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Construction is killing us, businesses say

The timing of work on Coronado Drive couldn't be worse, they say: spring break.

By SHEELA RAMAN
Published March 9, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] Tony Constantine of the Clearwater Police Department closes a parking lot Thursday at Coronado and Devon drives in Clearwater Beach.

CLEARWATER - As spring breakers start flooding the beach, they are finding it full of concrete, construction workers and dust from the city's much-anticipated BeachWalk project.

It's just a week since the city launched the second phase of BeachWalk construction, but businesses, already frustrated by the first phase of work along Coronado Drive, are outraged. They say the construction's timing couldn't be worse.

Businesses say they're finding neither customers nor their deliverers can access their parking lots or entrances because of construction. The goal of the renovations is to make Coronado Drive more vehicle-friendly, with more streetlights and sidewalks, said Garry Brumback, assistant city manager.

"This has absolutely killed our business," said Lorraine Tracey, co-owner of Anchor Mini-Mart "It's totally taken away people who are driving by and stop in for a pack of smokes or a bottle of water."

The pain will continue for months. Last week, the city closed S Gulfview Boulevard to start construction of wide promenades and construction crews took over the 200-plus parking spaces at Pier 60. While the city leased nearly 100 spaces nearby for public parking, the lack of parking plus the construction zones have made for slow going all along the beachfront.

Tracey said she and her sisters have hired a lawyer to discuss their concerns with the city about having their parking lot blocked off by a sidewalk. Tracey said the elevation of the sidewalk above the entry level of the store will cause it to flood in heavy rain.

"We've been waiting all year for spring break, and now it's taken away from us," Tracey said.

Crabby Bill's on Causeway Boulevard is sheltered from much of the construction, but traffic congestion has kept away customers and made it difficult for employees to get to work, said manager Joyce Ostrander. She said many spring breakers have chosen to stay in Tarpon Springs instead of on Clearwater Beach.

"It's horrible," she said. "It took one of our managers two hours to get here from Edgewater Drive in Dunedin."

For Barbara West, the ongoing construction was too much to bear.

She said she snapped one day in December, hurling objects and screaming harassments at construction workers outside her business, Alex Family Restaurant on Coronado Avenue. West, 60, was arrested on two counts of battery. She said she had never had trouble with the law before.

"I have not been able to get a delivery for months," she said, because delivery trucks cannot access the store. "I have fallen apart carrying cases of potatoes and eggs by hand into my restaurant. I have let almost all my workers go. I have gone from making $800 to $1,000 a day to $31 a day," she said.

"I am going to sue the city for the hell they have caused me."

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 22:40:49]