ALABAMA: The St. Helena Star, as a business owner in St. Helena during the utility work being done on Highway 29, and county road work on the Silverado Trail, and how it’s impacted Main Street businesses.I am collecting a list of businesses that have not only been affected, but have suffered financial hardship over this situation.
I am so frustrated with the city, county and state for lack of insight on basic scheduling and management of these projects, creating traffic gridlock, in even a commute across town in St. Helena.Tourism is essential to our business and this traffic problem has deeply affected our financial outlook for this quarter.
I am also frustrated by the deeper problem of parking in the city of St. Helena.There is no parking infrastructure to promote tourism, and we have limited parking for employees, and a city that gives tickets out if and when our employees fail to move their vehicles within a three-hour window.
In retail, you cannot just leave the shop at any time or when you’re working with customers to go move a vehicle. This situation has been presented to city of St. Helena many times, with the suggestion of four parking permits, sold to a business owner for the year, with the ability to buy more if needed on an annual basis.
