Angry business owners packed the field house at Robinson Playground on Thursday, many of them livid about plans to close Kelly Lake Road for five months this summer to complete some urgent repair work.
What has them so upset is they only learned of the closure a week ago. With the work set to begin early next month, they don't have time to make the sort of arrangements they need to ensure the closure doesn't hurt their business.
Darryl Lampkin, owner of Echo Rental and Supply Ltd., said given enough time, he could have opened a temporary storefront. As it is, his industrial equipment business stands to lose significant dollars as the construction season gears up.
“I am completely appalled that our city that we pay taxes to, would do something like this to businesses and residents of this area,” Lampkin wrote in a letter to Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti.
“There should have been a meeting and information session a year in advance to discuss with residents, their issues and concerns.”
He's also upset notices about the public meeting were hand-delivered a week ahead of time, meaning businesses who weren't there likely didn't notice them.
“Businesses and residents should have been contacted when the city decided to do this, so they would have our input on the massive scale this will affect everyone in our neighbourhood, as well as our many customers,” he wrote.
“The customers so many of us will lose over the 4 1/2 months of our busiest season in five years, they will take years to get coming back to us. This a fact.”
Road engineer Stephen Holmes, who was confronted by Lampkin outside the meeting, said the city learned the work would have to be done last fall when the bridge inspector reported the culvert would have to be replaced within a year.
"We had some additional meetings and we had to start the ball rolling to get this bridge replaced as soon as possible, which meant this summer," Holmes said.
"During the design process, we were looking at different options -- whether we could stage the construction as we typically would with a culvert, keeping one lane open on the existing road. But it wasn't possible because of the condition and size of this culvert."
They considered erecting a temporary bridge, but it turned out to be prohibitively expensive, leaving closing the road the only option.
"We didn't come to that decision lightly, but it was made in approximately February and we proceeded with the design on that basis," Holmes said.
When asked why no one in the area was informed between February and May, Holmes admitted it should have been done.
"It's my understanding there was some communications with the public in regards to upcoming projects, but the message that the road was going to be closed may not have been conveyed," he said.
Signoretti, who attended Thursday's meeting, said he feels helpless because even though he's a city councillor, he didn't find out about the plan until earlier this month, at the same time as the businesses.
"I didn't know about this back in February either, which is a little disheartening for me as a councillor and a representative of the ward,” he said. “I, as a councillor, feel a little bit helpless because I don't know what to tell them. But we need to come up with a solution that's going to make sense for them and the city."
While the work has to be done because of safety concerns, Signoretti said a solution needs to be found to help the businesses cope.
"This should have been brought forward a lot earlier, even if we didn't know the exact date,” Signoretti said. “Then they could have taken steps to adjust or had suggestions to mitigate the situation. And we wouldn't be where we are today, dealing with some very disgruntled business owners.
"They don't mind closing a lane one way, where at least you have one route and it's not closed off completely. If we can find a solution where at least we have a little traffic going through -- even if it delays them a bit, they're fine with that."
Holmes said he's not sure what can be done at this point.
"There still remains a possibility of constructing a temporary bridge, but it would be at great cost,” he said. "Leaving that culvert in place is not something that would be my preference. I'm not sure what our options are at this point."
