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Application is in for Boulder County 5 Star Certification Program

While the county does not yet meet all of the public health criteria required to operate a program, the committee in charge of its creation supported submitting the request to allow time to establish and build the program so once all metrics are met, certified businesses can operate at less-restrictive levels on the state's COVID dial dashboard.
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A Boulder County 5 Star Certification Program is one step closer to reality today after the committee charged with its creation submitted an application to the state.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment created the COVID-19 5 Star State Certification program on Dec. 14. It allows counties to develop local certification programs in which businesses implement safety measures beyond those required by public health orders. After an independent inspection and confirmation of compliance, businesses are allowed to operate at a less-restrictive capacity than outlined by the state’s color-coded COVID dial dashboard

Boulder County’s 5 Star program was created through a partnership between the Longmont Economic Development Partnership and the Boulder Chamber, which announced the application in a Wednesday news release. The administrative committee responsible for its oversight includes economic development leaders; municipal, county and public health staff; elected officials, and hospital executives, according to the release.

The state program requires a two-week sustained decline in cases, a positivity percentage lower than 10% or demonstrably improving over the past two weeks, fewer than 90% of ICU beds in use, and steady or declining regional hospitalizations, according to Boulder County Public Health.

Boulder County as of Wednesday had a 14-day incidence rate of 336.2  per 100,000, a 14-day positivity rate of 4% and a 11-day trend of hospitalizations remaining stable or decreasing, according to Boulder County Public Health data.

Corine Waldau, senior director of economic vitality at the Boulder Chamber, in an email Tuesday said, the “5 Star Certification Program is designed to allow certified businesses to operate one level below the county’s current dial level. Boulder County public health metrics on the dial have been in the red and will need to maintain levels in the orange for a sustained amount of time before certified businesses would be allowed to operate in yellow.”

The orange level allows restaurants at 25% capacity or 50 people for indoor dining. Gyms and fitness centers are restricted to 25% of capacity or 25 people maximum at orange status. At the level yellow, restaurants are allowed to operate at 50% capacity or up to 100 people, and gyms could host a maximum of 50 people.

The administrative committee supported submitting the request to operate a local program now to allow "time to establish and build the program so that once all metrics are met, certified businesses would be allowed to operate at a less restrictive level," the release states.  

The application received support from all the required stakeholders — Boulder County Public Health, Boulder County commissioners, hospitals across the county and law enforcement, according to the release. 

Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a letter of support for the effort after requesting a few modifications.  

Commissioner Matt Jones in Wednesday’s release stated, “Boulder County appreciates the tremendous  amount of work the county’s economic development leaders have invested in  developing a 5 Star Program that meets Boulder County’s and Boulder County Public  Health’s priority of protecting the public’s health while also supporting the survival of  local businesses.” 

Boulder County’s 5 Star program will be administered by a third-party vendor, Longmont-based H2 Manufacturing Solutions. As part of the program, H2 will “provide ongoing oversight  and auditing of inspectors to ensure the highest level of integrity,” according to the release. 

“This proposed third-party vendor solution leverages a safety certification system developed by H2 and the COVID-19 Manufacturing Task Force that first convened in  March and included members from Boulder County Public Health and Longmont  Economic Development Partnership,” the release states. 

The proposed Boulder County program uses a “train the trainer” model and will seek approximately 75 volunteers from across the county to serve as trained auditors and administrators for the program, according to the release.

Waldau in her Tuesday email said the Boulder County program uses the same model as Denver’s 5 Star Certification Program, giving the Boulder County administrative committee “a high level of confidence that it, too, will receive CDPHE approval for the program.”

Denver’s is one of a number of programs statewide, with others in place in Arapahoe, Broomfield, Elbert, Douglas, Jefferson, La Plata, Larimer, Mesa, Routt and Summit counties. Mesa County was the first to be approved for a 5-Star exemption and the program has been running since the summer. 

Denver got approval to set up its program and move forward despite being in red status on the state COVID dial, Waldau said. “Their businesses, if certified, can only operate in orange, as they are doing in a majority of the other 5 Star counties,” she said in her email. 

While there is no set timeframe in which the state health department is expected to approve the Boulder County application, Waldau said Denver submitted its application on Dec. 31 and was approved on Jan. 14. She noted that Denver is a “large county and was employing a different model than the other counties,” but it did pave “the way for us to submit our application and hopefully quicken the approval process.”

The program can be curtailed if COVID numbers go up, Jeff Zayach, Boulder County Public Health executive director, stated in a Jan. 5 news release.

“It’s important to remember that all three indicators on the state dial must indicate the county is eligible to move forward with the program before businesses would be permitted to operate the program,” Zayach stated. “And, of course, we will follow the state guidance if we need to pause the program due to increased transmission and cases.” 



Want to apply or volunteer?

Businesses interested in being certified through the Boulder County 5 Star Program can fill out a form to be alerted to when the application is available. Businesses and agencies also can use the form to express interest in supporting the program with paid employees or volunteers. 

The form is available at http://bit.ly/BOCOFiveStarInterest.