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Power outages result in thousands of dollars in losses for Lambertville area restaurants

"Heart-wrenching... it's tough": Business owners talk about the impact of losing power for almost 20 hours.

LAMBERTVILLE, Mich. — Thousands of dollars in food and sales losses are hitting restaurants hard in and around Lambertville after losing power Tuesday afternoon.

Forest View Lanes in Bedford Township is one of those restaurants. 

"It's been a rough 24 hours. We lost power for 19 hours," Rich Kenny, owner of Forest View Lanes in Bedford Township said. "Right now we have zero food in the building we can use."

Fries, sandwiches, meats, cheeses and everything in between had to be thrown out because it got too warm.

"Probably $10,000-15,000 in food at least, labor for yesterday for employees, loss in sales... I'm not even sure where to put the number at yet," Kenny said.

Beer taps and fountain drinks also had to be cleaned out.

"We were getting ready for a big concert on Friday. We had a bunch of food that was delivered on Monday for that, and we have to redo everything we did for that for the weekend," Kenny said. "[It's] heart-wrenching... it's tough."

The problems started after a crash knocked down a pole and power lines around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Power for many businesses wasn't restored until around noon Wednesday.

Another of the businesses impacted by the power outage is Sidelines Italian Grille.

"We have a team throwing out food, getting rid of everything that's spoiled, thousands of dollars worth of stuff. We were able to salvage quite a bit of the product because we got a refrigeration truck delivered on-site," regional manager of Sidelines Restaurant Group, Chris Hinds, said.

Hinds manages three restaurants in the area. One of them has only been open a few days.

"Every single one of them lost power at the same time," Hinds said. "(We) pretty much had to lock up the doors and walk out last night and try to salvage as much product as we could."

Hinds is trying to look at the bright side.

"If you wake up every day and you let all these little mishaps drag you down, you're not going to be in this business for long."

Kenny said, "There's 365 days of the year, we lost one. We're going to try and regroup and reset."

Kenny said he hoped to open Forest View Lanes for business by Wednesday evening and Hinds said he will reopen his restaurants Thursday morning.

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