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
Liftie Ben Pilger helps a family on to the Thunder Bowl Lift at Highlands on Thanksgiving Day in Aspen. How a possible move by Pitkin County to Red would impact the ski area remained unknown as of Saturday, but officials said there were no immediate plans to shut down any of the chairlifts.
Various members of the neighboring Roaring Fork Valley community met virtually on Saturday to discuss the next steps in controlling the spread of COVID-19, with cases continuing to reach a new high nearly every day.
A Pitkin County Board of Health meeting is scheduled Monday afternoon that could lead to additional pandemic-related restrictions, although Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock said that as of Saturday evening there were no immediate plans to implement a complete shutdown, as was the case back in March.
There are no fireworks in Aspen on New Year’s Eve as is the tradition, due to concerns of spreading the coronavirus through gatherings.
However, there are fireworks in Snowmass Village on the eve of 2021, but they are not designed for attracting big groups.
“We don’t get huge crowds when we do fireworks,” said Rose Abello, tourism director for the town of Snowmass Village. “We are not trying to create a scene, or a there, there.”
The display will start at 9:45 p.m. and last approximately nine minutes, and is really geared toward guests who are staying in properties that are slopeslide on Fanny Hill and around the village.
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.