Did you ever wonder who suffers the most during road construction?

By David McClelland

As I sit in long road construction caused traffic delays, I wonder about all of the people and businesses that suffer from it and wonder just who suffers the most. Is it the commuters who must deal with these delays every week-day? Is it the school bus drivers trying to maintain a schedule? Is it all of the emergency vehicle drivers to whom every minute counts? Is it the food service businesses along the routes under construction who have watched their revenues drop by as much as 40% during this period? There is no doubt that all of them suffer to one extent or another. However, my candidates for the ones who suffer the most are the employees of those food service businesses who depend on tips for a big part of their total compensation. I have spoken with waiters and waitresses at Big Boy, IHOP, Panera Bread and Olga's along Telegraph Road and they are all feeling the largest negative impact as they see their tips drop to a fraction of what they were before construction. This year is particularly bad as the construction has gone on for many, many months with no end in sight. I have been told that some of these employees just couldn't hang on any longer and had to find other jobs. They had bills to pay and just couldn't wait it out. How sad! We heard that the businesses affected may get tax relief, but that won't help their employees. I think that it is crime that our county leaders let contracts that allowed the construction companies to keep routes like Telegraph Road under construction for all of these months. The contracts could have been written to require the work to be completed in far less time. What do you think?