Summit County opened more than 130 restaurants to indoor dining in the past few days under the state’s new certification system – a program El Paso County officials say is too expensive and difficult to manage in a much larger community.

Summit County, home to Breckenridge, Frisco and ski resorts, started work Wednesday when final guidelines were released covering requirements for the state’s five-star certification program, designed to safely expand indoor capacities at businesses in communities with a high numbers of COVID-19 cases, County Manager Scott Vargo said. Summit County, like El Paso County, is experiencing a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases making it eligible for the program. 

El Paso County could be eligible in a few days if the trend continues, but local officials want the state to instead just allow area restaurants to open at 25% with two households per table, saying the certification process does not serve businesses well. Officials made their case for the alternative approach in a letter to Gov. Jared Polis Sunday.

In Summit County, officials called on county and local town employees to volunteer to help run the program to get restaurant dining rooms open ahead of the critical Christmas rush, Vargo said. The county had 60 employees help inspect each restaurant as required by the state to make sure they were meeting new rules, such as better ventilation, and worked over the weekend to get them open, he said.

“It was a whirlwind to say the least to get everything put together. … We really needed to do it for the economic vitality of the community,” Vargo said.

Ember, a fine dining restaurant in Breckenridge, opened Saturday night and is sold out for in-person dining on Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Years Eve, said Max Everhart, general manager. 

The restaurant is only able to have nine tables because under new state rules limiting capacity in areas with high COVID-19 numbers to 25% with tables kept 10 feet apart, up from the more common six-foot standard distance. With the limit on guests, Ember changed its menu to offer a pre-set three course meal for $70 a person, Everhart said.

One of the biggest hurdles to opening restaurants under the certification program is new ventilation requirements and Ember spent $1,000 on four mobile air filters to meet the requirements, he said. Other restaurants added box fans and opened windows, and had their air conditioning and heating systems adjusted, Vargo said.

Ember is one of about 400 restaurants in Summit County. Not all of them are interested in meeting the state’s new requirements and are happy with selling to-go meals, Vargo said. But some think they can make a profit under the new rules and rehire employees, which is important to Summit County, he said.

El Paso County officials and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers argued in a letter to Gov. Jared Polis Sunday that the new certification does not make sense for businesses or local government and would be too expensive to implement. The officials proposed the governor simply allow indoor dining to reopen at 25% capacity with a maximum of two households per table.

The officials also said in the letter the program could cost $500,000 to inspect all the businesses that would apply assuming some donated labor. El Paso County has 1,500 full-service restaurants making the demand much higher than Summit County, said Rachel Beck, vice president of government affairs for the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corp.

“There is a simpler way to do it and a more effective way to do it,” she said.

El Paso County had not heard from the state about its letter on Tuesday, city spokeswoman Jamie Fabos said. 

The county is three days away from qualifying to apply to the state’s certification program if COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and the percentage of residents testing positive continues to decline, Beck said.

When asked if the county had an application ready, county spokesman Ryan Parsell said a draft plan exists, but local officials want the state to work with them to find a better, more fair solution. He pointed out the state has not required big box stores to follow the same stringent rules as restaurants.

“Why can a retail box store serve hotdogs but Marigolds can’t open?” he said.

The letter also noted the ventilation requirements could require a restaurant to get a new $20,000 air filtration system while granting businesses only minor increases in capacity to recoup that cost. 

“Our business owners are telling us it doesn’t work for them,” Parsell said.