Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting Summary for 11/4/04
	Meeting attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Holly Davis, Sam Drake, Matt Freeman, Danielle Spreir, Bruce Greenblatt, Joe Schultz, Hazen Anderson, Paul Vincze, John Dorrance, Ken Silveira Paul Vincze is a mountain biker. He talked about bike trails in the park and opening the Ohlone Trail to mountain bikes. Ron showed pictures of the park. He showed pictures from the movie night at the Bernal Ranch on 10/30 and the new rabbit cages that were built as an Eagle Scout project. He showed signs indicating a mountain bike race on the Fortini-Stile Ranch Trails, fences on the hill at Stile Ranch, the TV cable cutting across the Fortini Trail, barbed wire next to the Fortini Trail, new rocks and a volunteer bridge on the creek that cross the Fortini Trail, a volunteer trail along the creek leading the Stile Ranch Trail, the shortcut from the Mine Trail to the Rocky Ridge Trail, the culvert on the Mine Trail near the marsh, a company picnic at the group picnic area, a controlled burn at the Pueblo Area. Joe Schultz, deputy county parks director: Next Tuesday, Joe will have a staff meeting to discuss the plans for the new trail around the Mounted Ranger Unit. The entrance to the trail will be near the Bonetti House across from Bernal School. The trail will go up to the Coyote-Alamitos Canal and cross it. It will run up the hill on switchbacks and go around the Mounted Ranger Unit to cross the Mine Trail. There, a trail will continue on to Bernal Road. A spur trail will go uphill to join with the Bernal Loop Trail.  Parking for the new trailhead will be on the street until a new staging area can be built. The Conservation Corps will help to build the trail in Spring '05. The City of San Jose secured half the money to buy the Pyzak Ranch. After the is put in, we can have a dedication ceremony. The parks master plan is 12 years old. It needs to be updated. In Fall '06, the planning can begin to update the park master plan. It will be a public process. It will address plans for the rest of the Santa Teressa Historic District, which from Santa Teresa Spring to the Pyzak Ranch. They will entertain ideas, such as an interpretrive center and restoring old adobes at the ranch. After the planning, they need to get funding and staff resources. Lisa and Mark need to buy into it. They will need to get permits and issue negative declarations The Historic Heritage Commission recommended salvaging as much wood as possible from the outside of the old barn and building a new inside structure. They want to make it usable on the inside. Robin Schaut is planning an orchard at the Bernal Ranch and farm animals in the barn. The parks department paid for the fences around the canal above the houses on Heaton Moor. The neighbors had offered to pay for half. The fence on the west side has signage saying keep out, not a trail, restricted area.  Joe said that he did not think they had to have a permit from the Water District to put the fences. People from the Water District were there at the same time Joe talked to the contractors about the fences. Holly said that she had to get written permission from the Water District to put up a fence, then they came to inspect it afterwards. The fences around the canal were always supposed to be round wire. They couldn't sink wooden posts, so they had to put in metal posts. The homeowner at the west end says the fence hasn't stopped people from coming on her part of the canal. Holly, who is on the east end, says it has brought down traffic a lot. Kids still ride down the middle of the canal. Holly said that the back of the Pyzak Ranch would be better for animals. They used to have animals there. It's far enough away from the neighbors that the noise and smell wouldn't bother anybody. Sam Drake talked about geocaching.  He said there are 17 caches in the park. He showed a map showing how many times each cache had been found.  One person got bitten by a snake. He was searching for a geocache. He sat on a log near the collapsed building by the Joice Trail, but his hand back, and was bitten by a snake. He was rushed to Santa Teresa Hospital, which can treat snake bites and spent 3 days there. Joe said that parks departments around the state are concerned about the impact of geocaching on natural resources and historic areas. Mike is concerned about the Doors House, which is near the Club 14-E site. It's wide open and not bolted. John Dorrance:  November 13 will be a work day at the Bernal Ranch. They will be varnishing outside benches, digging out behind rain bars, and weeding. They have a dozen ceanothus bushes that they will plant. They will also scrap the stone pathways. It will be from 9 to noon. People used to take nuts off the fences at the spring. John and his helpers secured them with Loctite. John needs help for docent tours. He has classes coming Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They are mostly 2nd through 4th grade, though they get some 1st graders. He has been getting West Valley interns to help, but they are fewer this semester. He needs someone to help with classes, doing things like farm games and showing the chickens. Call John at 226-5453. There are 3 owl boxes on the bars. They had 6-7 rattlesnakes in the new barn this summer. They pulled out the hay bales, which were attracting rodents. They put the owl boxes in to attract owls to control the rodents.  4H has a rabbit program. They will take care of the rabbits in the barn. They need to get new rabbits. There are new rabbit hutches built as an Eagle Scout project. The hutches are made from heart redwood from trees that fell in the county parks.  John has asked for more power and lighting for the barn.  He need an old computer to store and show Powerpoint presentations. Hazen has some. John would like to get an LCD project to show slideshows. He has presentations on Ohlone tales and ranch history.  There have been 5 Eagle Scout projects at the ranch. Hazen has some artifacts to give to John. Ken Silveira:  The mountain bike race was cancelled because of rain.  There have not been many problems in the park. There have been a few incidents of dogs running off-leash. They will be working on the spillway at Santa Teresa Spring. They will divert the spring while they are working on it. There have been no reports of night time activity. Volunteer Hours: Ronald Horii: 20 Mike Boulland: 10 Mario Blaum: 12 Holly Davis: 10 Hazen Anderson: 55 Paul Vincze: 2 Matt Freeman: 2 Danielle Spreier: 2 Sam Drake: 4 Treasurer's report (Holly): balance is $603.44. Scheduled Events 9/11/04: New Almaden Days 9/18/04: Coastal Clean Up 9/18/04: Santa Teresa Community Fest at George Page Park. We need to put a table out. 10/7/04:  Next FOSTP meeting. 10/8/04: Santa Teresa’s Historic Bernal Ranch:  Owls on Silent Wings 6:30-8pm 10/16/04: Volunteer barbecue. 10/30/04: Movie Nite and Moon Viewing at the Bernal Ranch, 7:30-10:0 pm. 11/13/04: Cleanup at the Bernal Ranch, contact Beeny Sander. Next meeting will be a potluck dinner at Mike's house on 12/2 at 6:00. Return to the Friends of Santa Teresa Park Home Page

Created 11/17/04 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park