The Shops at Eastgate businesses reopen after summer flooding

The arts businesses of Chapel Hill’s The Shops at Eastgate shopping center have finally recovered from the June rain that caused them to close their doors over the summer.

Womancraft, a co-operative made up of more than 70 local artists, and Ten Thousand Villages, an international trade retailer chain of artisan crafts, were both forced to close after the flash flooding in Chapel Hill on June 30.

“It was a mess,” said Sue Kopkind, a member of Womancraft’s co-op. “We were closed for an entire month, so we didn’t have any sales for the month of July — so that hurts.”

The co-op artists had to remove the carpeting and wall coverings due to mold after an inch of water flooded their store, Kopkind said.

Dottie Fiddleman, another artist from the co-op, said the day of the flooding was chaotic.

“We had a contractor in here cleaning up the water with giant fans and mopping up the water. And for about three weeks, we just came in every day and did our best to paint and patch holes,” she said.

The store reopened Aug. 1 after a month-long clean-up effort, which cost between $10,000 and $12,000. And instead of relying on the federal aid made available to Orange County businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration in July, all members of the co-op are contributing to pay for the repairs. Karen Graves, another member of the co-op, said this was the fourth time Womancraft has been affected by floodwaters.

Graves attributes the store’s continued flooding problems to the shopping center’s location on top of a floodplain.

And Fiddleman said this flood was more detrimental for them than floods in the past. “Maybe it’s because (the last flood) was so many years ago that my memory just isn’t as clear, but we were out of business for a lot longer this time,” she said. Ten Thousand Villages also closed for two weeks following the heavy rains to replace the carpeting and flooring.

Although the Ten Thousand Villages corporate office paid for the repairs, store manager Keilayn Skutvik said the store suffered a net loss of more than $25,000 due to the closure.

“Because we are a non-profit and we work with small artisan groups that make handcrafted products in other parts of the world, it really cut into our ability to make those sales for those two weeks,” Skutvik said.

“It was a major loss in income with not being able to support (the groups) the way we want to.”

But Skutvik doesn’t attribute the store’s problems to being located on a floodplain.

“It is impacted by the floodplain, but as you can see with this most recent flood, it affected Carrboro, Franklin Street and other areas besides just here,” she said.

Despite the flooding, Skutvik said Ten Thousand Villages had above normal sales the past month, which she attributes to the store’s consistent customers.

But Fiddleman said the flooding will continue to be a problem for Eastgate shops.

“We’re here and there’s nothing really that can be done about it because of poor planning about 40 years ago when they built it,” Graves said.

“Eastgate is going to continue to flood until the water finds another place to go, and that’s not going to happen any time soon.”

arts@dailytarheel.com