Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 12/5/19

 


    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Kim Gardner, Steve Crockett, Greg & Roxanne Koopman, Woody Collins, Ron Horii
    • Last month's meeting was a special meeting due to Kitty's presentation. We had 29 people attending.
    • Treasurer's report by Greg: Our bank accont balance is $625.30 at the moment. 
    • We are expecting to get our Beautify SJ Cycle 3 Grant check. The City Council has to approve the release of the funds. We will be getting $2480, $100 more than Cycle 2. Receipts for grant expenditures need to have descriptions of the items.
    • We have $397 earmarked for our 501c3 application. Kim is preparing letters to 6 public officials asking for endoresements. 
    • Mike had a list of suggested, but not committed, projects that he is going to submit to the Parks Department. We approved them. Mike will be setting up a meeting with the Parks Dept. to discuss them, just for FOSTP.
      • Remove the dirt and blackberries from around the Santa Teresa Grotto. It's getting overgrown. Maybe do the cleanup in March.
      • La Fuente or other type of annual event supported. It could use more community participation. We could help with the publicity.
      • National Night Out event - partnership with the Park’s Department
      • Ron’s photo classes as needed -TBA
      • Replace the cross at the Pedro Bernal house. Maybe put an interpretive sign there. It has an important history (see below).
      • Clean-up, gardening , and graffiti removal - as needed -TBA. We could help with park beautification projects.
      • Fundraiser – TBD. Roxanne said the schools did a fun run at Martial Cottle and raised $15K.
      • Pre Mother’s Day Hike  and various other hikes. We need to schedule them. We need to find out the deadline for submitting events.
      • Trailwork –  as needed -TBA
      • Farm equipment, Bean sprayer, & grist stone signage – advise a  Boy Scout to do the project  
      • Promote educational/historical activities at BGJ events - as needed -TBA
      • FOSTP celebration for volunteer projects at Santa Teresa Park- as needed -TBA
      • Whopper Tour
    • Ron asked Nancy Bonetti what she knew about the cross behind the Bonetti/Pedro Bernal House across from Bernal School. Nancy grew up in that house and was friends with the Joice's.  It looks like there are stories behind it. It was there until recently. It's gone now. Maintenance may have cleaned it up. Here's what Nancy said: "The cross was originally on top of our hill.  After my father died, the family moved it to where it is in this picture. It was placed on the hill when a priest said mass on the hill during the Rogation days, where he also blessed the crops of the season.  It was done on a hill where you could see the crops in the valley.  One was placed high on the Joice’s property a few years before ours was done, but it was later stolen.  The priest was Father Donald McDonnell.  He was a unique individual who truly lived the life of poverty and lived very frugally.  He drove an old Jeep and would say mass in the fields for the Mexican farm workers.  He was a major influence on Cesar Chavez.  Once, he showed up at our house late at night, hungry, and asked for a meal. You will find info on him on the Internet."  Here are some links: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150613978869318, https://tinyurl.com/sttf8q7
    • Ron gave his photo class on Nov. 10. The class was 30 reservation slots. They filled up. 10 more slots were added. They filled up. However, only 8 people showed up. They watched as he gave a slideshow in the barn. Ron's son Chris took pictures of the class in the barn. Joan Murphy and Kim Gardner came to help with the walk after the slideshow. The class walked around the ranch and went to Santa Teresa Spring.
    • Ron showed pictures: Since he didn't have time to show pictures at the last meeting, he showed pictures from October-November. Our tour of Grant Ranch, led by Ranger Lisa Pappanastos; La Fuente; raptor pictures; people flying gliders from the Joice Trail; Mike's ghost tour at the Bernal Ranch, Santa Teresa Spring, the Bear Tree Lot, Pyzak Ranch, and Bonetti Ranch; last month's meeting, showing how many people attended; the press conference at City Hall announcing the Coyote Valley purchase; Ron's photo class; sunset and storm cloud views; a school visit to the Bernal Ranch; rainbow views; Santa Teresa Spring needing cleanup.
    • FOSTP has a Yahoo Groups site, with pictures, files, and messages. Yahoo has changed their policy. All files and pictures will be eliminated. It will only be used for group email messaging. Ron got an archive of the files and pictures uploaded to the site. He has been recreating some of the albums on Facebook, such as Santa Teresa Spring over the years (Ron showed the album), and put links to them on our website.
    • Lynda Will's husband is now head of Park Maintenance.
    • There will be no meeting in January. There will be a potluck dinner at Mike's house on Feb. 6, 2020 at 6 pm.
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       Created 1/3/20 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park