Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 9/6/18

 


    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Steve Crockett, Greg Koopman, Jorge & Debi Porras, Ron Horii
    • Mike Quane, former ranger for Santa Teresa Park and Almaden Quicksilver, passed away. He once lived in Englishtown in the house with the chimney by the map house. He lived on Mt. Umhunhum.
    • Supervising Ranger Jeffrey Cossins died suddenly of a heart attack. He handled the unit around Ed Levin.
    • Senior Ranger Frank Weiland was promoted supervising ranger, so he moved out of Hellyer. Head Ranger Matt Anderson retired. Super Ranger Flint Glines took his place. Frank took Flint's place. Lisa Pappanastos will be acting senior ranger for Hellyer/Santa Teresa/Coyote Creek North for 2-3 months. Then Bryan Lue will take her place temporarily.
    • Mike inquired about the sheriff's office at the Muriel Wright Center. They will maintain the same presence there.
    • New Park Interpreter Kelsi Ju, who visited us last month, had Community Volunteer Days to clean up the gardens and landscaping around the Bernal Ranch House. Ron, Mike, and Elaine Drake helped out. (Ron showed pictures). The Koopmans are still tending two of the garden boxes.
    • Kelsi Ju invited us to participate in La Fuente, on 10/27 from 12-4. It will be held at the Bernal Ranch and replaces Fandango. Kelsi is organizing it. This is the description of it: Bernal Ranch is "La Fuente" or "The Origin" for family histories, local economy, and a growing new community. Join us to celebrate the different histories of "Santa Teresa Spring," the original source of thriving communities from the past to present day. 
    • We held our National Night Out on August 7 at the Bernal Ranch. (Ron showed pictures and put them online). Steve handled parking. We had 13 glasses left over from the run of 36. We gave away glasses and patches. It was well-attended. Debi counted 180 people, but more may have come. We ran out of ice cream. We gave extra popsicles to the firemen. Our insurance covered under 200. We had more than enough raffle items. Next year, we don't need so many.
    • We talked about grazing the hills above the Bernal Ranch to reduce fire danger. It's in the long-range plan, but the grazing in the rest of the park is on a trial basis. If they like the results, they may extend grazing to other parts of the park, but it will not be close to the Bernal Ranch. They need to get funding. 
    • We have been invited to set up a booth at Viva Calle SJ by Councilmember Jimenez's office. Viva Calle SJ is an event where city streets are closed for several hours to allow people to walk and bike on the route. There will be activities and events along the route. There will be an activity hub for District 2 at Branham and Monterey Road near the Edenvale Library. We will be on Monterey Road north of Branham. Mike passed around a sign-up sheet. We'll have 3 shifts. The city will provide the tables and chairs. We need to bring a canopy and weights. 
    • Treasurer's report: We have $2142.83. We have $128 to deposit from T-shirt sales and donations for $2270.83 total. The bill for the patches is outstanding. We spent $2254.33 on National Night Out. Any expenses not covered by the Beautify SJ Grant can be used as matching funds, which is required for the grant.
    • We applied for the Beautify San Jose Grant. We asked for the same amount as last year: $2380, but did not request money for Fandango, since it won't be held again. Instead, we put more money in communications and National Night Out. These are the requests: UNSCC membership: $200, Website hosting: $180, Newsletter/publications/communications: $450, PO Box: $100, National Night Out and other events: $1300, National Night Out insurance: $200.
    • There will be an ice cream social for volunteers at Vasona Lake on 9/22 at 2 pm. Meet at the Circle Group Site, which is near the annex.
    • At the Parks Commission meeting, they talked about partnerships and friends groups. They mentioned FOSTP and NAQCPA.
    • Mike said there is a Volunteers Guidelines book. It's online.
    • Our 501c3 application is ready to go. It costs $800 to file it. It's filed with the federal govt. We have California articles of incorporation and an EIN, so we are OK with the County. 501c3 status is needed for donations to us to be tax-deductible. It might make it harder for us to get Beautify San Jose Grants, which are given to neighborhood associations, and not to non-profit corporations. (Non-profits can only apply for a $1500 beautification grant that is for a specific beautification project and must be approved ahead of receiving funding.) However, as a 501c3, we would be eligible to apply for many other grants, like from corporations. If we make <$25K, the tax is much simpler.
    • Ron showed pictures: .National Night Out, Bernal Ranch cleanup, Santa Teresa Spring, tarantula hawk, Stile Ranch flowers, Coyote Peak hikes (one was ranger-led, one Ron led).
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       Created 9/13/18, updated 10/4/18 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park