Posted on: July 29th, 2026

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

 Minutes of the June 8, 2026, Gold Hill Town Meeting

 Next Regular Meeting will be Monday, August 10, 2026, 7:00 pm in person at

the Community Center and by Zoom.   

This will be our annual Town Council Elections meeting!

The meeting was called to order by Chair Kelly Veit.  Present were Kelly, Micah Frost, Dave Brigham, Vice Chair Kaitlyn Barthell, Boyd Brown, Juliet Carpenter, Boyd Brown and Poppy Copeland, Treasurer Martha Knapp, Jeffrey Combelic, and Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer.  Attending by Zoom were Marcus Moernch and Elisabeth Caspari, Val Crist, Heidi Kessler and Richard Roth, Member at Large John Hatlelid, Maggie Simms, Chief Rich Caudill, and Virginia Schultz.

Chief’s Report – Rich updated us on the new truck.  It is now fully in service and will be out most Saturdays from 9 – 1:00 for everyone to see.  It’s exciting to have this brand-new truck.  They plan to have it in the parade and to have a little ceremony.

Also, we won the battle with Lumen/CenturyLink.  They replaced our batteries at the crossroads junction box, which will furnish power for our landlines for 4 to 8 hours.  If a power outage is longer than that, we will look at alternatives and there will be a generator at the barn.

Mitigation Info – Boyd reports that the Fourmile crew is working on the town property and is ahead of schedule.  Some home hardening is also being done on Hill Street by Teens, Inc. in conjunction with Wildfire Partners. The GH volunteer group, which includes Micah and a lot of other people, have spent a lot of time around Hugh’s, Rebecca and Janos’ and at the top of the Skillet.  They have an application in for chipping.  The goats are here and have done great work – the entire meadow and down in the draw between Fourmile and Dixon. Maggie asked why the entire meadow and Boyd said the minimum is 300’ and this creates a better fire buffer.  It will also give us data on what comes back for the 3-year study.  There were a lot of invasive weeds and it was overgrown.  The minders are making sure they get moved so they’re leaving the roots.  They can do 1 ½ acres in 24 hours!

Minutes – Bear moved we accept the minutes of the April meeting, Marcus seconded and it passed with no one opposed.

Treasurer’s Report – Martha reports Account activity in the General Fund since the April meeting included testing the new US Bank Elavon Mobile Card reader with net fees of under $1.00. There was also a website domain name fee of $23.19. A total of $650 in donations to the Cemetery Fund brings that account balance to $3648.06.

There was no activity in any other accounts.     Our bank account total is $16,712.

Talking to Boulder County, they can provide property addresses and mailing addresses for the GHFPD.   She would like to request approximately $40 – $60.00 to purchase these lists if we decide to do mailings.  Bear pointed out that the bylaws were amended a few years ago to make the Town Meeting area identical to the Fire Department’s.  He supports us allocating the money for Martha to purchase the list.  Boyd agrees.  Bear moved to authorize up to $100 to get the list.  Dave seconded.  16 voted to approve, none opposed.

The mobile card reader from U.S. Bank is Elavon – has really low fees. Martha has given it to John.  Works best with iPhones, but there is an Android work around.  The money is deposited directly to our bank.

As far as merch, John reports we have the GH Logo water bottles for $15 or reasonable donation, some pint glasses for $15, and some assorted t-shirts and sweatshirts from thrift stores and silk screened with our logo that we’ll probably just ask a reasonable donation for.

 

Bylaws – Martha reports on the survey regarding the bylaw concerning residency, homeowners, property owners, etc. 

Article II, Membership, Section A, Eligibility in the 2020 Bylaws:

Those residing in the Town Meeting area are members and may vote at town meetings, provided they fulfill the following requirements:

1. Be a minimum of 18 years of age
2. Have lived in the GHTM area for sixty days furing the twqelve months prior to the meeting or for 60 days during the previous five years with no less then five days in any one year.

The GHTM area is identified as that included in the boundaries of the Gold Hill Fire Protection District (GHFPD).

Current Bylaw

All residents and property owners within the Gold Hill Fire Protection District who are over the age of 18 are members of the Gold Hill Town Meeting and have voting rights.  Eash member is entitled to cast one vote on any issue that requires a vote by the GHTM membership, regardless of the number of properties owned.

Survey announcement published May 22, May 28, and June 3.

Survey closed end-of-day June 7.

Total number of respondents: 42

SURVEY INTENTION: A committee study and subsequent feedback from members at the April 2026 Town Meeting identified concerns, solutions, and general consensus of issues of importance.  This survey presents the consensus while seeking a broader audience and feedback. It is multiple choice with the opportunity for comments at the end of the survey.

CONCERNS: 
1. “residents” should be defined;

2. “property owners” should be defined or changed to “home owners”.

SURVEY QUESTION & RESULTS

RESIDENCY

1. Should “residents” be defined/specified to exclude campers and house sitters? Y/N

42 responses

 YES: 40 respondents: 95.2%

No:  2 respondents:  4.8%

 

2. Should there be a defined/specified length of time for residency? Y/N

42 responses

YES: 28 respondents: 66.7%

No:  14 respondents:  33.3%

 

If YES, what length of time for residency?

