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Small businesses frozen when frequent flakes fly

NEW HAVEN – Many businesses are forced to ride out some stormy days at the cash register as winter storms keep taking aim at Connecticut with the frequenc...

NEW HAVEN - Many businesses are forced to ride out some stormy days at the cash register as winter storms keep taking aim at Connecticut with the frequency that they have over the past couple of weeks.

“There’s hardly any access onto the sidewalks,” said Christine LaDore, owner of the Park Lane Deli and Grille in Milford. Combine that with the fact that people are being told not to travel on the roads and according to LaDore, on days it snows, business is cut by roughly 50 percent.

Many businesses, like hair salons,  are safe, because usually, if a customer cannot or will not come out in the snow, they will simply make up for it on a different day, but that doesn't change the loss of consumer-ship on these snow days.

In New Haven, business owners experience many of the same struggles, but perhaps for a shorter duration. This is due to a concerted effort by city officials this winter to remove snow from curb sides and sidewalks, in a 27 block business district, as soon as possible. In fact, in one recent overnight, 17 city blocks had snow removed.

“To give you an understanding of how many dump trucks that filled, it was 135 dump trucks of snow pulled out of downtown New Haven in one night,” said Win Davis, Executive Director of the Town Green District, which coordinates trash and snow removal in this key business district with the City of New Haven.

“I feel like the communication lines are definitely much better than years past and the whole city involvement and everybody trying to help each other out has definitely helped a great deal this year,” said Kimberly Pedrick, owner of Idiom Boutique, at 1014 Chapel Street.

City officials will impose temporary no parking restrictions in the downtown area overnight tonight to allow heavy equipment's access in order to continue large-scale snow removal operations.

New Haven’s Department of Transportation, Traffic, and Parking identified portions of downtown streets for the temporary parking prohibition, from 11:00 p.m. Thursday until 6:00 a.m. Friday, as follows:

Trumbull Street, Whitney to Orange (both sides)

Orange Street, Bradley to Audubon west (even) side

Church Street, Grove to MLK (both sides)

Elm Street, College to Church (both sides)

George Street, Temple to Church (both sides)

Temple Street, George to MLK (both sides)

Crown Street, Church to Temple (both sides)

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