Midtown shutdown

Gwena Harris starts her days a little different than she used to.

Earlier this year, the owner of Pendleton’s Dairy Queen was accustomed to doing office work, keeping the restaurant humming from behind the scenes. Thursday morning, she found herself in the kitchen preparing for the day alongside manager Rochelle Helfrecht, to save on labor costs. That’s been a familiar tune in recent weeks, Harris said.

The reason:?heavy construction outside. And with it, less business.

“Expecting it would be bad? Yes – construction is always a detriment to business,”?Harris said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be this bad.”

The Oregon Department of Transportation last month closed the railroad crossing at Southwest Court Avenue, part of a larger project to rebuild the intersection at Court, nearby Dorion Avenue and Westgate next to the Round-Up Grounds. Much of the pavement already is torn out as crews continue the work there. One lane each way provides limited access through the area.

But Harris and a handful of other businesses in the area said they’ve taken a major hit as drivers try to avoid the headache.

Dairy Queen’s drive-through sales are down about 40 percent since the major work began, Harris said. The main restaurant sales are even worse.

On the other side of the construction at Round-Up Char-Burger, business is down to well under half what it was before the work, according to restaurant cook Penny Suran.

“We have very, very little business right now,”?she said. “I’m lucky I have a job.”

Suran spent Friday morning getting the small burger shack ready for the day. She offered a practical example, measuring relative success by french fries. Where she might cook between four to six bags of fries during a four-hour lunch period earlier this year, now that’s typically two or three.

“It’s just been really hard,”?Suran said. “Really hard.”

Things have improved more recently at Char-Burger, Suran said, as more people find their way to the building off Dorion Avenue.

Business hasn’t yet turned around at Dairy Queen, but Harris commended the city for opening two extra access points to her restaurant from the adjacent Pendleton Convention Center parking lot.

ODOT spokesman Tom Strandberg said crews at the site have made sure to communicate with Dairy Queen, The Hut Restaurant and Lounge, Mazatlan restaurant and other local businesses to keep them posted on what’s going on and alternate routes to the area. Heavy construction work is bound to have an impact, he said, but the project will provide much-needed improvements to an already hazardous intersection.

Frieda ‘n’ Friends Antiques holds a front-row view of the work on Court. A group of blue traffic cones mark a narrow gravel driveway to the shop – the only direct access to the front door.

Shop owner Freda Bafus summed up her recent sales bluntly:

“Nil,”?she said. “Business is nil. Nothing.”

The 93-year-old stressed she’s not against the project, and understands why it needs to be done. But the construction has worsened what was already a tough stretch for the business in the economic recession.

Bafus noted she doesn’t depend on the antique shop as her livelihood – she owns the building, and thus doesn’t pay rent. She mostly shrugged off the ill effects of the construction.

“You’ve got to take the good with the bad,”?Bafus said.

The work was planned from the beginning as a two-year project, according to Strandberg. The Court railroad crossing will close again for at least part of next year, and paving at the intersection will occur in 2010. And though the work won’t be finished by this year’s Round-Up, crews will take a one-week break and open the turnaround between Court and Dorion to ease traffic flow.

The entire project is aimed for completion before the much-anticipated 2010 Round-Up, Strandberg said.

Until then, businesses are doing what they can to get through the slow time. Dairy Queen and Char-Burger have both cut supply orders. And Harris has been forced to trim hours for her staff at Dairy Queen.

Employees at both restaurants said they’d simply like people to know they’re still there, and still open amid the construction zone. Dairy Queen recently started offering free Blizzard ice cream desserts with certain meals to draw more traffic.

Said Harris:?”I don’t know what else to do.”