Posted on: January 5th, 2010

Gold Hill Town Meeting Newsletter

Minutes of the Dec. 14, 2009 Town Meeting

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

The Meeting was called to order by Chair Val Crist. Attending were: John  and Cherry Sand, Chad Julian and Chad Ricklefs (BCPOS), Morgon Haddad and Lorenzo Castano (students studying Pine Bark Beetles), Hector Case (sp?), Adriana Galue, Amy Hardy, Rich Oxley, Val Crist, Lisa McConnell, Edie Eilender, Jim Smith, Bob Mason, and Gretchen Diefenderfer. Val announced that Elon Bar-Evan has resigned as Secretary due to life stresses.  Gretchen has agreed to be Sec’y and we are now looking for someone who would like to be Vice-Chair.  Please let us know if you would be interested.  The main duty is to run the meeting in the absence of the Chair and help with other things that come up.

Minutes – were approved.

Boulder County Parks and Open Space – Chad Julian and Chad Ricklefs gave a report on the POS 10 year plan they are working to develop, principally concerning forest management and wildfire mitigation.  The lands covered are anything they have fee ownership over (not the BLM lands that are still being worked out and will probably take several more years).  They do have relationships with CSFS and so the county can do some work now, i.e., the mitigation work across from the Mill.  They intend to base their management on scientific consensus, and are developing goals, objectives and standards and are looking for what is most important to us.  See the POS website: http://www.bouldercounty.org/openspace/resources/index.htm .  For instance, one goal is that BCPOS values and provides for public input.  One objective is to identify and develop communication tools, and one standard is to hire people like Ryan Ludlow, who presented a program to Gold Hill on the Beetle epidemic, to educate and inform county residents.

They are conducting several smaller meetings and then will have some larger, public meetings, rewrite, then present their plan to the Parks and Open Space Committee for approval, and then to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) for adoption into the Land Use Plan sometime in the Spring.

They have had meetings with Professor Thomas Veblen, Director of the Biogeography Lab of the Geography Department at C.U. The Biogeography Lab supports research in the areas of forest dynamics, disturbance ecology and dendroecology.  He does feel that global warming is having an influence.  Pine Bark Beetles, Spruce Bark Beetles, and White Pine Blister Rust effects have been observed on a continent wide scale as never before and will mean most likely more frequent fire cycles.

Treasurer’s Report – Adriana reports that our balance is now $6253.14, with income of $500 from John Sand and the Sesquicentennial Committee paying back the advance, $250 from Leslie Finn to the Cemetery Fund, $1600.45 from the Bake and Treasure Sale, and $37.50 written to Jennie Rice.  She will get with Dick Cole to find out about the books and the balances in the various funds.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Community Planning Initiative – Gretchen reports that on Nov.18, we presented our Townsite Plan to the Planning Commission for preliminary consideration, and on Dec. 16 for final inclusion in the County Comprehensive Plan, and then, on Feb. 2, at 2:00 p.m. we will go to the BOCC. Update since the GHTM: As a reminder, the Planning Commission is responsible for the Comprehensive Plan (they adopted the Gold Hill Townsite Plan into the Comprehensive Plan on Dec. 16) and the Board is responsible for the Land Use Code. These are public hearings.

The next CPI meeting is Monday, January 11, 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center to address trails and open space issues.

Historical Zoning – Cherry reports that there are 5 members on the Board: Amy Hardy, Bear Carlson, Dan Gretz, Steve Barnard and herself. They are currently working on drafting a set of guidelines addressing solar installation issues specific to the Gold Hill Historic district.  These will be presented to the Town for approval at a later Historic Zoning meeting. The Steinberg/Wakefield plan for solar panels installed on the roof of their barn was approved and is installed.  Elon’s and Mason’s solar projects that were presented at the August meeting are on hold at this time.

Forest Management/CWPP – Edie suggests that we need to keep up on Parks and Open Space plans.

Val reports that the CWPP South Project continues as weather permits.  Lots of biomass is being pulled out.

Fire Department – Val reports that they have outdoor/hands on training on the 2^nd Saturdays of the month and classroom/indoor training on the 4^th Thursdays.  Volunteers are welcome!

Weed Management – Cherry reports that they gathered at Susan Fernalld’s house and sorted seeds gathered from around here.  They want to package them for sale to support weed management projects.

Historic Gold Hill – Edie brought 2010 Gold Hill calendars for sale.  They support the Museum and are available from her and the Gold Hill Store.  Buy lots!  The Museum is open by appointment only in the winter.

Be thinking about the calendar for 2011.  We need committee members, photos, drawings, poems, and ideas!  The Museum Committee will probably be organizing the next calendar, since it is the Museum that benefits.

