Boylston-Area Business Owners Eager to Reopen
The area surrounding the site of the Boston Marathon bombings is not quite back to normal, but it’s starting to get close.
City officials and inspectors have been leading business owners through their businesses within the still-closed-off section of Boylston Street Tuesday.
The FBI handed the crime scene off to the city of Boston Monday, but Boylston Street between Hereford and Berekley streets is still closed to the public.
Keith Shirley, owner of Meridian Realty Group at 46 Gloucester St. between Newbury and Boylston streets, said the lack of access to his business for the past eight days has made things difficult.
“We’ve had logistical issues,” he said from behind the blocked off gate on Gloucester Street. “We haven’t been able to write checks or process paperwork.”
He said he registered with the city’s database and has been told he could things could be back to normal in the area by Wednesday night.
“The city has been extremely helpful,” he said.
Mayor Thomas Menino’s Back Bay Assistance Response Team is at the Hynes Convention Center at 900 Boylston St., which is being used as a connecting point for business owners trying to get to their businesses. Police and guard gates still block points of entry at each street that bisects Boylston Street within the crime scene.
Throughout Tuesday, inspectors have allowed business owners into the scene, which one week ago was cordoned off after two bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon in front of Marathon Sports and near Forum restaurant at 755 Boylston, according to the following staggered schedule:
10:00 a.m. Enrty to block between Hereford and Gloucester
11:00 a.m. Enrty to Block between Gloucester and Fairfield
12:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Dartmouth and Clarendon
1:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Clarendon and Berkeley
2:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Exeter and Dalton
3:00 p.m. Enrty to Block between Fairfield and Exeter
There is no timeline as to when the area might be opened to the public, according to John Guilfoil, deputy press secretary the mayor’s office.
“They won’t open to the public until businesses and residents have had a chance to see” the damage, he said.