Posted on: May 29th, 2017

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the April 10, 2017 Town Meeting

 Next Town Meeting is Monday, June 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center

 The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chair Bear Carlson, in Tony Vrba’s absence. Ten people attended: Kristi Venditti from EFAA (Emergency Family Assistance Association), Chrissy Maedke, Member at Large Dan Maedke, Joan and Arthur Few, Treasurer Martha Knapp, Vice Chair Bear Carlson, RickSinner, Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer, and new resident Randall McCaleb.

The agenda was changed to allow Kristi Vanditti from EFAA to make her presentation first. She reported that she lives in Nederland and is the ½ time Mountain Coordinator for EFAA and works ½ time as the early childhood liaison. She meets up with people and makes home visits. EFAA provides basic needs support – bus tickets, food bank, rent, deposit and utility assistance, help with other basic necessities. She has met with Dina Elder, Jojo Morrison, and Joan Few on Aging in Community issues. She’s working under a one-year pilot program for mountain residents and part of the grant is to do outreach. She would be happy to set up a regular time to come to Gold Hill to meet people and provide information and help.  She can be reached at 720-336-2326 and EFAA is at 303-442-3042.

Minutes were approved as published.

Treasurer’s Report – Martha reported that, at the previous Town Meeting in FEBRUARY our cash assets were $14,704.88. Current total cash assets are $13,971.94.

Revenue since the February meeting includes cemetery and permaculture workshop donations and the pass-through grant from United Way. Expenses include various report filing fees, property tax, bank service fee, community relief fund distribution and the Airlink UW grant pass-through.

Earmarked fund totals are as follows:
General Fund $1325.16; Cemetery $5,207.78; Community Relief $3,326.95; Forest Management $94.12; Safe Link (funds for SafeSite, AirLink, NeighborLink projects) $3,785.25; Community Planning $232.68.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Community Planning – Dan reports that he is working on plans for the book library box and beginning preparations for the Gold Rush (our annual bake/rummage/crafts sale and fundraiser). He will be ordering more Gold Hill t-shirts soon.

Historic Zoning- Bear reports there is nothing new. Concerning the old Weaver house, Marcus and Elisabeth have demolished the old shed and are working on plans to rebuild it and remodel the house. Max has worked on the septic system.

Forest Management/CWPP – Virginia Schultz emailed that the application forms for the chipping grant have been sent. It looks like Boulder County will pay 50% of the cost and the residents would be responsible for the other 50%. She suggested the GHTM consider supporting the resident costs. She had questions: Is there interest or need for chipping? How much money available from GHTM to support?

Martha moved that, if interested people apply for chipping grants, the Gold Hill Town Meeting will consider helping with the 50% cost that residents are responsible for. Rick seconded and the motion passed.

We need to know how many people are interested in chipping. Please contact Virginia at arneyschultz@nullhotmail.com and let her know as soon as possible.

Fire Department – Gretchen reported that the Board is working to get a pension plan up and running for members of the department, as well as long range plans for a cistern on the south end of town, and completing the dry hydrants down in Lefthand.

Weed Management – no report

Gold Hill Museum – The Museum will open Memorial Day weekend. The 2018 Calendar is well underway and the goal is to have it out by the 4^th of July. Martha suggested we consider Antionette Bigelow, who was the Dean of Women, had a cabin in Gold Hill and is buried in the GH Cemetery- possibly for next year’s calendar.

Mining – Gretchen reports no new activity. Addendum: We have since heard that there are new investors, that they are looking to put in a road down to Lefthand to access water rights as well as opening up access down Horsfal to a mine down there.

Gold Hill School – Chrissy requested that the school report be moved up in the agenda as it gets late for her – of course that will happen. She reports that the school is always great. They are missing Mishie, but Chelsea is doing a great job. She expects to be out the beginning of next year due to the birth of their baby, and Breida Geesaman has agreed to cover her maternity leave. They put on another play that they wrote – Scooby Do in Gold Hill. Dan and Jojo have taken over the greenhouse project and will have plants soon. They have parent volunteers and it will be set up to be maintenance free – will have rain barrels. Archery classes are beginning. Stop by the school to see the Butterfly Pavillion! Bee season is coming up – although the winds are hard on them. The Annual Camping trip will be to the Sand Dunes in mid May.

Community Spaces, Resiliency and Sustainability, etc. – Dina sent a long report.

            Meals on Wheels hosted 2 small groups from GH for free lunches at their café, which were pretty good. They would really like to share this program with Gold Hill. At this point, there does not seem to be much interest, but the service is there if more people would like it. Anyone can walk into the café at the senior center for a nice $6.00 meal (there is a sliding scale from $1.00 to $6.00 depending on need), and meals can be delivered to Gold Hill for anyone who meets the criteria, which are pretty accommodating.

            The Climb – Bob D’Alessandro from Via can come to GH on Tuesday, April 25 for a meeting to hear residents needs and desired.

            Medical Reserve Corp – This is something several people expressed an interest in hearing about at one of the “Aging in Community” meetings. It is basically for anyone, not just medically trained people, who are interested in participating in caring for people in the community during/after a disaster. This would kick in after the first responders have attended to someone and allows the person to remain in the community, if possible, rather than being transferred to a facility elsewhere. Dina wondered if the GHTM should invite these people up for a presentation at a town meeting.

            Community Spaces – has been having meetings – interested in working with Boulder County to help clean up the Schmidt property and consider uses/plans for it.

AirLink Grant to connect Jamestown – This is going well, but slowly. The big news is they have been granted approval by the CCARC (the ruling body that assigns radio frequencies in Colorado) to continue with this effort as we have proposed. We will have to prove within a year that we do not interfere with any other repeaters in our area. Bear added that there is an exciting development – they are setting up a repeater to connect Jamestown to the network. He will send out an email report.

New Business/Announcements – Gretchen reported that she will be out of town for the June 12^th meeting. Bear will take notes

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary

P.S. Town Clean will be June 24^th. Volunteers are needed! Please email Gretchen or call 303-442-3847 if you can help – even for a couple of hours. This will be like the last few years. The County will support re-use and recycling and the Town will pay for the trash dumpsters, so there will be fees. It’s actually a pretty fun day and we thank the Gold Hill Inn for providing the Bluebird Lodge parking lot for us!