Posted on: September 23rd, 2012

GOLD HILL TOWN MEETING NEWSLETTER

Minutes of the August 13, 2012 Town Meeting 

Next Town Meeting is Monday, October 8, 2012, 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center.

 Chair Amy Hardy called the meeting to order.  Attendees included: Paula Hocherl (sp?), Edie Eilender, Kris Gibson, Pam Sherman, Linda and Jack Laughlin, Cherry & Vice Chair John Sand, Member at Large Debra Yeager, Susan Fernalld, Secretary Gretchen Diefenderfer, and Treasurer Adriana Galue.

Minutes – of the June Meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report – Adriana reports that we have a total of $20,332.90.

Fire Fund                        13,331.00                        Cemetery Fund                        3,593.20

General Fund                          2,510.00                        Community Planning                             82.00

Forest Management                   75.20                        Weed Mgmt                                       526.70

Historical Zoning                   11.20                        Trails                                                     31.30

SafeSite                              170.20

During the Town Clean up, we received $153.00 and paid out $46.00 + 65.00 to Den Gretz and Boyd Brown who took down the electronic recycling.  Gretchen reported that we will be getting a bill from the dumpster people, McDonald Farms, for something around $89 because the metal recycling dumpster did not pay for itself this year.  Adriana suggested that next year we consider charging each truckload of junk some fee, so that the Town Clean Up doesn’t end up having to absorb costs.  For a complete report, see the town website https://goldhilltown.com/

Elections!  Amy agreed to serve again, there were no other nominations, and she was elected unanimously.  John declined to serve again as he will be gone to Arizona for half the year.  Bear Carlson, although not present, had been contacted and agreed to serve as Vice-Chair.  There being no other nominations, he was elected unanimously.  Treasurer Adriana, Secretary Gretchen, and Member at Large Deb all agreed to serve again. Again, no one else was nominated, and they were elected unanimously.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 Community Planning/Trails – no report.

Historical Zoning – Cherry reports that Larry Worster and Leslie DeGrassi have obtained a permit to replace windows in their cabin with energy efficient ones – yes, the county does require a permit for updating windows in the HZ even if they are the same size.  Steffi and Dave Wilson also plan to do some work.  Edie had a question about Boyd Brown’s new building – Cherry reports that it is a garage/storage/studio/workshop building.

CWPP – Kris reported that the chainsaw class had 10 people.  They cut trees up at the Boys and Girls Camp where Barry Martin is the caretaker.  Kris highly recommends the class.  Burned trees are different.  She thinks there will be more classes.  For all kinds of forestry/forest management information check with Ryan Ludlow: Ryan Ludlow | Forestry Education & Outreach Coordinator 
Boulder County | Land Use Department
O: 720.564.2641 | F: 303.441.4856
rludlow@nullbouldercounty.org  as well as  http://www.bouldercounty.org/property/forest/pages/foresthealth.aspx

 

 Weed Management: Susan brought a bucket of noxious weeds to show us and help us identify problem weeds: common tansey, oxeye daisy, scentless chamomile, butter & eggs, etc.  Jack Laughlin reported that they seeded their burned hillside with seed from the County and have a lot of cheat grass.  Susan replied that cheat grass is everywhere, spreads like crazy, and is very hard to get rid of.  Pam reported on their ongoing battle with leafy spurge.  They have tried all kinds of different methods and are now seriously considering getting sheep.  In one area they worked on, they planted buckwheat and it has totally outcompeted the leafy spurge.

Forest Management – Susan reports that a lot of work wasn’t completed in the patch cuts from 5-6 years ago on town property near the Ranch and Nordgren’s.  A lot of slash piles remain and are a fire hazard.  She thought it might be a good idea to use some town funds to get them removed.  Kris will ask Zach with the 4-Mile Mitigation group what the scope of that work is when he looks at the North side of town.  Formerly the policy was to leave piles for wildlife.  Adriana suggested the possibility of partnering with the Fire Department as an option, but in the more recent past the Fire Department has not been involved with wildfire mitigation.

Amy reported on the Volunteer Connection through United Way – they’re a group of people from Boulder who want to work in the mountains and help.  They have 6 groups now and some of the people from the 4-Mile Mit. Group have volunteered some time, too, to make check dams above Larry’s house down in Fourmile, so the possibility exists that we could get help with our mitigation needs.

Historic Gold Hill – Edie reports that the Museum of open Saturdays and Sundays and they have been getting a lot of compliments on the exhibits.

Mining – no report.

Gold Hill School – no report.

SafeSite – Amy is putting together a report to talk to the Fire Board on Thursday and to invite them to participate in working out activation protocols and communication.  She has also been working with Chris of the BVSD on getting the School as our temporary evacuation site.  She has looked at liability insurance coverage that would cover town meeting events (versus a particular location) and it would be around $1850 per year with our present insurer.  She asked Chris Finn for the use of the Community Center (CC) for a Zero Use Initiative Meeting, but he wanted a liability waiver signed.  Per Chris, anybody who wants to use this room has to sign a liability waiver and so we have a concern.  Jack Laughlin said that those of us who built this building, built the upstairs to be the Community Center for the town.  Gretchen believes from her time on the Fire Board that the Fire Department has liability coverage for the building, which covers the CC.  Deb raised the possibility that the town meeting could contribute/partner with the FD on paying for the liability insurance.  It was agreed that it is important for the Fire Department, as a local government funded by taxpayer money, to know that the community values the Community Center and the ability to use it for community events.  John Sand recommended that the town council meet to put together a petition requesting communication between the Fire Board and the Town Meeting to work together for the good of the community on the use of the Community Center, to be presented at the next town meeting.  After discussion, this was met with general approval.

Annual Bake/Rummage sale – The Gold Hill Gold Rush (GHGR) –Deb reports that it will be Sunday, September 16.  Because there will be another performance of the Melodrama that day at the Ranch at 3:00 the GHGR will be held from 9-1:30 to leave time to clean up and be done by 2:30.  There will also be crafters (no silent auction), local music, brats, maybe beer.  Deb requests no junk and possibly pre-sorting the rummage the week before.

John brought up possible t-shirt sales and presented a design from Richard Oxley.  We still have t-shirts, etc., from our design contest.  After some discussion, it was decided that mugs would be a better idea.  We are sold out of the last mugs, which were very popular, and new ones would benefit the GHTM on an ongoing fashion.

Welcome Buckets – Deb reports that the money donated from the Gold Hill Club has now been used up.  John moved that the GHTM give Deb $100 to provide additional Welcome Buckets.  This was seconded and passed.