Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 8/7/08




  • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Kitty Monahan, Ed Jackson, Woody Collins, Holly Davis, Sam Drake, Mario Blaum, Paul and Jenel Vincze, and Gloria Gill (visiting from the County Parks Dept.)
  • Gloria is head of the parks volunteer program. She talked about upcoming events. Volunteers are needed:
    • 9/6: trail day at Coyote Lake
    • 9/13-14 will be South Bay Fishing in the City at Los Gatos Creek Park.
    • Saturday 9/20 will be Coastal Cleanup Day at Uvas Canyon, Stevens Creek, Hellyer, Vasona, Alviso, and the Los Alamitos Creek Trail.
  • Family Fandango Day will be held in the evening on August 23, 5-8 pm at the Bernal Ranch. It will be similar to last year's Ranch Spirit Day. Jenel was sent a list of available volunteer positions. Jenel will be helping with the bingo game. Volunteers are needed to help set up, clean up, and direct traffic. Volunteers need to be able to get into the parking lot to load/unload.
  • The yard around the Caretaker's House was in bad shape. The lawn was full of tall grass and weeds. The residents used to take care of it, so Park Maintenance did not get into the habit of maintaining it. Since the residents left, the yard has gone unmaintained. Ron sent pictures to Robin Schaut and Julie Lee. They asked Drew Merry to take care of it. Crews came, cut the grass, removed the weeds, and did some maintenance to the house.
  • Interpreter Chris Carson is in the Caretaker's House now. The other volunteers will be coming before the Casa Grande at Almaden Quicksilver closes for renovation, which will begin February of next year.
  • Ed talked to Drew Merry about the trimming around the spring. Crews were trimming bushes around the spring, but they were removing them down to the roots. The crews stopped after Drew was called.
  • The Boy Scouts put in the split rail wooden fence along Manila Drive, but they stopped before the spring to allow installing a swinging gate for fire access. The Boy Scouts said they were not responsible for putting in a gate. Drew said that John Dorrance is responsible for the gate.
  • If the neighbors along Manila Drive want designate the side of the street along the fence a "no parking" area, the City of San Jose will have to do it.
  • Crews from the Boys' Ranch did maintenance around the ranch. They had some extra hours and did weeding.
  • Antoinette Romeo said that the bush cutting was was security, fire prevention, and public safety.
  • Antoinette is presenting the Santa Teresa Historic Site Plan to the Historic Heritage Commission on 8/21 at the County Building at 70 West Hedding in the Board of Supervisors Chambers.
  • Antoinette will have a meeting sometime in September to present the design alternatives for comments.
  • Sam will be giving a geocaching class on Nov. 8 at Vasona and Jan. 17 at the Wood Road Trail in Quicksilver.
  • We got $500 for our CAP Grant: $200 for the UNSCC fee, $100 for communications, $100 for T-shirts, $100 for event insurance. Communications can include the website or newsletters. We pay $10 per month for the website. We can petition to move money from one category to the other. We voted to request moving $100 from T-shirts to communications to pay for the website and newsletters.
  • Ron wants to have a small newsletter to hand out at Fandango and a bigger one to hand out at the Santa Teresa Community Fest. He will be editing it.
  • We have $125.11 in our B of A account. Mike wants to move it to the Wells Fargo account, where we have the CAP grant money. The UNSCC fee was overdue. Mike sent in the UNSCC fee with his own money. He needs to be reimbursed. He also put his own money into the Wells Fargo account to start it before the CAP money arrived. We voted to reimburse Mike for his expenses.
  • Ron will be teaching a photo class in the Bernal Ranch Barn on Oct. 4 at 10:00-12:00.
  • 4H report (Holly and Jenel): the County Youth Fair was a success. Jason showed his rabbits. He got an award. He also got a first-place award for jalapeno jelly. He grew the jalapenos. He bought the velveteen lop that is now in the barn at the Bernal Ranch. Holly's kids showed a sheep and goat, which got a second place award, and sold them. They paraded the animals for bidding and got a 5th place award for showmanship.
  • The Black Mountain Bowmen had an open house on July 19. Mario went and joined the club.
  • Ron showed pictures of the park: the Caretakers House before and after the yard was cleared, pictures of the bush trimming around Santa Teresa Spring,  the spring itself, the gap in the fence by the spring, weed clearing around the ranch, the Norred Trail, restoration of the Pyzak House roof, Summer Day Camp at the Bernal Ranch, the Black Mountain Bowmen's open house (provided by a friend who attended).
  • The Santa Teresa Community Fest will be on Sept. 20. We'll have an information table. Ron will be coming early in the morning. Mike will provide the Easy-ups. Ron will be taking pictures. We need people to staff the booth and hand out flyers.
  • Sept. 13 is New Almaden Community Day
  • Oct. 11 is Pioneer Day at Almaden Quicksilver
  • Oct. 25 is the VCC BBQ.
  • Volunteer Hours for May-June (no meeting in June):
    • Ronald Horii: 42 hours, photography, meeting minutes, DAG meeting, web pages, trail days, 3 hours FOSTP meeting
    • Mike Boulland: 15 hours, grants, meetings with park officials, meeting planning, 3 hours FOSTP meeting
    • Kitty Monahan: 3 hours FOSTP meeting
    • Woody Collins: 3 hours FOSTP meeting
    • Holly Davis: 5 hours trail patrol, 3 hours FOSTP meeting.
    • Sam Drake: 3 hours FOSTP meeting.
    • Ed Jackson: 6 hours trail and spring patrol. 3 hours FOSTP meeting.
    • Jenel Vincze: 3 hours FOSTP meeting.
    • Paul Vincze:  15 hours trail patrol, 3 hours FOSTP meeting.
    • Mario Blaum: 3 hours FOSTP meeting.
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Created 9/2/08 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park