Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting, 12/6/07
	Attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Kitty Monahan, Paul Vincze,  Jenel Vincze, Mario Blaum, Ed Jackson, Sam Drake, Julie Lee Ranger Julie Lee talked about the residences at Santa Teresa Park and other issues: Pedro Bernal/Bonetti House (San Ignacio): $75K has been approved to connect the sewer line, getting permits from San Jose. There are still structural issues: the foundation, crumbly stairs, termites, and sheds. Not all the funding is there, but they are working on it. The house has been broken into twice by kids using it for drinking and partying, but they didn't vandalize it. It now has motion-sensing alarms. It is designated as a ranger's residence. Pyzak House (Curie):  $82K has been allocated for roof and structural repair. It has dry rot and other structural problems. The house has an alarm. This is designated as a maintenance person's residence. Bernal Ranch Caretaker's Cottage (Manila): Not much needed, just some patching, painting, and carpeting. This is designated as a maintenance person's residence. We talked about the "no parking" sign at the Bear Tree Lot. It discourages people from stopping to look at the historic monument. We recommended that it be changed to limited-time parking. Julie will look into it. Residents of the houses do not have duties in the park. They are not expected to maintain or patrol it as part of their residence. We talked about the possibility of putting a real caretaker in the Caretaker's cottage. This would require union approval. Camp hosts, like the one at the Norred Ranch, bring their own housing (trailer). There are no camp hosts living in park houses. Camp hosts don't do patrol checks. 4 people were cited at Santa Teresa Springs for being there after hours. There were some kids and adults shooting airsoft guns. They  were not cited. The Laurel Canyon waterfall area had been graffiti'd, was cleaned up, but has been hit again. We talked about the difficulty the neighbors on Manila Drive have been having getting the dispatchers to send patrols to Santa Teresa Spring. They don't know where it is. Julie is going to look into it and see if the spring is an assigned location. Ed asked if the rangers could get out of their car and walk up to the spring to check it out (people hide when the rangers come). Julie said the rangers have too much to do closing up the parks and don't have time to do that daily, but can do occasionally. The ranger patrol hours go to 1 1/2 hours after sunset. The site plan for the Santa Teresa Historic area: Planning is on-going. There have been 2 meetings already. The consultants have been hired. They are doing information gathering. The site runs from the Pyzak Ranch to Santa Teresa Spring. It does not include the BGJ Ranch or the Norred Ranch, which had their own plans. Shed removal at the Pyzak Ranch will be part of the site plan. Mike suggested that a field office be established in the historic area for rangers, maintenance, and interpretive personnel. Antoinette Romero will be coming to next month's meeting to discuss the site plan. We need to invite community members to participate. Mike talked about the site plan at the last Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association meeting. He challenged the city council members to help make Santa Teresa a destination. Ed said he was concerned that cars parked on the side of the road on Manila Drive next to the park could start fires in tall grass.  The street may be under San Jose city jurisdiction. If no parking signs are needed, the city would have to post them. The city of San Jose wants to extend the Albertson Parkway all the way to Santa Teresa Park along Manila Way. They would put some markings on the sidewalk. A new entrance to the park at the end of Manila Way can be addressed in the new site plan. Trail projects for Santa Teresa Park: Saturday January 5: Trail Day at the Stile Ranch entrance at San Vicente Rd., adding more rocks to the entrance for drainage. Saturday May 3: Trail Day on the Fortini Trail. The trail is unsafe in places because it is too narrow to allow horses to pass. Saturday May 31: Teasel removal, location TBD, but possibly at the Pueblo area meadow. Saturday June 7:  National Trail Day at the Stile Ranch Trail in the central section. This will be a nationally-advertized event. It is the only one in the County Parks. It will be a maintenance day only, not a trail construction day. Greg Bringelson will have a trail crew working on the Nature Trail between the nature trail and the service road. They wil flatten out rough areas in the