A big THANK YOU to the volunteers who came out Nov. 14th and worked for several hours pruning, clearing brush, cleaning the pathway and the Antje Hirt memorial bench. The crew consisted of Christine Noordam, Michele La Plante, Kelly Shepherd, Linda Wilson, Dave Poeschel, Dan and Ian Judd, Rich Grialou, and Christopher Reed. Now the native plants in all five islands and the pathway are ready for a winter nap.
Special thanks to Ernie Hirt who came out to enjoy the bench under the oak tree that commemorates his late wife. Ernie and his wife were among the 46 neighbors who originally formed MFPA to save our park trees from the PG&E chain saws back in 2010.
Once again, thank you all so much!
Linda Wilson,
President of the Martin-Fontana Parks Association
*For those who don’t know where the Five Islands are, they are located at the west end of Jeffrey Fontana Park. They consist of 5 individual native plant islands.
On June 6th, 2021, a hard working group of 18 volunteers signed up with the San Jose Parks Recreation & Neighborhood Services Dept. to help the Martin-Fontana Parks Association prepare the Jeffrey Fontana Park’s two largest native plant islands ready for the long hot summer.
Wearing face masks and after passing COVID temperature checks, the volunteers went to work on the two islands to pull out dead native plants, prune back the spreading plants. To help conserve water over the summer, they hauled several buckets of mulch to cover the bare ground around the plants. The unused mulch from the ten cubic feet delivered by South Bay Materials will be added later in the summer. MFPA member donations funded the mulch purchase and will fund needed replacement plants in the late fall.
This Saturday volunteers from the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors will be meeting at the Jeffrey Fontana Memorial Rose Garden to spruce up the area and feed the roses. We would love to see you join them Saturday, July 10 at 8:15 am to pitch in and lend a hand!
Linda Wilson and Kelly Shepherd will be signing in the volunteers, and Lalo from Parks, Recreation and Neighbor Services (PRNS) will have all the tools, gloves, and other necessary equipment on hand. Ice cold water and healthy snacks will be provided. A canopy will be set up to provide some shade for anyone who wants to take a break.
Volunteers from the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors meet twice yearly to work in the memorial garden and have helped the Martin-Fontana Parks Association keep this area as a fitting memorial for Officer Jeffrey Fontana who was killed in a nearby neighborhood nearly 20 years ago.
A proposal to fund the remaining portion of a project to restore and make usable a .05 acre patch of grass located in tront of the Jeffrey Fontana Dog Park was submitted by Councilmember Matt Mahan’s office to San Jose City’s mayor Sam Liccardo. The proposal is to repair the turf in front of the dog park at Jeffrey Fontana Park with new sod and gopher wire.
Martin-Fontana Parks Association has saved $15,000 to contribute to the project along with Councilmember Matt Mahan’s office contributing $7,000.
MARTIN-FONTANA PARKS ASSOCIATION 