Pathfinders Meeting Minutes May 17, 2001

Chairperson, Karen Borga, called meeting to order at 8:15 in the employee lounge.

In Attendance: Karen Borga, Joy Cole, Dawn Rakow, Sarah Ralston, and newcomer Laura Auriemma.

April meeting minutes were corrected and approved.

Treasurer’s report, Tom Stevens: the township committee has approved Pathfinders 2001 budget. This year’s amount is $4500.00. We received a $500.00 increase over last year’s amount. We asked for $7500.00 and I will reconfigure the budget accordingly. New budget will be ready for our June meeting. Does anyone have any ideas for spending? What are our priorities for purchases?

Corresponding secretary: Sarah Ralston – no letters were written during the month.

Mapping: Tom Stevens – absent, submitted the following report: I want to encourage anyone that wants to go out on their own or with others to please contact me. I will supply maps and a GPS unit.

May 26 and 27 I want to organize two groups to map Colliers Mills and east of Route 571. A 4-wheel drive is needed for some of these areas. SIGN UP on the volunteer sheet with phone numbers. If anyone with a 4-wheel drive is available for an hour or so during the week, after work in the evenings, or on the weekends to do any mapping I will be happy to work with you on short notice.

If anyone would like a copy of the endangered species tape, please bring a blank 60 minutes cassette to a meeting and I’ll make the copies.

Publicity: Art Rosky – absent- The Tri-Town News had an article about the clean up of grounds by WaWa and the school grounds.

Biking: Uriah Albrink – absent – no report

Hiking: Jim Doyle, absent, submitted the following report: Monthly activities: The Lebanon State Forest hike was excellent. The weather held up nicely and we had a good turnout thanks to Karen Walzer, Tom and Lauren Stevens, Bill Tuohy, Elaine Grist, and Maureen and Barbara.

The hike was chosen to investigate the boardwalks through the swamp. They are simple and effective. We can definitely use the same method at Frank Applegate. Additionally, thanks to Bill and Elaine, we had a tutorial on trail marks. Lebanon uses spray paint for marking the trail and they were very effective. (We didn’t get lost.) The marks are a single dash for ongoing trail and two marks for turns, with the second above and two the left or right depending on the turn. We might want to consider using this cost effective method.

Next months planned activities:

No hike planned in May. June Hike destination and date TBD. I plan to post the details for the June hike by email and a Pathfinders web page posting.

Other news:

Joining the NY/NJ Trail conference.

Still waiting on group application from Claire. Will contact her next week to remind. Contact Claire Bertollo email claireb@nynjtc.org

Johnson Park: Sam Wimmer – absent – no report

Scrapbook: Lauren & Alison Stevens – no report

Website: Madeleine Nist – absent – no report

Land Acquisition: Karen Borga -- Theresa Lettman from the Ocean County Natural Land Trust contacted the Pathfinders with information about a piece of property on Hickory Road. Karen Borga will follow up.

Membership: Dawn Rakow – nothing new at this time

Insurance: Karen Layton – absent – no report

Frank Applegate Road: Dawn Rakow – Report from the April 29^th pruning day. Dawn, Tom Stevens and a group of boy scouts were there. They cleaned a lot of property.

Bowman Road/Forestry Center: Karen Walzer –

Forest Resource Education Center – Nothing new to report.

Jackson Memorial High School – clean up. Report submitted by Karen Walzer.

At the last meeting, a discussion took place about a trail used by high school students to get to the WaWa and the litter problem there. I called the school to ask for help in cleaning the trail. A clean up of the school grounds was being planned for April 27 as an earth day/arbor day event. I spoke to Vice Principal Kevin DiEugenio and Ms. Heather Weinstein, the teacher organizing the event. Both of them were eager to help with litter pick-up on the trail. Since the trail crosses private property, I called the owner, who gave permission for the clean up. On April 27, Tom Stevens and I went to the high school and participated in the clean –up event. The trail looks much better.

During the next school year, students taking a class in serving the community will be looking for projects to do. Both Mr. DiEugenio and Ms. Weinstein expressed a strong, interest in involving the students in projects for Pathfinders. I suggest a follow-up on this at the beginning of September. Ms. Weinstein talked about periodic clean up of the trail during the school year as well as helping with other Pathfinder projects.

I request that Sarah send a letter to Mr. DiEugenio and Ms. Weinstein thanking them for the help in cleaning up this trail and expressing interest in cooperating with their student group in the future. The address is: Jackson Memorial High School, 101 Don Connor Blvd. Jackson, and NJ 08527.

Education: Bill McCurdy – absent – no report

Pathfinders Events: National Trails Day, June 2, 2001 – Frank Applegate Road- 9:00AM to 2:00 PM., Please bring gloves and tools including: hand pruners, saws, power brush cutters, chainsaws, rakes, shovels, and wheel barrows.

Trail Blazing: this committee needs a chairman.

Discussions:

Our Shed at the Forestry Center: It was discussed that we should check with the forestry to find out the dimensions. Art has some wood; perhaps we could use that wood for building bridges. Karen Borga suggested perhaps we could purchase one from Home Depot. They would deliver it, put it together, and save us the time in doing that.

Steve Chisholm, from the Jackson Environmental Commission, volunteered to help Pathfinders plan trails. Steve is a certified tree specialist. Karen Borga, Tom Stevens and Dawn Rakow went to the Environmental Commission’s monthly meeting, May 8^th, and discussed getting some help at the Frank Applegate Nature Trail.

Is e-mail working for everyone who has a computer? Replies would be appreciated.

Meeting adjourned at 9:15PM

Respectfully submitted

Brenda Gregory, Recording Secretary

Corrected version posted 6/30/01