Garage owner Andrejs proudly shows his business after more than two weeks of forced closure

Garage owner Andrejs Vinovskis is finally allowed to return to his business premises after 2.5 weeks. The building at the back of the Nieuw-Mathenesserstraat was closed by the municipality during this period.

During the inspection, inspectors and others were reportedly ill and the building was found to be unsafe. With open arms, Andrejs invites SCHIE to take a look and we meet a visibly happy man. “I have nothing to hide.”

His regular customers come and go, sometimes for a repair, sometimes for a cup of coffee. But Andrejs doesn’t have much time to talk. He is busy, as he now has to catch up on much of his work that has stalled. “I feel like I work 24, sometimes 25 hours a day.”

small problems

Andrejs tells us what kind of work he does and also shows what he considers to be the niggling issues the inspectors uncovered a week and a half ago. The space behind the garage is used by Andrejs as storage. There we also see the well with ground water, which has been assessed by inspectors as a pathogenic chemical liquid.

The space doesn’t feel too cool, but not chemically dangerous. “Be careful, because there are rats here,” Andrejs says as he leads SCHIE’s editorial team through the storeroom. The space is characterized by a hill of sand and bulk jerrycans with unknown contents. “It was already there when I took over the business,” says Andrejs.

Listing

With the reopening, the battle between the municipality and Andrejs is not over yet. The municipality of Schiedam will draw up a list of adjustments Andrejs will have to make. “I’m going to do it well,” says Andrejs.

Andrejs leaves the stickers which indicate that the building is closed by order of the mayor. “I’m going to put one on the front. There have been regular break-ins in the past, so who knows, this might deter burglars.