Posted on: March 25th, 2023

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING, Inc. NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the February 13, 2023, Zoom Town Meeting

Next Town Meeting is Monday, April 10, 7:00 p.m.

 

The meeting was called to order by Chair Marcus Moench.  Marcus reiterated again that legally we are a 501(c)3, and the most important thing is to make sure everyone has a voice here.  Gretchen added that she wanted to clarify that we are more than just a 501(C)3.  We have been meeting since the mining days and only became incorporated in 1970 in order to own property – the Meadow, cemetery, and People’s Park.  We authorize many activities and have spoken for the community many times over the years.  We do have to be judicious about it.  When we were dealing with an issue like paving our roads, for instance, we had many meetings and sent out questionnaires, but we can and do represent the town. 

 

Twenty-seven people attended by Zoom: Marcus, Boyd Brown, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Whitey DeBroux, Liz Wiig, Chrissy and Dan Maedke, Pam Leland, Kris Hill, Val Crist, Leslie  Finn, Maya MacHamer of the Boulder Watershed Collective, Shivaun Finn, Amy Fortunato, Steffi Wilson, Marybeth Neal, Luke Finn, Heidi Kessler and Richard Roth, Erich Gundlach, Dana Hatleid, Virginia Schultz, Emily Rose, Deb Yeager, Terry Walter, Bret Gibson, Cat Price.  Please let me know if I’ve missed anyone.

 

Minutes of the December meeting were approved as published. 

 

Fire Mitigation: Gold Hill and the Wider Context.  Maya MacHamer of the Boulder Watershed Collective presented a Power Point outlining the big picture followed by what we’ve done up here and our goals for the future.  So much is happening in Wildfire Mitigation and planning.  The Federal Infrastructure Bill passed a couple of years ago and our Front Range was identified as a priority fire shed.  In 2022, $18 million was allocated to the National Forest Foundation for the Front Range.  Many groups can apply for funds including the Boulder Watershed Collective, City of Boulder, Boulder County, enabling us to implement large scale projects.  Wildfire Ready Watershed is a new program to help pre-plan for post wildfire impacts for communities, including flooding and other issues.

         Boulder County voters last November also passed 1A for approx. $9 million per year meaning a new focus on the entire county, east as well as west, urban communities and the mountains – big change – plus new innovative approaches can also help with matching funds required.

         The 4 department CWPP (Gold Hill, Sunshine, Sugarloaf, Lefthand) is close to completion.  The St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership with the Watershed Collective will help with planning, acquiring grants,  and implementing wildfire resilience projects.  Around Gold Hill, the Ashram and Ashley 104 acres mitigation projects are moving forward.  She knows some of the clearcutting can be jarring, but it’s science based and will help protect firefighters as well as decreasing the potential for a large wildfire close to town, plus increasing forest health and diversity. 

         Phase 2, 45 acres is in planning.  West of Gold Hill, 125 acres is in planning with Boulder Valley and Longmont Conservation District, and Colorado State Forest Service.  They have ½ the money needed and are looking for additional funding.  The goal is for these areas all to tie in with other areas – not piecemeal approach – to create a healthier landscape overall.

Other – The Gold Hill Mountain Stewards are working on structure protection education, and slash disposal in a wholistic approach.

         For the Ashley/Ashram project, it will provide a firebreak adjacent to town, protect the town and firefighters and increase forest health.  We’ve known overly dense forests around her and are now trying to create more open meadow-like areas – good for wildlife and over time will look more natural.

         Check the Boulder Watershed Collective website for more information 

https://www.boulderwatershedcollective.com

 

They are working to id. and include more smaller areas and would love to know people who would want mitigation work done and will continue to add them to the list.  They are very interactive with landowners to make sure they are involved with the design of the projects.  They do have to adhere to certain standards for the work to be effective – depends on slopes, homes involved, and the goals of the landowners.  The goals include good forest health as well as wildfire mitigation.

