This Ruidoso barber shop has stood here for 50 years. It is now in a floodway

RUIDOSO – For more than half a century, a tiny barber shop has sat on Sudderth Drive feet away from the Rio Ruidoso as it flows through midtown and behind a row of businesses and RV parks.

During the July 8 flash flood, the river surged violently, flooding businesses, collapsing buildings and wrecking vehicles. It was close to this spot that three people who died in the flood were swept away.

The floodwaters cleaved the rear half of the shop, ripping apart an extension built onto the original metal building. After the flood, the A-frame roof hung seemingly in mid-air, propped up by an unmoored wall.

Nearby, Ronnie Hartnett, 82, in his signature brown cattleman hat, was carefully combing through tools and hair products he had salvaged from the shop on Saturday. Over the past several days, with the help of volunteers, he managed to sweep out the mud that engulfed the shop. The linoleum floor looked strangely clean amid the mud-streaked walls and the boarded-over entrance to the back room. He frequently stopped to give the floor another sweep, which seemed to bring him comfort. He smiled often and cracked jokes in between stories about his days breaking horses.

Hartnett said the river had hit the building in previous floods, but never like this. The historic flood saw the river surge more than 20 feet, breaking a record set last summer, when the village was hit by catastrophic wildfires and flooding over scarred areas left behind.

As the flood infiltrated the shop, Hartnett said he was inside, alone, in water that rose waist-deep, as evidenced by muddy marks left on the walls.

“I had to stay in here a good while,” he recalled. “I knew I didn’t want to open that door.” He waited as the flood roared, the building shook and the water rose around him. After the waters began to recede, he eventually made it to his pickup truck and drove away.

In the wake of the disaster, the building was left with no running water and no electricity, and what remained of the rear half looked ready to collapse. Nonetheless, Hartnett was determined to resume cutting hair in the shop as soon as the following day: A Sunday, usually a day off for the shop, but as Hartnett said: “I can cut hair any damn time I want.”

‘They’re not tearing this down’

Businesses along the river’s path spent the week clearing wreckage and assessing how to get back on their feet. Teams of volunteers fanned out across hard-hit areas, some with trailers, tools or expertise, others with bottles of water or simply their hands. A married couple visiting from El Paso, Texas, stopped by to offer Hartnett some cash for repairs.

Brandon Elliott is an electrician from Arizona who was in New Orleans celebrating his birthday when he heard news of the flood. “I saw what happened here and God told me to come help,” he said, adding that he planned to stay in town indefinitely. By Sunday, Elliott and a contractor were hatching plans to prop up the building and secure it long enough for Hartnett and his wife, Delma, to decide what to do.

Delma Hartnett, 83, founded Delma’s Beauty Shop in 1971. Ronnie, who came to Ruidoso as a horse trainer, started cutting hair later in life. His state license hung on the wall of the shop, dated 2012 through May of 2027. These days, health problems keep Delma homebound much of the time, the couple said, while Ronnie has continued to open the business and sell haircuts.

But on Sunday, the Hartnetts’ optimism encountered hard truths.

The village announced that the shop “presents a serious safety hazard during future flash flood events.” Until the building is either repaired or demolished, the shop would be off-limits. The Hartnetts and Elliott found the shop wrapped all around with yellow caution tape.

On the village’s Facebook page, a flood of comments from residents expressed sympathy for the Hartnetts, some sharing memories of the beauty shop and some expressing concern for their welfare, as an elderly couple living on their own.

Village spokesperson Kerry Gladden told the Journal the prospect of them rebuilding was in doubt: “It is now in the floodway. If the river goes through there today or tomorrow like it did on Tuesday, it will be gone.”

The building was previously owned by Delma’s father, who also built the extension, Delma said. Over the decades the barber shop has sat here, climate change has exacerbated wildfires, storms and downwind effects such as flooding. Under new regulations issued for floodplains and floodways on a map the village released in March, the shop sits right on the floodway.

Delma Hartnett was immediately seized with dread that the shop would immediately be demolished. “I’ll stand here in front of the tractor; they’re not tearing this down,” she said forcefully, walking the grounds with a cane. “If I have to get solar to get my electricity, I’ll get solar.”

A further complication is that the property is now owned by the Hartnetts’ adult daughter, Ellen Balkema, who lives in Colorado. Delma said she transferred the property to her while contending with health problems.

The village has been directly in contact with Balkema, even as the Hartnetts continued to investigate options on their own.

On Monday morning, the village red-tagged the shop, posting a notice ordering all work on the property to halt and forbidding entry. At about 8 a.m., Delma Hartnett stationed herself next to the shop, sitting in her pickup truck, convinced wrecking crews might arrive at any moment. Her husband was at church, she said; and she was here to block the way of any bulldozers that rolled up.

None came, however. Instead, Elliott arrived in his jeep, and in a matter of minutes made phone calls to the village about applying for a building permit and arranging for an inspection. He then escorted Delma to the village’s Planning and Zoning Department, where staff greeted her warmly and said an inspector would be on scene next week.

Balkema told the Journal she was following the village’s guidance on how to proceed safely, but expressed concern that increasing risks from floods gave her doubts about salvaging the shop.

“I know that Delma and Ronnie are devastated,” she said. “At this time, no decisions have been made on what we’re going to try to do with the building or what’s going to be allowed in the future, with rebuilding or permitting.”

However, she added, “Finding him another location to continue his barber business seems to be the most realistic.”

Back at the shop, Ronnie Hartnett was tidying the grounds. Elliott told him that, in order to “keep the inspector happy,” it was time to lock up the shop and stay away for a while. The smile faded from Ronnie’s face but he nodded.

Asked what he would do while waiting for the inspector’s findings, he said, “I’ll go home and mow the lawn.” Would he consider setting up his chair at another location? “Sure I would.”

And as he took his leave, Hartnett stopped, picked up his well-worn broom, and swept the front steps one more time.