The streets and yards were empty, devoid of people. No one was out walking, bicycling, driving around or visiting with neighbors.
It struck her as “weird,” she said, not at all in keeping with the friendly small town atmosphere she and her husband, David Paukert, have grown to love since moving here from Grand Forks in 1996.
In this peaceful, idyllic hamlet of 270 or so residents, the Paukerts live in a towering, yellow Victorian home that has no house number -- and doesn’t need one. The house, fronted by a black wrought iron fence, was built in 1893.
The couple may seem far removed from the disruption that COVID-19 has inflicted on society in distant urban cities.
They aren’t.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has seeped into the lives of people here, like everywhere else. But in this village, nestled quietly on the north side of US Highway 2 about 50 miles west of Grand Forks, the relative isolation affords a certain reassuring, if tentative, sense of security.
“I think we’re lucky to be in North Dakota,” said Marlys Hoverson, of rural Petersburg, during a stop at Michigan Hometown Foods, a bright, clean and remarkably ample and well-stocked grocery store with a loyal clientele.
“We’re able to hang onto some choice,” Hoverson said, noting the absence of COVID-related mandates that have restricted behavior in other states. “It’s still up to local control.”
“We are each trying to do the best we can,” she said. “We stick pretty close to home.”
As a former elementary and special education teacher, Hoverson is concerned about the pandemic’s effect on families with children, she said. “It’s hard on young parents; I see that.”
She is pleased that Michigan has this local grocery store, Hoverson added. “It’s better than travelling 45 miles to Grand Forks. Arliss is doing such a great job.”
The store manager, Arliss Spillane, said Nelson County “has been pretty fortunate” to have almost no diagnosed COVID-19 cases, when the Herald visited in July.
“I think we had one active case -- but, you know, it’s all around us,” she said. “So it’s just the angst; you can read it on people’s faces. They’re tired of it.”
As of Monday, Aug. 24, the county is reporting 28 positive cases.
Customers ‘staying local’
If there’s a silver lining to the coronavirus calamity, for Spillane, it’s that more people appreciate Michigan Hometown Foods and are patronizing it.
“Business has been good,” said Spillane, who manages a staff of two fulltime and a few part-time employees.
“(The pandemic) has helped us because more people are staying local, so it’s actually been a benefit, a good thing as far as the business end.”
Michigan Hometown Foods, which is owned by the Michigan Job Development Authority, is a mainstay in this community.
“We have fought hard to keep this store,” said Spillane, a past owner who sold it when her health issues made selling necessary a few years ago. The store was owned and operated by others until purchased by the Michigan JDA, whose members convinced her to return.
“The Michigan JDA is very pro-business,” Spillane said.
Since she took over as manager in June 2018, she has concentrated on stocking products that customers want and providing a broad range of food items.
“We have a wide variety for a little town,” Spillane said, pointing out products such as Bernatello’s Pizza, Old Dutch snacks, Leo’s Potato Dumplings made in Lankin, N.D., and the Langdon (N.D.) Locker, and other regionally- and nationally-sourced items.
Spillane stocks foods she knows are popular with people of Norwegian, German, Polish and Czech descent in the area.
She’s even expanding their culinary experience with Thai food, made by a local, Ning Seales, that “just flies out of here,” Spillane said. Seales makes a pate’ that gets snapped up by customers, who also look for her fried rice and fried green curry.
Meeting specific needs and wants of area residents seems to be top-of-mind for Spillane, as evidenced by a sign in the baby food section that reads: “Will order any formula at your request. Please ask.”
Safety concerns
While the pandemic has reinforced the importance of the small-town grocery store to the community, she said, “it’s also been kind of stressful because you’re trying to control safety. Every time a customer goes through, we sanitize the carts and the counters.”
Hand-sanitizing stations are placed near the entrance for convenient use by customers and employees.
“Customers know we keep it clean,” said Spillane, who strongly encourages everyone in the store to wear a mask. “We appreciate people wearing them,” she said. All her employees do.
She questions the politicization of mask-wearing and the denial by some that the virus is a real threat.
“We have a large amount of elderly people (living in the area),” she said. “You’ve got to think about other people.”
Product shortages
The more pressing challenge for Michigan Hometown Foods -- and other businesses -- is getting products to sell to customers or to run their operations.
“Some products are getting harder to find. We’re not always getting what we order,” Spillane said, pointing to gaps here and there on the shelves. “Where there are holes, we can’t get product.”
“Last week, of the 137 items we ordered, we got about half,” she said.
At the outset of the pandemic, widespread fear of possible shortages prompted panic-buying that “really screwed with the whole grocery industry,” Spillane said.
Manufacturers and food processors were forced to shut down, due to positive COVID cases among staff, causing meat prices to skyrocket, she said. And other processors “have had trouble getting the supplies they need.
“Pepsi has cut back to the four top-selling products, and I know Coke is planning to do the same thing, because they can’t find the cans to package the product. For some products, the jars are getting harder to find.”
Disruptions in the supply chain “that people don’t see” influence what products make it to store shelves, Spillane said. “It’s the chain reaction of everything. Everybody’s trying to catch up. You’d think it would’ve gotten better.”
But overall, “grocery prices haven’t risen as bad as people would have thought,” Spillane said. “The meat prices are pretty much back to where they were before the pandemic. Now (processors) are starting to catch up and the prices are coming down.”
“I just had to be smart and not overstock,” she said.
Coffee gathering helps people connect
In the weeks following the coronavirus alert in mid-March, area residents began gathering weekly for “Community Coffee Time” in the north hallway at the Michigan Mall.
It’s been popular, locals said, and a way for people to feel less isolated.
They meet Tuesdays, anytime between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., in a hallway in the mall. Coffee and rolls are provided by the library; a free will offering is accepted.
“We have our regulars, about 10 to 12, who meet every Tuesday,” said Rod Crommett, a retiree who moved here after a 35-year career with the Grand Forks Post Office.
“They really enjoy getting together and talking about events and what’s happening in the area,” he said.
The informal gathering draws locals as well as people from area towns, including Petersburg, who attend regularly. Former residents, who moved away and have come back to visit, have also joined the group, said Crommett.
Seated at two, long tables near the entrance to the library, the cheerful group is surrounded by composite pictures of Michigan High School graduation class members, a reminder of the school that closed in the early 1990s.
Nearby stands a large six-sided sign, crafted with wood salvaged from the school’s gym floor, stands as an imposing fixture in the hallway. The gym was part of the original school, which was built in 1883, the year “Michigan City,” as it was officially named, was founded.
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Six best burgs of North Dakota and Minnesota: Pandemic highlights value of community in Michigan - Grand Forks Herald
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