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| The current crew at LRRD. Nine of us depend on LRRD for our living. |
An open letter to friends, colleagues, and our vendors:
The ongoing government shutdown is hurting our business and is about to hurt yours. This is not the way our democracy should work.
This GOP-engineered move against our recently re-elected President and the Supreme Court-approved Affordable Care Act is terribly irresponsible and must stop at once. Government employees aren’t allowed to work, the private sector is unable to operate normally, and a massive amount of uncertainty has been injected into the economy.
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| The annual GSA meeting is our one big chance to show our products; it’ll be a disaster if federal employees can’t attend this year. |
We are a small business of nine dedicated people in Carbondale, Illinois. A good portion of our research and education products are purchased with federal funds. Little River was already suffering from one of the worst economic slumps in US history.
This crass move hurts us further, and will soon be reflected in your bottom line as well.
Here’s how the shutdown has directly impacted LRRD in only one week:
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$500,000 in open quotes hangs in the balance. Whether or not we make those sales depends directly on the sort of federal funding that is held up by the shutdown.
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Our clients who depend on federal grant money – that includes universities, colleges, public schools, private schools, museums and nonprofits, to name a few – don’t know the status of their grants for FY2014. Those who applied for grants don’t know if they’ll get funding. Those who got funding can’t access it until the budget is approved.
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The Illinois Office of Trade and Development awarded us money through the STEP program for a sales trip abroad. That money comes from the Small Business Administration, a federal entity, and we can’t have it until after the shutdown ends.
If the shutdown doesn’t end soon, we lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. When we lose business, our suppliers lose business. See a list of some of those suppliers below, who can expect a dramatic cut in sales from us as the shutdown drags on.
Since much of basic research in Earth Sciences and medicine is government funded, our colleagues in those areas are suffering as well, and not just from furlough. Valuable projects are being abandoned and spoiled because scientists cannot monitor them, or are going to miss once-a-year field windows.
Our biggest conference of the year, the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Denver, is only two weeks away. If federal employees are barred from attending, our $25,000 investment in a booth there will be largely wasted.
The list goes on and on. This is no way to run a great country.
Please contact your elected representatives (http://act.boldprogressives.org/call/call_shutdown_house_Republicans) in Washington and tell them to pass a budget and end this shutdown immediately.
Sincerely,
Steve Gough
Owner and Founder, Little River Research & Design
Since 1991
Local suppliers:
Arthur Agency http://www.arthuragency.com/
Baine Roofing Company http://www.baineroofingcompany.com
Common Grounds Coffeehouse https://www.facebook.com/CGCoffee
Fastenal Company http://www.fastenal.com
Hobby Lobby http://www.hobbylobby.com/StoreDetail/140
Longbranch Coffeehouse http://lbchouse.com
Lowe’s Home Improvement http://www.lowes.com/
Hunan Restaurant http://www.hunaninc.com/
Murdale True Value Hardware http://murdaleappliances.brandsource.com
Neighborhood Co-op Grocery http://neighborhood.coop/
Pagliai’s Pizza http://ourpags.com/
RadioShack http://www.radioshack.com
Rural King http://www.ruralking.com
Southern Recycling Center http://southernrecyclingcenter.com/
Wright Do-It Center http://www.wrightdoit.com
National suppliers:
All Electronics http://www.allelectronics.com/
Allied Electronics http://www.alliedelec.com/
BDG International Inc. http://www.bdginternational.com
Composition Materials http://compomat.com/
Critical Velocity http://criticalvelocity.com/
Digi-Key Electronics http://www.digikey.com/
Enco Manufacturing http://www.use-enco.com/
Jameco Electronics http://www.jameco.com
Little Machine Shop http://littlemachineshop.com/
McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/
Mouser Electronics http://www.mouser.com/
Neff Power http://www.neffpower.com/
Online Metals http://www.onlinemetals.com/
Powerwerx http://www.powerwerx.com/
Recreonics http://www.recreonics.com/
L.E. Sauer Machine Shop http://www.sauermachine.com/
U.S. Plastics http://www.usplastic.com/
YRC Freight http://www.yrc.com/
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| Nathan finishes an Em2 box. |
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Jim, Nathan, and Anna ship a river model. Many of our
models are at least in part federally funded, and many
vendors, including this truck driver, depend on our
business.
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| Our models are used worldwide for education and research in river science, earth sciences and conservation. |
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| Vital research that must be done in narrow field seasons has been abandoned or cancelled; in some cases, project are ruined. This is a huge waste of money. |
