Approval of June 25 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Site Update (Sage): NCRA has submitted the signed lease for the property back to the City Manager to be executed. An exhibit to the lease will have the legal description. Is the property to be surveyed? Sage doesn’t know, but it may wait for the design. George has a friend with Ukiah Rotary who is willing to do the surveying for free. The Design Subcommittee is requesting exact dimensions. Sage will supply a copy of the legal dimensions to Matt, then the Design Subcommittee would make recommendations to the full committee on where landscaping would go and where the park proper would go. Rex had volunteered to mow the site but hasn’t been able to yet because of insurance concerns. Rex will talk to Sage after this meeting, because Rex’s insurance won’t cover him, saying if he volunteers his time it constitutes a job. Liability would fall on the City anyway, and they will work out the details.
“Future Home of Ukiah Skate Park” sign for the site: Sage shared 2 draft designs, both with our logo, with two different fonts for “Ukiah Skate Park” and both with a thermometer on one of the posts to depict our fundraising progress. It was suggested that the thermometer could be shaped like a skateboard. Motion to accept the fancy, colorful type for Ukiah Skate Park, and a skateboard-shaped thermometer was seconded and carried. The phone number (which is now question marks on the design) may be provided by the City with voicemail and with City staff checking the voicemail. Sage will check to see if there is a spare number and set it up if possible. If this works out, Sage will email Carole to send out the new phone number to the group. The sign is planned to be in the ground and covered until the kickoff barbecue, when it will be officially unveiled.
Justin asked if City Council is talking about using funds from the sale of the North Fire Station for the skate park. Discussion has occurred by City Council, but more in the way of a future possibility to match funds raised in the community. It was suggested that we make a request to the Council for a hold on some of the money, which has not yet been put into the General Fund. It would be a City Council agenda item if the funds asked to be transferred to the General Fund. There has been discussion of setting up a trust fund to cover the cost of the lease over time, which could come from funds from the sale of the station. It was recommended that we put our efforts into fundraising and not worry about it.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (Joy): Meeting was held at 11:00 just prior to this meeting. They are planning a Kickoff Barbecue August 28, 5 to 8 p.m. at the depot location at our site. Ukiah Rotary will be providing barbecued chicken, hamburgers, etc. for $7 a ticket. There will be a Golf Ball Drop whereby we sell 500 tickets, Rotary will sell another 500, all for $10 each. The first-place winner wins $1000, second place wins $500, third place wins $250. We will split the proceeds after expenses, with Ukiah Rotary taking about $4000 and the Skate Park Fund the same. City of Ukiah & NCRA will do a ceremonial lease signing with the unveiling of the “Future Home of” sign, Jubilee Jumps will provide their jumpy house for the little kids, and we’ll have music with a sound system donated by John Beatty. Mark your calendars, they’ll need lots of help!
Rex had an interesting meeting with the assistant manager of Home Depot, John Hatch. He was extremely enthusiastic about helping with the skate park. From out of the area, he has 3 children who will be interested in skateboarding. Sometimes Home Depot will accept a project and fund the whole thing. This project could be too expensive but they could perhaps cover half. He would very much like a plan of the park to show his home office, once we have it done. Home Depot wants to make an impact in the community they have just joined. Competition among potential providers may be beneficial. Rex will buy some tickets for the kickoff and give to some of these folks to make them welcome.
Justin has left a message for the AFI people, let them know we have a site and want to move forward on Ebay auction of their items for our benefit. Justin thinks the AFI people may just want to handle it without help from the Fundraising Subcommittee. A benefit concert will hopefully be scheduled for sometime this year, but Justin doesn’t know.
Silent auction/dinner we had talked about (in concept) to be held at the conference center: Justin says the neon sign is still available for that auction.
Justin will set up one open skate jam separate from everything else (maybe mid Sept), and then do the skate competition at PumpkinFest (Oct 16-17) rather than a week or two later as has been done before. Do we want to spend money to upgrade the ramps? Several have been destroyed by weather so more are needed to make a good course for these events. A motion to allow $750 toward rebuilding ramps was seconded and carried. We should check at Home Depot to see if they want to donate some materials. Storage space for the ramps is also needed, as they will continue to deteriorate if left outside as they have been since the last covered storage was lost. Dina thought NCRA might have a possibility of storage space at the old Coors building. She’ll look into it. Justin will give Carole the pledge forms he has, to get them all together in one place and on the spreadsheet Carole has kept. Justin has contacted some of the people who have signed pledge forms to let them know we have a site. He has checked with Walmart, where management can’t find the money set aside from the donation boxes. Dina will be checking with Walmart soon.
Rex has somebody to put together a Power Point presentation, a sophomore at the college named Jessica Ohland, who is in the phonebook. Joy will call and invite her to the 4:00 p.m. July 22 meeting of the power point workgroup. Ed spoke with Kate and learned that UPT is moving ahead to get a projector which will help with presentations.
The next Fundraising Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Friday, July 16, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the Main Street Program office at 200 S. School St.

