Posted on: October 23rd, 2021

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the Monday, October 11, 2021 Town Meeting by Zoom

Next Town Meeting will be Monday, December 13, 7:00 P.M. by Zoom

 The meeting was called to order by Chair Emma Dirolf.  Twenty-two people attended via Zoom: Emma, Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer, Maya MacHamer along with Erin Fried, Julian Blundell, Korey McQuaide, Nate Goeckner of the Boulder Watershed Collective, Jenna Gann, Amara East, Deb Yeager, Marcus Moench and Elisabeth Caspari, Emily Rose, Boyd Brown, Mari Sidell, Rich Lopez, Terry Walter, Torkin Wakefield and Charles Steinberg, Val Crist, Virginia Schultz, and Vice Chair Sarah O’Brien.  Please let me know if I missed anyone.

Minutes – As there were no corrections or additions to the minutes of the August 9 GHTM, the minutes were approved as published.

Elections – Since the elections held at the August GHTM, Sebastian Combelic has resigned as Member at Large, realizing that his life is too busy to take on the job, and Dan Maedke agreed to continue for another year.  He was welcomed back by the rest of the Town Council.  Mari, who volunteered to serve as interim Treasurer after Martha Knapp had declined to run again, standing in for Jay Clark, reported that Jay has agreed to serve as Treasurer and he was appointed by the Council.

Treasurer’s Report – Mari reported that Jay is out of town and would file a report at the December meeting to include all activity since Martha’s report in August. As far as she knows, there has been no activity.

Special Reports – The Boulder Watershed Collective (see https://www.boulderwatershedcollective.com/projects) representatives reported on our mitigation project, the Gold Hill Survey results and the Community Visioning Summary. Maya reported that the Fourmile Mitigation Crew has been working at the Ashram.  A contractor from Evergreen with major machinery has been hired and will begin working at the Ashram next week.  They think they will move through as quickly as in a month and a half, depending on the weather.  They hope to finish that 40 acre project this year and begin on Caroline Ashley’s next season.  They will start at the west end and move east toward Lickskillet.  They will grind a lot of material, create slash piles, which will cure for a year, and then be burned by the Ember Association.  We will be filled in as progress is made.  They will have a pile building project – a 4 hour class – on November 20, which anyone can attend (to sign up, go to www.boulderwatershedcollective.com/events-2/pilebuildgoldhill), with the idea being to help catalyze more people to do more work on their own properties.  Pile burning workshops will be held later.  There should also be a lot of wood available after it is cured.

            Torkin thanked Maya and asked if there would be work on the north side of town from Ashley’s to Lickskillet and Maya said yes, they will be working directly north of town, probably finishing next season.    This includes the  40 acres at the Ashram, 50-60 at Caroline’s and Mike Wollard’s property as well as immediately behind the Pine Street properties.  BLM has also sent an archeologist out to begin an environmental assessment – the first step for work on BLM land.

            Erin Fried spoke of the Methodology for Understanding Community Standards and Community Perspectives.  As far as the birds and wildlife picture around Gold Hill, she introduced Korey McQuaid who reported that they had 10 cameras set up to get a wildlife picture index to see what we have now and then the impact of the mitigation work.  They saw bobcat, mountain lions, black bears, deer, moose.  Nate Goeckner worked on the bird monitoring and also set up 10 spots for a point count using calls at the Ashley’s and the Ashram.  Erin reported that they did a lot of interviews to understand how people see our wildfire risk, the barriers of mitigation, etc., and thanks everyone for their time.  They found Gold Hill to be an extremely thoughtful, cohesive community with a lot of support for collective actions, especially if they had gotten the Wildfire Partners’ assessments.   There is a high level of support for thinning on private and public lands, depending on who, where, and how it’s done – less support for burning (many want more information).  Julian Blundell conducted a visioning event – the first step was imagining what Gold Hill would look like in 5 years without any management or change and many thought we might not even be here – there was a kernel of despair.  Then they imagined us after 1. A shift in perceptions,  2. The community more organized and resourced, and 3. Increased individual preparedness.  For more information, go to https://www.boulderwatershedcollective.com

