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Source: Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.儲存Oct. 02--As the federal government shutdown began Tuesday, Cape Cod residents and visitors were left wondering what was open, what was closed, who was working, who wasn't and how long the impasse would shutter popular services and destinations.There were no answers for them or the employees who were sent home without pay after working a few hours Tuesday morning to change their voicemails, lock the doors and prepare for an indefinite, unpaid vacation.Meanwhile the Capewide trickle-down ran the gamut from the immediate (closing bathrooms at the Cape Cod National Seashore) to the potential (burials at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne and federal housing vouchers).A Federal Emergency Management Agency training exercise held Tuesday morning at Sandwich Hollows Golf Club included several dozen police, fire and emergency personnel but went on without two key federal government employees. The session opened with Sandwich emergency management Director Brian Gallant announcing that a FEMA official and an EPA official were not going to attend.Noting the role the two played in putting together the tabletop exercise, he said, "It's a bittersweet morning for us."Here's how the shutdown looks like in our area:Tourism hot spotsAt the Cape Cod National Seashore, facilities including visitor centers and bathrooms were closed even in areas where the beaches were still reachable by vehicles. When a tour bus from North Carolina rolled up to Coast Guard Beach in North Eastham around 9:30 a.m., visitors stepped down into the soft autumn light to find only a pronounced lack of amenities."We're still looking for a bathroom," said B.J. Burcham, who was on that bus with her 91-year-old mother.Another Seashore visitor, Ohio resident Teresa Durbin, blamed the Republicans for cutting off access to Outer Cape beaches."I'm totally pissed off," Durbin said. "I've always wanted to come East, and this is our big trip."Other National Park Service facilities, including Highland Light in North Truro and Nauset Light in North Eastham, were also closed Tuesday. The Seashore employs about 130 people at this time of year, said Superintendent George Price, including park rangers, maintenance workers and law enforcement rangers. All except nine law enforcement rangers and two maintenance employees were put on furlough Tuesday, Price said."No one knows how long it will last," he said. "There's a lot of uncertainty."Price said as many as 10 to 17 buses stop at the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham each day in the fall."These are the fall foliage tours that bring people from all over the United States, including many senior citizens," he said.In Truro, the Highland Links Golf Course, on land leased to the town by the National Seashore, also shut down. The same went for the Nauset Knoll Motor Lodge, a motel in East Orleans that's also on leased Seashore land."Today was a $3,000 hit," said Jim Knowles, manager of the golf course.The links brings in about $680,000 in revenue each year, with 15 percent going to the Seashore, Knowles said. It usually breaks even or earns a profit for the town. But any profit is under peril as the beautiful fall days tick by and the park service and all its concessions remain closed."The phone is ringing off the hook, and I can't answer it, because I don't know what to say and I'm not supposed to be doing business," Knowles said.On the Upper Cape, the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, run by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Fisheries Science Center, also is closed. The facility at 166 Water St. displays about 140 species of marine animals found in Northeast and Middle Atlantic waters, and is the oldest continuously operating marine research aquarium in the United States.Spokeswoman Shelley Dawicki said a skeleton crew will keep the animals fed.The national wildlife refuges on Nantucket and Monomoy also closed to the public, along with a number of other wildlife refuge areas in Massachusetts. On Nantucket, the closure affected only a small portion of Great Point, as most of the area on the northernmost part of the Island is owned by the private nonprofit Trustees of Reservations.Nuclear facilitiesThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the government agency that oversees the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, will remain operational for the short term. If the shutdown continues, staffing will plummet to bare bones, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said."We have some carryover funding that will allow us to maintain normal operations for about a week," he said. "Then, like other agencies, our staffing will be significantly reduced until the shutdown is over."Only about 300 of the NRC's 3,900 employees would remain on the job when the carry-over dollars run out."Those who would continue to work -- that is, those deemed necessary to perform 'excepted functions' -- would include the NRC resident inspectors assigned on a full-time basis to each operating nuclear power plant, as well as staffers needed to initially respond to emergency situations at NRC-licensed facilities," Sheehan said.Air traffic controlLocal transportation officials say their operations are