Erich asked Deb and Gretchen about our ridge.  Gretchen said they’ve worked on mitigation – low-limbed and thinned trees,  cleaned gutters, raked pine needles – there’s always more to be done and would love to be on the list to get more help.

Another question concerned the 1A tax money and how Gold Hill is affected.  The money is collected by Boulder County and the County Commissioners decide where it goes.  Many fire districts wanted to be represented on the advisory committee to develop the grant programs.  Marcus thinks Gold Hill is in a good position because of all the work we’ve done.  We are applying for a grant to replicate and expand last year’s work.

 

Gold Hill Fire Department – Whitey was asked for an update in light of recent Fire Department changes.  He reports that Chris Finn has retired as Fire Chief and they want to thank and honor him for all the time he’s dedicated.  There was a gathering at the Store to celebrate Chris, but they feel like the town should do something as well.  It’s now time for change, they are in a transition phase, and it’s hard for everyone – like grief –  we have to go through the stages.  Please be patient as we work through all this.  The Board has signed an MOU with Chris O’Brien, the Lefthand Chief, and Bret Gibson, Fourmile Chief  and those 2 chiefs will oversee and respond – back us up.  Our firefighters and fire department are committed. Whitey will remain as Assistant Chief and will all be working with Chiefs O’Brien and Gibson to inventory all our resources and formulate plans to move forward, to be good partners with our neighbors, to increase the participation of all our members, attract new ones and improve training.  They are working on the process to select a new chief, but for now they want to honor Chris.

         Bret asked for time in the future to see what the fire department and community thinks is achievable and desirable to help guide changes and improvements.  Marcus will call a meeting – knows many people are interested in mitigation work.

         Boyd has heard questions from people in this transition process wanting to know more about the Fire Board Operations.  They have elections every two years, including this year and want to encourage anyone interested to join the process. Self-nomination forms are available from our DEO (designated election official) Liz Wiig. More information will follow.  If no more people than those needed to fill the positions decide to run, the election can be cancelled.  The Board decides within itself who fills the various positions – Chair, Secretary, etc.

 

Emerging Issues – The Cash Mine has plans to re-activate it’s permit for milling on site.  There seems to be the potential for milling from nearby mines as well, and they are looking to get their water supply from Lefthand.  Hearings will be held.

 

ATV Usage, Particularly in the Switzerland Trail area – Boyd reported that an ATV rental place in Estes Park, because of the Estes Park regulations, suggests to people they can come here.  He suggested that we look at how Estes Park has limited usage and see how and what we can do – what is it that we support?

 

Shooting Issues – Marcus asked that people send an email and we’ll get someone to come and speak to the issue.  Boyd said that the shooting issue is similar to the ATV issue in that we need know the regulations and  how to get them enforced.  Work with the Sheriff’s Department?  Hunting is a separate issue – legal in hunting season, but target shooting, etc., is different.

 

Visioning – The Town Council has been considering how to get more people involved, build participation.  Chrissy added that we’re thinking about who we are and who we are not, studying the bylaws, particularly the section on purpose.  She is putting together a Powerpoint presentation.  The goal is to get the Council all on the same pate and then send it out.  She thinks it’s an important exercise and is a work in progress.

 

Land Acknowledgements – Marcus reports that we’ve been thinking about building on what the Museum did in their presentation on the Sand Creek Massacre and our prehistory before mining came to Colorado and find ways to incorporate indigenous areas in our stewardship.  Deb suggested we contact Rick Williams, who made the Museum presentation and he could come in again.  We could also make placards like those on our old historic structures about what the town was like beforehand. Chrissy suggested that we need to include the concepts of stewardship, collaboration, and education and she will put out suggestions and ideas.  Boyd suggested that we add Native American wording to it and that Rick Williams would be a good resource.  Emily Rose added that the Boulder Museum has lots of information about the Cheyenne, Utes, and Arapahoe who were all here and have worked with them,  as well as NARF at CU as a resource.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS         AirLink – no report     Cemetery – no report

 

Community Planning and Fundraising – Dan reports that he has placed a small order for pint glasses.  Chrissy reports that the next event planned is a sledding party with lots of events – Addendum – postponed until further notice due to weather.

