GOLD HILL MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the April 8, 2019, Town Meeting

Next Town Meeting will be Monday, June 10, 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center

The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Marielle Sidell. There were 13 people present: Dina Elder, Seth Porter (Adaptation Services Group), Member at Large Dan Maedke, Marielle, Bob Mason, Treasurer Martha Knapp, Pam Sherman, Marcus Moench, Maggie Simms, Cat Russell, Mary Ryan, Virginia Schultz, Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer.

The meeting opened with Seth Porter with Adaptation Services Group (he is also one of the initiators of Wild Fire Partners), who has been hired by Boulder County to assist our Gold Hill Sustainability Committee for four months with climate modeling using local data, and proposed strategies for climate adaptation over time.  The end result will be a paper for our committee, as well as support in performing some activities over the coming several months.  Their first meeting was Friday, April 5, and they looked at many issues including possibilities for Wild Fire Partners being enhanced for Gold Hill to include water testing, well backup strategies/devices, trees (for planting), community emergency planning event, and additional energy smart support.

            One idea is to explore the potential for a community-owned solar array with onsite storage, particularly in emergencies.

            Dina asked what a 10º rise in temperature means for us as far as health impacts and increased fire danger.  One goal is to get the whole community of Gold Hill wildfire certified.  Marcus added they also looked at fire-resistant species to help buffer us against fires, as well as what we can do with rooftop rainwater collection, as the state laws have changed.

            Bob wondered, given the certainty of increased temperatures and uncertain precipitation, if people can even live here in 50 years.  He believes one key to survivability is working to maintain soil moisture and how to best contribute our individual efforts to the large-scale efforts that will be needed.

            Dina said the plan is to engage the community and get us all on the same page.  Seth added that, yes, how to make a difference is immensely complicated in our complex world.  Climate change is here now and we have to take action.

            Maggie pointed out that none of us are made of money and wondered if the committee could work on ideas for how we can produce money to help carry out our ideas for community-wide efforts.  The Fire department has recently added large cisterns to our water storage capabilities for firefighting.

            Marcus feels like there are a lot of ways to get funding for sustainability stuff from short-term mitigation work to our visions for the future.  The County is behind us.

Minutes of the February 4 GHTM – were approved as published.

Treasurer’s Report – Martha reported at the previous regular Town Meeting in February 2019 our total cash assets were $12,646.56. Our current total cash assets are $12,310.56.

Revenue Summary: none
Expense Summary: General Fund report filing fees for Annual Report for the State of Colorado and Exempt Property Tax $236,00; SafeLink for Welcome Buckets $100. Overall total expenses $336. 
Fund transfers: none

Current fund totals:
General Fund $646.01; Cemetery $5,489.85; Safe Link (combined funds for SafeSite, AirLink, NeighborLink projects) $2,847.75; Community Planning/Fundraising $1000; Forest Management $0 (zero;) Community Relief $2,326.95.

Gold Hill Resiliency           Committee  – Virginia passed around a wildfire risk map for our area.  Caroline Ashley is working on grants for her property mitigation work. Wildfire Partners will again send out postcards to encourage people to get their assessments.  They did get 20-30 people interested last year, but she doesn’t know how many have completed the work.   The chipping program will be different this year – we’ll see what develops.

            Martha pointed out that, for those who have cisterns, emergency water is available with a bucket and rope, or a generator.

            Virginia reported that a lot of interesting ideas came out of the March 23^rdmeeting on solar options and soil water retention.  They looked at resources and watershed health, encouraging native plants, what can we actually do as far as water collection, what about sheep or goats for weed control, composting.  There is now a CSA – 8 families have bought 3 shares with Black Cat.

            Bob Mason said that it’s important to keep water where it falls for soil remediation, to keep control of the water running down roads, etc.  It will require regrading, ditching, etc., with an eye to directing it to replenish the soil.

SafeLink –  Pam brought a big medical bag donated to us by the Red Cross.  The school is the de facto SafeSite (our place to gather in an emergency) – we’re operating under an old agreement with them and working on a new one.  It was decided to put the bag inside the tuff shed behind the Firebarn for now.  The keys for the shed, which has some emergency gear for the town, are right inside the Firebarn on a wall of keys.

Community Picnic – This idea surfaced a while ago and a tentative date of June 22 is proposed.  One suggestion is to include a movie night near the bocce court.

NeighborLink – Deb brought up the welcome buckets that are given out to new community members.  They include a booklet with all kinds of town information – groups, town events and parties, the Fire Department, the Town Meeting, helpful contact information.  We thought it might be a good idea to print up more for general distribution.  They cost $3.75 each for 100.  Everyone thought this was a good idea.  Martha pointed out that there is money in the SafeLink account that can be used.

IMA (InterMountain Alliance)– Pam reported that the County may hire a professional person to work with the IMA to make sure the County knows about our mountain concerns – that our concerns all are not like those of the City of Boulder.

Museum – Marielle spoke with Deb before the meeting and she reports that the Community Outreach meeting and party will be July 12.  Ed Raines will give a talk on Tellurium – our Gold Hill Mines are one of the few places on earth where Tellurium is found. Gretchen added that we are working on the 2020 Calendar and there are still 2019 calendars available for half price.

Town Clean-Up – The County will again support our recycling/repurposing efforts and we would need to pay for a trash dumpster or two.  The consensus was that it is an important community event and a worthwhile effort that helps us all, particularly those for whom it is not easy to take stuff to Boulder or the Nederland transfer station.  We collected enough money in fees last year to pay for most of the trash dumpsters.  Addendum: The date that works for the Inn and the County turns out to be Saturday, June 29.  This would traditionally be the Bocce Tournament, but Bear agreed it would work to move the tournament to Sunday, the 30^th. 

Movie Making in Gold Hill – Periodically Main Street will be closed in front of the Gold Hill Store May 19 through the 22^nd.

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary

P.S. If you know anyone Community member who should receive the Newsletter in the mail, please let me know