By Amber McIver-Traywick

Open in Berthoud

Howie’s Bread Depot is open two-days per week. Friday from 8 a.m. to noon and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. They are offering curbside service, May 15th and 16th, and are hoping to allow customers in the store next week. They will require 1 person at a time inside and the individual must wear a mask.

Homestead Fine Art Gallery – Opened Friday, May 8, and will be open Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through the end of May.

News Bites

****As of May 12, Colorado has 20, 157 confirmed COVID-19 cases and is attributed to 1,009 deaths. Larimer County has 481 positive cases or one out of 728 people. Berthoud accounts for 24 of those cases. As of May 12, there have been 7,385 tests administered in Larimer County. The peak of confirmed cases came April 25 when the three-day moving average of positive cases in the state came to 727. As of May 11, the three-day moving average is 260 cases.

**** Rise Artisan Bread has served over 375 school lunches since March with the help of the Berthoud community. “Without the generous contributions from our neighbors and customers, this wouldn’t have been possible,” a statement on their Facebook page said.

****All summer Berthoud recreation programs are set to start the week of June 1. If your program was scheduled to begin before June 1 please check the most recently updated schedule to confirm your start date. For more information call Berthoud Parks and Recreation at 970-532-1600 or visit teamsideline.com/sites/Berthoud/home.

**** Larimer County Department of Natural Resources will open Visitor Centers and camping to new reservations (self-contained hard-sided units with restrooms only) beginning Monday, May 18 at 9 a.m. Same day camping reservations will be allowed during regular business hours. Carter Lake Area and Horsetooth camping locations will only allow a maximum of 8 people per site. All campground restrooms and shower houses remain closed. Tent camping (or any soft-sided unit that does not have an operational restroom interior to the unit) is not allowable due to the closure of campground restrooms.

**** Rocky Mountain National Park will reopen in phases beginning May 27. The park will increase recreational services including limited shuttle service in phases. Park officials are working with state officials as changes are implemented to follow the “safer-at-home” guidelines. The state tourism office is currently discouraging vacation to Colorado to try to prevent community spread of COVID-19, particularly in harder hit mountain communities.

**** Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes announced this week that nearly $121 million in emergency federal relief will be made available to Colorado school districts through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Money for districts can be used for a wide variety of expenses related to the coronavirus pandemic, including purchasing cleaning supplies and educational technology,  providing support for at-risk students and providing summer learning opportunities as well as activities already allowed under other federal education laws. The funding is Colorado’s portion of the $13 billion Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund designated for students. Approximately 90% of the $121 million will be divided up among school districts using the Title I formula that allocates federal funding each fiscal year for low-income students under the CARES Act passed by Congress in March.

**** U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the approval of a request from Colorado to provide online purchasing of food to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households. This approval will allow Colorado to expedite the implementation of online purchasing with currently authorized SNAP online retailers with a target start date to be announced at a later time. Colorado’s SNAP participation is nearly 415,000 individuals, more than 200,000 households, and totals nearly $640 million annually in federal benefits.

**** The opening of the Mount Evans Highway (Colorado Highway 5) will be delayed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The roadway will not be open by Memorial Day weekend as it usually is. At this time, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the U.S. Forest Service, and Denver Mountain Parks — the agencies that jointly manage Mount Evans have reached an agreement that Mount Evans Highway will not open until at least early July due to delays related to COVID-19 and public health orders.

**** Colorado Parks and Wildlife campgrounds opened to camping at most state parks beginning Tuesday, May 12. Much like the National Parks, there will be a phased approach to reopening their campgrounds and facilities. Agency staff is finalizing reopening plans and ask visitors to State Parks to remain flexible in their travel plans as they work with counties and local public health orders to open safely and cooperatively.

Colorado counties, municipalities and land management agencies continue to update their COVID-19 guidance including travel restrictions, road closures, and access limitations regularly. Colorado Parks and Wildlife reminds anglers, hunters, and all other outdoor recreationists that it is your responsibility to research and understand the specific guidance, ordinances and restrictions in place for any planned local recreation – know before you go. 

As camping becomes available, playgrounds, picnic areas, and camping facilities (including yurts and cabins) at Colorado’s state parks will likely remain unavailable. Closures will be posted online and at the park until facilities reopen.

**** In the Federal Trade Commission’s latest round of warning letters to sellers of unproven products and services surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency is seeing some far-fetched claims. The letters address a wide range of products and supposed treatments, including listening to a music CD of frequencies to resist the Coronavirus, taking high doses of intravenous vitamin C, using Chinese herbs, acupuncture, chiropractic treatments, ozone therapy, bio-electric shields, HEPA air purifiers, UV light therapy and more.

To date, the FTC has announced more than 120 warning letters sent to marketers making COVID-19 health claims for their products and services. For a complete list, see ftc.gov/coronavirus/warning-letters.

Your takeaway: If there’s a medical breakthrough, you’re not going to hear about it for the first time through an ad or sales pitch.

If you want more information about scams and other FTC information you can sign up for consumer alerts by visiting ftc.gov/complaint.

**** The Colorado state Unified Command Group (UCG) updated the operational dates for the alternative care sites in Colorado as hospitals continue to meet patient care and capacity needs. These five alternative care sites, including the one located at The Ranch Events Complex in Larimer County, are medical shelters that will be used to provide medical care if the hospital capacity is exceeded.  

The facility at The Ranch is considered a Tier 3 Facility with an initial bed capacity of 200. The facility’s projected operational date is now June 11. Tier 3 care facilities will have resources and staff capable of caring for patients who are recovering from COVID-19 who no longer need a critical or acute level of care.