BoCo officials explain extending target for easing of COVID-19 curbs
About this series: BizWest is investigating the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic stress on municipal, county and state governments, including furloughs, layoffs and budgetary deficits. Articles will be published daily on various jurisdictions.
BOULDER — Boulder County may be able to ease some restrictions imposed because of the COVID-19 crisis by May 9, county officials said Tuesday.
Jeff Zayach, executive director of the county’s health department, said during a live-streamed discussion on Facebook that the county had decided to delay implementing Gov. Jared Polis’ “Safer at Home” initiative, which started Monday. To ease “stay at home” restrictions, Zayach said, the county needed to increase testing for the coronavirus to 500 a day from the current average of 100 to 150 a day. He said county residents and businesses also needed to continue physical distancing and wearing masks in public to control the spread of COVID-19.
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One exception in the county’s order is that beginning Monday, non-critical businesses were allowed to start offering curbside delivery of products. According to the county’s website, “travel to pick up those goods will be considered necessary travel.”
“We’re in a no-win situation,” wrote Zayach on the county’s website. “I know the livelihoods of many people have been significantly impacted by COVID-19. We hope that including the option for curbside delivery for non-critical businesses will help our communities start getting back on their feet.”
As of Tuesday, officials said, Boulder County has recorded 34 deaths from the virus so far, and 531 county residents have tested positive or probable for the virus, with 119 requiring hospitalization and 203 reported recoveries.
Polis’ “safer at home” executive order, which outlined steps for the gradual reopening of some businesses in the state, was being implemented by most of the state beginning Monday, but most metro Denver counties including Boulder County have extended their stay-at-home orders through the first week of May. Pitkin County, home to the resort town of Aspen, also has extended the order.
As with most government agencies, shortfalls in sales and use taxes can be offset somewhat by closures of public buildings and cancellations of meetings. According to a county news release, “with the exception of emergency response, only services that can be delivered electronically or by mail or phone will be available” until state restrictions are lifted, “including motor vehicle registration, recording, and taxation services. New planning applications and standard building-permit requests are currently not being accepted; the county is working to establish an online process as quickly as possible.”
The county’s motor vehicle office is restricting in-person services to only transactions that can’t be done online, over the phone, including person-to-person vehicle sales. The same policy applies to the county’s Recording Division; its only in-person service is issuing marriage licenses.
Some county officials have been reassigned to entities such as the Office of Emergency Management that deal more directly with issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
No furloughs or layoffs have been announced so far, and the county’s human resources still was listing job openings such as agricultural resources specialist, appraisers, a deputy public health director, dispatchers, caseworkers, construction workers and a Head Start education manager. One posting listed an immediate need for shift workers at a COVID-19 recovery shelter.
