Posted on: January 14th, 2016

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the December 14, 2015, Town Meeting

 Next Town Meeting is Monday, February 8, 2016, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center

 The meeting was called to order by Chair Peter Swift. Twelve people attended: Michelle Grainger from Salina, Debra Yeager, Dan Maedke, Christine McCaul, Pam Sherman, Elisabeth Caspari, Chair Peter Swift, Member-at-Large Tony Vrba, Laurie Britton-Newell and Alba, Jojo Morrison, and Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer.

Minutes – were approved as published.

Treasurer’s Report – Peter read Martha’s report in her absence: Report: GHTM Treasurer’s Report October 14, 2015

At the previous Town Meeting in OCTOBER our bank balance was $13,449.11. The current bank balance is $13,349.11. Funds held for us in trust at the Ward Church are $85.00 bringing our total cash assets (bank account and funds held in trust in Ward) to $13,434.11.

 Activity since October include expenses of $400 from the General Fund for the 501(c)(3) application fee and revenue of $300 for the Cemetery Fund.

Current individual fund totals are as follows:

General Fund $1705.58; Cemetery Fund $4510.21; Community Relief $3,576.95 (includes monies held for us at the Ward Church;) Forest Management $94.12; and Safe Link funds for SafeSite, AirLink, NeighborLink projects $3,547.25.

Respectfully submitted,  Martha Knapp, Treasurer

 

The agenda was changed to allow Michelle Grainger from Salina to speak next. Her concern is that too many people are driving too fast through Salina. The speed limit is 20 mph and they have been working with County Transportation to try to get it lowered to 15 mph. They have been told by the Sheriff’s Dept. that they can call as often as necessary, but rather than reporting people they wanted to ask us to check our speed, particularly in the narrow ½ mile section right in town and when passing people. Salina is worried – they’ve been through a lot and they are concerned that someone will get hurt. She knows that life is stressful, that people get in a hurry and zone out, but please be respectful and slow down. Also, work on the intersection will begin soon with possible traffic lights adding to the problems and so they would like to ask for our consideration now. Contact her at michelle.grainger@nullgmail.com if you have any ideas.

Pam suggested signs below Chicken Hill asking people to slow down, but most felt that signs don’t get much attention

Peter reported that County Transportation did a speeding study in Gold Hill more than a year ago and were to come back for a meeting with traffic calming ideas. He will try to set this up for April or May and will invite Salina, too.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Community Planning/Trails – Tony reported that she wrote a formal letter thanking Brian Finn for letting us use the Beer Garden for the Gold Hill Gold Rush event, which was a great success.

Historical Zoning and Forest Management – no report

Fire Department – Gretchen reported that Bobby Vrba conducted the Nov. 19th meeting in Rich Lopez’s absence and they voted to excuse Rich and Rick Geesaman’s absences. Dave Sturtz, Paul Garabedian, Chief Chris Finn and Gretchen attended. Chief’s report: the radios are 95% reprogrammed. There was a vehicle fire call on Oct. 9^th at the corner of Shining Star and Rim Road, which could have been bad given there was a lot of tall grass, but turned out well. On the 24^th, there was a medical call for a fall, on the 10^th we were staged for another medical call, but were called off, on the 15^th we had a call for cars off the road on Lickskillet (they got themselves out), and on the 16^th another medical call – busier than usual. All the chains are on the trucks, and all the gas and diesel cans are refilled.

Chris asked about progress on the retirement fund (the State matches our contributions dollar for dollar), which has been in the works for a long time. Paul moved that they authorize Rich to proceed with enrolling the Gold Hill Fire Protection District in the State Retirement Fund. Dave seconded and it passed unanimously. Funds have been budgeted. It will get off to a slow start, but it’s a beginning and will be good for our volunteers.

Under New Business, Paul moved that they authorize Rich to set up a brokerage account to accept a stock donation from an undisclosed party as well as any future donations. Dave seconded and it passed unanimously.

The 2016 budget was approved at the last meeting.

Weed Management – no report

Historic Gold Hill – Deb reports that the GH Museum won an award. We have joined an association of museums and they had a contest for historical artifacts. Our Bluebird information won (one of 10 winners in the contest)! The Bluebirds still have a huge influence in Gold Hill. A CU professor is doing research on Marie Brookhart’s Aunt Til and in June there will be an event to celebrate this as well as more events in July and August. So thanks to all who voted on our artifact.

Mining – Gretchen reports that there is activity at the Mill and she has heard that there are plans to reopen and process ore, but there is a lot of work to do before that.

Gold Hill School – Chrissy reports that the Fall Fiesta was an incredible success – they raised $15,000.

Laurie Britton-Newell is now PTO President. They still have school honey available: 8 oz. for $12 and 9 oz. for $14. The honey sales pay for the honeybee project. Stop by during school or email Chrissy (christine.mccaul@nullbvsd.org).

