Friends of Santa Teresa Park Zoom Meeting, 3/3/22

 


    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kim Gardner, Greg Koopman, Joan Murphy, Steve Crockett, Ron Horii, Youngmee Kim. 
    • Kitty is at home. She fell and injured her back. She has a hard time getting around and making it to meetings.
    • This was an online Zoom videoconference meeting. Mike sent out a meeting link for this Zoom meeting.  Here's the agenda for today's meeting.
    • We'll defer board elections to next month. We'll have nominations for the board. 
    • The Vice President subs in when the president is unavailable. Kitty has been the Vice President for many years, but she may not be able to perform those duties in the future. She can be Vice President emeritus, but we'll need someone to step up to be the VP.
    • Mike needs more help to work on the grant. It doesn't necessarily have to be an elected officer.
    • We'll have a First Friday Work Day tomorrow 3/4/22. The next one after that is 4/1/22. We can bring a generator and electric tools if needed.
    • There's work to be done around the ranch house:  pull weeds growing in the bark around the garden boxes, pull new weeds from the garden boxes, dig out the grass between the flagstones in front of the house, cut the weeds under the farm equipment by the barns, and cut the blackberries growing on the ceanothus bushes by the walkway next to the barns.
    • We can have a talk by Mike Cox on the Santa Teresa Mercury Mine. We can use it for a fundraiser. Possible date: Monday 4/4 at 7-8 pm, but it could be any time. It would be in the banquet room at the golf course. Mike Cox knows the mercury mines in New Almaden very well, as he's explored them and was responsible for making them safe for Almaden Quicksilver County Park to open, but he also knows about the mines in the Santa Teresa Hills.There are 3 mine shafts at the end of Snell and 1 in Santa Teresa Park. Joan suggests doing a walk to see the mine in Santa Teresa Park. Mike could also talk about the mines in Almaden Spain. He's visited them.
    • There's a cleanup of the chicken coop at the Bernal Ranch on Friday. Park Interpreter Rob McDonnell is organizing it.
    • National Night Out is on August 2. We got grant money to support it. We need to fill out the paperwork and submit a fee to the national organization to register our NNO. The documents are online. We've filled them out before, so we can just copy the forms from previous years. Joan said she'd help with planning. In previous NNO's, Kim wrote letters to officials to invite them to come to our NNO. Marilyn bought popsicles. They were popular. We need a budget. We have less money to spend this year. We have grant funds to publish and print copies of our newsletter. The Parks may not be a co-sponsor. Mike will write a letter to Don Rocha to get the fee waived to use the Bernal Ranch. We'll have the new time capsule on display and ask people to contribute mementos to it.
    • We talked about having a tour of Little Uvas Creek Preserve, which is not open to the public, except by special arrangement with the Open Space Authority. The California Native Plant Society is having a tour there on 4/16/22. Ron is a CNPS member and is helping to lead a tour there. It's open to the public, so he urged FOSTP members to sign up. Mike and Youngmee signed up. It's now full. Joan is on the waitlist, but Ron said she could come as a helper.
    • Due to redistricting, the neighborhood around the Santa Teresa Hills moved from San Jose City District 2 to District 10, under Councilmember Matt Mahan. All the neighborhoods surrounding Santa Teresa Park are now in District 10.
    • Greg wrote an email to Michele Dexter in Matt Mahan's office about putting a ramp on the sidewalk at the end of the new trail on Heaton Moor. Ron wrote a follow-up email about having San Jose's traffic department investigate integrating the new trail into the street system to make it safer for bikes entering and exiting the trail in both directions.
    • Our last First Friday Work Day was at the Bernal Ranch on 2/3/22. We cleaned up the garden boxes and helped park staff sweep up leaves. Dave Zittlow, lead volunteer at Martial Cottle Park came to visit. Mike and Greg talked to him about ideas for Santa Teresa Park. We should make a list of those ideas.
    • Ron showed a slideshow: Our First Friday Work Day, street connections on the new trail, views from Coyote Peak, new memorial benches by Ed Von Runnen's family at the Pueblo Area, work that still needs to be done around the ranch, Santa Teresa Spring conditions.
    • Greg said there are useless downed phone wires and a pole going through the Bear Tree Lot to the Bonetti House. He thinks they should be removed.
    • We have $549.60 in the bank. There's a check pending for Ron.
    • We got awarded $1500 from the Beautify San Jose Grant. Mike signed the MOU. We should be getting the check soon.
    • There was no Parks Commission meeting. It's every other month.
    • Greg will be out of town for the next 4 months.
    • Activities are starting again. Ron saw Carrie Grisenti. She's been released from Disaster Service work. She's in the new park office at Silver Creek. She asked Ron if he wanted to give his photography class. Ron said maybe in the fall.
    • We could do the pre-Mother's Day hike in May again. 
    • The Volunteer Recognition picnic will be held on 4/23 from 12 to 3 at Hellyer's Buena Vista Group Picnic Area. If you turned in your volunteer hours and have enough of them, you should have gotten an invitation and need to RSVP by 4/14. 
    • Mike turned in our activities plan for the year to the Volunteer Office.
    • There was a young fruit tree by the ranch house. It died and was cut down. Just a stump is left. It should be replaced by a tree that's appropriate for the rancho period.
    • Carolyn Schimandle said there are new spring hours for the Bernal Ranch, starting 3/18/22: 11-4 on Friday, 11-5 on Saturday and Sunday.
    • Ron talked about the efforts to revive NAQCPA, new officers, its new Facebook page, and updating its website.
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       Created 3/9/22 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park
    Funding provided by a Beautify San Jose Grant