PAONIA, Colo. (KDVR) — Highway 133 leading into the North Fork Valley has been closed since late April due to a sinkhole in the middle of the road, and now it’s affecting local businesses revenue.
Some businesses reported a 50% drop in revenue, including Nido Restaurant, owned by Ed Vaughn and Lindsay Cusack.
“We have such a small window of time. It’s the busy season here of just the amount of time it’s going to take out of the increase in our sales,” Vaughn said.
Those local businesses said anyone getting into the area from the outside has to add on at least an hour and a half to travel time and it’s showing that most people just aren’t up for that added time.
The closed road looks more like a river with rushing water pounding through. Morgan MacInnis, the owner of Espresso Paonia didn’t believe it when he first heard about it.
“The rumor mills is very alive and active so the first time I hear about it I was like there’s no way there is a sinkhole on 133, you don’t know what you’re talking about and then I was like oh no there actually is,” he said.
May and heading into the summer is a critical time for them, setting them up for winter, when their tourism dies down.
“Just looking at things are starting around here a lot slower. Typically, you see a lot more unfamiliar faces in town and a lot more attendance to our free concert series and the town just comes alive and all of that hasn’t really started yet,” MacInnis said.
This lack of a way in has led to significant losses not only for them but farmers as well.
“Its been about a 50% loss of revenue and I know we’re hearing that from other businesses in town and again the wineries and the other issues is that we know all our farmer friends are having a really hard time getting their goods over to the markets and such and so that certainly affects their revenue as well,” Cusack said.
With no time to change their business plans, they’re left scrambling to figure out what’s next if this loss continues.
“Had this whole thing happened a month earlier than it did, businesses could pivot a lot easier, but it happened by may were already kind of set into what we had planned for the summer,” MacInnis said.
Vaughn and Cusack are making up for the loss in other ways.
“It’s put more pressure on us for sure to think of other things and maybe considering doing other things we haven’t done before, we’re actually doing some festivals this summer and just doing some extra things to make up for income that we might have lost,” Vaughn said.
Colorado Department of Transportation said ways to safely reopen are limited because options are limited due to spring runoff and nearby terrain, so it could be late June before there’s a solution.