JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s a situation raising a serious stink among several businesses downtown.
A Jacksonville cigar bar’s raw sewage is ending up out on the street instead of going down the drain.
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“I just want to be able to use the alley and not have this raw sewage coming out. It’s disgusting,” Cowford Chophouse executive chef Ian Lynch said.
Right outside of the doors Lynch walks in and out of at Cowford Chophouse lies a puddle. It’s not water, and it’s not all liquid.
Lynch said the puddle consists of “piles of toilet paper along with feces.”
He said it’s coming from Island Girl Cigar Bar, and it’s been an ongoing issue for two weeks.
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“We’ve gone over multiple times and just kind of gotten the runaround,” Lynch said.
It’s not just Cowford who uses the alley; they share the alley with Bold City Grill, Underbelly, Ocean Street Tacos and 1904Music Hall.
“We all have a community alley here, so it’s affecting all of us,” Cowford Chophouse general manager Matt Mannick said.
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Action News Jax went straight to the source.
Island Girl Cigar Bar general manager Tracey Berryman said they are aware of the issue.
“Actually, we have handled the situation. We are aware of it. We do have a plumber coming today. We do have it as an emergency,” Berryman said.
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She said it will be fixed today, which is what Lynch said they’ve been told before.
He even snapped a photo of someone else working on it previously.
“We just want it cleaned up, fixed, and to move on from the issue,” Mannick said.
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We reached out to the city to see if it was aware of the problem.
“The Municipal Code Compliance Division does not have any active enforcement cases at this property. The last issue they addressed at this location was 2014. The Environmental Quality Division received an email last night about this property, and they are investigating. We do not have an update yet,” a city spokesperson said.
Action News Jax did see a plumber working on the sewage pipes later in the evening.
As of 6:30 p.m., we received the following statement from a spokesperson of Island Girl Cigar Bar.
“On Monday, Island Girl Downtown was made aware of a sewage leak into the alley behind the business. Our staff promptly called a plumber on an emergency order, who was able to locate and fully fix the problem as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Our management team was informed that this issue often happens in some older buildings in Downtown Jacksonville. Island Girl Downtown wants to assure patrons that our location is as sanitary as it’s always been and always will be. We apologize to anyone who may have been inconvenienced by the issue.”
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