24 W. Union St., felt some effects, too, when a new beer couldn’t get approved, said Jackie O’s owner Art Oestrike.
“Usually a two-week turnaround ... with (the federal government) being shut down it was about a month,” Oestrike said, adding that a new brew has yet to be approved. “(The Pumpkin Ale) should be all over the markets right now but we had to wait until they signed off on our beer.”
None of the beer went bad or had to be thrown out during the shutdown, Oestrike said.
Other than the national forest and Jackie O’s, the shutdown’s effects here were seemingly insignificant, city and county government officials said.
“Basically, there was really no impact here,” said Doug Stanley, executive director of Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action, an advocacy group that relies on federal grants. “We weren’t forced to close, no staff layoffs and no disruption in service.”
Stanley added: “Obviously it would have impacted us… if it got into the period of a couple months.”
He estimates HAPCAP could go two or three months before those the organization serves would have noticed the effects of the shutdown, but in time they would have felt it.
Athens County Job and Family Services receives money from the federal government, but, much like HAPCAP, the shutdown was short enough to leave services unaffected.
“Basically, our programs are all essentially funded at least through October,” director Jack Frech said.
But, as November approached, Frech said he worried essential services like social security, veterans’ benefits and food stamps would not be delivered by November.
“If they didn’t have those things it would have been a disaster,” Frech said. “The fact that we got this close was scary. Thankfully folks got their act together in time to prevent that from happening.”
Similarly, the city of Athens — even though it holds numerous federal grants — was generally unaffected by the federal government shutdown, said Kathy Hecht, the city’s auditor.
“We have revenue from a lot of sources,” Hecht said. “Although our federal grants are huge, we were able to carry on.”
That goes for the county, too, Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said.
The U.S. Postal Service went undisturbed.
The FBI satellite office in Athens was unavailable for comment by press time. It wasn’t immediately clear how affected the office, a federal agency, was by the shutdown.
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@LucasDaprile
