Bellaire mayor Ed Marling

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Local agencies and officials are already feeling the impact of the shutdown of the federal government that began Wednesday.

Belmont County officials said, though, that those effects shouldn’t hit their departments too hard, if at all — at least for now.

Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services Fiscal Administrator Jack Regis Jr. said DJFS has a fund balance that will allow it to operate day to day.

“At the end of each month, we upload financial information to the state Department of Job and Family Services, and we’re reimbursed the following month for the expense,” Regis said.

He added that the state has reserves from federal funding that is advanced to DJFS.

“The longer the shutdown goes, obviously, those reserves start to dwindle and go away,” Regis said. “Then it can impact operations. But right now, we have a fund balance to operate with no interruption.”

DJFS Director Jeff Felton said the shutdown won’t affect any of the services it provides. He added that if the shutdown lasts two or three months, it may start affecting the department.

“We have enough cash flow to keep my staff on board processing applications for at least three months,” Felton said. “We’re open. We’re always going to be open to the public. We’ll process applications as we normally do.”

He added that if any resident needs food assistance or to apply for Medicaid, they need to come into the office at 68145 Hammond Road in St. Clairsville or submit an application electronically so his staff can begin processing that application.

“It’s not going to affect our customer service. And I don’t want the community thinking, ‘Oh, the government shut down, I can’t apply.’ Yes, they can apply, and we will process it like we normally do,” Felton said.

He added that he wants to quell the potential panic from residents who may think that because the government is shut down it means they won’t receive Medicaid, food assistance, child welfare or any other service DJFS provides.

“If you think about what happened during the pandemic, the essential services still stayed open. So it’s the same thing here,” Felton said.

He added that every service provided by DJFS is deemed essential.

“During the prior Trump administration, the government was shut down for the longest time in history, and we didn’t see any impact on our operations or our clients,” Felton said. “They continued to receive the benefits that they were entitled to.”

From Dec. 22, 2018, until Jan. 25, 2019, the government was shut down in what is currently the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Ohio Department of Transportation District 11 spokeswoman Lauren Borrell said the shutdown will not affect the Blaine Hill Bridge construction project on National Road. She said that project is completely state funded.

“We do have some projects that have federal funding, but we don’t anticipate that it’s going to affect any of them,” Borrell said.

Bellaire Mayor Ed Marling said the shutdown will not affect his community.

“It doesn’t affect us at all,” Marling said. “Nothing here we got concerns them.”

Meanwhile, Joyce Wolen, executive director of the Wheeling Housing Authority, said the shutdown is already impacting some aspects of the authority. But for now, the authority has money in the bank to cover operations.

“The short answer is yes, it will impact us,” Wolen said. “We have funding in the system we use to draw down federal funding. … We have money to pay who we need to pay. One budget is landlords; we do have money in that account.”

Wolen said the authority will continue to operate as normal while also keeping a close eye on its funding and the shutdown.

Wolen said one impact that will be immediate is if the authority needs HUD approval on something or has a question.

“If we need an answer, we no longer have access to that,” she said. “If our field office has been furloughed, and I don’t know if they have, and we have a question and can’t get an answer, that’s hard to determine. … It’s concerning and it could impact us in ways we’re not aware of yet,” she said.

For example, Wolen said she has an application that she is ready to send now but, because there is no one to review, it will have to be postponed.

“Reporting could also potentially fall behind. Oct. 1 is the beginning of our fiscal year. There are things that need to be submitted and reviewed, and depending on how long it lasts things could lapse on the part of HUD. I can’t say what the impact will be because I don’t know,” she said.

“At this moment we’re OK. We still have funding available to do what we need to do. We likely won’t start anything new; that’s where the impact will be felt.”

Wolen noted that every housing authority is operated differently and will feel the impact in different ways.

“Each operates independently; each has their own standard. You can’t expect Wheeling to operate like the authority in Chicago. It depends on how things are there,” she said. “It will impact housing authorities across the country, especially those with issues with funding.”

Moundsville City Manager Rick Healy said a couple of his city’s projects likely would be impacted by the shutdown.

“The Sanitary Board has an EPA Community Grant that will not be able to be reimbursed when completed,” he said. “The city of Moundsville has a Land & Water Grant which we are getting ready to submit for reimbursement. Again, that gets reviewed by the National Park Service, so it will just sit.

“I submit information monthly to the U.S. Census in regards to construction of the new building; that website was shut down this morning. Other than that, there is not much that will affect us from the federal level.”

Healy explained the information submitted to the Census Bureau is called the Construction Progress Reporting Survey.

“It collects data to provide estimates of the total dollar value of construction work done in the United States,” he noted.

Marshall County Administrator Betsy Frohnapfel said the county anticipates some grant reimbursements to be delayed, but not much else will be impacted.

“I believe most other projects are paid for fully from the general county fund revenue. They have no federal dollars in them,” she said. “We shouldn’t see much of an impact on the Marshall County government. We’re fortunate that Marshall County has the resources to cover the cost of delayed grant reimbursements.”

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the impact has already started.

“Access to federal personnel, such as a previously scheduled meeting with HUD for (today) is cancelled,” he said. “I’m not sure the impact on the FEMA folks that we are currently working with on a daily and weekly basis.

“A lot, but not all of the contact for us with the federal government is on pause until they start back up. If FEMA work continues, then short term impacts will be minimal, but as time goes on it will be a different story for us.”

Meanwhile, the Frederick P. Stamp, Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse were open and operating on Wednesday. A U.S. Court Administration official provided the following statement regarding the future of the court.

“Despite a federal government shutdown that began on Oct. 1, the Judiciary remains open and will continue paid operations through Friday, Oct. 17, by using court fee balances and other funds not dependent on a new appropriation.

“Most proceedings and deadlines will occur as scheduled. In cases where an attorney from an executive branch agency is not working because of the shutdown, hearing and filing dates may be rescheduled.

“The Case Management/Electronic Case Files system also will remain in operation for electronic filing of documents.

The Judiciary initially confirmed that it could continue paid operations through Oct. 3, adding that it was assessing whether there were sufficient funds to support operations beyond that date. The assessment identified available fees and balances to pay for an additional two weeks.

“If the shutdown continues after Judiciary funds are exhausted, the courts will then operate under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which allows work to continue during a lapse in appropriations if it is necessary to support the exercise of Article III judicial powers. Under this scenario, each court and federal defender’s office would determine the staffing resources necessary to support such work.”

The Federal Building is also home to the local FBI office. No one could be reached for comment at press time.

Wheeling is also home to an IRS tax help office. No one could be reached for comment; however, the government was already planning to close this IRS office sometime before November.

Weirton Ride, the public transit service operated by the City of Weirton’s Department of Transit, receives funding through the Federal Transit Administration.

Transit Director Kevin Davis, noting he is in the process of finalizing requests for the next federal budget, said federal funds from the most recent fiscal year remain available.

“Right now, it’s not affecting us because we have draws to work with,” Davis said, explaining, though, the service could see an impact with a prolonged shutdown of several months to a year.

Craig Howell contributed to this report.