{"id":88907,"date":"2020-04-28T20:05:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T02:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/main-avenue-shops-take-baby-steps-to-reopen\/"},"modified":"2020-04-29T02:05:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T02:05:37","slug":"main-avenue-shops-take-baby-steps-to-reopen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/main-avenue-shops-take-baby-steps-to-reopen\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Avenue shops take baby steps to reopen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cole
Cole Glenn, manager of The San Juan Angler, a fly-fishing shop on Main Avenue, holds an employee health screening chart the shop will start to use beginning Friday when employees return and customers are able to enter the store.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few Durango merchants took their first tentative steps toward reopening Monday \u2013 offering curbside sales and deliveries \u2013 but business appeared to resemble bears coming out of hibernation more than the feeding frenzy ursines enter before their winter slumbers.<\/p>\n

Slow sales didn\u2019t surprise Brian Josefsberg, manager at Brown\u2019s Sport Shoe on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a few sales curbside, and we made some sales through phone calls. We\u2019ll do everything we can for a customer. Some have wanted to pay by phone, and that\u2019s fine. It works for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josefsberg said the store plans to abide by all guidelines set by San Juan Basin Public Health for allowing customers into stores Friday. Requirements will include maintaining 6-foot social distancing, limiting the number of people in the store, wearing of masks and gloves, frequent hand washings and taking employees\u2019 temperatures.<\/p>\n

La Plata County was among the majority of the state\u2019s 64 counties that allowed retail shops to begin offering curbside sales and deliveries under Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 safer-at-home order.<\/p>\n

The safer-at-home order allows retail shops, which were closed under the monthlong stay-at-home order, to also begin allowing customers in their stores Friday.<\/p>\n

The order also allows personal service businesses like salons, barber shops, personal trainers and dog groomers to reopen Friday with the requirement they follow health guidelines to limit the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The safer-at-home policies also allowed elective medical procedures and real estate showings to resume Monday.<\/p>\n

Five Front Range counties \u2013 Denver, Boulder, Arapahoe, Adams and Jefferson \u2013 kept in place the stricter stay-at-home order. And one county, Eagle County received Polis\u2019 approval to relax even further because it has had a low-contagion plan approved by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.<\/p>\n

\"Patrick
Patrick Jones, left, broker associate with Coldwell Banker Heritage House Realtors, and listing agent Daniel Chowen, right, also with Coldwell Banker, show a Bodo Industrial Park property on Monday to Daniel Frank, near left, and Chad Waite, both with M & R Plumbing Service from Farmington. Frank and White are looking to expand into the Durango market.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Patrick Jones, a broker associate with Coldwell Banker Heritage House Realtors showed a business property in Bodo Industrial Park on Monday to a plumbing firm based in Farmington looking to expand into Durango.<\/p>\n

Pent-up demand for showings, which had been banned under the stay-at-home order, will keep agents busy for a while, he said.<\/p>\n

Fairly robust first-quarter real estate sales, Jones said, had him optimistic COVID-19 might have a limited impact on La Plata County sales of homes and commercial businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you might see some folks moving to Durango from bigger cities who weren\u2019t planning to because smaller cities were hit less than bigger cities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Taylor
Taylor Wooton with Brown\u2019s Sport Shoe helps Angie Dinger on Monday in front of the Main Avenue store.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On the retail side, Josefsberg anticipates Brown\u2019s Sport Shoe sales will slowly expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the weather warms up, I think it will pick up, and I think actually being open Friday will help with people able to come into the store,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say we\u2019ll be 100% by any means, but I think things will pick up. People do need to get outside and hike and run. It\u2019s good for your health, and it\u2019s our main customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathy Wakeman, owner of Animas Trading Co., didn\u2019t make any sales Monday, although she fielded a phone call for someone who was going to pickup clothing Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I expected,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of our stuff, you have to see it and try it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Friday seems a little early to open the shop to customers, Wakeman plans on giving it a try and judging sales strength before making further staffing decisions about summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think summer will pick up gradually, but it will be slow. I don\u2019t anticipate a normal Durango tourism season,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wakeman had just been informed by TBK that she had been approved for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, which she said will help with payroll and rent for two months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will help us get started, for summer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Wakeman kept her full-time manager on the payroll when she was closed during the monthlong stay-at-home order. She said her one part-time employee, a college student, left to go home, and she will gauge how busy summer is before rehiring that position.<\/p>\n

