‘We survived’: Manitou Springs businesses recoup after critical water shortage

MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) — After several days of a critical water shortage, Manitou Springs businesses are working to make up any losses suffered as they made adjustments to accommodate.

Increased water turbidity forced the city to ask all residents and businesses to conserve water. As of Friday morning, all restrictions were lifted, but some businesses are still working to move forward from the impact.

On Tuesday, Red Dog Coffee hung a sign outside their door to announce shortened hours for the week.

“I came in on the second day of the water crisis, and everybody kind of had this system down, we had, like, water jugs everywhere,” said Miriam Shamess, a barista and artist at Red Dog.

She described their system. Essentially, employees had brought in large jugs of water from outside Manitou Springs. These were mostly what they used to wash their dishes to avoid using large quantities of water.

“Which was crazy because it took, like, one whole water jug to wash one dish,” Shamess said. “It was also still really busy, too, so it was like… ahhhh!”

Nonetheless, Shamess said the store was able to get through it. With the water jugs, they were able to wash the dishes they did use, and to avoid washing dishes that might require more water, Shamess said they avoided serving certain food items and blended drinks.

But with the shortened hours, she said hourly employees ultimately worked fewer paid hours and would have gotten fewer tips, had it not been for business picking up.

“It’s been busier, of course, it’s the weekend, so it’s a lot busier since then,” Shamess said. “And, yeah, we can do everything now, and it’s just been back to normal doing what we do.”

She said she’s confident the store will quickly recoup its losses, especially with the summer season coming up.

Down the street, Toasted Bistro said they had very minimal impacts, themselves, financially, but they did need to make some adjustments to how they did business.

“This week has been challenging,” said chef and co-owner Alisa Young. “It was doable. Very doable. We survived.”

She said they switched to serving everything in plastic, disposable containers, which arrived at the bistro very quickly and helped them with water conservation.

“Unfortunately, I had to call off my dishwasher for a few days, but in the end it all worked out for everybody,” she said.

She and her co-owner, Jamie Young, had been doing business for a while, having been in New Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jamie described the experience of the water shortage as “a drop in the bucket” compared to what they had gone through in the past, a sentiment echoed by Alisa.

“This was nothing compared to what we did down in New Mexico during COVID,” she said. She said she believes the blow for everyone was softened by the sense of community in Manitou Springs.

“The community really came together and supported each other as they always do and through good times and bad, so that’s why I love this community. We all watch out for each other,” she said.

As both businesses continue to work as normal, city officials thanked everyone for their conservation efforts. They said they encourage everyone to continue conservation efforts on a daily basis, shortage or not.

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