Government Shutdown: What You Can and Can’t Do Locally

MIDDLE GEORGIA (41NBC/WMGT) – National monuments, federal offices and other departments are all closed. People, paychecks and parks nationwide and locally are feeling the real impact of the government shutdown.

On Tuesday, the gates at Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon were closed. Employees were sent home and tourists turned away.

“We just hope that Congress works thing out,” said Ocmulgee National Monument Superintendent Jim David.

At Robins Air Force Base, 4,000 federal employees received furlough notices on Tuesday.

“It’s sad,” said Chrissy Miner, Chief Operating Officer for the 21st Century Partnership.

The Small Business Administration might close and if it does, lenders like Robins Federal Credit Union will have to halt existing loans and new applications will not be accepted.

“Basically, the process stops until they come back online and start doing business day-to-day,” said Robert Dyal, Vice President of Lending and Business Services at Robins Federal Credit Union.

At the Macon-Bibb Emergency Management Agency, Tuesday was business as usual.

“We haven’t had any indication that any of the electronic services that we may need for weather like hurricane tracking or tornadoes or doppler radar, any of that’s affected,” said Don Druitt, Macon-Bibb EMA Director.

All of the employees at the North Central Health District reported to work on Tuesday and as of right now, they are not feeling the government shutdown’s effects.

According to Jennifer Jones, Public Information Officer at the North Central Health District, this year’s federally funded flu shots are intact. However, the future for the food support program WIC is still unclear.

In a news release, Nancy Nydam, Georgia Department of Public Health’s Media Relations Manager stated, “At this time, Georgia WIC is operating business as usual. The Georgia Department of Public Health and Georgia WIC are working on steps to keep WIC operating for as long as possible. “

For those searching for a job during the federal government shutdown, the local department of labor offices will remain up and running. However, due to the shutdown of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Georgia Department of Labor will not be publishing new labor force data during the shutdown.

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