Design Subcommittee Report: Nobody present knew if the meeting happened at the scheduled time of 10:00 today.
Sage reported that Matt and Larry had discussed getting a copy of the design for the Willits park, which they now have.
Rex’s friend Lonnie is a gifted artist and has contacted Justin to get involved. He could be a contact for designing a wall for our highest contributors. He could present some rough drafts as potential designs. This could develop as a wall to have Hoyman Browe’s contributor tiles mounted on. He would be willing to donate some of his time, and it was suggested he should attend the Design Subcommittee meetings, but probably wouldn’t be able to as he works in Windsor.
Rex had another item: He was to contact Beaverton, OR regarding their renowned park, for information on surfaces, etc. This will take some time of Rex’s. He’ll go by there if he’s in the area. Justin says they want any ideas, design items, etc. to be submitted to the Design Subcommittee.
Lisa talked about having visited a skate park in Haley, Idaho where they have a full pipe, which Justin says more than we can build or accept liability for. Lisa was very impressed with the flow of the park, the many features and the ability levels from beginning to very expert. All benches and features were skateable. Justin assures us plans for our park will include all ability levels with all features skateable.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report: Apparently no meeting has been held. See Justin’s report above under Fundraising Subcommittee Report.

Joy wanted to formally introduce Mo Taglio (Jim’s daughter), who may be interested in co-chairing the fundraising subcommittee. Having sat through this meeting, Mo said she wants to do whatever she can to help. Welcome to the effort, Mo!

Bring your ideas and suggestions regarding the website (www.ukiahskatepark.com): Justin reported that he went onto the website from the viewpoint of having money to donate, to see how it would work. He thought it could be difficult for some and suggested to make it easier, we also provide the information that people can go directly to the Savings Bank to make a deposit to the Ukiah Skate Park Fund account. Also we’d like to say that if people need a tax-exempt receipt for their donation they can contact the Community Foundation, and perhaps provide simple instructions, phone number or address. Because we’re not sure what restrictions there could be (none explicit in our agreement) to use of their name, Carole will call and ask Suzanne if it would be okay. Another suggestions was to put a Pay Pal link on the website for credit card donations. Carole will pass on these suggestions to Marianne, who couldn’t be here today.

Next Meeting:
Friday, July 23, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were Sage Sangiacomo, Ed Keller, George Phelan, Jonathan Whipple, Mo Taglio, Jim Mulheren, KZYX&Z Intern Nemo Smith, Matt Wilson (co-VP) and Carole Aleshire (Secretary).

Approval of July 9 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Site Update (Sage): Size questions raised by the Design Subcommittee will be answered as the site is being staked out today. An aerial of the site will be available before our next meeting. There are still questions to be asked of NCRA about the spur portion of the property, whether the spurs are to be removed or not. The old railroad ties & rails are still on the site in a heap, and Larry is looking into where the pile needs to be moved off the site. Sage thought Dina might be talking to NCRA’s maintenance person about this. If we can we move them to another location, we’ll be happy to do it.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (George): Meeting was held at 11:00 just prior to this meeting. They plan to have meetings in the same time slot prior to this meeting every other week rather than every week, as had been discussed last time.
Dina & George were planning to work together on the brochure but haven’t been able to get together and with their busy schedules, would be hard pressed to get anything together before the August 28 kickoff event. If anyone else wants to take the lead on this project, Dina and George will help but can’t lead the process. The parts needed (like our mission statement) are all on the website so nothing needs to be invented. This is not critical for the event, but is needed for questions as they come up as happened with Home Depot for Rex. Matt has a friend who does layout and printing, and has been asking Matt how he can help. Matt will contact him and ask him to call George.
Carole checked with Suzanne Norgaard of the Community Foundation of Mendocino County on how we may present the information for people needing a tax-exempt donation receipt, and was told that we can suggest they write a check to “CFMC Skate Park Fund” and mail or drop it off at their office at 135 W. Gobbi St., Suite 204. They will automatically be sent a receipt. That, in addition to the method of directly making a deposit to the Ukiah Skate Park Fund at the Savings Bank for those not needing tax-exempt receipts, will be added to the donation page on the website. Also on the website is the form to pledge money, materials, labor, etc
Nemo will put our donation information out on KZYX&Z, as well as news of the upcoming event, the website and the new message phone number Sage secured that will provide current information, which is 463-6281. People may call this number to volunteer to help on Aug. 28. City staff will take down messages and pass them on as appropriate.
The event on August 28 is scheduled for 5:00 – 8:00 p.m., but set-up will start at 9:00 a.m. in order to avoid the heat of the day. We will need a big show of skaters to help with the setup, cooking & cleanup. We need someone to be an organizer for the young people. Matt will ask Eric from Justin’s shop if he can do it. Matt will also contact Mike Ridell of the skateboard club at the high school about getting club members involved. Raffle tickets for the golf ball drop sponsored by Ukiah Rotary should be printed and brought by George to our next meeting. We will be responsible for selling 500, and Rotary will sell 500. Unsold tickets will be kept at Ukiah Main Street where they can be picked up in batches for our members to sell.
Tickets for the barbecue to be put on by Ukiah Rotary will be on sale at Freedom Skate Shop, Mendocino Book Company and at the event. Jonathan asked what we want for the band and the timeframes when we want music, as he has committed to book the music. Consensus was that for this event, we want music for all generations, perhaps low-key as background, not to compete with the planned events. He’ll check with George or Joy for timing. Asked about a DJ instead of a band, it was supported by the fundraising subcommittee members present. Sage has to figure out how much power is available. There will be no lights, and dark should fall around 8:00. The sound system should be provided by the band or DJ, and John Beatty is providing a sound system for PA.
Matt has the half-pipe that had been set up at PAL that might be available if modified. Sage will check with Larry to see if it’s okay to set it up. There may not be enough labor to get it fixed up.
The next Fundraising Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 6, 11:00 to 12:00 noon at City Hall’s meeting room at 411 W. Clay.