The Holiday Music Program will be Thursday at 6:30. They have plans for a big project on agricultural education with a greenhouse and garden beds. They have $5,000 in donations received toward this project.   Open enrollment continues through mid-January to put names in for next year.

Mishie will be awarded a Red Cross Hero award for her work as a First Responder and getting a grant for an AED for the School.

Archery is still on the table. They have $1500 in donations towards this and have applied for a matching grant. The have been applying for more grants for various other projects.

Most of their big projects are funded through grants, although the ski outings, fly fishing, etc. are funded through the Fall Fiesta. Their philosophy is to dream big and see what they can afford.

SafeLink/IMA- Pam reports on the IMA (Inter Mountain Alliance). Aaron Titus of VOAD – Colorado Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (COVOAD) will be conducting a workshop on preparedness on January 9.

Pam has been interviewing people in flood affected areas about working with large organizations like FEMA, etc. on how to deal with the culture clash – their top-down organization vs. our bottom-up – which causes communication difficulties in disaster after disaster. She has been working on an information sheet for large national service representatives and has presented it to the IMA, as well as a second sheet on how we can work with them to provide us services most effectively.

There will be a Psychological First Aid training coming up.

NEW BUSINESS – We agreed to jump to New Business, because Laurie needs to get home before long.

Town Hall/Community Center – Laurie and Jojo have been brainstorming. The Gold Hill General Store is for sale and Hugh has it listed for $490,000. They feel that, given the historic value of the store, the community should own it and they have been trying to find a way for it to sustain itself. They are working with Hugh to figure out how to make it financially feasible. They believe it would be possible to obtain grant money to purchase the building. Their ideal version of the store could fill many needs: Community Center, Meeting Hall, after school programs, classes, and a café on weekends. They plan to go to the community at large to find out what people would support and get behind and if the majority of the town would support the idea then they could begin work on fund raising.

Peter pointed out that there are many problems with the piece of land we acquired through the tax sale as far as the possibility of building a Community Center there, principally crossing mining claims. Gretchen suggested that maybe we could have a pet cemetery there.

Laurie and Jojo will put out a survey to see if people support these ideas for the Store and would utilize it – they are dreaming big and want to paint a new picture of the possibilities. It would need renovation and a fund for maintenance.

Deb thinks it needs to be better marketed and fixed up and could work. She added the concerts that are being held in the winter as additional uses. She believes that it’s in a fabulous location in the center of town and that it is ecological to re-use the building.

Peter, Laurie and Jojo will do some more research and report back at the February town meeting.

OLD BUSINESS

501(c)(4) to (c)(3)– Gretchen reports that the application has been submitted, but the IRS has requested additional information and she’s working on it.

Schmidt Property – Yes! The County has closed on the property. It will be five years or so before they have a management plan and they said that, in the meantime, they anticipate that townspeople can continue to use it as they have been. Sandy Duff, Real Estate Land Officer, indicated that approximately one ace of the Cemetery is part of the Schmidt property and asked if members of the community would be willing to help with a minimal donation for that property.

Deb reported that Historic Gold Hill is working on GPSing the whole cemetery, which should clarify property lines as well as gravesite locations, and the town agreed to revisit the question of donating for this at a later meeting after this is done.

Back to NEW BUSINESS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

            COPIRG (Colorado Public Interest Research Group) – Peter reported that they have asked if the GHTM would support a petition to Congress asking to limit special interest money in political campaigns. Gretchen moved that Peter let them know that we are applying for 501(c)(3) status and, as such, cannot lobby or campaign or engage in politics. This was seconded and passed.

Fire Department Cistern – Gretchen reported that the Fire Department wants to install an underground cistern on the south side of town for firefighting purposes.  They think the town meadow (the lower NE corner) would be a very good location.  It would be underground and up hill (so it will gravity feed – probably 3,ooo gallons), with the outlet down by the road for accessibility.  Chrissy asked what the objections could be.  Gretchen has checked with the County – we do own this part of the meadow, but it is restricted to open space uses – and Sandy Duff indicated that there shouldn’t be any problem with that.  Otherwise, there would be some disruption installing it, but then it will be underground and not show, except for the outlet down by the road.  It would be valuable to those living on that side of town in case of a fire.  Because it involves the town meadow, it was decided to table it until the next meeting in February, so that this information would go out in the newsletter and those not at the town meeting would be informed.

Cemetery – Gretchen reports that Bob Walter, Cemetery Committee Chair, has been working with Chellee Courtney and Kris Gibson on the GPSing project. He would like to encourage people to be cremated, but if they desire a full burial, he suggested that, to protect the existing graves from the disruption of heavy equipment moving through, they should be buried down close to the road or in the annex across the road.

Deb and Sharon Conlin have been talking and thought that, perhaps, we should have one big gravestone with many people’s names on it and those who wanted to be included could either bury their ashes or scatter them near that. :o)

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary