Posted on: May 19th, 2013

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the April 8, 2013, Town Meeting

Next Town Meeting is Monday, June 10, 2013, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center.

The meeting was called to order by Chair Amy Hardy.  Eight people attended: Amy, Treasurer Adriana Galue, Dina Huber, Chad Miltenberger, Peter Swift, Chrissy McCaul, Kurtis Leverentz, and Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer.

The Minutes were approved as read.

Treasurer’s Report – Adriana Reported that the balances are the same, except that we have chipping grant funds disbursed.

Current Balances

Fire Fund            $13331.03                                       Cemetery Fund            $3795.21

General Fund            $3924.2                                    Community Planning            $82.00

Forest Management            $75.22                          Weed Management            $526.70

Historic Zone            $11.23

Trails            $31.29                                                       Safe Site            $170.22

TOTAL            $21947.1

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Community Planning/Trails  – On May 2, we have a meeting here with Garry Sanfacon from Land Use on the Regional Trails Master Plan to get our input – it will be a good opportunity to share our opinions and thoughts.  We’ll put out an email with info.

Historical Zoning – Bear reports that the only activity is that Dave and Anita Sturtz are working on plans for an addition to their outbuilding.  Their next step will be to meet with the whole committee.

Forest Management/CWPP – Amy reported that Ryan Ludlow, Forestry Education & Outreach Coordinator, is encouraging us to be a “Firewise Community” – Amy handed out pamphlets.   It’s about neighbors helping neighbors with wildfire mitigation efforts and would put us in a good position to apply for national grants, particularly because we are an historic town..  Kris Gibson has suggested that we could use the town clean up to help with a project – cleaning up and getting rid of combustible stuff in our yards (grass clippings, pine needles, etc.).  Over 80% of the homes destroyed i the Fourmile fire burned because flying embers ignited this little stuff – not because of a crown fire.  We would need a committee/board of volunteers to bring the community together and meet with the county and fill out the form/paperwork.  We’d be required to have one community activity per year.  The Saws & Slaws efforts are a good way to meet this requirement.  Amy wondered how we can recruit people and Kurtis, Chrissy, Adriana, Gretchen volunteered to work on it & Bear said he would help, too. .  Gretchen moved that the town meeting pursue the Firewise Community effort and appoint a standing committee of the 4 people who have volunteered so far, and include anyone else who is interested.  The motion carried.

Amy reported that we missed the deadline to apply for a chipping grant for this year because of communication failures and we will need to be more on top of the deadlines next year.  If we do become a Firewise Community, this would help us in applying for the grant money, too.

Fire Department – Gretchen reported that she has put out her notes on the last Fire Board meeting.  The highlights are that they have appointed Rich Lopez to fill the 5^th position on the Board, they will work on strategic planning for the future, and they got the grant for the SCBA, which Kris Gibson and Bear worked on, so they are energized to work on more applications.  Also Gretchen brought up the nice new address signs in Sunshine and suggested the fire depart and/or the town look into getting and installing better signs in our district.

Weed Management – Gretchen read Susan Fernalld’s emailed report:

Weed identification opportunity:

We will have two weed experts on hand to identify weeds and advise best options to get rid of them.  Bring samples intact with leaves, stem, and even some root, if possible.  This is a service you normally have to pay for, but this time it will be free.

When:  Saturday, June 8 any time between 10am and 2pm

Who:  Boulder County weed coordinator Steve Sauer and Extension’s small acreage coordinator Sharon Bokan

Where:  In the town meadow above the kids’ sledding hill, south of Hugh’s and Wilder’s houses.  That area will contain some weeds, which the experts can use to illustrate various types of weeds and talk about best practices for them.

If it rains, you will find us at the Gold Hill Store.  Local contact for this is Susan Fernalld, (303 447-0634)

Historic Gold Hill – No real report except that calendars are still for sale, at ½ price now, from Marilyn and at the Gold Hill Store.

Mining – Gretchen reports that there seems to be no mining going on, just the required water sampling, etc, and Mark Steen is hoping to find investors to open the mine and mill again.  Max has heard that he has possible plans for another conservation easement from the County eventually.

