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Minutes November 16, 2004
Attendees: Miranda Shapiro, Jennie Webster, Amelia Dexter, Mike Smith, Alan Hoffmeister, John Bragg, Guadalupe Cisneros, Reg Pullen, Robert Golden, Dave Wash. John Bragg opened the meeting with a review of the planned agenda The Minutes were approved as read with one correction, Mike Law, State Parks, offered to help design replacement bridges to meet safety concerns at Winchester Trails. (Bob Golden motioned to approve and Alan Hoffmeister seconded the approval). Reports and Project updates: Letter to Schools Donna Bishop wrote a draft letter notifying schools about CRTP, our mission, purpose and how students can get involved. Miranda edited the letter and sent it to John Bragg for comment and distribution. Myrtle Point has a cross-country team that uses Winchester Trails so schools are already accessing trails and could be involved in helping with maintenance and creation of new trails. John Bragg will send the letter out to the group and get the fax letter for the Educational Service District. Healthy Trails Initiative Miranda Shapiro updated the group about the status of this initiative. There would be a hike once a month (twelve hikes a year). Trail hikes would be scheduled a year in advance to assist with promotion in newspapers and other news outlets. Land managers would be in charge of leading hikes for their trails. The hospital would be in charge of planning and promotion. CRTP would help coordinate between the land managers and the hospital and assist in promotion. The initial focus would be easy hikes of 1 to 2.5 miles in length. Trails include: Oregon Parks and Recreation Department: The following hiking areas offer hiking and walking on moderate terrain within a 45-minute drive of Coos Bay-North Bend:
City of Coos Bay:
Coos Bay School District:
US Bureau of Land Management:
US Forest Service:
John Bragg put together a summary of the Initiative which the group commented on the last meeting. The next step is to put together a meeting with Suzie McDaniels to go over roles of land managers of trails, the Bay Area Hospital and CRTP. John Bragg agreed to set up the meeting. The Bay Area Hospital will be invited to become a member of the partnership. It was agreed that it would be good to include interpretation on hikes. Rating trails would also be important and fortunately the trails are already rated on the CRTP website. Miranda agreed to email Fran Grosman from Curry County Hospital questions from the group including:
Miranda also agreed to talk with Mary Kemp who has started a similar initiative to Curry County in Bandon. Jenny Webster asked when the hikes would begin and everyone agreed that spring/summer would be a good time to start. One person suggested that we could include mountain bike rides and split up according to level of ability. It would also be a good idea to contact Bandon Dunes about hiking on their lands. Bandon Dunes might also give some money for advertising. Alan Hoffmeister said there is an employee in charge of alternative activities at the Bandon Dunes and would try to find their name and contact information. The Mill Casino might create a trail on their newly acquired property on the waterfront. Trail MonitorsThe group agreed that it would be good to pursue the possibility of having trail monitors at Winchester Trails to improve trail use and help prevent dumping and fires. Amelia Dexter agreed to talk with Trisha Wymore, volunteer trail patrol coordinator with the McDonald Dunn Forest which is 11,000 acres and is located close to Corvallis. Amelia used to be the volunteer trail patrol coordinator. Volunteer monitors are given training on how to be monitors, the history of the forest, rules on using the trails, and what to expect, and what is not allowed such as littering, use of non-commissioned trails, and reckless behavior. Monitors use Write-in-the-rain log books and wear orange vest with volunteer on it. There are approximately 40 volunteers on the mailing list with a core group of 7 or 8 people. Volunteers go out when they can, some do it as part of their exercise routine. One person mentioned that the California State System has Off Highway Vehicle Patrol volunteers and Mike Smith said the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area has volunteer trail monitors as well. Winchester Trails – Bridge Maintenance Anonymous Donation Mike Smith updated the group on the status of using the anonymous donation for bridge maintenance on the Winchester Trails System. Mike said it might have to go to the planning commission as a new county planner said we can’t build new trails on County Forest. However, if this project just fixes bridges, then South Coast Trail Riders are allowed to do so under their existing contract and are liable for their condition. It depends what the maintenance entails. The specs for the bridges may have to go to the planning commission. Another issue is a new rule for State Park grant monies which states that it is illegal for trail user groups to do maintenance on trails which applies to SCTR and the Winchester Trails*. A sub-contractor must be hired to do the maintenance which Mike Smith says usually costs way more than the group doing it themselves. Smith once sub-contracted with a group out of Portland for work on Winchester Trails and it was very expensive. Anyone they contract with can’t be friends with any of the members of SCTR. John Bragg suggested that OCEAN could be the administrator which may make State Parks feel better about where the money is going. * The following correction to the minutes was provided by Mike Law of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It references the underlined portion of the previous paragraph: “The law Mike (Smith) is referring to is not a new law, it has always been in place. It is not illegal for trail user groups to do maintenance on trails. However, OPRD can not pay their salaries. “Here is an excerpt from the letter OPRD sent to South Coast Trail Riders: ‘... If a member of the club or a family member associated with the club owns this company, there is a perceived conflict of interest. It is a conflict of interest and unethical for a grant recipient or grant manager to render financial gains from the proceeds of a grant. You cannot manage a grant and be paying yourself at the same time. This would mean that any South Coast Trail Riders member or their relatives or friends could not obtain any fiscal compensation from the grant. This billing from PRO MOTION appears to be in conflict with these rules. The only avenue to remove this conflict of interest is to show proof that a family member or relative won the contract through a competitive bidding process and made a declaration up front of their potential conflict of interest. ‘I have heard that South Coast Trail Riders pays its members to do trail maintenance. This letter will serve notice to cease and desist in this practice. Club members cannot and will not receive hourly wages or other fiscal compensation for work rendered on this grant. All club work is voluntary labor, hence precluded from being an expensed item. ...’ “What OPRD can and has paid for is the equipment (quads, tools, materials, etc). Clubs can use their time doing trail work as match for the purchase of materials and equipment, and many other clubs have done so in the past. “Regarding the comment that "Anyone they contract with can*t be friends with any of the members of SCTR": “Having friends of club members assist with trail work or grant work is fine, and encouraged. If a club or an agency is using volunteer labor as match in a grant request, we require a log that shows the date they worked, the names of all the induviduals, and how many hours they worked. “If anyone has questions about this feel free to contact me or the ATV grant Coordinator, Rocky Houston (503-986-0706).” Eden Valley Trail System Lupe Cisneros said the only thing left to finish the NEPA process is to do the write-up which is happening slowly. MOU/Bylaws John Bragg is going to update the bylaws/MOU from the last meeting and send them out to the group to be discussed and hopefully approved at our next meeting in January. Other Jenny Webster suggested it’s time to bring back the committees and also make a publicity committee. Many agreed it would be great to recruit a student to help with publicity. Donna Bishop could head the publicity committee. Next meeting The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 18th at 6:30 PM at the Coos Bay District BLM. Respectfully Submitted By |