City of Marshfield Operations Will Continue as Usual During Federal Shutdown
Though hundreds of thousands of federal employees are currently furloughed due to the government shutdown that began Friday night, local government and services will generally continue as normal.
“The impact to City operation should be zero,” said City Administrator Steve Barg.
Marshfield residents will still receive mail, have their garbage picked up, and be able to utilize city parks and amenities.
“At this point, the Zoo is more or less unaffected by the government shutdown,” said Parks & Recreation Zookeeper Steve Burns. “Hypothetically, we would/could be affected in several ways. The Zoo is regulated or maintains permits with two Federal agencies- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the shutdown we would be unable to acquire permits for animal movements to or from our Zoo, applications for new or renewed licenses would not be processed and routine compliance inspections will not be conducted.”
Aspects of Marshfield Airport are somewhat affected by the shutdown, including test-giving services.
“I provide government aviation written exams though a government contracted company called PSI,” explained Jeff Gaier, Airport Manager. “I have a franchise with PSI to provide the tests. The government shutdown has impacted my ability to give the tests. The government has informed PSI that no one is process the tests on the government end due to the shutdown, so all testing it to cease at 8:30 PM PT on Jan 21st, 2018.”
Gaier said that he has now lost the revenue the test provides until the government starts-up again.
“This certainly isn’t a large portion of revenue for my business, but every little bit helps,” said Gaier. “I have contacted the people that have schedule a test for this upcoming week and next week, to call me ahead of time to see if they will be able to do the test or if I will have to reschedule them further out.”
In an average month, Gaier provides 12 to 28 exams. While 95% of those exams are aviation exams, the airport also provides many other non-aviation exams as well.
“Of course, this is nothing the military service men and women that have no income while this shutdown goes on,” said Gaier.
