Stony Point businesses suffer losses during construction of pipeline to benefit New York City
Business owners just north and just south of a massive pipeline project on Route 9W said they will need financial assistance to survive through the end of the project, which is expected to last at least three more months.
Several family businesses in Stony Point are on the verge of failing due to constant construction of a pipeline that has been blocking traffic from reaching their storefronts.
Business owners just north and just south of a massive pipeline project on Route 9W said they will need financial assistance to survive through the end of the project, which is expected to last at least three more months.
David Cho, owner of Stony Point Bagels, said he has not been seeing any new customers, and business has plummeted 50%.
The state of New York is commissioning the Champlain Hudson Power Express, which will deliver renewable hydropower from the Canadian province of Quebec to New York City to help provide electricity to city homes and businesses.
Cho is unsure how long his shop will survive, buried in construction.
"I have no idea, honestly," he said. "We're just going day by day, and we'll see. It's hard to pay the bills sometimes."
A spokesperson for the CHPE project told News 12 project leaders are working with local business leaders to ease the pain.
"CHPE has offered to provide $100,000 to the North Rockland Chamber of Commerce to create a small business fund to support the small business community," the spokesperson wrote Monday in an email. "The chamber is much better positioned to determine the needs of the businesses in their communities."
Calling the situation "a nightmare," Stony Point Town Supervisor Jim Monaghan said $100,000 will not be enough.
His staff will meet with state lawmakers and business owners Tuesday afternoon to add up the losses and try to "pressure [CHPE] to come up with more money for our local businesses, and also to limit the work that is being done in the daytime on the 9W corridor."
Chamber board member Mari Rodriguez said at least ten businesses on Route 9W have lost 50% of their revenue since the construction started in early July.
"To whomever can assist these businesses," she said Monday, "we're trying to get everybody in the same room and come up with a resolution. That's all we are asking."
The CHPE spokesperson said the Stony Point construction should be finished in November, and cleanup will last into the spring.
He was not immediately sure if any representatives from the CHPE project will be attending Tuesday's meeting.
