Posted on: May 18th, 2016

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the April 11, 2016 Town Meeting

 Next Town Meeting is Monday, June 13, 2016, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center

 In the absence of Chair Peter Swift and Vice-Chair Bear Carlson, the meeting was called to order by Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer. Member-at-Large Tony Vrba was also absent, which meant this was not an official meeting because we did not have a quorum of Town Council members. However, the members present agreed that we should go ahead and give reports and have discussions even though no official votes can be taken.

Eleven people were present: Chrissy McCaul, Dan Maedke, Mary Ryan, Pam Sherman, Bobby Vrba, Dina and Mark Elder, Treasurer Martha Knapp, Jessica Brookhart, Virginia Schultz, and Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer.

 Minutes – As there were no corrections or additions, the minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report – Martha reported that at the previous Town Meeting in FEBRUARY our bank balance was $13,859.11 and a balance of $85 held for us in trust at the Ward Church.

Revenue since then includes funds from t-shirt and pint glass sales. Expenses include 501c3 expenses, Boulder County property taxes and report filing fees to the Colorado Dept. of Local Affairs for exempt properties (the meadow and adjacent lands.) Our current bank balance is $13,720.73. Monies held in trust at the Ward Church remains at $85.00. Our total cash assets are $13,805.73.

Current individual fund totals are as follows:

• General Fund $1,877.20
• Cemetery $4,710.21
• Community Relief $3,576.95
• Forest Management $94.12
• Safe Link (funds for SafeSite, AirLink, NeighborLink projects) $3,547.25.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 Community Planning, Historical Zoning, and Forest Management – no reports.

Fire Department – Bobby reported that monthly training continues and all are welcome. As far as calls, it’s been mainly abandoned campfires recently.

Weed Management – no report

Historic Gold Hill – Gretchen read Debra Yeager’s emailed report on Gold Museum activities:

We are really excited about this summer and the presentations on the Bluebirds.  We have many, many activities planned for the community including the presentation by Dr. Kirk Ambrose, the head of CU’s Art 
Department who has spent several years studying and writing a thesis on the Bluebirds, specifically Marie Brookhart’s Aunt Matilda Vanderpoehl, here in Gold Hill on Thursday evening, July 14^th.  This cocktail hour with Dr. Ambrose will be held in the side yard of John and Cherry Sand’s house.  Expect to hear lots of great information that you’ve haven’t known in the past.  I will be sending out a request of the community for assistance with this event.  The needs will include cooks, setting up and tear down, servers, etc.  Please save the date!

Our gift shop will once again be offering lots of new items for this summer.  Joan Few is heading up our Bluebird exhibit and our focus will definitely be on the Bluebirds and their connection to present day Gold Hill.

Additionally, Gretchen is now a member of our Board of Directors.  We’re happy to have her bring her spirit and energy to this devoted group of people.  The board includes John Sand, President; Rick Sinner, Vice President; Joan Few, Secretary; Marilyn Soby and Leslie DeGrassi, Co Treasurers; Debra Yeager, Museum Gift Shop and Special Events, and Gretchen Diefenderfer.  Chellee Courtney is still involved as an adviser to the organization.

Gretchen added that there are still 2016 Gold Hill calendars available and the committee is working to get the 2017 calendar out as soon as possible – probably not for Memorial Day.

Mining – Gretchen reports that the situation at the mill seems the same – there are people there regularly, but only a few. There is some activity, but no plans are known.

Gold Hill School – Chrissy reports that everyone is doing well. Their big play was presented before Spring Break. It was called “Journey to the Center of the Earth” set in the 1980s, and everyone had a great time.

Since then they have been working on their Spring and Summer projects including the greenhouse at the school, which Matt Legg is helping with. In the interim they will have garden beds starting soon, as well as some aeroponics indoors – basil and tomatoes.

They have duck eggs and chicken eggs in the incubator for Life Sciences.

They have acquired archery equipment through a grant and have visited a Japanese Archery Center in Boulder across from Crestview Elementary, which they found out about because Peter Swift knew them.

The bees are doing great – they’ve had to put a new box on already. They are healthy and established and doing super well.

The Spring Camping Trip for 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders is going to Royal Gorge and Canyon City. Jojo is leading it and there are 14 kids and 19 adults who want to go!

There was a school fundraiser tonight at the Kitchen Next Door – a 50/50 profit split with the school. It was packed – the most successful that they (the Kitchen) has done.

The Read-a-thon raised over $4,000 for the garden project on top of a $5,000 grant and donations. They’ve also received $3,000 for the archery equipment. These are special projects and don’t receive funds from the PTO or the Fall Fiesta.

All in all, it’s going great!

SafeLink/IMA – Pam reports that the IMA (InterMountain Alliance) came together after the Fourmile Fire as a disaster preparation and advocacy group. They just did a perfect world event with Mike Chard of the OEM (Office of Emergency Management).

The Nederland Area Seniors group has been meeting for going on 20 years and are happy to include us all as well. It started as a dinner and breakfast group, is really vibrant and successful, and now has a range of activities and outings. Look for emails about their activities. Pam is the Gold Hill person to the offshoot Mountain Midlife Group (people in their 40s up through 70s) and the liason between them and the Nederland Area Seniors (NAS). Let her know of any ideas for activities.

Deb’s email also included a report on NeighborLink – We recently updated our program, which we believe will enable more members of the community to take a responsible role in this organization.  It includes keeping our structural phone tree the same but adding more responsibility at the Group level, requesting these members to perform more duties for the organization if the need arises.  Also, members of the community may now choose who they want to be associated with in the event of an emergency.  In the past, we tried to find members who were in close proximity to the neighbors nearby, but after a lot of discussion we now think that the groups could be more wide and diverse, allowing the community member to choose to associate with whomever they wish, regardless of the physical location of their home.

In the next several months, we will be reaching out to the many, many new members of the community to explain the program and ask for their participation.

OLD BUSINESS

Resiliency Group – Dina, Virginia, and Jessica reported on their activities and presented their survey results. They had 47 responses and compiled them in several interesting formats – bar graphs, pie charts, wordels (visual presentations where the most selected categories are printed in the largest font). They are still working to fully understand the data they’ve gathered and plan to work with the community to improve our resiliency. The three biggest concerns/vulnerabilities/challenges identified were fire, severe weather and medical emergencies.

NEW BUSINESS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

Town Hall/Community Center – We have been talking for some time about the appeal/need for having a space of our own and what kinds of activities we might conduct there as well as various ideas for where and how we might accomplish this. We have also talked about a feasibility study. Tony reported that she will have time start working on a community survey to ascertain the level of interest and support for somehow acquiring/building a Gold Hill Community Center. Peter and Gretchen volunteered to help put together this survey.

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary