Friends of Webster Trails
April 11, 2011
Board Meeting
Present: Hal Harris, Rich Morrill, Larry Yost, Craig Pratt, Dennis Kuhn, Alisa Kokx, Jeff Darling, Sharon Galbraith, Rick Taddeo, Karen Mischler
Guests: Chris Schaeffer, Terry Ann Finocchiaro
March minutes will be amended with some minor changes.
Treasurer’s Report: Balances are: checking $2862; saving $3565; petty cash $141; total $6508. The Ken Lou grant contains $4200. Expenses were $333.
Membership: Dennis reported that are 137 memberships.
Communications: The board members gave accolades to Rick Taddeo for another terrific newsletter. Rick suggested the FWT may be able to save money on postage as some people would rather view the newsletter online.
Hikes: Dennis was hike leader for the March hike and there were 13 participants. The April hike is Gosnell Big Woods.
Scout Projects: Early summer may be a good time for the Four-Mile Creek bridge to be put in. Nick is the name of the scout on that project.
Hal will meet with Nick about the site and design of the bridge.
The kiosk for the Big Woods has a concept design and could be a scout project.
Hal contacted town and County on Gosnell drainage problem.
Norma got a plaque made for Jenna’s work in Vosburg Hollow and is working with Jenna on the kiosk (which should contain a map of the whole trail system.)
Rich will email Norma about this.
Habitat Committee: Jeff’s 3 students are working on blue lupine but are giving the plants a little bit too much TLC (read: water).
Trails: Jeff reported that there has been no movement regarding the Hojack Trail and no response from Jake Swingley. There also has been no movement regarding the Chiyoda trail from the town. Mark Y. will try to get permission for a culvert where the trail crosses Rt 250.
Hal emailed back and forth with Joe Herbst about staking out the Four Mile Creek parking lot. Should be done this week.
The May workday (5/8) will be at Whiting Rd. for maint. and grading. The Webster Park connecting trails also needs grading at the end.
Hal displayed a map of the northern corner of Whiting Rd. (near Lake) with the 500 foot distance from residences indicated. He had discussed this with Mark Yager and it was agreed that this area of the preserve is not appropriate for hunting.
Hal and Jeff, with Chris Schaeffer, will look routing for the proposed new trail to stay out of sight of the houses as much as possible.
The Youth Group from United Church of Christ will be available again on July 19th with about 40 youth to do work. Rich confirmed that there will be work to do. Ideas were either Four Mile Creek or invasive species removal or reroute on the Midnight property.
The Girl Scouts that are available for a May project (15 girls and 5 adults) could work on the Midnight Trail doing some pruning and earth moving.
Jeff will put an email out working work projects.
Gosnell –Mark OK’d the fence post repair. $80 - $100 is needed to make a new gate. Larry motioned and Jeff seconded to get Larry the needed funds for the new gate. The motion was passed.
Hal reported that the kiosk work at Gosnell is progressing. There will be a 2-sided kiosk near the parking lot and the onc near the entrance to the Big Woods will have one side. It should contain information about “What you will find in the Big Woods.”
Hal reviewed the mowing plan with Mark Y. who agreed to the 3 year cycle (North Field and Big Field.) the whole Big Field will be mowed this spring and then using the 3 year cycle. Next year in spring or fall the North Field will be moved. The Lakeview Field will be mowed annually. FWT would alert the Parks Dept. when brush hog work is needed.
Jeff has offered some low cost white pine seedlings to plant and screen the public from the neighboring house at Four Mile Creek and in the parking lot area of WRNP.
Dennis motioned that monies be provided for the white pine purchase for general buffers for parking lots as determined. Rick T. seconded the motion. The motion was passed.
There should be a plan for Whiting Rd. parking lot “beautification”.
Bandanas as rewards to volunteers were discussed. The total bill would be $330- for 100 bandanas. Jeff motioned that FWT purchase 100 bandanas and Rich seconded the motion. The motion passed. The bandanas will be yellow with a green logo. In November FWT will recognize people who have earned bandanas.
Dennis reported that the Community Arts Day FWT booth was a great success and good publicity.
It was decided that FWT would do a dinner at the Masonic Lodge for the 2011-2012 year if offered the opportunity.
The ADK EXPO is coming up in June. There needs to be further discussion regarding Webster Village Days.
Next meeting: May 9 at 7:15 – 8:30 at the Webster Museum.