The town of Emily recently completed a large construction project on its main intersection of Highway 6 and County Road 1. The town celebrated by hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony in August, but not everybody is happy about the project’s outcome.

Some local small business owners are not happy with how the construction project was completed. Tracy Jones, owner of Emily Meats which is located on the intersection that was renovated, says the Highway 6 project has severely hampered his business.

“We’ve been open since 2010 here, and we’ve been through a lot running a business, but this highway project really hampered business. Sales are down as much as 50 percent sometimes, and I’d like just to warn other business owners out there to be aware of dealing with the Minnesota DOT [Department of Transportation],” said Jones. “It’s been quite an experience.”

A neighboring business faces similar problems. According to the owner who wished to remain off-camera, during the construction project, the ground in front of his business was dug up but never fixed, causing flooding problems that he says will cost him around $10,000 to fix before winter.

“The road looks good, but the sight vantages are worse on County Road 1 and 6 than they’ve ever been before. We’ve had some near misses in our parking lot. I’ve noticed other parking lots, they’ve had same kinds of troubles with the traffic. It’s just the road’s a lot narrower on County Road 1. We don’t have the turning lanes we used to have on County Road 1 and it’s affected a lot.”

To learn more about the Emily construction project, visit www.dot.state.mn.us. Click here for the story produced on the ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating its completion.

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter