High Street West Merchants Hit With Another Road Closure
By Robert Thomas
In what should be one of their busiest times of the year High Street West businesses have once again seen their businesses shaken as the vehicle access they depend upon was disrupted by a street closure. And not unlike 2017 and 2018, when High Street was under construction for a good portion of those years, it has business owners once again questioning the wisdom at City Hall.
“I am not saying do not do the work, what I am saying did they have to do it this past week,” an exasperated business owner Darrell Markin said.
The owner of Cross Canada Flooring said the work, to install the sewer and water service lines to a new business on the 300 block of High Street West, could not have come at a worse time for small business.
“You issue a permit and you allow them to dig up a street on the busiest weekend of retail shopping…incredible. Why couldn’t they have waited until the next week when it is not busy?” Markin asked.
A section of High Street West was totally closed by construction - MJ Independent Photo
According to Moneris, one of the largest debit and credit card processors in Canada, Markin is correct as last Friday (December 21st) was the busiest bricks and mortar store shopping day in Canada with customers hurrying to make those last minute Christmas purchases. Last Friday’s sales nation-wide surpassed even Black Friday.
Construction work began late last Wednesday (December 18th) and as of yesterday (December 23rd) crews were still working on the service line connections. During this time the 300 block of High Street West was either blocked off entirely or had restricted traffic on it.
“It (construction) changes people’s shopping patterns. They won’t walk a block to get to a business. Nobody is walking by that construction it’s unsafe to do that,” he said.
Markin said one of the toughest things to swallow was the fact there was no warning from the City about the impending construction and road closure to area businesses. A warning which may have allowed the small businesses to ask to have the work done after their busiest weekend of the year.
“It is just a real disrespect for small business the City is showing. It is an ill regard to us…they have a communications person and they have all of the resources to contact us and they didn’t.”
It needs to be noted before roads are closed by the City the usual procedure is to alert emergency services - police, fire and ambulance - about the closure.
Markin had harsh words for management at the City and what he saw as an uncaring attitude towards small business by them.
“You look at the guys sitting in the big chairs and collecting the big six figure salaries and they have an attitude of what do I care? They are saying what’s in it for me? What would I (as a senior manager) care about small business, what’s in it for me,” Markin said.
Todd Shymanski, owns E-Z-Tech Computers on High Street West, and expressed many of the same concerns as Markin about the road closure’s timing and business owners not being told about it by the City.
Asked if he had been alerted prior to the construction work he said he had not.
“I learnt about it when the crew arrived and put the shovel in the ground. We did not know about it until they started shaking the street and the sidewalk,” Shymanski said, adding “we understand they are working over there very hard. We saw them putting up the siding but we did not have a clue that they were going to be ripping up the street.”
Although he agreed with the work happening and needed to be done the timing could not be any worse for his shop.
“I understand the work needs to be done. But couldn’t they (the City) have given it a little thought and consideration for the businesses when they issued the permit?”
Shymanski claimed he had spoken to the City’s communications department and they were not aware of the work and subsequent street closure until he had phoned to voice his concerns.
Work on the 300 block of High Street West closed not only the road but the north side sidewalk - MJ Independent photo
“It is one of the busiest times of the year with people coming into the shop. The last three or four days before Christmas are huge and so far this year it is a serious disappointment…so far this year after the road was fixed I have been in the black making up for the losses when the street was closed.”
He estimated his gross sales losses from this road closure in the $7,000 to $10,000 range pointing to previous years’ sales figures and how in the days prior to the present road closure he had sold multiple laptops within an hour time span.
This past Saturday he had planned to be open all day with a full staff in anticiapation of customers but closed early due to no traffic because of the construction.
City of Moose Jaw communications manager Craig Hemmingway said the construction work was by a private contractor hired by the developer to do the work and it was not a City project.
“A property owner arranged for a service connection with a private contractor, and the schedule would have been set by the contractor. The scope of the project required safety barricades to be in place and the contractor secured the proper permit from the City to accommodate the work.” Hemmingway wrote.
He confirmed High Street business owners were not contacted about the work but said there had not been a breakdown in internal communications within City Hall.
Asked to respond to claims the City does not care about the concerns from the small business community because those in the City who collect big salaries are not affected Hemmingway said that was not true but the City cared about local businesses. Allowing the work to take place was done because it was the City’s role to care about all taxpayers.
“The City cares about all taxpayers and in this case fulfilled our role to help facilitate a project between a property owner and a business. Unfortunately, construction projects often cause traffic disruption in order to be completed safely and efficiently,” he said.
Although there was no breakdown in internal communicatons Hemmingway said the incident would be reviewed to see if changes were needed.
“We will review relevant Policies and see if any changes are warranted.”
High Street West was the scene of controversy between the City, its contractor Ungar Construction and the area business community in 2017 and 2018. The project, Phase Two of cast iron water main replacement in 2017, became mired down with the City finally taking the project back from Ungar claiming the firm had not honoured their contract. Ungar for their part claimed otherwise. The matter is now in mediation before the Court of Queen’s Bench.
Due to the lengthy time to get the project done High Street West was either closed or too rough that traffic was limited and businesses suffered. Area businesses brought their concerns to Council where they requested but were denied compensation. The stretch of High Street West ended up having the dubious honour of being named CAA Saskatchewan’s worst road in 2018. The project was initially slated to take weeks in 2017 but ended up taking over 10 months to be finally completed in 2018 and the street officially re-opened.