Stores seek completion of sidealk
Jim Fulling of Mountain Spa and Stove, and Mel Donenfeld who owns Northwest Auto Body are waiting for the city to repair the entrance to their Michigan Street businesses. The five-day project started six weeks ago, they said, and its lack of completion is impeding business. (Photo by RALPH BARTHOLDT)
SANDPOINT — The hole is five feet wide, 150-feet long and deep enough to tear the exhaust off a Hummer.
Jim Fulling and Mel Donenfeld wonder when it will be filled.
When work to replace a sidewalk in front of their Michigan Street businesses began six weeks ago, it was supposed to be a five-day project, Donenfeld said.
The job is part of a larger federal project meant to provide safe walkways to schools and is paid with a grant that is administered by the city.
When the work began, Donenfeld said, contractors busted through the pavement, built forms for concrete, put up cones and ribbons, and then left.
Seemingly, for good.
In the meantime, his customers can barely get into his lot, and the trench makes entering and exiting a safety issue, he said.
“It affects our business, and they don’t care,” he said.
He blames the city, which he telephoned three times regarding the unfinished work, he said. He did not receive a call back.
Fulling, who owns Mountain Spa and Stove next door, said the gash in the concrete in front of his store probably has not hurt his business.
If someone wants to buy a stove or spa, he said, they will find a way to his door.
“It doesn’t have a really big impact on me,” Fulling said. “But, the bottom line is, why rip it up and then go away?”
The $120,00 project is the last leg of work that entails replacing sidewalks on 10 blocks on both sides of Highway 2, Kody Van Dyk, public works director said.
He said business owners should have been kept in the loop, but his office failed to return calls.
“They have a legitimate right to gripe,” Van Dyk said.
The contractor, Earthworks Northwest, was pulled from the job to work on the roundabout, Super 1 and Safeway, he said.
“I can empathize completely,” he said. “It should have been done by now.”
Contractor Randy McDougall, agrees that there should have been better communication with business owners.
“Nobody likes wading through a construction zone,” McDougall said.
His cement workers coordinate with the city, which cuts the hole, he said. Once the demo work is done, mud workers move in, but a long spate of rain this spring, and coinciding jobs prevented finishing the sidewalk.
“Coordinating that really gets tough to balance,” he said.
Under the contract, his company must finish the work by June 30, he said. Workers returned to the job yesterday.
“We weren’t trying to leave anyone in the lurch,” he said.