In a release received by the Source at 2 p.m. Tuesday marked "Urgent Attention," Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson Jr. announced he would "like to advise the motoring public that a portion of Back Street (area of Cuzzins Restaurant to Bakery Square) would be closed to vehicular traffic from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. Tuesday."
Presumably Tuesday. Or perhaps it wouldn't be. Then again, it might be, or it might have been. It depends whom you talk to.
An employee at Blue Carib Gems at the corner of Back Street and Bakery Square said traffic had been running smoothly all day. "That would have been terrible for business," said she.
Not to worry.
Another employee, this time at Parrot Fish Records at the intersection near Virgilio's, where motorists were instructed in the release to turn right, said he had been there all day and traffic was "normal."
A Cuzzins Restaurant employee laughed. "Back Street? Closed? I don't think so."
A call to Government House, which issued the release, elicited the information that "it wasn't supposed to go out to the print media, just the radio."
Did the radio get the message at 2 p.m., too? Who knows.
The "motoring public" should feel secure in the knowledge that, as Thompson put it, the Public Works Department "regrets any inconvenience incurred, and would appreciate the public's usual cooperation."
But wait! In the breaking news department: A late afternoon call to Public Works revealed that there was "a slight mistake in the announcement." The employee who answered the phone didn't wish to be identified, but she said Back Street will be closed for repairs from 7 p.m. Tuesday until 3 a.m. Wednesday.
(And that, motoring public, is show biz.)
