Northfield Businesses Work To Stay Open

VPR/Bob Kinzel

A sign outside the Northfield Industrial Plaza

But as VPR's Bob Kinzel reports, several of the companies have been able to stay open for business with the help of their employees, their friends and their families.

(Sounds of Construction)

(Kinzel) There's a convoy of construction trucks traveling along Route 12 between Northfield and Montpelier. A four mile section of the road is closed to regular traffic to allow the trucks to bring gravel in to build up sections of the road that have washed away.

One of the hardest hit areas of Northfield is the town's Industrial Plaza.  At the entrance to the Plaza there's a sign that reads - "We are back open - Simply Fords."

Fritz Haupt is the owner of this car repair business that's located next to the Dog River. He says the river rose 19 feet on Sunday night creating a nightmare in his parking lot:

(Haupt)"It looked like the Winooski River, there were rapids down the parking lot. One of my employees' dump truck was actually parked at the head up there when it finally got enough water behind it - it parked down here beside the building sideways in a five foot hole and totaled that."

(Kinzel) Haupt says the thought of closing his business never crossed his mind:

(Haupt)"Kind of opened the doors took a look around next thing I know my friends my family started showing up shovels rakes whatever just went at it and never even thought of not shutting the doors just a matter of let's start cleaning up."

(Sound of fans)

(Kinzel) That's the sound of big fans drying out the Wall Goldfinger business on the other side of the Plaza. The company makes custom furniture for big corporations up and down the East Coast in a 52,000 square foot production facility.

On Sunday night, the building was surrounded by water and owner John Wall sent a message to his 45 employees:

VPR/Bob Kinzel

The workshop at WallGoldfinger.

(Kinzel) And despite a large clean up effort, Wall says the company somehow managed to put together an important delivery on Monday night:

(Wall) "I think it was great teamwork to see them carrying a whole 24-foot box truck full of finished furniture across the parking lot staging some of the construction in the parking lot we do all this stuff inside at a loading dock.  We got the truck out of here about 7 o'clock at night and made the 7 a.m. delivery on Tuesday morning in Boston."         

(Kinzel) Wall has a number of other contract deadlines coming up in the next few weeks and he's says he's optimistic that he'll meet them all.

For VPR News, I'm Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.