Government Shutdown Will Close Great Swamp Refuge

Life in Chatham could go on mostly undisturbed if the federal government does indeed shut down Friday at midnight, as it is currently scheduled to do.

All spaces managed by the Department of the Interior, including national parks such as the Morristown National Park and wildlife spaces such as the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, will be closed. The county-operated Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center in Chatham Township will remain open.

The Chatham Post Office will remain open during the usual times, and taxes are still due on Monday, April 18. Those residents who expect their social security checks should be paid as usual, but newcomers to social security could experience delays. Schools, libraries and municipal buildings will be open.

Borough and township staff members, including administrators, clerks, police and Department of Public Works employees will continue their normal work schedule.

Bill Koch, an employee of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who works at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, said the staff is preparing for the potential government shutdown. "We're sitting on the edge," Koch said, "watching and waiting for the latest update. What we have been doing so far is planning and preparing. It may not happen, but it may."

Koch said the refuge has staff, including law enforcement, who live on site and will not be affected by the shutdown.

"We will not be running programs. the gates will be closed, the door will be locked, [certain essential staff] will be here to protect the facilities and the resources," Koch said.

Diane O'Brien, the director of the Library of the Chathams, said that when the government shut down in 1995, the library was not affected at all. She and the staff plan to "continue to serve the people of the community" throughout the shutdown.