||| FROM CINDY WOLF FOR SJC COUNCIL and COLIN HUNTEMER FOR SJC PUBLIC WORKS |||
Dear Eastsound Businesses,
We’d like to extend a special thank you for your patience and support throughout the Prune Alley improvement project. As the road opens this Thursday, we’d like you to know how grateful we are for your understanding and fortitude.
Plans for constructing sidewalks on Prune Alley were first drafted over 20 years ago. This week, the work of countless community members, businesses, county employees, designers, planners, and more comes to fruition. We are thrilled with the outcome and hope you are, too.
We hope that improvements to pedestrian access, transportation and storm drain infrastructure, water quality, landscaping, lighting, and more, provide value to your business. We value safety, accessibility for all, and sustainability, and believe this project is an asset to Eastsound.
We are grateful for Eastsound’s endurance and support, and we hope you’ll celebrate the opening of Prune Alley with us on Thursday, September 1st at 6 p.m. We look forward to parading down the newly completed road together, sharing a few words and refreshments, and dreaming about the future festivals and community events Prune Alley will host in the years to come.
I think some kind of financial compensation for all the businesses who struggled or even lost their businesses would go a long way toward reparations. Surely there are grant monies to help out with this? What about getting the economic development dept to write grants for businesses who went into debt over losing business due to inaccessibility? Has Council thought of or discussed this possibility of how to make it right? Thank-you is a good start, but is it enough?