Celebrate the End of Road Construction Season

Winter is nearly here.

That means an end to the "other season." You know: Road Construction.

In 2010, road work was everywhere. We coped with dust and detours, barricades and big machinery. We grumbled, we laughed and we counted the days until deer hunting season, because that's when we knew it would finally be over. And it was.

We can now drive down Menominee's 10th Street and Marinette's Hall Avenue. Did we mention Shore Drive, 14th Avenue, Cleveland Avenue, 1st Street and County Trunk T?

It's done. For the time being. And we owe a huge thanks to the crews, from departments of transportation in two states to project overseers to the guys who made it happen by operating heavy machinery, laying sewer pipe and wiring street lights. We offer our kudos as well to the businesses who sweated it out, who called us when they had problems, who made us aware of new challenges.

The chamber raised money on the Menominee side to erect way-finding signs on 13th Street so drivers could locate 10th Street businesses. On the Marinette side, we had a modest amount of money left over from 2004-2005 road work, and we used that to create signage. Sometimes our efforts took longer than we - or businesses that were impacted by detours - would have liked. It wasn't perfect. But we did what we could with a combination of radio ads, signs, newspaper stories and Facebook posts. Chambers are generally wealthy organizations, so we had to make a small amount of money go a long way.

We also offered a low-cost customer relations workshop and created printed tip sheets aimed at helping our members create must-visit destinations that would draw in customers, regardless of road work and barricades.

The businesses who took our advice - and the advice of other members who'd been through major road projects - reported positive results. One of our members made it a point to make friends with the road crews and go our of his way to offer top-notch customer service. He happily reports that his business did well during the 7 1/2 months of road construction.

It's over now. I drove through the new Highway 64/180 roundabout today - easiest thing in the world and a real time-and-gas saver. I cruised down 10th Street - smooth.

Yes, it was a rough year. But the wait was worth it.