San Juan Island Trails Committee
Minutes July 8, 2009

Present
Sue Buettell, Jody Burns, David Dehlendorf, Eileen Drath, Louise Dustrude, Rick Exstrom, David Harsh, Eleanor Hartmann, Liz Illg, Don Jarrell, David Jenkins, Dick Keefe, Mike Lazzari, Kyle Loring, Louisa Nishitani, Cinda Pierce, Mark Pierce, Andy Reid, Howie Rosenfeld, Dick Schuettge, Leslie Veirs.

Notices

1. No meeting in August.
2. Potluck at Peter Morrison’s home on August 9, 2 – 5 pm.  See below. 
3. Weekly Land Bank work parties continue every Thursday during the summer at 4 – 6 pm.  Emails will be sent each week with the exact location.

Call to Order, Introductions, & Minutes
The regular meeting was called to order by Chair David Dehlendorf at 5:05 pm. All present introduced themselves.  Minutes from the previous meeting on June 10, 2009 were approved as circulated by email.

Trail Tale
Dave Jenkins shared that on a recent hike he was lost in the Mitchell Hill/Mt. Young area.  Further discussion of the need for an improved map of the area continued later in the meeting (see below).

Potluck
Eileen Drath distributed a flyer and discussed the potluck on August 9 at the home of Peter Morrison off of Roche Harbor Rd.  Eileen, Alice Hurd, and Leslie Veirs have volunteered to coordinate the event.  Detailed information will be sent out via email and placed on the website.

Land Bank Work Parties
David discussed the on-going summer trail work parties that occur every Thursday from 4 – 6 pm on Land Bank properties.  Emails will be sent out in advance of each work party with details.  Information is also available on the Land Bank website.  The next event is tomorrow at the Frazer Homestead Preserve on Cattle Point Rd. just to the south of Rosler Rd.  The trail on this property is part of our Cattle Point Road Trail project.  Members are encouraged to attend tomorrow and to bring cordless drills with 9/16” drill bits for preparing the stringers for an elevated turnpike trail section.  Also bring extra battery packs and sledge hammers if possible.  

Nominees for Officers for 2009/2010
We now have nominees for each officer position for next year starting October 1, 2009:  Chair:  Cinda Pierce; at-large position: Mike Lazzari; Treasurer: Liz Illg; Vice Chair: Dick Keefe; Secretary: Jill Johnson.  Members are encouraged to email any existing steering committee members with additional nominees.  Voting for the new officers will take place at our next meeting on September 9.

Report on Mitchell Hill Map and Sign Project
Over the years numerous people have reported becoming lost in this area. As a result, Dick Keefe reported that he, Louise Dustrude, Tim Dustrude, Rik Karon, Nina LeBaron, and David Dehlendorf met yesterday to discuss ways to update the map that is posted on our website to help solve this problem. Dick, Rik, and Nina will meet again on July 9 to determine how best to improve and simplify the map. They will also discuss putting maps in boxes and posting large signs at the main entry areas. If Congress provides funds, Mitchell Hill will become part of the San Juan Island National Historical Park in 2010. The Trails Committee and other user groups will continue to work through Park Superintendent Peter Dederich in an effort to assure that Mitchell Hill continues to be available for walking, biking, and horseback riding.

Report on Cross Island Trail Hike on June 20
More than 20 members participated in a hike on June 20 from the Mitchell Hill parking area on West Valley Rd. to the Land Bank property on the east side of Cady Mountain.  David thanked Lars Sjoholm for leading the hike.  This trail is in the Trails Committee’s plan for future work.  There will be a follow-up hike from Egg Lake Rd. or Three Corners Lake Rd. to the Land Bank property as soon as we get permission of the land owners.  The trail, still in the early planning stage, would be across the north side of Cady Mountain.

Ideas for New Trail Projects
David Dehlendorf suggested that until Public Works determines whether trails within its road right-of-way must be ADA compliant, we should look at other trail opportunities that we can work on independently of Public Works.  Don Jarrell will speak with the Port of Friday Harbor about providing funds to build elevated walkways on certain sections of the existing trail at the airport so that they become usable on a year-round basis. 

The planned update of the existing Plan for Parks, Recreation, and Preserved Lands for San Juan County 2005-2010 will be discussed by Dave Jenkins and Loren Johnson with the Land Bank, Public Works, and County Parks, the three participants in the plan.  Dave and Loren have volunteered to coordinate our involvement in this update.

