A small business fights for survival

JB’s Corner Market battling floods and TDOT construction

August 26, 2020 by G. Chambers Williams III

The owners of JB’s Corner Market in Claxton believe the Tennessee Department of Transportation is set on running them out of business.

JB’s store – a Claxton fixture for decades – sits on the northeast corner of a TDOT intersection-improvement project at Clinton Highway (U.S. 25W) and Edgemoor Road (Tenn. 170), across from Claxton Elementary School.

Justin and Natalia Meredith have operated the store since Justin inherited it from his father in 2012. For the past two years the couple has been fighting TDOT to keep the state highway agency from destroying their business, Natalia Meredith said.

“Initially they said their project would take one-fourth of our building, so they wanted to just buy it and tear it down,” she said. “We told them we didn’t want to go out of business, so why couldn’t they just relocate us on the same property. But they said that was impossible.”

Instead, she said, TDOT altered the plans slightly, bringing the new right-turn lane for westbound traffic to within a few feet of the corner of the JB’s building and eliminating a big chunk of the parking lot, but not actually cutting into the structure itself.

“Now it’s really hurting us,” she said. “Our front parking is gone, our handicapped access is gone, and we’ve lost a lot of our older and disabled customers because they can no longer get in. They paid us very little compensation for the land they took, and left us in the middle of a big mess.”

Then came the floods.

“We came in this past Sunday morning to water a few inches deep on the floor inside the store, and that’s the third flood we’ve had since they began the project,” Meredith said. “We had the worst one so far in January, and it caused us to have to replace some refrigeration units.”

Flooding is the result of grading and other changes to the lot and the hillside behind the store that were made by TDOT work crews, she said.

“Basically, they destroyed the drainage that was in place, so all the water comes down the hill and runs onto our lot and into our store,” she added.

The biggest scare came last week when the TDOT workers cut into a natural gas pipeline just a few feet from the front of the store, and had to call in the gas company and block off and evacuate a large area around the intersection, Meredith said.

“Apparently, they went digging out there without first checking to see if there were utility lines underneath the ground,” she said. “It could have blown us all up.”

The building has been on the site for 86 years, and used to be a service station, Justin Meredith said. “My father ran it as JB’s for a long time before I took over.”

Natalia Meredith said the couple is not sure the store will be able to survive much longer if the work doesn’t end soon and the state doesn’t let them have their front parking back.

“We looked at creating a new front entrance on the side away from the intersection, but that would require some major construction and we would have to bring the building up to current code,” she said. “It would cost us almost as much as a new building. We just can’t afford that.

“We don’t make much money the way it is now, but we would like to keep the business going so we can someday hand it down to our children. We work seven days a week and never even get to take vacations.”

The store sells a variety of cheeses and fresh produce, including fruits and vegetables, and a large selection of jams, jellies and other canned items in jars from Amish suppliers.

Natalia Meredith, who emigrated from Russia to the United States in 2006, said she was surprised to find that government in this country would have so little regard for people running a small family business.

“We saw that in Russia, but I guess it’s the same everywhere,” she said. “Government is only for government, not for the people.

“Still, all of my regular local customers come to support me every day,” she said. “I know TDOT has to do their job, but they’re killing us while they’re doing it.

“We’re just small, itty-bitty guys, though, and it seems like they’re trying to put us out of business.”

TDOT spokesman Mark Nagi said by email Thursday that "The property owner is claiming that as a result of the project, more runoff is being directed to their business. We spoke with multiple Anderson County commissioners on this issue after being made aware of the complaint earlier this week. ... We do not believe that we have directed any additional water to their property as a result of the project, but if we have, we will provide remediation."

Nagi also said that the state "bought a little sliver of that property owner's land, but the other parts that we have had to use were already state right of way."

He noted that TDOT officials were planning to meet with the Merediths to discuss the flooding situation.