Friends of Santa Teresa Park Zoom Meeting, 8/3/23

 


    • This was an online Zoom videoconference meeting. Mike sent out a meeting link for this Zoom meeting.
    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Steve Crockett, Joan Murphy, Kim Gardner, Ron Horii, Rick Mandel, Carolyn Schimandle. Greg said he couldn't make it to the meeting.
    • Rick Mandel was attending. He has attended before, many years ago. He is President of the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association, and is a docent for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. 
    • Carolyn Schimandle is the Park Program Coordinator for Region 2, which includes Santa Teresa and Martial Cottle. Rob McDonnell was supposed to attend, but he was working the Salt Marsh Safari at Alviso today. He will be attending in the future.
    • We'll have a First Friday workday on 8/4/23. We'll meet at the Bernal Ranch by the chicken coop at 9:00 am. We will be doing weeding. We don't know how many people will be helping us.
    • Our work day next month is on Friday, September 1 at 9 am.
    • Mike wants to have a potluck lunch and recruitment event after one of our First Friday Work Days.
    • The new trail, temporarily called the Curie Drive Trail, is on it's way to being renamed the Gulnac Trail.
    • Mike could not go to the Park Commission Meeting.
    • Carolyn gave the park staff report:
      • Jason Bombardier, maintenance worker for the Bernal Ranch, is working temporarily at the volunteer's office. He's subbing in for Blair Pagano, who is on maternaity leave. She may be out for 6 months, which is the standard maternity leave. Carolyn didn't know who is taking over for him in maintenance.
      • Katrina Semene will be back working at the Bernal Ranch on Sundays. She's an extra help interpreter. She had her hours limited for awhile, but now there's more money in the budget for extra help.
      • Katrina will be leading another Twilight Stroll at the Bernal Ranch on 8/9/23 at 7:30 pm. Sign ups have been slow. Ron said there are no flyers for it on the mapboard at the Bernal Ranch. He assumed it was because the hike was full. Carolyn will have flyers put up.
      • There's a new intern, Caitlyn. She will be working at Martial Cottle Park and the Bernal Ranch. She's being trained by Rob McDonnell.
      • Desirée and Lucy are new extra help in the interpretive department. Lynda Will will be supervising. They helped out at Play Like a Miner.  Lucy will be helping at the Bernal Ranch, Alviso, and Chitactac. She is fluent in Spanish.
      • Scouts are doing a litter pickup next Tuesday from the Bernal Ranch house to the Bear Tree.
      • La Fuente is on 9/23 from 4-7 pm. Rob McDonnell is organizing it. It was moved from 9/16, which is Mexican Independence Day, and the dancers were busy on that day. The dancers will be able to come now. Lance Beeson's group will provide music. Paul Bernal will be coming as a guest. There will be cattle-roping.
      • School programs will begin on Oct. 1. There will be 2 1-hour programs on Fridays in the morning and afternoon.
      • A volunteer will be taking over the butterfly box and growing a pollinator garden. What to do about the other boxes is under discussion. They may want to plant heritage kitchen gardens.
    • Joan suggested that there should be signs identifying the trees along the trail to the Bear Tree Lot. Ron pointed out that half the trees are non-natives, but it doesn't hurt to identify them.
    • FOSTP will be participating in La Fuente. The parks can provide the canopies. Mike, Kim, Joan, and Steve can help at the welcome table. We'll have the sponge toss game again and a pumpkin toss cornhole. Joan suggested we have spinning tops on wash tubs, like we had at a past Fandango. We talked about having wooden crafts from Jim Besau. He made orecarts for Play Like a Miner. Maybe they can be made into farm wagons for La Fuente. Mike will talk to Jim.
    • We need to have a newsletter ready to publish and pass out at La Fuente on September 23. Our grant covers printing costs for the newsletter. Ron will be editing it. He needs articles to be submitted by the end of August. 
    • Rick does invasive plant removal along the Coyote Alamitos Canal near Snell. He removes stinkwort.