 

Gold Hill School – Chrissy reports that it’s been a nice couple of months.  It may be cold outside, but that’s no reason for us to slow down!

 

Right after our last meeting, we had a visit from Joanne Cole, Becky Martinek and Carol LaMela, who brought a ton of great art materials to the school, and spent the afternoon making holiday wreaths with the children!   The wreaths spent the week at the store, so many of you had a chance to see them adding to the holiday spirit at the store.  The kids were so proud to see their art on display.  And then that Saturday, many of you even bought one of the wreaths!  The school kids raised a little under $200 on this sweet project.  Special shout out to Santa-Larry for making the day so much fun!  And many, many thanks to Joanne, Becky and Carol.

 

 The next day we hosted the town’s holiday party.  What a fun evening of cookies, latkes, music and friends!  Thank you to everyone who came and brought cookies, and especially to the latkes chefs who put a lot of labor into those yummy treats!  Thank you as well to GHS Alumni, Haiden Davis for providing the evening’s entertainment.  The night was a lot of fun, and we look forward to doing it again next year!

 

As I’ve mentioned before, we secured a wonderful grant this year from SCFD- The Science and Cultural Facilities District.  We’ve had a few field trips sponsored by SCFD since the last meeting.  In December, we went to the Denver Center for Performing Arts (DCPA) to see Little Red, the musical and participate in an acting workshop.  In January, we were back to the DCPA to see the Colorado Symphony’s Drums of the World Youth Concert.  Then this last week, we went to the Arvada Center to see the play, Charlotte’s Web.  All of these field trips were paid for by this wonderful grant.

 

Also in January, we had a field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  The classes were studying space at the time, and we were able to go see the Apollo exhibit.  We also saw the ongoing space exhibit, the oceans exhibit, and caught a 3D oceans movie in the newly renovated infinity theater.  We also had another trip to CU.  There, we went to see the Boulder Philharmonic at Macky Auditorium.  They had a special student concert, where they looked at the science of sound.  They had a physicist onstage presenting alongside the orchestra.  The school is also in the middle of studying energy and waves, so this was a really fun curricular connection.  In the afternoon, we went to the Fiske Planetarium where we watched a great movie about Einstein and gravity, were treated to a private star tour and participated in a really fun laser workshop.  

 

We’ve been very busy in the classroom as well.  At the end of January, the 3-4-5 class finished their American History study by putting on a musical about the American Revolution.  I know those of you that made it to the show had a great time because the kids were fantastic!  Our new neighbor, Brenda Cobb has started volunteering at the school weekly, and that has been fun having someone around to witness our daily celebrations and shenanigans.  Thanks Brenda, for hanging out with us! 

At the end of this week, the students will get their scripts for the upcoming big, whole-school play!  The title of the play has not yet been announced- everyone will find out on Friday.  But, we have already begun preparing!  We’ve prepped the scripts, and we’ve begun pulling and ordering costumes.  This year we have a brand new stage!  We pooled our grant money from the Big Red F/Janos Wilder dinner at the Inn donation (We love you, Janos!), the Elevation movie donation, and from our Read-a-thon last year to purchase a new stage!  This is a big purchase for us that we’ve been saving for for years.  We can’t wait to open up the giant pile of boxes and put it all together!  The play will be at the Gold Hill School on Wednesday, March 22nd.  We’ll have both a morning and evening performance.  We hope you can make it!  If that date doesn’t work, maybe consider stopping in on Monday or Tuesday to catch a bit of our rehearsals!  

