{"id":2455778,"date":"2020-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=322636"},"modified":"2020-03-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T06:00:00","slug":"aspen-officially-under-a-state-of-emergency-amidst-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-officially-under-a-state-of-emergency-amidst-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen officially under a state of emergency amidst COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Social distancing was put into effect during an Aspen City Council meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic at City Hall on Thursday, March 12, 2020. The council passed a resolution declaring an emergency due to COVID-19. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em>
<\/i> Buy Photo<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

With just a handful of chairs spaced out 6 feet from one another in the basement of City Hall to signal the practice of social distancing<\/a> amid the COVID-19 community spread, Aspen City Council on Friday voted unanimously on a resolution declaring a local disaster emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Aspen declared a state of emergency for two reasons, one is to make the city eligible for regional, state and federal resources we wouldn\u2019t have had access to otherwise,\u201d said Mayor Torre during a special meeting. \u201cThe second reason is to signal to our community that we are being as proactive as possible to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Manager Sara Ott said another benefit of declaring a state of emergency is that the municipal government is one of the first to make such a move, which may give priority for any state and federal funding that could pay for paid sick leave for hourly workers who are forced to stay home for the recommended 14 days if they have symptoms<\/a> of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The emergency declaration is after 10 Australian visitors tested positive for COVID-19 this week.<\/p>\n

They are currently in self-isolation and will be able to leave when they pass two consecutive tests 24 hours apart.<\/p>\n

Council\u2019s three meetings scheduled for next week are canceled and will be rescheduled.<\/p>\n

Council also passed a second resolution allowing virtual meetings to occur in the future, held electronically either by audio or video feed.<\/p>\n

The city Thursday closed some of its facilities <\/a>like the Wheeler Opera House and the Aspen Recreation Center until March 31.<\/p>\n

Ott said she and staff spent most of Friday assisting the local business community and restaurants on how to operate during a tri-county public health order that prohibits gatherings of more than 50 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been providing support through our environmental health team for those restaurant owners in particular, as they need to contemplate possible changes in their kitchen operations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ott also noted she has committed city personnel to the county\u2019s incident management team for whatever needs it has.<\/p>\n

City Hall is open for essential services. If people do not need to come in person to the city\u2019s buildings they are being asked not to.<\/p>\n

Council members, who had hand sanitizer, wipes and Lysol spray positioned in front of them, said they are trying to lead by example in taking precautionary measures to avoid the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all have to be better safe than sorry right now,\u201d Councilwoman Rachel Richards said.<\/p>\n

Torre said it\u2019s a time to unite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say to the entire Aspen community residents, businesses and our guests, we care about you,\u201d he said. \u201cYour health and safety are top priority during this unprecedented time of the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unprecedented not just in Aspen, but in our country and our modern world,\u201d Torre continued. \u201cGovernments locally, statewide and federally are facing challenges we have never faced before. Here in Aspen we are facing it with level heads, proactive measures and compassion for all those involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social distancing was put into effect during an Aspen City Council meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic at City Hall on Thursday, March 12, 2020. The council passed a resolution declaring an emergency due to COVID-19. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Buy Photo With just a handful of chairs spaced out 6 feet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 10:38:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}