Businesses in downtown Norwich are reeling from months of scheduled construction and unintended complications that have ensnared the downtown with constant, inescapable traffic jams.(Photo by Tyler Murphy)

NORWICH – Businesses in downtown Norwich are reeling from months of scheduled construction and unintended complications that have ensnared the downtown with constant, inescapable traffic jams.

City of Norwich officials have no solid estimate for when the work might be actually completed. A few weeks ago, they cited an October date, but now workers are saying November. Business owners are concerned it will not be finished before the end of the year, if they can even make it that long.

Downtown Norwich businesses are reporting massive drops in revenue, with most reporting making between half to less than a fifth of what they would normally earn. Businesses have reduced their hours of operation and have laid off staff, and even getting deliveries can be a challenge.

Many business owners who spoke to the Evening Sun said they were not being well informed on the changing construction plans and were blindsided when crews began working in the daytime instead of at night as they had originally been told.

Teaser's Hair & Nail Studio, Deja Brew

Melissa “Missy” Beers, is the owner of Teaser’s Hair & Nail Studio and Deja Brew, both located on Broad Street in Norwich.

She is a board member of Commerce Chenango and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021.

“The salon has not really seen a change because we book by appointment, and people have had appointments scheduled out, but the coffee shop has definitely dwindled and been slow,” Beers said. “I think people are frustrated with the communication and the fact it was suppose to be night work and now it’s day work. It wouldn’t have impacted the businesses if all this stuff was done at night time.”

She reported a “dramatic” drop in revenue. “We have definitely cut hours, but it’s not fair to the staff.”

Beers said the decline made staffing harder but she made the conscious decision not to cut hours too much or change staff. She did not want to risk losing her good employees over a temporary drop in business, forcing her to invest more of her own money.

“The communication was terrible,” Beers said of the City of Norwich. She said the local workers seemed to offer more helpful information than officials.

“I was informed it would be night work, it lasted two weeks and then one of the workers who came in for a haircut told me that the reason the city went to daytime was because of provisional wage, because of what they were going to have to pay the workers more money to work at night,” she said.

Beers said city officials had still made no serious effort to contact her or other business owners. She said she had not seen a member of the city common council even visit the downtown stores since work began, noting an exception of the mayor, Brian Doliver.

“You know, the money the city saved in not paying the workers to work overnight, the businesses combined have probably lost that much money,” she said.

Apart from traffic, the construction has caused a large amount of debris and dust to scatter across the downtown, adding to the issues, Beers said.

“The fact the buildings are disgusting and dirty, you know? I hope someone comes down to clean them,” she said.

She said Commerce Chenango was working hard to help fill the needs. “We are trying to let people know that there is still parking, all the lots are suppose to be open, the street parking in front of the businesses is not there. But all the lots are available.”

Other business owners had shared their frustration with the city and the chamber, Beers said. “It’s nice they are doing it, it will be better in the end, for the greater good,” she said.

Deju Brew also opened a coffee stand in the park during the Summer Park Concert Series. “That has helped a little bit,” she said. The business offers door dash delivery up to about seven miles away. Find them at facebook.com/CoffeeinNorwich.

Kozmo's Hometown Eatery

Kozmo’s is a new Norwich eatery opening March 5 in downtown Norwich. The business has been hit very hard by the delays and may even have to close as a result.

“So, I’m Wile E. Coyote and the cliff is closing, I’m like peddling in the air above the cliff,” said owner Savannah Collins.

She said revenues inside the business had fallen to less than 20% of what was normal prior to the construction.

“Last week, I think I made about $2,000 in the whole week. We used to do that in just one day. I’ve had to let staff go. It has been awful. We are close to closing right now. It’s so crazy to think this happened,” she said.

The store has also reduced open hours.

“They were doing night work but switched,” she said.