trail. We are adopting the Norred Trail. We can do our own work on the trail. Can also do other trail projects. We just need to tell Heidi. Projects and volunteer hours We need to update our list of park projects. They must be OK'd by the parks department. The list for 2008 is due to Heidi by 12/14. It needs to be signed. Heidi will give it to Julie, Drew, and Robin for approval. We can't put down volunteer hours for activities that are not on the list. We can add items to the list, but need to give 2 weeks notice. Trail Watch hours count only if you are officially part of Trail Watch, which means training, including CPR and first aid, carry a radio or cellphone, wear a uniform with park insignias, and notify the rangers within 24 hours that you will be in the park. Trail Watch is a separate program from the park friends. (Hours are reported as part of Trail Watch, not FOSTP.) There was a lot of discussion about the volunteer hour reporting issue. Many of the activities we do are ad hoc and not pre-planned. We go out to the park and report problems, performing a service acting as the eyes and ears for the park, but not as a part of the formal Trail Watch. [They are reported at the FOSTP meetings, documented in our minutes, and often reported to park authorities, so they are FOSTP's internal trail watch.] We do activities outside the park, such as going to other neighborhood meetings and representing the interests of the Santa Teresa Park community and also promoting Santa Teresa Park in events such as the Santa Teresa Community Fest. We participate in park events, such as trail days and Fandango, and while those are not FOSTP events, we publicize and organize members to help out. [We also publicize and organize participation in other parks, such as Martial Cottle, Fantasy of Lights, and Almaden Quicksilver.] The barn at the BGJ Ranch is funded for the design, but not the construction, yet. 4H (Jenel): will be moving to the Martial Cottle Ranch, as the restoration of the old barn at the Bernal Ranch has been held up. 4H helped at Fantasy of Lights. The kids were passing out candy canes to cars leaving, but they were told to stop because they were holding up traffic. We signed the bylaws, which is necessary for the 501c3 application. It costs $300. We can ask for donations. Ron talked about the UNSCC conference. He attended several sessions. One of them was on the CAP Grant. The CAP Grant form has not been released yet, and the due date has not been set. Last year it was due Jan. 12. We can apply for a CAP Grant to pay the UNSCC fee and for our website. We cannot ask for money for the 501c3 fee, the lawyer fee, software, transportation costs (as for bus trips), or anything permanent. We can ask for money for events, but the events have to be planned out in detail, including date, place, budget, and if it's in a park or school, it needs written permission from the institution. Money isn't released until about July. We cannot pre-spend money and get reimbursed. We need to match at least 25% of the grant, but it can be matched by volunteer hours, valued at over $18/hour. Ron wrote up some notes from the CAP Grant class, pulled some information from last year's CAP grant, and put them here: http://www.stpfriends.org/CAPClass.rtf Ron passed out notices for the next task force meeting on the Martial Cottle Ranch, Dec. 11, 2007, 6-8 pm, Gunderson High School Library/Media Room. He attended and took some notes at the last meeting and put them here: http://www.stpfriends.org/Martial-Cottle-Workshop_11-15-07.doc Ron took pictures of the new displays and the sponsor signs at Fantasy of Lights and of the VIP dinner. He updated the webpage showing the displays. February's meeting will be a pot-luck dinner at Mike's house. Volunteer Hours and activities since our September meeting: Ronald Horii: 34 hours, FOSTP webpage, meeting prep., Fantasy of Lights pictures, park photography, slideshows, trails, Martial Cottle Ranch meeting. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting. Mike Boulland: 7 hours, FOSTP meeting prep. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting. Kitty Monahan: 3 hours, FOSTP meeting Paul Vincze: 10 hours, trails. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting. Mario Blaum: 4 hours, trails. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting. Ed Jackson: 6 hours, watching Santa Teresa Spring. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting. Sam Drake: 3 hours, geocaching liaison. 3 hours, FOSTP meeting. Return to the Friends of Santa Teresa Park Home Page

Created 12/06/07 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park