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- 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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