Inspections Start, Businesses Pre-Certified for Jefferson County’s Five-Star Certification Program

With approval of the Jeffco Five-Star Certification Program, Jefferson County has begun sending inspectors out to restaurants that indicated interest for certification and participation in the program and completed an application that was approved. At this time, Jefferson County’s emphasis will be on restaurants without a drive-through option. These businesses can now apply for, be inspected and subsequently pre-certified so they can operate at a greater capacity once Jefferson County has met the Level Orange metrics.

Businesses that apply for the Five-Star Certification Program must create a detailed plan on how they will meet the state’s enhanced guidelines as well as participate in inspections to ensure those guidelines are in place. The safety of the Jefferson County community remains a top priority during the pandemic.

“The Five Star Program encourages businesses to put in place extra safety measures to help slow the spread of the virus, while allowing businesses who are making the extra effort to reopen at a larger capacity sooner,” said Jefferson County Commissioner Casey Tighe. We must stay vigilant as a community. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

The voluntary Five-Star Certification Program requires that those who choose to pursue certification implement COVID safety measures at a level of excellence far above that which is required in public health orders. In turn, once Jefferson County has met the Level Orange metrics for seven consecutive days, certified restaurants can operate at Level Yellow and increase their indoor capacity to 50% or 50 people, whichever is less.

“We are very excited that we have this opportunity for our businesses to reopen safely. This could make the difference between survival and closure for so many of the businesses we all frequent here in Jeffco,” said Jefferson County Commissioner Libby Szabo. “We appreciate the hard work of our Jeffco team and what they have accomplished so quickly to get our variance approved by the state and our program up and running.”

Jefferson County has partnered with SAFEbuilt and Jefferson County Public Health to process applications and conduct inspections while ensuring that the program is operating in a safe and healthy manner.“The state’s approval of our Five-Star program is thanks to the Jefferson County community who has stepped up repeatedly to wear a mask, stay home and protect one another,” said Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper. “Keep up the good work! The sooner we get this virus under control, the sooner we can safely open more businesses. Our health care workers, businesses and schools are counting on us.”

The Jefferson County Five-Star Certification Program Administrative Committee will oversee the initiative, which is made up of county and local leaders in public health, government and business. Members of the committee include representatives from the Jefferson County Manager’s Office, Jefferson County Public Health, Jefferson County Business and Workforce Center, Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation, the Cities of Arvada, Edgewater, Golden, Lakewood, Westminster and Wheat Ridge along with the Chambers of Commerce of Arvada, Conifer, Evergreen, Golden, West Metro and Westminster. Under the direction of the Jeffco Board of County Commissioners, this group has been working closely with local businesses on the process for certification.

While we are implementing the program with restaurants initially, we are working to open applications as soon as possible for other types of businesses in the county, including gyms, indoor event centers, personal services and more. All of these other types of Jeffco businesses are encouraged to submit a Business Interest Form stating their business is willing and able to meet all the criteria to be considered for the Five-Star Certification Program. We will be posting more information as we are able to open the application process to those businesses. For more information and links to those applications when available for Jeffco’s Five-Star Certification Program, see our web page at www.jeffco.us/five-star.

The community is being asked to continue to do its part by following the public health precautions of wearing a face mask, not gathering with those outside your household, maintaining social distance and washing hands frequently. For more information on these precautions and other information on COVID-19, see our website at www.jeffco.us/coronavirus.