Posted on: March 21st, 2013

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the February 11, 2013, Town Meeting 

Next Town Meeting is Monday, April 8, 2013, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center.

 

The meeting was called to order by Chair Amy Hardy.  Nine people attended: Michael Albes, Member at Large Debra Yeager, Bobby Vrba, Amy, Kurtis Leverentz, Chrissy McCaul, Peter Swift, Robert Hamburger, and Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer.

Minutes of the December Meeting – there were no corrections or additions and the minutes stand as written.

Treasurer’s Report – Amy gave the report in Adriana’s absence.  Our grand total is $23,016.60

Current Balances

Fire Fund                        $13331.03                        Cemetery Fund            $3795.21

General Fund                        $4993.70                        Community Planning            $82.00

Forest Management            $75.22                                    Weed Management            $526.70

Historic Zone                        $11.23                                    Trails                                    $31.29

Safe Site                        $170.22

We just received the Boulder County chipping grant reimbursement funds and will be sending out those checks soon.  Our liability insurance is now $316.00 – less than ½ of what it was for way more coverage.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 Community Planning/Trails – no report

Historical Zoning – no report

Forest Management – Amy reported that, at the last IMA Meeting, two USFS representatives attended.  1).  They are committed to communication and letting us know what they’re doing – for instance, when they plan mitigation work or burns, etc.  They do plan to burn slash as soon as there is 8-9” of snow and conditions are safe.  2).  They also talked about their relationship with local residents.  Possibly, in the future, they will be able to let locals have wood from mitigation work.  They also talked about shooting.  They do seem to be genuinely trying to create a good relationship with us all.  With budget cuts they do not have enough people to complete planned mitigation work and slash disposal as quickly as desirable.

Fire Department – Gretchen reported that Bobby Vrba was elected to fill the vacant position on the Fire Board and introduced him for those who did not know him.  Bobby reported that Gary Siemer has now resigned and the board is considering 2 candidates so far: Rich Lopez and he wasn’t sure who else.

Weed Management – no report

Mining – – no report

Gold Hill School – Chrissy reported that State Testing started today and they are coming up on play season – Thursday, March 21^st before Spring Break.  They just had one of their 4 yearly skiing trips to Eldora and a couple of 5^th graders had accidents, but they’re ok.  Amy suggested that it would be cool to involve some of the older kids in our local government, the Town Meeting.  They have already done their major social studies unit, but Chrissy will see what she can do.  There is still school honey for sale at the Gold Hill Store.  Regarding the beehives, Chrissy has talked to the Walkers at the Ranch and it looks like they are interested in having them there.   It may still be possible for townspeople to participate – she will keep us posted.  They plan to try their luck with the electric fence to keep bears out.

Safe Site –Amy reports that we now have a propane-powered generator in the Rubber-Maid shed beside the Fire Barn. This generator and high-powered repeater (also located on the Fire Barn) were purchased with a grant from Foothills United Way and installed by BCARES (Boulder County Amateur Radio Emergency Services).  This equipment is invaluable in bridging the gap so mountain residents can communicate via HAM radio in the case of an emergency.  We have 65+ mountain residents with FCC licenses and high-powered radios generously donated by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Dept.  We are looking for a few more Gold Hill residents interested in MERN (Mountain Emergency Radio Network).  At the very least we need residents willing to start the generator in the case of a power outage.  The generator can also provide power for the Fire Barn in case of a loss of power.  If you want more information email: ahardy@nullunitedwayfoothills.org or allenbishop@nullcomcast.net.

OLD BUSINESS

Meeting time?  We talked about the possible advantages/disadvantages of holding our meetings at 7 – would this bring more people? Or is it too early for people to finish dinner?  No motion was made.  Kurtis suggested we meet more often, but no one made that motion either.

NEW BUSINESS

Traffic calming update – Boulder County is in charge of our roads and Amy spoke with Leslie at the County regarding our concerns about people speeding through Gold Hill.  The County is willing to try things, but they need data on traffic counts and speeds first and they need the snow to be gone for that.   Peter Swift, who is a civil engineer and a traffic engineer, agreed that decisions on what can be done are based on speed, traffic volume, and number of accidents.  He acknowledged that we cannot do anything to impede emergency vehicles, but could consider a chicane – build outs from the sides of the road (maybe with flowers) to make the road slightly curvy to make drivers realize there is a reason to slow down.  Signs don’t do a great deal of good.  Another possibility is a hydraulic speed bump – at 15 mph it collapses, but at 25 it doesn’t.  He wonders if the County is willing to spend money?  Amy replied that they need proof that there is a legitimate problem and her feedback from the town is varied.  Some people are very concerned, but not everyone agrees.  And most people don’t want a Sheriff up here all the time.  The consensus seems to be that many of the speeders are locals. Robert said the commute hours are bad – 5 to 7 p.m. is really bad and Sundays are awful.

Deb suggested we put out an email to the town letting people know that there is a serious concern from people, particularly on Main Street and Gold Run, about speeding through town and if we cannot figure out how to handle this on our own, we will have to go further.  Some people said the speeding issue has come up repeatedly and that has not made a difference so far.  Gretchen pointed out that the County did re-route the road in from out West and put in the stop sign for us in response to our concerns a number of years ago.  Apparently, however, many people do not stop at it and others seem to just careen down Gold Run to avoid it.

Regarding a variety of suggestions, some serious and some not so serious – like cement dogs – Peter pointed out that any speed control impediments have to come under the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  He said they can put in V-shaped concrete channels across the road for drainage where it is needed (and there are several places where drainage is a problem) and this can be effective for speed control.

Amy will send Leslie at the County an email about her maybe coming up to the town meeting in April and copy Peter to keep him in the loop.

New Chipping Grant – Update from Dan as of March 5 – A couple of us folks have dropped out from the community group for the chipping efforts, including myself.  We all had some communication failures with email, and the responsibility for filling out the application was mishandled. It is apparent that we will skip this year as far as the reimbursement goes, but I am hopeful efforts are made this year to build a good team, and even have some forest management projects happen. 
 Perhaps next year we will have enough time to plan, and to be more effective with our community efforts like this.

Social Gathering – We talked briefly about a town get-together, since we did not have our Christmas gathering, but we still need someone who is willing to make this happen.

Gold Hill Quick Topic Board – Amy wanted to remind everyone about the quick topic page at http://www.quicktopic.com/49/H/qRnrJXrHJxy as a new way to communicate with our neighbors.  We can chat about all sorts of things…announcements, services, stuff for sale, ride share etc. You can sign up to get an email when someone posts something.  There is a link on the town website (https://goldhilltown.com/) about it, too.

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary

March 21, 2013