    • Steve was a host at the Bernal Ranch before the pandemic. He wants to start doing it again.
    • Our bank balance was $1348.82. We paid $200 for UNSCC membership on 7/11. Our current balance is $1148.82. We paid $20 for the state S1-100 tax, $50 for the federal CT-TR-1 tax filing.
    • We got our Beautify San Jose Grant for $1500 approved. Mike signed the MOU. We are waiting for the check. 
    • Congressman Jimmy Panetta wanted to see Rancho Santa Teresa and New Almaden. He got held up by traffic, so he was only able to see Almaden Quicksilver. Mike guided him. He still wants to see Santa Teresa in the future.
    • Mike wants to use GoFundMe to raise money. Ron pointed out that people won't be likely to donate unless it's for a specific cause or project. We need to decide on what we need money for. It should be something that our grant won't pay for, like a memorial. Kim will look into how to start a GoFundMe campaign. If we get a GoFundMe account soon enough, we can mention it in the newsletter.
    • NAQCPA used GoFundMe to raise over $2K to buy a memorial picnic table for Kitty Monahan. It will be installed at the end of the Catherine Tunnel Trail in Almaden Quicksilver.
    • We talked about having some kind of memorial in Santa Teresa Park for Kitty. We can't have a plaque on a building. We may be able to plant a tree. County Parks has a donation catalog. Tamara Clark Shear is in charge of the donation program. 
    • Tamara is retiring in September. 
    • The leaky planter box by the ranch house has a backflow valve issue. It needs a specialist to fix it. There are no plants in it. [The planter boxes will be removed.]
    • Mike asked if we could have an in-person meeting at the golf course. Joan said she wouldn't be able to make it, since she doesn't like driving at night.
    • Daniel Sanchez is leading a tule elk hike on 8/13.
    • Ron showed pictures.
      • 7/7/23: First Friday Work Day: We cut blackberries along the drain behind the ceanothus bushes along the path by the barns, whacked weeds under the farm equipment and in front of the barn, pulled Bermuda grass around the garden boxes, and watered the landscaping around the ranch house.
      • 7/8/23: Community Science Servce Day in the Pueblo Area: Participants measured the newly-planted sycamore trees. It's part of an on-going project to monitor the health of the planted trees in the park.
      • 7/12/23: Family Twilight Stroll: Katrina Semene led the nature hike from the ranch house to Santa Teresa Spring, then down the Gulnac Trail to the Bear Tree Lot.
      • 7/24/23: There's a log slicer in the maintenance yard of the Norred Ranch.
      • 7/31/23: There's less water flowing around the outside of Santa Teresa Spring. There's lots of weeds and native plants growing in the mud that has flowed down around the spring. The mud is dry enough that it can be dug out. The blackberries are growing along the ramp to the spring. They are starting to grow back in areas we cleared before. 
      • 8/2/23: The coast live oak trees by the chicken coop and the ceanothus bushes along the path by the barns have been trimmed. The blackberries are starting to grow back. Hayfield tarweed is growing along the Norred Trail. Parasitic dodder is attacking some of them. Weeds have been cut along the Gulnac Trail. The amaryllis around the ranch house are blooming.
      • 8/2/23: National Night Out (NNO): Since we didn't get our grant soon enough, we couldn't plan to put on our own National Night Out this year. There were National Night Out events being held around the city. Ron showed pictures of 3 of them: The Open Space Authority had a booth on the Coyote Valley Master Plan at Los Paseos Park. County Park ranger Bryan Lue was at Silver Leaf Park, showing his ranger equipment and a kingsnake. The Koopmans had an NNO at their house for the Comanche Blossom Valley Neighborhood Association.
      • 7/29/23: Play Like a Miner was held at the Casa Grande in Almaden Quicksilver. Mike and other NAQCPA volunteers built a temporary tunnel around the Blacksmith Shop.
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       Created 8/10/23 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park
    Funding provided by a Beautify San Jose Grant