Design Subcommittee Report: Matt has gone to the Mexican border to look at parks, and Justin has been doing the same. Looks like Wormhoudt will be the planner as they’re equipped with the proper licenses and not many others are. Residents want to donate labor, and Grindline is another company that uses a lot of volunteer labor. Subcommittee meetings had not been scheduled because dimensions have not been obtained yet. Matt, as subcommittee chair, set a Design Subcommittee meeting for August 6 at 1:00 in City Hall’s meeting room at 411 W. Clay, immediately following the next full committee meeting. Matt will call people on the subcommittee to let them know.
Nemo gave us the business card for KZYX&Z News Director Annie Esposito, to be added to our resource list, and someone we should call when major events are scheduled.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report: No report. Justin is out of town.

Next Meeting:
Friday, August 6, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were Joy Beeler (Treasurer), Jonathan Whipple, Mo Taglio, George Phelan, Bob Beltrami, Larry DeKnoblough, Sage Sangiacomo, Justin Capri (co-VP) and Carole Aleshire (Secretary).

Approval of July 23 & Aug. 6 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Site Update (Larry): With the current NCRA operations, we will stick with the current configuration of the property, maintaining the spur tracks. Acknowledging that it would be better to have a more square configuration for the skate park, for the time being we’ll leave the spur and move ahead with configuring the parcel, leaving the western triangle in landscaping, with the park at the eastern portion of the property near Leslie. We have permission to move the piles of railroad materials away in the next week, to be done by City staff. Justin will be notified so he can select pieces of rail and ties for the park. Preparations for the Aug. 28 event continue, with the grounds in the midst of a mow job, and plans to have some of the graffiti removed and the grounds around the depot cleaned up.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (Joy): Meeting was held today at 11:00, with Allen Carter from Kiwanis in attendance for the first time. Kiwanis will set up a root beer float booth, charge a fee for the treats and donate it to the skate park effort. They have around 35 volunteers to help with set up or parking or whatever we need, and Allen took some Golf Ball Drop tickets to sell.
Volunteers should be at the site at 9:00 a.m. to set up before the heat of the day, then the event will start at 5:00 with lots more help needed.
Press releases are out, and mailings have gone out. Raleys & Walmart are passing out flyers. Our message phone (463-6281) has a very nice message by Mo, says Joy. Rainbow Ag is donating 75 bales of hay. Zack Schatt wants to donate some of their goods for the event.
Details of the events and timing and food for the event were discussed.
Larry will be calling Dina to set up a time to meet with re cleanup of the site. He’ll email the date and time to the group in case anyone wants to go along.
There has been some reaction to the press releases about Aug. 28 being a kick-off fundraising event, with callers wondering where the money they’ve donated in prior years has gone. A follow-up article appeared in the paper clarifying that we do have funds left from prior fundraisers but the amount we now have to raise is huge, around $500,000, so it’s a kick-off for our major fundraising effort.
Justin showed us a flyer for Willits Skate Park’s fundraising for their donor wall being done by Elizabeth Raybee of Potter Valley. The donor reservation display is set up at Bank of Willits, looks good and is well placed for maximum advantage.
Hoyman Browe has stepped up to create our donor wall. We might borrow some of the marketing strategies employed by the Willits group.
Next subcommittee meeting: Thursday, Aug. 26 at noon at the Conference Center, further planning for the event 2 days later.

