TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — With all the excitement over Florida State football's return to the gridiron this weekend, some Midtown businesses are running into a problem.
The City of Tallahassee plans to shut down a portion of a major road to complete a utility project.
For Midtown's Paisley Cafe, anything that affects business coming through the doors raises a concern for the owner.
"We are a small operation. We need to make sure we can get every dollar so we can to pay the bills and grow. Any missing business we see pretty fast," said Jeff Hanson, Owner of Paisley Cafe.
Weekends are how the business makes most of its money and this weekend should bring a lot of extra traffic to much of Midtown.
But starting at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, Thomasville Road will close at Beard Street for 48 hours.
"The timing is terrible for us because Saturdays and Sunday are our two busiest days. We easily do half of our business for the week on those two days," said Hanson.
One employee from the restaurant Izzys expressed her concerns over the road closures as her boss told her she might not be coming into work this weekend.
"I'm kind of upset. I needed the money," said Vanessa Blender, Izzys employee.
Blender is now trying figure out other ways to make money in order to make ends meet.
"Now I'm going to have to work at my other jobs double time and I guess just figure the rest out," said Blender.
Both businesses want to encourage people to come out and support as they will be open for normal business hours. The road closures are expected to last until 6:00 a.m. on Monday.
For those traveling through the area, the city said detour routes will be clearly posted.
It includes using Gadsden Street as a northbound alternative and Monroe Street as a southbound or northbound route.
