Council Connects

ROCKY FLATS STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL (1 Feb):
The main news is that the Dept. of Energy has hired a new contractor to manage the Flats programs. Some of the same employees may be rehired. Because of the new contract, the April meeting was moved to May so that the new Contractor could get up to speed. No significant findings were noted in the reports - surface water; ground water and operations.
DRCOG WORK/STUDY SESSION (3 Feb):
The Amendment and Update processes and timelines for Metro Vision 2050 and associated Regional Transportation Plan 2050 were briefed.

Lodger’s tax. Durango wants to more than double its tax on visitors staying in hotels, motels and temporary vacation rentals to 5.25% from its current rate of 2%. The ballot measure will go before voters in April. >> Durango Herald

VACCINATION INFO:
State info: https://covid19.colorado.gov/.../where-can-i-get-vaccinated
Here’s the Safeway appointments link (you have to keep checking): https://www.mhealthappointments.com/covidappt
Service Dashboard
mHealthCoach, Employee Screening Solution
www.mhealthappointments.com
And here’s the King Supers link (also, check back, I’ve noticed they only book 3 days out, then update): https://www.kingsoopers.com/rx/guest/get-vaccinated
King Soopers - Vaccinations Appointment
Pharmacy Navigation. My Prescriptions. loading
www.kingsoopers.com

Karen Oxman recommended this article in an email. It stimulates thought:
https://time.com/5930093/amsterdam-doughnut-economics/

Helpful guide from NLC tracking executive orders: https://www.nlc.org/article/2021/01/25/tracking-executive-orders-critical-to-cities-towns-and-villages/

Really good legislative Town Hall this morning .
Here is info links about COVID vaccinations:
https://www.jeffco.us/DocumentCenter/View/25071/COVID-19-Vaccine-Fact-Sheet---Older-Adults---FINAL-12021?bidId=
https://covid19.colorado.gov/for-coloradans/vaccine/where-can-i-get-vaccinated

2021 CML State of the Cities is online this year as a data story. Really well done presentation and the full survey results are available too (for those who like data). www.cml.org/home/publications-news/state-of-our-cities-towns

Here is an update on the Colorado Coronavirus vaccination program provided today at the Area Agency for the Aging Advisory Committee meeting today by the Head of the CDPHE Vaccination Program:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UjNfMX9--zzDKJ8iN6R9-Ny1yvAjHG5gQ6EIC2UhNts/edit?usp=sharing

DRCOG SUBREGION/JEFFTAG:
-Not a lot new.
CDOT $s
- currently going to work on I 70 a Floyd Hill and for I 70 sound barrier replacement between Pecos and Wadsworth.
CDOT Updated plans and work on:
1. Kings Valley interchange 2.Ken Caryl and 470 interchange 3. I 70 Bridges at Harlan & Kipling 4. I 70 W express lanes 5. Bridge at 6th nd Wadsworth 6. resurfacing on Hwy 6 & US 40 from Colfax to the Buffalo overlook
DRCOG
- Update on 2050 Transportation Plan
- Update provided on TIP (Trans Improvement Plan 22 -25 ( possibly more stimulus funds will allow for more projects)
JEFFCO
- may have a Subregion meeting to expand TIP projects if more funds become available
Front Range Rail update briefing was provided - no changes

http://bloom.bg/3i2UNVN Hi Councilors, happy new year! I found this article on the future of transportation and transit funding in the new administration really interesting. I think it has interesting implications for many of the priorities in our Strategic Action Plan, and suggests to me there is value in additional transit planning to define what we want that to look like in Golden. See you Tuesday!

Hi Council, happy New Year! If you find yourself with leisure time this weekend, I'd highly recommend you consider watching a new documentary airing on Rocky Mountain PBS called "City Hall". It follows the everyday meetings and goings on inside Boston's City Hall and with the Boston Mayor, Martin Walsh. There is no narration or explanation, just 4.5 straight hours of civil servants working hard to improve the lives of the residents of Boston. I found it inspirational, touching, and moving, and I could have easily watched more. I hope you consider checking it out.

