BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
In our continued coverage of the Rockland County Infrastructure disaster which was caused by the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) project the latest information is that local businesses in North Rockland, from Stony Point down to Congers along the 9W corridor, have not been compensated for the negative economic problems they are facing as a result of the tearing up of Route 9W and the inability of customers to get to businesses.
The CHPE project, a major infrastructure initiative which is planned to bring renewable energy down from Canada to New York City, has been laid across several regions, including what is known as the 9W Corridor which runs from Stony Point down to Nyack. Regardless of the stated long term goals and benefits, local businesses have lost a combined $10 million.
Construction projects are supposed to help the residents and businesses by improving the infrastructure in an area, not create a nightmare that ends up costing many of the businesses in the area a combined millions of dollars in lost revenue. This is what has happened in the Route 9W corridor from Congers all the way to Stony Point, which is what the businesses and residents in this area say CHPE has created and caused. They have blocked off streets and even private property entrances or made it more difficult for customers to get to the businesses in this corridor, so they go to a similar one not being affected by this.
Some examples of the disruption to business which have caused the loss of business come from Mike Tracey of Congers Auto Spa, Vinny Curran of Vinny’s Automotive and Frank Zaccaro of FZ Perfection Autobody Collision, in Congers and Mario Espana in Stony Point.
Tracey said in an interview a few months ago, “Well, for, for the last year, I would say, the car count coming into the car wash and the express salute has gone down dramatically. Our business is 80% return customers, 20% impulse which are new customers that drive by. We’ve effectively lost that 20% because we just don’t have people using this corridor to drive down. The other 80%, my customers call me and tell me I can’t get through because it takes me too long. As an example, I mean, my car count in the wash last October was 4200 cars. This October it was 1900. So that’s off more than 50%. 2300 lost cars.”
He added, “In the express lube, we’re finding, depending on the month, 10 or 15% fewer cars coming through. That’s had a dramatic impact on the business. The other problem that I would note is one of the things is, people look on Google Maps to see what the best way to get to somewhere is. Google Maps has shown this corridor red or closed for basically the last 6 months, 6 days a week. That’s a problem because when it rains, they’re not even out here working, but it’s still closed on google maps. That’s, that’s presented a real problem for us.”
Curran was in attendance at the roundtable. The question for him and Zaccaro, beginning with Curran is Since the round table, have things improved at all? His response was, No.
The next logical question is, Have they gotten worse? “Well, I would say that this bottomed out a while ago and it’s still on the bottom. See, what I find it affecting me is in three different areas. Number one is the routine loss of business, which is upwards of 30%. But also, when my guys go out on a road test, 10-minute road test, now it’s taken them 25 minutes to make that road test. That’s 10 road tests a day. That’s 150 non-productive minutes that I’m paying my guys for and I could be doing something more productive. The other thing I’m completely not happy with is that they came onto my property to put the new gas line in. The damage they did and their answer to it, they, sure, they dug the hole, they put the pipe in, they filled the hole, they blacked out the hole. But what they did is they damaged all the blacktop around it with their machines. I’ve got pictures to show you all the cleat marks in the blacktop around the trench. When I brought it to their attention, their answer to me was, ‘it’s all blacktop.’”
Curran’s response was, “But it’s all blacktop. That was in good shape until you guys came in.” He agreed that age of the blacktop has nothing to do with it. It’s not as if it already had cracks and pieces falling off.
He said this would cost him 10 – 15% of his revenue. This is on top of almost 30% each time, each month, month over month he is losing now.
I pointed out to them that I’ve spoken with other people, and they say it seems like these people just don’t care about the small businesses. Okay, we’re going to do what we’ve got to do and damn the torpedoes full steam ahead. If you go out of business, oh, well, not our problem. That’s what people have been saying to me.
“Absolutely”, Zaccaro agreed. These communities, our community, all these communities are built on small businesses. We have families that work for us. Employees that count on us. If we let them go or give them a week off they’ll find work someplace else and then we can’t get them back. We all pay sizable taxes.
When discussing the way, the CHPE people did work on the properties Zaccaro added, “These guys could put down plywood in your parking lot to drive over. I’ve had work done on my house and they lay big sheets of plywood down in your yards and when they come in with the backhoe, they don’t leave ruts in your yard. It would just make sense, so they don’t have to cause another $5000 of landscape work. These guys could have laid plywood down in Vinnie’s parking lot, drove the excavator on that.”
He said they could have dropped it, cut it with a, a wet saw. Pointing out that they are handy people. They work with cars and their hands. They know how to do the job right.
“They didn’t do it right. They damaged my side. They damaged the corner of my building with the machinery. They could have put plywood up against the building. They could have put plywood around the side. It takes a couple of screws and a couple of sheets of plywood to take simple precautions. You know, that is very frustrating to see them damage stuff, then you call the police, they come. They take your information; they write a report and say they need to know the excavator or the foreman’s name on the job. You give them the name; you text all these guys. I’ve gotten their phone numbers. I’ve texted them telling them I need the excavator’s first and last name for the report. They refused saying I can’t give that to you. You have to contact Grace.” Zaccaro said.
One business in Stony Point, Pasta Cucina saw a major decline in customer traffic, because of the construction-related detours that caused an elderly customer who was coming from out of the area to cancel an 80 person party because they were afraid they were going to get lost because of them. That cost him $10,000.
CHPE has refused to take any responsibility for the millions of dollars that local businesses have lost due to the work they have done. They stated, “The company is not responsible for the financial hardships experienced by local businesses. They stood by their work adding that construction is being done the way it is supposed to be done according to the approved plans and regulatory requirements, and they claim that efforts have been made to minimize disruption where they could.
One business owner in Stony Point, who wished to remain anonymous, said that a supervisor came into the shop and told them that the workers would not be coming in anymore because of the social media complaints about he project. Eventually this was repealed, but the business had lost thousands of dollars in the interim.
State Senator Bill Weber held a round table in October 2025 to hear complaints and concerns from the business owners along the corridor.
Steve Beckerle owner of Beckerle Lumber explained the impact of the project pointing out that the big box stores are not affected by this in the ways that the local businesses are.
Rocky Alexander, owner of Rocs Kitchen in Stony Point explained the impact on his business. “I’m known in the area so I would just go and ask the debate what’s going on?” They (teachers) would tell him that they can’t make it there and get back in time because of the construction. They only have 40 minutes. That’s the biggest thing.”
The key to solving any conflict is communication between the parties. This is something that many of the businesses are calling for. They want clear information on what and when things are going to happen. They also want CHPE to balance their work with the economic needs of the businesses in the area.
As of now, there is no solution to this problem. The next phase of the project is scheduled for this spring and is proceeding according to their plans. The question is, how much more economic damage is going to be caused to the businesses along the 9Wcorridor?
Rockland Post will continue to update our readers as new information comes.