Chamber Meeting will Address Fire Code, Food-Handling Guidelines for Social Events

The Pagosa Springs Chamber will be hosting an important informational meeting regarding changes in fire code and food-handling guidelines for both indoor and outdoor events.

The session will be held on Thursday, May 23, from 9 to 10:30am at the Ross Aragon Community Center.

An event now is anticipated to be triggered when more than 50 people are expected at the event. There are also new registration processes for events with both of these agencies. Event coordinators, nonprofit agencies, event venue businesses and food truck vendors are encouraged to attend. A notice to many of these businesses went out; however, we know some businesses were missed.

Some of the information may be relevant to you, or your event may not constitute any changes; however, it is always good to be in the know and on the safe side. It is important that someone from your organization or business attend this meeting.

Documentation outlining these new guidelines can be obtained by contacting the Chamber director at director@pagosachamber.com or by calling Mary Jo at (970) 264-2360. Please review these guidelines and come prepared with questions.

We appreciate everyone trying to make this meeting in person. We will try to record it and there is a Zoom invitation if you cannot attend in person. Please contact Mary Jo if you did not receive the Zoom link and would like to attend remotely.

Both indoor and outdoor larger events are becoming more popular. Events often affect traffic patterns, constitute a large number of attendees and require inter-agency cooperation. No event coordinator, business, or nonprofit agency wants to have an incident at their event. While there is now an added layer of paperwork, most agencies are already working on hosting safe events and these additional guidelines should not be too much of an added workload. If you have specific questions on how these guidelines affect your event, it is important to have your voice heard at this meeting.

Should you have questions, you can also direct those questions to Mary Jo through the email address above. These questions will be forwarded to the relevant agency and discussed at the meeting on May 23. Thank you for taking time to find out what these new guidelines are and how they might affect your event.

Mary Jo Coulehan

Mary Jo Coulehan is Executive Director of the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce, and also serves on a number of local and state boards.