Draining Florida Street Business?

A local restaurant owner says his business is going down the drain all because of a City of Mobile drainage project on Florida Street. Crews have been working on the street since October 2007, drivers are being detoured, and Whistle Stop Cafe owner, Hal Metzger, says that's cost him a lot of business. He says he may have to close his doors, "if everybody went down and roped off City Hall where you couldn't get down to pay fines, court costs, how would the City feel? That's what they're doing to us," said Metzger. A City spokesman says they are trying to publicize as much as they can that the Florida Street businesses are still open, but he says this is a necessary project that's been on the books for decades. A News 5 investigation revealed that Metzger was having financial problems more than a year before the drainage project started. Probate records show there's a lien on the Whistle Stop Cafe for nearly 30-thousand dollars in back taxes dating back to June 2006. Metzger says he got behind on his taxes because of a medical problem and he claims he's in the process of making arrangements with the City to pay those taxes. Metzger insists the tax lien has nothing to do with why his business may be going under.