MANCHESTER, N.H. – As southern New Hampshire faced the impact of Monday’s heavy rains, one downtown business experienced that impact firsthand.
Boards and Brews suffered significant damage from the storm as several inches of water leaked from the ceiling at 941 Elm St.
Co-owner Keating Tufts learned about the issue at approximately 6:30 p.m. when a private group that uses the space on Mondays called him and said the water was pouring down inside. Tufts said that the three floors above the business had been leaking all day long, with approximately three inches of water on the floor as of 8:30 p.m.
According to Tufts, the damaged areas included the floor and areas behind their bar as well as portions of their basement where some of the business’ board games were destroyed. He believes approximately 100 board games there in the basement were damaged, with only around ten unable to be replaced.
Although a complete assessment has not yet been made, he believes that most of Boards and Brews’ board games are still intact, as they were stored in the back portion of the building where the water damage was limited.
It remains to be seen if Boards and Brews can reopen on Tuesday for the weekly meetup night, as the building’s landlord told Tufts that professional cleanup crews will not be available until at least Tuesday morning and his insurance company does not have a 24-hour support line. Until then, he and his fellow co-owners and staff were doing the best they could to clean up on Tuesday night, with dehumidifying efforts beginning later in the evening.
“We love our location and our community loves the space and we’re not going to let this slow us down,” he said. “It is what it is, but we’re going to make it through.”
If the meetup cannot happen on Tuesday, Tufts says that he hopes that the Meetup will happen soon.
He also hoped that this moment of crisis can summon the support of other local small businesses and area residents as the recovery process slowly begins.
“If we were part of a corporation, there would be people sent over specifically to deal with issues like these where small businesses don’t have that flexibility, but I don’t mind it,” said Tufts. “All the more reason to support local business. All the money that customers spend here goes back into the local community, employing local businesses, shopping at other local businesses, paying local taxes. All of our profits go back into the local community.”
Tufts says updates on re-opening will be announced on the Boards and Brews Instagram page.