Monroe juggles utility, road work complaints from businesses

MONROE, GA (Sept. 21, 2025) At the September 2025 meeting, the Monroe City Council dealt with utility and road work complaints. Owners of three businesses adversely affected by lengthy and ongoing city work on its gas and water utilities infrastructure, and associated road repair work in and around East Marable Street. They complained to the city council at the meeting and asked if the city could consider compensating them for their claimed business losses due to the difficulty of traveling streets in the area keeping customers from coming to their businesses.

Christie Crawford, owner of JerJay Beauty; Laquisha Byrd, owner of 770 Vape & Hookah, and Darrin Cooper, owner of Kutz Amazing, all in a Hammond Drive strip shopping center a couple of blocks from East Marable Street, made the request.

Howard replied that it was not something the city has done before, and would need some consideration.

“I understand and sympathize,” Howard told the business owners, but he added, “this is going to be something we’re going to have to talk about.”

The mayor went on to tell the three business owners that work in the area went beyond simple road work to include the needed utility upgrades, contributing to the time that roads in the area have been disrupted.

Still he said, the city “will … be better about notification” of road work and other disruptions in the future.

In an interview after the meeting, Crawford and Byrd said traffic cones placed in the roads had served as a disincentive for people to make their way to their businesses, a situation they claimed had lasted for months.

Also in an interview after the meeting, Howard said that paving work, a last step in the disruptions in and near East Marable Street, is scheduled to begin soon, possibly by the end of September.