well don't expect traffic relief on Route 80 in Mars County to ease up just yet the state department of transportation recently updated when it plans to finish sinkhole repair work on the busy interstate pushing back the timeline to the end of May for the two lane closures creating the most congestion locals tell Ted Goldberg they were anticipating more delays they just hope small business owners and drivers patients can wait it out repairs to Route 80 hit another roadblock late last week coming as zero surprise to people in Wharton i'm not surprised i thought it was really wishful thinking the dates that they were giving out at first you know it really wasn't surprising i mean uh it seems like every time we get any any closer it gets uh I don't know what are we saying the Department of Transportation has pushed back the reopening of part of I80 westbound two weeks to late May leaving nearby communities with little else to talk about but the ongoing onslaught of traffic it's the only thing anybody's talking about around here you know you walk in it's the first thing they come in and it's like uh the traffic and then you know that's that's that's what's on everybody's mind nowadays it's it's become the new normal everybody's over it everybody's aggravated and we're just ready for things to to get back open a standard 5minute commute to work is now 20 minutes and it's crazy it's like I'm literally just crossing the street but it takes me 20 minutes now businesses like Pops Bagels have taken a big hit because of how hard it is to get around normally I take about 3 minutes tops 5 minutes I would say on a on a heavy congested day but today was about 20 25 minutes detours from the sinkholes have done more than just gum up roads and hobble businesses here in Wharton they've also put the burrow in national headlines and not for good reasons folks here in Wharton tell me the burrow should be known for a lot more than just nasty traffic it's on the map so that's the good thing but the bad thing is it's on the map as the sinkhole city we have great food i mean like I said I would typically take a 2-minute drive to get a breakfast sandwich but it took me about 25 minutes today it's worth a 25minut drive i think that the food here is is is really good the citizens here are all are all really good people actually i think people are very uh humble here and I think it's an upand cominging town i think uh there's a lot to offer in value and I' I'd love to see it in 10 years if if we're not all demolished by the sinkholes you know to help stay afloat the owners of Pops Bagels have applied for a state grant and a federal disaster loan from the Small Business Administration over at Town Square Diner co-owner Peter Sedarius has done the same thing sedarius says business is down 15 to 20% since this whole mess started i know the guys up there working 24 hours a day and they're working really hard um it's not their fault um but then when he announced that the timeline was pushed back we was very frustrated you know like we knew this was going to happen people don't have time to stop anymore to eat um where they used to have a lunch break for a half hour or an hour now they're sitting in traffic for 25 30 minutes the state's economic development authority created a $5 million fund for local businesses located close to the sinkholes senator Anthony Buco says about a hundred applications are pending it was kind of like a co uh mirrored program so um it's been it's been a good it's been a good process so far cedarius applied for a $15,000 grant the maximum amount and showed the EDA his books to prove his losses and instead of receiving the full 15,000 I only received 10,000 so I'm not sure what drives that i'm going to have to give the NJA call to find out what that is i don't know if it's tied to employees or revenue loss but you know we're down substantially so I don't know why we'd only get to 10,000 we need federal grants and we need to assume we have to take care our people here first the local business they're suffering senator Buco says it was easier to get an appropriation through the EDA than it would be to get something passed the state assembly and senate when I 80 is repaired the next move is getting state funds to fix up local roads getting hammered by trucks and traffic we do know that the local roads have been impacted and we don't want that burden to fall on our municipalities or the county you know this is was a state of emergency this was an unforeseen event and uh until those roads get until that Route 80 gets repaired we really need to to you know keep diverting traffic onto the local roads which means more slowgoing around Wharton at least until Route 80 is fully opened which the DOT says will happen in late June in Wharton i'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News