As everyone must be well aware, the current federal partial shutdown is depriving a group of agencies their operating funding. One of those agencies close to home is the Coast Guard, specifically the Westport Coast Guard Station.

I am a retired military officer who is concerned for the well-being of the families attached to this station, so I arranged a conversation with the station commander. I commented that I was pondering a means of spooling up some kind of assistance to these folks along the lines of grocery and baby needs, and to my surprise he came back with an alternate idea.

He explained that half the Coast Guard families on station here are renting their homes, as we put it, “out on the economy.” He worries that if all of those landlords choose not to be patient about receiving their rent payments, the result will be increasingly high anxiety on the part of the families and their spouses in uniform. He thus advised that the best thing I could do was find a means to get this message out to the surrounding community and assure them that once back pay is received after the shutdown ends, those landlords can expect to be paid in full.

I realize that the landlords are likely dependent to varying degrees upon this income to meet their own needs. Hopefully, they can and will sit tight for as long as possible and even as long as necessary. If this proves financially painful, try working out a mutual solution that avoids eviction. This will go far in relieving immediate stress on these families. They are an honorable group of folks, and they will do the right thing by their landlords if given this help now.

By the way, I still urge us all to find a way to assist these families with their food and child needs.

R.P. Walker

Westport