Colorado mountain towns rebound – and then some – from coronavirus
Durango, Colorado Currently Sat 0% chance of precipitation 18% chance of precipitation 0% chance of precipitation
Despite grim projections, many communities saw waves of in-state visitors
Saturday, April 10, 2021 9:49 AM Updated 5 hours 12 minutes ago Derailed Pour House, Fired Up Pizza, Switchback Taco Bar and Durango Rug Co. are just a few of the businesses in downtown Durango that have set up bump-outs in 2020 on Main Avenue. Jerry McBride/Durango Herald file
Colorado mountain towns rebound – and then some – from coronavirus Derailed Pour House, Fired Up Pizza, Switchback Taco Bar and Durango Rug Co. are just a few of the businesses in downtown Durango that have set up bump-outs in 2020 on Main Avenue.
Candidates for the March 2 Aspen City Council election answered questions about business-related matters in a forum hosted by the Aspen Resort Chamber Association.
Pitkin County leaders aren’t quite ready to swear off the traveler-affidavit program, but they expressed a willingness Tuesday to make it less restrictive and more hospitable to visitors.
Responding to Aspen business leaders’ concerns that the affidavit requirement keeps driving away potential visitors and will continue hurting the tourism trade, Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock told commissioners he and staff will recommend to the board of health at its Thursday meeting to consider a revamp of the program.
“It would be a change or modification of the travel affidavit to make testing optional,” Peacock said.
Peacock is proposing the county no longer require travelers 10 and older to submit an online affidavit acknowledging they haven’t had symptoms for 10 days and have either been fully vaccinated or have received a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of arriving in Pitkin County. The program also requires visitors to quarantine for 10 days if they are not tes
Meridian Jewelers co-owners Robin and Kenny Smith drop envelopes at restaurants for the matching program in Aspen on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
Lorena Rojas transcribes information from Rick Wark as he purchases two $200 gift certificates to restaurants in Aspen on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. “I want to support the community,” said Wark. “This is my small way of doing it.” (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
“I don’t even know where to start and end,” said Craig Cordts-Pearce, who co-owns the Wild Fig, Steakhouse No. 316, The Monarch and CP Burger with his wife, Samantha. “I am absolutely flabbergasted there’s no words to even explain this.”
This is that time of the year when the media reflects on the past 51 or 52 weeks through various presentations top 10 stories of the year, top news makers of the year, the biggest surprises of the year, the biggest disappointments, and so on.
Yet in 2020, there’s little disputing presidential election and social-justice causes not withstanding that the pandemic had the greatest impact on our daily lives than anything else.
People lost jobs. People struggled financially, socially and personally. People got sick. Businesses shuttered and failed. Schools closed. Ski areas closed. Events and festivals were canceled.
But life forged on and people came together.