Gold Hill School – Chrissy says that everyone has been praying for a snow day, but none so far!  The big play went really well.  They now have 2 months to go and will be out by mid-May.  The big news is that they will be hiring a new teacher.  Sue is going to the Philippines for 2 years and Chrissy can hardly imagine how they will replace her, but the formal hiring process will begin soon.

They have been doing well with their funding and the district is now letting them step out of the formulaic boxes for funding that apply to bigger schools.  The PTO has been the backfilling the shortfall on the SRA (student resource allocation), which has to cover everything to do with running the school – the copier, all the way down to the toilet paper.  The Assistant Superintendent came to visit and could see that the approx. $1700/year that they had been allocated was inadequate.  The final details are still being worked out.  The parents have gotten together to prioritize the biggest needs – they’re hoping for 2 para-educators in the classrooms in the mornings. There is a Susan Jackson fund that has money in it and they are trying to access that, as well as working on grants.  Sue is working with the kids raising chicks and ducks, and Chrissy is working on history projects.

Safesite –  Amy reports that we will be having a meeting soon to make sure we’re ready for fire/flood season.

OLD BUSINESS

Cemetery Signs – have been ordered – the cost is $685.00 for both the cemetery and the annex signs.

Addendum:  A bunch of us (Amy, Bob Walter, the Laughlins, Chellee Courtney, Michael & I) installed the signs just today, Sunday, May 19^th, and they look great.

Community Center Use – Bear reports that, per Chris Finn, it is a non-issue for the Town Meeting to hold meetings here.  They were mainly concerned with the liability issue and we have signed the waiver.  He requested that we schedule any meetings with him at cfinn@nullmho.net. Options regarding solutions to our need for a bathroom, etc., were not addressed.  It was decided that council members and interested town members would attend the June Fire Board meeting.

Traffic Calming – Peter reports that the County will put out equipment in a couple of places in town to test traffic volume and speed once the snow is gone.  Then they will set a community meeting to collect everyone’s ideas.  They have been developing traffic calming techniques for rural areas and will present options to us.  They have a Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which delineates what conditions warrant particular solutions, like stop signs, etc., and are somewhat flexible.   Any techniques proposed will be community oriented.

NEW BUSINESS

Septic Issues – Peter also reported that County Health Department had set 2016 for septic systems to be certified.  This issue came up at the last IMA (Inter-Mountain Alliance – formerly the Mountain Mayors Meeting).  His basic question is how much of a problem do we have – what about test holes to check?  Regarding grey water systems and water requirements, regulations are now being re-written at the State level.  Presently, all grey water has to go into a regular septic system and water supply regulations are based on city standards of 75 gallons of water per person per day, which no one up here would probably come close to.

Marker – Peter also had questions about the Mason’s historical marker East of the Mill/mine area that has Chivington’s name on it.  His name has been chiseled out and replaced a couple of times because he was a big participant in the Sand Creek Massacre, and many do not like to see him honored on a marker.  Peter wonders if we could request that that marker be removed.  No action was taken.

Motorized traffic on trail behind Brookhart’s – Chad brought up that he has seen vehicles on that trail and wondered about it.  Most people did not seem to think it’s a good idea, but are not sure if anything can be done.

Address Signs – Gretchen reports that there are nice, new green reflective address numbers in Sunshine, which seems like a great idea, particularly in an emergency response situation.  She has brought this up at the Fire Board meeting as well.  The Sunshine CWPP committee put together an excel sheet of all the signs needed (single and multiple), and purchased them, the stick-on numbers, and posts. Volunteers put them together and are putting them up.  She will get more pricing info and bring it back to the next meeting.  Sunshine paid between $3,000 – 3,500 for theirs, but they have a bigger population.  The tiny plastic ones some of us have are free from the County.  The Sunshine assistant chief said he’d like to see good addressing spread like a virus.

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary

And the 2014 Calendar! 

We’re very belatedly starting to work on next year’s calendar.  If you have photos, drawings, poems, or any other good calendar ideas, please get them to one of us as soon as possible.  We meet again on Tues, June 11 – so before that would be good.

If you want your birthday on the birthday page (or of you see any corrections needed), let me know asap.

If you’d like to be ON the calendar committee, we could use some help/creativity.

Contact Marie Brookhart, Marilyn Soby, Chellee Courtney, or me..