Washington's dysfunction is the Jersey Shore's problem this October, as the political deadlock in Congress cuts off funding for some — but not all — rebuilding efforts. USA Today has this report: ("Government shutdown could affect Sandy rebuilding," by Malia Rulon Herman, Gannett Washington Bureau).
"The administration released detailed plans on Friday regarding which federal employees would continue to work during a shutdown," the paper reports. "Under those plans, anyone distributing money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund would remain on the job because the $6 billion fund is financed separately from the agency's annual appropriation. But nearly all employees at HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development, which handles grants to cities and states for rebuilding, would be furloughed. Of the office's 749 staff members, only 13 would remain on the job."
Beach reconstruction work will continue, reports CBS Philly ("Sandy Aid, Beach Work To Continue In Shutdown"). "Ed Voigt, a spokesman for the Corps' Philadelphia office, said Monday that dredging and dune rebuilding projects are already funded and the contractors will keep working," CBS reported.
Who won't be working? Twenty-eight Nubian goats who've been eating invasive poison ivy at Sandy Hook, a retired military base on the north Jersey Shore. "For months now they've bleated at each other, locked horns and whiled away their days on the hill. But enough about Congress," reports the Asbury Park Press ("Sandy Hook goats gone due to federal budget mess," by Shannon Mullen). "Looking fat and happy, the last of about 28 Nubians were trucked out Friday, bound for their home on a farm in upstate New York, said their owner, Larry Cihanek. Cihanek, of Rhinebeck, N.Y., said he had removed the animals for their own protection in case a government shutdown shuttered the park."