Here is a link to the New York Times review: https://nyti.ms/31SUnuh
Here is a link to the documentary on the PBS website: https://www.pbs.org/show/city-hall/

Vaccines: Ruth Karron, the vaccine expert from Johns Hopkins, was asked in a meeting today about trusted resources to learn about vaccines. Here are 3 sites she mentioned: NYT vaccine tracker (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html); CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.html); Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource center (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/vaccines)

Huh. Masks. Work. Not only to protect others, but also protecting the wearer. Updated guidance this week from the CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/masking-science-sars-cov2.html

Here is a little blurb regarding how Durango is hoping to handle mental heath and policing (you'll have to cut an paste): https://durangoherald.com/articles/350913-durango-police-move-toward-reforming-mental-health-response

FROM THE COLORADO SUN, TODAY (UNFORTUNATELY THE GRAPHIC DON'T SHOW HERE):
Colorado has had coronavirus spikes before. Here’s why the current one could be different.
Rising numbers of hospitalizations. Cooler weather. Upcoming holidays. This is not the trajectory the state wants to be on right now.
PUBLISHED ONOCT 21, 2020 3:12AM MDT
CORONAVIRUSPRIMARY CATEGORY IN WHICH BLOG POST IS PUBLISHED
John Ingold
@johningold
The Colorado Sun — johningold@coloradosun.com
Original Reporting

–+
This article contains new, firsthand information uncovered by its reporter(s). This includes directly interviewing sources and research / analysis of primary source documents.

As a news piece, this article cites verifiable, third-party sources which have all been thoroughly fact-checked and deemed credible by the Newsroom in accordance with the Civil Constitution.
Learn more about Civil’s Credibility Indicators

For the first time in months, state officials are in full-blown freakout mode over the direction of Colorado’s coronavirus epidemic.

COVID-19 IN COLORADO
The latest from the coronavirus outbreak in Colorado:

MAP: Known cases in Colorado.
TESTING: Here’s where to find a community testing site. The state is now encouraging anyone with symptoms to get tested.
STORY: Colorado has had coronavirus spikes before. Here’s why the current one could be different.
>> FULL COVERAGE

Cases of COVID-19 are rising, but, in a way, that’s a smaller concern. Hospitalizations are increasing — and not just among older Coloradans. Deaths from the virus appear to be rising, as well. And, with cooler weather pushing more activities indoors, where viral transmission is more likely, and major holidays around the corner, this is most definitely not where the state wants to be, just weeks after kids in some areas returned to school in-person and as restaurants and others businesses are still struggling to find their footing.

“We cannot go on as we have been,” Gov. Jared Polis pleaded during a news conference on Tuesday. “The status quo is not acceptable. We need to do a better job of wearing masks around others, staying apart from others, reducing our social interactions.”

Here’s a rundown of where we are, and why state health leaders are so concerned about where we might be heading.

Recorded cases of COVID-19 have reached new highs

A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows weekly reported new cases of COVID-19. Red bars indicate that cases increased from the previous week, while blue bars indicate that cases fell. The blue bar for the week of Oct. 18, 2020, farthest to the right, shows only a partial week’s worth of data, so it cannot be compared to the others. (Screenshot)
Last week saw more than 6,500 new cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in the state. That is by far a record. Prior to this current spike, the previous weekly high came in mid-July with about 4,200 cases. (The small bar on the far right of this chart is from this week, which, as it is still ongoing, can’t be compared to the others.)

But, though concerning, these numbers are also a bit misleading. Researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health who have been modeling the course of the pandemic in the state believe that the first wave of cases in spring was actually much, much higher than these official numbers show. A lack of testing at the time obscured the true figure.

Here’s a chart from a modeling report the School of Public Health team produced last month, showing that actual cases were as much as 10 times greater in the spring than what was reported, while the state is doing a better job capturing cases in official data now.


A chart from a Sept. 30, 2020, modeling report by researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health shows estimated number of coronavirus infections far exceeded documented infections early in the pandemic. (Screenshot)
The increase in cases is real, not the result of more testing
When the pandemic first hit Colorado back in March, Polis talked about the need for the state to ramp up to running tens of thousands of coronavirus tests a day. And then, for months after that, it looked like that was just wishful thinking.

But Colorado has now reached Polis’ long-hoped for testing capacity, with several days this month seeing more than 20,000 tests performed statewide. So how do we know that this increase in cases isn’t just the result of more testing?