Design Subcommittee Report (Justin): No meetings have been held other than Justin and Matt getting together to share ideas, with Larry and Sage involved at some points. They know what they want, will be getting dimensions from other parks, both Justin and Matt covering lots of parks and getting their ideas shaped up. They want a small area especially for younger skaters where parents can be up close, with the more southern 80’ section at the back (south) for the big bowl, and landscaping at the western part. They will be involving the community of skaters when they have some basic ideas down.
Justin made a report to the City Council this week. They asked about bleachers, and he shared that he would like to use railroad ties for seating, to maintain the theme of the railroad. He and Matt want for everything built in to have a purpose, like the railroad ties. Justin thinks it would be good to have a swing set or maybe a railroad car for kids to play on while their parents skate.
No next meeting date set.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report (Justin): Sept 25 will be the date of the Skate Jam downtown, at the regular spot on Clay between School and Oak. They won’t have music this year other than a boombox with a DJ at the course.
Justin and Dave Madrigal are discussing scheduling of Willits Skate Park’s grand opening to avoid Pumpkinfest, scheduled for October 16-17 to include this year’s skate competition.

Next Meeting:
Friday, September 3, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were Richard Shoemaker, Joy Beeler (Treasurer), George Phelan, Bob Beltrami (President), Ed Keller, Carole Aleshire (Secretary), Sage Sangiacomo, Matt Wilson (co-VP), Mo Taglio and Justin Capri (co-VP)

Approval of Aug. 20 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Site Update (Sage): The site was cleared before last Saturday’s event. NCRA did most of the clearing, then the City came in after and finished up. The sign, currently on a temporary stand, will be put into the ground in the pocket park. toward the back. The pocket park is being landscaped on the 18th, and the sign will be put in after that so it can be placed without being obscured by landscaping.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (Joy): The subcommittee met today briefly, talking about the next steps in fundraising.
Michael Kisslinger approached us at the barbecue to offer his services to help write a comprehensive fundraising plan to raise $600,000. Joy would like to open up this effort to all of us to attend the several meetings it will take to map out the plan, a positive and wonderful offer of Michael’s for no charge. Michael is only available in the mornings due to his job commitments. 8:00 or 9:00 on weekday mornings is most likely. Who can participate? Bob will offer a Public Health meeting place and take part, facilitating if needed. Ed, George after crush (mid-October), Matt (will need reminder phone calls from Joy), Mo, and Sage.
Great turnout at the barbecue with the whole community coming together with Kiwanis and Rotary, it was great to see! The unofficial total of proceeds is around $9000. Good job everyone! The Golf Ball Drop was a big success, quite a sight to see. We wish the media had been there to take pictures, as it was a very exciting visual event.
Richard is here today for information purposes only, quite busy until after November. Have we looked into Prop 40 or 12 funds? Sage: yes on Prop 40, but Prop12 is done with competitive grants. Prop 40 was a clean water bond measure passed in California 2 years ago. It has many forms of allocation, covering many different places. Part is a per capita allocation, with municipalities receiving a minimum $220,000 based on per capita, including Ukiah, Willits and Brooktrails at that level. The County is receiving 1.2 million. Also competitive grants are available, but there are only a couple of grants that we qualify for, and one in particular. The City, on behalf of the Committee, submitted one grant proposal for Prop 12 but was denied. Roberta Z’burg Harris grants are asking for different types of projects of interest. Two skateparks were granted last time around, and the City is asking about it again this time, with no indication so far one way or the other. Tennis is of interest, a sport in decline, whereas skateparks are up and coming. We have the municipal pool, skatepark and Anton Stadium upgrade as potentially appropriate projects. Grants are due by December 10, and the City may go for all three. Richard recommends Cathy Hopper of Rodin and Hopper as a grant writer if we need one. Because we’re not a 501(c)3 corporation, we will need the City to be our applicant, and their grantwriters will take the lead. We also have the option of collaborating with County government on these grants. The City has talked to the project manager of these grants about this concept, but no discussions have been held yet with the County. A City/County coalition would need to form a planning process for all of these projects. There are 5 districts, 5 supervisors, 4 cities. The skate park could be an appropriate project for this collaboration in that it has regional interest and will draw from outlying areas, but Willits’ skate park in the mix too complicates it a bit. City and County are working together on the Anton Stadium project. On Prop. 40, everyone gets their shot at the funds but the grants won’t necessarily view the skate park as regional. Anton has City money coming in too which makes it a more likely winner as it’s leveraged. Willits skate park got Prop. 12 money. Richard left us with the application process information, a list of those who have won it before and some information for other grants.

Design Subcommittee Report (Justin): Justin and Matt met yesterday, talked about a few ideas, got to walk the site and get a feel for how big it can be. They really want a kids’ area designed in for those just learning, probably out front, set back from the creek to have some grassy areas for picnic tables, maybe a berm to sit on to watch. It would be great to have some swings or other playground equipment in that area as well.
The plan is to come up with about 10 designs, then begin work on footage and getting it to scale. Justin has been talking to Site Skateparks, working on Willits’ park. There is a good range of people there to talk to. They have a computer program to help with the designs and hopefully will sit down soon with Justin. Once they have 5 or 6 designs, Matt and Justin want to bring in more skaters to make it a project of the skating community, picking out the features they want to go into the final computer design. Justin is taking down names numbers of those interested in helping with the design. Taking the design to a public forum is not too far down the line. Matt hopes for a 10-foot bowl (Willits has one 8.5 feet deep) but wonders how our insurance would view that. San Rafael has a new park with a 10-foot bowl. This would be enticing to big time competitors and bring in money. Justin is also talking to the Willits people about coping materials—black steel or galvanized or stainless (expensive!) Ed says a recycler south of town says the price of scrap stainless is very low, could be a source. Ed will talk to the proprieter and ask him to save materials.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report (Justin): Justin brought flyers for the skate jam on Saturday. Sept. 25. He wants to keep it low key and simple, just for the kids to jam, not making it a big City event. He’ll include a raffle and food & drinks for sale, with waivers required for under 18-year-olds, $5 donation to skate. Ideas for raffle are welcome. There will be no alcohol. Justin will deal with advertising, setup and cleanup, with kids’ help, but as always will need people to sign up skaters, sell raffle tickets, etc. There will no music other than a DJ on the course. Would Kiwanis want to sell root beer floats again? Matt will check with Allen Carter. Bob will check with Lions, George will check with Rotary, to see what activities these service clubs may want to provide. Justin would like to use Jim’s big truck to move ramps; Mo will check with Jim. Booth space will be available for about $50 for anyone interested in selling their wares. School from Stephenson to Clay will be open for booths, jumpy house, etc. Anyone interested should contact Justin. The skate club at Ukiah High doesn’t seem to be going any more, not much skating in town these days with it prohibited everywhere
We still don’t have a good secure place to store the ramps between events and over the winter. Perhaps we should rent a public storage locker, but it would be so expensive for the approximately 500 square feet we need. Maybe one of the storage places would be willing to donate a space if their name appears everywhere we advertise. Cox & Mayfield own C&M Mini Storage. Ed will call Jack to inquire about the possibility.
The skate competition this year will be on Perkins between State and School at PumpkinFest, Oct 16 & 17.
Fundraiser idea: have local artists paint the bottom of decks, then auction them off. Another, have a fiberglass truck painted by locals, then put on display around town and finally auction it off (public art project).

Next Meeting:
Friday, September 17, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were Joy Beeler (Treasurer), Larry DeKnoblough, Ed Keller, Carole Aleshire (Secretary), Mo Taglio, Justin Capri (co-VP), and Alex Nicholson from Ukiah High’s newspaper.

Approval of Sept. 3 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Various Topics Raised and Discussed:
• We have accepted the offer from SPACE to cover the concession and receive the concession proceeds at their Dec. 11 Winter Concert. The event will be at the Mendocino College Center Theater and benefits SPACE’s scholarships. Our participation will be organized by the Fundraising Subcommittee as the time draws near. Can we sell alcohol? Carole will ask Laurel. Robin Collier (Cheesecake Momma) has said she wants to help us out with food, so Joy will be sure she gets approached for this event.
• Written recognition of donors to the barbecue: Joy and Larry will get together and do it on our letterhead, mailing through the City. Want to include how much we raised at the event, but the official total is not compiled yet.
• Mo brought a couple of questions from Marianne about the website: should we include the hotline number on the website? Mixed response to this question—the website has most of the information and ways to contact us, but it could be easier for some to call the number and leave a message. Do we want to update the friends and resources list? Consensus seemed to be to update the list as friends and supporters, with names only (as it is now). Include the companies donating too!
• Mo has compiled the responses to our survey but some responses are hard to categorize. Should she bring this project to the whole committee or to the Fundraising Subcommittee? To the full committee, to be added to the agenda for next meeting.

Site Update (Larry): Not much to say, nothing has changed since the barbecue. Plantings are planned for Saturday at the pocket park, and the Ukiah Skate Park sign will be put into the ground after that. Justin asked if a soils test has been done on the site. Not recently, but Larry will investigate getting this scheduled.
Larry pointed out that we have an election coming up, with the majority of the City Council up for reelection. Paul Anderson’s position will be filled by appointment by the existing Council, probably in November just after the election. As a committee we should monitor the candidates’ positions on the skate park at any opportunity for public questioning, as we could have a nearly completely new Council of unknown opinions. Council support is extremely important to our effort.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (Joy): The subcommittee has not met since the last full committee meeting. The next step is the 3+-hour meeting with Michael Kisslinger trying to be scheduled for a weekday morning for the purpose of designing an overall fundraising plan. Joy has heard from most everyone involved except for Larry or Sage, who will be critical. Joy will get their input Monday on their availability, then move on to schedule the meeting.
We wondered if any donations are coming in yet on our behalf to the Community Foundation. Joy gets a monthly statement from them, still showing only what we initially donated to open the fund.
Joy gave names of donators to Mo to start a mailing list, with name, address & phone number.
Next Scheduled Meeting will be the planning meeting with Michael, which will start a calendar and planning for fundraising events. Time and place not yet determined.

