{"id":2456260,"date":"2020-03-24T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local-money-flows-to-virus-relief-efforts\/"},"modified":"2020-03-24T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T05:04:00","slug":"local-money-flows-to-virus-relief-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/local-money-flows-to-virus-relief-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Local money flows to virus relief efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A woman walks on the Rio Grande Trail in Basalt on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The one clear thing about the coronavirus pandemic is that government money \u2014 and a lot of it \u2014 will be needed to limit many people\u2019s economic pain.<\/p>\n

And as that pain increases daily with ever more isolating public health orders \u2014 bars and restaurants are limited in service to take-out and most other businesses are closed, many have lost jobs and the county has ordered most residents to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic<\/a> \u2014 local governments in the upper Roaring Fork Valley have started to chip in. By the end of Wednesday, that total will be about $1.3 million and will continue to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the county (for putting) this money together,\u201d Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper said Tuesday at the board\u2019s weekly work session. \u201cI want to speak with other (area elected officials) and try to up the ante a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause people are going to need more help. It\u2019s critically important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five-member county commission voted last week to contribute $500,000<\/a> for emergency needs \u2014 food, housing or other bills \u2014 that county residents might have as a result of the coronavirus and related job losses. Commissioners are set to vote Wednesday on another $350,000 direct contribution to those needs, with another $150,000 to be held in a separate emergency fund that can be put toward other needs, like wildfire, that might arise.<\/p>\n

The Aspen City Council voted on first reading Tuesday night to approve a $200,000 contribution<\/a> toward local coronavirus relief efforts. A final vote will occur next week during a public hearing.<\/p>\n

Councilman Ward Hauenstein said while the community will get through the crisis, people need to brace themselves that it\u2019s going to get worse and it\u2019s going to take a long time to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe token of $200,000 is just the beginning,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will try to do all we can to mitigate the damage this COVID-19 incident is imposing on our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilman Skippy Mesirow suggested the city\u2019s elected officials discuss immediately how much more the municipal government can give to local residents facing economic hardship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ain\u2019t gonna be the last time\u201d the city will be asked to chip in to local relief efforts, he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have time to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Manager Sara Ott pumped the brakes a bit, telling council that the loss of millions of dollars in sales tax and other revenue will affect the city\u2019s budget projections and not to make any rash spending decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as the local businesses feel it, the local government feels it,\u201d she said, adding that she encourages council members to listen to what the business community needs and recognize that government-run initiatives and programs will have to pause.<\/p>\n

Local and state public health orders<\/a> limiting gatherings to 10 people or fewer and other restrictions last until April 17.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County Public Health Director Karen Koenemann told Council that those restrictions and others could last longer in an effort to suppress the community spread of the virus.<\/p>\n

She added that suppression strategies are most effective if they are done over large geographic areas, whether it\u2019s countries, states or regions. But Pitkin County largely has been on its own in issuing local public health orders, so she called on council to advocate to the state for more restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be much more effective if we were doing it across the state with more restrictive strategies \u2026 but because we\u2019re not isolated I would guess that the suppression strategy will have to last longer than the current public health order, which goes through April 17,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are using that as the timeline for right now, but we will be revisiting that. I will put money on it that we will be extending it at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Snowmass Village Town Council announced this week it will kick in \u201cat least $100,000\u201d to Pitkin County\u2019s COVID-19 relief fund for its residents and employees who are in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, we are committed to no one losing their housing at this time,\u201d members of the Snowmass Town Council wrote in a letter to residents<\/a>. \u201cThe town is working to develop methods to assist our business community and those living in our employee housing units.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very willing to work with every individual and business in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitkin County has been accepting applications from residents for economic assistance since late last week. An \u201carmy\u201d of volunteers \u2014 including employees of both the county and Aspen Skiing Co. \u2014 have been helping process the applications and call people back, said Nan Sundeen, the county\u2019s health and human services director.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday evening, 645 people had applied for Pitkin County benefits, she said. However, 20% were from Eagle or Garfield counties and were directed to services in those counties.<\/p>\n

That left 517 Pitkin County households comprising 1,032 individuals who needed mainly rent or mortgage assistance, Sundeen said. Of those 517 households, 129 were families with children and 260 were from the city of Aspen, she said.<\/p>\n

Sundeen told City Council that many more people will be calling on their local governments for assistance in the days and weeks to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much is it going to cost? How long is it going to last? Don\u2019t know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

County staff and volunteers verify that applicants are employed until the social distancing efforts to control the virus spread began, as well as encourage people to apply for federal food assistance benefits, Sundeen said.<\/p>\n

