SASKATOON – Downtown business owner Elwood Flynn believes sidewalk construction in front of his store is putting him out of business. The local clothier has been a part of Saskatoon’s downtown community for more than a decade, but he’s been in business in different areas of the city for nearly 60 years.
He says this is the biggest challenge he’s ever faced.
“It’s practically closing our business down, we rarely see a customer,” Flynn says.
Tall wooden barriers went up in front of his store on 3rd Avenue South about a week ago. Crews are now repairing the century-old sidewalk, which was in a bad state of repair.
Back last summer, the city was notified about the condition of the sidewalk. People had been tripping over broken surfaces. Because the building’s basement extends underneath the sidewalk, it is up to the building’s owner to make the repair.
Luckily, Flynn is just a tenant, but that doesn’t mean he’s not affected financially.
“I’m afraid to even think about it, it’s going to be quite severe,” Flynn says.
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According to the city, there are about 20 such sidewalks in the downtown area. Because of their age, there are no safety certificates for them, so they must be rebuilt in order to make sure they are safe.
“They can’t guarantee structurally from an engineering standpoint that these meet any kind of standard, so the next course of action I guess is to remove them and put something down that is,” said Wayne Rodger, Saskatoon’s fire marshall.
In the meantime, Flynn is hoping the construction will be over soon, before it hurts his bottom line too much.
“It’s very uninviting,” he says.
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