On a Friday morning at Snooze AM Eatery in downtown Boulder, mask-clad servers bustled in and out of the restaurant, hefting trays piled high with French toast, hot coffee and fizzing mimosas.
Amid the gentle hum of chattering customers, Jorge Posada, the restaurant’s general manager, sat at an outdoor table surveying the mid-morning crowd. In February the business was approved for the county’s 5-Star Certification program. While Posada said he was still waiting for word to catch on, one of the biggest benefits has been a sense of relief for his staff.
The program has allowed certified businesses to operate at a less-restrictive level on the state’s COVID-19 dial than wherever the county is. While Boulder County remains in Level Yellow, certified businesses have been able to operate under Level Blue ever since the state vaccinated 70% of its 70 and older population in early March.
“It is nice to have that peace of mind that if the (state) dial were for some reason turned back, we will be able to operate at one notch (less restrictive) than allowed by the state,” Posada said. “That is a really good peace of mind.”
The idea is provide benefits to businesses that show they are following public health orders and implementing safety measures to help slow the spread of COVID-19. So far, 60 businesses have been certified.
With restrictions and stay-at-home orders posing major challenges to businesses, local certified businesses said the program gave them a chance to not only increase their indoor capacity, but also to show they are dedicated to protecting their staff and customers from the deadly respiratory disease.
Corine Waldau, co-chair of the Boulder County 5-Star Certification Program Administrative Committee, said she believes the program has highlighted collaboration across the county between municipalities.
“I would call it a success,” Waldau said. “I think it’s a success in collaboration and in highlighting what businesses are doing to protect the safety of their employees and customers. I think it’s a success in how we can stand up a program as a community.”
But timing for launching the program wasn’t perfect. On Feb. 6, the day the program went live, Boulder County moved from Level Orange to the less-restrictive Level Yellow on the state’s dial, which Waldau believes may have discouraged some businesses from applying. Under Level Yellow, businesses can operate at 50% capacity. Though the program offers less-restrictive capacities, for a lot of the county’s restaurants 50% is their maximum capacity anyway, because they have to maintain 6-foot distancing.
Regardless, Waldau believes that for the 60 businesses that are part of the program, 5-Star certification has served as a benefit, giving them some tools to ride out the challenges of the pandemic.
How it works
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment approved Boulder County for the program in February.
The program is administered by the Boulder Chamber and Longmont Economic Development Partnership, alongside third-party vendor H2 Manufacturing Solutions. Starting April 16, Waldau said the program will no longer be overseen by the state and instead move to county control.
“We are still working through the details,” she said. “It is not going away at this time, but may shift a little to match the shifting orders and conditions.”
Part of the application process includes completing a checklist regarding air flow; Environmental Protection Agency-approved cleaning materials that kill COVID-19 and maintaining a system for contact tracing. An inspector visits the business. Within 24 hours the business will be notified on whether they passed.
The cost for the application is $100. Waldau said there is a scholarship program to cover the application cost for businesses that can’t afford it.
Any complaints or reports of an outbreak are investigated, Waldau said. The administrative committee then decides whether to issue a warning or withdraw that business’ certification.
“We will send in an inspector to the site, so we will inspect and check to make sure and check to see if the outbreak has a direct tie to any operations within the facility,” she said. “The first thing that happens is an investigation or collaboration with Boulder County Public Health.”
As of Thursday, Waldau said none of the 5-Star certified businesses have had an outbreak.
‘Peace of mind’
Back at Snooze AM Eatery on Pearl Street, Posada said that when the restaurant could only operate at 25% capacity or 50 people — whichever is less, under Level Orange — it meant functioning with 10 to 12 staff members. Posada said his team was left hurting for work hours.
“Once we were approved for certification, we could increase capacity and give people more hours,” he said.
Under Level Blue, restaurants can operate at 100% capacity, but have to maintain 6-foot distancing. For Snooze that means there’s space for about 70 people at a time, which includes outside seating and about 15 staff members.
Throughout the pandemic, some businesses have defied public health orders, choosing to keep their doors open when the state ordered the closure of indoor dining late last year or violating mask mandates. When asked if it was frustrating to see those choices when the Boulder restaurant was working to put extra precautions in place, Posada said that’s not how he felt.
“For me, it made me happier to know that our company was taking those extra steps,” he said. “I feel like we’re in a great spot right now once we’re past all of this to reflect on and say that we did the right thing by our guests. The sad part is there were those businesses that maybe didn’t have the capability to adapt or get it as quickly as we did and in a sense went under.”
For Longmont Climbing Collective owner Bryan Hylenski, the restrictions on capacity left him wondering how he would be able to keep his doors open.
When the county was under Level Red restrictions, Hylenski found he could have only 10 people at a time in his climbing gym.
“Ten people is just not enough for us to stay open,” Hylenski said. “Even when it went to 25% or 25 people, it’s just not enough. Because 25% for us is 100 people, but the max is 25, so we fall apart at that point.”
The capacity limits also meant the gym couldn’t offer programs.
“A program that’s typically able to fill a class with 15 to 20 people, now they’re being forced to only six, so how do they make a living?” Hylenski said. “I can’t afford to pay them for less people. It sort of trickles down to every person. It was quite painful on everyone from programs to teams.”
Hylenski serves on the 5-Star committee. Waldau said his business was certified in February and was one of the first to become part of the program.
“My experience with it has been great,” Hylenski said. “Just recently we’ve been able to go up to blue, which means about 100 to 125 people, which in all honesty is right around our normal capacity.”
As Waldau mentioned, a wrinkle in the program, Hylenski said, was the state’s decision to put a pause on moving to Level Blue until 70% of people 70 and older had to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“I don’t even know how the state came up with that number,” Hylenski said. “But it made all of us wait three more weeks. It’s not Boulder County’s fault, but it turned a lot of businesses off.”
When asked if he believes the program has helped his business, Hylenski said, “without a doubt,” though he noted it would have been beneficial if the program had been in place sooner.
“(Boulder County) got it done as fast as they could, and I’m super-appreciative of that,” Hylenski said. “I didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about Boulder County prior to this. The county (though) has done a fantastic job. Corine, who runs it, is amazing. She probably worked 20-hour days to get this organized, so I was quite impressed.”
Jen Spettel, vice president of branch operations for YMCA of Northern Colorado, said all three of the county’s YMCAs got certified for the program, including the Boulder, Lafayette and Longmont locations.
“The process was pretty quick,” Spettel said. “You had to fill out an application and check off all these boxes and schedule inspections.”
When the gyms were able to operate at Level Blue, Spettel said it meant the chance to increase capacity for the YMCA’s facilities and programs.
“It doesn’t mean the Ys will be packed with people, but it meant that we had a little more flexibility to bring our communities together responsibly,” Spettel said. “Members probably won’t notice the capacity increases, but members who’ve been vaccinated and are returning to the gym can be confident that the Y is doing everything possible to maximize safety.”
Spettel said she has noticed more people, but also said she believes that’s because more people are being vaccinated. With many seniors using the facilities, she said that she’s seen the excitement in those who have been vaccinated and who have been able to return.
“It means more people are coming in,” she said. “We’ve seen an increase in just our membership. That revenue, it’s great to bring that back in so we can support the organization, but what it really means is we get to have our communities back into our facilities. It’s been a long year and we’re happy to see these faces back in our doors.”