Although Friday Harbor Labs has told the Trails Committee in the past that it does not want its Point Caution Trail on our website, the trail is listed, with a map, in the new book ”Natural Areas in the San Juan Islands”, with a disclaimer that permission must first be granted by the labs to gain access.  Dave Jenkins will speak with Ken Seben of the labs to determine if this treatment of the trail in the book means that we could treat it in the same manner on our website. 

The owners continue to work on the greenscape plan for the Home Trust/Buck property and we have been told that it will include a multi-use trail.   A letter was sent expressing our interest in a trail easement.  David Dehlendorf will follow-up with Nancy DeVaux.

Website Management Training in August
We are going to try to take over some of the basic functions ourselves to save money. Ann Jarrell and Sue Buettell expressed interest in the training. We will ask Jill Johnson, as the new secretary, as well.

Treasurer’s Report
Rick Exstrom gave the Treasurer’s report.  The total budget for 2009 is $4,100.  Recent expenditures include:

• Equipment rental for Airport Trail mowing          $252
• Trails Workshop                             $158
• Dustrude Design (website maintainence)           $187

Year to-date we have spent $1,050. (We have not yet been billed by Island Rec for the CPR classes and L&I insurance.)

Discussion ensued about the need for additional copies of our 2006 trails plan, as we have only approximately 20 remaining.  Island Rec seems to be interested in 50 but not 100 copies.

Cattle Point Road Trail
Cinda Pierce reported that the unused Public Works right-of-way to the west of Golf Course Rd. just to the north of the golf club has been surveyed and flagged.  Public Works wants us to flag the location of the planned trail within this right-of-way. It was recommended that Nathanael Leonard, a 14-year old boy who hikes that area be involved in this project. 

An archeologist is examining the area of the trail connection within American Camp to determine if there are any significant bones or other native artifacts there.  (She will also examine the trail connection on English Camp property that we are working on to connect Roche Harbor to English Camp.) 

Howie Rosenfeld reported that Public Works has cut $15,000 from the Cattle Point Rd. trail project, with $ 5,000 remaining for the Trails Committee.

Roche Harbor Resort Trails
Sue Buettell distributed the Roche Harbor Resort trails map with trails labeled that need to be adopted by new trail stewards. Louise Dustrude and Andy Reid picked up additional trails.  There was discussion about usage of the trails and the number of maps used.  Sue will monitor how many maps we go through and report in at a future meeting.  (The maps are paid for by the resort. The Trails Committee does not pay for any of the costs of the trails.)

Vote on Island Rec Levy in November
Eileen Drath reported that Island Rec will have a 17 cents levy on the November ballot asking voter approval to renew its existing levy (10 cents per $1,000 of appraised value) plus additional funding (7 cents per $1,000 of appraised value) for the Friday Harbor middle school and high school sports programs.  Island Rec is prohibited from lobbying for its levy and thus the Trails Committee cannot lobby either.  However, as individuals we can support the levy. As a point of information, the ball fields project, including a proposed trail, is not in any way related to the levy, Island Rec is on a six-year set levy and has one more year left. If the levy fails, it still have one year to address this.  If the school comes up with its own funding before November, Island Rec will drop the 7 cent levy to fund the school sports programs.

Sally Thomsen has been invited to attend our September meeting to explain the levy.  Detailed information is also available on Island Rec’s website.

Plant List
Louisa Nishitani discussed the plant list on the web site and asked if anyone was interested in going on a walk using the list so that she could assess the usability of the list.  

Meeting adjourned at 6:28 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Sue Buettell, Secretary

NOTE: There will be no regular Wednesday meeting next month.  In lieu of an August meeting the Committee will have a potluck gathering at Peter Morrison's home on Sunday, August 9 from 2 - 5 p.m. Participants are to bring their own table setting and beverage, a dish to share with serving utensil, and a chair if possible. Weather permitting, we will be outside.

Peter lives at 480 Wild Rose Ranch Lane, off of Roche Harbor Road just north of Three Meadows Lane. Peter's drive is 1/2 mile in from Roche Harbor Road. Carpooling will be appreciated.

For answers to any questions (about this!) call Eileen Drath, 378-5646
or Alice Hurd, 378-2362.