Mining – Bob has found on Marketwire ( on the internet) that Aurora Gold Corp. is planning on ponying up $ (German/Swiss $ this time vs. Canadian) to re-open the Mill.  They have presented an exceedingly hopeful view of things and propose to get moving in March 2010, assuming $400,000 comes in.   They say they have their permits in order.

He also reports that as of now the tailings pond is full and, as far as the present management’s experimental underground injection of tailings is concerned, they got EPA permission, but not MLRB, which they will need if this is undertaken in any measure.  He reports that Mark Steen is objecting to this plan.

Jim Smith reports that every major mine does this and mentioned Stillwater (a big mine) which puts stuff back in when the ore (lead, zinc, gold, silver) is extracted.  It’s pretty inert and is becoming the industry standard.  Bob wants to be sure they are not polluting and will be keeping an eye on it all.  Jim says that they have had a history of cleaning up and if they can reclaim the workings by putting the inert sands back in, it’s a good solution.  He also said that, if it goes much longer without a certain amount of work, they will have to start the reclamation process.

Trails – no report

Gold Hill School – They had their fundraiser and send a big thank you to the community for the support.  It was brought up that we would love a more complete report and to have a representative from the school come to the Town Meetings to let us know what is going on.

OLD BUSINESS

Hisorical Zoning – Cherry reports that a couple of years ago an effort was made to re-write the bylaws.  They got almost done, after many meetings, and then the idea was shot down.  Now Bear and John have suggested that they take the past work (the charette prepared by the County, the M&M girls (students) architectural study, etc.) and try to meld it all together and develop design guidelines.  Denise Grimm and Gary Sanfacon from County Land Use are supportive and will provide any assistance they need.

The present HZ procedure is that applicants bring their plans to the HZ Committee.  If the plans are small and will have little impact, the HZ Committee approves them.  If it is a big project, it goes to a HZ community meeting and then to the County for final approval.  The HZ is advisory only.  However, if an applicant goes directly to the County for a permit application, Denise has only 2 weeks to process it, making it difficult for the HZ Committee to call a meeting and evaluate the plans properly.  Denise is proposing to put into County regulations that if she or the Building Department receives an application, they will refer it to the HZ committee first.

Amy Hardy added a positive tone by saying that it’s a good thing for people with plans to come to the HZ Committee for their help and advice so we can preserve the character of Gold Hill.

Welcome to Gold Hill Pamphlet – We discussed the idea of putting together a pamphlet of information and ideas to give to newcomers to Gold Hill.  Cherry moved that the Member at Large (Lisa McConnell, presently) be designated to work on this project as she has expressed interest previously.

Resignation – Elon has resigned from the Council.  According to the bylaws, the town board should appoint someone to replace him within 2 weeks.  We will do our best.  Bob Mason said he would do it if no one else is interested, but is not really enthusiastic.  How about it?

Agenda items – Val reports that the agenda always includes the committee reports. For new items to add to the agenda, please get in touch with her in advance.

OTHER NEWS –

Correction – in the last town news, I mistyped the url for the Laud Use Department Townsite Planning info – here is the correct one  http://www.bouldercounty.org/lu/townsite_planning/GoldHill.htm

Guardrail – Here is an email that George Gerstle sent to me before the last Town Meeting – I hadn’t seen it, so I failed to bring it.

Hello All:

I am George Gerstle, Transportation Director for the County.

ggerstle@nullbouldercounty.org

I am writing to thank you for letting us know of your concerns regarding the potential impact on the rural character, and wonderful view, of installation of guardrail along a portion of the Shelf Road.

We have received a variety of responses from Gold Hill residents, expressing both support for installation, as well as concern about the impact, of shiny guard rail on the rural character of the road, and the potential that the road might be narrowed by the guard rail.

We are installing the guardrail to address safety concerns that exist, particularly during major snowstorms. Over the years we have had a number of close calls (and some actual events) where people, including our snowplow drivers, have (at least partially) gone off the road during snowstorms. However, we also want to make sure that we are not unnecessarily eroding the wonderful scenic character of the road or entrance to Gold Hill.

In response to the concerns we’ve heard, we will not be installing shiny steel guardrail, but rather oxidized (ie pre-rusted) guardrail at a somewhat greater cost, that will not be as visually intrusive. We will be installing the guard rail off the current driven way, so the road will not be narrower.

So, again, thanks for letting us know your thoughts, and I hope you have a wonderful winter season.

George

Emails – If you are not on our email list to receive town news and the Newsletter and want to be, send requests to elon01@nullgmail.com or get in touch with Val Crist.