Donna's Diner closes for winter, to reopen April 1

SHARON, Pa. -- Donna's Diner at 10 W. State St. has been closed for the winter.
Owner James E. Winner Jr., founder of Winner International, said business is so slow during the winter months that the diner, placed on the site in late 1999, couldn't support itself.
It will be closed until April 1.
Meanwhile, Winner said he will decide the restaurant's long-term fate.
He has been toying with the idea of putting an addition on the diner, named after his wife, but said he has also had some suggestions that he move the diner to Youngstown.
"I have a few months to decide," he said Tuesday.
Winner had the diner, built in a 1950s motif, constructed in Florida and shipped to Sharon by truck in a project that cost more than $500,000.
There were originally two old buildings on the diner site, and the city declared them to be blighted. Sharon used about $500,000 in federal and state grant money to buy and raze the structures and then sold the vacant land to Winner at a fair market appraised value of $17,500.
The old buildings housed five small businesses at the time. Three moved out of town, and two closed down. The city paid the relocation costs for those that moved.