City councillors Mike O'Reilly (left) and Bill Sarai talked with West Victoria St. business owners on Tuesday (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

WEST VICTORIA CONSTRUCTION

Councillors get mixed reviews from businesses on West Victoria Street project

Jul 30, 2019 | 4:46 PM

KAMLOOPS — A pair of Kamloops city councillors went door to door to businesses along West Victoria Street on Tuesday, asking how they are holding up during the revitalization project that’s now three and a half months in.

Mike O’Reilly and Bill Sarai wanted to walk West Victoria to talk with businesses owners face to face, and gauge the reaction of the construction project to date.

“We basically heard a mix, 50/50. Fifty per cent of the people are very happy. Their business has gone up,” noted O’Reilly, who visited six businesses on Tuesday with Sarai. “Some other ones are struggling more, and the whole intent today (was) to reach out and ask ‘is there anything the city could be doing a little bit differently that might make their life a lot easier?'”

Sarai said during their visit to TRU Market, the owners said business is up due to the fact people have time to look at car prices as they’re driving through the construction zone.

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Businesses mentioned a couple ideas to the councillors that would improve their operations during the remainder of the project.

“There was a couple power outages that were identified that maybe we could identify a little bit earlier if we can,” said Sarai. “The water shutdown, if we can have water brought in. Some of the companies here work with dangerous goods, so they need an eye wash station or a chemical wash. Even the car washes need to wash their cars. They don’t want to have dirty cars for a couple hours. Customers are coming in. Even if they’re told a little bit ahead of time, and make arrangements, even for a water truck to be on standby that day. It’s not a big hit, but enough to alleviate one of those concerns.”

The city has said the project is ahead of schedule and the paving of West Victoria will be finished sometime in October.