El Paso County approved for state’s 5 star program to expand business capacity

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and EDC said Monday that El Paso County is launching the 5 Star program on Tuesday, designed to expand service at many restaurants and businesses in the area.

In essence, under the 5 Star program, businesses that follow the state's COVID-19 guidelines are able to operate at an increased capacity.

El Paso County is currently in level orange guidelines, according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard. If a business in El Paso County is approved under the 5 Star program, it would be able to operate at level yellow capacities. As an example, that would let restaurants move from operating at 25% capacity indoors to 50% capacity.

Stan VanderWerf, chairman of the county's Board of Commissioners, said the county received state approval for the program Monday night.

"We submitted our application many weeks ago," he said during the board's Tuesday morning meeting. "I wish it had come earlier, but we're acting to go forward as fast as we can -- despite some reservations that we have about the content of the program. We're doing everything we can to support our businesses."

At Tuesday's meeting, commissioners also unanimously approved spending $250,000 for a contractor to implement the program for the county and conduct inspections needed for certification.

Eligibility capacity levels are dependent on the county's current dial level:

• Level Green: Counties already have an automatic capacity increase built into the Protect Our Neighbors framework.
• Level Blue: Eligible if a county's incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations all meet the blue level. If approved, certified businesses can operate with an additional 50 people added to their cap.
• Level Yellow: Eligible if a county's incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations all meet the yellow level. Certified businesses can operate at blue capacity levels.
• Level Orange: Eligible if a county's incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations all meet the orange level. Certified businesses can operate at yellow capacity levels.
• Level Red: Counties in level red are eligible only if that county has had a two week sustained decline in incidence, percent positivity, and hospitalizations. Certified businesses can operate at orange capacity levels.
• Level Purple: Counties are not eligible for the variance program.

Officials had scheduled a Tuesday afternoon news conference to announce the state's approval of the county's application, but postponed it until later in the week.

"The contractor's website for businesses to apply for the program isn't ready yet," VanderWerf said. "We'll have the news conference later in the week and have that link ready for businesses to start applying immediately."

Pueblo County announced it was approved for the 5 Star program last week.

In information released by Pueblo County officials Tuesday, 47 businesses have applied for the program, 19 have been certified (including 8 on the first day of certification a week ago) and two businesses withdrew their applications.

Whereas Pueblo County was able to get ahead and have applications ready before it was approved for the program, VanderWerf said that the process won't be as quick in El Paso County.

"There may be some businesses that have already filled out applications, it's hard to know for sure," he said. "But I think that within a week after we start, we'll have some businesses certified. There's a concern that some businesses may have to spend money to meet the requirements, but we're hoping it won't be too much. That will depend on individual businesses. The program will work better for some, than for others.

VanderWerf also said that if the entire county improves to level yellow on the COVID dial, certified businesses can operate at the improved level blue.

"Once we get beyond that, the 5-Star Program won't have much of a benefit because we'd be closer to normal by then," he said. "But we want to do whatever we can to bring more customers to businesses for as long as we need to."

KRDO NewsChannel 13 found mixed reaction to the program at CO.A.T.I on South Tejon Street, an entertainment district that opened last September with a bar and seven restaurants, and allowing bar customers to carry their drinks to those restaurants.

"We even encourage people to bring in food and non-alcoholic beverages from other places, if it brings them in here," said Eric Hailey, a chef at Slow Downz Texas Creole, one of the restaurants in the district. "This place has the capacity for well over 500, and right now we're usually less than 100 at any given time, and that's really hurting ourselves. So I think that if we were able to get this entire space on board with the 5-Star Program, each restaurant inside -- each independent business -- could benefit from it, really."

Ariel Workman, a regular in the district, said that having certified businesses going above and beyond current health guidelines to increase capacities will be welcomed by many customers.

"Right now -- especially on weekends -- you have wait for an hour or more, or you have to make a reservation," she said. "That makes you a lot less willing to go out, especially on the spur of the moment. You can't plan hours in advance anymore. It has to be days in advance. Anything that gets us closer to normal will help."

But Ari Howard, owner of the nearby tavern Streetcar 520, doesn't like the program.

"From what I'm hearing, a bunch of us business owners will have to volunteer 20 hours a week to help get the inspections done," she said. "I'm not going to inspect anyone else's business. I don't have 20 hours to spare from my 80-hour workweek at my own business. One of the program's requirements is customers will have to provide names and phone numbers for contact tracing if someone gets the virus. My customers aren't going to want to give me their personal information. And the county is almost down to level yellow now, and that would bring us 50% capacity. So I don't feel like the program is really needed."