Business owners attend meeting regarding I-80 closures they say are hurting profits
Sinkholes along I-80 have been causing disruptions for people who live, work and commute through Wharton and surrounding towns for the last few weeks.
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Business owners came to a meeting at the Roxbury Township Senior Center Monday evening in the hopes of getting answers on either a timeline for the reopening of Interstate 80 or financial relief.
Jim Hill is the owner of Knotty Pine Pub. He said he was hopeful when going into the meeting.
"That’s all we’re asking for is some help if we can get it and we’ll try to get it at the federal level," Hill said.
However, Hill and other business owners like Peter Sedereas, who owns Townsquare Diner, didn’t get the answers they wanted. Instead, they heard from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
"The NJEDA offered some wonderful programs for normal business times… this is not normal business time. We came here hoping that there’s going to be some kind of relief so we can retain our staff," Sedereas said.
"Maybe we can get some kind of stimulus program like we do with the PPP that’s forgiven," Hill said.
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Sinkholes along I-80 have been causing disruptions for people who live, work and commute through Wharton and surrounding towns for the last few weeks.
Gov. Phil Murphy toured the site over the weekend, where state Department of Transportation crews have been working around the clock doing emergency repairs to address the original sinkhole and other concerns under the roadway. The governor declared a state of emergency to enable access to federal funding.
[twitter] https://twitter.com/GovMurphy/status/1898509384059134399 [/twitter]
In the meantime, the detour has caused a drop in business, according to the business owners themselves.
"People on the other side of Wharton who want to come for lunch at my diner, it’s going to take them 25-30 minutes to go two miles,” Sedereas said. “They’re not going to come to my diner for lunch because they only get an hour to eat - 25 minutes to come, 10 minutes to get back. They have no time. That’s really impacting us quite a bit.”
Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo says the township plans to work with elected officials on the next steps to get the answers business owners are asking.
“We’re going to continue to work to get them that relief. We're going to work with our representatives and we’re going to see what we can get for them,” Potillo said.
