Shopkeeper Gets No Warning of Construction

When the owner of Ruby Slippers Boutique went to open her shop at 10 a.m. Tuesday she was shocked by what she saw in front of her main display window.

Actually, Carol Tjaden couldn't really see her main display window because it was covered in protective plastic sheeting. On the sidewalk in front of the window and right next to the boutique's front door was a utility crew with jackhammers tearing up the sidewalk to get to utlitliy pipes underneath.

That happens every day in boroughs and townships, but this happened without any warning at all, Tjaden says. "I called my landlord and he didn't know anything about it. So, you know, it would have been nice if they would have informed us. They could have started earlier in the day so there wouldn't have been any disruption of business."

Crews on the scene confirmed that it was a utlity pipe job but could not provide any additional information.  The work went on through the morning and lunch hours, at a time when several people crossed the street to walk around the blocked sidewalk and therefore weren't able to pass by the store's display window.  Access to the store's front door was not blocked but you would have had to have been going to the store to use that part of the sidewalk.

When asked if the work had hurt business Tjaden told Patch "of course it has."

Ruby Slippers has been in business for 12 years at 18 North High Street. The shop sells ladies' clothes, shoes and accessories.

The work was done and the new square of fresh concrete was poured by 3 p.m. but the sidewalk was still blocked for the afternoon as the new cement hardened.

Click on the video clip to see a time-lapse of the work to pour new concrete over the repaired pipe.