Businesses try to bridge gap

As gateway between two towns is closed, owners fear permanent loss

Robin Kofford, meat manager at Kroeger's Country Meats, makes sausage at the Lecompton store. Kofford and other area business owners have reported a dramatic loss of business since the Kansas River bridge connecting Lecompton and Perry closed in March for reconstruction.

The Kansas River bridge at Lecompton is down, and so is business in the towns it connects.

The bridge, which serves as a gateway between Perry and Lecompton, closed in March for reconstruction. The businesses that served both communities are feeling the brunt of the closure.

As customers in both towns face 30-minute travel times to reach stores and services that once were five minutes away, customers are becoming increasingly less willing to make the trip. Businesses in both communities cite losses of up to 50 percent and necessary cutbacks on both employees and store hours.

“On the day the bridge closed, the town of Perry was like a ghost town, and it’s been like a ghost town ever since,” said Lori Worthington, owner of Worthington’s Hardware and Auto Parts Store in Perry.

“Business is down half since it closed. We’re just hanging on.”

J.D. Thrall, owner of Thrall’s Liquor Store in Perry, said his business is experiencing similar losses. He said sales are down 50 percent. He usually expands store hours in the spring and summer to accommodate increased business brought in by people visiting Perry Lake, but this year, the hours will remain the same.

“Usually I’m busy right up ’til when I close, but anymore, I’m just not,” Thrall said.

John Byers, store director at the Perry Lecompton Thriftway in Perry, said he’s cutting back on labor. He used to have three or four employees in the store midday, but now he’s using about half that many.

And late last month, Michael Wooden shut down his store, Wooden’s Outdoor Furniture in Perry, following a decrease in patronage from Lecompton and Lawrence.

The bridge closed March 12. Douglas and Jefferson Counties contracted A.M. Cohron & Son Inc. for the redecking, and the project is expected to be completed by Aug. 10. Instead of keeping one lane open during construction, as many suggested, commissioners thought it best to shut the bridge down completely in order to finish the project as quickly as possible.

Keith Browning, Douglas County public works director and county engineer, said the counties made the best decision possible in the face of an unpleasant and unavoidable situation.

“It’s going to be a huge inconvenience no matter how we do it,” Browning said.

“We wish we could help that, but we can’t. I think the way we’re doing it, keeping the duration of the project as short as we can, is the best way to go.”

With losses weighing heavily, some business owners created new initiatives to help keep their businesses alive and ease the inconvenience faced by their customers on the other side of the bridge.

Robin Kofford, who runs the meat department at Kroeger’s Country Meats in Lecompton, said customers in Perry can call in their orders, and she will deliver the orders to them when she is in Perry to make the store’s bank deposit.

But she said the service had yet to be utilized, and she may decide to cancel it altogether.

Worthington is trying to increase her customer base by turning to the Internet. She started selling her store’s products on eBay.

And Dustin Cox, owner of Standard Tire in Perry, now offers vehicle pickup for his customers in Lecompton. He said the service has been popular because his customers are relying on their cars now more than ever.

“It’s an unfortunate situation for a lot of people but we just need to make do, and we’re doing what we need to do to handle it,” Cox said.

While businesses are struggling to survive until the bridge reopens, many fear that the effects of the closing will last beyond August.

“There’s a lot of people that are creatures of habit, and once they get into the habit of going somewhere else, they won’t come back,” Thrall said.

“I imagine Lawrence probably will keep a good bit of our business.”

Thrall said that with summer approaching, traffic from Perry Lake might help his liquor store, but only as a temporary “shot in the arm.”

Kofford also fears permanent damage.

“My customers from the north might get into another routine,” she said. “I’m hoping they come back. Once they go somewhere else we might get forgotten, as small as we are.”