Thread by @shayshinecastle

A little late but I'm gonna tweet some highlights from today's CU/#Boulder city council meeting.

We're expecting updates on the planned conference center, reopening the campus this fall and... other stuff that I've forgotten! I'm sorry!

It might not be terribly informative, as the format doesn't (so far) show names for anyone who is participating, so I might not recognize a lot of the CU folks.

But I remembered another topic! An update on cooperation between Boulder PD and CU PD.

Also some flood mitigation stuff.

We're talking re-opening first. You'll remember this from council on July 14: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1283187…

Actually, first Pat O'Rourke is talking about CU's rapid, saliva COVID test. dailycamera.com/2020/07/23/cu-…

I didn't get a word of that except: It might be approved for diagnostic use soon.

O'Rourke said "sanity" instead of "sanitation" in detailing reopening plans. A 2020 Freudian slip if I ever heard one.

Freudian slips cover any time you say something on accident that you're really thinking, right? Not just creepy sex stuff?

"We have invested in our own ability to do (diagnostic) testing on campus," O'Rourke says. That will help test results come back faster and increase capacity of testing.

And reduce demand on commercial labs, which will benefit the population as a whole.

Results should be available within 24 hrs or so on campus, O'Rourke says.

The rapid saliva test will have an hour turnaround time.

If we get a positive result, O'Rourke says, we can do contract tracing and preventative measures "as quickly as possible."

With pooled testing (up to 700-800 a week) CU will be able to identify asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people. One positive result, and the uni will then go back and do diagnostic testing.

That's important bc asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic folks are really spreading this.

CU plans to test wastewater at 20 locations for the presence of COVID, which will trigger testing "of that facility" to find sick ppl. It shows up in wastewater, often, before it shows up elsewhere.

Antibody testing not part of the strategy "at this time," O'Rourke says, bc it's not really meant to ID currently symptomatic ppl.

O'Rourke talking about who and who won't be tested. Students who live on-campus, for sure. Plans to increase that to off-campus students (and obviously faculty and staff)

This is apparently a change from last time, but I can't say exactly how.

Our testing capacity is greater than what is available in the greater community, O'Rourke says. And we're sharing our strategy with the community, working with county health officials.

Why are we returning to campus rather than going fully remote? Russell Moore answering that one.

"BoCo Public Health considers us to be basically a closed system," Moore says. "It's an ecosystem within the Boulder community."

We are part of the Boulder community, and we take that responsibility seriously, Moore says. I know our students are in that age demographic with a lot of cases but "students are not the enemy."

I hope you will welcome them back, he says.

Moore: "The students are here, and even if we go fully remote ... we know many students will show up in Boulder anyway." Better to have them "in a structured paradigm."

O'Rourke on "normal" — "We know we're not going to be in that state in the fall."

"We're not going to look the same as we did before," he says. "There's not going to be large, 100-person lectures. ... We're going to have social distancing. We're going to have people wearing masks on campus."

"Only a handful" of transmissions happened in CU's labs, O'Rourke says. They were dealt with quickly.

30% of classes will be fully remote; staff and faculty limited on campus.

If "conditions worsen," CU may go fully remote again, as in the spring.

He's going over all the things CU will be watching to make that determination. Pretty typical stuff: R naught, PPE availability, hospital capacity, etc.

Restating (as he did July 14) that campus density will be ~45% of normal. (We'll see if the plan to keep dorms "close to full" is still the same as it was in July; he hasn't mentioned it so far.)

"As much as I'd like to say, here's the number of cases that results in a change of status" — back to fully remote — it's not that easy, O'Rourke says.

We're going to have more cases because we're doing more testing, O'Rourke says.

It's more about CU's ability to "respond effectively" to positive cases and limit the spread, he says.

A lot of this is a repetition of July 14.

O'Rourke: "We know this will not be perfect but we've really worked hard to get to the point where keeping our students safe and healthy will also help keep the broader community healthy and safe."

Council was pretty pleased with this plan a couple weeks ago. We'll see if they still are.

