Businesses next to Indio road construction struggle

A road resurfacing project in Indio could be hurting small businesses along Highway 111.

The construction project has been going on for about six weeks on HWY 111 between Rubidoux Street and Arabia Street.

Cristin Orellana is a barber at Jocy’s Barber Shop in Indio. He says business has been shaved to the scalp with the repaving project in front of his shop.

“It’s frustrating because they turn off the light, the water doesn’t work, or stuff is moving in the street, and so I can say we have a lot of complaints for that,” said Orellana.

Orellana can’t even use a straight razor, because the bulldozers shake the shop so much.

Next store from Jocy’s is a mom and pop used-video game store called Game Quest. They have seen a sharp drop in customers since road construction began.

“A lot of people, they can’t find parking so they just don’t come in, we rely heavily on the people who come in and see the sign and they want to check us out but since all the construction they would rather just not stop by,” said Alex Gonzalez who works at Game Quest.

Other business owners blame poor signage by the city for their drop in customers.

Revenue for Cactus Jack’s restaurant is down 30 percent since the start of construction, hurting bartenders like Jack Kane.

“I think there needs to be better signage that says to enter the businesses in the construction,” said Kane.

All the business owners I talked with said they have no choice but to ride it out. The repaving project should be done by November 25th.

KESQ tried to contact the city of Indio to talk about the signage and see if anything could be done top make it better, but officials never got back to us.