Lawmaker estimates $10M in losses for Rockland businesses affected by pipeline construction
Town officials are now asking builders of the Champlain Hudson Power Express pipeline to put $5 million into an emergency fund to save suffering businesses along Route 9W.
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Stony Point businesses are at an impasse with leaders of a pipeline project that's causing those businesses to lose millions in revenue.
Town officials are now asking builders of the Champlain Hudson Power Express pipeline to put $5 million into an emergency fund to save suffering businesses along Route 9W.
Construction of the CHPE, which will send hydropower from Quebec to New York City, has blocked part of 9W on the bridge over Cedar Pond Brook since June.
Some businesses report revenue losses of up to 70% this summer. The staff at Yummy Chinese, which is located just south of the bridge, said in August that the construction was chasing customers away. The owners said Monday that nothing has changed.
"People are ordering and then canceling because they can't get in," restaurant owner Jacky Lin said. "People [are] just not ordering because they don't want to deal with the traffic."
Stony Point Supervisor Jim Monaghan said Monday CHPE's initial offering of $150,000 to the North Rockland Chamber of Commerce's emergency relief fund is not enough. At last week's town board meeting, Monaghan floated $5 million as a starting figure.
State Assemblyman Chris Eachus's team estimates $10 million in losses among 55 businesses and notes that losses are still increasing.
CHPE contractors agreed to shift work from daytime to nighttime to minimize the effect on businesses.
That adjustment has meant nothing to businesses like Yummy Chinese, who are mainly affected by construction on the bridge. While other parts of 9W are being opened up to traffic, the bridge will stay closed through October.
"We know that we would make a maximum effort to make things better," Eachus said in a Zoom interview Monday afternoon. "Do we feel that CHPE is? No, not quite yet."
Eachus said he has alerted Gov. Kathy Hochul's office and the state deputy secretary for energy to the problem. He is also trying to involve the federal government to put more pressure on the CHPE team to open up traffic on 9W and put up more relief money.
