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LAS CRUCES - The city's largest employers didn't have much of a choice. Faced with the possibility that El Paso Electric's grid would shut down for 12 hours if they tried to heat a university, a community college, 36 public schools and massive city, county and military complexes, city, county and school leaders accommodated the utility company and shuttered all but essential services.
And while many private businesses closed their doors for safety, or because of frozen pipes, long spells without Internet service, or power blackouts, others soldiered on, despite the difficulty.
"Realistically, we've kind of just got the attitude of survivorship," said Marci Dickerson, owner of The Game Sports Grill and Hurricane Alley in Las Cruces. "There are not too many problems we can't come up with a solution to. On Wednesday night, we had 80 people in here playing poker using generators, extension cords and floodlights and everyone had a real nice time."
Dickerson had just discovered a busted water pipe in The Game's roof, making it "rain" inside. But going into a weekend that included a highly anticipated UFC broadcast and Super Bowl Sunday, "we certainly can't be closed!" she said.
"We have giant generators hardwired into the building and we're just doing the best we can do," she said. "It's really not El Paso Electric's fault. The rest of the
She added, "One way or another, it'll get warm soon and we'll all be finished with this."
Dickerson's weren't the only businesses who braved the nearly 92 hours of below-freezing temperatures and days of scheduled, energy-saving blackouts. Sonic Drive-In locations are open, although spokeswoman Donna Volz said business has been down because of the weather.
"We've still got our regular hours," Volz said. "We want to be open for customers."
Dave Hooker said Thursday his three Shorty's gas station/convenience stores will keep their regular hours today.
"It's not profitable to be open on (these bad weather) days, but we want to the customers to know we'll be open and dependable," Hooker said. "We want them to feel they can depend on us."
And all Pic Quick convenience stores in Las Cruces are open, although the rolling power outages have had a negative effect and car washes have been closed to prevent freezing runoff that could make parking lots dangerous.
"We made a pre-emptive strike (against the weather) this weekend and went out and got heaters," said owner Oscar Andrade. "But the biggest problem has been the electrical outages. The heaters don't work without electricity."
Andrade said the store on Union Avenue did have to close last night because of the loss of electricity.
There has been one item that's done well in the storm, he said: "We have sold a ton of firewood."
While most government services are expected to be back up and running Monday - once the threat of overloading the electric grid and shutting down the whole system has passed - area leaders said the cold snap definitely hasn't meant a three-day vacation for public sector employees, many of whom were also braving the worst of the weather to get their jobs done.
"We'll probably be having workers going in (today) to get caught up on the work they didn't finish," said Mayor Ken Miyagishima, who said more than half of the city's 1,400 employees have been working - including police, firefighters, public works, utilities and street crews, many of them late at night and overtime. "This is not free time for the employees. It's going to have to be made up somehow. We may even consider (working on) days we would (normally) be closed. I mean, nothing is off the table. We're not allowed to just give away free time."
Some employees may even lose pay for lost time, while others might have to work scheduled holidays, like Presidents' Day on Feb. 21.
The same sentiment is true at the county, where spokesman Jess Williams said it would be "craven" to imagine county employees had enjoyed a three-day break while the residents who needed them shivered.
"It's putting us behind at work," Williams said, making a rough estimate that 300 employees had been "idled" while sheriff's deputies, jail workers, a core management team, road crews and others kept functioning. "We are a dedicated team of public servants and the decision to close on Wednesday was a safety concern, with all the ice. It was a continuing safety concern Thursday. But the overarching fact, during this whole thing, has been the fragility of the grid and if the grid collapses, then you've got hospitals, nursing homes, residences - everyone is out of work."
Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Stan Rounds, facing more than $100,000 in repairs and damages due to broken water pipes, said many of the district's employees kept working throughout the chill too.
"We're going to have principals and staff in the building all weekend to analyze the damage," Rounds said. "It looks like we have a long weekend ahead of us ... We've had a fair number of employees at the buildings, certainly not all of them, but at this time, we're not looking at making-up work."
The lost time likely won't have an effect on civil-service, federal government employees who work at White Sands Missile Range, but WSMR spokeswoman Monte Marlin said those same provisions may not apply to employees of government contractors working at White Sands.
"To the military on assignment here, and civil service employees, there won't be any changes," Marlin said. "What we have to make up is the work lost, the meetings that weren't able to be conducted, the mission testing that was lost. Those would have more of a profound effect on WSMR and what we accomplish on a daily basis."
Overall, area residents inconvenienced by all the closures have been remarkably patient and understanding during the cold snap, said Miyagishima, whose own home lost power three times between Thursday night and Friday morning.
"If we had opened up, what if the usage would have tipped the scales enough to bring down the entire city?" he said. "It's important that we (closed down) as a team effort - I mean with the schools, the university, the county. It had to be a team effort."
Sun-News reporter Steve Ramirez and business editor Brook Stockberger contributed to this article.
Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.