27 responses

30 days: 4

60 days: 8

90 days/3 months: 2

6 months: 6

1 year: 6

2 years: 1

 

TERMS

1. Should the term “Property Owners” be replaced with “Home Owners”?  Y/N

41 responses

YES: 27 respondents: 67.9%

No:  14 respondents:  34.1%

Much discussion ensued.  Should we convene the committee to work on rewording Article II, Membership?  The length of time for residency is all over the place.  Give top 3 options?  Martha moved that we go back and ask the committee, but this got no second.  Boyd added that if 2/3 of survey respondents agreed, as they did with changing Property Owners to Home Owners, we should move forward.  Val thought that we would vote tonight, and she moved that we vote on choosing the length of time for residency from the top 3 in the survey: 60 days, 6 months, one year, since these 3 got 70% of the survey results.  Micah seconded.  The vote was 9 in favor, 3 opposed, and 3 abstentions. 

Micah moved we adopt 60 days, Marcus seconded.  The vote was 13 in favor to 1.

Bear moved we adopt 6 months, Dave seconded. The vote was 3 to 11

Bear moved we adopt 1 year, Boyd seconded. The vote was 3 to 10, with 2 abstentions.  Therefore, we agreed on 60 days.

Micah moved that the residency definition be worded to exclude campers and house sitters.  Boyd seconded.  The vote was 14 with none opposed.

Micah stated that we should also vote now on clarifying the wording and the consensus was that we have enough information with the survey and the people here to move forward on proposed wording.  Per the bylaws, this will need to be published and finalized at the next meeting.

Micah moved that we vote on amending the previous Membership bylaw and Martha came up with the following wording

All residents, excluding campers and house sitters, who have resided in the GHTM defined area for 60 days, and all homeowners within the Gold Hill Fire Protection District who are over the age of 18 are members of the Gold Hill Town Meeting and have voting rights.  Each member is entitled to cast one vote on any issue that requires a vote by the GHTM membership, regardless of the number of properties owned.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Business District Committee – Kelly reports that They are working on a general survey and will have results for the August meeting.  Addendum: The survey is out (see https://goldhilltown.com/community-livability-business-impact-survey/) and replies are due by August 5^th.  The ballot box is by the Firebarn.

Historic Zoning – Bear said he has no HZ report, but wanted to add that the Bocce Tournament is June 27, is a great town event/pot luck and encourages everyone to come.

Cemetery – We have two new permanent residents: Luzie Mason and Bill Atkinson, and will have Fred Bores next month.  RIP our legends.

Native Plants, Ecology, and Weed Management – Kaitlyn reports meetings with Pam Sherman, previous chair, Val, of the Senior Alliance, and Leslie Finn, who takes care of the garden at the Firebarn.  They will have workshops with seeds as well as others.  The Bee Chickas are also planning a presentation of the bees of Gold Hill.  Boyd added that people were excited about the seed packets and seed cards.

Senior Alliance – Val reports they had a great meeting in June – regular meetings are the first Tuesday of the month at 4 pm.  They are changing from informational to more social.  Everyone is always invited, not just seniors.  In July Pam and Kaitlyn gave a presentation on native, firewise, and pollinator plants.

Museum – Boyd spoke about the Community Outreach on June 20 at 5:30. The topic is Gold Hill music and musicians – historical to current.  There is a segment on Chuck Ogsbury and his banjos.  This is for members of the GH community to thank everyone and have an educational event.   They will also have the old bus they are restoring on display.  It’s actually running and can be driven around, but not ready for the 4^th of July parade.

Mountain Stewards – Marcus reports they are mostly supporting fire mitigation.  They’ll have Teens, Inc. later in the summer.  They coordinate with Maya on grant opportunities, the latest particularly on watershed protection, enhancement of native species.  Julie asked about her land behind her house and Marcus will ask Maya.  Boyd thinks we should look at the CWPP areas – they did the Fen out west.  Marcus asked people to email him with ideas (marcus.moench@nullgmail.com).

Softball at Rock Stadium – Jeffrey reported some history.  We began playing in the mid 70s and early 2000s several times a summer and eventually became part of the Mountain League – Gold Hill, Ward, Nederland, and Summerville.  He’s looking at reviving the tradition, at least for a game in mid-July, when his family will be visiting.  Bear volunteered to give him the Bocce list to notify people.

NEW BUSINESS

Historical Documents – Martha reported that we had some boxes of documents stashed in the Tuff Shed, whose main purpose is to store emergency supplies for the SafeSite group, and we need to figure out a good place to more permanently store our historical documents.  We formerly had room in the Community Center (upstairs of the Firebarn), but that is no longer working.  Boyd suggested that the Museum has room under the floor we could use.  Two Museum board members have inventoried the materials and made a summary of what is there – Norm and Marybeth.  John likes that solution – he can keep the merch at his place, but would like it to stay there until the Gold Rush.  Martha wonders about accessibility.  Boyd suggested it would need to be put in bins and labeled.  Martha moved we accept Boyd’s offer, David seconded, and the motion passed.  More in the future.

With that, the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary

 

P.S. If you know anyone who would like to receive the GH Newsletter, please let me know.  We also mail a few to people who don’t do computers.  And, If you are getting it and no longer want to, let me know that.