The moves are in response to a $37 billion dollar cut in the Department of Defense budget for this fiscal year as a result of federal sequestration. A press release from the base says civilian employees… with a few exceptions… will have to take one day of unpaid leave each week between next Monday and September 21. First responders such as police and fire personnel are exempt from the furloughs. The reduction in personnel will prompt changes in operations, including closing the commissary and the pharmacy at the exchange on Mondays. Fee increases for some services… such as some pools and the barber shop… have already gone into place. I’m George Olsen.
George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.