DEL RIO — The effects of the government shutdown are being felt in full in Del Rio, Texas, which is next to Lake Amistad. Site of many B.A.S.S. events, Lake Amistad is a fishing destination. Except for now. A skeleton crew of National Park Rangers guard barricades keeping anglers from the boat launch.
“They’re calling us accepted personnel and we have no promise of when we’ll be paid,” Chief Park Ranger Regina Klein Dissler said. “Those furloughed federal employees have no promise of ever being paid.”
Elite Series pro Byron Velvick owns Amistad Hotel Resort along Highway 90. He said he sent 20 workers home after a fishing tournament was cancelled.
“This place, Del Rio, is a ghost town right now,” Velvick said. “All the gas stations, the boat dealerships, the restaurants, the tackle stores, not just this hotel, but the hotels up and down 90, and even the whole city is really getting hammered by this.”
Read the full story and watch the video from local television KENS5’s James Muñoz