City of Greeley bumps itself up to level orange: ‘We want to be proactive. We weren’t going to wait for the county or state to do anything’

By Kelly Ragan

The City of Greeley is installing tighter COVID-19 restrictions for its own facilities – despite neither Weld County nor the state requiring it to. 

On Tuesday, the city announced it would up safety precautions for city facilities in light of increasing COVID-19 cases. While Weld County itself remains at the state’s level yellow, the city essentially bumped itself up to level orange. 

“To be honest with you, we don’t know why (we’re still in level yellow),” said Dan Frazen, Greeley’s emergency manager, at a city council meeting Tuesday. “We’ve reached out to Weld County Public Health and the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. They haven’t switched us over yet, but all our numbers – or at least our cumulative incident rate, puts us in red.” 

The levels go from green, to blue, to yellow, to orange, to red. Greeley’s two-week incident rate is about 834 new cases per 100,000 residents, Frazen said. Weld is about 690 per 100,000. For a red level incident rate, the threshold is more than 350 new cases per 100,000. Greeley is closer to level orange on other indicators, Frazen said.

“We want to be proactive. We weren’t going to wait for the county or state to do anything,” Frazen said. “We still don’t know if they will. As you know, the county and the state differ on their perspective on this.”

Weld County Commissioners have insisted that personal responsibility – not regulations or enforcement – is the way to go, while Gov. Jared Polis has encouraged much stricter guidelines by comparison.

At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, city manager Roy Otto said some services would change with the new designation. 

“Access to city staff, services, and facilities will remain unchanged and largely by appointment— with City Hall, 1000 10th St., open for walk-in bill payment,” according to a city news release. “However, community members may notice a reduced number of available appointments and reservations at facilities due to decreased capacity limits.”

Those changes will mostly impact office capacity, gym use, and event capacity. 

The city will move from 50% capacity in its offices to 25%. It will also reduce capacity in city-owned gyms and recreation centers from 25% capacity or 50 people to 25% capacity or 25 people indoors. You can see a full list of restrictions here. 

The changes have no impact on private businesses or services in Greeley. That kind of authority falls to the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, which is ultimately controlled by county commissioners. 

On a conference call with Polis Tuesday, Weld County Commissioner Kevin Ross said he believed the county was “working within the confines that we are legally constrained to.”

Those efforts, he said, include outreach efforts, especially on the website and social media pages, information-sharing and new software implemented by the health department.

But even so, county commissioners still won’t encourage people to wear masks in official communications.

Weld County Commissioners also require employees to continue working in-person, rather than remotely, according to a news release. In contrast, 65% of state employees are working remotely.

Polis told commissioners encouraging more telecommuting models good behavior and would be a good, easy way to model good behavior, especially as private businesses look to Weld for guidance.

“That might be some low hanging fruit to model,” Polis said.

But Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer disagreed.  

“We actually expect people to work and provide the services that are necessary for all the other people that are within our county,” said Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer in a news release. “We believe we have been setting a good model.”

Whether the Weld health department, the state, or even president-elect Joe Biden take a stronger stance on wearing masks or beyond, Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams says he can’t – and won’t – enforce a state or federal mandate. 

“I’m sworn to enforce state law and abide by the constitution of the U.S./Colorado (in that order),” he wrote in a Facebook post. “I have no authority to enforce federal laws (for good reason) and mask mandates aren’t state law or federal law (yet.)”

In an email to the NoCo Optimist, Greeley’s Emergency Manager Dan Frazen said the city works well with and is in regular contact with Weld County Public Health, the Weld County Office of Emergency Management, Weld epidemiologists, the Colorado Department of Health and Environment and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

“As a municipality, we will always do what’s best for our community and our workforce regardless of differing perspectives, strategies, or politics,” Frazen said. “The only impact on the citizens when the city follows the State of Colorado guidance and the county does not is some confusion on what rules they should follow and who is ultimately responsible for compliance or enforcement of those rules.” 

Why is Weld still level yellow? 

At a city council meeting Tuesday, Frazen said he didn’t know why the governor didn’t move Weld County to orange. 

Mayor John Gates echoed Frazen’s surprise. 

The NoCo Optimist reached out to Polis’ communication team but didn’t receive a response by publication time.

But it seems like state officials don’t want to be the ones making the call – yet. 

According to The Denver Post, state officials are reluctant to issue another statewide lockdown. Instead, officials want local governments to take the lead. 

Even as counties – such as Weld – have entered into level red territory, the state hasn’t stepped in. 

So, what’s the deal? 

Polis has encouraged folks to avoid gathering with people outside their household. 

The tipping point for statewide action, Polis spokesperson Conor Cahill told the Post, will come if hospitals are overwhelmed and people could die due to lack of medical capacity. 

That lines up with what Polis told Weld commissioners. 

Public officials are responsible for testing and working to prevent a surge, Polis said, according to a news release. 

“Ultimately, this is a matter of individual responsibility,” Polis said.

As of Wednesday, Weld’s two-week average positivity test rate was 14.15%. So far, 108 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic. Five of those people died this month, according to county data.