Design Subcommittee Report (Justin): Justin and Matt have not met since last full committee meeting. Justin has been checking out the Willits skate park, where the cement is mostly in. The Site Skatepark guys have left the job with some conflict between the main contractor and the subcontractor and them, pushed aside and not listened to. Justin didn’t get to meet with them about our site as hoped, but he can still get in touch with them to set something up.
Next Scheduled Meeting is not set at this time. Justin is off next week on a park tour to Santa Cruz, taking measurements of elements at parks along the way.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report (Justin): Planning for the skate jam next Saturday Sept. 25, Larry will ask Sage to get the waiver forms to Justin at the shop on Monday to have in advance for kids to take home to have parents sign. Joy has PSA info, will work with Justin to get these out.. Volunteers for the event are to call Justin. He plans not to have many vendors, keeping it low key and for the skaters. Justin will run a KWNE ad himself if not donated. Justin’s mom will do concessions, will need some help at the booth. Justin is doing all the raffle items, keeping that in mind as he attends a trade show. Music will be a DJ or somebody’s system on the course, Justin has a friend who might do it. Supplies left over from previous events include raffle tickets and wrist bands. Joy has the storyboards and the ukiahskatepark.com sign. Ukiah Brewing Co. did all the flyers for us. Jim will help with moving the ramps with his truck, we need tables from Rex, or there are a few at the plaza. Justin will need change for the signup table and concession, and some advance money for concession supplies. He was thinking about making a sort of kid corral out of haybales, maybe from Rainbow Ag. Justin will ask City (Larry/Sage) to go into the Plaza next Friday for cleanup before the event. Volunteers from the high school would be great, if Alex could help get the word out.
Joy will order a banner for the table covers with our logo, the website and our catch-phrase, “Doin it for the kids.”
Ken Fowler is donating $700 for the centerpiece ramp for PumpkinFest (Oct. 16 & 17). Justin said he would make a stencil with his logo and give him real credit for this generous donation.
Ed talked to Jack Cox about donating a storage unit at C&M to store the ramps, reports that Jack will think about it. Justin really needs a place between the jam and Pumpkinfest to avoid having to do any work on the ramps. Should we ask for a discounted price if he can’t donate it? Need 20x25’, or an absolute minimum of 10 x 25’.
Next Scheduled Meeting: None scheduled at this time.

Next Meeting:
Friday, October 1, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were Bob Beltrami (President), Justin Capri (co-VP), Mo Taglio, Jonathan Whipple, Carole Aleshire (Secretary), Sage Sangiacomo and Larry DeKnoblough. Present at the beginning of the meeting for presenting of donation checks from the Barbecue Fundraiser and photo ops were Larry and another gentleman from Kiwanis and Mone and another lady from Rotary.

Added to the Agenda: Joy’s request for signups for covering our booth at PumpkinFest and Marianne’s request for feedback on the website.

Approval of Sept. 17 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Site Update (Sage): The Skate Park sign is not yet in the ground, pending completion of the depot park. Justin asked again about a soil test. Sage says Larry has it down to get it underway, and Sage will get an update for us.

Contributions and Photo Ops: Mone presented us with a check from Ukiah Rotary for $3,084.82 which, in addition to deposits already made of checks made out directly to the Skate Park Fund in the amount of $1,504, brings the total contribution to $4,588.82. Also presented was a financial report for the fundraiser, which will be turned over to our Treasurer. Kiwanis had previously presented us with $1,222 in contributions from this fundraiser. Photos were taken of the passing of the checks. This was a very successful event and we greatly appreciate the participation of both of these wonderful service clubs.
Bob noted that the Lion’s Club won the 3rd prize on the Golf Ball Drop but hasn’t received the $250 prize, though they were initially contacted with notification of the winning ticket. Bob has a check ready to donate the prize money back to the Skate Park Fund, awaiting the awarding of the prize. Larry will call Mone to ask what happened.

Work on categorizing Survey responses: Mo had tabulated results from all the surveys received, entered into a spreadsheet, and presented print-outs of her work. She had questions about how to present some of the fields. There were 587 responses with 222 of them categorizing themselves as spectators, 9 bike riders and the rest (356) either skateboarders or in-line skaters. Jonathan pointed out that the original intent of the survey was two-fold: to determine respondents’ skill level in order to design skate elements appropriately, and as a source of demographic information for grant applications. Justin pointed out that skaters’ skill levels will change dynamically, and he is confident they can design in elements for all skill levels. These details will be covered in a public forum designed to get skaters’ input. So that leaves us needing to format the survey information in such a way as to be helpful in applying for grants. We asked Mo to compute averages or percentages for responses to the different questions, such as the average anticipated visits per week, the average number of years doing the sport, percentage of respondents’ mode of transportation getting to and from the park, percentage in each age group, etc.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (Jonathan): No meetings have been held, awaiting scheduling of the planning meeting with Michael Kisslinger. Some friends of Justin’s would like to put on a Car Wash as a fundraiser for the skate park. Justin was asking for the committee’s approval, we said go for it. We also should hold a rummage sale sometime. Hopefully this kind of thing will be covered in the planning meeting.
Next Scheduled Meeting will be the planning meeting with Michael, which will start a calendar and planning for fundraising events. Time and place not yet determined but will hopefully be sometime in October or early November.