So far, they\u2019ve found no instances of fraud and no efforts to \u201cscam the system,\u201d she said. To Sundeen, the \u201cmost remarkable thing\u201d has been that nearly 100% of applicants tell volunteers they are probably not the person who needs the most help and they understand if the county is unable to assist them, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people who\u2019ve never asked for help before,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir generosity toward their peers is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

County officials are using the local funds last after first trying to tap state or federal funds to help local residents, Sundeen said.<\/p>\n

Besides helping local residents, the county\u2019s money also will go toward funding the ongoing local public health response, said Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock. That includes funding the county\u2019s public health department\u2019s limited contact investigations as well as putting money behind efforts to bring broad-based testing to Aspen and Pitkin County, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hear the community,\u201d Peacock said. \u201cWe know that testing is extremely important to implement on a community-wide basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peacock did not have any more information Tuesday about the county\u2019s possible acquisition of at least 1,000 new rapid response COVID-19 tests from a Colorado company that received permission to distribute the tests Monday. County officials were able to get Pitkin County on a priority list for the tests, though the company isn\u2019t expected to receive its first batch of 100,000 tests until later this week, and how they will be distributed and when is not yet known.<\/p>\n

The state of Colorado also is working on building statewide broad-based testing for the coronavirus, a state official said Tuesday. Gov. Jared Polis has prioritized building the capability for mass testing across Colorado, said Mike Willis, director of Colorado\u2019s Office of Emergency Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will absolutely see more mass testing,\u201d Willis said.<\/p>\n

Gabe Muething, director of the Aspen Ambulance District and an incident commander for the local incident management team, told council during a briefing on Tuesday that the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) limits how much testing can be done.<\/p>\n

What little masks, gowns, gloves and the like that local public health officials have are being reserved for emergency response teams and personnel at Aspen Valley Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are using all of that on testing, that leaves nothing left if we do actually have a surgery,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to make sure that we have that PPE available for our health care workers or first responders and if we get a second patient, we would really like our health care workers to be safe, so they can save us later if we were to get that disease. So PPE is very valuable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire world is looking for PPE right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday afternoon, Pitkin County had either 16 or 18 confirmed positive COVID-19 test results, depending on either the county\u2019s website at pitkincounty.com\/covid-19<\/a> or the state public health department\u2019s website at data-cdphe.opendata.arcgis.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 18 cases amounted to an infection rate of 100.4 per 100,000 people, according to the state\u2019s website. Pitkin County\u2019s population is 17,926.<\/p>\n

By comparison, neighboring Eagle County \u2014 population 54,895 \u2014 reported 96 positive cases of COVID-19, an infection rate of 174.8 per 100,000 residents, according to the state\u2019s website. Eagle County commissioners earmarked $1.15 million<\/a> on Tuesday for COVID-19 relief efforts.<\/p>\n

Dave Ressler, CEO of Aspen Valley Hospital, said Tuesday that no one hospitalized in Aspen has tested positive for COVID-19, though the hospital was waiting for test results back from three or four others with virus symptoms.<\/p>\n

Hospital officials transferred a critical patient with COVID-19 to Grand Junction in recent days, he said.<\/p>\n

Officials with the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority confirmed Monday that one of the agency\u2019s drivers was taken from his home Sunday by ambulance to AVH, then immediately transferred to another facility. The agency said the driver was one of 17 RFTA employees who recently reported symptoms<\/a> consistent with COVID-19, though it did not know if the man had the illness.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brad Holmes, head of AVH\u2019s in-patient COVID response efforts, said Tuesday the hospital has had several people with virus symptoms over the past two weeks or so, and has had to wait several days for test results. However, the hospital has not seen an influx of COVID-19 patients, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of people don\u2019t get very sick,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cAlso we need to remember that we live in a very healthy population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Holmes and AVH are preparing to reach the hospital\u2019s capacity and beyond and that he\u2019s not surprised he and his colleagues haven\u2019t yet seen a significant number of patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe it can get worse,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re right where I\u2019d expect we\u2019d be. We expect to see more cases. \u2026 I just don\u2019t know when they will start to go back down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an effort to blunt the spread of the virus, Polis on Tuesday urged the presidents of Albertsons and The Kroger Co., to provide safer environments for employees and customers. He asked them to provide gloves and other protective equipment for employees, expand grocery deliveries, provide designated times for higher-risk individuals to shop and establish access controls to ensure safe social distancing, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

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

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

A woman walks on the Rio Grande Trail in Basalt on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times The one clear thing about the coronavirus pandemic is that government money \u2014 and a lot of it \u2014 will be needed to limit many people\u2019s economic pain. And as that pain increases […]<\/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-2456260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 08:15:24","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\/2456260","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=2456260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}