By Ted Hayes

Westport, along with scores of other coastal towns from Maine to New York, got good news last week when United States Coast Guard officials announced they are suspending a plan to decommission hundreds of navigational buoys up and down the seaboard.

Under a aids to navigation modernization program announced in April, the USCG planned to remove 350 buoys it deemed as non-essential in this age of GPS and other tech-driven positioning systems. In Westport, that included the removal of lighted bell buoy #2, near Two Mile Rock outside the entrance to the Westport River.

The plan drew sharp criticism over the summer from mariners, harbormasters and others who flooded USCG officials with more than 3,000 letters and comments asking them to reconsider. And they did — a month ago, of

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