Hotels bursting with visitors
 
By Rick Smith
San Angelo Standard-Times
 
A large convention, spring sporting events and University Interscholastic League contests traditionally make April one of the busiest months for San Angelo hotels and motels.

Add to the mix hundreds of people involved with the fallout from the raid on the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, and there is no room at the inn for visitors.

To house additional workers, as well as tourists who lack reservations, the city has tapped unusual options.

"We've sent people to hunting lodges in Fort McKavett, and to motels in Eden and Ballinger," said Pamela Miller, vice president of the San Angelo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Visitors have found rooms in private homes and in a bed-and-breakfast that hasn't officially opened for business.

"We're doing our best to help everybody," Miller said.

Scott Zaruba, manager of Inn of the Conchos and president of San Angelo's hotel and motel association, said recent days have been hectic.

"Most of the hotels are full," he said. "It definitely puts a strain on the system."

Several local hotels volunteered to wash bed linen for the women and children from the YFZ Ranch.

"The city said they needed somebody to do the linen, so we offered to help," said Scott White, general manager of the Staybridge Suites.

The Fairfield Inn and Suites and Hampton Inn also helped with the laundry, he said.

Local and area restaurants and food stores have donated food to women and children from the YFZ Ranch, and to workers involved with the situation.

In turn, the arrival of visiting workers has brought extra business into local restaurants.

"The first few days, we were packed with people from law enforcement agencies," said Bernay Sheffield of Zentner's Daughter Steak House.

Fuentes Cafe Downtown has catered to journalists and legal workers.

"We've had a lot of orders to-go from the courthouse," said Keely Hall, a night manager at Fuentes.

The restaurant has allowed out-of-town reporters to use its back room as an impromptu newsroom.

"One night, they were here for six hours," Hall said.

"It started when two reporters came in, then more came.

"By the end of the night, nine or 10 of them were working back there, writing their reports."
 
gosanangelo.com
Originally published Wednesday, April 16, 2008
 
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