“The Summit County sheriff says it’s tricky to enforce the new rules during this crisis. They don’t want to fill jails with people not complying and potentially spread the virus.”
For weeks, hotels, motels and all short-term rental operations in Summit County have been forced to close down by order of the county health department but CBS4 only had to look on VRBO to find hundreds of rentals still available. Summit County commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence is frustrated:
“People either aren’t taking this seriously or are thinking that they are above the law but violators are subject to fines up to $5,000 and up to 18 months in jail.”
The Summit County Sheriffs don’t want to fill jails with violators during the pandemic so they have limited enforcement to warnings pleading for compliance. Not a single health order violation citation has been written. 
County leaders also are concerned with second-home owners allowing their friends to use their houses without paying, even though the statewide order bans this as well. Officials want to make it crystal clear that if you’re not a full-time resident of Summit County, you aren’t welcome at this time.
Images from twitter SummitSheriffCO & vrbo.com
