City of Grand Junction Declares Local State of Emergency

The City of Grand Junction released its community briefing and as expected it was based around the wellbeing of our community in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. The City is prepared and committed to providing all of the core municipal services to the Grand Junction community.

Our City Council did vote on Monday evening to declare a local state of emergency. The state of emergency was declared because of the risk to the personal health and economic welfare to the persons and businesses of the city and the greater Grand Junction community and in light of the ongoing risk to public health, safety, and economic security.

The City Council also approved an ordinance to allow the City of Grand Junction to defer sales, use, and lodging taxes collected in February of 2020 until the end of July in 2020. This is part of the City's plan to provide assistance to businesses negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes granting extensions for filing returns and making payments, relief from interest and penalties, and filing a claim for a temporary refund of taxes paid to the city. This will hopefully bring $4 million dollars into our local economy.

The City Council will have another special meeting taking place on Wednesday, March 25th at 6:00 p.m. to hear an emergency ordinance that would authorize the use of $4.4 million from the City's General Reserve Fund to add 400 temporary workers who lost their job because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The areas in which the temporary workers would complete tasks include:

Crack-fill operations
Stormwater infrastructure (ditch, culvert and catch basin) maintenance
Sidewalk repair and maintenance
Landscape maintenance, planting, nursery operations, turf, and field maintenance
Graffiti removal
Painting (buildings, fences, signposts) and other maintenance of City facilities
Cleaning street art
Riverfront cleanup and maintenance
Any other work deemed necessary and appropriate by the City Manager in light of need, social distancing and other protocols now in place or applicable to the mitigation of the spread of COVID-19.

If this money becomes available and opens up these jobs we will be sure to let you know.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

Looking for Info About the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Colorado’s COVID-19 Hotline

CO-HELP is Colorado’s call line for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). People who have general questions about COVID-19 can call CO HELP at 303-389-1687 or 1-877-462-2911, for answers in many languages, or email them at COHELP@RMPDC.org for answers in English.