Newport — Flooding in downtown Newport created an inconvenience for many businesses Monday.
Shannon Myers, owner of East Tennessee Coffee Company, says water crept into her restaurant.
"We had a little bit of water in our dining room, and some that came through the back door," Myers said. "The outside was a lot worse."
They were able to mop it up quickly.
Cars drove through water that was knee deep in some places.
The ongoing construction and flooding hasn't helped Myers' business.
"Right now, it's kind of painful with the way people are trying to avoid downtown," Myers said.
Newport City Planner Gary Carver says the city is working to fix it.
"There's a long way to go in downtown, but we want to make it a business friendly environment," Carver said.
They're planning to begin a project that will add storm water drainage pipes to downtown, carrying the water out faster and more efficiently.
The pipes will dump it into the Pigeon River nearby.
He says it will cost the city about $1.5 million dollars, and would happen in three phases.
"Right now, we are just about to start construction on Phase 1," Carver said.
Phase one will start as soon as Newport Utilities finishes replacing old water and sewer pipers.
Carver says some of the pipes are nearly 100 years old.
"The utilities have been working on this project since May," Carver said. "They've been working almost non-stop, almost seven days a week."
The work on the water pipes should be done by November.
"We're looking forward to when it all gets done, and all the improvements are in place," Myers said.
Carver is asking everyone to be as patient as possible with the progress.
He says with a strong infrastructure, downtown can expand with both current and new business. He says the storm water project will hopefully finish in the next six years.