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Signs of Progress in New Port Richey Downtown

Jessica Bair/SUNCOAST

CITY WORKERS HAVE INSTALLED “businesses open” and pedestrian warning signs at the intersection of Adams and Main streets, in downtown New Port Richey, at the suggestion of a business owner. Many store owners in the city’s commercial district are frustrated with a slow-moving drainage improvement project they say has cost them valuable customers over the last six months.

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By Jessica  Bair | The Suncoast News

Published: October 17, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - City officials are making good on their word to help alleviate the strain on downtown business owners caused by the slow-moving Missouri Avenue drainage improvement project.

One move the city made late last week has drawn a rave review from one downtown business person.

The business owners recently complained to city officials about the hard times they have endured during the six months the drainage project in the downtown area and vicinity has been under way.

Last Thursday, city officials held a meeting at Christina's Restaurant with Steve's Excavating and Paving, the Clearwater-based contractor carrying out the drainage work, and several area business owners to address construction concerns and the impact it is having on the already lagging businesses.

"We do want to help them," Public Works Director Tom O'Neill said Friday.

"These are our hometown businesses and we'll do anything that is reasonable to help them," he added.

Peter Girouard, owner of The Barbershop, in the old Arcade building, offered suggestions at Thursday's meeting to resolve some of the issues.

One of his suggestions was placing street signs declaring that downtown businesses are still open, despite the disruption from the construction work.

He also suggested adding pedestrian warning signs to make it easier to cross Main Street to get to those businesses.

"It's dangerous to cross Main Street," Girouard says. "People just won't do it."
The drainage work has severely limited parking in the downtown area, both along the street and in parking lots, Girouard says he has noticed. This is a problem because many senior citizens will not cross the busy thoroughfare to obtain his services, but instead go elsewhere.

"We know it's a burden and we know it's impacting them," O'Neill says of the $2.2 million city drainage project now stalled at Florida Avenue and Adams Street. "We are going to stay in constant contact and work with them anyway we can."
And they have.

Thursday, "businesses open" signs appeared near the closed-off Florida-Adams intersection. By Friday morning, city workers were installing two pedestrian warning signs in the center of the Main Street corridor near Adams.

"You can't believe how much of a difference it's already made," said Girouard Friday afternoon as he watched cars obey the signs.

"They're slowing down, almost stopping," the barbershop owner noted. "I really am surprised at how quickly the city responded."

The drainage project, which is intended to solve flooding problems on Missouri and Nebraska Avenues, has experienced many "unforeseen issues" according to O'Neill.
They include:

• Having to rehabilitate 80-year-old utility lines.
• Being forced to rely on outdated records to pinpoint those lines.
• Working with high water tables.
• Experiencing problems installing the massive unit that traps oils, greases and solids from storm water before it reaches Orange Lake. The city installed the same type of device, called a CDS unit, at Pennsylvania Avenue and Adams Street about five years ago.

"These are the things you run into with a massive excavation project," O'Neill said. "But our main goal is to help the contractor stay focused on the work."

O'Neill says the contractor has promised the city to restore the current intersection with temporary pavement by Friday, before moving across Main Street.

The city will, in the coming weeks, add signs for parking in the rear of the Arcade building. The entire project is now set to be completed sometime in January.

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