Colorado will move to a more localized approach in fighting the coronavirus after the state’s stay-at-home order ends on April 26. Gov. Jared Polis announced Monday that the next phase will rely on county health departments to make decisions appropriate to their area.
The Montezuma County Commission held a special meeting a few hours before the governor’s announcement to start planning the county’s reopening. The meeting, livestreamed and recorded on the county’s YouTube channel, included officials from municipal governments and the county’s public health department.
While commissioners have been eager to reopen in time for the end of the stay-at-home order, others are asking for additional caution.
Update (5:30 p.m., April 21): The county has published the draft plan on its website. Read the full 12-page document here. A meeting to accept public comment has been scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m.
Testing, enforcement may affect reopening
Guidelines created by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security were part of Monday’s discussion.
The center says governors should relax restrictions in phases. But to move to the phase where businesses are safe to reopen, one of the criteria says rapid testing is necessary for, at a minimum, everyone with symptoms and for essential workers. Montezuma County, like most of the state and the country, has not reached that point.
Dr. Kent Aikin of the Montezuma County Public Health Department said rapid testing equipment has been ordered but it’s not clear when it will arrive. He added that high demand is slowing down its delivery nationwide.
Businesses that do reopen will have to follow public health requirements as set by the state and the county. Bobbi Lock, director of MCPHD, said the department very likely does not have the capacity to enforce those requirements. The county would have to rely on some amount of self-responsibility by business owners.
“They need to understand that they are going to have to enforce this themselves,” Lock said.
County administrator Shak Powers requested for MCPHD to provide details on what staffing should look like in the event the department needs to expand enforcement.
Chambers coordinate for business guidance
Maggie Goodell, director of the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Mancos is working as a “tri-chamber” alongside Dolores and Cortez. The chambers are sharing notes with each other on how to offer business guidance in the months ahead.
In Dolores, chamber director Susan Lisak said she’s working with businesses to make sure they have a reopening plan in place. This includes how they can operate under social distancing guidelines, the installation of plexiglass barriers, and understanding personal protective equipment requirements.
“We want to make sure that we have the businesses as fully prepared as we can,” Lisak said.
She added that the coordinated effort will help in sharing information with businesses and the public.
Some caution against reopening too soon
Commissioner Larry Don Suckla, who has been a vocal proponent of reopening as soon as possible, asked how the group can have a plan to reopen by April 27. His question was followed by two expletives that aired during the meeting, which KSJD confirmed were said by Betsy Harrison, a trustee on the Mancos Town Board.
After the meeting Monday, Harrison told KSJD that her remarks were a mistake and that her screen showed her audio was muted. She said it was made out of exasperation for what she believes is a rushed response by the county, including Suckla’s personal Facebook posts misleading some to believe that the county has a firm reopening plan in place.
Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart said both the county and the governer are premature in reopening next week. The county’s location, the chairman said, means it needs to consider the effects of how other states and tribes and are handling the pandemic.
“I really think this is the calm before the storm,” Heart said.
Cortez Mayor Karen Sheek said she understands the need to have a plan for reopening but wants to see coronavirus testing catch up first.
Note: The City of Cortez is an underwriter of KSJD.
“Without those tests, we are trying to make, literally, life-and-death decisions without enough information,” Sheek said.
Powers said he would share a draft of the plan with the county health department by the end of Monday. Additional input is expected from municipal governments.