October 25, 2009

City extends street work

By Sam Craig
The Chronicle

     Stimulus dollars have allowed The Dalles to begin new construction on roundabouts to downtown streets, but the noise, machinery and traffic snarls haven’t exactly been a boon for nearby businesses.
     Work on Second Street was supposed to take some time off in November, but Crestline Construction now plans to work through the holiday season. The City of The Dalles recently approved Crestline’s request to press through to early winter and work into the new year. The construction will move out of the travel lanes and onto the north side of the street, but some businesses in the area are wary of the plans.
     The city had originally planned to open Brewery Grade to traffic while construction was paused during the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. With more jobs that need completing, Crestline asked for, and was approved for, permission to work during that period without blocking traffic.
     “There was a promise made to the city that they would open up Brewery Grade during the holiday season,” said Jim Schwinof, Development inspector for The Dalles. “And that they’d keep two lanes of traffic, one in and one out of town, unobstructed, so we’re just kind of holding up to the promise.”
     But with construction traffic, noise and road closures an everyday occurrence along the stretch of Second Street, some business owners worry that a continuation of construction will have negative effects on sales and that potential customers will steer clear of any obstructions along their route.
     “Between October and November is a big time of year for a gift shop,” said Linda Smith, owner of Cannon Packer gift and houseware shop on Second Street, right at the hub of construction.
     Business is down, say owners along the stretch of road. They believed they had a guarantee from the city that there wouldn’t be a hindrance from construction during the busy shopping season.
     “When we went to the original meeting, at that time we were told that they were going to try to be out of here by Thanksgiving and be out for the holiday season,” Smith said. “We made decisions at that time to stay here and weather it. We were told through an email a few days ago that that decision had been reversed by the city. If we would have known that at the initial meetings, that that was something laid out in front of us, we would have explored moving at that time and not trying to ride through this.”
     Things have been tough for businesses, but, the city says, with construction moved from the roadway, traffic should have no problem coming through.
“During that holiday time, it’ll be better than what it is now,” Schwinof said.      “During the holiday season, all of the work that’s going to be done will be out of the travel lanes, to the north, down by the Sunshine Mill.”
     The problem isn’t just daily traffic jams, though, say some business owners, it’s the constant construction noise, which will still be there during the holidays.
     “A big problem is that the machinery is so loud that over our intercom, it’s twice as loud,” said Jeannie Batty of Holstein’s Coffee on Second Street. “We can’t even hear our customers. When they’ve got those jackhammers going, I just want to scream, it’s so loud.”
     Summer is the busy season for Holstein’s she said, so they’d really like to see the project completed.
     “I can’t even tell you how disruptive to our business it’s been,” she said. “As far as continuing through the holiday season, it’s fine with me because I want them to get it done.”
     The city expects construction of the new roundabouts, roadways and sewer lines to be complete in May 2010. Not soon enough, say some business owners.
     “My customer count is down over 2,000 people since they started,“ Batty said. “With the customer count down, I’ve had to cut the hours of my workers and I’ve been working a lot more. The thing that ticks me off is that this project is going to personally cost me thousands of dollars in lost business. It’s like a domino effect, it’s not good for any of us.”