Florida Street Project Getting Messy

City Of Mobile Florida Street Business owners are fed up with the drainage project. Now they're telling the city "We'll see you in court."

by Diana Lucio

Published: Fri, February 08, 2008 - 9:22 pm CST Last Updated: Fri, February 08, 2008 - 10:37 pm CST

An over three-million dollar drainage project has closed off part of Florida Street from Airport to Emogene since October.
Since then business owners say the project has drained their revenue, so they are pursing legal action.

Eleven business owners in the area filed a joint lawsuit against the City of Mobile and Volkert Construction Services on two counts of Trepass and Nuisance. "It's just really difficult for not only the business owners to make it to their businesses and conduct their business, but it's virtually impossible for the customers to be able to make it," Says Chase Dearman, Attorney.
Eileen Schwarz owns 'Knot Just Beads' and says, "Our revenues are down are sales are down and yet we've incurred a lot more advertising expenses."
Schwarz says she's tried to advertise more, after several people thought her shop was closed because of the construction.
City officials say they regret the inconvenience but the project is long overdue. "It's a great drainage problem over there, there's a lot of flooding that goes on over there and there's a lot of residence that have also complained to us to fix the problem, "Says Barbara Drummond, a spokeswoman for the City of Mobile.
Drummond declined to comment on the lawsuit, but says the construction is only in phase one, of a two part project. Meantime they are doing the best they can to get the job done."We've had people out there from our traffic engineers to our engineers looking at how can we give them more access, we want to get the project completed as well,"Says Drummond.

The city initially set February 29th as the completion date for the drainage project. The estimate for completion has since been delayed until mid March.
The second phase of the project along Florida Street will be between Dauphin Street and Old Shell Road. No word yet on when that will begin.

To view the lawsuit click on the link to the right of this page.

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luvurlife Says:

Wed, Feb 13, 2008 at 11:28 am

That’s a funny idea about the calling 311. It might help to get out some of frustration. I did call 911, one day, when my car got stuck in the mud on Florida St. The operator tried to explain me that my situation was not an emergency. Boy, did she get an earful. After ranting about how it was not my problem that I couldn’t get out of my car, to her and a City of Mobile employee, they offered to send a cop to pull me out.

asda Says:

Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 11:02 am

I know if I personallly lived in this area I would call the 311 service at least 2 to 3 times daily and become such a problem that they have to address you. I would not be mean to the people answering the phone but it makes an impact when you receive 50 to 60 calls a day about the same problem.

BroMobile Says:

Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 10:42 am

luvurlife has it right.
I live in the area as well and I’ve spoken with the contractors who work there. The answers/attitude I have received have been rude when asking basic questions regarding the construction, how long it would take and accessibility concerns. On top of that, the amount of work done on average is below par. One day they have 5 people there and the next they have 15. There’s no wonder as to why this project is late.

I understand repairs and upgrades need to be made. But choosing the lowest bidding contractor that doesn’t give a dern about the people who live and work there is a blight on this city. There should be guidelines on how a project is to be accomplished in an effort to protect a community. If it doesn’t work, CHANGE IT. There are smarter ways to accomplish what they are doing.

In one fell swoop, this project is decimating the business structure on Florida St and the city should support and help these businesses they allowed these contractors to destroy.

asda Says:

Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 4:32 pm

Another thing to thank Sam Jones for…..............He will turn us into New Orleans Before you know it.

luvurlife Says:

Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 12:29 pm

I don’t know where your information is coming from but this project started in March ‘07. In that time they have not even completed a full block. I live in a neighborhood in the middle of this mess & every day that I pass through, there is NEVER more than 4 workers out there & rarely do I see them doing much more than working their mouths. This construction has gone on too long & the businesses that are closing, being robbed & nearly bankrupt are the only ones suffering. Well, except for the guy that lives on Mt. Island, whose car dropped into the caving hole that workers failed to secure. There have been more that 15 robberies to businesses in this area in less than 6 months. One place was robbed 3 times. The last the robbers had enough time to load 700 lbs of pecans in 30 lbs boxes. That’s along time for a robbery that is less than 20 ft from Florida & less than 50 ft from Emogene. If robbers feel this comfortable next they’ll start robbing our homes. Easy prey since no one patrols