Snow day policy

Bruce Chrisman, Fermilab's chief operating officer, wrote this column.

Bruce Chrisman

Winter weather has arrived. Soon we will experience heavy snow and other inclement winter weather conditions. In order to eliminate confusion that ad hoc policies in the past have caused, Fermilab has created an official Inclement Weather and Snow Policy. The policy, which applies to all employees, will help them make appropriate decisions and explains the leave and pay policy during heavy snow and other inclement weather. Here are the most important aspects of the policy:

In times of severe weather or dangerous conditions, Fermilab may announce that the laboratory is closed. Staff will post these announcements on the Fermilab homepage and notify the media. If the laboratory does announce closure prior to normal work hours, employees will be paid for the day.

If there is inclement weather, but the laboratory does not close, an employee may choose not to go to work. Employees who choose not to attend work must notify their supervisors. The day will be counted as vacation time or leave without pay. This option allows employees to use their discretion in regard to their safety and their family needs without being penalized during heavy snow or dangerous conditions.

If the laboratory is open and employees choose to go to work in inclement weather, employees arriving up to three hours late will be paid for the full day, subject to supervisory approval.

There are exceptions to the policy for essential personnel. Read the complete Inclement Weather and Snow Policy for details.

Organize carpool with free PACE Rideshare program

Looking for co-workers to start a carpool? The suburban transit provider PACE is offering a free, anonymous, Web-based program to look for carpool partners. Just register at the PACE Rideshare Web site and enter the start point of your daily commute. Then choose Fermilab from the list of employers for your destination, and select Fermilab again for the street address and to show its location on a map. The Web program will then allow you to contact carpool partners without revealing personal information.

If you are looking for carpool partners from the West Chicago or Route 59 Metra train stations, enter the address of the train station as the start of your commute in the Rideshare program. You can look up the train station addresses here.

For groups of five or more, PACE offers vanpool programs, both for commuting from home, with the regular PACE vanpool program, and from Metra train stations, with the PACE Metra Feeder program. To find enough people to start a vanpool, please use the PACE Rideshare Web program, too.

-- Kurt Riesselmann

High energy physics advisory panel briefing on budget outlook

From AIP FYI, Nov. 20, 2008

"It has been an 'interesting' year for DOE HEP program" stated one of the exhibits that Dennis Kovar, Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics showed to the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel at its November 13 meeting. Kovar presented a broad overview of DOE's High Energy Physics Program, with many of his remarks focusing on the funding outlook. Joseph Dehmer, Director of the National Science Foundation's Division of Physics, also addressed the advisory panel, updating them on several NSF projects.

Despite an initial promising outlook, last year's FY 2008 budget for the DOE High Energy Physics Program dropped by 8.5 percent or $63.5 million from the previous year, from $751.8 million to $688.3 million. The Administration requested $782.3 million. No money was provided for the NOvA program at the Tevatron, and only $15.0 million of the original $60.0 million request was allocated for International Linear Collider R&D. Despite receiving $94 million less than requested, Kovar informed the advisory panel that "most serious impacts were mitigated," and that given the context, the program had a "productive year." Additional money provided to the program through a later supplemental funding bill had been "absolutely crucial."

In February, the Administration requested $805.0 million for the High Energy Physics program for FY 2009, an amount that Under Secretary for Science Ray Orbach then said "gets us back on track." House and Senate appropriators approved this funding in their initial versions of the FY 2009 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. The final version of the bill has not yet been passed.

At present, the Tevatron is expected to run for the first six months of FY 2009 under the continuing resolution. The Large Hadron Collider project will be supported, although there will be no growth. Some projects will be delayed, including APAF, although DOE will proceed with the Joint Dark Energy Mission (a future FYI will provide a JDEM update.)

Read more