Chaffee County Commissioners decided during their regular meeting Tuesday, Oct. 13, to limit in-person attendance by the general public to the Nestlé Waters North America public hearing scheduled for Oct. 20 and 22 due to increasing numbers of local COVID-19 cases.
The commissioners, public health and county staff discussed attendance options for the Nestlé hearing, as well as concerns about creating a “super-spreader” event during an uptick in COVID-19 infections in the County. Commissioners in consultation with public health discussed the potential for key county personnel and the public being exposed to COVID-19 at a large event, which would not only impact the community but the County’s ability to efficiently manage the upcoming election if personnel are
unavailable to work.
After considerable discussion, the commissioners arrived at the following decisions:
▪ Limit in-person attendance to County staff, Nestle’ Waters staff and designated Nestle’ opposition group.
▪ Limit in-person public participation at the Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall to 28.
▪ Members of the public that have technological difficulties may attend in-person at the Fairgrounds to watch the live Zoom feed in the north building.The north building does not have heat, or restrooms. Capacity for seating in North building is 40.
▪ Encourage public participation online via Zoom or through tele-conference.
▪ The Tuesday, Oct. 20th 5:00 pm meeting will consist of presentations by county staff, Nestlé, consultants, and the organized Nestle’ opposition group.
▪ The Thursday, Oct. 22 meetings, held both in morning (9:00 am) and evening (5:00 pm), will be for the purpose of receiving public comments.
▪ To be placed on the list to give public comment on the Thursday, Oct 22 meetings (am/pm) please text 719-221-1579, your name, address, Zoom username before the meeting you are attending. All members of the public will be able to give public comment regardless of whether they have texted the above number, the list is maintained to assist in the process.
▪ The public is also reminded that they are allowed to submit written public
comments to jroorda@chaffeecounty.org .
Chaffee County Commissioner Greg Felt said, “The Board of County Commissioners has tried to strike a balance here between a transparent and accessible public process and protecting the health of all participants.”
Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health emphasized, “It’s absolutely necessary for everyone that is allowed to attend in person to follow all of the public health requirements.” Chaffee County Fairgrounds staff will assure all safeguards are followed.
To access the Nestle’ Waters hearings:
• To download and install the Zoom Application: Go
to https://zoom.us/download and click on “Zoom Client For Meetings”.
• Once the download is complete, proceed with approving installing the Zoom application onto your computer, phone or tablet.
• Zoom meeting information is available at www.chaffeecounty.org on home page, right hand column. Go to Oct 20th and Oct. 22nd to click on Zoom link to join meetings.
Live Zoom link for web page or social media:
Join Meeting ID #09 079 543
