Lebanon — It might not have been the most pressing issue in front of patrons as they pondered the menu options at the Lebanon Diner on Sunday, but the intractable government shutdown was on the minds of many nonetheless.

As the partial shutdown, predicated by President Trump’s demand for a border wall, closed out a third week with no resolution in sight, many area residents who gathered at the downtown eatery said they were worried, and frustrated about Washington’s inability to find a solution that would allow furloughed federal employees to return to work and reopen government agencies.

Christine Bachrach, a retired scientist for the National Institute of Health, who now splits her time between Grantham and Maryland, has first hand experience.

“I’ve been through shutdowns, and it feels awful,” Bachrach said. “It felt like nobody valued what you were doing as a public servant. … Right now, there are a lot of people who are suffering.”

Other diners expressed similar sentiments.

Bob McRae, a Fairlee resident who worked in the credit and collections department for Dartmouth-Hitchcock for many years, said he understands the desperation people feel when they can’t pay their bills.

He said it’s unconscionable that hard-working federal workers, such as Coast Guard employees, are scraping by while they wait for Congress and the president to reach a compromise.

“They can’t get the stuff they need,” said McRae, 63. “Their connections have failed.”

Danielle Teehan, 30, who lives in Jericho, Vt., works for Americorps in Burlington. She’s among the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who have been working without pay since the shutdown.

Though she’s confident she’ll eventually receive her back pay, she’s getting weary of the wait.

“I would really like to get paid,” said Teehan.

Her breakfast companion Rory Gawler, of Lebanon, said he has several friends who have been furloughed by the shutdown. While those he knows have managed so far, Gawler worries that more and more people will begin to feel the pinch; he said he does not expect the president to back down on his demands to protect federal employees from hardship.

“I think the president has shown a lack of concern about the consequences of his actions,” he said. “My hope is that at some point the Senate Republicans understand that they have a responsibility and start to treat him like the petulant child he is.”

Frustration with the president’s unyielding demands for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border ran high among Lebanon Diner patrons, but not everyone wanted to see him retreat from his campaign rallying cry.

“I think Donald Trump is right that we need a wall,” said Jennifer Russell, of Lebanon. “The people that come here illegally are really not good people.”

Russell, 49, who is unemployed and lives on Social Security payments, said she feels sorry for the government workers affected by the shutdown.

“But I think maybe it’s worth it,” she said.

Lauren Nesto, a Lebanon resident and waitress at the diner, agrees that the United States has a border security problem. She believes the country needs immigrants in the workforce and has a moral obligation to help people fleeing for their lives, but she supports tougher security measures — not necessarily in the form of a wall, but perhaps in more rigorous screening procedures.

What Nesto also wants to see is compromise.

“I don’t understand why we can’t work together,” said Nesto, a 39-year-old single mom who voted for John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary but did not vote in the general election. “When one side says something, the other side automatically says ‘no.’ ”

Other diners were equally supportive of some kind of compromise between President Trump and Congress but less than optimistic that such a compromise will happen.

Bachrach speculated that the best way forward might be for Senate Democrats to give in to the president and then hope the $5.7 billion proposal gets tied up in legal battles.

“I think it’s very reasonable for Democrats to say ‘no wall,’ ” she said. “But the hope is that if they do give him money for the wall … can we kick the can down the road?”

The longer the shutdown drags on, the more people will feel the effects directly and indirectly, Bachrach said. Her sister, Susan Almy, a state representative from Lebanon, agreed.

“We are a very frugally budgeted state,” said Almy, 72, a Democrat. “We are going to have a lot more desperate people around here.”

Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com and 603-727-3268.