Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting Minutes for 5/1/03

  • Meeting attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Mario Blaum, Kitty Monahan, Judyth Hieb, Lynne Paulson, Mario Blaum, Holly Davis, Steve Crockett
  • Trail report: Mario, Judyth
    • The parks department has been closing off "volunteer" trails. 
    • On California Trail Days, volunteers cleared the Ohlone Trail between the archery range and the service road in preparation for the Sweco trail machine to grade it. Judyth said the Sweco hadn't gotten to it yet.
  • Trail Plans
    • The department will be updating the park maps. We should put in new trails before the maps are updated.
    • We need a trail to connect Buck Norred's with the Bernal Ranch. The Mounted Rangers may want to have the trail put in so they can get between the two sites.
    • Updating the park master plan is long process. Trails do not necessarily have to be in the park master plan to be put in. They can be put into site plans.
  • Treasurer's report (Holly): we have a balance of $854.80.
  • 4H (Holly): 
    • 4H wants to do an activity like an open house in August at the BGJ Ranch. They will have presentations on all the 4H projects.
    • They are researching putting dairy goats in the corral.
    • One of the chickens died, probably from people feeding it grass. Girls were seen feeding poison hemlock to the chickens. John Dorrance counted an animal rescue person, who flushed out the hens' crops.
  • Activities:
    • The dedication of the mounted ranger unit originally planned for 6/28 has been postponed because of time conflicts.
    • The Volunteer Recognition Dinner will be on Thursday June 5 at 6:30 pm. Tell Beeny Sander if you want to come to the dinner. We will be hosting the dinner at the upper clubhouse in place of the regular FOSTP meeting. We will need help setting it up. Meet there at 6:00. Mike is putting together a presentation with the theme of what Santa Teresa Park was like before it was a park. 
    • Rick Leonard will lead a Stairway to Heaven hike on 6/28 at 7:30 at the BGJ Ranch.
    • Barbecue lunch at the BGJ ranch on 6/28, just for FOSTP.
    • The parks commission meeting will be next Thursday.
  • Mike needs to send a list of FOSTP board members and phone numbers to Beeny. 
  • Mike got a letter from Don Gage. He wants to come talk to us. We should invite him to the VCC dinner.
  • Lynne Paulson, who is with the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association talked about the meeting held by the City of San Jose on 4/23 to discuss their consultants' report on the feasibility of the Coyote-Alamitos Canal Trail. The consultants studied the trail and several alternatives. Members of the community were there, both for and against the trail. The consultants recommended against most of the trail because of legal problems and high costs. They did recommend putting in part of the trail from Coyote Creek to Santa Teresa Park. While the audience was divided on the issue of the canal trail, they were almost unanimous in their support of preserving open space in the hills. Most wanted to open up hillside trails. The Santa Clara County Open Space Authority lists the Santa Teresa Hills as a top priority for preservation. There is a subdivision with a single house being proposed for the hills. STFNA and OSA have responded to it. The OSA can buy development rights or agricultural easements in the hills, which can prevent develoment without buying the land outright.
  • Judyth said she talked to Alan Leventhal at San Jose State. He is in the Social Sciences department working on California Indian bands. San Jose State has Indian artifacts from the Santa Teresa area. We would like to display Indian artifacts in the park.
  • Steve Crockett went through the trail-building academy. He is a trail lead.
  • John Dorrance said that there was re-bar and glass in Santa Teresa Springs.
  • Pyzak Ranch
    • Judyth went by the Pyzak Ranch site and saw that they are doing repairs. The county has a contract out to do restoration work on the property.
    • We need to plan a party or dedication ceremony for the purchase of the Pyzak Ranch. Forrest Williams wants to get involved.
    • In the park master plan, the Pyzak Ranch will be a museum. We may be able to use it for our meetings.
    • Curie narrows as it passes by the Pyzak house, presenting a hazard to bicyclists travelling down Curie, especially for kids riding bikes to Bernal School in the mornings. Now that the county owns the land, the road should be widened.
  • We need to E-mail our calendar of events to UNSCC to keep them informed of our events. We are covered by their insurance. They can contact us if they have a problem with our events.
  • Hours:
    • Mario Blaum:10
    • Judyth Hieb: 10
    • Holly Davis: 10
    • Kitty Monahan: 3
    • Ronald Horii: 30
    • Mike Boulland: 18
    • John Klimaszewski: 4
    • Lynne Paulson: 3
  • Website and Pictures: Ron
    • Ron has been updating the Website: http://www.stpfriends.org
    • The minutes from last month's meeting has pictures.
    • The events calendar has been updated.
    • Ron showed a slideshow of California Trail Day at the Ohlone Trail.
    • Ron showed a slideshow of the park taken over the past month. Some things shown: conditions of the Ohlone Trail before California Trail Day, the service road and storage building above the Ohlone Trail, wildflowers on Bernal Hill and the Rocky Ridge Trail, erosion on the Rocky Ridge Trail, the closed volunteer trails along it, the Sweco and cleared areas along the trail, the conditions at the Pyzak Ranch, new construction in progress at the Norred Ranch, trail clearings on the Coyote Peak Trail, the closed volunteeer trail to Coyote Peak, and views from Coyote Peak.
    • Ron will put some of his pictures on the web to be used as desktop wallpaper.
Ronald Horii, 
Secretary, Friends of Santa Teresa Park 

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Created 510/2003 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park