JIM THORPE, Pa. — Refrigerators sit empty and kegs remain closed here at Wine & More on 1st in Lehighton.
Owner Tina Henninger fights back tears as shares the news that her tasting room is closing.
She says visitors are being turned away from Lehighton after officials in Jim Thorpe started blocking drivers from making a left turn out of the Carbon County parking lot on Route 209.
"As long as they have a traffic blockade up where 80 percent of our traffic can get down it doesn't matter how good we are, how much we work, how much we try we're losing everything," Henninger said.
Just down 1st Street sits Jokers are Wild Game Cafe.
Bob Schaeffer is the owner here.
He says since the barriers started getting put up on weekends and holidays in late 2021, he's noticed his business has started to go away.
"I'm personally about $30,000 less in sales since the redirection has come about/ it's going to be four traffic cones, four traffic barriers that kind of bring us down and it's a scary situation. It's hard to work through," said Schaeffer.
Lehighton business owners say these are the barriers that are causing them to lose thousands of dollars and deter people away from visiting them. They're put up on the weekends and holidays here along 209, blocking drivers from making a left-hand turn both in and out of the county parking lot. But borough officials say they put up for safety.
"If something, a major event would happen, emergency, some kind of crisis we don't know how we'd get into that area if we couldn't keep traffic following somehow and this seems to have done that," said Greg Strubinger, Jim Thorpe Borough Council President.
He said it was never the borough's intent to hurt neighboring businesses.
He tells us both boroughs tried to come up with an idea to add a sign to the 903 bridge to reroute people back through the Lehighton area, but there was a disagreement on how the sign should be worded.
Business owners tell us at the end of the day it's hurting their bottom line.
"I'm not sure what needs to happen for our elected officials to wake up and realize how much this is hurting not just one area but the whole surrounding county," Henninger said.
"It's simple. if it was like this before why can't it be like that now?" said Schaeffer.
Lehighton businesses say if nothing gets resolved they will file a lawsuit.
While Jim Thorpe officials say they don't plan on taking the barricades down anytime soon.