(KNSI) — The St. Cloud City Council voted unanimously Monday night to approve the design for a $5.7 million sewer and resurfacing project on a mile-long stretch of Lincoln Avenue.
The work extends from 7th Avenue Southeast, by Lincoln Depot in the south, to the city line with Sauk Rapids in the north, and runs right in front of Val’s Rapid Serv. The restaurant’s owners feared their sign, which has proven popular on social media and worth countless advertising dollars, would be lost. The plans, which were changed from their original December showing, make 18 inches of room between the sidewalk and the property line where the sign sits.
Co-owner Aaron Henning’s family has operated Val’s for 66 years and voiced his skepticism, telling KNSI News moments after the vote, “We have a verbal guarantee. We still don’t have a guarantee that the sign won’t be impacted. We don’t have anything in writing, and nothing has been totally assured.”
They would have also lost two parking spots, which Henning says would cut more than $140,000 from his bottom line.
The new plans, which leave parking in place, are a welcomed relief, but he’s still looking for some additional expenses when it comes to snow removal. “We’re still in the process of assessing what that cost to be, getting bids out and everything, but it would be somewhere in the range of that $20,000 to $25,000.”
Henning thinks putting a sidewalk around the place is a safety concern because many people coming from Lincoln Avenue to East Saint Germain or from East Saint Germain to Lincoln Avenue will cut through his parking lot. “Putting in a sidewalk and saying ‘people know there’s a sidewalk, they should assume there’s people there’ isn’t going to stop people from getting hit by cars.”
Henning explained this experience has him feeling abandoned by the council. “A lot of these city council people were elected on their pro-business, pro-community stance, and if we don’t have some sort of guarantee or any sort of reassurance that those things aren’t going to impact the business to the point we’re no longer profitable, I don’t know what we can really expect out of them.”
He hopes the project can improve the community because he understands the roads and water need work, and he doesn’t want to stand in the way. But he wants to ensure businesses are considered and issues involving parking and traffic flow through St. Cloud are considered more than in the past.
St. Cloud’s east side is coming off of two years of construction for the Highway 10/23 interchange project and other improvements, which caused major disruptions in the area.
Work will start later this year.
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