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- Attendees:
Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Youngmee Kim, Greg Koopman, Joan Murphy, Woody Collins, Steve Crockett, Ron
Horii.
- 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.
- On 11/6/21, there will be a Bay Area Ridge Trail service day in Santa Teresa Park.
They will be working on the Stile Ranch Trail. It's the day after our
First Friday Work Day. We need to decide whether to join them as a
group and whether to do this instead of our work day.
- The new
trail should be opening in October, unless it gets delayed. There may
be an issue about whether they might be disturbing archaeological
sites. The Parks Department's naming committee for trails is unable to
meet due to the pandemic and reassignments, so the trail may not get
named until next year.
- There will be no Pioneer Day at Almaden
Quicksilver this year, due to the lack of staff and time to plan it.
Many of the interpretive staff, including the department's manager,
have been called back to disaster service work or have not returned
from it.
- Julie Lee, manager of the volunteer program, has been recalled to disaster service work.
- Rob
McDonnell, Interpreter at the Bernal Ranch, has been temporarily
reassigned to be the Coordinator for Region 3. He is subbing in for
Michelle Armijo, who has been called away to pandemic duty. That means
Rob won't be able to work with us on our First Friday work days.
- We
need to ask Dave Zitlow, lead volunteer at Martial Cottle Park, to come
to a future meeting so we could ask him for advice about the gardens at
the Bernal Ranch.
- We opened the metal utility box at the Bernal
Ranch where we had our tools stored from years ago. There's a new lock
on it, but the combination they gave us didn't work, so we have to get
the correct one. The tools need cleaning, and the inside of the box
needs painting.
- Greg said there is a white wooden utility shed by the garden that has hoses and tools.
- Ron
showed a slideshow: pictures of the Boundary Trail, showing how steep
the trail is (see next), our work days (9/10 and 10/1) at the Bernal
Ranch, new serpentine signs on the Stile Ranch and Rocky Ridge Trails,
Rob McDonnell's kingsnake program at the Bernal Ranch, progress on the
new trail, views from Coyote Peak, break-in at the Bernal Ranch (see
below), and blackberry vines that need to be removed around the ranch
and the spring.
- There was a fatal accident on the Boundary
Trail. A bicyclist fell down and was impaled by his handlebars. The
Boundary Trail is very steep. It is especially dangerous going
downhill. Even hikers frequently slip and fall. The park map used to
have it labeled as steep (along with the south end of the Joice Trail).
The more recent maps don't show that. It is one of the steepest trails
in the County Parks. It may need warning signs.It's an old service road that parallels the park boundary. There's an
even steeper service road on IBM's property on the other side of the
fence.
- While
we were at the Bernal Ranch on 10/1 for our work day, Jan Shriner, who
was subbing in for Rob McDonnell, discovered that there was a break-in.
One of the windows of the ranch house was cracked, but it's coated with
a film, which held the pieces together. The house hadn't been broken
into. The locks of the barns were cut. It didn't look like anyone
entered the east barn. The west barn had horse yokes and harnasses
removed from the walls, and the cabinet was open. It didn't appear that
anything was missing. There was a duffel bag and a cart with sleeping
bag on the trail by the barns. Ranger Ruben Suarez and the sheriffs
investigated.
- Treasurer's report: (Greg is calling in
remotely. He'll be back by 10/19.) We have $1772.17 in our
account. There's been no change.
- We submitted a change request for our
Beautify San Jose Cycle 3 grant to move funds around to different
categories. (See the attachment in the agenda.) The grant was
originally supposed to last 12 months and cover our events, as well as
our operating expenses. Because of the pandemic, the grant funds have
to be stretched to cover 27 months. We have to pay for 2 years of UNSCC
membership instead of 1. We have to pay for 27 months of our website
fees instead of 12, and the cost per month increased. We also had to
pay for Zoom. We could not hold National Night Out, but we did go to La
Fuente. We are planning to hold an event for the opening of the new
trail.
- We need to apply for the Beautify San Jose Cycle 4 grant
by 10/29. We'll start with the same allocation as the Cycle 3 grant,
but adjust for higher website fees and add Zoom costs. We don't know
whether we'll be allowed to hold National Night Out or other events,
but we need to be prepared and have the funds available to cover an
event. We may consider other projects, like painting utility boxes, a
mural, and bird and owl boxes. We could ask for more funding. Our
current grant is for $2480. The maximum amount is $5000.
- Blair
Pagano of the Volunteer Office said we need to complete our annual
volunteer work plan. It's due in December. We need to decide on
projects.
- Mike is giving a private ghost tour on November 7 at the Bernal Ranch for a Meetup group.
- We
had First Friday work days on September 10 (moved to the second Friday
because of Labor Day) and October 1. We worked at the Bernal Ranch
removing weeds, cutting brush, and sweeping up leaves. Mike, Ron, Joan,
and Youngmee were there both days. Marilyn and Woody were there on 9/10.
- We
will be having our next First Friday work day on 11/5 at 9:00 at the
Bernal Ranch. Jeremy Celaya, Senior Maintenance for the Bernal Ranch,
requested that we cut the blackberries below the spring. There are also
lots of blackberries growing on the ceanothus bushes on the walkway by
the barns and in scattered locations around the barns and the spring.
- We
should put up a sign when we're having our work day, inviting people to
come to future work days. Ron has easels for sign holders.
- We
talked about doing work on trails in other parts of the park. Woody
adopted the Ohlone Trail. FOSTP adopted the Norred Trail. Ron patrols
it, usually at least once a month. The trails are very dry now. It's
hard to work on them. Maybe we can do work in the spring.
- We
talked about recording volunteer hours. Hours spent for park
friends groups, like our meetings, do not count. However, volunteer
hours for projects done by friends groups, like Adopt-a-Trail or our
First Friday cleanups, do count. When entering hours in Samaritan, you
can say you are doing the project for our group. For Adopt-a-Trail, a
whole group can report its hours.
- Greg has been working with
Jason Gormon, Senior Maintenance for Santa Teresa, on removing the
unused power poles that used to lead to the microwave relay station on
the Coyote Peak Trail. Jason is trying to find out who owns the poles.
They can be pulled up from the ground with ATV-mounted equipment.
- Eddie Von Runnen wants to put a memorial bench in the park. He's working with rangers on the location.
- We
want to have a celebration event after the new trail opens. Marilyn and
Joan are working on it. If it's near the Day of the Dead (Nov. 7), we
can give away Mexican candy, like candy skulls or lollipops. We can
hand out our newsletters and other literature, as well as signature
items, like keychains or bookmarks.
- We need to put out a
new newsletter to hand out at the trail event. Ron will be editing it.
The headline article should be about the new trail, its background
history, our work to get it built, benefits of it, points of interest
along the way, the Bear Tree monument, and the time capsule. We can
also talk about our cleanup days, our speaker series talks, the power
poles, parking fees, and park staff changes.
- Ron showed that
there's water in the cattle troughs and in the creek by the Fortini
Trail. Other parts of the park are very dry. Joan was worried about the
wildlife and asked whether the parks department can do something to
help them, like truck in water. This may be a bigger problem than they
can handle. Creeks and ponds all over the valley are dry or partially
dry. Lakes are very low.
- Mike got permission to use the
banquet room at the golf course again. However, it's convenient for
many people to meet on Zoom. Next month, we'll meet on Zoom, but in
December, we may have a potluck dinner at Mike's house.
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