Friends of Santa Teresa Park Zoom Meeting, 9/4/25

 

    • This was an online Zoom videoconference meeting. Mike sent out a meeting link for this Zoom meeting.
    • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Kim Gardner, Ron Horii, David Huntley, Joan Murphy, Katrina Semene
    • We'll have our next FOSTP First Friday workday tomorrow, 9/5. 
    • Lee, Robin, and Youngmee have adopted the garden boxes at the Bernal Ranch in the Adopt-a-Spot program.
    • Ron showed a slideshow:
      • 8/15/25: amaryllis blooming, new communications boxes on the ranch house, fish in the pond.
      • 8/16/25: yellowstar thistles in the barnyard, left side of east barn open on weekends, small graffiti on the upper Norred barn, no sign at back end of maintenance yard at the Norred Trail to keep people out, trees of heaven growing back at the old Norred barn.
      • 9/2/25: poison oak growing amongst the climbing figs on the Manila Drive Wall, poison oak in the garden by the corner of the house, ID of the butterfly bushes in the butterfly box, corner of the garden box needs repair (install L-bracket), cleared weeds around the caretakers house and barnyards, blackberries growing back, conditions at Santa Teresa Spring, conditions at the Pyzak House.
      • 9/4/25: potential cleanup areas around the Pyzak House, hole in the fence. There's a hole in the back of the house. Boards have been ripped out. The bathroom has been trashed. There's graffiti on the walls. Weeds have been knocked down, but not swept up. There's a lot of leaves and dirt covering the front porch and driveway. The area around the old outbuildings is fenced off and has not been weeded. Trees of heaven are popping up all over. If they are cut down, more will take their place. There's a hole in the chain link fence near the house.
    • Katrina Semene, interpreter at the Bernal Ranch, talked about news in the parks.
      • There was a break-in at the Pedro Bernal House. They broke a window and tagged the kitchen. The window has been boarded up.
      • School field trips start on 10/3. They are every Friday until 12/5. There will be 10 trips.
      • Jack is the new intern at the Bernal Ranch. He will be opening the house and barn on Saturdays. He will be working until the end of December. 
      • Alex has been weeding every weekend.
      • La Fuente: the dancers will be doing 2 performances, 1/2 hour each, starting at 4:30 and 5:30. Ranger Roberto will be leading a Spanish walk at 6 pm. There will be an ice cream cart. Spanish translators will be available for families requesting translations. The horse will be by the east barn. 
      • Colby Meenk is the senior ranger for Santa Teresa/Hellyer. Vanessa Clayton, who was the acting senior ranger for Santa Teresa/Hellyer, is now the senior ranger at Martial Cottle Park.
      • Tomorrow, the interpretive team will be coming to clean out the house and sweep the barns.
    • La Fuente will be held on 9/20/25. 
      • Ron and David will be the lead event volunteers for FOSTP since Mike will be unavailable from 9/12 to 9/26. 
      • Ron, David, and Kim met at Mike's house on 8/22 to discuss the logistics.
      • Joan had eye problems, but hopes she can come. Her sister will help with setup and cleanup.
      • Mike will bring over supplies for our booth tomorrow before our FFF work day and store them in the east barn, which needs to be unlocked.After the event, we'll put them back into the barn and store them until Mike can pick them up after he gets back.
      • The booth will be in the same place as last year, backed up to the middle fence between the barnyards.
      • Canopies, tables, and chairs will be provided by the parks dept. We'll need 3 tables.
      • Booth setup will start at 2 pm, park staff arrive at 2:30 to setup the canopies, volunteers arrive at 3 pm, event starts at 4 pm, ends at 7 pm. Volunteers are needed to clean up and put away supplies.
      • Ron, David, and park volunteers will setup the booth.
      • We need to buy supplies for the booth and prizes for the games, which can be pencils, pens, and candy. We can spend $378 on events. We should spend <$100 on pumpkins and candy.
      • We'll need canopy weights, paperweights, duct tape, and a bucket for the beanbags. 
      • The games will be cornhole pumpkin toss and table games. There will be no sponge toss. It's too much trouble to bring it. We may need somebody to watch the cornhole game. We need to make lines for the kids to stand behind for the cornhole game.
      • Joan's sister will buy pizza for the volunteers. Dorene will buy candy for prizes. Kim will get pumpkins for booth decoration and prizes.
      • We'll have historical displays, including the model of the Bernal Adobe.
      • Ron will bring posters with pictures of the park. We'll have our banners.
      • We will raffle off pumpkins. We'll have 2 raffle drawings.
    • Newsletter:
      • Ron showed a draft of the newsletter. It has Mike's President's Message and articles about IBM closing its Almaden Lab, planning status for the Fortini Property, La Fuente, FFF, our Mothers and Flowers hike, school programs at the Bernal ranch (by Katrina), and the Stile Ranch Trail. it's 6 pages.
      • Ron also made a 1-page flyer that has a QR link to the newsletters. It shows the contents and a small version of the front page of the current newsletter. The flyer will be cheaper to print and pass out than the whole newsletter. He'll change it so the QR code links to the 2025 newsletter, but the flyer will have the URL for all the newsletters. 
      • Lasst year, we made 50 B&W copies of the newsletter. We spent $45 for 6 pages each, or $0.15 per page. Color costs $0.75 per page. We can print about 20 color copies and pass them out to VIPs, use 1 as a desk copy at events, and pass them out at meetings, like at the Board of Supervisors and Park Commission. We can get a 40% discount from Office Max for an order of $125 or more.
      • David will get it printed. We need to decide on how many to print.
    • Treasurer's report by David:
      • Our total assets are $1965.28.
      • For any expenses, take a picture of the receipt and email it to David, with an explanation of the purchase and the event it's for.
    • The California AG cashed our check. We are back in good standing. (We were late submitting our paperwork to the AG and had to pay a $600 fine.)
    • Mike sent out the mid-year report for our Beautify SJ Grant. It was a check-off list, due 9/10.
    • We should have a potluck or go to a restaurant after one of our FFF days, like in November. Takeout food is covered by our grant, but restaurant food is not, so we'll have to pay out of pocket.
    • On Sept. 6, there will be a cleanup at the archery range.
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       Created 9/12/25 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park
    Funding provided by a Beautify San Jose Grant