With Boulder County’s 5 Star Certification Program slated to start taking applications later this week, a host of chambers of commerce and economic development organizations are joining the effort to recruit volunteer auditors and administrators for the program.
The Longmont Economic Development Partnership, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority, the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce and the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County all sent emails on Tuesday promoting the need for volunteers for the program.
The program — which will allow certified businesses to operate at a less-restrictive capacity than outlined by the state’s color-coded COVID dial dashboard — last week earned Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment approval.
Information on how to apply for the program was posted online Tuesday in both English and Spanish. Applications will be accepted starting Friday, with inspections beginning next week, according to the program website.
A technical assistance webinar for businesses to learn about the process and ask questions will be at 11 a.m. Friday. Join the webinar here.
“In order to make this program possible and keep the costs down for businesses, Boulder County is seeking volunteers to help administer the program. Volunteers can either be direct unpaid volunteers from the community or employees of businesses/organizations willing to volunteer the employees’ time for the program,” the Longmont Chamber stated in an email whose message was nearly identical to emails sent by the other organizations.
Volunteers are needed a minimum of eight hours per week for a minimum of six to eight weeks to help implement this program, according to the email. Volunteers will work with a third-party vendor, Longmont-based H2 Manufacturing Solutions, and will be trained as on-site inspectors or as administrators within H2’s Command Central team, according to the email.
More information on volunteer responsibilities is available here. To sign up as a volunteer, click here.
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.
Boulder County’s 5 Star program was created through a partnership between the Longmont Economic Development Partnership and the Boulder Chamber. The administrative committee responsible for its oversight includes economic development leaders; municipal, county and public health staff; elected officials, and hospital executives. Its application was submitted to the state on Jan. 20.
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.
Those metrics will be reviewed twice a week to ensure the program’s ability to operate in the county, according to a joint news release issued last week by the LEDP and the Boulder Chamber.
To qualify for the program, businesses must demonstrate they have implemented all required public health measures to help protect customers and staff from contracting COVID-19 and be inspected by 5 Star program staff, according to the release.
Certification under the program will, in most instances, allow businesses to double their capacity.
Boulder County currently is in orange status on the state’s COVID dial dashboard, which limits restaurants, gyms and fitness centers, personal services businesses, offices, indoor and outdoor event venues and non-critical manufacturers to 25% of capacity. In contrast, under yellow level restrictions, they could operate at 50% capacity.
Operating at the yellow level also would allow restaurants to move last call for alcohol to 11 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. as mandated by the county’s orange status. Bars, however, will be required to remain closed.
Capacity limits for retailers would remain at 50% in the yellow status.
The Boulder County 5 Star Program Administrative Committee also has created a BoCo 5 Star Fund to raise money to pay application fees for businesses interested in pursuing certification but are unable to do so because of financial hardship, and provide grants to businesses to cover the costs of implementation of any public health measures required for certification, according to the Longmont Chamber email. For more information on the fund or to donate, click here.
Questions and comments about the 5 Star program can be sent to [email protected].
