Downtown Lake Orion had the look and feel of a ghost town on Monday, May 11, as numerous businesses stayed closed for the second day in a row due to a water main break that could mean no water service in the area for up to two weeks.
Most restaurants and storefronts on and around South Broadway Street — the center of downtown — were empty and locked up at midday, with notices posted at their entrances explaining the situation.
During her regular morning walk through the downtown, Vicki Lubelan, 74, could tell immediately that this week would be very different.
“I noticed I didn’t smell breakfast there, which I do everyday,” said Lubelan, who lives in nearby Oxford Township.
Many Lake Orion businesses outside of the downtown were also shuttered, including most fast food restaurants.
And some offices and industrial plants in the area were closed or requiring employees to work remotely, including the Stellantis Auburn Hills headquarters. (The General Motors Orion Township assembly plant was already scheduled to be down for retooling.)
The Meijer and Kroger stores in Lake Orion were open, however, and Kroger workers had a dozen pallets of bottled water set up throughout the store and ready to go.
Back in downtown, one of the few food or drink spots open for business on Monday was the Wee Bean Coffee Co., 20 Front St., where baristas served a steady line of customers from the shop’s custom trailer parked outside.
Co-owner Charlie McClenaghan said they brought the trailer out of storage and were using distilled bottled water to brew their coffee. The ordinarily use the trailer only for special events.
“We’re super grateful we have this,” McClenaghan said. “People need coffee — they don’t have water at their houses. So we wanted to be able to help any way we could to keep it sort of normal around here.”
One of the few other open businesses in downtown was Lake Orion Bike & Adventure on South Broadway Street, which sells and rents bikes.
Owner Mike Warner said he and his employees fielded five calls Monday morning from people looking to bring in bikes for repair work.
“If they don’t call, they’re just going to assume that we’re closed,” he said.
The water main break occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday, and the closure was especially rough for fine-dining restaurants, as Sunday was Mother’s Day, which is ordinarily a busy day.
“I’ve already heard from a couple of restaurant owners in tears over how many tens of thousands of dollars they are going to lose on this day alone,” Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett said.
Free Press staff writer Keith Matheny contributed to this report.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Water main break turns downtown Lake Orion into ghost town
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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