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Mountain Stewards and Forestry Management – Virginia reported exciting developments – on October 28, 29 there is a walk on potential mitigation properties with a forester to mark trees, etc., and indicate other areas of improvement.             The Forester will focus principally on defensible space around homes.  They will work on funding to help homeowners and especially to include adjacent areas near the big projects . They have a Community Foundation Grant to provide support.  On December 1, weather permitting, they will have a dumpster for slash at the GH Inn parking lot.   In addition to the pile burning workshop, there will be a water harvesting workshop, where an expert will come look at some properties and distribute kits (including two  55gallon barrels) and talk about ideas for using the water.

Gold Hill School – no report             IMA – no report

Museum – Deb thanked everyone for their patience and those who helped with the Historic Boulder guided tour around Gold Hill.  The Museum had people stationed in costumes around town at the Store, the Museum, the School and it was great.

The Museum gift shop is well stocked with calendars, t-shirts, books, tea towels, etc. (no supply chain problems here), so contact Deb for your holiday shopping.  Thank you all for your support of the Museum.

Community Center – Survey Results – Marcus presented the survey results.  97 people responded.  Section 1 asked if Gold Hill needs a Community Space.  77 said yes, and 43 replied no.  The number 1 answer for why we need the community space is for a home for the GHTM, followed by number of other potential community uses.  Section 2 concerned potential sites: 75.6% thought the Firebarn the best place, it was 50-50 in favor of 900 Pine Street. Section 3 concerned funding.  57% said the town meeting should initiate a process to fundraise for the project, 7% said no, and 36% said maybe.

– here is the link to the entire survey and the comments

            https://goldhilltown.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=12014&action=edit

If you are interested in providing more feedback on a potential community space, please submit your ideas/scenarios to ghtownmeeting@nullgmail.com

Open House – There will be an Open House at 900 Pine on October 24^th from 2-4:00 pm hosted by the Friends of Gold Hill for the community to walk through the building and look at the space and land.  Dan’s inspection report  will be available.

Special Town Meeting – There will be a Special Town Meeting on November 8 from 7-8:00 pm to include an in depth presentation, scenarios, and QA session on our Community Space considerations, with a vote to be taken at the December regular town meeting on whether or not the community wants to pursue acquiring 900 Pine as a community space.

SafeLink/NeighborLink/Emergency Preparation – Deb reports that she and Sarah continue to upgrade the information in the Welcome Buckets that go out to all new people.

Historic Zoning – Marcus reported that the Committee has new members: Greg Buis, Rick Sheingold, Terry Walter, and Emily Rose.  Terry is also on the HBAB County Board.  Recent projects OKd include Emma and Chris’s siding and windows at the Sinners.

Fire Department – Gretchen read an email report from Leslie Finn – People have commented on the number of sirens and vehicles coming through town fast. We wanted to remind folks that when they call 911, they automatically get the Gold Hill Fire Department and a couple of responders from Four Mile and Sunshine. We try to call off Sunshine and Four Mile as soon as possible, but we can be short staffed at times, and welcome their response.

The new Wildland Firefighters successfully completed their arduous pack test, which is a walking test where they have to walk 3 miles in 45 minutes with a 45-pound pack on. They all completed it in under 42 minutes! Way to go! 

As always, we need volunteers and will be finishing out this year with a Company Meeting, a live burn at the Boulder County Training Center in Boulder and a car fire practical in December, weather permitting. The 2022 schedule is in the works.

If you are interested in joining, please email Chief Finn at cfinn@nullgoldhillinn.com for an application and the training schedule.

Upcoming Meetings/Events

 Community Foundation Announcement – Funding from the 2020 Fires Relief Fund supported impacted homeowners by contracting with United Policyholders (UP) to help them maximize their homeowner insurance policies.  In addition, UP agreed to provide fire preparedness education sessions for renters in our community. 

 As a result, there will be three fires preparedness webinars for renters living in the mountain communities on three separate dates – October 12, 18th and 21st.