Gov. Shutdown: Idaho officials seeking experienced hikers to search for missing woman in Nat'l Park

[kpete]

WED OCT 02, 2013 AT 06:51 AM PDT
Idaho officials seeking experienced hikers to search for missing woman in National Park
by Jen Hayden


Another unfortunate consequence of the government shutdown:

With 16 staff employees being placed on furlough, Ted Stout, chief of interpretation and education at Craters, told KBOI 2News that no one was looking for 63-year-old Jo Elliott-Blakeslee Tuesday morning, but a handful of staff members will be back out in the challenging terrain in the afternoon resuming the search.

"It's pretty much just park staff that are continuing the search," Stout said. "But we're also faced with the government shutdown -- we've been busy with that."

Federal workers are not allowed to volunteer to do their jobs during a shutdown because U.S. law says they can't do any work that has not been allocated funding.

The search effort had already begun being scaled back due to rescue agencies being called back to their respective headquarters and poor weather earlier in the week. Only three staff members are at the park monitoring infrastructure resources.

http://www.kboi2.com/news/local/Craters-Moon-Idaho-Jo-Elliott-Blakeslee-Amy-Linkert-225988051.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/02/1243291/-Idaho-officials-seeking-experienced-hikers-to-search-for-missing-woman-in-National-Park