Business owners assess past season

Posted on November 20, 2009 8:09 am

On a windy November day, small whitecaps broke on the shore of Lake Hopatcong. The only boats visible were moored at their docks or shrouded in blue shrink-wrap and arranged in rhythmic rows.

Ralph Spinelli, who has owned and managed the popular Windlass Restaurant for the past 46 years, said he had never seen such a bad summer as the summer of 2009.

"The economy wasn't the problem; it was the low water at the beginning of the season and then the bad weather," Spinelli said. "Every week between Wednesday and Sunday it would be wet and chilly, and only Monday and Tuesday would be warm and bright. In four months we had fewer than 10 good days."

Spinelli said he was able to do close to a month's worth of business during the long Labor Day weekend, when the weather was beautiful.

Source: NorthJersey.com