Shepherd Drive business owners upset about misspelled sign

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Someone forgot to use spell check at a city construction site and the misspelled word is not making store owners happy at all.

The construction along Shepherd Drive is taking a toll on business owners. They say they have been asking for weeks to get special signs put up letting drivers know the stores were open, but when the signs did arrive there was just one problem.

"I'm glad they put the sign up, but they spelled "business" wrong and it don't seem right to me," said store clerk Terry Lavalais.

Business owners say they asked weeks ago for signs to be put up letting customers know their shops are still open during construction. The signs came, but with an obvious problem.

The word business is misspelled six times.

"I think it is absolutely ridiculous. Get it right. It's not that hard. There is a thesaurus. There is a dictionary. It's not that hard," said customer Leanne Searcy.

We found out this is a job that was contracted out by the city of Houston to a private company. Public works officials first questioned the news worthiness of the issue, but store owners see it differently.

"It is a big deal. Our patients came in and said, 'What is that?' So, yeah it was a big deal," said Jennifer Knight, who works near the construction site.

Within hours of our calls to the city, the misspelled signs came down.

"If they really cared about it, they would have got it right the first time, so that just lets us know they are not looking out for little business," said Tony Albright.

Business owners still want everyone to know they are still open during construction and hope the replacement signs will spell that out, correctly.

"I think that would be great, for them to spell the sign correctly," said Knight.

City officials say the contractor doing the work is responsible for the signs and responsible for making corrections to them.