MARTIN-FONTANA PARKS ASSOCIATION Saving our Park Trees

MFPA sends a big THANK YOU to the group of realtors who came out Saturday, Nov. 17 to spruce up the Jeffrey Fontana Memorial Garden.  Five years ago, the Santa Clara County Realtors Foundation adopted Jeffrey’s rose garden and have worked in the garden twice a year to keep it maintained.  Although the day was smoky, and the air quality was poor, they pulled weeds, lightly pruned plants, and spread mulch to control future weeds.  This group has donated over $3000 to Martin-Fontana Parks Association that has been used to purchase replacement plants, mulch, and garden materials since they first adopted the area in 2013.  Their funding and volunteers have been a crucial part of keeping the garden a fitting memorial to Officer Fontana.

Sincerely,
Linda Wilson
Past President and Membership Chair, MFPA

A big THANK YOU!!! to the 35 volunteers who worked together to make this event the biggest and best Heart of the Park celebration. The morning set up crew of Rich Zahner, Robert Braunstein, Brandon Koehne, Larry Sasscer, Theresa Wellman, Wayne and Linda Opp, Gary Wilson, Dan Judd, Mike Winters, Rosy and Gordon Bowring had tables, chairs and canopies set up and ready to go by noon! Annie Braunstein stepped in and handled the cash boxes, and Mike Kalashian was there to make sure the PayPal widgets worked.  Susan Mosher was our busy photographer recording the four- hour event.  Be sure to check out her great pics on this website.

Lisa Myers led the bird watching tour with a large group of enthusiastic birders.

Rod Carpenter brought together sponsors, PRNS staff, and the creator of the islands, Pat Pizzo, for the long-awaited ribbon cutting and dedication. Ellie Carpenter arranged the big red bow between the fences, and the robot bringing in the giant scissors was a big hit. Sunny Wagstaff’s photo presentation of building the islands from beginning to end showed the tremendous teamwork and effort it took to bring the project to completion.

Back in the main corral, Linda Opp and Jean LaMarca signed up eight new members and one renewal, while handing out membership applications to several interested attendees. Thanks to Linda Abad and Sophia Snyder who tried in vain to keep the ice cream and water cold, while manning the refreshment booth, while Kari Snyder ran the 50/50 raffle.

Rod Carpenter and his Dog Parade Team entertained the pet lovers with a well-run dog parade. Judges Courtney Granner, Johnny Khamis, and Stacey Winters presided over the large group of large and small dogs, both in costume and not, as owners proudly led their charges for the Strut Your Mutt event. Joy Stevens ran a smooth operation as the Master of Ceremonies, while Dick Stevens, Bunny Granner, Ellie Carpenter, Rosy Bowring, and David Chai registered the participants, helped give out prizes, and kept the whole event running smoothly. Rod did a wonderful job of rounding up all the volunteers for this event and making sure it ran smoothly.

Rich Grialou and Pat Burrow coordinated the booth for the Meet the Artists display, making sure all who were interested learned about the forthcoming mural painting project for the twelve concrete water vaults throughout Fontana and TJ Martin Parks. Thanks to Michele Dexter who brought the sound system from the D-10 council office for our use, Sunny Wagstaff for our backup MFPA sound system, all the displays, banners, stage, and so much more. Lee Pauser was there for the sixth year with his display of nesting boxes, bird species and their eggs, and a raft of information on barn owls in our parks. Finally, thanks to the organizations who sponsored the informational tables contributing so much to our event.

The$2/$5 raffle was a big hit with raffle items brought in by the MFPA Board of Directors, and Pat Pizzo who went after the Boulder Ridge golf certificate with a vengeance, finally wearing them down. Nancy Kalashian, Christine Noordam, Annie Braunstein and Michelle Judd did the amazing task of arranging the items, finding extra tables when they ran out of space and making sure each item had the correct ticket bag for the raffle draws. Mike Kalashian fulfilled his role as the “ticket hawker”, bringing raffle sales to a new height.