The majority of retail stores remained closed Monday on a two-block stretch of Main Avenue rather than offering curbside sales and deliveries. Closed retail shops in the two blocks included Kids Rock, Colorado True, Out of the Blue, Magpies Newsstand, Half Price Ts, Azul Gallery and Durango Antique Market.<\/p>\n

Josefsberg said he operated \u201cas if we were closed for 30 days\u201d although some ordering was going on and a few phone sales and packages were mailed to regular customers.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Brown\u2019s Sport Shoe was lightly staffed. No part-time employees had been hired to help with the busy tourist season, and Josefsberg will hold back on making those hires until he gets a better gauge of tourism season.<\/p>\n

Cole Glenn, manager of The San Juan Angler<\/a> said the out-of-state owners of the shop own a small hotel and two other fly shops and were able to get a Paycheck Protection Program loan to keep the shop\u2019s two full-time and one part-time employee on payroll during the monthlong shutdown.<\/p>\n

Like other retail businesses, Monday sales were light, but Glenn also thought sales would pick up when customers could get into the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sunglasses, and you want to see how they feel. If you\u2019re buying waders and boots, you want to try them on. You want to get a feel for a rod for casting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While the number of guided river outings early in the summer is limited, he said there is interest in fishing tours beginning in June and running through October.<\/p>\n

The San Juan Angler plans to modify its tours this season. It won\u2019t provide transportation, instead tours will meet at the river and health restrictions like social distancing will be in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cA fly rod is 9 feet long, and so it sort of enforces social distancing all by itself,\u201d Glenn said.<\/p>\n

\"Evan
Evan Buchanan, owner of Durango Hobby, is happy even with Monday\u2019s tepid curbside sales after business all but came to a standstill during the monthlong forced closure required by Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 stay-at-home order.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Evan Buchanan, owner of Durango Hobby, was kicking himself for not getting a website set up for his new business before the stay-at-home order closed the shop.<\/p>\n

Some sales were conducted by phone, with remote-control drones mailed to customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so new we don\u2019t have a website. We\u2019ve been reliant on our Facebook page for communication with our customers during the stay-at-home order.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some regular customers that we provided mail service to. They were home and going crazy with not a lot to do. But other than that, business had come to a complete standstill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Best practices<\/h4>\n

Colorado\u2019s stay-at-home order ended Sunday. The state now moves into a \u201csafer-at-home\u201d period, which includes the first phase on Monday when curbside retail and real estate showings began. On Friday, retail and personal services can open if implementing best practices. And on May 4, noncritical offices can reopen if implementing best practices and lower density.
\n Best practices for all businesses include:
\n Worksites
\n Deputize workplace coordinator(s) charged with addressing COVID-19 issues.
\n Maintain 6-foot distancing when possible and discourage shared spaces.
\n Frequently sanitize all high-touch areas.
\n Post signage for employees and customers about good hygiene.
\n Ensure proper ventilation.
\n Avoid gatherings (meetings, waiting rooms, etc.) of more than 10 people.
\n Implement symptom monitoring protocols (including workplace temperature monitoring and symptom screening questions) where possible.
\n Eliminate or regularly sanitize any items in common spaces (e.g., break rooms) that are shared between individuals (e.g., condiments, coffee makers, vending machines).
\n Provide appropriate protective gear like gloves, masks and face coverings and encourage appropriate use.
\n Employees
\n Require employees showing any symptoms or signs of sickness, or who have been in contact with known positive cases, to stay home.
\n Connect employees to company or state benefits providers.
\n Provide flexible or remote scheduling for employees who need to continue to observe stay-at-home, who may have child or elder care obligations, or who live with a person who still needs to observe stay-at-home because of underlying condition, age or other factors.
\n Encourage and enable remote work whenever possible.
\n Minimize all in-person meetings.
\n Provide handwashing facilities\/stations and hand sanitizer.
\n Encourage breaks to wash hands or use hand sanitizer.
\n Phase shifts and breaks to reduce employee density.
\n Wear appropriate protective gear like gloves, masks and face coverings and encourage appropriate use.
\n To protect customers:
\n Create special hours for people at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
\n Encourage and facilitate 6-foot distancing inside of the business for all patrons.
\n Encourage use of protection like gloves, masks and face coverings.
\n Provide hand sanitizer at entrance.
\n Install shields or barriers where possible between customers and employees.
\n Use contactless payment solutions, no touch trash cans, etc. whenever possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018I don\u2019t anticipate a normal Durango tourism season\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,314,950,13,500],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-88907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-downtown-durango","tag-durango","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-retail"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88907"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=88907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}