Jackson Pathfinders August Meeting Minutes

The monthly meeting was held on Thursday, August 15, 2002, at 8:05 PM  in the Jackson Public Works Building on Don Connor Boulevard.  Tom Stevens, Treasurer, presided.  Members and guests present were Karen Borga, Recording Secretary, Dawn Senatore, Bill Tuohy, Dawn Rakow, Vice-chairperson, Anna Taddevo, Tracy Lefkowich, Leo Kissling, Jr., Karen Walzer, Bernadette Gill and Roger Friend.

The July minutes were circulated and approved with additions.

Treasurer, Tom Stevens reported $122.40 was spent for Pathfinders website and domain name renewal and $321.35 was spent at Staples for office supplies.  Total new spending was $443.75 leaving a budget balance of $3589.31.  The group approved a requisition for 250 t-shirts from the township vendor.

Corresponding Secretary, Sarah Ralston was absent.  Sarah wrote a letter to Public Works requesting storage space in the Public Works building.

Jackson Day:  Bernadette Gill discussed the parade route and hours for Pathfinders information table.

Grants:  Dawn Rakow reported no activity this past month.  Dawn and Leo are researching plants and tree species at the NJCF Frank Applegate Nature Trail to determine what signs to purchase with the grant money from Wal-Mart.

Mapping:  Tom Stevens explained a GPS mapping outing. Tom, Karen Borga, Tracy Lefkowich and her family went out near Route 571 and Reed Road.  The trail passes a man made lake going towards Perrineville Road.  Tracy discussed an interest in asking for an easement to use the fire road.  Research is needed to determine property owners for easement requests or donating property for trail use. 

NJCF Frank Applegate Road Nature Trail:  Leo Kissling reported that boy scout, Max Timko pruned near the deer feeders. Leo explained that it difficult to find an engineer willing to sign the bridge plans.  The group discussed contacting Rich Bizub to inquire about the engineer that had signed for the plans of the existing bridge.  Mr. Timko and his son, Max, met Leo and Tony Santa Maria at the trail.   Ryan Schulein also met with Leo and they discussed various planned projects at Frank Applegate.  Dawn mentioned reviewing for Ryan the boardwalk plans with Lisa MacCollum of NJCF.  Frank Peterson is getting discouraged by the lengthy delays in getting trail work approvals.  Frank may construct a footbridge as a substitute project for his scout badge.  Leo asked the group if he should ask Public Works to relocate the woodchips to open up more parking area in preparation for future trail work days.

Biking:  Ron Bruchez was absent.  The group discussed various ways to publicize details of planned bike rides.

Membership:  Tom Stevens circulated the sign up list from the open house at Handy Acres.

Land Acquisition:  Tom Stevens mentioned that we need a volunteer to research the property owners and blocks and lot information by Reed Road to Perrineville Road.  The group discussed asking Sarah Ralston to write a letter to the planning board asking them to consider easements to preserve existing trails and plan easements for future trails.  Tom suggested copies of Sarah's letter be sent to the Environmental Commission and the township forester.  The Ocean County Natural Lands Trust work list was circulated.

Wildlife Preservation: Tony Santa Maria was absent but submitted the following report:  I have almost completed the construction of the sundial for the wildlife viewing area.  It should be installed by the end of this month.  I will notify others when the task is complete.  I have also completed 3 more bench tops and I am presently awaiting the return of the Venezias from vacation in order to acquire the 6 - 44 inch telephone pole sections that I will need to install them  I have installed another woodduck nestbox at the forestry resource center at the request of Terry O'Leary.  Terry also has requested another Barred Owl nestbox which has been constructed and will be installed at my earliest convenience.  I have been invited to attend the fall festival at the resource center and will be building owl houses as I did last year.  It would be good if several Pathfinder members could assist me in this endeavor.  Anyone interested, please feel free to contact me.  I had to joy of meeting a father and son scout team at the wildlife viewing area this weekend.  They had cleared the area of the ever encroaching weed growth.  I shared with them some of my visions for the future and encouraged them to assist further if they so desired.  They inquired as to whether it would be possible for a group of scouts to camp out at the location in order to do more extensive work.  I told them I would present their request to the committee.  Is such a request feasible?

Scrapbook:  Tom Stevens reported that his daughters, Lauren and Alison have added another article from National Trails Day.  Also added was an article about two farms in Jackson approved for farmland preservation.

Publicity:  Bernadette Gill spoke about meeting Joe Kienzler of the Jackson Times.  Joe looks forward to publicizing our events.  

Forest Resource Education Center/Bowman Road:  The Fall Festival at the FREC is coming up Saturday, October 6,  10:00am - 3:00pm.  Volunteers are needed for Pathfinders information table, lead groups on hikes and also to assist Tony Santa Maria with owl house construction.  

The next monthly meeting will be held October 17, 2002 at 8:00PM in the Jackson Public Works Building.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:30 PM.  Submitted by Karen Borga.