Some local business owners in Flesherton have concerns about the plan to reconstruct a section of Highway 10 this summer.
Gary Ikona, the owner of Artemesia Cheese and Fine Food on Sydenham Street in Flesherton, says he and several other business owners have engaged the municipality in hopes the project can be delayed until after the peak of the summer tourist season.
Grey Highlands council approved awarding a $3.1-million contract earlier this month for the reconstruction of Highway 10 (Toronto Road and Sydenham Street) in Flesherton. It is being funded primarily by the province’s Connecting Links grant program.
The work could commence as early as July 3, and would result in single lane closures in Flesherton throughout summer.
“We all accept that the road work has to be done. It’s overdue,” Ikona says. “But we’re reliant on tourists in the summer, people going up to Sauble, Tobermory and the Beaver Valley. Around 65 to 70 per cent of our business takes place during those three months … it’s a bit scary, frightening for everyone. Because we’ve all invested so much in the town and our businesses, and the loss of that business would be devastating.”
Ikona says he’s hopeful the municipality will hear the plea of business owners and try to postpone the reconstruction project until at least mid-August.
Carol Wood, owner downtown Flesherton business Local Colour, is also concerned about the project being completed during the busy tourist season.
“Everyone is just recovering from Covid. We just need a summer,” Wood says. “It would be bad timing, to lose our summer trade.”
Peter Reitzel of The Bicycle Cafe says the rising cost of goods and staffing has already put pressure on small businesses, and the prospect of disruption to traffic and parking during “high water revenue season” could result in the “perfect storm to deliver knock-out punches to small businesses.”
“It doesn’t make sense to start road work before September,” Reitzel says.
Grey Highlands Mayor Paul McQueen apparently plans to try to meet with the contractor for the project to try to find a solution, according to the municipality’s communications manager.
“The mayor is trying to set up a meeting with the contractor to go over some of the concerns, timelines and anything they can do to mitigate the concerns of business owners,” Grey Highlands Manager of Communications Jerri-Lynn Levitt says in an email.