not likely to be affected in the short term. The Federal Aviation Administration contrmini storagect air traffic control tower at Barnstable Municipal Airport is still being staffed, airport manager Roland "Bud" Breault said.Lawmakers may have learned a lesson from the intense reaction earlier this year when the furlough of FAA staff caused travel delays across the country, he said.An official with the Transportation Security Administration, which has an office at the airport, wrote in an email to the Times that the agency's transportation security, including aviation passenger screening and the Federal Air Marshal Service, will remain operational during the shutdown.Public housingThe federal Housing and Urban Development office's main phone number played a recording Tuesday announcing that "most HUD programs have been temporarily interrupted and the department is closed."Locally, housing vouchers will be available this month, but a prolonged shutdown could have an effect on future payments."We have a little under 300 housing vouchers. We're all set for landlord payments this month, but if this goes on longer, there could be a problem," Sandra Perry, Barnstable Housing Authority executive director, said.Ed Roderick, executive director of the Yarmouth Housing Authority, said he will be nervous about new applicants who would "result in additional requests for funding" during the shutdown.Frederic Presbrey, CEO of Housing Assistance Corp., worries whether the nonprofit agency will receive federal funding for weatherization programs in October. The money is used to provide insulation and keep heating costs down for lower-income residents, he said."There's a lot we don't know at this point," Presbrey said.Wampanoag tribesThe government shutdown could result in layoffs and furloughs for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), which relies on grants and direct federal funding of about $8 million per year to provide services for elders, health care, child care and things like heating assistance, tribal Chairman Cheryl Andrews-Maltais said."We're totally reliant because we have no source of economic development," she said.The impact depends on the length of the shutdown, she said. "We have some resources set aside to get us through," she said. The tribe is already getting about 13 percent less in government funding than it did two years ago because of automatic reductions known as sequestration, she said.The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which also receives federal funding, did not respond to requests for comment.Veterans ServicesVeterans Administration medical facilities and clinics remain open, including the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center, but VA call centers and hotlines are closed for the duration of the shutdown.The National Cemetery in Bourne is open and continuing with burials through Oct. 14, said Theresa Souza, a budget analyst at the facility. Beyond that point, staff will need guidance from the federal government on how, or if, the cemetery will continue to function.Small business lendingThe shutdown means that U.S. Small Business Administration loan applications aren't currently being processed at the federal level, said Jeannine Marshall, executive director of the Centerville-based business lender Coastal Community Capital.But that hasn't stopped Coastal Community from working on the applications and then sending them to the SBA, she said. The organization is encouraging people to still apply for the loans so the process isn't delayed further."We are going to keep them in the pipeline," she said. Meanwhile, Coastal Community will continue to use other, non-federal, small business loan offerings to assist customers.The loans can range from $25,000 to several million dollars, Marshall said, and help pay for acquisitions and other business endeavors."I think the most troublesome thing of the government shutdown is businesses do not like uncertainty. It gives them pause, which means they are not growing."The disaster recovery loan program is still operational, according to the SBA website.SchoolsAlthough they are awash in federal funds, Cape schools said the timing of the shutdown wouldn't have an immediate effect.Mashpee Superintendent Brian Hyde said the district gets about $1.1 million a year in federal funds for everything from special education programs to an Indian education grant. Some of those checks are due to arrive in October, and he said there's been no indication of a delay -- not yet, anyway."We're hoping for the best and trying to be positive," he said.Barnstable Public Schools have received funding for fiscal year 2013, but state education officials have said there could be a delay in school breakfast and lunch reimbursements until the state receives a nutrition award for October from the Department of Agriculture for fiscal year 2014, Superintendent Mary Czajkowski said."I think we can cover in the short term, but I think if this were to go on more than a couple of weeks we could have certainly some other serious issues," she said.Staff writers Christine Legere, George Brennan, K.C. Myers, Cynthia McCormick and Patrick Cassidy, and Jason Graziadei of the Inquirer and Mirror contributed to this report.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) 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