The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Enforcement plan developed
By Mark Reaman
The number of coronavirus tests being given continues to increase in Gunnison County but the number of positive results continues to remain relatively low.
While the positives amount to just over 1 percent of the results, the county wants to make sure the measures that have helped stem the spread of the coronavirus are adhered to throughout both ends of the valley, so an enforcement plan is being set up to ensure businesses know what is expected of them.
“Testing numbers are increasing but results remain mostly negative,” said Gunnison County public information officer Andrew Sandstrom. “Only 1.04 percent of the results are positive based on the 14-day average. That’s good. Anything less than 5 percent is really good.”
Sandstrom confirmed one patient this week was transferred to Grand Junction, due to the apparent symptoms. The local resident was seen in the emergency room at Gunnison Valley Hospital Friday evening and then transferred by ambulance to Grand Junction. “The person has already been discharged and returned home stable. They have not yet been counted as a COVID case, as we don’t have a test result,” relayed Jodie Leonard of GVH.
As for the new enforcement protocol, Sandstrom said it starts with education. He said health and law enforcement officials took a walk-through of Elk Avenue two weeks ago to chat with businesses about compliance with local health orders. A similar walk-through took place in Gunnison last week.
“There is a united front among enforcement officials in the county and municipalities, so everyone is on the same page,” explained Sandstrom. “We want more face-to-face encounters like the walk-throughs that were conducted in Crested Butte and Gunnison. We plan on having a uniform checklist that addresses compliance concerns. Staying in compliance is what will keep us open, get Western Colorado University students back, get our kids back in school this fall and get Crested Butte Mountain Resort open this winter for the ski season.”
Enforcement officials seek to identify any issues on noncompliance and use the educational element to inform businesses of what needs to be improved.
From there, a follow-up visit will take place to make sure appropriate changes have been made by businesses not in compliance with health orders.
“The goal is solidify communication between all the people involved and solidify the process used to bring businesses into compliance,” said Sandstrom. “If a business continues to blatantly disregard the health orders, the enforcement team will move to the next level and perhaps issue citations or even revoke a business license.”
Sandstrom said, “Anecdotally, it feels like there has been a shift away from the anti-compliance attitude that was prevalent in some. People understand that taking a measure like wearing a mask is good for business. It is pro-economy to keep in compliance. No one wants to see a spike in the numbers that moves us to have to implement tighter restrictions. It feels like there is less pushback to the messaging.”
The enforcement teams will essentially give businesses a report card stating that they are either “meeting expectations,” or “exceeding expectations,” or that they “need improvement” with specific areas noted that need to be upgraded.
“As a community, I think if we keep following the health orders, the better our chances of staying open,” Sandstrom said. “Looking to the future, the big concern is that in winter we are all spending so much more time inside. We are starting to think about how to mitigate the things that come from being inside. Can we do something with air circulation inside a building? How do we keep people safe when they can’t be outside to eat a meal? We are starting to look at the new situation. Winter will change things quite a bit.”
The new dashboard on the county COVID-19 website has been put up and Sandstrom said the focus is meant to show running numbers and how they fit in to the risk level. The Incident Command Team wants citizens to understand what it takes to go from a relatively safe Blue level that we are in now to the more restrictive next level, Yellow on the coronameter. “We are still working on the site so that people can dig into the details of the testing and get more details if they want,” said Sandstrom.
