Evacuated businesses in Corral Centre prep for reopening

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This article was published 22/05/2011 (5365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s good to be home, managers and employees of Corral Centre and The Paddock businesses said yesterday as they prepared for this week’s reopening.

On Tuesday, more than a week after the city ordered them to evacuate due to the flood, the businesses along 18th Street North will be allowed to open.

Yesterday, staff of the various businesses were allowed to return to the shops to prepare, including Safeway where workers were busy cleaning and ordering stock.

"It was a challenge … closing a store is not an easy thing to do, opening up again was not an easy thing to do," store manager Greg Gingras said.

Safeway vacated the Corral Centre store on May 12, leaving store officials to put perishable goods — meat, dairy products and the like — to good use or risk it would spoil.

The store made the best out of a bad situation. It moved goods to its other location at the Shoppers Mall and donated food to the flood-fight volunteers, the Salvation Army, Samaritan House and the Helping Hands Soup Kitchen.

The store’s freezers didn’t have to be emptied and staff was allowed to check on the store during the evacuation to make sure the power hadn’t been lost.

"The city was great, we worked with the city and they let us in the most that they could safely do," said Gingras, who wasn’t at liberty to supply figures regarding the amount of money the store lost when it was closed.

But, with another location in town, the financial blow to the 119 employees who work at the Corral Centre Safeway was eased as they had the chance to pick up hours at the Shoppers Mall store.

Western Financial Group managing partner Derrall Farmer said he’s looking forward to "just getting back to the normal routine" after two weeks away from the Corral Centre.

The insurance broker took a financial hit to the tune of thousands of dollars due to lost business as well as moving expenses and storage costs.

Fortunately, however, the 10 staff members who work at the Corral Centre branch were able to work at other locations.

The city has restricted business hours in the Corral Centre and The Paddock to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. until May 30, but managers say they’re willing to work with that.

Montana’s Cookhouse general manager Ben Hernandez said he was just pleased at the prospect of opening Tuesday.

"It feels really good and the staff are very thankful that we’re all back at work," Hernandez said as his crew cleaned, prepared food and readied stock.

They also retrieved food that was stored at other businesses with their blessing, such as Assiniboine Community College and Canad Inns.

Like Safeway, Montana’s donated perishable food to flood volunteers and the Salvation Army.

Hernandez said Montana’s employs a lot of full-time workers who depend on wages to support families.

The business helped its 90 employees by allowing them to collect some vacation pay. Meanwhile, employees also applied for employment insurance, although it isn’t clear whether they were able to collect any given that they’re returning to work this week.

Two to three people have found other jobs but they haven’t told Hernandez that they’re not open to coming back.

Cook Thomas Beever said he managed to get by tightening his budget and with the help of some savings and collected vacation pay.

He’s now looking forward to working again.

"I’m really happy to be back, actually, it will be nice to get back into it," Beever said.

As for the business itself, Hernandez said it has lost money due to the closure, and it still has to pay its bills and taxes. The business waits to see if its insurance will help cover any costs.