GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Posted on: March 15th, 2015

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the February 9, 2015, Town Meeting

 

Next Town Meeting is Monday, April 13, 2015, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center.

 

The meeting was called to order by Chair Peter Swift. Ten people were present: Christine McCaul, Debra Yeager, Pam Sherman, Bobby Vrba, Vice Chair Bear Carlson, Treasurer Martha Knapp, JoJo Morrison, Laurie Britton Newell, Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer, and Chair Peter Swift.

Peter noted that we, as the Town Relief Fund, have received a thank you letter and an application and he requested that the Council members stay after the Town Meeting to meet about this.

 

Minutes were approved as published.

 

Treasurer’s Report – Martha reported that at the previous Town Meeting in December our bank balance was $14,609.09. Since then, $415.50 was disbursed from the General Fund for website work and insurance. The current bank balance is $14,193.59. Funds held for us in trust at the Ward Church are $965 bringing our total cash assets to $15,158.59.

Current individual fund totals are as follows: General Fund is $3450.06; Cemetery Fund is $3610.21; Community Relief Fund is $4456.95; Forest Management is $94.52; and Safe Link is $3,547.25.

Gretchen added that she has heard from McDonald Farms (dumpster people) and we will be billed $150 for two unvented propane tanks from the last town clean up. Turns out that the whole mechanism on the top must be removed before they can be recycled.

 

Community Planning/Trails – no report

 

Historical Zoning – Bear reports that Paul Poisson and Anya are fixing up their old garage/office and installing interior storms, etc. and it’s all ok with Historical Zoning.

 

Forest Management/CWPP – No report

 

Fire Department –Bobby reports that they are looking at a new (used) truck. Also they are putting together 5,10, 15, and 20 year plans. Trainings are pretty well attended. Peter questioned our ISO rating and wondered why we are only a 9. Gretchen replied that it has to do with response times, water supply, and distances from the Fire Department, as she remembers, and we used to be a 10.

 

Weed Management – Pam will have a report for the April Meeting.

 

Historic Gold Hill – Gretchen reports that we are working on the 2016 Calendar – next meeting is Tuesday, March 17th so if you have any ideas, etc., please contact her.

Debra added that the Museum will be getting shirts for the workers/board members and will have hats for sale this year. The board has been working with Laurie, one of our newest town residents, and the Museum is now a member of the Colorado Association of Museums, which covers an area from the Wyoming line to Trinidad.

 

Mining – Gretchen reports that activity continues up there. They’re fixing things up and working on permitting. Also, she has found out that much of the land up there now has Conservation Easement status with the County. This preserves it from development, although it can still be mined, etc.

 

Gold Hill School – Peter reported that our new neighbor, John Berzner, had a Christmas party and there was a bowl for donations for the GH School, which eventually, after a brief misunderstanding, resulted in $175 being donated to the School. Chrissy had not known anything about this, but thanked all for the funds.

Here is the rest of her report: The Fall Fiesta was very successful, thank you so much to all of the community for their generous donations.

We are looking to put together a house-concert fundraiser this spring, combined with a dance-a-thon for the students.  Details to come.

Your generous contributions are currently funding these projects:

The Colorado Shakespeare festival is coming to the Gold Hill School this Thursday, Feb. 12th at 1:00 for a performance of The 12th Night.  All community members are welcome. The performance will be followed by a workshop put on by the actors about bullying; how it is seen in the performance, and how it applies to the life of the children.

The students are studying Native Americans and Westward Expansion and are looking forward to “Mountain Man Camp” and their “Rendezvous” celebration. Anyone interested in donating time and expertise in these areas of study are welcome to contact the teachers!

The kids are halfway through their annual Eldora learn to ski program.  We’ve skied two Fridays and have two more Fridays to go!

We are about to begin working on our whole-school musical, Robin Hood and the Merry Ladies.  The performance will take place on Tuesday, March 17th at 6:30PM (St. Patrick’s Day).  Again, all are welcome to attend. And they have added another performance at 10:30 a.m. in hopes of accommodating more people.

The school has obtained grant money for the following projects:

We will be taking a trip down to the Woodbine Ecology Center to study Native American Ecology and Forestry.

We are in the middle of a year-long project, studying our local riparian ecosystem.  This spring, we will be focusing on trout and insects.  We’re bringing many live critters into the classroom with use of a river tank and other terrariums/aquaria.  We’ll be applying our year’s worth learning with the introduction of an ecology through fly fishing program.  The kids will be learning to tie flies, cast, read water, study fish and habitats, collect and study insects, compare and examine life cycles, and of course, go fishing.  Again, anyone in the community with expertise in this area is encouraged to act as a source of information /guide and join in the fun! We are looking at dates in May to get out in the field and fish!

We are looking forward to the spring, when we’ll be able to resume beekeeping.  We’re anticipating the Gold Hill School having nine operating hives this summer.  The bees have been enjoying this unseasonably warm weather.  Honey will be available for sale in the fall at the school and the Gold Hill Store.

