October | 2011 | MARTIN-FONTANA PARKS ASSOCIATION

Archive for October, 2011

28 Oct

Officer Jeffrey Fontana Honored

Posted by Martin-Fontana Parks Association in City of San Jose, Events, History, Jeffrey Fontana Park. Tagged: Jeffrey Fontana, Jeffrey Fontana Park, SJPD. Leave a comment

In honor of Officer Jeffrey Fontana, San Jose Police Officers placed a standing spray of flowers next to the park identification sign on McAbee.

Flowers

It was 10 years ago today that Officer Jeffrey Fontana was killed. The Jeffrey Fontana park was dedicated to him along with a memorial and plaque near the tot lot. He was shot in the line of duty while patrolling the near by neighborhood on the 28th of October, 2001.

15 Oct

THANKS EVERYBODY! WHAT A GREAT JOB!

Posted by Martin-Fontana Parks Association in City of San Jose, Events, Jeffrey Fontana Park, MFPA, Nancy Pyle, Our City Forest, PG&E. Tagged: Jeffrey Fontana Park, Our City Forest, Parks, PG&E, San Jose California, Trees. 3 comments

On Saturday October 15^th, approximately 100 eager volunteers showed up to help plant native shrubs in Jeffrey Fontana Park. (For more on the planting, see the article in the Almaden Times Weekly).

Under the direction of Dave Poeschel, (the gentleman on the far right in the green shirt), the bare dirt area from the children’s playground and east to Almaden Expressway was planted with 158 California native shrubs consisting of 10 different varieties.

Island A, under the leadership of Pat Pizzo, (the gentleman wearing the blue cap in the photo below), was planted with 13 different varieties of 21 California native shrubs.

Dropping by to offer her support was San Jose City Councilmember, Nancy Pyle. She is the lady with the sunglasses standing just behind the kneeling gentlemen. Starting from those standing from the left they are Ryan Huddlestun, Pat Pizzo (the leader and creator of “Island A”), Councilmember Nancy Pyle, Larry Sasscer, Leslie Reynolds, Vince Piazzisi, Pier Maggiani, unknown two ladies & gentleman. The person kneeling is Chris Reed. (Does anybody know the names of the three people on the far right ? If so please send their names to SaveOurParkTrees@gmail.com. Thanks.)

Volunteers consisted of:

The Martin-Fontana Parks Association, who provided refreshments, volunteers, planting plans and all the funding.
Our City Forest, who provided trained volunteers, expertise, and supervision of the planting process, as well as gloves and shovels.
San Jose City’s Adopt-a-Park Program, who provided volunteers, tools for planting and weeded the Beautiful Day project previously planted by the South Hills Community Church last December.
The Guadalupe Elementary School Scout Pack 340
Presentation High School volunteers
Pastor Greg Gates and his group of church volunteers
And other hard working neighbors and community members.

The park plans were developed by the MFPA Restoration Committee and approved by PG&E, the Santa Clara Water District (SCVWD), San Jose Parks Maintenance Division, and the Board of Directors of the MFPA.

We would like to thank everyone involved with this fall’s planting project. We hope as the years go by and the shrubs mature, folks will continue to take pride in their contribution to the project, whether through their MFPA membership dues or volunteer labor. We literally covered a lot a ground, but folks should know, that every effort was made to stretch MFPA funds so that many more future projects will also be possible. The $2500 cost of these Fall projects were completely funded by your donations to the Martin-Fontana Parks Association.

California native shrubs were selected as the best solution to the constraints of summer drought conditions, PG&E height limits, city safety and maintenance concerns, and SCVWD guidelines. We hope everyone will come to appreciate the subtle beauty of California’s natural heritage.

15 Oct