Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 10/3/19

 


    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Kim Gardner, Gus Letona, Greg & Roxanne Koopman, Sam Drake, Ron Horii.
    • We will be taking a tour of the Grant House at JD Grant County Park on 10/14. We will meet at the Grant house at 4 pm. (Carpooling encouraged.) Ranger Lisa Pappanastos will be giving the tour. Gus organized the tour. We need to take it before November, when they will be packing up the Grant House for restoration.
    • La Fuente is on 10/19 from 12-4pm. FOSTP will have a booth there. Come for setup by 10 am. Gus will come help with the setup and during the event, but can't stay for cleanup. Greg & Roxanne will be out of town. Ron will come late, but will stay for cleanup. Kim, Marilyn, Mike, and Kitty will be there for setup and during the event. The Parks Dept. will supply 1 canopy, 2 chairs, 1 table. We need 1 more canopy, 2 more chairs, and 2 more tables. We have 3 table cloths. Greg can supply a cornhole and a giant jenga game. On the tables, we'll have the Santa Teresa models, Changara's treasure, and newsletters. Our booth will be located along the fence opposite the east barn, the same as last year. The dancing will be on the other side of the fence. Cattle roping will be near us. Janice Frazier's horse will be north of the east barn, but can move. We want her near us at times. We won't sell anything or give away food, but we'll accept donations. We can give patches to those as a thank you to those who donate. We'll give away pumpkins as a raffle prize. We can ask for donations of pumpkins. John Dorrance used to get pumpkin donations from Spina Farms. Martial Cottle will be giving away pumpkins for their Fall Festival. They are probably from Jacobs Farms. We may be able to get some. Mike will bring the beanbag and sponge toss games. We can use grant money to provde food for volunteers, if Parks doesn't provide it.
    • Jazon Gorman, head of maintenance for Santa Teresa, needs help watering trees in the Pueblo Area. It requires hauling a long hose around. Greg may be able to help, but he has restrictions on how much weight he can lift.
    • Kelsi has raptor classes for 5th graders. Some teachers have cancelled because it is too early in the school year. The classes coincide with raptor migration in the fall. The classes are free.
    • Kelsi has Raptor 101 events for the general public, with help from the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory. It starts with a presentation about raptors at the Bernal Ranch, followed by a 2-mile hike up the Joice Trail to look for raptors. There was an event on 9/7. There are 2 more on 10/12 and 11/2.
    • Kim and Mike are working on the letters asking for support from public officials for our 501c3 application.
    • Mike is giving a ghost and whoppers tour at the Casa Grande on 10/26. The event is full. It's a park event. 50 people have signed up. 
    • Mike is giving a tour on 10/27 through New Almaden and outside (but not inside) the Casa Grande on 10/27 at 5:00 pm, starting at the New Almaden Community Club parking lot. It will include the Hacienda Cemetery. It's by invitation only. FOSTP members are invited. Bring a flashlight. This is a private event, not a park event.
    • Mike is giving a ghost tour, meeting at the Bernal Ranch parking lot on 11/3 from 3:00-5:00 pm. He will be going around the ranch, but not into the buildings, which will be closed. This is also not a park event and is by invitation. FOSTP members are invited.
    • Treasurer's report by Greg: We have $2160.90 in the bank. ~$1700 in checks have been postponed. If all the checks were issued and cashed, we would be negative. None of the checks have been written yet.
    • We were awarded $2480 from the Beautify San Jose Cycle 3 Grant, which is what we asked for. It's $100 more than Cycle 2. We asked for $1400 for National Night Out, instead of $1300. Cycle 3 began on 10/1. We can charge eligible items to it now. We can spend on La Fuente.
    • Gus said that booths at events often have a wheel of fortune to attract attention. We should get one for our booth.
    • Ron went to the Village Fest on 9/7 at the Village Oaks Shopping Center. It was moved up a week this year and did not overlap with Coastal Cleanup Day. We should consider participating next year if there are no conflicts. Sam said that when he did the Umunhum Conservancy booth several years ago, it was noisy from the stage performers and hot. This year, the community booths were farther from the stage, and it was cooler.
    • For our next meeting, Kitty will be giving a talk about the Almaden Mines. We need to pass out flyers. Ron will put a notice on Next Door. It's already on our website. Gus can put a notice on his school's Facebook site. Kitty will give a slideshow. She needs a projector. Gus has a movie screen.
    • Ron showed a slideshow of Santa Teresa: Night hike on the Stile Ranch/Fortini Trail led by Ruben Suarez, fire training at the Pueblo Area, 
    • Ron showed a slideshow of the volunteer's ice cream social at Vasona, firefighter training in the Pueblo Area, view from the Hidden Springs/Coyote Peak trails, concert at the Santa Teresa Golf Club, dry horse trough on the Ridge Trail, holes in the Ridge Trail, removal of tree fall from the start of the Ohlone Trail, graffiti on the rail and overgrowth of brambles at Santa Teresa Spring, La Fuente sign and garden boxes at the Bernal Ranch, Norred Trail, coyote at the Norred Ranch.
    • Ron was invited to attend the ranger badging ceremony to take pictures. He showed a slideshow from it. Flint Glines was named the Chief Park Ranger, a position he was holding on an interim basis, replacing Matt Anderson. (Matt is now head of Mid-Pen rangers.) Julie Cooper and Frank Weiland were named as supervising rangers. Julie manages Region 3, which includes Anderson, Coyote, Mt. Madonna, Motorcycle, and Field Sports. Frank manages Region 1, which includes Calero, Quicksilver, Stevens Creek, Sanborn, Los Gatos Creek, Lexington, and Vasona. (Aniko Millan manages Region 2, which includes Ed Levin, Grant, Hellyer, Santa Teresa, and Martial Cottle.) New rangers were badged: Ruben Suarez (Santa Teresa), Marissa Rodriguez (Coyote Lake), Jackson Bramham (Vasona), Christopher Shear (Santa Teresa), Carley Bolitho (Santa Teresa), and Bryce Winter (Santborn).
    • There is a new senior ranger at Hellyer/Santa Teresa: Rich Bender. He was at Mt. Madonna. He was a mounted ranger at Santa Teresa.
    • Pioneer Day is October 12 at the Casa Grande, starting at 11:00.
    • Ron is leading a hike at Rancho Canada del Oro for the Morgan Hill Senior Center, meeting at the Centennial Center in Morgan Hill at 9:00 on 10/7, then carpooling to Canada del Oro.
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       Created 10/3/19 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park