A few business owners were on hand at the Morganfield City Council meeting Thursday night to ask questions and voice their concerns about the upcoming Phase II Combined Sewer Separation Project that will affect businesses and traffic in downtown.
Susan Mills, owner of Ace House of Carpet, said she is a small business in a small town and is concerned the project will disruptive to businesses.
Mills voiced her concerns for about fifteen minutes and stated the last renovation in downtown literally almost destroyed her business, as well as Andy’s business on the corner, and they still flooded.
Councilman Alvin Russelburg said the engineers are going to do everything they can to keep traffic flowing, but everybody is just going to have to be patient and wait until the project is finished.
Mills stated they should work longer hours to get the job done quicker, but Dave Derrick of Derrick Engineering explained to her this is on state and federal wage regulations.
Following Mills comments, Derrick gave an overview of the Phase II Sewer Separation Project to avoid the overflow issues in downtown.
Deig Brothers of Evansville, Indiana was awarded the contract for the project. Ron Dieg stated they would only be closing sections of the street at a one time in order keep as much local access to businesses and traffic as possible, but he added this is an intense project.
As far as traffic flow, Deig said…
Marvin Butts, owner of Marvin’s Jewelry and repair also voiced his concerns about his business being shut-down during the project.
Deig added that the waterline goes under the sidewalk and they will have to tear out the sidewalk down to the auto-parts store, which could cause a disruption of water services to local businesses. Butts stated he’s not worried about the waterline, he’s worried about his business.
Union County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Steve Carter also asked about a traffic plan that he could get so he could reroute buses. Deig said they would be working with contacts to let the public know where they will be working and detour routes. WMSK News is suppose to be included in the contacts to help get the word out to the public about detours and possible street closures.
They said the project will start in early September and take a year to complete under the contract, but they hope to have it finished sooner.