Government Shutdown

ya know it was kind of an odd feeling walking out of work today wondering if ill have a paid job on monday or if ill be taking an unexpected unpaid vacation. Just a weird feeling.

Was kind of interesting reading about who exactly would be furloughed in the NPS though. Snow plow drivers are more important than me i guess lol.

What does “closed” mean?
This is a full closure. Visitors will not be able to come into any park entrance by car, on foot, by bike, or any other means. Beginning Saturday morning cars will be turned back at the gate. The only exception to this is for people with winter group camping or hotel reservations. These folks will be allowed to stay in the park for 48 hours.

Will anyone be working?
The park has identified the bare minimum of staffing needed to protect park infrastructure and human safety. The management team has developed a schedule of who will be working during the closure, and if you are on that schedule your supervisor has already notified you. The schedule includes 3 protection rangers per day, comm. center staffing, road crew, utilities systems operators, green house staff, some human resources people, contracting officer, and an information officer. The list of “excepted” employees includes about 35 people overall.

could you tell us where the "protection rangers" (I assume this is similar to a pothole ranger?) will be stationed each day?

could you tell us where the "protection rangers" (I assume this is similar to a pothole ranger?) will be stationed each day?

Right behind you.

It's disgusting to see the people's Parks become a political football in this scrum between our two teams of incompetent politicians.  The annual budget for all the National Parks is less than the rounding error for the total federal budget.  The costs to small business will be far greater than the government's 'savings', according to this article:
nationalparkstraveler.org/2011/04/signs-...nal-park-circles7942

I wonder if the exception for "people with group camping reservations" is NPS-speak for the guiding concessions such as RMI?  It sure sounds like the same double standard applied during the 2006-07 VC construction closure.  It would also not surprise me if some furloughed Rainier employees once again manage to get some skiing in at Paradise while the taxpayers are excluded.

Still, the inconvenience to recreationists is nothing compared to our troops being shot at and not even paid!

Oh well, the drama appears to be over for the time being.