 

Next week we’ll have interviews for our new principal, as our current principal, Scott Boesel is retiring.  Candidates have begun coming by for tours.  There has been a lot of interest, as this principal has the distinct honor of being the principal for Flatirons Elementary, Jamestown Elementary and Gold Hill- which means they will be principal for a large swath of the mountain communities.  

 

Some of you have met our new school pets as they walk to and from school with Jojo and me everyday.  In the K-1-2 classroom we have a sweet hedgehog named Toast, and in the 345 classroom, we have an adorable house-rabbit- a velveteen lop named Coconut.  They’ve been wonderful additions to the school community.

 

If you know of anyone that may be interested in sending their kids to the Gold Hill School, please send them our contact information.  As always, we appreciate your interest and support!  

 

Warm Regards, 

Chrissy, Jojo, Eva & Dan Gold Hill School Staff 

 

The New School Play will be Wednesday, March 22

 

IMA – Marybeth Neal IMA Report to GHTM for January 2023

Last meeting of the IMA was January 19, 2023. 

 

Our GHTM chair, Marcus, gave a fantastic presentation and answered questions on mountain hydrology wrt to water well concerns across the mountains.  Since Marcus has talked about this here at home, no need to recap in our check-in.

 

Other news:  Boulder County Public Health, updated by our rep, Colleen Sinclair: 

After hearing about the Cash mine application in Marcus’ Gold  Hill check-in, our BCPH rep will recommend BCPH look into it from a public health perspective.

 

Also, BCPH is going to set up kiosks throughout the mountains where residents can self-test for covid. You get the result in 24 to 48 hours. I don’t know if it’s for other

 

things besides covid. Areas/towns can request a kiosk. Will send more info when it comes out.

 

Also–Avian Flu is very high in BoCo. Lyons especially. Do not touch any dead birds. BCPH will be coming out with directives on this.

 

Recreational/Sport Shooting in the Boulder County Mountains: Teagan gave the update.

She will be presenting to GHTM on this hopefully soon, so I won’t go into detail here.

 

In a nutshell: other Front Range counties are nearing completion on building their firing ranges, which will siphon forest shooters to those ranges; this will take and keep them out of the forests near where people live, keeping mountain residents safer.

 

Boulder County on the other hand, as of recently, has actually gone backwards on any shooting range. So those shooters elsewhere on the Front Range who don’t want to go to a shooting range but still want to free range in the woods — it would be logical for them to come here, where we live, as we are still a free-range county because

we are nowhere near having a shooting range. We already have too many free-range shooters right now as it is.

 

 It is the county commissioners’ responsibility to take the same steps as other FR counties to protect mountain residents and hikers.

The USFS has done their part. They will close 80,000 acres in BoCo to rec shooting once the county puts up a range to funnel shooters to. Teagan will explain further. 

 

The IMA has put this issue back on our radar (it was there in 2013) because we are back at Square One.

 

Mountain Town Community Socials:

Here’s what a couple of other towns are doing in terms of community socials for their residents (we are invited as well, as fellow mountain residents):

 

Nederland said goodby to Frozen Dead Guy Days with a touch of nostalgia and a sigh of relief. It had gotten up to 20,000 participants from elsewhere.   Got too big and overwhelmed the town. As you probably know, Estes Park bought the rights to the festival. They have bigger infrastructure to handle it.

 

Instead, now Ned is concentrating on events for residents (and friends, such as us in GH). They are calling them Nederdays–family friendly events like square dances and sledding. The first of these will be March 24-5

 

Jamestown is having town socials Friday evenings with pizza in one of their parks every Friday in the warm season and also brunch parties in the park with music on weekend mornings. There seems to be an uptick in community socials recently. We’ve never seen so many.

 

The IMA is also finally doing a social of our own, Thursday June 22, for old and new and prospective members.

