Thor Street store owner forced to use savings to keep business alive
SPOKANE, Wash. — Construction delays have forced one local business to dip into his savings to keep the lights on.
Dogtown Company owner, Scott Kates has been in the front seat of the construction on Thor.
“Dogtown has usually around 20 to 30 customers a day, I think I’ve had three today,” Kates saud.
Customers, including regular Nicholas Benscoter, have a hard time making it into the business because of the construction.
“I do have to make a big loop,” Benscoter said. “I used to be able to get into this parking lot really easy, but they got this really skinny little spot right at the corner, and I’m sure a lot of people don’t even notice that it’s there. But, we still come here.”
Thor Street was supposed to re-open on June 9th, making Freya a two-way street. That has since been delayed.
Kirstin Davis, communications manager for the city of Spokane, cites weather, supply chain issues, and subcontractor staffing as reasons for the delay.
“At this point, we are looking at about 3 weeks away,” she said.
Regardless of the delays, Davis explained the entire Thor/Freya construction is still on-schedule, completing by November 30th.
“The Freya side is less infrastructure challenging, it has less utilities under the street so it will move quicker,” Davis said.
Having to use his savings to keep the lights on, Kates is counting down the days.
“You can only mop the floors so many times,” he said. “You know, you can only make so many leashes, you can only send out so many emails.”
The city says it will let people know ahead of time when Thor reopens and construction on Freya begins.
They recommend drivers to pay attention to the signs and detours come mid-August.
READ: Thor-Freya construction makes life hard for local businesses
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