The day the construction switched from nighttime to daytime happened without any warning to the local businesses and happened in the middle of the work week, Collins said. She said other businesses on the street were calling each other looking to share supplies because they could not receive timely delivers that day as expected.

“So we are like, what’s going on? It was a little shady but it has just gradually gone downhill. On that Friday we were slammed,” Collins said.

Collins said her family put almost everything they had into opening the business and now could lose it all.

“We were just thriving, we had no issues at all, exceeding expectations as a business coming into this with nothing,” she said. Now it’s a struggle to make payroll she said. “The sacrifice that went into this place, not just me- everyone. The support, saying ‘we believe in you,’ it is heartbreaking. I could cry talking about it.”

“It is so unpredictable, that is a big part of the problem,” she said.

She went to meet with the mayor recently. “I had not seen the mayor since this started,” she said.

She said he acknowledged the problem and said the city was working with others to find financial relief. She said he blamed New York State.

“I just don’t understand why there wasn’t more planning for this? Like monetary help for small businesses since they are closing the literal downtown,” she said.

“I want the public to know these businesses downtown only exist because of them. So when you do have the opportunity, shop local, eat local.

“It’ll be great having a great road, but that road might not be in our future,” she said.

Kozmo’s delivers up to 5 miles find them at facebook.com/profile.

Minty's Candies and Treats

Minty’s Candies and Treats is located on South Broad Street. Owner Tracy Chawgo said, “Business has been probably just shy of nonexistent.”

He said construction began in the first part of July or late June. “We’ve had little to no business in the store at all.”

“Our understanding was the construction was going to be at night, and then it switch to the day and no one had a clue,” he said.

They have also reduced hours. They are open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Saturday.

Chawgo said, “We’re trying to do the best we can. We’re close to getting into our personal finances to support our business, which I’m sure every small business owner has had to make the decision to do that, it is just tough for everyone. It is really tough.”

He said the business has been in contact with the mayor’s office and (Norwich Community Development Director) Erik Scrivener.

“They are aware of it. I think they just were really unaware of how difficult it was. You can’t even come up south broad street Monday through Thursday to take a left to get out and around, because the streets are closed off. So you have to go out and around, and then figure out how to get - You basically just don’t have travelers that come through town because they are bypassing the city completely,” he said.

“Everybody knows that construction needed to be done, but there’s just so much going on, there are like different projects just on South Broad Street. Then you get into the side streets and then they are even doing paving, it’s just hard to get around downtown,” said Chawgo.

It is common for traffic to be backed up outside of the city during busy hours of the day.

“I don’t think anybody from the city really anticipated the impact it was going to have on the downtown area,” he said. “We all know what needs to be done and we all know New York has two seasons, Winter and construction, but there is a lot going on at once.”

“I don’t know if it was bad planning or issue with construction, I’m not a contractor but I can tell they’ve dug up the front of our store in the street, three or four times, just in the area down there.”

Chawgo said if his family’s livelihood depended solely on the the business they would be in serious trouble. He said he was fortunate that was not the case.

He said he was an exception and sympathized with his fellow business owners.

“This is their livelihood, and it is what is going to make or break them. I hope people are realizing there are problems and they are trying to eat at local restaurants and get downtown to support the local businesses it’s been a real challenge,” he said.

He said the Norwich BID is working to help people.

“To my understanding it has been pushed back to being completed to November 1, and that was the last thing I heard, they were saying October 1 just a couple weeks ago, now it’s November 1. So if it goes much further than that it’s going to get into the holiday shopping and we’re really going to be in trouble, “ he said.

He shared his own experience recently.

“So today I saw a woman fall on the sidewalk across the street, so maybe it was my history as a fire chief but I just ran over to check on her. I hit the button to go across the crosswalk and tried to work between the construction trucks parked down there across the crosswalk. I almost got hit by a car going by and ran over the street. I hollered down to the supervisor, in a white helmet, ‘Hey could you please move your cars off the crosswalk at least so people can try and get across the street?’

