Road construction cripples businesses, council to blame

If you haven’t noticed the mess on South Limestone, then you may want to talk to one of the business owners that the construction is affecting.

Pazzo’s, Tolly Ho and the other staples for college life claim not to have lost much business, but the establishments a little farther down the road are seeing major fluctuation from their patronage.

In a move to designed to improve the infrastructure on South Limestone, the Lexington Streetscape Master Plan was created. The plan is set to provide new storm and sanitary sewers, curbside rain gardens, water features, wider sidewalks, bike lanes and underground utility improvements, all set up to help the Limestone area be more prosperous.

Only the aforementioned construction problem may break some establishments before the renovations are finished.

“The council won’t stop making us pay taxes or rent, but they’re cutting 80 percent of our business,” said Beth Hanna, owner of Hanna’s on Lime.

If 80 percent of business is gone, there has to be some sort of compensation from the city. Usually helping out doesn’t mean taking business away.

The $17 million project on South Limestone didn’t sit well with the South Limestone Business Owners Association. The group filed for an injunction on July 23 that would have halted construction. However, the injunction was denied, construction began and the businesses lost. Owners said they had only three weeks notice of the construction and that their city council member, Diane Lawless, who could not be reached for comment by the Kernel, did not know about the project.

Consolation prize: Contractors give the business’ weekly meetings to debrief the owners, and they don’t have to totally close.

“Students are still going to want to get a burger from Tolly Ho,” Hanna said. “People will walk underground to get pizza and beer, but Pazzo’s doesn’t have gravel in front of its door.”

Undoubtedly, Limestone will be better off for the changes, however, until July 1, 2010, there will be serious business issues. But it seems like a lot more planning should have gone into an undertaking as big as this.

Small businesses not only provide the city with unique, individual products, they also provide unique individuals with their livelihood.

Furthermore, there should have been forums and outlets for owners and patrons to express their concerns with such a big project, prior to it happening

All that said, probably the biggest concern is the way traffic seems slow as far back as Nicholasville, the city not the road.

This situation just goes to show that some business decisions aren’t about business at all.