Part one in a two-part series.

After serving the Burien community for 38 years, Rainier Photographic Supply and Dick's Camera closed its doors for good on August 11.

Owner Jonathan Stone, who bought the business at 15421 First Ave. S. from long-time owner Dick Dahlgard, said earlier this month that the camera industry as a whole has been struggling.

But, Stone added, the impact of the ongoing First Avenue South Improvement Project on top of the industry-wide downturn was enough to put his business over the edge.

The $26.2 million construction project between South/Southwest 162nd Street and South/Southwest 146th Street got underway late last summer, not long after Rainier Photographic merged with Dick's Camera.

Stone's business is just one of several along First Avenue South that is suffering financially-with some going out of business-as the result of trade lost during the project.

Before Rainier/Dick's closed its doors, Stone received numerous customer complaints about access to his store from the street, which was limited and sometimes blocked by construction activity.

Other First Avenue South businesses that have been hit hard include those located at Five Corners.

Lisa Herr of Herr Backyard Garden Center, 107 S.W. 160th St., said, "customers are telling me they are avoiding the area and it's not worth coming down because they want to avoid the traffic."

Customer count at the garden center is down 15 percent, said Herr, who has filed a complaint with the city of Burien.

So has Russ Rizzo, owner of ABC Radiator Service at 15855 First Avenue South.

Burien has denied the Herr complaint.

"The city won't accept the claim on the grounds that they 'have a right to do road construction,'" said Diane Herr-Lorella.

City Manager Mike Martin said, however, "The city is not obligated to pay the claim." Had Burien granted it, "that would have been illegal because the [award] would be a gift of public funds."

Herr-Lorella and Herr are puzzled by the city's reasoning.

"We are very pro-change ... we want to see the city improved," said Herr-Lorella, whose family has donated money to the project.

But, she continued, Burien "doesn't want to take responsibility and help us" deal with the impact of practices by general contractor Frank Coluccio Construction Company] that have affected First Avenue South businesses.

"Everybody says 'it's not us,'" Herr-Lorella said. "The inmates are running the asylum."

One of her primary complaints is that the city allowed Coluccio "to work 24-7" instead of stopping at appropriate hours for business traffic.

Burien Public Works Director Stephen Clark responded that the city has "gone the extra step to give businesses information in advance so they can plan with their customers.

"The vast majority of work occurs at night to minimize disruptions to business."

Clark noted that the project is approximately six months behind schedule, primarily because of last winter's bad weather, a cement processing strike, and unanticipated problems encountered during the rebuilding of First Avenue and undergrounding all utility lines.

"We have found underground tanks, stumps and utilities we didn't know existed," he said.

Martin added that city maps, which were to have included all underground utilities, turned out to be incorrect.

The confusion caused delays when "we didn't find what we were supposed to find where the map said it was supposed to be."

Clark also said that the city has tried to work with business owners by not allowing construction on specific dates that are critical to their businesses.

"We have respected those dates," Clark said.

For the Herr Center, those dates include the Christmas shopping season and Valentines Day, as well as their busiest weekend - Mother's Day.

Herr said she told the city that construction activity "can not be here" on those particular times, but that work was done then anyway.

"There was no reason they had to do that," she said.

Herr-Lorella said she asked Coluccio workers to leave, but was ignored.

A call to Discover Burien, which is a liaison between the city, businesses and contractor, got no response.

Clark disagreed with Herr-Lorella's account, and said the city and Coluccio respected the dates in question.

Rizzo said construction has cut traffic at his location "by 60 to 70 percent."

And his businesses losses since the project started amount to approximately 40 percent compared to his receipts last year.

"How do I raise two kids and pay for a mortgage on that?" asked Rizzo.

In addition to lost revenue, Rizzo, like other businesses, must foot the bill to underground electrical and other utility service their shops and stores-to the tune of $10,000-$20,000.

It is a common practice everywhere that the cost of undergrounding utilities on a business property is the responsibility of that business, Martin noted.

"We do understand that this is causing hardship and that business are injured," he said. "It is not unusual in a project like this and we ask that everyone just be patient."

Herr complained that beyond the expense of undergrounding utilities, the project has been "mismanaged."

Other business owners agree.

Underscoring this dissatisfaction, Rizzo said there has been "a lack of communication."

Capt. Michelle Pierce of the Salvation Army

added "the city has no liaison to the community, no expectations or timeline" and "no dates."

She said there as "no public education at all on the project."

Margaret Shattuck of Two French Hens next door to the Herr Center observed, "No one ever come in [to the store] to let us know what is going on.

"What can you do?" Shattuck asked of the city. "We just want it done."

"There is nothing I can do," Clark countered.

And he disagreed with criticism that the city failed to adequately inform businesses along First Avenue before the project began.

"We went through the process," Clark said. "This is not something we just pulled out. We have had a citizen involvement committee and open houses. The vast majority [of business owners] chose not to attend."

Rizzo was one who did attend the open houses, and said when he voiced his concerns that he was told "the plans were written in stone and there was nothing that could be done about it.

"There was not one other business owner I talked with that agreed [with the project plans]," he recalled.

Part two will appear in the Sept. 5 Times-News.