Friends of Santa Teresa Park Meeting Minutes for 4/4/02


  • Attendees: Mike Boulland, Ronald Horii, Kitty Monahan, Steve Crockett, Mario Blaum, Dorothy Wuss, Donna Steiner, Greg Bringelson
  • Ranger report (Greg Bringelson)
    • Greg is the park maintenance trail crew lead. He is under the natural resources department and will be going to state trails training.
    • The Coyote Peak Trail was repaired. They will be grading the trail, removing concrete water bars, and put in rolling dips and outslope the trail to combat erosion. 
    • One of their prime concerns of park trail maintenance is to prevent erosion from silting up creeks. They will not be grooming trails. They will be fixing them. They will correct erosion sources. 
    • They are working with the Muriel Wright Center, who will adopt the park. Detainees will be trained to do trail maintenance.
    • They have a long-range plan to create a volunteer trail crew. They will put together a crew of 15 people and put them through an intensive 1-year training cycle. They will be building retaining walls, putting in switchbacks, etc. These people will become leads for each park. They want to recruit people who have done lots of trail works. This long-range plan does not preclude doing volunteer work on trails now.
    • There are 4 new trail signs to be put up at the Stiles Ranch Trail, the Mine Trail, the Hidden Springs Trail, and the Joice-Bernal Trail. 
    • Eagle Scouts will be fixing the bridges from the archery range.
    • Earth Day/Trail Day April 20. They will work on the Ohlone Trail from the Nature Trail to just before the golf course pond. They want to get 50-60 people in 5-6 stations doing specialized work. Each group will do something different. The Wright Center supervisors will be invited to observe as an example to teach their work crews. 8:45 will be registration and a safety talk. At 12:00 pm, there will be a barbecue at the Pueblo area. All tools will be provided. Volunteers should bring their own gloves. They can park at the Pueblo area and will be ferried down. FOSTP can help with registration.
    • They will be redoing the nature trail, replacing the signs, killing off the poison oak, 
    • Another long-term goal is to re-route some of the trails. The standard for trail grades is 5-8%. Many trails in the park are steeper than this. They will try to more gradually follow the hill contours. 
    • Maintenance at the park is being handled by Henry Teixeira, who is under John Patterson, maintenance supervisor.
    • Marc Violette is one of the rangers at Santa Teresa. Fernando is the other ranger. The neighborhood park watch people need to meet with the rangers.
  • Volunteers Dinner:  FOSTP is sponsoring. The parks staff will do the decorating. Almaden Quicksilver, Chitactac Adams, and Mt Madonna parks will handle the entertainment. They will do skits on the history of Santa Clara County Parks. Ron Horii will do a computer slide show on the park. FOSTP volunteers come at 6:00 to help setup and stay after to help cleanup. John Heenan will be there around 4:00.
  • Calendar:
    • April 18: County Parks Volunteers dinner 6:30-9 pm, Santa Teresa upper clubhouse.
    • April 19: Earth Core. Joice-Bernal cleanup.
    • April 20: Earth Day/California Trail Day. Work on the Ohlone Trail. Starts at 8:45. FOSTP meet at 8:00 to help setup. 
    • April 25: Mike will give a presentation to the Argonauts at the 1st Congregational Church are Leigh & Hamilton. 6:30 setup, 7:00 presentation.
    • April 27: Joice-Bernal work day.
    • May 2: FOSTP meeting.
    • May 4: Mike will lead the Argonauts on a Bernal History Walk at 9:30 am to 2:00 pm, starting at Baldwin School.
    • May 18: National River Day creek clean-up.
    • June 29: Bernal/Joice/Gulnac Ranch dedication.
  • Volunteer hours:
    • Mario Blaum: 10
    • Ron Horii: 30
    • Kitty Monahan: 3
    • Mike Boulland: 15
    • Dorothy Wuss: 3
    • Steve Crockett: 10 for March, 25 for the year
    • Donna Steiner: 7
    • Volunteer hours at Joice-Bernal Ranch:
      • Neil Steiner - 86
      • Bill Steiner - 81.5
      • Donna Steiner - 70
      • Daniel Martinez - 72.25
      • Michael Martinez - 61.5
      • Jose Martinez - 59.5
      • Liz Martinez - 58.25
  • Joice-Bernal Ranch Dedication (Mike)
    • The dedication will be on June 29th from 11:00 on. 
    • The members voted on and approved Mike's proposed expenses: a horse wagon rental for $200, dedication T-shirts for $300, and support funds for the dedication - under $500.
    • Ron will help with a multimedia presentation.
    • Mike will interpret the springs.
    • We'll be giving away Alhambra water with Santa Teresa Springs labels on them. Mike has the labels.
    • Mike and Donna will pass out notices of the dedication to the community.
    • Kitty has arranged for 15 hay bales to be donated. She'll handle picking them up and delivering them. They will be used for seats for the dedication. Kitty will also handle getting chairs.
    • Mike will see about arranging for musical entertainment.
    • There will be a treasure hunt, animals, chicken coop, a tent, and the mounted unit.
    • There will be a history talk on the wagon.
    • Volunteers in costume will interpret the house. 
  • Account balance: $1157.53
  • Donna Steiner came to the meeting and will become a voting member of FOSTP. 
  • Ron Horii showed pictures of the Wildflower Walk on 3/9 with Mike, Doreen, and Rick. He also showed pictures of the Buck Norred Ranch development, new planters at the Joice-Bernal Ranch, improvement of the Coyote Peak Trail, ruts along the Coyote Peak Trail to Countryview Drive, litter and vandalism at the Countryview Drive entrance, "volunteer trails" through Big Oak Valley and along the Creek that crosses the Fortini Trail, the fire trail below the Lagatutta property, the illegal trail to the top of the Lagatutta property, wild pig damage along the Nature Trail, graffiti by the redwood tree on the Nature Trail, the archery range, the vandalism near the canal by the archery range, and  muddy trail conditions on the Rocky Ridge Trail, the Mine Trail, and the Ridge Trail.
  • Ron also put together a slide show on park wildflowers and is working on a slide show for the volunteer's dinner.
Ronald Horii, 
Secretary, Friends of Santa Teresa Park 
4/6/02 

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Created 4/6/2002 by Ronald Horii, secretary of the Friends of Santa Teresa Park