Sunny, warm temperatures on Wednesday have business owners gearing up for a busy Memorial Day weekend on the water.
In New Hartford, Farmington River Tubing is hoping for big crowds and good weather this weekend and throughout the summer.
“Everything is favorable right now, the water is flowing well and the water temperature is already up in the 60s, so it should be a great opening weekend,” owner Jeremy Haraden said.
Halladen was busy Wednesday filling tubes that will soon fill the Farmington River. He expects the weather to be better than usual this weekend.
“Typically opening weekends are cloudy, rainy, terrible weather, [we get] Probably about 12. [people]”In this kind of weather, hundreds of people could potentially show up,” he said.
Last summer was very rainy and tough on business.
“There’s too much water because it rained. We can’t open because the river is flooding,” Halladen said. “There were a lot of days off and a lot of staff were dissatisfied because they didn’t have time. Last year was bad for business.”
This business has been in his family for 35 years. They’ve been through everything, but expect nothing to happen this season.
“Hopefully I can make up for that this year,” he said.
Down the river, Collinsville Canoe and Kayak is enjoying another great season, and the business offers canoes, kayaks, and even bikes for riding the Rail Trail.
“It’s great to have such good weather and be able to get a lot of happy people in the water,” employee Ben Warner said. “Obviously when it rains it slows down a little bit, but the nice thing about the dam here is that things stay really steady, so the water levels are good most of the year and we don’t have a lot of rapids or currents here.”
Even though it was a Wednesday, the place was bustling with people renting equipment to go out on the river.
“The river had a nice flow,” Warner said. “It’s quiet, but there’s plenty of space and peace and quiet to get out and enjoy the outdoors.”
