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Vendor For I-65 Rest Stops Upset At Labor Day Weekend Closure

ROSELAWN, Ind. (CBS) -- A blind woman who has the vending machine contract at two Northwest Indiana rest stops is upset with the state transportation department because she says it's put her a few thousand dollars in the hole.

"I lost a good $3,500 to $4,000," Betty Tetzlaff said.

She has been blind for decades, and she has the vending concession at the I-65 rest stops near Roselawn, Indiana.

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Tetzlaff said she bought extra food, because she knew more people would be traveling Labor Day weekend. Then, a week ago, she found the southbound rest stop shut down.

"Nobody had called me, or emailed me, or anything," she said.

If they had, she said, she wouldn't have bought the extra food - which is expiring fast.

"Mainly cakes and chips, and if you throw away one cake, you throw away a dollar," Tetzlaff said.

She said the state could have at least let her know they were closing the rest stop.

"They don't seem to care," she said.

A spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation says it was an emergency closure and the state did try to notify Betty Tetzlaff and regrets "the unfortunate situation."

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