It’s understandable that riverfront business owners in Warren would be nervous about how use of city-owned property as staging areas for the roundabout and a major downtown construction project will impact them.

But, just like the rest of us, they will have to make the best of a screwy year when it comes to navigating Warren.

Construction of the roundabout was always going to be a pain. Everyone who lives and works here has known that since the project was approved. Add in a major construction project on a senior housing project starting in August and it adds up to anything but your typical summer in downtown Warren.

Business owners speaking out to council members last week are right to be concerned, but in our view the city has arrived at the least intrusive option for everyone involved.

We do hope, though, that PennDOT and the construction crews working on the senior housing project use the staging areas along the river in a way that makes life as easy on businesses in the area as possible.

The fact that the three parcels will be used as staging areas doesn’t mean they have to be impassable, nor does it mean that the peak construction traffic has to interrupt the business owners’ peak hours.

Things are going to look different downtown this year. But as we’ve been saying for some time now, this is a collective headache that effects us all — including business owners.