Steamboat Radio

Hear the News for Friday, Jan. 15, 2021:

Routt County’s COVID case count went up again Thursday, with 21 new cases in the county. That works out to 140 in the past week and 210 in the past two weeks, for a total of 1,252 cases.

In neighboring Moffat County, for the second day in a row, there are no new cases of COVID to report in Moffat County. They have had a total of 692 cases of COVID. Moffat County has also applied for the 5-Star Certification program with the state, having met the metrics required by the state. They are waiting on approval. 

In Routt County, the Board of Health says they will support the 5-Star program after Routt County sustains two weeks of metrics that meet the requirements for the Orange Level on the state's dial. Routt County has met the metrics for hospitalizations but not for the number of daily cases and positivity rate. Routt County Public Health has to sign off on the application before it can be sent to the state.

As soon as doses of the vaccination come into Routt County, they are distributed to those on the state’s list of priority. Four places receiving doses so far are UCHealth, Routt County Public Health, Lyons Drug, and Northwest Colorado Health. Routt County Public Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Harrington says they don’t know when more vaccines will come in.

You do not have to be a patient to sign up through the UCHealth My Connection App, which is where you could randomly be chosen the next time they get vaccines in. Also register through COVID19RouttCounty.com as another way to be notified. Other medical facilities and pharmacies in the Routt County community are on a wait list to get vaccines as well.

Sales taxes for November for the City of Steamboat Springs are up 4.49% more than November of the year before. That’s $75,933 more. The biggest increase was in Construction and Home Improvement, and also liquor stores.

If you saw smoke Thursday, it’s from Lynx Pass. The National Forest Service was burning some slash piles.

Oak Creek Fire Chief Chuck Wisecup is retiring this summer. Chief Wisecup has been fighting fires with Oak Creek for 38 years.

Chief Wisecup will be selling his house in Oak Creek and moving to Arizona, where it’s warmer.

The fire department also did some promotions. Bob Reilley and Garrett Pohlman are now lieutenants, Angela Bracegirdle is a captain, and Brady Glauthier is Deputy Chief in Oak Creek.

Be careful on the roads. Don’t drive impaired. Colorado State Patrol and local law enforcement is starting their Winter Blitz DUI enforcement today through Jan. 25. There’s a list of participating agencies across Colorado and the Steamboat Springs Police Department is on there saying they will have increased patrols. Also stepping up enforcement for the Winter DUI Blitz are Moffat, Mesa and Garfield Counties. Last year during the same enforcement period, 588 arrests were made.

Snow Sculpture teams are being signed up to create snow designs along Lincoln Ave. for Winter Carnival next month. This year’s theme is “Happy Outside.” Applications to build a snow sculpture are at WinterCarnivalSteamboat.com

Read more of today's Steamboat Radio News