One local downtown business owner is not pleased with the construction set to start in front of his downtown business that will eliminate his curbside grocery pick up service for those in the community who are immune compromised and most vulnerable during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Birch & Boar Charcuterie & Provisions is considered an essential service as a grocery store, said Brian Quarmby, one of five owners of the George Street business, and the city construction should be delayed.
The city posted a notice on its website Monday that says they will start construction Friday.
The construction is to create connections to the downtown renewable energy system and work takes place at Sixth and Seventh Avenue on both Quebec Street and George Street, which will be connected to the new parkade and downtown pool. The area will be closed to traffic but remain open for pedestrians to gain access businesses.
The first time Quarmby became aware of the impending construction was when he saw the big orange signs posted everywhere last Friday that construction would start on Monday.
"They were directing traffic away from our business," Quarmby said. "That's very detrimental to our business to have these giant orange signs proclaiming a road closure in front of our business."
He's since asked the city to cover up the signs for now so as not to deter current customers from entering the business, he said. He managed to convince the city to delay the construction by four days so now it will start on Friday and continue for up to two weeks depending on the weather.
"We never received our two-week notification as it states in the bylaw that they are supposed to give us," Quarmby.
The city posted an apology on their website for not giving proper notice of the construction.
"Late last week, city crews installed signage that notified residents of the upcoming closures without first informing adjacent businesses about the construction project," it is stated on the website. "The City regrets this oversight and is delivering letters this afternoon to the businesses with information about the project and apologizing for the error. The City is also reviewing its processes relating to notification of capital projects."
That doesn't mean much to Quarmby, he said.
"The first email we received said they were sorry they have inconvenienced us or caused us any concern for our business," Quarmby said. "They followed that up with two paragraphs about how amazing this new heat source is but I don't feel that's adequate communication. The most communication I have had with the city is through their Facebook page."
Councilors Kyle Sampson, Corey Ramsay and Brian Skakun all reached out to Quarmby but there was no change in the construction schedule as a result, Quarmby said.
"We're angry about how this affects our curbside pickup," Quarmby said. "It's something the city should be supporting. It's a socially responsible way of shopping and they're shutting it down completely.”
To make sure staff and customers stay safe within the walls of Birch and Boar Quarmby said the owners made the responsible decision to only allow three people in the store at a time. That results in lineups of waiting customers at times and having people wait outside in the middle of a construction zone is not acceptable, he said.
“I'm not going to make our customers stand beside an active construction zone while they're waiting to come inside our store and that is the city's solution. To me that's ridiculous to have people lineup who are immune compromised beside someone using a jackhammer. That doesn't really make sense to me."
The construction was scheduled for July and August and Quarmby wants it set back to those dates. It would still hurt businesses during those times, too.
"But we don't need curbside pickup when things are opened back up," he said. "But as of right now that is a vital service to people. If it's in July or August we'd deal with it but right now the timing that they've chosen is horrific and to offer no notification and to give a generic copy and paste apology doesn't sit well with us and I will absolutely fight it because it's wrong. For the city to not support local businesses during the pandemic is absolutely ridiculous and someone needs to be held accountable for it."
