Restaurant struggles with government shutdown

Kathleen Shoemaker runs Bunk House Burgers, a staple restaurant just off the main drive in Canon City.

She says the government shutdown has had a trickle-down effect on her customer base.

“January isn’t a great month anyway, and then you put this on top of this, and absolutely it will hurt our bottom line,” Shoemaker admitted.

Monday marked the 24th day since the partial government shutdown. Federal workers with the prison in Florence and the BLM in Canon City are both living without a paycheck right now.

Shoemaker says she feels terrible for those people put in financial limbo, but added that lack of spending power really hurts the entire town in the process.

“It’s not just the federal people, everyone gets hurt because of it. We are getting hurt,” Shoemaker said.

In the meantime, regardless of politics, she's asking for the shutdown to come to an end to get the people caught in the middle back to work, and back to being paid.