Financial institutions like Marquette Savings Bank were required to post plans for any changing business hours on their doors two weeks before the April 8 solar eclipse.  Marquette plans to close all branches in Erie and Crawford Counties at 1:00 p.m. on eclipse day.  Their downtown Erie location on Peach Street will be closed all day.

But other customer facing downtown Erie businesses from restaurants to shops are excited about the influx of customers.

Rita's Italian Ice on State Street is selling souvenir cups and eclipse glasses for $2.00 and looking forward to a surge in business. "I see it as a good thing," downtown Rita's manager Chrissy Vaughn said.  "We'll definitely be open, operating normal business hours and I feel like with the events going on downtown that day, I'm hopeful that business is going to actually pick up."

Staying open and staffing up is just what Dave Tamulonis, events and marketing manager for the Erie Downtown Partnership is calling for. "This is a tourist influx that we're not going to see for very long time and we think they should take advantage of it," he said.

The Flagship City Food Hall and other Erie Downtown Development Corporation businesses near Perry Square have gotten the message. "From Visit Erie and from the Erie Downtown Partnership the message is to be open, be staffed and be ready, so all these kitchens and all the businesses with the EDDC including ASCEND climbing gym, Bricks and the Brig Cigar Lounge - they'll all be open and ready to go and we are expecting a pretty large crowd," said Ryan Hoover, Experience Director for EDDC.

Even though customer facing businesses in the downtown area are all being encouraged to stay open on eclipse day and take advantage of the extra tourists in town for the eclipse, many are deciding that they'll close for just a few minutes during the totality of the eclipse, so their own employees can step outside, look up to the sky and take in the once in a lifetime eclipse.

UPMC Hamot hospital is located at what some are calling "ground zero" for potentially heavy tourism traffic, and that's at the intersection of State Street and the Bayfront Parkway.  Jason Chenault, Senior Director of Emergency Services for UPMC Hamot said the hospital and its essential services will be operating as usual.  "All of our essential services are going to be open, our emergency departments, our urgent cares -- they're normal operations on that day," Chenault said.

The UPMC Hamot Surgery Center however, will be closed for the day, and at other UPMC practices and facilities many non-essential appointments are being rescheduled to keep patients and staff away from any traffic hassles.  "We've really expanded our hours Tuesday through Friday and even included some Saturday hours as well to make sure all of those patients get care," Chenault said, adding that if you haven't heard from your doctor's office about an appointment on that day, feel free to call and check.