Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 6/2/05
	Attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Sam Drake, Kitty Monahan, Paul Vincze, John Patterson, Woody Collins, visiting: Tina Monarrez Our bank account balance is $603.44 Tina Monarrez from the Neighborhood Development Center came to talk about her organization and passed out flyers. The NDC is a city-owned program whose purpose is to help build and form neighborhood associations. They have a master database of all neighborhood organizations. They have divided them up into council districts. They are trying to contact each organization. They serve as a liaison to other city resources. All their services are free. They offer free training. They have classes in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. They have facilities that neighborhood groups can use, like computers, copying machines, fax machines, printers, etc. They give out beautification and neighborhood improvement grants. San Jose Beautiful is one of their programs.  Beautification grants must be for projects within the city limits in highly-visible public areas. Applications are due in Jiune. Another program is CAP (Community Action and Pride). Grant applications are due in February. They have classes on grant writing. They have a mobile academy, where staff members can come to help on request. They can help with grants. Mike suggested beautifying the area around Curie and San Ignacio. It would have to be on property within the city limits. Mike suggested teaching kids about geocaching and orienteering, also bicycle safety. This might qualify for CAP grants. Ron suggested beautifying the power-line easement corridor near the Bear Tree Lot. There is a path there, but nothing else. There could be neighborhood gardens along the way. Grants could include paying for providing water. We suggested that the city put signs up in the neighborhoods pointing to the BGJ Ranch and other areas of the park. United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County is a partner. NDC provides trainers to it. They refer associations to them for insurance. United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County is holding a workshop on Wed., June 15 at 6:00 pm. at their office at 525 West Alma in San Jose. We need 5 members to attend the session in order to get our insurance at a low rate. Mike, Ron, Sam, and Holly will be going. We need one more. We paid $150 for membership, which went up from $45 because of higher insurance costs. We are covered for liability during our meetings. County Park insurance covers us on county park property. UNSCC covers us outside the parks. Our events are covered if they are on a calendar and we inform UNSCC of them. We can do this with our calendar on our Website. For our meetings and events, we need a safety person to handle people who get out of hand. We voted Paul Vincze to do that. Mike will get a copy of the policy, and we will probably also get copies at the workshop. Ron showed pictures.of the "no trespassing" sign on the Coyote-Alamitos Canal at Bernal Road, recent improvements in the BGJ barn, visiting school kids at the ranch, with new bull-roping activities, the route of the new trail in the hills between the BGJ Ranch and Buck Norred Ranch, overgrowth on the Ohlone Trail and Hidden Springs trails and on top of Coyote Peak, trash at the field near the park entrance on Bernal Road, possible staging area options for this area, woodborer traps at the Pueblo Area, and closed areas of the park. We talked about the closed shortcut between the Mine Trail and Rocky Ridge Trail that people use to get to the Rocky Ridge without taking the muddy portion of the Mine Trail. We would like to see this shortcut reopened. The problem with this shortcut may be that it crosses a creek. Any development involving creeks requires Fish & Game approval. Fish & Game hates culverts. The parks department is trying to get the old culverts out. Rock swales and bridges are OK. Sam showed pictures of recent trail days at Almaden Quicksilver and the Rocky Ridge Trail in Santa Teresa. Paul said that he and his friends worked on the Ohlone Trail recently. John Patterson talked about park maintenance. Park maintenance is working on the multi-use trail first. John talked to Ken Silveira about putting pooper scoopers in the park and kids skipping stones at the springs. Dan Hill is living in the Caretaker's House at the BGJ Ranch. He does maintenance at Stevens Creek. He used to live in the Jackson House. Heidi Fortwengler is the permanent volunteer coordinator, but she is on maternity leave. She has a part-time helper. This is John's last meeting. He will be handling Grant, Levin, and Calero. Rich Flores will be taking over at Santa Teresa. He has been in the parks department for 39 years. Coming to our meeting will be Drew and Kenny. We need to pick days of the month to work on trails. On June 11, Mike and Kitty are going to Angel Island. There will be Civil War re-enactments on the island. If you want to go, meet at the Angel Island Ferry in Tiburon at 10:00. On June 18, there's a teasel removal day at Almaden Quicksilver. Also on June 18 in New Almaden is a mining display at the mining museum from 10-4. On June 18 at 7:30 pm, there will be a movie night at the Bernal Barn, showing the "Mark of Zorro." Ron is preparing an outdoor recreation program on photography. Sam may do one on geocaching. Sam showed some old Santa Clara county maps from the 1870's that his wife found in a book in a school library. The petition concerning access to the park at Brockenhurst had about 247 signatures. Volunteer Hours: Ronald Horii:: 24 Mike Boulland: 15 Kitty Monahan:  3 Sam Drake:  9 Paul Vincze: 20 Woody Collins: 12 Holly Davis: 12 Return to the Friends of Santa Teresa Park Home Page

Created 6/1/05 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park