Upcoming Fall projects will include implementation of an Archery program at the Gold Hill School. The teachers have received scholarships to become certified National Archery in the Schools Program instructors. We would love to have any community members who are experienced in Archery come in as guest speakers! Please contact us if you are interested.

 

In other news:

Johanna Morrison has taken on the roll of custodian at the school, and is now a full time staff member.

Jojo has been working on a few projects of her own.  Due to her efforts, our school has received a Green Star School designation, meaning we are creating very little waste, reducing, reusing and recycling, and composting using our own indoor worm bin.

Jojo is also working on a fundraising opportunity through Arch Thrift Store in Boulder.  We plan to bring up a truck to fill to fill with items for the thrift store.  In return, Arch will donate $1000.00 to the school.  We hope to have the truck in early April.  Details to come. Save your stuff!

 

SafeLink – Peter reports that he is 90-95% done with the application to submit to Jared Polis’s office requesting funding sources to build a Community Center/Town Hall/SafeSite on our newly acquired land from the tax sale. We decided that “Town Hall” is the best umbrella term for this potential building. He still has to contact the Finns regarding their mining claims that may cross this property. Pam also has some possible funding sources. Peter, as a Civil Engineer, can do the site plan.  Laurie volunteered to help and John Berzner has volunteered to help fund raise, also.

Pam reports that, since we are between disasters, for those who are interested, FEMA is now recommending that people be prepared to survive for two weeks with food, meds, etc. We will be more a resilient community if we are prepared. She will send out links to websites (one website with information is the County Office of Emergency Management, http://www.boulderoem.com ).

Also, Pam is now part of the Boulder County VOAD (Volunteers Active in Disasters), which will be coordinating all volunteers. They will push to have people sign up beforehand.

 

OLD BUSINESS

Changing our 501(c)4 to a 501(c)3 –Gretchen reports that she has filled out the form to amend our original Articles of Incorporation with the State and it is ready to submit to Rich Lopez for his approval. After that is approved by the State, there is another big IRS form that will need to be filled out and filed.

Bear added that he has received an email from Rich saying that we could be both a (c)4 and a (c)3. This generated a big discussion about if and why we might want to do that. Martha made a motion that we go ahead with the (c)3 process and see about keeping the (c)4 status as well. Deb seconded and the motion passed. Bear will confer with Rich and will bring information about this to the April Meeting.

 

Town Boundary Adjustment – Dina sent an email reporting “the results of my talking to neighbors about being in the town meeting boundary.

I think Mark and I are the only ones who care at all, and there are 4 households who are very much against it. I think people out here want to feel independent. So I suggest you not consider expanding the boundary.  Mark and I will still participate, so it really doesn’t make that much difference to us.”

At the previous Town Meeting, we voted to expand the Southern boundary for the Town Relief Fund to include Rim Road and Shining Star Road. Since there seems to be no real interest in amending the bylaws, it was decided to leave it at that. Martha added that there are other things besides the relief fund that might be affected, like the town clean up, for instance, and thought we might want to develop a policy for that for those out side our boundaries. Chrissy wondered why we have so many maps and pointed out that the School boundaries go out to Sawmill Road. They have just evolved over time. The original town boundaries included virtually everyone who had any connection to Gold Hill, the Historical Zone is just the Townsite, and the Fire Department boundaries were drawn up in conjunction with the Boulder Valley Firefighters Association when the FD became a tax district.

 

Porta-Potty – Bear has pursued some leads. Renting from Aero Pure would cost $100/month or we could buy a used one, but he hasn’t seen any. If we bought a new one from Aero Pure for $650 plus freight, Tracy with Acme would pump it out for $150 as needed, which wouldn’t be very often, since we wouldn’t be using it very much. It would be locked and only available when we are having a meeting in the Community Center. He recommends we buy one. Martha moved that we go ahead and pursue a used portable potty, and if we don’t find a used one within 6 months, we should allocate $1000 maximum to get a new one. The motion was seconded and passed. Deb added that perhaps the Museum would buy it if we do go ahead and build a Town Hall.

 

Welcome Buckets – Deb brought 2 examples of pint glasses, the idea being to sell them to raise money as well as to include them in the Welcome Buckets. Everyone liked the idea – particularly the blue tinted one. She also has an order for 2 of the old t-shirts and wonders if we should have more of them printed. As far as the logo, the last one came from a town contest. It was decided that Deb would organize a new contest and the winners of the contest would get a 4-pack of the pint glasses. Bear moved that we allocate $600 to print the logo glasses, Bobby seconded it, and it passed unanimously. Several people thought we should print more of the old t-shirts as well as tea towels. Martha moved that we allocate $400 to print 12 t-shirts and 36 towels with the GH design from the old contest, the motion was seconded and passed. All these items will be priced so that we hopefully make a little money from their sale.

 

On the subject of money, Gretchen pointed out that we had not made a motion to pay Rich Lopez for his legal help with the 501(c)3. Bear moved that we allocate up to $600 to pay Rich for his time. Deb seconded it and it passed.

 

The meeting was then adjourned.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary