Small businesses demand pause on SCDOT safety plan along Berkeley Co. road

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) – Several small businesses are asking the state Department of Transportation to put a pause on an ongoing safety improvement plan.

Bald Monkey Beanery is one of many businesses that set up shop on Red Bank Road with the intention of having small business success.

Their brand, along with those who work at Celebrities Barber Shop, Ace Hardware and Zenergy Gamers are among some who fear facing closed doors.

“They’re not going to turn around, come back. That’s a fact. It doesn’t matter how good the coffee is, how good of an environment they provide, doesn’t matter how good of a haircut. It’s inconvenient,” Bald Monkey Beanery owner Melisa Prevatte says. “I just have to start over, that’s not fair. People making decisions go home. We go home every day without.”

The orange and white stripes you see when driving the 1.3-mile stretch of road are a portion of the ongoing construction, specifically a drainage project.

The overall plan is meant to improve road safety following a study in 2019, which showed 29,300 vehicles traveled the area per day on average. The same study noted 429 crashes within four years, five of them fatal.

Five years later, business owners are growing frustrated with what they feel is a lack of urgency and consideration.

“We went from 50-60, now we see about eight to 10 a day. That’s on a good day,” Celebrities Barber worker Jesus Cruz says. “$3,000 a week down to $1,500 a week.”

Safety improvements, according to the department website, would include street lining, sidewalks and medians.

Business owners say they have felt foot traffic tank since the entrances on their side of the road were blocked by the construction. With the potential introduction of a median, they are worried about how that would affect their ability to do service and the safety of nearby students.

“It’s going to kill us,” Ace Hardware Worker Steve Haskins says. “Our truck where we get our supplies is 58 feet long. If you put the median there, he would have to come down right at the school and try to make a U-Turn.”

Prevatte claims there have been at least four or five business owners who have left the area since the project started. The group adds the littering of state-supplied cones, equipment and construction is not only a nuisance, but it’s to their detriment.

“It’s an eyesore, nobody wants to go into a shopping center with cones outside. You can barely see the street signs and road signs to tell what businesses you’re turning into. Then the people walking, I feel awful for them because there are patches of sidewalks,” Zenergy Gamers owner Kat Hoover says.

The group has put out a petition with 70 signatures, asking the department and Berkeley County to put a pause on the project and reassess the impacts of business owners.

The department did not respond to requests for comment but a customer service line is available for questions, comments and concerns.

“It’s hurtful because we are the backbone of America, we are supposed to be the American dream, the power of the people and voice of the people. When we are voicing our opinions, when we are complaining, we are brushed off like a burden, like we are ignorant,” Prevatte says.

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