Design Subcommittee Report (Justin): Matt will be contacting Dreamland Skatepark Designs in Oregon (the builders of Burnside under the freeway) for possibly helping with computerizing our top designs, but they said previously that we had to have all the money in hand before they would even come down to take a look. Matt will talk to them about taking square footage & our aerial shot, giving them Matt’s drawings with elements, and having them run it through their computer program for dimensions, etc., hopefully for free. Justin says Zack Wormhoudt would possibly do the same thing. Zack called Sage last week, has heard about our securing the site he had seen before, will be coming out the weekend after Willits’ park opening, and is offering to come by here to look at the site. Justin says okay. Zack apparently has different ideas about the design than Justin and Matt do, but he has a lot of experience worth sharing. Maybe he can help with getting our designs specific rather than Dreamland. At this point we’re just looking for free advice, but we will go out to bid for architect, then contractor, etc. There will be a panel to conduct the selection process once we have bids to choose from. The panel would be made up of people of the committee’s and the City’s choosing. Sage points out it is important to have an independent person on board as Project Manager to oversee the different parts of the construction and the companies involved. There was discussion about it perhaps being best to keep the players to a minimum to eliminate friction between them. Maybe hire a company for design and construction rather than a separate one for each. Sage points out there will undoubtedly be subcontractors involved, out of our control. The designer we hire will design in the type and volume of concrete and other materials. Willits’ park expenses went up because of the flood plain, needing to design the park to flood as it probably will. Sage will call Justin about meeting with Zack when he comes.
Next Scheduled Meeting is not set at this time.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report (Justin): The skatejam went well last weekend, quiet, no drama, a good time had by all. The City appreciated the good job of cleanup by volunteers. Justin reported $858 in concessions, signups and product raffle, basically covering expenses. He hasn’t yet received the $700 check from Ken Fowler as contribution to rebuilding the main ramp.
Matt says there’s a quarter pipe in Redwood Valley the parents don’t want in their yard anymore, we may get it for free.
The ramps that will fit are in the 10x20 storage unit donated by Jack Cox and C&M Mini Storage. Our thanks to Jack and to Ed for setting this up.
Planning for Pumpkinfest, Oct. 16 & 17:
There will be a competition on Saturday and free skate on Sunday.
Justin needs people to volunteer a few flatbed trucks for moving ramps, as Jim’s truck is great but enclosed, limiting its usefulness. Carole will put out an email to our Resource List, asking any with a truck to volunteer to call Justin. Bob suggested Mendo Mill as a possibility to loan trucks.
Justin also needs volunteers to manage the tallying of scores for the tournament all day on Saturday (8:00 or 10:00 to 6:00), not wanting to rely entirely on his family for this project. He would like to have a meeting for volunteers, Thursday, Oct. 14, 5:30 at Freedom, to be sure everyone understands how it will work. Carole volunteered for this task and will include this call for volunteers on the Resource List email.
Joy emailed out signup sheets for covering our booth on Saturday and Sunday, we think to the full Resource List. Carole will include this in the call for volunteers email.
Trophies are ordered. Sage said the guys that will be doing the sound will give Justin a call. We should add advertising boards for sponsors: Ken Fowler should be recognized. Sage has a banner for Ken Fowler, will bring it. Thanks to our supporters, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, Ken Fowler, C&M Mini Storage, etc.
Sage suggested some alternatives for combining the waiver and category signups. Justin will look it over and get back to Sage with an original to copy by early next week. The City will do signage, course setup with hay bales, etc. Justin has drinks & water to sell, we’ll leave it at that for sale items. We’ll have our information booth with competition sign-up (Saturday) and pledge forms, 50/50 raffle, and sign-up for free skating on Sunday.
Next Scheduled Meeting: None scheduled at this time.

Next Meeting:
Friday, October 15, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were
Carole Aleshire (Secretary), Bob Beltrami (President), Justin Capri (co-VP), Allen Carter, Joy Beeler (Treasurer), Mo Taglio and Ed Keller. Sage Sangiacomo and Larry DeKnoblough both stopped by to say hello as they scurried around preparing for PumpkinFest.

Approval of Oct. 1 meeting minutes: Approved without change.

