Frank Doughman, superintendent of the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, sat in his office Tuesday morning awaiting the inevitable — his furlough notice from the federal government.
“I’m just waiting on the regional office to send us our furlough notices,” he said, the trepidation clear in his voice. “Then we’ll all go home, unpaid.”
The notice he’d been waiting for came just a few hours later, so Doughman locked up the visitor’s center and the George Rogers Clark Memorial, hung signs on their doors, and went home.
The last time there was a government shut down was in 1995. It lasted three weeks.
“Gosh, I hope this doesn’t last that long,” he said.
The federal government staggered into a partial shutdown early Tuesday morning after Congressional Democrats and Republicans couldn't reach an agreement on a temporary-spending plan,
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees went home as veterans' centers, national parks, and other government operations were shuttered.
“We’re just watching the news like everybody else,” Doughman said. “Unfortunately we don’t have any more knowledge right now than the general public does.”
As the flag poles stood bare outside of the memorial, one local business owner made the march from his Main Street store front to raise a much smaller version of the American flag.
Steve Siwinski, who is expected to open Yum, an ice cream shop, this month, said the flag-less poles were unacceptable, and although the federal government shut down, the people of the United States must still stand proud.
His wife, Deb Siwinski, wholeheartedly supported her husband.
“I support him 100 percent, he has vision and foresight, and I’m so proud of him for taking a stand because he’s really the quiet intellectual type,” she said. “To be honest, we didn’t think anyone had noticed the flag, so we’ve been surprised to hear it’s been a topic around the county.
“I think this shows that the decisions they make in Washington do not necessarily represent everyone in the country,” she said. “We are still lucky to have the freedoms to stand for what’s right, and the flag is a symbol of that, and it is what the armed forces have afforded us, it must fly.”
Siwinski borrowed the flag from Riverwalk Antiques, 124 Main St., and plans to raise and lower it daily until the federal government resumes it’s daily functionality.
Once Doughman received the shut-down notice, he was to immediately pull down the park’s Facebook page and he is no longer allowed to respond to e-mails or speak with the media.
The National Park Service’s website has also been shut down.
There is, however, one person remaining on staff here: maintenance supervisor Doug Bloom will be the only person at the park for as long as the shutdown lasts. He will be working minimum shifts, Doughman said, to keep an eye on the grounds.
“We can’t just let the park and the memorial go without some care,” he said. “We just finished a major project. I would hate for something to happen and mess up that multi-million dollar project.”
The park just completed a $3.2 million project to completely replace the memorial’s electrical and heating and air-conditioning infrastructure, bringing to an end three separate multimillion-dollar projects aimed at improving and preserving the cherished Indiana structure.
Doughman said the GRC is in an interesting position in that the grounds can’t be completely shut off to the public.
“It’s a large, open park,” he said. “We can’t just lock it up or put a fence around it. People are, however discouraged from visiting the memorial.”
Doughman said all scheduled events to be held at the memorial will be canceled, including a wedding.
“It will be canceled if there is no change,” he said.
As of right now, a majority of Pace Community Action Agency’s programs will remain operational as long as the governmental shut down doesn’t last “too long,” said assistant director Tai Blythe.
Programs like Head Start and energy assistance and weatherization will continue.
“At this point we really don’t know what is going to shut down yet, a lot of what we’re looking at comes from what our funding sources tell us,” Blythe said. “Right now we’re just not sure, we’re hearing we’re going to be okay to operate for a little bit, but we don’t know how long this will last.”
Director Bertha Proctor said Head Start will likely continue to be funded throughout the month, but moving forward past that funding may become scarce.
“The federal government has said they will maintain a payment in operational grants that have already been awarded,” she said. “And because our grant year doesn’t end until the end of October, I feel like we’re safe through the end of the month, because they are obligated to grant us through that period, we can expect to continue to draw down those funds.
“I don’t know what that would mean for the other programs, though, throughout Indiana, because ours ends at the end of the month, but grants are funded at different times,” she said. “Someone might have finished their grant year at the end of September, and now they’re stuck and they’ll probably be forced to shut down, too.”
Proctor said another major program for Knox County — Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — will remain operational although funds are no longer coming in from the federal government.
As expected the state is picking up the tab.
“The Indiana WIC Program provides nutritious foods, breast feeding support, nutrition education and social services or medical referrals to 280,000 Hoosiers,” said Ken Severson with the Indiana State Department of Health. “ WIC services continue to be fully operational in every county.
“The Program will share information immediately if alternative plans need to be implemented.”
The Associated Press and reporter Annie McMindes contributed to this report.