Slow supplies and worker shortage

Brae Patten works on a bike in All Sports Replay in Gunnison. Kate Gienapp

Summer 2021 laid a unique set of circumstances on industries in the Gunnison Valley. ‘ Business as usual’ is not an accurate way to describe reopenings and lifted restrictions. The pandemic kinked many supply chains in ways that are still affecting companies valley-wide.

“When COVID first hit, the bike industry didn’t really know what was going to happen as far as demand, so all the orders they had placed, they cancelled them,” said Brae Patten, bike mechanic at All Sports Replay.

Then quickly into the pandemic, Patten said, everyone had a desire to be outside and away from other people, and the demand for bicycles skyrocketed. “All the factories in Taiwan and China were kinda like ‘too bad, it’s too late, you canceled.’” According to Patten, factories are now trying to catch up on backorders. In preparation for summer 2021, Patten placed an order in September for 50 bikes. So far, they have received three.

Supplies for landscaping are also affected, even for businesses that have been serving the valley for decades. Nel Curtiss owns Rocky Mountain Trees and Landscaping (RMTL) with her husband, Steve. Curtiss said they are experiencing supply chain delays and cancelations for products in the garden center and for landscape installations.

“It’s the small things we don’t think about until they are missing,” Curtiss said. The small things include hooks for hanging baskets, the right-sized plastic pots, and dirt. “We have been waiting for a semi of potting soil and mulch since April,” said Curtiss. Curtiss said dramatically increased freight costs have made it hard for vendors to get trucks to the valley on time.

In addition to supply shortages, much like restaurants in the valley, RMTL is experiencing labor shortages. “We have about 50% of the employees that we had in July in 2019,” Curtiss said in an email. Curtiss said she believes the combination of short-term rentals and increased housing costs have flushed younger folks out of the valley.

“Our staff used to be 20 and 30 year-olds looking to stay in the valley, but now it is college students for the summer and high school students due to the fact they have year-round secure housing,” Curtiss said.

Patten said All Sports Replay has been lucky in retaining long-term employees, but two blocks away, Tomichi Cycles had to close their showroom and concentrate on repairs due to staffing shortages.

Sharon Meyers has been in the valley 16 years and owns Clean Getaways, a housekeeping service. “There’s not a workforce this year to choose from.” Meyers said. She typically hires locals because they are here for the lifestyle the valley has to offer, and she likes supporting that. “Getting through the pandemic was doable,” Meyers said. Clean Getaways was the busiest it had ever been in 2020.

This year is just as busy, but because of the workforce issues, Meyers had to cut back her business. Meyers said the valley is in a transition period. “The valley is being developed and discovered in a direction we haven’t seen before.” Like Curtiss, Meyers blames the housing crisis.

For these companies, the Fourth of July is not the busiest time of the year.

“We call it [July Fourth] the false summit,” Curtiss said. Meyers said she expects there will be several spikes of visitation before the summer season is over.

Loren Ahonen, Temporary Disaster Recovery Coordinator for Gunnison County presented workforce data to the Board of County Commissioners on July 13. Ahonen said the data shows a more complex story.

“ Roughly equal amounts of people are employed in Gunnison County in May of 2021 as they were in May of 2019, but we started to see some of these workforce challenges in May of 2019,” Ahonen said. One theory according to Ahonen is that in some cases these challenges may be driven by businesses not being able to keep up with the increased population and tourism. But Ahonen said there is a general lack of understanding on how unemployment and workforce data is gathered and what it means. A common argument is that people are not working due to hefty unemployment benefits from the pandemic. Ahonen said that there likely are people relying on those benefits, but he doesn’t believe it is the only, or even the primary, driving factor for Gunnison County.

(Anna Coburn can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or anna@gunniosntimes.com)