PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WLOX) – Many people along Market Street in Pascagoula see construction as a sign of progress, but for some, it’s a sign of a major headache.
People like Tommy Chamberlain, owner of Tommy’s Exquisite Detailing, say he is losing customers because of the dust from the constant road work.
“I want to crash my car, but you’ve got all that dust going in front of your shop,” Tommy Chamberlain said. “Sometimes I think you’re locked in because the doors are down. The doors are closed because I can’t afford to leave all the dust in there for me to wash the cars. I only have two bays here. So when I opened the doors, the dust would fly, so I had to close the doors.”
Another problem is when I leave cars in the garage to give to customers the next day.
“When I wake up in the morning, the car is still full of dust. I have to wash the car again for the customer,” Chamberlain said. “Say the customer doesn’t get here for 15 minutes, what do you think is going to happen? I have more cars to work on. I have to get that car clean and it will be done dust. But I still have other customers to take care of, and that car is already dusted before the customer gets here.”
He said that a problem like this should have been considered during the planning stages of the project.
“Someone should have considered my business as part of this contract because there is no business on this street that is going to suffer because no one else does detailing or car washing but me,” Chamberlain said. “I went to the workers and all they do is laugh and joke because I get upset because of the problems they’re causing me, and they think it’s funny, but it’s not funny at all to me.”
“Someone reach out to me and talk to me. It’s causing me problems here. I’m really suffering, and people think it’s funny, but it’s not funny. For me to sit here every day and double over myself with the dust and everything else that’s going on with this project. I’ve been losing money since October on this project and it’s not fair.”
WLOX reached out to Pascagoula City Manager Michael Silverman, who said road construction is expected to be done in mid-February.
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