Federal employees in Vermont were back to work on Monday after President Trump signed a short term spending bill last week reopening government.
The six employees of the national fish hatcheries in North Chittenden and Bethel resumed work after weeks of reduced hours and no pay.
Henry Bouchard, who heads up the hatcheries for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the salmon and trout survived the shutdown just fine. He and his five employees, in the meantime, haven’t been paid in weeks.
Bouchard said he spent much of Monday trying to process back pay on behalf of his office. Despite red tape, he said, “we’re optimistic we could possibly see some pay by the end of the week or early next week.”
Bouchard said he’s also paying office bills and stocking up on fish food, in case the shutdown resumes.
In Burlington, staff of the U.S. Coast Guard station on Lake Champlain resumed routine lake and ice evaluations. Petty Officer Lucas Weston said these and other “non-mission-essential items” had been suspended during the shutdown.
All of the Coast Guard station's staff are active duty, so they were not furloughed.
The national weather service in South Burlington stayed fully staffed without pay during the partial shutdown. On Monday, employees said they hope to receive back pay later this week.
CORRECTION: The broadcast version of this story wrongly stated that Burlington Coast Guard staff did not miss pay during the partial government shutdown.
