Grinning and bearing the impact of the Carlsborg Sewer Project has been tough for many locals.

Business owners along U.S. Highway 101 saw a similar scenario when the road was widened to four lanes from Kitchen-Dick Road to Shore Road, leading to less accessibility and fewer sales.

Along Carlsborg Road and its many side streets, it’s a similar storyline.

“Everyone has been impacted,” said Lisa Deese, owner of the Old Post Office Sweets & Gifts, 751 Carlsborg Road. “I’ve been doing horribly. I’m down about 25 percent (in sales).”

Deese hopes she can recover once construction finishes.

“I’m not certain,” she said. “The Thanksgiving holiday is a biggy for me because I do pies but that’s basically call-in.”

Deese isn’t alone in worrying about what’s next.

Several businesses say they’ve seen fewer customers and less vehicle traffic, leading them to cutback on staff hours and even days they are open.

Val Culp, co-owner of the Old Mill Cafe, 721 Carlsborg Road, estimates her business is down about $3,000 a week in sales.

“We’ve cut staff way back because you never know if it’s going to be busy or not,” she said. “When it doesn’t happen, we send people home. When you have six or seven people on and you’re paying all of them by the hour but only selling $100 worth of food, you’re going backwards.”

Construction

Physical work on the $9.025 million project began in April and is scheduled to be “substantially complete” by April 1, 2017, to connect the Carlsborg pump station to the City of Sequim via the Dungeness River Bridge over U.S. Highway 101 to a collection system at Grant Road and sent to the City of Sequim’s Water Reclamation Facility.

Meggan Uecker, solid waste coordinator for Clallam County, said crews for contractor Pacific Civil and Infrastructure plan to be off Carlsborg Road by the beginning of December and repaving it entirely over a few days in late December.

She said crews try to lessen the impact on locals, for example, last week construction was planned for five nights from 7 p.m.-6 a.m. along Smithfield Drive but it finished in two nights.

“We’ve done our best,” Uecker said about communicating with businesses and residents.

Once they finish repaving Carlsborg Road, Uecker said crews will travel east toward Grant Road but some work will continue on side streets such as Business Park Loop.

Uecker said the finished paved road will include a two-way center turn lane throughout Carlsborg Road.

Regular customers

Culp said they still see their regulars but they know the tricks to make their way through construction.

“A lot of people get here from the alley — go down to Kitchen-Dick Road and down Spath Road,” she said.

Even businesses with direct access to U.S. Highway 101 report a change in clientele.

Julie Schumacher, co-owner of the Carlsborg Station, 20 Carlsborg Road, said in recent months she’s seen an 8-percent dip in fuel sales and store sales from September 2015-September 2016, and an 8-percent dip in store sales and 11-percent dip in fuel sales in October 2015 and 2016.

To compensate, she’s reduced staff from three-four days a week to two-three but she remains optimistic going forward.

“We have many loyal customers who try to shop our store even with the road construction holding them up for 15 to 25 minutes,” she said.

Officials with public entities, such as Clallam County Fire District 3 and the Sequim School District, say construction impact has been minimal. Assistant Chief Eric Quitslund with Fire District 3 said the project led to some detouring but nothing major. For recent night work, firefighters parked several vehicles outside of the Carlsborg Station in case there was a call, he said.

Jeff Gossage, director of transportation for the schools, including Greywolf Elementary, said when the project first started it affected a few bus routes but the most recent construction will affect a few children, which they’ve notified families about.

“If we get enough notice, we can tell the families and make needed adjustments,” he said.

Deese said once she reached out to Clallam County officials did she begin receiving weekly updates.

“After that happened, they’ve been completely on it,” she said. “I thought I was going to get the brush-off.”

Uecker said county staff and employees with the construction firm continue to go door-to-door to tell neighbors and businesses when construction will impact them.

If you need help traversing the construction, Deese recommends speaking to a flagger about where you want to go.

Sewer concern

The business side of Old Mill Cafe is only half of the concern for Culp. She and her husband Larry spent about $40,000 in June 2015 to install two new septic tanks at the restaurant after Department of Health officials told them they needed to install the tanks to keep bacteria down or face closure.

Larry said they offered to clean and drain the existing tanks weekly, if needed, to prevent the added expense before the sewer system went in.

The couple has owned the restaurant for 13 years and are looking to the future of possibly selling the business but if they do, regulations state new owners would have to pay to tap into the system.

“Why were they putting us through this?” Val asked. “Now we still have to pay for the septic tanks. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

Uecker said about 30 properties signed up to connect to the sewer line so far and she’s received a lot of questions from residents regarding costs.

A connection fee is required, which costs $500 per equivalent residential unit through March, or $1,500 approximately by March 2019 or $8,000 after then.

Services tentatively will be available by March 2017.

Homeowners/businesses aren’t required to connect if they have a functioning septic tank but no new septic tanks will be allowed in the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area. New construction and new property owners of existing properties must connect within one year.

Side sewers are required for those who connect, which can be coordinated with a county-approved contractor or a separate contractor.

Initial user fees would be a base rate of $26 and $8.66 per 100 cubic feet of monthly water consumption for residences and the same for commercial/government customers except rates would multiply by the number of residential units each user represents.

For more information on the project, contact Uecker at 417-2441 or muecker@co.clallam.wa.us and/or visit www.clallam.net/PublicWorks/CarlsborgSewer.html.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

Amber Robb, a cook at Old Mill Cafe, prepares a meal for recent customers. Owners of the restaurant Val and Larry Culp have seen significant drop-off in clientele since construction for the Carlsborg Sewer Project began leading them to cut back on most staff’s hours. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash

Construction crews work on a portion of Business Park Loop late last week. Work on Carlsborg Road is tentatively set for completion in December, Clallam County officials say. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash