Roosevelt looking to opening with cautious optimism

PORTALES — It’s been a rough spring for everyone, with life almost drawing to a halt due to the coronavirus and restrictions put in place to contain it.

New Mexico has been under a stay-at-home order from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham since March 24.

And now, murder hornets? Really?

All hornets aside, with regard to the coronavirus at least, businesses in Roosevelt County are looking to this Friday as a possible glimmer of light poking through the clouds, hoping the governor announces some kind of re-opening process.

Cautious optimism, though, seem to be the words of the week.

“We’re kind of waiting to see what’s going to happen,” Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Director Karl Terry said Monday. “We’re hoping to keep our members informed. We’ve sent some educational stuff out about what we suspect might be needed as far as re-opening, items that might be needed as far as how they’re going to need to operate.

“A lot of it’s wait and see. We’ve done most of what we can do now, but we’re probably going to step up the re-educating of folks on how to reopen safely, how to manage their stores, how to manage some of the cleaning that needs to be done.”

For Terry, cautious optimism might as well be spelled with a capital ‘C’ and ‘O,’ especially the ‘C’ because he’s thinking cautiously, almost to the point of being wary.

“The stuff I’m hearing today is not sounding too inspiring on how much we’ll get relaxed,” he said. “I don’t know; I’m getting mixed signals as to where we’re actually at.”

Terry bases what he is sensing on emails that he has received and conference calls that he has been on.

“They were more cautious than they were excited,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ve moved the ball that much as far as lower numbers. That’s what they’re going by statewide. Despite everything we’ve done, there seems to be no appetite in the administration to allow us to look at regions in the state for re-opening. We haven’t heard anything positive about that idea. … We understand the four-corners area is not ready; they’re in a bad spot there. But we’re not in that same spot.”

A big reason, Terry thinks, for supporting a region-to-region re-opening is Roosevelt’s proximity to Texas, which has re-opened to a substantial degree.

“Economically as they open up in Texas, the cities being so close, the longer they stay open the bigger hit our businesses take,” Terry said. “We fight that economic leakage anyway. It’s a little tough to not even be open.”

So, there is restlessness, unease, skepticism. But still, hope is in the air this week.

“We don’t want to get people too excited,” Terry said. “We really feel like we need to get it open, but we don’t want people to overly anticipate this because we may not be there yet if we’re going strictly by the gating principles that they’re espousing. It really doesn’t seem clear-cut as to where we need to be. It’s called the gating process, but what does that mean exactly?

“I’m being overcautious; I don’t want to get overly excited, but I sure hope we get it back opened up. Our businesses and our public really need it.”