Durango’s restaurants need hope more than anything else these days – hope they can survive the economic disaster of COVID-19 for just a few more months until the vaccine is widely distributed, infection rates plummet and they can go back to at least a semi-normal way of doing business.
Although the $37 million in small-business assistance approved by the special session of the Legislature may provide some help to some businesses here, the dribs and drabs that trickle into individual restaurants likely won’t keep them afloat for long.
Local business organizations and restaurant owners are hoping that on Monday, they’ll hear that they can reopen for indoor dining by following certain rules and earning a new certification. Those rules would include placing tables 10 feet apart; staff members and customers wearing masks at all times except during active eating and drinking; and dining reservations.
But it’s not going to be that simple.
A “5-Star Certification Program” pioneered in Mesa County to allow indoor dining by adhering to a stringent list of safety requirements, and an assessment of its effectiveness by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, is due to be released on Monday. Restaurants hope that evaluation may suggest that sometime in the not-too-distant future, restaurants can indeed return to offering some indoor dining by adopting the “5-Star” rules and strictly adhering to them. (Other business may also be impacted.)
The CDPHE is expected Monday to make recommendations based on that evaluation, perhaps in tandem with an executive order from the governor’s office.
But any return to indoor dining will likely be tied to a metric based on rates of infection and hospitalization – and we haven’t yet seen the full impact of Thanksgiving’s gatherings on infection rates. By the time we do, people will be gathering for Christmas celebrations, meaning we can expect infection rates to go up again in January before they go down.
The proposed certification program would be suspended if a county reached 90% of its hospital capacity or reached Level Red metrics for more than a two-week period.
It’s important to note that La Plata County remains solidly in the red right now, and a massive outbreak at a local nursing home reminds us that we are still in the dark days of this pandemic. To pretend otherwise would be foolhardy.
Local supporters of the 5-Star plan include Durango elected officials along with local business groups and the Durango chapter of the Colorado Restaurant Association.
The business organizations are willing to put their money where their mouths are, some offering to recruit, hire, train and house workers to handle the certification program because the health department is so strapped.
It’s unclear whether the overburdened San Juan Basin Public Health could legally integrate that kind of outside assistance into their system.
In any case, the draft 5-Star proposal makes sense, and has adequate fallback protections if infection rates skyrocket after implementation.
We support this plan, at least in concept, as it seems to balance public and economic health.
Yet even if the state embraces it, such a program likely won’t be implemented until our infection rates decline considerably.
In the meantime, we applaud those businesses that are coming up with creative ways to combat their business downturns, such as Primus and its new food truck, and the Strater Hotel’s “Suite Dining” concept. There have to be more such ideas out there that can help restaurants hold on.
Meanwhile, Durangoans can do our part: Keep practicing infection protocols – and consider ordering takeout tonight.
