Nora Tamblin, and her husband Eric, owners of Gearings Store in Adams Basin, closed the store Friday, June 27. According to Nora: "The only reason we are closing is because the Adams Basin bridge is closed. We've lost two-thirds of our business from passing traffic, including people living just over the bridge, golfers and people leaving Rt. 531 to go to Hamlin. This store has been here over 50 years we've been doing business for 19 years. We've watched the community grow up and now, with the bridge closed for the Erie Canal boating season, the whole community is affected." The store owners say they have made repeated attempts to appeal to the state to explain the impact of the bridge closure to the hamlet and businesses in the area, including the Adams Basin Post Office and Salmon Creek Country Club, but they feel they have been given a run-around. Work to repair the structure deficiencies of the canal bridge could go to bid in the fall of 2004, pending funding, according to NYS DOT representatives. For these store owners, that's too long to wait. Photographs by Walter Horylev.