Neighbor’s help is ‘more than money’

Convenience store owner Barnabas Yeo hopes to survive a disruptive five-week street construction project with a little help from his friends.

Already reeling from the recession and problems with his gasoline supplier, Yeo doubted he could stay in business last week when reconstruction of the intersection of Broadway Avenue and Fancher Road obstructed both driveways to his store at the northwest corner.

Then city officials posted some Exxon-logo signs to show motorists how to reach Yeo’s store, called Broadway Station, and neighbor Herb Nelson decided to help.

Nelson, who owns a business on the other side of Broadway, took 15 of his employees to lunch Friday at Yeo’s deli.

“We’ve been here since 2004, and we’ve had employees risking their lives to come over here and get their lunches ever since then,” Nelson said. “He’s done a lot to keep our team going.”

“I deeply appreciate it,” Yeo said, noting Nelson’s business, although unaffected by the construction, also has suffered from the economic turndown.

MMI distributes technology- oriented business-promotion products, such as USB computer hubs with buyers’ names on them.

“The economy is really affecting it, but we’re just having to deal with it like everybody else,” Nelson said.

Nelson said he hopes other businesses in the area will go out of their way to help Broadway Station survive the construction project.

“We’ll be back,” Nelson told Yeo as the MMI employees headed back across Broadway with their sack lunches.

“It means more than money what they are doing,” Yeo said afterward.