Ardmore restaurants eager to welcome customers back after extended closure

ARDMORE, Ala. (WHNT) —The boil water notice for people in Ardmore, Alabama has been canceled.

The Ardmore Water Department informed customers around 12:30 pm on Wednesday that the issues with the water system had been corrected. This comes after the Limestone County Water Authority experienced system issues as a result of the recent arctic blast.

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Area businesses were thrilled when the boil water notice was lifted because without water many had to close.

Prior to the cancellation of the boil water notice, nearly every restaurant in Ardmore was either closed or severely impacted.

Mildred’s Restaurant remained closed on Wednesday, due to the water issues. “We’ve lost 10 days of business,” said the Director of Operations, Jerry Neal.

Neal said the restaurant initially closed due to the winter weather and it extended the closure a few days ago when the boil water notice was issued.

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“This is a cooked-from-scratch restaurant, so we use a lot of water,” Neal said.

Neal said the 10-day closure of the restaurant cost them.

“It was nearly $70,000 that we lost” Neal estimated. He said not only is the restaurant hurting, but so are the employees because of lost wages from not being able to work.

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It was a similar story for another Ardmore restaurant, Cassie’s Cafe.

“It just hurts everybody all the way around,” said Tammy Carter, a kitchen employee at Cassie’s Cafe.

Carter said Cassie’s Cafe has also been closed for 10 days. Meaning all of the food they had in the fridge needs to be replaced.

“We’re in here throwing all of that out right now,” she said.

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Carter said the best way people can support local businesses right now is to come out and come hungry on Thursday when they reopen.

“I want everybody to come, keep me busy please!” Carter said.

Mildred’s will likely also be busy when they reopen at 10:30 am on Thursday.

The phone was ringing off the hook with people calling to see when they would reopen.

“I’ve already fielded a bunch of calls,” Jerry Neal said. “I’ve been here to say, ‘Hey we’ll be open at 10:30 on Thursday’.”

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