A Chapter of EGPA

March 21, 2009 Meeting Minutes

The meeting was opened by Vice-President, Don Schmidt.

We welcomed our guests, Brian Bennett and Rick Atkins from EGPA.

Announcements: (1) Our new web site is up. (2) The April meeting will still be held at the Lightstreet United Methodist Church. The May meeting will be held at the Montour-Delong Fairgrounds in Washingtonville. (3) All bills will be paid by check except for Frank Gray.

OLD BUSINESS (1) Ice Breaker-Anyone who helped at the Ice Breaker in Milton is to sign-up on a special attendance sheet to receive an orange ticket for last month’s meeting. (2) July Outing=we will set up a committee in April for this outing.

Brian Bennett spoke (1) Our club should be looking for a piece of land for EGPA to lease. The site needs to be large enough for camping and have known gold in the stream. (2) There is good news=by mid April EGPA should have a dredging permit in PA. (3) July 31-August 2^nd there will be an outing at the York club grounds. (4) Membership fee for EGPA will remain at $50 for now, but may need to increase in the future. You must be an EGPA member to use their sites. (5) The first weekend in April, Brian is going to S. Carolina to the Broad River to attempt to get a lease on some property. He also will be going to Alabama where there are three mines and a stampmill. He stated he might be able to lock up Georgia as well as it is on the border. (6) In August there will be a trip to Maine, either the first or second week. Contact EGPA for the exact date.  Brian said he will also be looking into an area of 220 acres that is in a known gold producing area. (7) While Brian is up there he is also going to go to Vermont. It is free to pan for gold but you must pay a fee for slucing. There is no dredging allowed. (8) Other areas EGPA is looking into are properties in Ohio and W. Virginia.

Rick Atkins spoke about dredging in PA=After April 7^th EGPA will have the permit in PA. The maximum size will be a 4 inch dredge. Larger size is considered commercial. High banking must be set up in the stream, not on a bank. Dredging can be done between March 1^st and November 1^st,  yearly. The permit is for a three- year period. This is considered a pilot permit and the state will be observing what we will be doing over that time before issuing another permit.

The Secretaries and Treasurer’s reports were read and approved.

NEW BUSINESS: None.

The meeting was adjourned; the raffles were done; and the potluck dinner was enjoyed by all.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Houseknecht, Secretary

Pa Prospectors Chapter of EGPA