Roadblocks around Obama's vacation mansion are choking off business in Martha's Vineyard towns, claim locals

August is usually the time of year when businesses on Martha's Vineyard make enough money to see them through the cold, tourist-free winter. But with the president and his family on the Massachusetts island, road closures are detouring visitors – and their dollars – away from towns near the Obamas' vacation home.

Writing about the town of West Tisbury, the Vineyard Gazette reported that 'the traffic change will keep people away from the village center at the very height of summer.'

'August is our make it or break it month,' Vineyard Artisans Festivals manager Andrea Rogers told the local newspaper, 'So this is the worst possible time of the year to block access. It impacts a lot of people.'

'We’re really in a bad position at a critical time of year ... we’re trying to survive the winter.'

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Detour signs outside the Martha's Vineyard town of West Tisbury are driving tourists away from shops, restaurants and even gas stations as the Obamas vacation nearby

Obama has lunched at a few local restaurants. But on some parts of the island, employees now outnumber customers in what should be the high season for tourists No entry: Roadblocks are a common sight on the island, erected by police and Secret Service agents to isolate the president and protect him

Motorcades ¿ common sights in Washington, D.C. but unheard of on Martha's Vineyard ¿ snarl traffic and slow tourists on their way to spend scarce dollars at local businesses

Obama's chosen week away from the White House overlaps with some of the Martha's Vineyard events that attract the most summer tourists, including fireworks nights and an annual agricultural fair.

Many island businesses rely on those summer-ending celebrations to make ends meet.



Gas station co-owner Patrick Jenkinson told The Martha's Vineyard Times that his business has come to 'really rely on this third week in August, especially Fair week.'

'We do as much business in that one week as we do in three weeks in February. But we're way down from what we usually get in sales, more than 15 to 20 percent.'

Jenkinson wrote on the newspaper's website that ' this particular visit' by the Obamas 'has been extremely intrusive to the Island. ... some of these businesses are staffed for a particular flow of customers and now they're over-staffed with 4 days notice.'

The owners of Alley's General Store, the Island's oldest business, told the Times that 'the major East-West corridor on the Island has been turned into a dead end. It will be thousands of dollars lost.'

'I think it will mean at least a 25 percent reduction in Alley's gross sales this week. And August, for almost all Island businesses, represents a very significant percentage, maybe 33 percent, of all gross sales annually.'

Island businesses prepared for the president's visit with specialized lines of souvenirs, but many of them are now left to wonder how they'll replace the lost business after the Obamas return to Washington

The president has spent most of his leisure time on the island golfing, but took some time out to visit local restaurants and press the flesh.

Those visits, however, have not been in the area most affected by the roadblocks, a New Hampshire resident vacationing on Martha's Vineyard told MailOnline via telephone.

'Everybody seems to love seeing him here,' said Mary Caldwell, but we all feel for the shops and restaurants that must be pulling their hair out right now.'

'And when business drops, don't you think some of the seasonal help is told to go hoem for the week?'



President Obama spent several days on the road during the weeks before his vacation, giving speeches about jobs and the economy.



'Thanks to the grit and resilience of the American people, we’ve been able to clear away some of the rubble from the financial crisis,' he said in Chattanooga, Tennessee on July 30.