By and large, most Uptowne businesses contacted by the Olds Albertan are OK with construction work underway in the area.In fact, most say they're pleasantly surprised with how quickly it's proceeding.Sidestreet salesperson Theresa Temoshawski is one such person.“It's been really good,” she says.She says customers are still coming into the store despite the construction, and the fact they have to park well away from the store, because Sidestreet has a sale on.A customer confirms that, noting she came all the way from Cochrane to take advantage of that sale.She says the fact she had to park well away from the store was annoying – she calculated the distance at 220 metres via her cellphone – but says the sale was worth it.Rip's Audio Video salesperson Bill Faulkner agrees.“They're doing a great job. I can't believe how fast they moved,” he says.However, Faulkner says one issue has been the narrow sidewalk as a result of the construction.He says their hot tubs normally come in the front door because they can't get in the back door.“We can't get them in the front door because part of the sidewalk is (unavailable),” Faulkner says. “If we really struggled we could probably get a hot tub in here but I don't know if we could even make the corner right now because the sidewalk is too narrow. I think we're hooched until the job's finished.”It's no problem to get merchandise other than hot tubs in through the back door.Faulkner says one day about a week ago their store was “blocked off completely.”“You couldn't get past our store at all, because they were putting a line into the building. But it was only a matter of hours before they got that opened up again,” he says.Faulkner is confident people will get used to all the disruption and adapt to it.Bev Weil, manager/owner of All Your Pets, says sales at her store have been down as a result of all the construction. The gas leak that occurred Aug. 5 when an excavator hit a gas line was also a problem.“I had to close my doors and the power was out for three hours,” she says.But in the end, Weil believes all the disruption caused by the construction will be worth it.“We've been living on borrowed time with those old pipes that were in there. They were so small. What if one of those pipes burst and I had water backed up through my fish tanks or something,” she asks.However, Weil would like to have more communication with the contractor.“There's been nobody who's gone around to say, ‘this is where we're at right now.' It would be nice to have a weekly update to say ‘this is what we've got done, this is where we're going this week,'” she says. “Because I'm sitting thinking, ‘gee, they've got the road back together now, are they going to pave it and let people go through or are there other things that they have to do?'”She stresses that communication doesn't have to be on a day-by-day basis.Michael Fix, owner/manager of Gotcha Jeans, says the disruption caused by the construction underway is “all right; not bad; they're doing what they can,”He says so far he's encountered one problem as a result of the construction.“There was one day when they had the sidewalks closed so I had to make signs to use our back door,” Fix says.Phil Stevens, owner of Stevens Jewellers, doesn't have an issue with the work or with the amount of communication.“I think they've been doing a nice job. I don't have any complaints about them. I don't know how they could do things faster and better,” he says. “It hasn't affected my business at all at this particular time.”Barb Schwab, owner/manager of Craig's Store, agrees.“I was away for three weeks but it sounds to me like everything's on schedule,” she says.Her building had the highest readings when a gas leak occurred on Aug. 5. She's happy with the way the fire department, ATCO, etc. attended and dealt with the matter.Angie McCord, local manager of The Brick, says surprisingly enough, business at their store has been good, although she notes construction on their block is only expected to begin this week.“Actually we're doing well still. Considering everybody's on holidays and camping and stuff we're still getting lots of business,” she says.McCord has no problem with the communication between her business and workers undertaking the construction project.“Every couple of days they come in here and make sure everything's OK. I think they've been really good, very polite. They have a job to do. They had an error the other day with the gas leak, but you know, that happens,” she says.Although some people have driven down the back alley as a result of detours created by the construction project, McCord and other business owners say that hasn't been a problem.“The fact that they're still trying to get here is definitely a positive thing for us,” McCord says.Scott Chant, the interim director of operational services for the Town of Olds, says so far, the detours and traffic in back alleys hasn't been a problem for the town.“We haven't seen any issue with traffic congestion or anyone speeding down alleys,” he says.But they have had an issue with people relocating signage at the end of the block warning people about the construction zone and advising where they can park.“They get relocated or knocked down,” he says.“Last weekend when I came through downtown, the ‘road closed' barricades that were on 50th Avenue were across the train tracks. They were saying the road was closed across the train tracks. So some friendly people had (decided) to re-organize the signage.”Chant says the town has received some “concerns” about lack of parking as a result of the construction.“I wouldn't call them complaints,” he says.The issue, he says, is that some construction vehicles were taking up potential parking space.Chant says town officials asked construction officials to move those vehicles and they complied with that request.
