Solving the virus and earthquake, Magna-style

Brandis Touhuni stands in front of the pet-grooming business she owns on Magna Main Street. The March 18, 2020, earthquake shut her business down for just three days. | Lee Benson, Deseret News

MAGNA — Want to see resilience? Want to see getting right back up after taking a punch? Want to see not waiting for the government to take care of it for you?

You could do worse than walk into Aunt Ernie’s Pet Parlor on Magna’s Main Street and talk to Brandis Touhuni.

Brandis, 39, owns Aunt Ernie’s, a dog grooming business (the name pays tribute to the grooming skills of Brandis’ mother, Ernestine) that is located near the west end of Main below the big “C” on the mountain — for Cyprus High School — and the beginning of the Kennecott Copper property that for over 100 years has defined the town.

Magna started out, and remains, a miner’s town, a hard-working, no-nonsense, get the shift done and then hope for a little overtime kind of place.

A pandemic and earthquake do not appear to have changed that.

It’s been almost two months since Magna got its chamber of commerce nightmare. First, on March 11, came the coronavirus pandemic. Second, on March 18, came a 5.7 earthquake, the epicenter less than 4 miles northeast of downtown Magna and its century-old buildings.

While damage was reported throughout the Salt Lake Valley, Magna got the worst of it.

What’s transpired ever since, in Brandis’ view from west Main, has been vintage Magna.

“People have come together. There’s a small-town feel here you’re not going to find a lot of other places,” she says. “Everyone’s always helping each other.”

She uses herself as exhibit one.

On the day of the earthquake, she was asleep when the ground started shaking at 7:09 a.m. Her first thought was that a bomb had gone off. She and her husband, James, a superintendent of a construction company, quickly inspected their home, a 96-year-old house near the high school. They found no damage. So far so good.

But then they got in the car to check on the two 104-year-old buildings they own on Main Street. (Both buildings, by the way, were used in the Disney TV show “Andi Mack” when it was filmed on location in Magna. Aunt Ernie’s was the Spoon Diner and the building next door was a record shop).

The Aunt Ernie’s building had some cracks in the interior that didn’t appear to be too serious, but the building next door was in shambles, with bricks littered everywhere, facing major repair.

Like most everyone else in Magna, the Touhuni’s didn’t have earthquake insurance.

So what did they do? Call a lawyer and take out bankruptcy? Sit down and cry?

Nope. They started rebuilding immediately.

And their neighbors immediately pitched in to help.

“We had three separate fundraisers for us before we knew it,” says Brandis. “We got help from people we didn’t even know.”

The response was welcome, but it wasn’t unexpected. It’s why Brandis and James live in Magna. They both grew up here, both went to Cyprus High, both have Magna in their veins.

“It’s a good town, a really good place to live,” says Brandis. “It doesn’t always have the best of reputations. It’s a low-income area, so you’ve got some drug problems and some things like that. But the majority are just good, solid blue-collar people who would do anything for you. Maybe they ended up here on the west side because it’s what they could afford — but they stay because they want to.

“I mean we’re tough out here. We’ve all had to work and bust our butts for what we have and I don’t think anybody’s willing to just give it up. There’s not a business owner down here that’s not willing to fight for what they’ve put their heart and soul into.”

Bureaucratic restrictions and red tape that are part and parcel of pandemics and earthquakes have just been additional hurdles to clear.

“They (the government) have done nothing but make it more difficult,” says Brandis. “The hoops we’ve had to jump through with Salt Lake County have been ridiculous.”

As an example, after the earthquake the county turned off the gas to all the buildings. It was a safety measure and completely understandable. The problem was, no one from the county returned to turn the gas back on, and the gas company wouldn’t do it because it didn’t turn it off.

“So we took a wrench and turned ours back on ourselves,” says Brandis. “The other businesses were like, ‘How did you get your gas back on?’ And we’re like, ‘With a wrench,’ and they’re like, ‘We’re going to do that, too.’ And we all high-fived.”

Problem-solving, Magna style.

All in all, the pandemic and earthquake ended up shutting down Brandis’ dog grooming business for a grand total of three days.

They’ve had to practice social distancing ever since, and business hasn’t been as brisk as it might have been, but it’s been steady and Magna people haven’t shied away from patronizing Magna people.

“The pandemic hasn’t really affected us like a lot of other businesses, so that’s been good,” Brandis says.

For that matter, the pandemic doesn’t seem to have affected Magna as much either.

“I don’t know one single individual that’s gotten sick with the virus,” says Brandis; “I’ve not heard of one person in Magna being sick.”

And she knows quite a few of them.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2WhBTBk