THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090264
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THE BLIZZARD OF '96
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Paul F. Holloway, director of the NASA/Langley Research Center, hit the office at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning eager to attack the chaos created by the three-week government shutdown.
Instead, he spent the morning trying to fix an unexpected mess - the research center's parking lots, which were slick with ice and snow. And things only got worse. The temperature dropped, snow kept falling and Holloway couldn't find anyone to plow the lots.
So about 4,500 NASA/Langley civil servants and contractors, originally asked to report to work by 10 a.m. got another mandatory vacation day. Not that many of them wanted more time off, especially if they had to spend it shoveling snow.
``Frustration is one term that comes to mind,'' said Tom Yager, a senior research engineer. ``Things pile up when you are out of the office. I was ready to go in over the weekend, actually.''
President Clinton presented a seven-year balanced budget plan on Saturday, which triggered a reopening of all federal programs that had remained closed. Programs only continue functioning through Jan. 26. If Republicans and the White House can't strike a budget deal by that date, programs will again be closed and workers furloughed.
For Yager, the unexpected storm created the perfect environment for this research, even as he was forced to stay home. He is working on a new program, a cooperative effort by NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and Canada's national aviation center to evaluate aircraft landing gear in conditions of ice and snow.
``We have all these beautiful conditions and we aren't able to test them because we aren't in at work,'' he groaned. ``Rather than going to Maine or Canada, we could have done the tests in Newport News.''
Joseph R. Struhar, NASA/Langley's chief financial officer, didn't let the snowstorm get in the way of his eagerness to crunch some numbers to get the center's budget back on track. He says he walked into the office with ``a feeling of relief to be back'' but the computer system was shut down.
So he grabbed some reports and headed home, spending the day on the phone with members of his staff and finance officials in NASA's Washington headquarters, all of whom were stranded in their homes.
Aubrey Cary, who has worked at NASA for 34 years, spent his extra day off worrying about whether he will get to stop working permanently. Cary, who works as a special assistant in the Gas Dynamics Division, was scheduled to retire on Jan. 3, but the government shutdown intervened.
``I had just begun checking out when they said go home and they locked the doors. My retirement date passed,'' Cary said. ``I don't know what is going to happen. I am quite anxious to get back and find out what to do.'' MEMO: NASA employees should call the information hotline 864-2111 to find out
whether the center will be open today.
KEYWORDS: WINTER STORM BLIZZARD by CNB