Cindy Skop had no idea the City of Lakeland planned to close Orange Street for sewer repairs until she saw a large orange warning sign in the middle of the road Tuesday morning, just steps away from her five-month-old business, the Kitty Cat Lounge.
Communications Director Kevin Cook said the city’s wastewater division needs to repair a sewer main and replace sewer lines along the stretch of East Orange Street from Lake Avenue to Ingraham Avenue. The road will be closed to through traffic from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily until the work is complete, which is expected to take several weeks.
For Skop, 55, it was a frustrating case of déjà vu.
Just one day after she opened her coffee shop and cat lounge last September, the intersection of Orange Street and Lake Avenue closed for three months so underground utilities could be connected to the new apartment complex being constructed across from Barnett Family Park.
“We were really busy that first day, and then it totally dropped off,” she said. “I wasn’t even making payroll for a couple of weeks because of it.”
Skop said when the intersection finally reopened a few days before Christmas, business picked up and “we’ve had record-breaking sales days since Christmas.”
But she fears the new closure could derail that progress.
“I have had a regular guest already call me this morning. She comes about every week, or every other week, and brings her son. She asked me, ‘How do I get to you?’ She doesn’t know how to get here because of the signage,” Skop said. “I had some Qgiv folks in here this morning that also were stumped by it.”
Skop was crafting an urgent email to Jason Willey, the city’s Assistant Director of Economic Development, when LkldNow reached her early Tuesday.
“I’m literally writing a letter as we speak to Jason Willey to see if there’s a way we can move the signage or change the signage, because we have a huge Valentine’s Day promotion that’s going on right now. I’m not anticipating guests knowing they can even come right now,” she said.
In a news release, the city said the road will be closed to through traffic during work hours, however, “local traffic will be accommodated so that the residents will be able to access their homes.” After 3 p.m. each day, “Orange Street will reopen, and traffic will be able to flow through as normal.”
But that is not much comfort to Skop, whose cafe is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
City workers were clustered at the Lake Avenue end of the road on Tuesday — some breaking up pavement with excavators and others lowering a camera scope down a manhole. The sign at that end of street said “Road Closed.”
At the Ingraham Avenue end, near the cat cafe, the sign said “Local Traffic Only” and cars were able to maneuver through a gap between the sign and an orange cone. But not everyone was aware they could.
Skop said she was hopeful that Willey, who she described as “an absolute gem” to work with when she was launching the Kitty Cat Lounge, would be able to coordinate some accommodations to minimize the impact on her business.
“Should this job continue for weeks, this will mean thousands of dollars of lost revenue,” Skop wrote in her email.
Willey responded almost immediately, promising to make some inquiries and get back to her.
Orange Street was closed for a few days in June for emergency replacement of a very small segment of the sewer line. At the time, Cook explained that the existing clay pipe is almost 100 years old and has become cracked and infiltrated by tree roots in many places, causing it to fail. Bit by bit, the city is trying to replace all of its aging clay pipes with PVC pipe.
The Kitty Cat Lounge will be open throughout the road project. The front of the lounge is an open-access cafe with coffee from Ethos Roasters, juices from Southern Babies, pastries from Bandidas Lakeland and other locally sourced artisan foods and beverages.
In the back of the lounge, a bright room with glass windows and cozy furniture houses 12 adoptable cats and kittens. The cats are cared for by Saving Paws Rescue of Florida. Visitors who want to play with them donate $7 for half an hour or $12 for an hour in the room. The proceeds help to pay for the cats’ care.
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Unless you’re Publix, Rodda, Florida Southern College, Lakeland Regional Hospital or Summit, City of Lakeland doesn’t give a rip about you or your business.
I feel Cindy’s pain. Polk County Government communication is severely lacking.
It is city of Lakeland, not Polk County, and they issued a news release the day before work began.
I am aware of this fact. The City of Lakeland, which is wholly contained within Polk County, is a “Polk County Government” IMHO. Sorry for the confusion. The problem is rife with all Polk County governments.
They issued a press release, but did they notify the affected business owner? I don’t think so.