“I feel they doing what they can but they are insensitive to the local situation with the business, because they are focused on what they got to do. There’s just stuff parked all over the place.

“It’s almost like a war zone downtown.”

He also said, “If some of the political figures of the city would come through town and stick your head in the store, not even buy anything, but just let us know. Communication is huge.”

He said the mayor came a couple times and the director of planning over the summer but no one else.

“They should stop in and say ‘ hey we know youare struggling, be supportive and let the business owner and the community understand we care, we are there for you, and we are getting this done as soon as.... but we see no one.”

City of Norwich

Calls for comment to City of Norwich Mayor Brian Doliver and messages left for Ward 4 Common Council Alderman William Loomis on Thursday were not returned by press time.

When contacted Thursday, Common Council President David Zieno rebuffed any questions about the construction or concerns shared by businesses. He would not share any information.

He said he would not discuss the issue and insisted all comments must come from the mayor and not elected ward officials, who actually have a vote on the common council.

Asked about why the situation occurred and when the work might be completed, he said he had information but wouldn’t share it without the mayor’s approval.

Common Council Alderman Robert Jeffrey

City of Norwich Common Council Ward 6 Alderman Robert Jeffrey said he felt obligated to share information with local businesses and residents.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with the community director and Tracy Chawgo and Sal Testani at Commerce Chenango. There is a significant impact. When you have a detour cutting off business from the north and rerouting, that is huge,” he said.

Jeffrey said he had walked downtown recently and drove through it every day. He sympathized with businesses.

“I think the city understands just how big a massive inconvenience this is to business owners. This is why the city is really trying to assist with anyway we can, to make sure we don’t lose any of these businesses,” he said.

He continued, “We are talking about people’s livelihood, without their business, they don’t make a living. I am incredibly sensitive to the fact this project has not gone the way people had hoped.”

“I feel awful this has impacted downtown the way it has. No one wants to see that,” he said.

Jeffrey said major steps had been taken this week to address the issue. He said businesses could receive financial relief through grants. He said the city and chamber were working to arrange a possible reprieve that might offer tens of thousands of dollars in aid. The plan is still being developed and it is not certain businesses will get anything.

“We are still researching it, we are hoping this is something we can roll out very quickly. We hope businesses can stay on just a couple weeks longer,” he said. “At the end of the day we don’t want to see anybody close— that would be the most disastrous thing. If we see one or two businesses leave or close their doors downtown, that is catastrophic.”

A meeting to discuss the issue and provide possible options for relief will be discussed at a City Common Council meeting scheduled for August 29 at 6:30 p.m.

Jeffrey said the city should also do everything it can in the aftermath of the construction to get people to return to the downtown.

“As soon as the DOT is done paving, we need to make sure people are stopping and entering businesses and using them. We don’t want to lose any businesses because of this project,” he said.

“The main purpose of the work is to improve aging infrastructure and improve the appearance of downtown and improve accessibility,” he continued.

Some of the water mains being replaced in the city are more than 100 years old, some dating back to the late 1800s. “These mains are in really, really rough shape,” he said.

Jeffrey said he had been contacted by residents sharing concerns.

“So we need to see what we can do to help stimulate something, we need to do something positive because all businesses are seeing right now is a lack of foot traffic, a lack of retail sales. It hurts them, it hurts us. That is not good for the local economy,” he said.

He explained, NY State was responsible for East Main Street and State Route 12.

“As I understand it, the NY DOT said that the only work that needs to get done at night is at intersections. That’s why the project started out at intersections that started at night.

“So that’s why the work did not continue at night as they moved away from the intersections,” he said.

When the state DOT began working daytime hours, so did the city workers making repairs in coordination with them, said Jeffrey.

Jeffrey said the council had been under the impression the work would all take place at night until after it had began.

“I found out after the fact. After the work had already started-off that day. The DOT would not allow them to do the work at night,” he said.