Businesses fear impact of bridge closings

Date: 9/13/2011

Sept. 14, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — Mark MacDonald stands in the office of A.B.M. Transmission, the repair shop he has operated near the Willimansett Bridge for 20 years. Normally, the sound of passing cars would be easily heard, but since the bridge recently closed for its repairs there is silence and MacDonald is worried.

He isn’t the only business owner in the Willimansett neighborhood concerned about the lack of cars driving past their businesses.

“It’s like a ghost town down here,” MacDonald said.

He explained that he would receive several customers a week who had driven past his shop and seen his sign. That business is now gone.

“I still get calls from regular customers, but I don’t get new ones,” he said.

What complicates matters for MacDonald is a sign that alerts motorists that the bridge is closed, but doesn’t remind them the businesses are still open.

He is also fearful of what will happen when the Davitt Bridge is closed. That will mean the only way for people to reach Willimansett will either be by Interstate 391 or by choosing a route across the city. MacDonald believes people will simply elect to go elsewhere rather than face the inconvenience of plotting a new route.

Since officials have said the bridge’s repairs will be complete in 2014, MacDonald believes people will have long abandoned driving through the neighborhood by then.

Raised in the neighborhood, he added it was natural for him to have a business here.

If he considers moving his business — something he doesn’t want to do — he said he doubts it would remain in the city.

At the Money Stop Pawn Shop next door to MacDonald’s shop, employee Norma Berrios said their business remains about the same and she credited it to the fact pedestrians from Holyoke can still walk over the bridge. She expressed concern that conditions could change in the nearly more than two years the bridge will be closed.

At Gary and Nancy’s Place, owner Gary LeFebvre motioned outward when asked how is business. “Look at it!” he said, noting the long-time neighborhood restaurant was empty.

He explained that the restaurant would be “normally pretty active” by mid-morning.

He estimated that in the past two weeks his business has dropped 18 percent.

“We need some sort of sign at both ends [of the street],” he said.

LeFevre is running for mayor and said the conditions in Willimansett are an issue for him.

“There are still a lot of good quality businesses down here,” he said. “We have to keep all areas of Chicopee flowing.”

He is concerned that “not a lot of thought” went into the plan to close both bridges at essentially the same time.

Without help, LeFevre said, “Willimansett is going to die.”

Gale Sherman, the president of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, told Reminder Publications she would be making plans to market the area to the chamber’s members.

“It’s just a matter of educating the members,” she said.

Joe Ludwin, the owner of Ludwin’s Oil and Tire, is not as worried as other business people. He reported that so far his business has not been affected very much and explained the heating oil part of the business doesn’t rely on a physical location for success and that the tire shop’s regular customers are coming through.

He said that his family has owned the shop since 1947 when his parents opened it.

“Since 1947, the bridge has been closed three times and we’ve survived every time,” he said.