May Street to stay open

The owner of the May Street Dairy Queen is relieved that city council has turned aside a recommendation to close a portion of the street this summer to make repairs to an aging bridge.

Richard Schutte said the timing of the closer would have cost him an estimated 30 per cent of his revenue during his busiest time of year.

“Our concerns initially were a lack of traffic flow, the congestion and the problems our customers would have getting through those areas,” Schutte said, following council’s unanimous vote in favour of adding $183,750 to the $1-million contract to keep two lanes open.

“So much of our of our income is in those five months, from April to into August. That lasts us the rest of the year. So naturally we were concerned when the road is closed completely.”

City council on Monday night unanimously voted to keep the stretch of May Street between Southern and Northern Avenues open to two lanes of traffic.

Last summer, when portions of May Street was closed for resurfacing in front of the Silver City cinemas, Schutte estimated his businesses suffered a 20 per cent downturn.

Earlier this spring Schutte and his staff conducted an informal survey of drive-through customers, and found that five of seven came from the north side of town. Had council closed the road entirely, he feared many would have found alternatives for their ice cream fixes.

Schutte still expects reduced traffic flow this summer, but the hit won’t be as drastic, he said.

“We certainly will have some reduction in income, but we have loyal customers and most of them will find their way there. At least they have a way to get there now that doesn’t take them a kilometre-and-a-half out of their way.”

The support from council was decidedly in favour of keeping a portion of the street open to traffic.

Coun. Rebecca Johnson said she’s spoken to several business owners in the area and the response was the same all around.

“People are saying no more closing the area down. I feel we can still do (the repairs) within the budget allocation,” she said, noting the city had set aside $1.4 million for the project.

“We’re fortunate we have four lanes in those areas. I feel really strongly about this.”
McKellar Coun. Robert Tuchenhagen, in whose ward the construction will take place, said he’s fielded plenty of calls from businesses and said he’d rather spend $183,000 than see owners start to close up shop.

“In order to minimize the collateral damage to the businesses in these neighbourhoods, this would be the fair thing to do,” Tuchenhagen said.

Coun. Aldo Ruberto said the possible financial losses were too critical to ignore, and could cost the city money in lost taxes in the long run.

“This is the second hit they’ve taken, and I don’t think I can support this (recommendation), Ruberto said.

City manager of Engineering Pat Mauro, who made the recommendation, said council’s decision will have a major impact on the timeline of the project, which is now slated to begin by week’s end. The move will mean an extra six weeks of construction, extending the completion date to Sept. 15.

Mauro said travellers can expect to see vastly reduced speeds through the construction zone, a precaution to protect workers.

“It’ll probably be 30 kilometres an hour,” he said.