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Business owner left feeling disillusioned with City Hall over Hall Street construction

Brendan Quinn
By Brendan Quinn
November 25th, 2015

The construction that has been an ongoing presence on Hall Street for months now has negatively impacted some local businesses, and left some operators with a feeling the city is ignoring their issues.

Dr. Kathryn Bibby of Bibby Orthodontics at 310 Hall Street said that thanks to the Hall Street construction during the summer, her disabled clients are now unable to access her offices.

Bibby said that despite repeated requests to the city fix this problem, nothing has yet been done and she is feeling disillusioned and angry with the Nelson City government.

“The elevation of Hall Street was raised more than anticipated and that has created the problem with the handicapped parking access and the alleyway,” Bibby said in an email.

“We had full drive-up disabled access prior to the Hall Street project starting. There is no other level access to this floor of the building, only via stairs externally and internally.”

Bibby said that she is  “completely frustrated with their lack of responsiveness and accountability,” and that “their celebrations of completion of the Hall Street project over the summer were absolutely premature”.

In an open letter to Mayor Kozak and the city council, Bibby vented her frustration with what she says is “lack of action regarding the access issues your Stores to Shores project has created in front of my office.”

“Due to the unplanned changes in the elevation of Hall Street in front of my office, my disabled clients have been unable to access Orthodontic services since mid-July, “, the letter says continuing, “the City has partially completed work and then abandoned it.

“The lack of planning and foresight in this project is astounding; especially considering how much your project Consultant MMM has been paid. There was no detailed plan for dealing with the consequences to the alley or the area in front of my office, so instead it seems to have been placed in the “too hard” basket.

“Why are the City managers not being held accountable?”

According to Kevin Cormack, City Manager, disagreements over the initial design compounded with the potential impact construction would have on some of Shaw’s underground fiber line and infrastructure had caused the project to be delayed well past the initial plans.

“Certainly it’s taken longer than we had hoped because we’ve been trying to find a design that would satisfy the building owner and be safe and functional and that is a challenging piece of hill,” Cormack said.

“They would have to either raise their vault, or move it down in order for the design to work and we’re just waiting on their review and approval of that, and when that happens we’re ready to pour those two retaining walls and create this new pad.”

Colin Innes, Director of Public Works & Utilities, has been corresponding with Bibby over the last few months regarding her concerns.

Innes echoed Cormack’s remarks, saying that the project is and has been good to go and the only thing holding it up now is Shaw Cable.

“What they’re working on is making the move of their infrastructure,” Innes explained.

“They have to figure out whether they’re going to be moving the vault to the north or whether they’re going to be rising it in its current location. Once they’ve got that resolved then I’m able to get going on putting some retaining structures in place.”

Bibby expressed worry that because of the change in seasons, the project will be delayed again until spring of next year.

“It has been this way since mid-July when this part of the project started. Despite continued follow up by myself and the building owners with the City, Colin Innes has advised that they may not be able to restore this access before the Spring of 2016,” she said in her letter.

However, Innes is confident that once Shaw wraps up their approval process and gets things taken care of on their end, his crews, which are ready to go, will have the job finished by the end of the year.

“I’m eager to get this one finished of course, it’s one of the last pieces here and we’re very eager to get it done in 2015. We’re still looking to push forward with things,” he said.

Cormack expresses similar confidence yet is hesitant to say the project will be 100% completed by the end of December.

However, he assured The Nelson Daily, and by extension Kathryn Bibby, the pad will be functional, if not entirely finished by 2016.

“We’re starting to get weather dependent and so we’re feeling pretty comfortable we can pour the retaining walls,” Cormack said.

“We may have to leave it as a gravel pad for the winter and do the concrete in the spring, but it would still function fine as a drop off zone,” Cormack added, but stressed that although the crews have been ready to go for over a month, construction is “all dependent on us getting approval from a third party.”

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