The novel coronavirus is not only impacting the health of those who contract it, the pandemic is also taking a grim toll on employees at businesses and nonprofits across the nation and right here in Newtown.

One of the latest and most familiar local workers to fall victim to the economic side effects of COVID-19 is former Edmond Town Hall (ETH) Theatre Coordinator Tom Mahoney, whose position at the Main Street facility was eliminated recently after 39 years of service.

Jennifer Chaudhary, who heads up the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers said delivering the news to Mahoney was among the hardest things she ever had to do.

“Tom was a highly valued member of the Edmond Town Hall family,” Chaudhary told The Newtown Bee this week. “We are all going to miss him.”

Those who have followed the ETH through budget deliberations, especially in recent years, know the beloved community institution has struggled to reinvent itself and become more self-sustaining as the popularity of a night out at the movies has waned, relocated now to home theaters with huge digital screens and access to an endless choice of streaming services.

Efforts to become more financially sustainable have also been thwarted by Borough of Newtown zoning rules that restrict the type of tenants permitted to rent office space in the stately facility. Then COVID-19 hit, curtailing special event and gymnasium rentals and indefinitely postponing cultural arts activities, including a planned live music series that was anticipated to be profitable.

A successful run of outdoor drive-in movies helped move the revenue needle, but only slightly. And so, facing a fiscal year deficit Chaudhary said is already running into the “tens of thousands of dollars just since July,” her board made the difficult decision to stem the flow of red ink in the ETH budget.

“At that point we had only three full-time employees, and two of them are necessary to keep the building physically up and running,” she said, adding that with no planned uses for the theater in the foreseeable future, the third full-time position that employed Mahoney had to go.

“Even if we are able to book events, current emergency guidelines limit the theatre space to around 75 patrons,” Chaudhary said, “so the only other option would be to try and book even smaller events.”

Then there is the question of whether it even makes sense to open the facility, which comes at a cost as well.

Once the virus is under control and the ETH board is able to start considering re-booking event rentals and live entertainment, Chaudhary said decisions about staffing needs will also be clarified. But for now, the venue and its operators, like thousands, are still at the mercy of COVID-19, which unfortunately shows no signs of receding.