Shutdown Sends Forest Service Workers Home They Fill Out Unemployment Forms As Federal Budget Crisis Continues

Lee Hartman drove to the Forest Service headquarters Wednesday morning and began to cry.

“This was never part of the contract with this job,” Hartman said after filling out more than an hour’s worth of unemployment benefit forms.

For hundreds of employees who tend to the Panhandle and Colville national forests, Wednesday marked the first day of a government shutdown that left them jobless, at least for the time being.

“Never, never would we have expected this, not as a federal employee,” Hartman said. “But I guess we’ll get over it.”

About 3,000 miles eastward, the Washington, D.C., budget battle has turned Idaho and Washington Forest Service workers into pawns in a political chess game.

Forest Service offices stayed open for the first two days of the week using money from the last fiscal year. But the cash ran out, and one of the largest federal employers in the region turned out its lights.

This week’s shutdown has spread to most branches of the federal government, though some remain open on budget reserves from last year.

Idaho Department of Employment personnel held two sessions to set up unemployment payments for all the Panhandle Forest workers.

“It’s the biggest group we’ve ever done,” said Marilyn Hunt, a consultant for Job Service. The generally good-spirited bunch was also the first large group of federal employees she’d worked with.

When a budget deal is struck, everybody will head back to work, most likely with back pay for these days off, most political pundits say. Forest workers said they could live without the cash, but are hoping back pay is part of the deal.

The workers won’t receive unemployment until 1996, and only if the furlough continues that long, Hunt said. If they get back pay after receiving benefits, they’ll send them back to the state.

Most essential Forest Service workers like safety and law enforcement personnel remain on the job, said Pat Aguilar, deputy forest supervisor.

In the Colville National Forest, timber sale administrators, special use permit staff and public safety will remain on the job, according to Ed Schultz, forest supervisor.

“Even the people who work on Forest Service ski areas are still working,” Aguilar said. “If you’re planning to do some skiing, we’ll still be there.”

If the budget tug of war extends into the new year, missing the paycheck will probably put a crimp in the lifestyle of Grady Myers, a Forest Service employee from Post Falls.

“I’m optimistic that Bill, Bob and Newt will get their act together,” Myers said. “It’s a little odd to be watching CNN and reading the papers to see if I have a job the next morning.”

Being out of work for the first time he can remember has Dave O’Brien a little worried. He and 4-year-old son Colin played catch in the lobby of the mostly deserted Forest Service building on Kathleen Avenue in Coeur d’Alene after he filled out his unemployment forms.

“Colin would be in day care right now, but not today,” he said. “Our closure affects a lot of people, like the day care. But I’ve got plenty to do today other than work.”

, DataTimes