This Labor Day weekend, area businesses scrambled to find different ways to finish out the season now that many of their young employees have departed for the halls of academia.

And that was after a summer season in which many businesses struggled to find workers.     

At Dinosaur Place in Montville, year-round office staffers were outside handing golf clubs to 6-year-olds and supervising the playscape known as T-Rex Tower. A handwritten sign at Old Lyme's Hallmark Drive-In asked customers for their patience as a dwindling supply of high school and college students sling burgers and scoop ice cream. The last official beach weekend at Hole in the Wall Beach in East Lyme included a cadre of retirees continuing to sell passes and welcome guests in the absence of their younger counterparts.

Roger Phillips, who owns Nature's Art Village, home of The Dinosaur Place, with his wife, Linda, said he started the summer with 22 seasonal workers when he needed closer to 30. With most of them back to school, he was down to three seasonal workers for Labor Day weekend.

"This has probably been one of the most difficult summers since we opened the park," he said.

He's had to scale back some operations and forgo others at the shopping, recreation and history complex due to the lack of employees for the $13-per-hour, minimum wage jobs.

There are about 25 permanent staff members, according to the owner.

The popular Discovery Center is only open on weekends because he doesn't have enough staff to oversee kids panning for gold, digging up minerals and hoping for a crystal surprise inside their rock geodes. The Ice Cream Shoppe window had to close three times due to the lack of employees. The Genius museum, with antiques that Phillips said he has collected over three decades to "show people where we came from," hasn't opened at all this year.

A new train, shiny with primary colored paint and a sleek black engine compartment, sits in a shed because there's no one to operate it.

When asked why he thought he was having such trouble finding workers, he blamed the Democrats.

In the wider employment picture, the Associated Press reported that many older Americans have been slow to respond to a record number of job openings. Some have lingering health concerns or trouble arranging or affording child care at a time when schools are transitioning from remote to in-person learning. Other adults may have been discouraged from seeking work because of generous federal unemployment benefits.

An additional weekly $300 in federal COVID recovery funds directed to unemployed workers in the state for more than a year expired on Saturday.

Phillips acknowledged the young, seasonal employees he takes on don't collect unemployment, but said it still appears the workers don't seem to need the paycheck.

"I don't know where all the money came from, but there was a lot of money floating around this year," he said.

The Phillipses are hoping to prevent a similar shortage next year through the construction of an employees-only, three-unit townhouse going up now on nearby Grassy Hill Road. He is also hoping to bring in students from Europe for three months at a time.

'Super lighthearted and relaxed'

Hallmark Drive-In, Old Lyme's popular Shore Road food shack going back more than a century, relies exclusively on student workers.

Manager Julia Ritchie, a senior at the University of Connecticut majoring in education, said she had a solid team of high school and college students until the end of August. The departure of some staff members for school left the remaining workers spread thin through the final days over Labor Day weekend.

She said owner Catherine Denton, who also owns A.C. Petersen Farms in West Hartford, was able to send employees from the other business on a couple of occasions when there were not enough workers.

According to Ritchie, customers have been plentiful over the past two seasons at the outdoor-only restaurant that lends itself well to pandemic restrictions. She noted the drive-in was one of the few businesses in town open for a couple of months last year.

"We kind of made a name for ourselves last summer," she said.

Jace Funaro, also a senior at UConn, studying sport management, said the business smashed its sales records last year and is keeping up the pace this summer. He said the staff of roughly 15 students, many of whom already knew one another from Lyme-Old Lyme High School, get along well.

"I think the shoreline in general just brings a really cool atmosphere for people. It's super lighthearted and relaxed, but we also knew when to kick it into an extra gear to get things done," he said.

Hallmark, which celebrated its centennial in 2009, originated as a shop selling hand-dipped chocolates on the corner of Halls Road. Founder Nat Hall later began offering nine flavors of homemade ice cream.

The East Lyme Parks and Recreation Department ended its beach season this weekend with a leaner crew now that many of its college-aged employees have gone back to school.

Niantic resident Donna Palumbo, who recently celebrated her 65th birthday, has been working three days a week under the white tent in front of Hole in the Wall Beach selling passes to those who don't already have them.

"Us retirees are useful," she said. "We're good fill-ins because they need people this time of year."

Palumbo worked as a self-described "patient advocate" in the finance department at Backus Hospital in Norwich for 31 years before retiring. She said she decided to answer the Parks and Recreation Department's call for seasonal workers because she wanted to do something to help the town and because she loves the beach.

This summer was the first time she worked with such young employees.

"I was really impressed with how they handle themselves and how polite they are," she said.

The summer gig complemented her part-time job across the street as a receptionist at the Crescent Point at Niantic senior living center, she said. Both jobs required her to be friendly to people.

She said she's made new friends this year, and seen others do the same, in the beach community where like-minded people find relaxation and camaraderie.

The summer job is part of the laid-back retirement philosophy she described like this: "Hang out with my friends, walk my dog, ride my bike. Just enjoy life. I'm so happy I got to this point and I'm OK. Bottom line."

e.regan@theday.com