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- 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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