Coast Guard families hit hard by shutdown

Rocky Cole normally commutes from Petaluma to Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay, where he works as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Coast Guard. Retired from 16 years active duty in the Coast Guard, the civilian employee has found himself with more time on his hands while furloughed due to the federal government shutdown. He’s also watched his financial resources dwindle as his salary and Coast Guard retirement pay have been frozen.

With a wife and two young children to support and a mortgage on their east Petaluma townhome, Rocky Cole has rediscovered woodworking, crafting decorative flutes in his garage to sell for extra cash online.

“I started working on these. I figured I’ve got to do something to cobble some money together,” he said. “It makes it difficult when you don’t know when you’re going to get paid.”

With about 4,000 employees from Monterrey to Bodega Bay, including a 325-active duty personnel training center at Two Rock and a station at Bodega Bay, the Coast Guard is one of the largest local federal employers. Many Coast Guard families live in Petaluma or Two Rock, according to Lt. Luciana Ganley, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

As the longest government shutdown in history nears a month, Coast Guard families are especially starting to feel the pinch. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and many workers are deemed essential, meaning they are required to work without pay during the shutdown.

One of Rocky Cole’s grown sons is stationed on a Coast Guard cutter in Seattle and has been working as he prepares for a deployment. He wife, Kate Cole, is retired from the Coast Guard. She normally takes care of their two young sons, Iain, 5, and Aiden, 2, but has started looking for part-time work at a grocery store and starting a cat sitting business.

“The worst part about this is the uncertainty of it,” Kate Cole said. “I didn’t think it would go this long.”

Rocky and Kate Cole met in the Coast Guard and were married at Bodega Bay. They moved back to the mainland from Hawaii, where they were stationed, in 2015 and bought a house in Petaluma. Iain attends kindergarten in east Petaluma and is enrolled in a gymnastics class, but the Coles have had to cancel the class to save money.

Other luxuries, like hair appointments, nanny care, dental cleanings and chiropractic visits have all been cut, meaning lost income for those local businesses, an illustration of the trickle-down impact the shutdown has on the economy.

“It’s little things, but it’s in the community,” Rocky Cole said. “It adds up.”

If the shutdown drags into a second month, Rocky Cole said he might have to take out a loan just to pay his mortgage. He said it doesn’t feel like politicians in Washington are acting with enough urgency to end the shutdown.

“It’s not fun, it’s frustrating. You don’t know what’s coming and how to plan for it,” he said. “When the general public starts to feel the pain, then hopefully there will be some political pressure.”

As the credit card debt continues to mount and the family must make sacrifices, Kate Cole said it’s hard trying to explain to her son why he has to stop gymnastic lessons.

“As a parent, it’s upsetting,” she said. “You have to tell your kids you can’t do these things because there’s no money.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)