Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 1/3/08




  • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Kitty Monahan, Paul Vincze,  Jenel Vincze, Mario Blaum, Ed Jackson, Sam Drake, Lynne Paulson, Donna Gillette, Mary Rose Noack, Antoinette Romeo.
  • Antoinette Romeo, who is on the County Parks' planning staff, is the project manager for the Santa Teresa Historic Area site plan. She talked about the project status:
    • The site plan is not a master plan. It is based on the already-existing historical interpretive plan.
    • The 9-acre site runs from the path below Santa Teresa Spring to just behind the Pedro Bernal/Bonetti House across from Bernal School.
    • Consultants have been hired: Bollinger, Foster, Steinmetz, who worked on the Harvey Bear master plan. They are now assessing the cultural, historical, and biological inventory of the site to see what is there.
    • <>The interpretive plan calls for this area to be a walk through time, starting from the Ohlones, then the Spanish Rancho era. Visitors will be able to experience life in those eras. It will link to Santa Teresa Spring and the Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch.
    • There will be sidewalks along San Ignacio.
    • They will be looking at a staging area, parking, and bus turn-arounds. The staging area may be accessible from Manila Drive instead of San Ignacio (where it might be used as a parking lot for Bernal School).
    • Once they have a preliminary plan, they will go to the public.
    • They will look at connecting to existing trails, but they are constrained by the checkerspot butterfly habitat.
    • The houses on the site need a lot of work to bring them up to livable or public usage status. They are looking at security issues. The houses have been broken into. They will be alarmed.
    • The City of San Jose has requested that Curie be widened. They are concerned about the neighboring streets and the Albertson Parkway.
    • They will be looking at signage to the area from city streets.
    • The area in front of the Bear Tree Lot may be used as a bus turn-around.
    • They will be working with principals of nearby schools on developing an interpretive plan.
    • There will be one big interpretive plan that includes the BGJ Ranch.
    • There are no documented native American burial sites or archeological digs in this site.
    • This will not be a community garden site.
    • They hope to have the site plan done by January of next year.
    • It may take 10 years before the whole site gets built to plan.
    • Antoinette will organize community meetings to present the plan. They will be like the Martial Cottle meetings, but smaller.
    • There will be a newsletter published.
    • Julie Mark (not related to Jane Mark) is the new deputy parks director. She was with the City of San Jose.
    • Jane Mark supervises the planners.
    • There is a job posting for 1 full-time planner.
    • Antoinette can be reached at antoinette.romeo@prk.sccgov.org
    • We can collect our own list of ideas and concerns and put them on our website and send it to Antoinette.
  • The minutes from the December meeting were accepted.
  • Lynne Paulson, who is a member of the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association, talked about the Strong Neighborhood Initiative.
    • The SNI was originally created to help improve blighted areas of San Jose.
    • They want to have a neighborhood commission for all areas of the city.
    • Lynne handed out the following from the City of San Jose "Final Neighborhoods Commission Proposal." The Commission would be a forum for the following:
      • Provide a neighborhood voice to City Leadership in prioritizing neighborhood spending, infrastructure, and quality of life issues.
      • Consult with appropriate City Department/Staff regarding documentation of best practicies and to support the development of vibrant neighborhood organizations.
      • Receive information from City Staff and offering advice and consultation on inter-neighborhood issues.
      • May accept petitions from recognized neighborhood groups that request review.
      • Promote enhanced communication and resolution of issues between neighborhood and the City of San Jose.
    • Each council district will have 3 representatives. Lynne is helping to choose representatives for district 2. We can vote to choose representatives.
    • Art Boudreault has been assigned by Nancy Pyle to work on getting representatives for District 10.
  • There will be a work day on the Stile Ranch Trail entrance on Jan. 5, rain or shine. 30 people have signed up.
  • Mike filled out the list of our proposed activities for 2008 and will be submitting it to Heidi. Heidi asked for a list of 5 events for the year for each of the friends groups. She wants to know who are the friends groups.
  • Volunteer hours are a separate issue. They are getting more formal about counting hours. They haven't set standards on what counts or not. They will be addressing this in the VCC meeting (7 pm, 1/15, Hellyer ranger's office.)
  • We have $125.11 in the bank, after paying $108.33 for legal fees for our 501c3 application.
  • Mike got a report from ranger Julie Lee:
    • They are changing the signs at the Bear Tree Lot from no parking to 30-minute parking.
    • The old bar on the upper part of the Norred Trail is now off-limits.
    • Santa Teresa Spring is now a designated location for County Communications, so they can dispatch patrols there more easily. It has a "ghost address" of 400 Manila Drive at Camino Verde.
    • They are bidding for roof repair of the Pyzak house.
    • Work on the foundation, stairs, sewer at the Pedro Bernal/Bonetti House will begin next month.
  • Kitty and Mike walked with people from Kaiser as part of Healthy Trails. They talked about their concerns that people were not spending enough time outdoors,  getting exercise. They want Kathleen Hooper to write a grant to get kids at risk into the parks, providing buses.
  • Holly took kids on a Healthy Trails hike. 44 people came, from trail groups.
  • We talked about having a FOSTP Pioneer Day, where we dedicate a plaque on top of Coyote Peak. We can have an Eagle Scout design the plaque or do it ourselves.
  • Kitty has the Adopt-a-Trail form for us to adopt the Norred Trail. She'll turn it in.
  • Next month, we'll have a party at Mike's house at 6:30 instead of our meeting.
  • Volunteer Hours since our last meeting in December 2007:
    • Ronald Horii: Martial Cottle Ranch meeting, FOSTP meeting minutes, website, park pictures: 10 hours. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Mike Boulland: 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Kitty Monahan: 3 hours, FOSTP meeting
    • Holly Davis: 10 hours, 4H, 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Paul Vincze: 10 hours, trails. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Jenel Vincze: 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Mario Blaum: 4 hours, trail inspection, garbage pickup. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Ed Jackson: 3 hours, graffiti-removal, Santa Teresa Spring security. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
    • Sam Drake: 1 hour, inspected trail, took photos. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting.
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Created 1/27/08 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park