The people spoke, and the City listened.
After hearing complaints from business owners at the Sept. 4 City Council meeting, the City announced Friday it will re-open the intersection of Galveston Avenue and Riverside Boulevard on Sept. 17.
10 Barrels Brewery partner Garret Wales told the Council the poorly publicized closure of the Galveston Bridge was having a dramatic effect on business.
"If the numbers from today and yesterday continue, we’ll have to lay off employees. Today...we sent home half of the staff. Twelve people didn’t make any money today," Wales said at the meeting. "Galveston is a ghost town right now; the streets are bare."
(Some commenters on our earlier post disagreed.)
Here's the release, sent out Friday:
In listening to the business community along Galveston Avenue, the City has decided to make a change to the schedule of the project. Through these changes, the intersection of Galveston Ave. and Riverside Blvd. will re-open on September 17. The Tumalo Avenue portion of the project will remain closed as will Riverside Blvd south of the Galveston Ave. intersection.
This change will allow for East-West traffic access from downtown Bend to Galveston Ave.
City Manager, Eric King asked for this change after a careful review of the reported impacts to the businesses along Galveston Ave. The review included City staff, elected officials and affected businesses.
In reaching this decision Eric King has said, “City Council and Staff recognized that our outreach efforts to the businesses primarily impacted by the project fell short of what was necessary for them to adequately plan.”
The intersection was initially scheduled to remain closed through Oct. 31. Do you agree with the City's decision?
