An Elgin Street business owner is calling on the city to cover his losses after a broken water main shut down bars and restaurants on Saturday.
Businesses owners said the water main on Elgin Street broke around 3:30 p.m., right before their Saturday evening rush. Taking away their running water, it made it very difficult for many locations to stay open.
Jim Bickford, the co-owner of Fresco Bistro Italiano located on Elgin Street near Waverley Street, said the city is legally liable for their Saturday night business losses and he plans to seek compensation with other owners. He estimated he lost $10,000, and the entire block of owners lost over $100,000, he said.
“The consequences might have been a bit better if the city had reacted a bit quicker,” he said, explaining he had to wait up to two hours for the city supervisor to decide how to move forward with the broken main. “We just want to get money back, it’s frustrating.”
Bickford said he had to turn away 120 customers, some of who had booked reservations months in advance. His restaurant had prepared for one engagement party and two large birthday parties that night, but the food ended up “going to waste.”
“Then there’s also the loss of the staff … and their income,” he said. “Most of these employees live paycheque to paycheque.”
Bickford said the city should have prevented these problems from happening in the first place by renovating the Elgin Street area. Like other communities, the area needs a business improvement area group to voice the concerns of owners, he added.
“As one of the oldest areas in Ottawa, you’d think the city would spend more time investing in the infrastructure, but they don’t pay attention to Elgin because they don’t get a lot of noise from it,” he said. “They seem to be waiting for problems and then fixing them when they come up, but they should be looking for things that are potential hazards and fixing before they become a problem.”
Bickford said the city crew told him the damaged eight-inch cast iron main was 48 years old, right next to an even older pipe installed in 1881.
“And it’s still in use feeding water to a building across the street,” he said.
At this point, the City of Ottawa doesn’t know what caused the breaks in the mains, and more information would be available this week, according to the Ottawa Citizen. It also has a claims process, outlined on the city’s website allowing residents who say the city is legally liable for their lost finances to present their case.
A second unrelated water main break blocked off Queen Street between Kent and Lyon streets Sunday.
“I don’t hold a lot of faith in the city, they are going to find any way to get out of it,” Bickford said. “Again, the small business guy gets screwed, it’s almost a cliché now. But everyone is in the same boat, I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”