Friends of Santa Teresa Park Zoom Meeting, 8/5/21

 


    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Greg Koopman, Joan Murphy, Marilyn August, Steve Crockett, Woody Collins, Ron Horii, Ed Von Runnen, Youngmee Kim. 
    • 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.
    • Mike shared his story on Powerpoint about a baby turtle finding Santa Teresa Spring.
    • We have about $404 leftover from the current BeautifySJ Grant. We have about $700 of our own money in the bank. We have a total of $1722.17 in our account. We need to work on the current receipts to see how much was spent.
    • Mike is working on our 501c3 application.
    • We talked about having a trail work day on a Saturday once or twice a year to allow working people to come. Woody said that the first Saturday is the month is a trail day for the trail crew. A second Saturday of the month might be better. We need to get any schedule changes approved by the Parks Dept.
    • A tractor broke a pipe near the end of Manila Drive. The leak was repaired. Mike is going to go look for the valve for the pipe.
    • Mike got a list of to-do work items from Jeremy Celaya in Maintenance.
    • We will have a work day tomorrow, 8/6/21 at 9:00 am. We'll meet at the Bernal Ranch by the chicken coop. We need to bring our own tools. We can bring battery-operated equipment, like weed whackers. We can remove weeds from around the ranch house, the garden boxes, and the other buildings. We could also remove weeds from under the farm equipment on display and remove blackberries from the fences and below the spring.
    • Melissa Ortiz is new to Maintenance. She is filling in for Jeremy Celaya while he's on vacation.
    • We had a First-Friday work day cleaning up Santa Teresa Spring on 7/2/21. Mike, Dorene, Youngmee, and Ron were there. We cleared more dirt and vines from the area between the shrine and font. We removed dirt and leaves from the top and edges of the cistern. (Here are pictures.)
    • Ron showed a slideshow: our work day at Santa Teresa Spring, progress on the new Curie Trail, new Park Interpreter Rob McDonnell at the Bernal Ranch, poison oak along the retaining wall along Manila Drive, weeds in the garden boxes and in front of the ranch house, water eroding the spillway at Santa Teresa Spring, a bucket and toy in the pond at the spring, some graffiti on the rail by the spring, weeds growing through the farm equipment, blackberries along the fence between the barns, conditions on the Norred Trail, graffiti on the canal.
    • The date for completion of the Curie Drive Trail has been pushed out to the end of October. We want to have some kind of informal celebration/picnic when it opens. We have to keep it to less than 20 people. We can hand out mementoes. We can give out little wooden orecarts with the Bernal brand on it that Jim Besseau made. We just need to assemble them. We could also give out bookmarks that Jim made.
    • There was an online Park Commission meeting. Mike talked about our activities. Julie Lee and Blair Pagano talked about volunteer activities. The Volunteer Coordinating Committee is coming back on 9/15. Martial Cottle got a $1M donation. Maintenance talked about park projects.
    • Greg and Roxanne can talk to the VCC about their concerns in the park (parking fees and removing old power poles), but it might be better to talk to the Park Commission.
    • Ron went to 4 National Night Outs. There were fewer of them, and most were smaller than usual. Many neighborhood groups were not able to meet during the pandemic, except online. Silver Leaf had the biggest event. They got the County Sheriffs and County Parks to participate. Park rangers Bryan Lue and Chris Shear were showing animal pelts and a kingsnake. We didn't have a National Night Out this year due to COVID, permit, and budget concerns. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it next year if we get grant funding. It takes about $300 to put it on. We need permits, insurance, and money to buy refeshments.
    • Ed wants to donate memorial benches to be placed in Santa Teresa. While he can't choose their exact location, he can talk to the senior ranger about his preferences. He wants to put one up at the east end of the corral in the Pueblo Area. Youngmee also wants information about park donations.
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       Created 8/11/21 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park
    Funding provided by a Beautify San Jose Grant