photo by: Sylas May

Orange cones stand in front of Uplift Coffee, 624 N. 2nd St., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024.

Entering the parking lot for Uplift Coffee on North Second Street in North Lawrence, you’ll have to navigate through orange traffic cones.

As you walk up to the counter to place your order, you’ll also encounter some orange traffic cones there. They are spongy, miniature cones styled after a stress ball, but they represent the minor hurdle that Kelli Huslig, owner of Uplift Coffee, has faced for her business.

Since the construction began on North Second/Third Street in August — a project that includes repaving and curb and gutter maintenance to help stormwater drainage — the cones have blocked off the outside lanes and slowed traffic on the route. They also sometimes slowed business.

So Huslig decided to have a little fun with the miniature cones — a gift from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. Huslig set up a promotion kind of like a shell game: if you picked up the cone that was marked at the bottom, you could win a freebie like a free pastry or coffee.

“We tried to do some fun things like that to say, ‘Hey, you know what, it’s worth it to continue to support my local business,'” Huslig said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Squishy, miniature traffic cones at the counter of Uplift Coffee Shop, a gift from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. Owner Kelli Huslig said she used them to make a promotional game as her businesses were impacted by road work.

Business owners across Lawrence have had to reckon with the orange cones as the city has been undertaking projects along important arterial roadways like 23rd Street, Sixth Street and North Second/Third Street. With another huge construction project on the horizon for Ninth Street, Michael Leos, the communication and community engagement specialist for the Municipal Services and Operations department in Lawrence, said the city is aiming to improve communication with businesses about construction updates to help provide a heads up during what can be a tough time for businesses.

“We know that impacts to businesses are stressful,” Leos said.

Huslig has been doubly impacted by road work projects. Uplift’s two Lawrence locations are on Sixth Street, where the multimillion-dollar project’s first phase began in February, and the aforementioned North Second Street location.

Although Huslig said the initial notification of the road work effects on Sixth Street might have slipped through the cracks, the notification for the project along North Second/Third Street was much more on top of it. Alongside giving updates on the status of the projects, Huslig said city staff had been more collaborative to find solutions to ensure the business was still able to operate. That included Huslig requesting that at least one driveway stay open while the crews were updating the curbs, as well as the city alerting the business to times when it might be temporarily more difficult to enter the lot.

Huslig also added that her main contact with the city brought signs that said “businesses open during construction” to her shop and other locations along the road, a step she really appreciated.

“(The city) didn’t have to go and do that, but they did for us,” Huslig said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Signs that say “Businesses Open During Construction” left along North Second/Third Street in North Lawrence.

Leos said that solution is something that came about directly because of conversations between the MSO and business owners, adding that the city is using those signs much more often as a result of the feedback.

Along with the direct conversations between businesses and the city, the Lawrence chamber of commerce began to help trying to bridge the gap for those conversations, as well as helping businesses that have seen their traffic decrease due to construction projects.

Krys O’Brien, the director of communications for the Chamber, said the Chamber began to first hear from its businesses about concerns during the construction along 23rd Street, a massive 18-month project that began in June 2022.

O’Brien said after discussions with the owners of the brewery Fields and Ivy, the Chamber began looking to try to boost traffic by supporting them in marketing efforts. When the street was finally reopened in December 2023, the Chamber hosted a “massive party” at Fields and Ivy to celebrate the end of the construction and bring in some business.

O’Brien felt that in the buildup to the construction on Sixth Street, the city did a good job at putting out the information, even providing a landing page that put out a timeline for the construction.

“They were upfront,” O’Brien said. “They’ve been good at pushing out updates on that.”

Leos said that was another communication process that came as a result of feedback, and those types of landing pages aimed to serve as a “one-stop shop” for business owners and residents about updates on the project. Additionally, Leos said project managers gave weekly updates during major projects like the Sixth Street road work in the hope to “minimize disruptions.”

Businesses know that the construction is needed and that the improved roads will be a positive in the long run, O’Brien said. But it doesn’t mean there aren’t any pains along the way.

“It’s about getting through that tough stage where they have to narrow down lanes or shut down an entrance; that’s always really tough,” O’Brien said.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn

Kelli Huslig is pictured at Uplift Coffee in 2020.

For Huslig, not only did the construction projects impact both of her stores at the same time, but the work on North Second/Third Street started right around when students and families would be coming to Lawrence — normally a crucial time for her shops. Huslig estimated that there was probably a 15% dip in traffic.

Those types of hurdles are nothing new for Huslig, whose first store was opening in January 2020 just months before the world turned upside down. Huslig credits that experience for making her a bit more creative and giving her a view of just needing to “figure things out.”

She also credits the assistance from the Chamber and the people of Lawrence. The construction makes things “dead” at her location during the week, but on the weekends, people have come out to support her business.

“As a small business, you work to be a part of the community,” Huslig said. “And Lawrence is a fantastic community.”

O’Brien said the Chamber’s reach and connections also aim to help those small businesses impacted by road work. That will be as important as ever with another multi-phase project coming down the pike: the Jayhawk Watershed project that will eventually cause closures of Ninth Street. O’Brien said she has been working with the city’s director of communications, Cori Wallace, to hold an information session for Chamber members to get updates and see a timeline.

Leos said with the concerns of businesses in mind, MSO has started to hold regular meetings with the Chamber, the University of Kansas and Downtown Lawrence Inc. to improve the communication efforts for its stakeholders.

And while the orange cones are not always a welcome sight, they are a pretty omnipresent sight in Lawrence — “there’s always going to be a little road work” is a phrase Huslig suggested could go on a T-shirt. That’s why the many groups are coming together to try to improve the implementation of road work so the community can support what O’Brien said is the backbone of Lawrence: small businesses.

“We go all out for the mom and pops here,” O’Brien said. “Whatever we can do to show them love, we do.”