In two ways. First, the percentage of tests coming back positive is also increasing — most recently creeping above 6%. If the state were simply testing more without there being more cases, you would expect that percentage to drop. And since a test positivity percentage of 5% is considered by health authorities worldwide to be the limit for having things under control, Colorado’s current positivity rate is definitely worrisome.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows the number of COVID-19 tests performed per day in Colorado (the blue bars are tests performed by private labs and the tan bars show tests performed at the state public health laboratory). The red line shows what percentage of the tests on a given day came back positive for the coronavirus. (Screenshot)
But, apart from testing, there’s another signal that things are getting bad out there. Lots of people have started to show up to hospital emergency rooms with flu-like (and COVID-like) symptoms that aren’t caused by the flu. This isn’t a perfect signal — lots of these people probably don’t have COVID-19. But emergency rooms saw a big spike of these kinds of people in spring when coronavirus was also surging, so this is a way to double-check what is happening in the testing data.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows data from a surveillance system set up at hospital emergency rooms to track people reporting flu-like or COVID-19-like symptoms. (Screenshot)
More young people are getting sick — really sick
Early in the pandemic in Colorado, there were almost no children being diagnosed with coronavirus, and cases among other young people also remained low. That’s no longer the case.

Cases among people age 19 and younger last week accounted for 17% of the state’s cases. And cases among all people age 39 and younger made up over half of the new cases. People in their 20s are now the most disproportionately represented age group for Colorado COVID-19 cases — making up only 15% of the state’s population but 22% of the state’s coronavirus cases.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows the distribution of COVID-19 cases in Colorado by age over time. Cases among those 19 and under and those ages 20 to 39, the bottom two colors in this chart, have increased. (Screenshot)
In a way, this may seem like a good thing. Coronavirus is toughest on those who are older. Having a disproportionate amount of the state’s cases be among young people could mean the state has a comparatively milder epidemic.

But the increasing number of cases has now begun to lead to a rising number of hospitalizations.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows the change in the number of patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. (Screenshot)
And it’s mostly not the elderly who are being hospitalized. Last week, more than half the coronavirus patients in Colorado hospitals were under the age of 60. More than 20% — one out of every five — were under the age of 40.

The most worrying data signals are also trending up
At its most fundamental, Colorado’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is about three things — saving people’s lives, preventing people from becoming seriously ill and making sure there’s enough hospital capacity to handle a surge in cases.

And now all three of those measures are moving in the wrong direction.

Nearly 80% of the state’s intensive-care hospital beds are currently in use, up from around 70% or below in early summer. Polis said on Tuesday that nearly a quarter of the state’s intensive-care beds are currently occupied by COVID-19 patients. A new surge in any health crisis — coronavirus, flu, car accidents, heart attacks — could push the state dangerously close to its capacity.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows the percentage of available intensive-care beds in use at Colorado hospitals over time. The red line shows an average calculation intended to smooth out the bumps. (Screenshot)
There’s also been an increase in patients being placed on ventilators. Doctors across the state have gotten a lot better at treating coronavirus, and often this has meant they have been able to avoid using ventilators in situations where they would have placed a patient on one earlier in the pandemic. But a slight rise in ventilator usage in hospitals has paralleled the rising number of hospitalizations from COVID-19.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows the percentage of available ventilators in use at Colorado hospitals over time. The red line shows an average calculation intended to smooth out the bumps. (Screenshot)
Deaths due to COVID-19 may also be increasing, though this is a little less clear. The state’s death tallies show an increase earlier this month, with a decline since then. But deaths can take a long time to officially document and categorize, meaning that the number of recorded coronavirus deaths for the most recent weeks could continue to rise.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows deaths of people with COVID-19 over time. Each bar shows the average number of deaths over the prior seven days, in order to show the trends more clearly. (Screenshot)
Where outbreaks are occuring has shifted
Many of the state’s earliest — and most deadly — coronavirus outbreaks were at long-term care facilities like nursing homes. But those have largely leveled off, as the state imposed strict control measures and also got better at testing the people who work there.

Since the end of summer, outbreaks have been growing most prominently at schools and other educational settings. This chart shows the total number of outbreaks in the state, not just a weekly snapshot. And it shows clearly how outbreaks at education facilities (in orange, near the top) have eaten up a bigger chunk of the pie, now accounting for more than 10% of the state’s total outbreaks.


A Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment chart shows how the locations of COVID-19 outbreaks in the state have changed over time. The light blue at the bottom represents residential health care facilities such as nursing homes. The rapidly expanding orange wedge near the top shows the growth in outbreaks at schools. (Screenshot)
Polis has said he would be willing to order schools closed again to in-person learning if that’s needed to get coronavirus cases under control. But it’s clearly not an option anyone is excited about. Still, Polis said Tuesday that Coloradans will have to get used to the uncomfortable in the coming weeks and, perhaps, months.

“I know we are all very tired of the virus,” he said. “Fatigue is setting in. That’s why we’re seeing these numbers increase. But the virus is not tired of us. It’s still deadly.”

Jeffco Transportation Advisor Group (JEFFTAG) mtg, 14 Oct 2020:

CDOT Update on:
Floyd Hill improve schedule for I 70:; SH 74 put of Morrison for rock mitigation; 284 interchange for King Valley; C 470 Bridge expanding to 3 lanes; C 470 at Ken Caryl interchange improvements for bikes and pedestrians; planning for new bridge at I 70 and 32nd; improvements for the I 70 & Kipling area; construction of express lanes going up the mountain on I 70; planning and ROW purchases at Wadsworth and Hwy 6; and resurfacing of a number of roads including Hwy 6 from Hwy 58 to Hwy119.

BTW, I asked why the express lanes on I 70 couldn't be open when fares are not in play. The Federal Highway authority limits the number of hours per year that such lanes can be used when the original purpose of these shoulder areas was for emergency vehicle access.

Arvada Micromobility program:
1. They briefed on traffic calming on increasingly highly used roads in residential areas & in the area of the G line stations.
2. Their efforts are similar to those that we have done and are discussing in Golden.
3. Interesting Painted Traffic Circle Pilot Project:
They are try to use small , single lane circles with flexy posts for traffic calming and safer pedestrian and bike movement. These allow for fire trucks and big commercial vehicles to cut across the edges of the circle when turning .
RTD Updated:
1. New Exec Dir comes on Nov 9th, Debra Johns
2. Services Changes:
a. Looked at 3 times annually
b. Discontinued: Evergreen bus, Conifer bus and the GS bus to Boulder
c. Changes:
- West line light rail (our line to the Taj - County building), Director Merton (sp) note that most use is in the morning so they are adjusting to have the service from 4 a.m. to to 11pm
-16 Bus will have increased levels of service
3.. Budget: it's a mess (my words) - RTD received $232 M in Fed COVID bailout money which helped balance the budget somewhat this year and will help reduce the shortfall to about $150M next year.
4. Budget cut actions: cut 484 employees which on my questioning means approximately $100 K per employee or $48 M according to my calculations .
MY THOUGHTS: It will be great to have our past Mayor, Marjorie Sloan as our new RTD Director!!!

DRCOG UPDATE:
1.Due to COVID, 3 flexibility options have been provided to metro cities and counties on project deadlines including use of "Toll Credits" which are funds that the Feds provide and transportation and pubic works folks understand.
3. The 2050 Regional Transportation Plan efforts were briefed.

MMC & MDHI grant application - Last week I joined area mayors to sign on for a US Conf of Mayors & Wells Fargo Community WINS grant to support the Housing Stability and Flex Fund (https://www.mdhi.org/flex_fund). Golden has been a contributor to this MDHI fund since its inception in 2015 as part of our strategy to reduce homelessness. Requests to the fund have increased 260% this year. Metro area mayors have come together to submit one application jointly to support the efforts of the entire region.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAM - Innovative program out of Ft Collins to encourage energy efficiency upgrades in rental housing. https://medium.com/@BloombergCities/bringing-energy-efficiency-to-rental-housing-3ccc246ddd0c

How Zero Waste-to-Landfill
Benefits Business and the Environmenthttps://outlook.office365.com/mail/inbox/id/AAMkAGVkNTQzN2JmLWZiODAtNGI2NS04NGM4LWY2MzMwZTlmNTA3OQBGAAAAAAADp8qr18FYRKt6BF8jKF00BwBwJd1gkvJjQaIeNfHJhnpHAAAAAAEMAABwJd1gkvJjQaIeNfHJhnpHAAKqQsYWAAA%3D?state=0

NLC Creating Lasting Affordability Through Community Land Trusts: Recording and presentation available on the site - https://www.nlc.org/event/creating-lasting-affordability-through-community-land-trusts