Where the government shutdown impact was felt in Prince William County

QUANTICO — The U.S. Senate has agreed to reopen the Federal Government after it shut down Friday night.

A new agreement will fund the government for the next three weeks through Feb. 8, 2018.

As federal workers in our region breath a sigh of relief that their paychecks will continue, at least for now, some people who had the day off today were none-too-happy to find at least two popular tourist destinations in Prince William County closed.

Visitors to the National Marine Corps Museum at Quantico were turned away on Monday due to the shutdown. A small group of people exiting the museum told Potomac Local that they had been inside for a planned retirement party and that they were not allowed to view any of the exhibits.

Museum spokeswoman Gwenn Adams emailed this statement:

“The National Museum of the Marine Corps is a public-private partnership between the United States Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. The Marine Corps funds the design and exhibition within the Museum as well as overall management, operations, and staffing. Museum staff are civilian Marines, and the director of the Museum reports to the Commanding General of Education Command. All artifacts are cared for by civilian Marines. It is, for this reason, the Museum is closed during the government shutdown.

The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation funded the original construction of the Museum building as well as the Final Phase construction. The MCHF also provides money for special programming at the Museum. The NMMC is very grateful for the partnership with the Foundation. Unfortunately, the Foundation cannot legally open the Museum during a government shutdown.”

At nearby Prince William Forest Park, the gates were open but posted signs at the park entrance, visitor center, and at trailheads noted the park was, technically, shutdown and that visitors should use the park at their own risk. The park’s popular scenic drive and restroom facilities were closed.

John Clark, of Fredericksburg, came to the park for the first time hoping to run on one of the trials. 

“Everything is pretty much shut down, so I went to go find a place to change, but there’s not really a place to change. Also, there are no maps to grab to use to go run, because I’ve never run in this park before. I didn’t realize this was a National Park, so when I got here I learned it was shut down, so this is probably going to ruin my plans.” said Clark.

It was also the first time Sophia Mora, of Dumfries, had visited the park. 

“We’ve never been to this park. We live right here and have never been here, so we just wanted to come see, because we’re thinking about renting a cabin. So, we just wanted to look around, but when saw everything was closed we didn’t expect it to be,” said Mora.

Jim Walters, who lives between Dale City and Manassas, came to walk his dog. It’s something he does a few times a month. He’s not a fan of the government shutdown. 

“I think it’s childish. I’m not saying the Republicans are right or the Democrats are right. The government shouldn’t have been shut down. There’s other ways to handle this. To force a shutdown, there’s too many people affected by it. You think about the federal government that’s laid off…. what about the daycare centers, Metro, it affects everybody down the line,” said Walters. 

The temporary shutdown didn’t affect Taylor Youngk, of Woodbridge, who brought her two children, Taylor, 6, and Sarah, 3 months old, to play on the jungle gym. 

“The adults are in charge are acting like children. They need to compromise That’s what we teach kids…I’m a teacher,” said Youngk, who was joined shortly thereafter by more mothers and their children.