Median messes with business
By John Temple Ligon Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

The continous raised concrete median blocks north bound traffic on Harden St. and access to Skebo's Exxon Station.

Riley L. (Skebo) Newman has owned Newman's Exxon at the corner of Saluda Avenue and Devine Street for more than 30 years, and for almost 30 years he has had an improving profitability picture. The street scene has always seemed like something parallel with the neighborhood's population growth and the continuous increases in traffic. With the freedom to turn left onto Skebo's pump islands, northbound traffic was able to see and visit. Exxon (or Esso through the late '60s).

Long before Skebo, there was a Standard Oil station beginning in 1922, according to a deed dated Aug. 12, 1922. With the deed came restrictions, such as "...the said lot shall be used, improved, and maintained only for the purposes of a gasoline filling station."

But the new median on Harden Street between Devine Street and Greene Street has cut into Skebo's improving profitability. In fact, according to Skebo Newman, his revenues are down about 50% since the raised concrete median went up.

There is plenty to sell at Skebo's, but sales are down 50 percent.

About 300 of Skebo's regular customers, so far, have signed and dated a petition, where Skebo wants to carry his request for a cut in the median to the City of Columbia, restoring service station access for the northbound Devine Street traffic.

The problem with appealing to the City of Columbia, according to the city's traffic engineer Dave Brewer, is the status of Devine Street along Skebo's stretch. It's a state highway and it's under the control of the State of S.C., not the City of Columbia.

The point man for the state, Brewer says, is Tony Magwood, the county resident maintenance engineer for the State of S.C. Magwood was unavailable to comment for this article.

Still, no matter who's in charge, Skebo got hit with a heavy toll, 50 percent of revenues gone since the installation of the median.

On the other hand, one block north, a cut in the median appears to be working well and feeding business to the Congaree Grill, Tripp's Fine Cleaners, and the Shell Station, all just south of College Street and all accessed and egressed across asphalt blacktop with no raised concrete median.

Congaree Grill, Tripp's Fine Cleaners, and the Shell Station all a block from Skebo's have access because there is no raised median.

Tripp's hired a lawyer early on in the design process, according to fellow Devine Street merchants, and now without the median, Tripp's and the Shell Station and the Congaree Grill have no complaints with access or egress.

Skebo needs to do the same, he says. It may be after the fact, but it's also after discovering a 50 percent fall in revenues.