Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 3/1/18

 

    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Greg & Roxanne Koopman, Jorge & Debbie Porras, Kim Gardner, Ron Horii. Visiting: rangers Frank Weiland and Daniel Sanchez. New: Augusto (Gus) Letone.
    • Senior Ranger Frank Weiland and Ranger Daniel Sanchez were visiting. Daniel is new to Santa Teresa/Hellyer. He was working at Coyote/Anderson. Frank gave a ranger report: His park unit includes Martial Cottle, Hellyer, Santa Teresa, and the north half of the Coyote Creek Trail. The parks have been busy. They are short-handed. Rangers helped with a jacknifed truck on Quimby Road. San Jose Fire is doing rescue training at Santa Teresa today. There have been accidents on Heaton Moor and Bernal Road this weekend. 2 1/2 rangers patrol Martial Cottle. Schedule items:
      • 4/7 at 9 am: trail maintenance on the Stile Ranch Trail, repairing the switchbacks.
      • 4/14 at 9 am: trail maintenance on the lower part of the Ohlone Trail behind the golf course.
      • 4/21 at 9 am: Eagle Scout project to fix culverts blown out by runoff by the golf course. They will meet at Heaton Moor.
      • 5/12 trail work on the Stile Ranch Trail switchbacks on the Almaden Valley side near the Mine Trail.
      • 3/24: Rancho San Vicente will be opening. There will be no celebration.
    • We have 3 hikes coming up:
      • Sunday 3/25/18: “Hike the Magnificent Seven! Santa Teresa” 10am to 1pm, 2.5-mile #PixInParks hike on the Stile Ranch, Mine, and Fortini Trails. Greg and Roxanne can help. [Sam also said he could help.] We may need to get some actors if we want to do this as a history hike.
      • Saturday 3/31/18: Outdoor Photography and Wildflower Walk: 10 am - 1 pm. Ron will be giving a photo class in the Bernal Ranch Barn and leading a wildflower hike up the Joice and Bernal Hill Trails. Kim can help.
      • Saturday 4/21/18: Coyote Peak Vistas Hike: originally 10 am - 12 pm. We decided to move this to 2-4 pm. We'll hike from the Pueblo Area to Coyote Peak. Greg, Roxanne, and Kim can help. [Sam said he could probably help.]
    • Greg gave the treasurer's report: We have $2700.08. He deposited a $300 donation from Jorge. We got the Beautify San Jose grant. Mike sent in the mid-year report for the Beautify SJ Grant.
    • Elections: we re-elected the current officers.
    • The County will be putting in a trail along Curie at the Pyzak Ranch. They will take down the old fence. They plan to finish part of the Historic Site Plan in 5 years and the interpretive center in 10 years. They intend to complete the whole plan.
    • We should plan to have our next newsletter out by June. We'll pass it out at National Night Out. (Note that the newsletter is funded by our Beautify San Jose Grant. All grant items must be completed by 9/30/18.)
    • We need a lead for National Night Out. We will be holding National Night Out on August 7 at the Bernal Ranch. (National Night Out started in 1984.) Jorge will handle the crafts table. We should get T-shirts. Gus said that Baldwin School used a T-shirt vendor who waived the setup charge, with minimums as low at $8. Kim will handle the information table and will contact the Fire Department about coming. We need to invite the community. We can have a donation box to accept donations. We need more popsicles this year. They were the most popular. No cookies.
    • The Muriel Wright Center is undergoing construction to turn it into a mental health center. We need to monitor the plans. We want to insure that there is someone there from the Sheriff's station all the time. The County Parks pays for the 4 sheriff's deputies at Muriel Wright. They are tasked with patrolling all the County Parks, so they might all be out at once. There should be someone at the station all the time, not necessarily a deputy. If we're concerned about security, we should find out if the mental health center will have its own security.
    • Greg was concerned about the power poles that go to the former microwave site at the start of the Rocky Ridge Trail. The station was knocked down, so the poles are redundant and an eyesore. Who owns them? Mike talked to Mark Frederick, who said to talk to Tim Heffington about it. Tim is in charge of real estate for the parks. Parks has to negotiate to take them out.
    • We talked about having a memorial for Rick Leonard. Maybe a plaque. A bench is too expensive.
    • John Dorrance is retiring before June. We should get him a card or some other recognition. We don't know who's taking over for him.
    • Mike said we should keep history alive by interviewing people, making videos, capturing stories. It can be an Eagle Scout project. The Porras' son did that. Mike contacted the Hispanic Club teacher at Bernal offering to give a tour of the park and encouraging the kids to do video projects.
    • We have an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Parks Dept. We need to renew it every year. They haven't come back to us about it. Mike will follow up with Melissa Hippard. Parks is redoing the policy for the friends groups.
    • The Parks Dept. may require friends groups to be 501c3 non-profit organizations. This is coming from the Board of Surpervisors. We have the bylaws and paperwork completed to become a 501c3, but never submitted them. We need to revisit and update them. It costs $800 to file. Our application has been approved by lawyers and Zoe Lofgren's office. Baldwin's HSC is a 501c3. So are NAQCPA, FOLAW, and the Umunhum Conservancy. Companies often won't donate unless you're a 501c3. Homeowners' association are not eligible to become 501c3's. It may be harder to get neighborhood association grants, like CAP/Beautify SJ, but it may be easier to get other grants that require groups to be 501c3's. The Parks' Volunteer Office can help groups become 501c3's. 
    • Samaritan is the new software that the Parks Dept. is using to manage volunteers. Volunteers can look up volunteer opportunities and enter their hours into the system. Friends groups are not enabled yet.
    • 4/14 at 11 am is the Wildflower Scavenger Hunt at Almaden Quicksilver on the Wood Road Trail.
    • Ron showed pictures: views from the Joice Trail and a coyote below it, conditions on the Norred Trail and wild pigs above it, vegetation overgrowth at Santa Teresa Spring, deteriorating fence at the Pyzak Ranch, new ticket machine at the Pueblo Area, Stile Ranch Trail wildflowers and views of Rancho San Vicente, Roxanne's birthday hike to Coyote Peak, Coyote Peak views.
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       Created 3/20/18 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park