Wetumpka Sinkhole Forces Business To Move
It’s been a hard time for the Stoddard’s Bait and Tackle Shop.
Since the sinkhole opened in their parking lot, they had to move down the street.
Even though there are signs, not everyone has noticed the new location.
“This is our most busy times of year and that is one of the reasons it has hurt us so badly because you have a three or four month period in this business to make your year’s living and this is it,” said store manager Craig Ellis.
Ellis says the shop lost 30 to 40 percent of its business since the sinkhole opened up.
They still carry just about everything you could want, including live bait.
So what’s ahead for the store?
“Chances are we will be here permanently. This is actually the original Stoddard’s property before the bait shop as we know it was built. So it’s coming home and some of that heritage is going to stay with it,” said Ellis.
The city has covered the hole and surrounded it with safety cones, but repairing a sinkhole is no easy fix.
The hole opened up after some bad rain 9 weeks ago, but it really started during the Christmas floods.
Now Wetumpka’s director of public works says Stoddard’s original bait and tackle building has to be demolished.
“It’s going to take approximately 90 to 100 linear feet of the street being removed to replace the storm culvert underneath the cross drain. The building will have to come out for that reason,” said Tex Grier.
“We’re ready to move forward with this and go ahead and get it cleared up. But we had to jump through a lot of hoops to get here where we are today,” said Mayor Jerry Willis.
The city is currently negotiating with the property owners to purchase the land so they can move ahead with the project.
The Department of Public Works estimates that once construction begins, it will take about two months to repair the road.
