Castle Rock News Press 0107

Page 1

January 7, 2021

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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

CastleRockNewsPress.net

VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 39

Local restaurants resume indoor dining New county program makes way for limited capacity BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

An empty plate that had held loaded tater tots sat in front of Robert and Ashley Matthews on Dec. 30 as they waited for a server to bring their entrees, a jerk chicken sandwich and beef tenderloin. The couple drove 40 minutes from their home in Denver to eat indoors at a restaurant, days after Douglas County was approved for the state’s new Five Star program, greenlighting limited indoor dining for the first time in more than a month. “It’s very calming and just feels normal, but not normal at the same time,” Ashley said. Their eatery of choice was Union American Bistro, which reopened to indoor dining on Dec. 29 under the Douglas County Covid Best Practices Business Certification Program, owner Kim Heideman said. The return of indoor dining boosted her daily sales by roughly $2,000 the first day, she said, a welcome reprieve after business dropped more than 50% during the indoor dining ban. “The weather being cold really cold hurt us,” she said. The restaurant offers a heated and mostly enclosed patio with the necessary airflow, she said, but that hadn’t been enough to draw in customers after the county shifted to level red status. During the pandemic’s first wave, Heideman was forced to lay off nearly all her staff outside the management team. SEE DINING, P4

DCSD considers new plan for semester Improving COVID-19 data offers hope for swifter return to hybrid learning, superintendent says BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Kim Heideman, owner of Union bistro in downtown Castle Rock, was among the first of several restaurateurs in town allowed to resume indoor dining under a new state PHOTO BY JESSICA GIBBS program.

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 9

Dream Big Dreams...

Amid improving COVID-19 rates, the Douglas County School District announced it might return middle and high school students to hybrid learning earlier than planned next semester. The change in pace comes as the county’s incidence rate per 100,000 people dropped from roughly 830 when the board of education approved a tentative second semester plan on Dec. 10, to under 400 as of Dec. 30. Interim Superintendent Corey Wise made the announcement in a Dec. 30 letter to the community. “If we have learned one thing from COVID-19, it is that we need to be flexible with our plans and know that anything can change, based on current circumstances,” Wise said. Wise said in early December the two-week cumulative incidence rate would be a key data point to watch as the district weighed when to bring secondary students back from remote learning to hybrid. SEE DCSD, P4

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a Standard 12 month CD with current rate at renewal. *The Annual Percentage Yield is current as of November 19, 2020.


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