I close with thanks to my family for their long-suffering support of this event, as well as our neighbor, Ron Guevara who is always there to lend my husband and the rest of our volunteers a hand getting everything cleaned up and out of the park at the end of the day.

Linda Wilson

Please click below for the May 2018 Newsletter:

https://saveourparktrees.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/newsletter-may-2018-final-version.pdf

MFPA has not endorsed this proposal yet but has posted it so that you our readers can express your views on the proposal.

This information concerns our adjacent neighborhood park, the Guadalupe Oak Grove Park.  There is a proposal before the Open Space Authority (SCCOSA) to create an ‘amphitheater’ in the more-or-less open area just west of the rest-room in the GOGP. The amphitheater would be for daytime, youth educational-events.   The amphitheater is in the original, 1987 Master Plan for the GOGP and one can see an ‘concept sketch’ on the information board/kiosk, just west of the restroom.  You may view the proposal at the following URL:
https://www.openspaceauthority.org/system/user_files/Documents/17-18%20MQUOS%20Apps/San%20Jose%20Guadalupe%20–%20Application.PDF

The 1987 Master Plan for the Guadalupe Oak Grove Park is at:

https://saveourparktrees.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/guadalupe-oak-grove-park.pdf

A big Thank You to Mollie and Sue with Adopt-a-Park.  Tuesday, April 10 volunteers from middle, high school and Boy Scout troops joined with nearly 20 OSH volunteers in Jeffrey Fontana Park to spread 100 bags of mulch, pull tons of weeds and trim a tree that had become a huge shrub! Both the Scout gardens on the east side of McAbee and the Memorial Garden on the west side of McAbee were cleaned and mulched.  Then they weeded the Thorntree Drive native plant shrubs. Thanks to PRNS who picked up a ton of green waste from the work day.

Wednesday the school and Scout volunteers reported to TJ Martin Park at Burchell Ave. They trimmed shrubs, pulled a huge pile of weeds, and spread mulch down the fence line separating the homes from the park.  A great group, couldn’t have asked for more!  A big thanks to MFPA members Sunny Wagstaff, Larry Sasscer and Christine Noordam who worked with the volunteers on Tuesday in Fontana Park.  On Wednesday, MFPA members Rich Grialou, Sunny Wagstaff and Patrick Pizzo led the work party in TJ Martin.  Patrick Pizzo taught the kids how to weed, thin out crepe myrtle shrubs, and showed them the difference between a weed and a native plant that should remain.  The kids loved the experience and their teacher!

Biggest kudos to Sue Bowling from Adopt-a-Park who made sure things were done right, tools were kept in good shape and accounted for, and kept the kids going with her humor.  Finally, thanks to Michele Dexter from D-10 councilman Khamis’s office for including our parks in the work effort and arranged for the volunteers.

Thank you all for your park advocacy!  Our members called and emailed city council members and attended  budget meetings to bring city awareness to the desperate need for increased maintenance in our older neighborhood parks.  Your message was heard.  The new parks budget contains nine newly funded maintenance positions city-wide.  This is the first increase in maintenance personnel since 2008!

Our membership now includes 165 family and single memberships, with a total of 353 actual members.  You have allowed MFPA to play a major role in advocating a turn around of the City’s attitude toward parks.  Park maintenance finally was addressed in council meetings and budget talks. We look forward to seeing a gradual improvement in the care of our parks.

A big “Thank You“ to MFPA members, Chuck and Gail Haywood,

who have made a generous contribution to the Martin-Fontana Parks Association with the intent that a special fund be established to restore a section of the grass area in Fontana Park making it usable by all park goers.  New water piping, removal of gophers, and new grass seeding would all be part of a long-range plan.

The Haywoods stated in their letter that they remembered a time when kids played on the grass, dogs romped, and couples would sit under the trees or families would picnic.  Our parks can be all this again if we share that dream of how it once was and work to make it a reality.

If you would like to become a contributor to this effort, please send your contribution to  our new address: 

Martin-Fontana Parks Association,
6081 Meridian Ave., Suite 70 #246,
San Jose, CA 95120.