The benefits of the IMA came in large part because we have knitted mountain communities together over the past decade by meeting in person, sharing the kind of discussion that can only happen in person, which has always led us to working well together on common needs, getting grants together, getting on the radar of county entities together. And snacking on banana bread together. Networking for the common good of mountain residents and the land we live in.  Our “motto” is “communities helping communities.”

 

We have lost this social component by going online during covid and some of our original members have aged out or now work during meeting times.

 

So we are going to have regular socials (albeit at long intervals) to revive this most important aspect.

 

If you are interested in mountain-wide issues as a resident or as a rep of a partner organization, join us.

It will be in Jamestown around the noon hour, outdoors in one of their beautiful parks June 22.

 

Mountain Stewards – Virginia reports that Marcus and Maya have worked on the latest grant.  We may need to do some fundraising to provide matching funds.  May 6 will be the Wildfire Mitigation Preparation Day – they’re looking at hardening more homes, education, getting more heat pumps installed in Gold Hill (6 last year). If you’re interested, please get in contact (Virginia.Schultz@nullColorado.EDU ).  They are meeting with the County and have connected with DOLA.  Still working on the EV charging station.  Should hear in April on the Boulder County Solar Bulk Buy.  The AIM Grant application is due in March.  Addendum: Our concept paper was accepted and we’ve been invited to submit a formal grant due in April.

 

Museum – Deb reports that there’s lots going on.  They have new board members, are updating the website, applying for grants to update the structure along with other needs.  The Community Outreach this year will focus on the recent anniversaries: the Gold Hill Inn, the Ranch, the School, the Museum and more.  Their hours are changing to Saturdays and Sundays from 12 to 5. 

 

SafeLink – Deb wants to remind everyone that the Tuffshed behind the Firebarn is the SafeLink supply shed and includes a freezer, fridge, heat lamps, emergency equipment and supplies, medical supplies and pet supplies.

 

NeighborLink – Deb continues to put together and get Welcome Buckets to new people.  They include information on town functions, etc.  She will connect with Dina about AirLink.  Our NeighborLink network continues to be alive.

 

Treasurer’s Report – Chrissy reports

 

 

Chrissy requests input on what we want in these reports.  She has set up three accounts: General, Grants, and Savings.  The bigger question is what do we intend to do with our funds.  Presently all our funds are allocated to pay our anticipated bills of approx. $2,000 this year, without projecting any income.  She would like to raise money for Cemetery headstones, we need matching money for many grants, and we can’t buy merchandise right now without going into budgeted funds.  She would also like to support the Community outside the Relief Fund (which is designated basically for emergencies) with ideas like haircuts, a town pantry, helping people plow out cars and driveways (specifically our elder populations).  She would like to see something like Health and Human Services as a new line item.

         She has submitted the forms to get us a tax exempt license and will be submitting our annual report to the state.

         Questions: Who are we and what are our goals and where is the money to support our goals?  She has done the paperwork to get our little property on Pine Street and Lickskillet included in our tax exempt properties. 

         Marcus pointed that we have quite a lot of things to raise funds for.  If people have ideas or priorities, please let us know. We have operational filing fees, etc., each year.  Anyone who would like to donate money, would be very much appreciated.

 

Town Clean-up – Gretchen is looking at the town clean-up for this year.  Chrissy asked if we need money up front to do that, but Gretchen replied that usually we have collected enough in donations and fees charged to pay for it.  Marcus moved that we have the Spring Town Clean-up, Erich seconded and the motion passed.  In response to Chrissy’s concern about any money needed, Gretchen and Marcus offered to cover expenses if they do not get covered.

 

Museum Signs – Deb expressed interest in having small signs attached to our Historic Gold Hill signs at each end of town regarding when the Museum is open and the hours.  Gretchen pointed out that the Gold Hill Club put up the signs originally.  Kate will do them, so they will be beautiful.

 

CSA – Liz Wiig will send out an announcement about this year’s CSA

 

    Respectfully submitted, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Secretary