College Avenue will be closed in parts of downtown Appleton starting April 30 to give crews a chance to replace crosswalks at several intersections.(Photo: Chris Mueller/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo
Business owners in downtown Appleton have had a lot to contend with.
Sales were slow for many this winter.
The April 14-15 snowstorm wiped out an entire weekend.
Now this: the city will shut down portions of College Avenue starting Monday and running for a couple of weeks.
Some shop and restaurant owners say they only learned of it when they saw electronic street closing signs this past week.
More: College Avenue to close as crews replace crosswalks in downtown Appleton
“Closing the city’s main thoroughfare for two weeks is going to severely impact downtown businesses,” said Josh Nave, owner of Cena Restaurant. “We business owners had little or no notification of the closure.”
He said he first found out about it Monday morning when he drove to work and saw road signs. “I thought, ‘no way they’re going to close the street for 10 days. That can’t be right.’”
It was right.
Information was posted Wednesday on the city’s website. Business owners got letters that same day.
Traffic will be rerouted for crosswalk repair at Oneida, Morrison and Durkee streets. When that’s finished, crosswalks at State Street will start. Sidewalks will remain open.
“You can’t spring that on everybody at the last minute,” Nave said. “I don’t think it’s been thought out. I understand they want to get it done quickly, but this is not realistic. A lot of our traffic during the week is business dinners. Once they see the street is closed off, they’re going to avoid it. I would say a hit to half of sales is a best-case scenario.”
“Of course it’s going to affect my business,” said Cathy Stratton, owner of Blue Moon Emporium, figuring she’ll also be down at least 50 percent. “We had a horrible winter, all the snow and now they’re going to close College Avenue?”
She said she’ll try to make the best of it by putting on a sale and asking customers to park in ramps.
Appleton Downtown Inc. sent an eblast to its members April 20.
“We sent it out Friday as soon as we got it,” said executive director Jennifer Stephany. “We knew the work was happening, but we thought the street was going to be open. Friday we found out it would be closed.”
Paula Vandehey, Appleton’s director of public works, defended the timing of the crosswalk work.
“We just got council approval of the bids. We had to wait for snow to be gone,” she said. “We’re very limited on when we can do our downtown projects because of all the events. We feel we gave adequate notice and had sign boards out.”
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