Flint water crisis takes toll on city businesses

Added expenses and wasted time.

Flint's ongoing water crisis is taking a toll on many businesses in this already-struggling city. Frustrated owners are waiting for somebody to throw them a lifeline before it's too late.

Angelo's Coney Island used to be a Flint coney island icon but now it's a ghost town.

"We've been here 66 years," said owner Neil Helmkay. "We have a lot of loyal customers but the outside people just don't want to come into Flint because of the water."

Helmkay says regulars at the diner, still visit, knowing only clean, bottled water is being served.

"We don't use water for cook," he said. "We boil eggs but that doesn't hurt anything that way and have food steamers. The food doesn't get into the steam."

He says the food is safe, but no one is coming in from out of town. Business is going down the drain.

"Come down and see us. we haven't changed a thing except for putting the clean water into our restaurant," Helmkay said.

As for the building itself, Helmkay still doesn't know the extent of the damage to his pipes.

"That I don't know," he said. "The governor has to begin to see what they have to do about this."

Down the street, Tony Dubey owner of Maxi Quality meats, says it takes trust to keep business going.

"I've been using bottled water for at least six months now," Dubey said. "At least six months after the water was coming out of my faucet brown one day and thought something's not right.

He uses bottled water in his sausage recipes, but for some time he unknowingly used dangerous water from the tap.

FOX 2: "If you could say something to Gov. Snyder and the officials involved in this as a business owner what would it be."

"I would want to know how they would feel if it was their neighborhood," he said.  "That's all I can say."

FOX 2 also spoke with Koegel meats today, which is based in Flint, they want to ensure their customers their meat has always been safe, because they use Flint Township water and not Flint city water.