Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 8/2/07
	Attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Kitty Monahan, Paul Vincze, Jenel Vincze, Mario Blaum, Holly Davis, Ed Jackson, Woody Collins Ed has been patrolling around Santa Teresa Spring and painting out graffiti. Holly is planning to get her neighbors on Heaton Moor around Norred Court together to clean up the Coyote-Alamitos Canal above their houses. They are planning to do this on National Night Out on August 7. Neighborhoods can sign up for this. The police and Forrest Williams will stop by. The neighbors want to talk to the police. There have been houses robbed and cars vandalized on Heaton Moor. Ranch Spirit Day, August 25 Robin said we could have information on geocaching and the Albertson Parkway on the FOSTP table. Paul Bernal will be coming. We need to find out if we need to bring tables and chairs. We need a San Jose permit to pass out flyers. The permit is for the organization. Should we set up on Saturday during the day instead of Friday night? The Santa Teresa Community Fest has usually been in mid-September. We haven't heard anything about it yet. Ron will find out about it. Cathy Reinhard of NatureGraphic Design and Illustration in Davis is designing 3 interpretive panels for the Albertson Parkway. One of the panels will include the history of Santa Teresa Park. The others will be on Gary Albertson, whom the parkway was named after, and water sources. She got some information from Ron, and talked to Mike and John Dorrance. Mike is working on organizing a tour of Santa Teresa Park and nearby areas, originally in response to a request from San Jose planning commissioner Ash Kalra to find out more about the local history. Mike can't use County Parks vans because the tour will include areas outside the parks, but he may be able to get Water District vans and drivers. The plan is for a 3-hour van tour with 10-20 people. It will include the Los Alamitos and Coyote Creek watersheds, habitats, conditions, and historical development. They will go up to Coyote Peak, down the Fortini Trail to Almaden Quicksilver and back. Mike is looking at doing this the first weekend in October. Can we provide lunch? New park commissioner Daniel Murillo will be working on the Santa Teresa Park Master Plan. At the park commission meeting, Lisa Killough reported on the Norred Trail. She said they have been getting complaints about poison oak on the trail. They can't spray it, so crews have to remove it. There's a new electric gate at the Mounted Ranger unit, with a pedestrian bypass. Woody said there's not enough room to turn around between the gate and the Brockenhurst drive entrance, and it's hard to back out. He also wondered if the CDF has access to the gate, as they may need to get into the MRU to fight fires. Ron said the pedestrian gate makes a loud clang when it closes, which may annoy the neighbors. Treasurer's report (Holly): deposited $160, paid the $200 UNSCC membership dues, leaving a balance of $233.44. The state requires us to submit a corporation form. They need to have a contact name. Mike usually puts his. It also requires a $20 fee. We voted on and approved paying the fee. Ed talked about activity around Santa Teresa Spring. He says nighttime activity has increased during the summer. There's no more graffiti, but there are more beer bottles. The neighbors on Manila Drive have been cleaning up the litter. Rangers have not been responding to calls, and dispatchers still don't know where Santa Teresa Spring is. There was a breakout at the Muriel Wright Center about 3 weeks ago. 3 people escaped. Helicopters were looking for them. Escapees wear greenish clothes, which they quickly discard. The facility can't be locked for fire safety reasons. The law has been changed to allow chasing the escapees. The old barbed wire fence along the Fortini Trail was removed by volunteers. There are old piles of barbed wire in the area that need to be removed. The old wire fence around the Bonetti Ranch at Curie and San Ignacio has been broken for months. It needs to be removed or replaced. A split rail fence would be better. We'd like to reseed the Norred Trail sides with native wildflowers. We need to ask Don Rocha about it. We will form a committee for designing an interpretive plaque in the park: Mike, Kitty, and Ron. Some ideas: one on Coyote Peak, showing what the valley used to look like, and a sign or two along the Mine Trail near the Hidden Springs Trail junction, talking about the Bernal marl mine and the mining remnants on the other side of the valley. We need to make a list of possible places and topics for interpretive signs. The CAP grant is due next April. We can start working on it early. We need a grant to pay for the UNSCC dues and the 501c3 application fee. We can ask for a grant to get inner city kids into parks and teacher training on parks. Our 501c3 application is being reviewed by a lawyer. It's 26 pages. There's a $500 application fee. There's also a user fee based on our average gross income for the past 4 years. New Adopt-a-Trail signs have been made by an intern, but haven't been put up yet. There will be one for the Norred Trail. We're going to adopt the Norred Trail. It's in good shape, so a trail work day isn't needed yet. We should also adopt the trails around Santa Teresa Spring. Holly reported on 4H: they are at the County Fair. They had a big dance under the tent in the livestock arena. On Sept. 13, they will be enrolling new members and starting new projects. The Coyote Grange is getting new members. They will be having more social activities, like dances and dinners. We pay for our website. We should look into getting sponsors to help pay for it. We could paid ads on it. Woody said he cut teasel in the Pueblo area and cut thistles by the traffic circle on top. The old abandoned outhouse at the junction of the Rocky Ridge Trail and Coyote Peak Trail has been on its side for a long time. It should be removed. The old abandoned communications building next to it is private property, which is why it is fenced off, and why it can't be removed by the parks department. Mike wants to add to include volunteer rights to the park's volunteer policy. Ron showed a slideshow of the wash day and scorpion night at the BGJ Ranch, Chitactac Day, the trail volunteers picnic at Vasona, recent pictures of the Norred Trail, and wild turkeys flying up onto neighbors' houses and trees on Manila Drive. Volunteer Hours and activities for July: Ronald Horii: 29 hours, park photography, FOSTP & Almaden websites Mike Boulland: 20 hours, trails Kitty Monahan: 8 hours, FOSTP meeting Paul Vincze: 20 hours, FOSTP meeting, trail work Jenel Vincze: 3 hours, FOSTP meeting, planning Ranch Spirit Day, 4H Mario Blaum: 8 hours, trails Ed Jackson: 6 hours, Santa Teresa Spring work, painting over graffiti Woody Collins: (hours reported separately), trail crew lead Holly Davis: 6 hours, 4H Sam Drake (not in attendance): 6 hours, geocaching, trail work Return to the Friends of Santa Teresa Park Home Page

Created 8/2/07 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park