The Rain in Muscle Shoals Falls Mainly on One Business

For some time we've communicated with a businessman in Muscle Shoals. This man owns a small business and has invested his life savings in the building and inventory. Yet approximately once every two years or so it floods. This has been going on since he bought the building 20 years ago; he can find no buyers for the property.

When this gentleman purchased the property, he talked with his councilman who assured him that the flooding problems in that fair city had been corrected. Apparently most of them have, but a few low-lying properties remain in danger whenever the town experiences a gully washer. After all these years, the man can no longer get insurance, and one neighboring business actually complained the last time this gentleman placed sandbags along the front edge of his property.

Is there an answer to this problem? The man has given up trying to get the city to work on the flooding problem. After all, they say it's only two or three businesses that are now affected. Live with it. So what is the man's complaint?

The City of Muscle Shoals has given tax relief to new businesses such as Zaxby's, but will not assist him in keeping his long term business from going under, pun intended. Is there an answer? Probably not, but long-term small business owners in Muscle Shoals should look at the situation and put themselves in this man's place. It just might encourage them to support him the next time it floods.




Shoalanda