HOUGHTON LAKE — Although the more seasonable temperatures are finally here, they didn’t come quick enough to have some lakes freeze over.
Many businesses in Northern Michigan rely on that ice to keep their businesses running.
Owner of Joe’s Coney Island in Houghton Lake, Joe VanDevelder said that they have had a tough season.
“Oh, man. It’s been a slow season so far,” said VanDevelder.
Businesses in Houghton Lake have been struggling without the ice on the lake since no tourists are around to go ice fishing.
“For us, it was a down year, but we were only down about 7% and they were bait shop south of us that were down 90%,” said Kurt Beachnau, the owner of Lyman’s on the Lake bait shop.
“It’s cut everything down by at least 50%. I’ll bet everybody on the lake and anybody around there, all sales are down from fuel to services to everything you go to do is down in sales,” said VanDevelder.
And when a big event like Tip Up Town that brings in thousands of tourists has a problem happening, it means it’s going to be even more of a profit loss.
“It’ll be much larger event if we have six or more inches because now you can drive on it. But I believe that at the Tip Up Town, they need 15 inches of ice, I think, to hold the snowmobile races so that there are a lot of folks that come up for that,” said Beachnau. “But the difference in volume is three times. We’ll do three times more sales,” said Beachnau.
But VanDevelder said it’s not just the business that is struggling, it’s their servers as well.
“Yeah, it’s been a little tough. They definitely need people coming in. And we’re definitely hopeful that this interview will help,” said VanDevelder.
But even with a lack of ice, there are still things to do!
“You get 12 months; you get four seasons out of the side by side. And then hopefully there’s enough trails out around here. There’s a lot of trails. It’s endless around here. So hopefully everybody still keeps coming up,” said VanDevelder.
But in the meantime, they’re doing anything for a bit of hope.
“I was even on the roof dancing snow dance,” said VanDevelder.
