PORTLAND, Pa. - The last few years have been like a roller-coaster ride for Janet Futchko.
In 2021, her tiny shop on the main drag in Portland was named one of Northampton County’s outstanding businesses during the annual county festival. Now she wonders how much longer her 7-year-old thrift store can survive.
- Route 611 is closed north of Portland
- Business owners say the closure is hurting sales and profits
- PennDOT says the shutdown will be in effect through the summer
Business has slowed to a trickle the past six weeks, she said, coinciding with the closure of Route 611 just north of town. A rockslide in heavy rain on Dec. 6 sent boulders crashing onto the two-lane state highway. It’s been closed ever since.
But that was nothing compared to the news delivered last week, when PennDOT announced safety concerns have led to a repair project that will require the road to stay closed for months.
The estimated completion date is Aug. 31.
“I don’t know how much more I can take,” Futchko said from behind the counter of Janet’s Jems Thrift Shoppe at 511 Delaware Ave. “I’ve been contemplating closing my doors. It’s killing me."
“I can’t imagine what it’s doing to the other business owners. I mean, they have to pay employees. I don’t have employees, thankfully. It’s just me. But I have to pay the rent. I have bills.”
Business owners in the 500-person borough worry the road closure could sound the death knell in an area already struggling to compete. Portland is at the northeastern tip of Northampton County, hugging the Delaware River at the gateway to the picturesque Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
Route 611 runs right through Portland – it’s called Delaware Avenue in town. The road is closed two miles north of the two- or three-block business strip, cutting off access to the Monroe County boroughs of Delaware Water Gap, Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg a few miles up the line.
The road is blocked between Cherry Valley Road in Monroe County and Slateford Road in Northampton County. The detour is 10 miles on several state roads.
'All of our businesses are struggling'
For business owners, making matters worse is the situation on the south end of the borough. Detour signs point motorists to Interstate 80 and away from the merchants’ district, even though there’s a clear path to it and shops are open for business.
Bright orange signs are now posted with detour arrows saying the business district remains open. PennDOT spokesman Ron Young said the agency has ordered more signs to place in different spots to alert people the downtown is accessible.
“It’s ugly. I have no words to say,” said Nicolay Mazhirov, who with his wife runs Alexandra & Nicolay Chocolate at 507 Delaware Ave. “All of the businesses are struggling. In this area, we desperately need to pick it up.”
The chocolatiers emigrated to the U.S. from Odesa, Ukraine, in 1991. Ten years ago, they moved their gourmet shop from the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn to Portland and moved to nearby Upper Mount Bethel Township.
The road closure couldn’t have come at a worse time for sales.
“It will affect me badly. It already has,” Nicolay said. “This happened right before Christmas, which is my biggest time of the year."
“You have to understand people will suffer because of this. Valentine’s Day is coming. Then Easter. You see already, I’m not getting what I usually get. I expect not to make my normal money.”
Paying — and taking — a toll
Besides the inconvenience of the detour, another factor is keeping people away, merchants say: tolls. Route 611 is toll-free, but motorists using the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge entering Pennsylvania from New Jersey pay $3 at the crossing just before the Portland exit.
Lynn Fuhrer said that’s affecting deliveries – and, eventually – the bottom line. Vendors are frustrated.
“It’s just a matter of time before they’re passing the costs on to us,” said Fuhrer, who with her husband Bryan operates Fuhrer’s Tavern & Grill at 104 Main St., a half-block from Delaware Avenue.
The Fuhrers already took a gamble when they opened their comfortable neighborhood gathering spot in September 2020, in the throes of the pandemic. They say business has been down 25 to 30 percent because of the road closure. Food deliveries are delayed and their bread company has absorbed a $30-a-week increase in tolls, Lynn Fuhrer said.
Before the couple launched the business, their market research took them to Delaware Water Gap and Stroudsburg, where they met other business owners and customers who could easily reach Portland via Route 611.
Not now.
Months of repair work
“We are cut off. It is obvious,” Fuhrer said. “We have spent the last two years building a rapport with Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg businesses and people through charities, helping communities and the closure of the road has greatly affected those relationships, and now we are suffering because of that.”
PennDOT has been sympathetic to the concerns. Young said the plan is to finish designs and complete the work under an emergency contract as quickly as possible, but it’s a specialized job.
The same stretch of Route 611 actually was shut down twice last year. A downpour in the spring prompted a seven-week closure that tested Portland shopowners’ patience. Erosion beneath Route 611 washed out a section of the road and pieces of a retaining wall.
The current blockade came because of what was happening at a higher elevation than the road surface. Rain and runoff loosened rock on a cliff along the southbound side of Route 611. Some of the dislodged rocks were as large as a vehicle, Young said.
Workers will have to scale back existing rock above the highway and perhaps drive in pins or install wire mesh to stabilize the cliff facing, Young said. It’s similar to work performed on Route 209 in the Jim Thorpe and Lehighton areas of Carbon County in 2020.
PennDOT needs permit approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the National Park Service, because the work will occur within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Young said. The hope is the job can begin in February if everything goes smoothly with permitting and contractor procurement, he said.
In search of a solution
Portland Mayor Heather Fischer said time is precious.
Borough leaders plan to reach out to state representatives and county government for help, she said. Merchants understand the need for safety and want that to come first.
“There has to be something the state or someone can do to help support these businesses."Heather Fischer, Portland mayor
“But I think the point they’re at now is every state is able to have these safety nets and these small businesses are being forgotten,” said Fischer, in her second year as mayor. “They barely made it through the pandemic and they’re scraping their way through.
“There has to be something the state or someone can do to help support these businesses. There’s money floating around everywhere.”
Northampton County distributed more than $25 million in grants to small businesses and municipalities in 2020 and 2021. Those grants, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, came through the Pennsylvania Small Business Grant Program to help cover COVID-related losses.
Becky Bartlett, the county’s deputy director of administration, said there are no plans at this time to resume small business grants.
She said the county Department of Community and Economic Development offers small businesses assistance with marketing, exposure and education but has not been contacted by any Portland businesses.
Lending a helping hand
Futchko, of Janet’s Jems, is more accustomed to giving handouts than receiving them. A volunteer firefighter and EMT with Portland Hook & Ladder Co. No. 1, she’s helped dozens of fire victims and people in need over the years.
She’s opened her thrift shop and allowed folks to take what they need, free of charge, just so they could get by and keep on going.
She doesn’t want to give up her business. But some might suggest the current predicament has her on the other side of the equation now.
“There’s a solution to everything. I just don’t know what it is,” she said. “We’re just trying to survive. Hopefully, they can come up with something to help bail us out. They had all these programs with COVID when that went through – millions of dollars.
“We’re a little town. We don’t need millions of dollars. We just need to survive through August.”
