GAHANNA, Ohio (WCMH) — A neighborhood in Gahanna is calling out the city for communication issues over a construction project.

Residents along Theori Avenue said they are excited about the new road, but wish they had known in advance.

Residents can’t use their driveways, saying it makes getting groceries to houses in the construction zone difficult. It was also a last-minute scramble to move cars to avoid getting stuck in their driveways, they said.

“There’s just a lack of good information going around,” Theori Avenue resident Aly Romot said. “We started calling the engineer’s office and so everything started just being word of mouth from like this one woman at the engineer’s office, ‘Your road is going to be repaved.'”

The city said it was a mailing issue.

“They had someone go door to door that day they were ripping up the road and being like, ‘Oh, hey, your road’s closed.’ That day. So now it’s just, like, a lack of communication,” Romot said.

“The letters were mailed about three weeks ago,” Gahanna Senior Director of Operations Kevin Schultz said. “It became brought to our attention that the letters were not necessarily received. So, then we decided to hand deliver the same exact letter that would have been mailed.”

The city said the letters were hand-delivered on June 16, the same day it learned about the issue.

“There were no door flyers,” Romot said. “There were no letters sent to us. The engineer’s office just said, ‘Oh, the post office messed up.’ Well, okay, but that relation? That’s on you.”

“It’s my understanding that some of the residents got the letter and only some of them did not receive it,” Schultz said. “We don’t exactly know what happened to the letters exactly. We do know that they haven’t been delivered, right? I mean, we have to take the resident at their word on that.”

Romot said she got a letter on June 26, dated May 31 and postmarked June 23. The city said the letter was dated incorrectly and was sent last week to people in phase two of the construction.

“We are addressing communication protocols and we’ll be making adjustments,” Schultz said.

“We’re a small street but we’re a big community and again, we look out for our neighbors and just want to make sure that we have information and that we’re all safe,” Romot said.

The city of Gahanna said it made every effort to notify residents despite the postal issues and will continue to explore more ways to notify them.

“We’re just asking the city to look at their communication when they do big projects like this, and just make sure they have their ducks in a row for next time,” Romot said. “That’s really it. We just want to be proactive, so the next neighborhood is informed.”