City Government Closed For Business Today

CHICAGO (CNS) --- If you planned to check out a library book, visit a city clinic or have your garbage picked up on Monday, you're out of luck.

The City of Chicago is basically closed for business on Aug. 17, a reduced-service day in which most city employees are off without pay. City Hall, public libraries, health clinics and most city offices will be closed.

Emergency service providers including police, firefighters and paramedics are working at full strength, but most services not directly related to public safety, including street sweeping, will not be provided.

That also includes garbage pickup. Residents who receive regular collection on Mondays should expect trash to be picked up on Tuesday. Some other customers may experience a one-day delay as collectors catch up.

As part of the 2009 budget, three reduced-service days were planned for 2009, days which are unpaid for all affected employees -- the Friday after Thanksgiving; Christmas Eve; and New Year's Eve. The City Council recently approved moving the reduced-service day planned for New Year's Eve to Monday.

The 2009 budget anticipates saving $8.3 million due to the reduced-service days.

In addition to reduced service days, all non-union employees were asked to take a series of furlough days and unpaid holidays, and most non-sworn union employees agreed to similar unpaid time off.

"Every dollar we save from these measures helps to save jobs, and in the long-term, maintain services for Chicagoans," Mayor Richard M. Daley said in a news release. "This plan relies on most of our civilian employees to be part of the solution to our very serious budget challenges. I want to thank them again for their sacrifice."

Over the weekend, there was a sign on the door of a city clinic in Englewood telling patients all Chicago health offices will be closed Monday.

A lot of residents CBS 2 interviewed this weekend didn't know about the partial government shutdown. It came as bad news to Denzel Thornton, a student at Chicago State who visited the library Sunday to find out it aws to be closed Monday.

"Where am I supposed to go now?" he asked. "I have no other place to go. I don't have a computer of my own, so this is the only public place I can go to do what I need."

But for city workers like Marx Daniels, the day off is a mixed blessing.

"I never took a day off, and I've never been late, so now the reduced days seem pretty good, you know," he said.

On Monday, the boots, shovels and jacket he uses while excavating and cleaning city sewers were sitting at home. But Daniels said Sunday he was happy to trade a day off here and there if it means keeping his job.

"At first … I didn't think that I could live with it, and then when I found out the alternative was being laid off, I thought it was a good thing," Daniels said.

Daniels will lose a little over $200 dollars for each reduced services day. And he says that can add up.

"With me having two kids in college, that one day makes a difference," he said.