|
Attending: Michael Bartmess, Carol Beckman,
Eric Billmeyer, Mary Burger, Steve Jennings, Ed Lynch, Eric Swab.
Guest: Barry Dolan, Cheryl Spencer, Mike Cotter.
Meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m.
Everyone introduced themselves to the prospective board
members. Mary suggested giving them
all a copy of the bylaws. Mary said
she could e-mail a copy. She
reviewed that prospective board members are asked to attend three meetings.
Gaps in coverage of activities will become apparent at meetings.
People might find something that fits for them.
Marketing, that is, getting word out, is one need.
Steve mentioned that we try to do things that the Forest Service doesn’t
have money to do.
Minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
Board Discussion:
Carol mentioned stickers.
Rock Art, the vendor, is trying to clear some old inventory and has
offered us arrow stickers for 65 cents each instead of the usual 90 cents each.
We are running low on the original order of about 500 arrows of each
color. Rock Art also has diagonal
arrows. We can buy a smaller number
of them, rather than needing to buy a batch of 250 or so.
With some discussion, the board decided to buy 200 of each color straight
arrow and 50 of each color of the diagonal arrow.
Steve met with the Forest Service.
Ed Murphy died last year at Saint Mary’s Falls.
His brother, John Murphy, raised money for trail improvements.
He’d also like to improve the parking lot and the overlook for the falls.
Steve met with the people concerned.
They want to do work that would not require a NEPA.
Steve and others concerned will go up to look at the trail and parking lot.
The parking lot is on an easement to the Forest Service.
It is part of the private parcel up for sale.
The $13,000 is to be transferred to Friends of the Peak.
It should go into a new account to be used separately for the Saint
Mary’s Falls trail work.
Work on the parking lot would take some money.
Parking blocks in the lot might help increase the number of spaces available.
The easement may or may not allow that.
John Murphy has done some work on the trail.
The smallest dozer available is 48”, checking with state parks and city
parks. The trail needs steps and
drains, with good stretches in between.
John Murphy’s emphasis is the falls themselves.
Reaching them with the alternating Thursday projects will probably take
two years. Above the falls,
volunteers will walk in from the top.
The signs need to be corrected. That
will take some money.
Steve is working on the operating plan.
He needs to obtain signatures.
WAAG meets on March 9. Steve has not
received feedback from the Forest Service yet.
Steve is working on dates. We
need dates for Barr Trail and Devil’s Playground.
Dates for Saint Mary’s Falls are set up.
Mary has permission from the city for the Saturday Saint
Mary’s Falls project. That’s on city
property.
Eric S. will get dates in the CMC newsletter when they are
set.
Eric B. had more information on the Pikes Peak Corps
program. Two weeks seemed too much
for the Crags trail this year. The
logistics are difficult to work out the first year.
He suggested a four day three night work session on Barr Trail, camping
at Barr Camp, then another four days on lower Barr Trail or somewhere else, but
as a day program, not overnight. The
cost was $12000. It would now be
$6475. The operating plan would need
to adjust. Barr Trail could use the
work. The applications are out.
Eric has easily three weeks’ worth of work for restoring Ski Creek.
The program is being well received in the community.
The team would be eight to ten high schoolers.
They can complete 90 hours with FOTP or RMFI and be eligible for $1000
Americorps scholarship. They could
make $2700 total, with the stipend, $1200, and $500 from RMFI.
RMFI has more projects to help them get 90 hours.
June 1 to June 15 is the schedule for the work on the creek.
June 23 to June 26 is the schedule for Barr Trail, for the camping
section. The other days are June 30
to July 2. We’d need to check with
Neal and Teresa. The group will use
dispersed camping. The rails on Barr
Trail need to be checked and replaced.
A few are cached up there. Two RMFI
staff will be with the workers.
Steve and Eric B. can go up a couple weeks before with the leaders to lay out a
plan.
The rails must be ordered.
Mary has the tools. The trail is
clear now, so Steve and Eric B. can go up anytime.
The cost for Friends of the Peak would be $4000 for the stipends, $2000
for field staff, $300 for food, $75 for equipment (stove and tents), for a total
of $6475. Friends of the Peak can
provide tools. RMFI won’t charge the
standard 22% overhead. Bob’s road
might be used for transportation, but the rails are long.
The tools can be driven in and out.
The Incline Club might help. The
inventory on how many rails are needed will help.
Eric B. will contact Neal and Teresa.
The monetary outlay was approved.
So for the operating plan, Devil’s Playground goes out and
Barr Trail goes in. Steve will send
the revised plan out. The tool
turnaround should work for
Horsethief
Park
. We set August 8 for the cairn
project. Freshman seminar needs to
go in at the end of August. Steve
has dates, so Steve will send them to Michael to set up a page.
Eric B. will send info on the Pikes Peak Corps for the website.
Steve would like an article in the spring newsletter for the Pikes Peak
Corps. Michael could put up
information now for recruiting.
Steve ran 350 newsletters and mailed them all out.
Eric S. sent out a copy of a proposal from Dale Latty.
He wants a special use permit to set up five campsites on the Peak, each
with 13 tent cabins for two people each, and do guide work.
The Pike Ranger District put him in contact with Friends of the Peak.
The plan requires a NEPA if it is not temporary structures.
Steve suggested that it needs to go through Forest Service before we take
a position. Eric S. has tried to
talk to the people at the Forest Service.
Steve will talk to the people at the Forest Service, and will get back to Mr.
Latty.
The plan has many hurdles.
Eric S. talked to Mountain Chalet about the Ring maps.
The contact there liked the idea.
Eric S. e-mailed a sample. The
suggestion was having it all on one map, rather than 9.
That would require printing a new map for any change.
Eric S. will pursue it. He
has not heard from National Geographic, but has access to the public domain
maps, and can use those instead.
Mary suggested meeting and explaining the advantages of individual maps.
Bill is personally willing to chip in money.
The state conservation chair for CMC wants local clubs
involved in trail maintenance. The
local conservation person has put together a MOU for the Forest Service.
They will have a crew leader training session on April 18-19.
It will be in the
Pikes Peak
area. Eric has asked for more
information. Eric would like to
notify the membership. An e-mail is
possible. Mary would like to know
who is running the training. There
will be a fee. CMC might pick up
part of the fee. Projects outside
Pikes Peak
proper exist, so that work need not overlap.
Steve will also talk to Forest Service.
The Pike Ranger District is starting the planning process
again. It will be for the northeast
two-fifths. It has much OHV usage.
The Denver CMC conservation chair is interested in wilderness
designation. Planning might start
this spring.
Michael mentioned the motor vehicle map critique.
He has data for Eric S. The
first map is out. For 2008 they had
a two week period for public input.
Eric S. is recruiting people to drive the routes and note problems, like new
routes developing, cutting. Michael
drove two of the roads. One had a
couple major erosion points, but was otherwise fairly good.
The other didn’t seem like an appropriate road.
OHV has money for projects with the Forest Service.
Michael has worked on the website.
He set up e-mail forwarding.
He’s still working on figuring out the database.
Steve thanked Michael for taking it over.
Michael converted to FrontPage.
He can put things up for a short time fairly easily.
Registration for projects online is available.
Eric S. found a history of the Incline on the website.
Eric wondered about adding a history of the
Fremont
Experimental
Forest
. Steve suggested putting it in the
newsletter, perhaps serialized, and also on the website separately.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05
p.m. |
