FAIRLEE — The Fairlee Drive-in’s towering film screen will remain blank this summer as owner Peter Trapp recovers from an illness.

“It’s hard for us because we’ve been running it for so long. That’s what we do every summer,” said Trapp’s wife, Erika Trapp.

Peter Trapp, 73, who declined to provide the details of his illness, was diagnosed in November last year. Though he is making a recovery, he is not mobile enough to work at the drive-in, Erika Trapp, 60, said.

The Trapps have operated the drive-in since 2003, when they bought it from owners Elaine and Ray Herb.

The current closure parallels a similar moment in the drive-in’s history, when the venue was shuttered for several years in the mid ‘80s while the original owner Reg Drown recovered from a heart attack.

Running the business has always been a family affair for the Trapps, whose three sons have helped out during the summers.

Now the two oldest sons, PJ, 31; and Cooper, 29, have careers of their own, leaving Erika, Peter and their youngest son, Tucker, 26, to keep the business going.

In the past, the Trapps have tried to hire a projector operator but finding someone who had the knowledge to do the work proved difficult.

With such a small crew, Peter Trapp had extensive responsibilities, which ranged from operating the projector to overseeing the ticket booth and helping out with concessions. Keeping the drive-in going without him wouldn’t have been possible, Erika Trapp said.

In addition to the drive-in, the Trapps also operate a motel on the same property. Open year-round, the motel will remain operational this summer.

“It takes much less hands-on (work),” Erika Trapp said.

The drive-in may be a labor of love, but the Trapps’ primary business is Thunder Ridge Ranch, a farm in Piermon t that specializes in Angus beef. The couple started the farm around 1999, a few years after they relocated to Piermont from upstate New York.

Like the drive-in, the Trapps run Thunder Ridge Ranch on their own. The farm used to offer a wide array of meat and poultry, including turkey, pork, lamb and chicken, but these days they just sell beef.

“We’ve had to downsize a bunch,” Erika Trapp said.

Originally built in 1950, when drive-ins were a more ubiquitous source of entertainment, the Fairlee venue is now among three remaining drive-ins in Vermont, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association.

The others are the Sunset Drive-In in Colchester and the Bethel Drive-In, which plans to open in early June, said owner Tammy Tomaszewski.

Drive-ins first took a hit in the ‘70s when a spike in real estate taxes hiked up the cost of doing business. After a short-lived resurgence in the early 2000s, the shift from celluloid to digital projection, an expensive and complicated process, caused the number to drop once more. The transition almost shuttered the Fairlee Drive-In, which spent two years raising $70,000 for a new digital projector they purchased in 2014.

Today there are roughly 300 drive-ins in the United States, according to the New York Film Academy.

At this point, the Trapps do not plan on selling the drive-in.

“(We’re) not trying to say that we’re going for good,” Erika Trapp said.

Contingent on Peter Trapp’s return to good health, they hope to be up and running again next year.

Marion Umpleby can be reached at mumpleby@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.