FOCUS ON BUSINESS - March 2005

DHS patrons fuel up fast-food eateries

By Shane Benjamin
Herald Staff Writer

It is 10:56 a.m. Feb. 21 – Presidents Day – and cooks at Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers are sizzling 42 hamburger patties, deep-frying 30 orders of chicken nuggets and salting 100 orders of french fries.

They are preparing for up to 100 Durango High School students who may pack this restaurant between 11 and 11:45 a.m. "I don’t know if we’re going to have kids today or not," said Gina Rooswinkel, general manager, referring to the federal holiday.

At 11:08 a.m., the employee working the drive-through shouts the answer: "Kids are coming!" A cook quickly throws more hamburger patties on the grill while another fills the deep fryer. "We basically know what they are going to order," Rooswinkel said. just get them out as fast as we can."

Wendy’s is one of the most popular lunch spots for DHS students. Of 1,033 surveyed by Durango School District

9-R, 70 percent said they eat at Subway, 64 percent eat at Wendy’s, 57 percent visit Taco Bell and 49 percent go to Griego’s. Students also visit at least 40 other restaurants in town, the survey reported.

If DHS closes its campus for lunch, as is being discussed, businesses within walking distance expect to lose 15 percent to 20 percent of their revenue. "It’s insane," said Rooswinkel, who foresees losing up to $500 a day.

And if DHS closes its campus, Amado Olivar, manager of Taco Bell, predicted the restaurant will lose some 100 students and about $300 a day. "It really does affect business because they are a big part of our lunch crowd," he said.

A 22-member task force studying the impact of closing the campus is weighing the interests of businesses that want the campus to stay open against the interests of parents who want the campus closed for safety reasons, said Deborah Uroda, spokeswoman for the 9-R school district. "We do care about what happens to busi-nesses based on the decisions we make," she said.

One alternative is to give businesses the opportunity to open a food court in the high school. Another scenario is closing the campus and paying $100,000 annually for security guards to enforce the closure. "Is that worth the cost?" Uroda asked.

Reach Staff Writer Shane Benjamin at shane@durangoherald.com