Virtual impact

PORTALES - On the surface, the Do Drop In pretty much looks the same in August as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic hit five months before. The menu board still features various sandwiches, including the Green Monster, and a quippy sign noting unsupervised children will be given espresso and a puppy.

But plenty is noticeably different at the downtown Portales eatery that's been part of the community for nearly 20 years - nearly half of it under the ownership of the Mountjoy family.

Customers leave now as soon as they get their sandwiches and/or coffee orders, with indoor dining barred under public health orders.

The tables those customers would be sitting at are now merchandise tables with independent art and facemasks, and the front counter has a few disposable masks on hand in case a customer comes in without one.

There's one big difference under the surface. Business, Kamille Mountjoy said, is probably down 30% since the pandemic began and an employee base that normally includes five people is three - herself, co-owner and son Ian and daughter Mikayla.

Portales businesses have suffered numerous punches from the pandemic, and a chance at recovery was blunted when Eastern New Mexico University decided in late July the entire fall semester would be conducted virtually.

That gives many of the university's 6,000 students no particular reason to move to Portales for four-plus months, and fewer young adults stopping by around 9:30 a.m. for coffee and breakfast foods.

"I see a huge impact," Mountjoy said. "We're still going to have the teachers and the professors, which helps us tremendously. But not having the students is really going to hurt us."

Karl Terry, executive director of the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce, said the students and their families are making a completely understandable decision.

"I think there's some genuine concern with families sending their kids back and possible getting infected," Terry said. "Their kids are pretty priceless, and they don't want to put their health at risk. I can certainly see that."

Elsewhere across the country, colleges are finding themselves second-guessing decisions to begin the semester with in-person learning - most notably at the University of North Carolina, which is shifting to virtual learning today after more than 130 positive cases in its first week of instruction.

ENMU Interim Chancellor Patrice Caldwell has said in various avenues that the university did not take the decision to go online lightly, and that the last thing ENMU wanted to do was create virus spread in a community that's given so much over the years.

But well-intended deeds create punishments all the same. Terry said on normal ENMU opening weekends, he would get some morbid joy out of visiting Wal-Mart just to watch all of the panicked college families shopping. This weekend, it was an August shopping trip indistinguishable from any other for the past four months.

"We always see huge crowds in town," Terry said. "We can tell at our different hotels. They're not there; they're doing Dawg Days (freshman orientation) online. It's just a sad situation for everybody. I know the kids don't like it, and it's rough on the businesses."

The biggest immediate impacts, Terry said, are on the rental markets with less demand and on the eateries and grocery stores.

The Do Drop In isn't some outlier, but just one example of an eatery located on "The Square" in Portales dealing with pandemic difficulties. AJ's Wings on March 9 hosted a watch party when the ENMU women's basketball team qualified for the NCAA Division II tournament, only to see the tournament canceled by the end of the week and in-person dining canceled by the state the following week.

Roosevelt Brewing Company has had to hold off on a full expansion to Clovis with in-person dining barred for a second time by the state in mid-July just as the opening was set.

Mountjoy said she's tired of wondering if things will change week by week and tired of making plans that fall through when a health order changes.

Regarding a potential in-person spring semester, Mountjoy says, "I haven't even got that far. I'm not a day by day person, but I've kind of become that way."

Terry said some businesses have found short-term benefits. For example, the Sagamore Wind Energy project construction crews have opted to rent houses because they're available and far cheaper than a hotel for long-term work. But that, Terry said, reduces revenue streams for hotels.

Terry said there's some solace in knowing the entire fall semester will be this way, as opposed to seeing things change every few weeks. But it's not much.

"The businesses can plan for that to some degree," Terry said. "Unfortunately, planning sometimes means people get laid off. Also, our restaurants are accustomed to hiring students. Business may be off, but they're still going to be scrambling to find people."