Wallach asks about PPE capability, if there are shortages elsewhere?
Uni has ordered tons of gloves, face masks, sanitizer, etc. O'Rourke(?) says

BoCo, in its last update, said they had begun stockpiling. As has Colorado as a whole.

Missed a q & a about when the rapid test will be available, but maybe it's in the Camera story (link above)

Young asking about data... or something?
O'Rourke says it will be tracked and available online. Going into some more details.

The system also sends out daily reminders, apparently, to check in.

Joseph, who is a council member AND CU student, is asking about ambassadors to monitor social gatherings and face mask use, or other mitigating approaches.

I missed the name of who is speaking but she's talking about the mandatory COVID education that students have to complete before they can register for classes.

Sorry; I'm spacing a bit. It's a lot of fluff and not a lot of news. I'll tweet anything important.

CU will be "monitoring and paying attention to" parties, says someone else whose name I missed.

Unfortunately, the format of this Zoom meeting doesn't include participants' names unless a presentation is being shared.

Another person whose name I don't know (maybe Derek Silva?) is talking about changes to the student code of conduct to reflect health orders. This was covered July 14.

OK that was Daniel something.

This is really pointless bc I keep missing people's names. And it's all the same stuff we talked about July 14. I'm only going to tweet new stuff from now on.

I guess this counts: There are neighborhood ambassadors and block captains who will be in charge of responding to neighbor complaints on the Hill. They meet weekly with the landlord association, BARHA.

Landlords are being notified of complaints as well.

We're running out of time in the meeting and we're still talking about parties on the Hill.

Boulder police chief Maris Herold up now. She has 8 points, which she promises to cover quickly.

Boulder and CU police will "continue to take a posture of education" first, Herold says. "However...." if there are parties, police will respond, investigate and possibly issue tickets.

They've issued a few dozen so far for violating social distancing.

Starting Aug. 15, 8-9 add'l officers will be out patrolling

CU will receive daily reports on crime from Boulder PD.

CU police chief Doreen Jokerst: We will start with education but "adjust our posture" as needed.

Brockett q: What capacity do you expect for the new, rapid saliva COVID test? (He has to leave at 5 p.m.; lucky him. I guess the rest of us will be stuck here.)

10,000 a week between all the different types of tests; not just the saliva one

NOW: South Boulder Creek update. This is where we left it: Council picked a design for flood mitigation on June 16. boulderbeat.news/2020/06/12/bou…

Upstream option (proposed by residents many, many times) is still being looked at.

Not much new in that update.

Conference center update: I don't have a story for that one, but it's been long-planned.

"It's still alive and kicking ... and making slow but sustainable" progress, Derek Silva says.

Projected 2020 hotel occupancy: 38%
Boulder hotels generally average above 60%

CU working on the ground lease, Silva says. Plans are in concept design right now.

Groundbreaking could be next summer; open by mid-2023.

But those dates have a lot of asterisks, Silva says.

COVID hasn't changed how "attractive" this project is, Silva says, in response to Wallach q.

"For projects like this, they're still able to get financing, just at less advantageous rates."

Friend asks for an annexation update: Where are we on discussions?

"I don't think I have a real good of the timeline of annexation or even an end date we're shooting for," she says.

Me either.

I *think* that's supposed to go to a council vote in 2021, but I'm not sure.

Frances Draper: "I think we're down to 5-6 gnarly issues."

Boulder's Phil Kleiser: We'll have more info for council in November/December

Swetlik (and his famous backlit couch): What about CU athletics? What's in, what's out?

Phil DiStefano taking this one: We're looking at 9-10 conference games, staring Sept. 19 or 27. And have more than one bye week throughout the season.

I assume this means football.

"We are planning on football in the fall, as well as other fall sports." 9-10 game season; conference only (PAC-12, which has agreed on standard procedures for testing, etc.)

"There's no plan at this time" for fans to be able to watch the game in the stadium, DiStefano says. That depends on the governor and rules on large crowds.

OK that's all for today. @threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!