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ELKINS — A Davis Avenue business owner plans to speak before Elkins City Council Thursday and request financial reimbursement for the city’s closing for much of the summer the block where her business is located.
Emily Watson, owner of the Clementine’s Closet thrift store, said the continual closing of the block — while renovation work continues on the historic Tygart Hotel — has had a negative impact on her business.
What’s worse, she said, she and other nearby business owners received no advance notification that the block would be closed in mid-July.
“It started on a Monday, and my shop is closed Mondays, and I realized that they had the whole road blocked,” Watson told The Inter-Mountain. “And then Tuesday it was still blocked, and then we saw where the city had posted that the road was gonna be closed until September. And they had given clear directions to the public about how to utilize Davis Trust, but failed to mention any other businesses.”
Watson said she spoke to Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco soon after the block was first closed.
“We called the mayor a month and a half ago, and he honestly admitted that he let the ball drop on this one. He honestly told me that. And he apologized, but I was like, OK, what are we gonna do now? He mentioned about getting the one lane open, but it’s been a month and a half, and most of the time that entire block is still closed.”
To try to bring customers back to the area, a block party is planned for the area on Wednesday, Aug. 23 from 3-8 p.m.
“All the businesses have been talking and trying to work together. We thought of a block party,” Watson said, noting that the city has allowed the businesses to use the street on that day. Sales and special music are planned for the event.
“We appreciate them allowing us to use the already closed road, but (the block party) is not going to pay our bills,” she said. “On Thursday, we’re going to go to the city council meeting and we’re going to be requesting reimbursement.”
She said the business owners were especially upset that the block was closed over the weekend, on both Friday and Saturday.
“So they closed the road on the two biggest business days, right before school starts. This is killing some of our businesses,” she said. “It’s really disappointing that I think the city picks and chooses who they want to help out.”
Talking with The Inter-Mountain Monday afternoon, Marco acknowledged that he has talked with Watson about the situation.
“The block party will be to try to entice people to come downtown. We approved that request to close the block that day,” Marco said.
“After we first announced the block would be closed part of the time, we asked The Inter-Mountain to do a followup story the next day letting people know that businesses on that street would be open to foot traffic, which you all were kind enough to do. I’m not sure what else they want us to do at this point. It’s the price of progress, and it’s an inconvenience, I understand that, but we have done what we can on our side to let people know they’re still open to business.”
Marco said Watson and other business owners can come to the council meeting Thursday to speak if they’d like, but he said that is not “the proper channel” to request reimbursement.
“Realistically, she can come and speak to council, but she’s probably (also) going to have to speak before the Finance Committee, as the Finance Committee would make the recommendation to full council for what she’s asking for. They would have to approve it first, so realistically, that would be the proper channel to make that request,” he said.
Marco said City Clerk Sutton Stokes had already informed Watson about speaking before the city’s Finance Committee.
“We feel bad about the inconvenience right now, but for us it’s just the price of progress,” Marco said. “At the end of the day, we hope that it pays off threefold. But it’s just a safety issue for the city, you can’t have people walking around when there’s people working on cranes.”
Thursday’s Elkins City Council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
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