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- Attendees:
Mike Boulland, Kitty Monahan, Sam Drake, Kim Gardner, Greg & Roxanne Koopman, Ron
Horii. Visiting: Park Ranger Justin Everts
- Ron
showed pictures of Micro-Zoology night at the Bernal Ranch, oak
leaf galls, views from Bernal Hill, the Norred Trail, the Pyzak Ranch,
cattle grazing on Rocky Ridge, views from Coyote Peak, Coyote Peak sign
with grafitti removed, Pueblo road repair, archery class, views of the
Loma Fire, Santa Teresa Spring weed growth & replacement lights,
Outer Limits Night poster, the Manila Drive to Manila Way trail route.
- Justin
Everts is park ranger at Hellyer. He has been with the department for 2
years. Prior to Hellyer, he was at Sanborn and Anderson. He is
one of 2 permanent rangers at Hellyer. The other is Brian Liu. The
Hellyer unit is not fully-staffed yet. Justin talked about park news and events.
- Starting
Jan. 2, Frank
Weiland will be the new senior ranger at the Hellyer/Santa
Teresa/Coyote Creek Trail (from Metcalf north) unit. In the meantime,
Matt Piedmont and Ryan Lugo will be acting senior rangers at Hellyer.
Justin may also sub in. Frank Weiland has been acting as the manager of
the volunteer program in place of Gloria Gill. That job still needs to
be filled.
- There will be a Cal Berkley
Cycling Club race in the park on Sunday from 8 am to 4 pm, on most of
the park trails, starting at the Pueblo Area. There will be about 100
riders. They will have someone monitoring the cattle gates.
- The
Oak Grove School District did not have their cross-country race at
Santa Teresa Park this year. Their budget was cut in half, and they
couldn't afford the park event fee.
- There's
a new park practice of giving fee discounts to non-profits, but not
using volunteer hours in lieu of fees. It's too much trouble accounting
for the hours.
- There's a new program for recording volunteer hours, but it still has bugs and is not ready for volunteers to use.
- There's
a bike demo in Santa Teresa on Nov. 5. The organizers originally wanted
it to be on the 5th and 6th, but there is another event on the Coyote
Creek Trail on Nov. 6. Since the rangers are short-handed, they want
to avoid multiple events on the same day.
- There is a new neighbor by the Fortini Road entrance to the park.
- There
are 50 head of cattle on Rocky Ridge. They started calving 2 weeks ago
and will be calving through October. A cow escaped because someone tied a
cattle gate open on the Hidden Springs Trail. The cow was retrieved by
the rancher.
- The security lights at Santa Teresa Spring have been replaced. The lights have proximity sensors.
- There was a transient sleeping in one of the park restrooms.
- Earlier this year, there was a male and female homeless couple sleeping behind the golf course driving range.
- On the Calero Creek Trail north of the Stile Ranch entrance, a bicyclist was punched by a homeless man, who went to jail.
- Sam
said that transients and people living in RV's have been chased from
the Raleigh road undercrossing of Hwy 85, behind the Santa Teresa Light
Rail Station.
- Gunshots have been heard in the park, but no one
has been caught. Sometimes it's been on adjacent private property.
Sometimes it's been from cars driving down Bernal Road.
- Some kids were caught shooting airsoft guns at the spring.
- Road repairs have been done in the Pueblo Area, but more will be done on 10/11 and 10/16. The park road will be closed then.
- Wild pigs have been causing problems along Coyote Creek. They have been tearing up grass at Hellyer.
- Ron
mentioned that he saw a coyote on Canoas Creek behind La Colina Park
and that a neighbor of the park had her cat eaten in her backyard by a
coyote that had climbed over the fence.
- Treasurer report
(Greg): Our balance is $818.50. There are $330.76 in outstanding checks
to Ron and Mike to cover expenses for the newsletter, publications, and
recognition. We are expecting $1150 from the CAP 30 grant.
- We submitted the CAP Cycle 29 final report, which was due on 9/30.
- Mike got an application form for the UNSCC's event insurance.
- Mike
filled out a schedule of our upcoming activities and turned it into the
VCC, the parks, and the CAP Grant.
- Mike wants to do historic tours in
Santa Teresa and New Almaden. In order to lead tours outside of the
parks and be insured, he needs his own insurance. The insurance costs
$100/year through UNSCC. It is not per event. Mike will pay for it. This is separate
from the insurance for National Night Out and building the new trail,
which will be covered by the CAP Grant.
- Kitty said that the
OSA's Measure Q grants received 30 applications. 27 were valid. 11 will
be granted. We should look at applying for this grant next year.
- Eric
McKinley said he'd take the lead on the Santa Teresa Spring trail
extension project. Prospective Eagle Scout Andrew Yanogacio from Troop
227 will take on the project.
- Greg is interested in taking on
the cleanup of Santa Teresa Spring. (Ron showed pictures.) It needs
clearing of vines away from the shrine and debris from the top of the
cistern.
- Kim is working on biographies of our board. She needs to shorten Ron's and get Mike's picture.
- Sam
heard that developers want to put homes at the west end of the Santa
Teresa Hills at the end of Miracle Mountain Drive. In exchange, they
offered to put in trails that will lead to Santa Teresa Park. Ron
pointed out there are a lot of land owners between there and Santa
Teresa Park, so it may be an easement for a future trail that will need
to go through all theses properties. STFNA may have more details.
- Sam's geocaching class at Almaden Quicksilver on 10/8 has been cancelled. Only 4 people had signed up.
- 10/8 is Pioneer Day at the Casa Grande, starting at 11:00. There will be a dedication for the new pathway..
- 10/11
6:30-8:00 pm at the Southside Community Center, there will be a forum
hosted by Ash Kalra to discuss homelessness and what is being done
about it.
- 10/15 is stargazing and movie night at the Bernal Ranch from 7 pm to 10 pm.
- 10/17
6:30-8:00 pm at the Southside Community Center, there will be a
community and EIR scoping meeting about a proposed 410,000 square foot
warehouse/distribution center on a 30-acre plot in the Coyote Valley on
Blanchard Road and west of Old Monterey Road.
- 10/27 6:30-8:00 pm at the Edenvale Branch Library will be a District 2 High Speed Rail community input meeting.
- 11/12 is Ron's photography class at the Bernal Ranch from 10 am to 1 pm.
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