GIRARD, Ohio - The future of a Girard hot spot for polka dancing is in question. 

Kuzman's was supposed to be open Wednesday and Thursday this week but on Wednesday night the iconic venue was closed.

The owner passed away last week with no direct family member to inherit the business.

"It's a problem family-owned businesses face at one time or another, who's there to take the business over and in this particular case there was not a second generation to do that," said Girard Mayor James Melfi.

Melfi says a buyer for Kuzman's approached his office recently but he doesn't know if a deal has been reached yet.

Polka enthusiasts, like polka DJ Larry Welk, say Kuzman's made a lot of people happy for decades.  He says even young people were starting to show up because they were interested in their family culture. 

"When Idora closed Kuzman's was the place to go for polka happiness. Polka music is happy and you never see someone dancing to polka sad so it's meant everything to the world. They brought in polka bands like Del Sinchak and many others and also some of the national bands," said Welk.

DJ Carl Severino said "It's an icon of Mahoning County and Trumbull County and the area."

Severino described the group that came on Wednesday nights as the "Wednesday night family." They would come in from as far as Butler, Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

"We'd put 100-150 people in there all jitterbug, cha cha, East Coast swing, West Coast swing, things you can't do at any other night club anywhere around to tell you the truth," Severino explained.

Welk says Kuzman's will close for two weeks and then reorganize.  Melfi thinks it will always be around.

"We're confident that business will be sold and will remain there in one form or another," said Melfi.

Severino is optimistic Kuzman's will not only survive but thrive. "Hopefully Kuzman's is going to rise, which I'm pretty sure it's going to," he said.