Website Feedback Requests: Though our Webmaster Marianne Mulheren hasn’t been able to attend meetings lately, she continues to keep up our website, and has had some questions about how the committee wants to see things presented. We have said it’s time to update the Resource List on the website, but we are firm on wanting names only, letting the community know those friends, coworkers and neighbors supporting our cause. We decided to do a negative poll via email, asking that people respond if they do not want their names included. Carole will do that.
Marianne has a Sponsors page ready to add to the site but needs to know how we want to proceed. We made a list of companies, organizations and individuals who have offered continued support and who we’d like to support with this small level of advertising, and links to their websites. We want to ask their permission to include their names and offer them the option of including a logo and address and phone and/or website if they have them. Mo offered to call these people for their input. The list includes: Kiwanis, C&M Mini Storage, Rotary, Performance Coatings, Ken Fowler Auto Plaza, Reliable Mill & Steel Supply, Ukiah Custom Cabinets, Rinehart Oil, Rainbow Ag, California Yurts Inc., David & Kelly Raitt. We thought it would be good also to include the personal names of large contributors (over $100) including Randy Dorn Construction. There are others Joy has but not with her. Mo should include these in her request for permission and input. Information Mo will request: what name they want presented? Website? Local address for business? Logo? Send to Po Box 811 (Lions) for Bob to forward or email to Marianne.
Everyone is very happy with the work Marianne has done and we wanted to let her know that if she wants to make changes, to go ahead, we trust her judgment.

Site Update (Sage on the fly): The Skate Park sign will be replacing the Pocket Park sign out near the street when it comes down. This will bring ideal visibility and keep our park planning and fundraising in plain view of passersby. After Sage left, Justin raised the question about how the soils testing is progressing. We’ll add the question to the next agenda.

Fundraising Subcommittee Report (Joy): No meetings have been held, awaiting scheduling of the planning meeting with Michael Kisslinger. This has been scheduled for Monday, October 25, 9 a.m. to noon. Bob is not entirely sure the meeting room will be available, but will get back to Joy this afternoon.
Joy passed around the schedule for covering the Information booth for tomorrow’s PumpkinFest celebration. The skate signups will be at a separate location on Saturday, along the street course. Allen signed up several volunteers from Kiwanis, and other slots were filled in.
Joy presented financial statements: We have $19,010.46 in our bank account, and no liabilities. The Profit and Loss Statement for 1/1/04 through 10/15/04 shows $8,555.19 in income, $1,583.64 in expenses for a profit of $6,971.55. The kickoff barbecue and related activities contributed $4,019.59 of this profit. Mo asked for help with the tallying of survey results as publishable percentages, etc. Carole will give it a try and bring back to the group for approval.
Next Scheduled Meeting: The Oct 25 planning and organizational meeting with Michael Kisslinger, 9 a.m. to noon, tentatively at the Public Health Department conference room.

Design Subcommittee Report: No report.
Next Scheduled Meeting: None scheduled at this time.

Skate Events Subcommittee Report (Justin):
Last minute planning details for the skate competition (Saturday) and PumpkinFest, Saturday and Sunday, were discussed.
Next Scheduled Meeting: None scheduled at this time.

Next Meeting:
Friday, October 29, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday)

Next Agenda:

The meeting was held at City Hall’s Meeting Room at 411 W. Clay at noon. Present were
Carole Aleshire (Secretary), Bob Beltrami (President), Sage Sangiacomo, Joy Beeler (Treasurer), Justin Capri (Co-VP), Ed Keller and John Lattimore.

Meeting Purpose: To shift the committee’s direction from location to fundraising

With this meeting, we attempted to shift focus to fundraising with a prescribed set of goals. We changed the agenda and neglected to keep approval of minutes on the agenda. Next meeting we should cover approval of October 15 and 29 minutes, as well as Nov. 12.

Items added to the agenda were covered first:

GUCC Contribution:
Bruce Foster and Cherie Blower from the Greater Ukiah Chamber of Commerce came to present us with a check for $3680 raised for the Skate Park Fund as an optional addition to their annual renewal of dues by Chamber members. We greatly appreciate this commitment by the Chamber and the generosity of the Chamber members!

Email/Website Items (Carole):
Carole reported that she had received no negative responses by today’s deadline to email suggesting that we update our supporters on our website with everyone on the Resource List. Carole will pass this along to Marianne for updating the Committee Members Friends and Resources page.

Carole shared Marianne’s request for editing of captions for the new pictures posted to the website from the Skatejam. Printouts were given to Justin for editing, who came back at the end of the meeting saying the captions Marianne provided were fine.

Carole shared Marianne’s request for committee approval of her concept for a Sponsors page, which was shared as a printout. Everyone very much liked the way it looked. It was suggested that there could be a plug on the page, something like, “Your business can be highlighted here as well…” with a link back to the “Yes, I Want to Help” or Donations page. This concept may need some clarification, as the “Yes” page is not specifically geared to business sponsors, and the Donations page is just showing how to make a monetary donation.
Mo was not present to ask how contact with our named sponsors was going with regard to how they would like to be depicted, with logo and business information. Marianne reportedly has not heard from Mo on this topic.

Financial Report (Joy): Since Pumpkinfest, we have gained income of $264 with no expenses, for a current total in our account of $19,852.38, not including the $3680 just received from the Chamber of Commerce.

Fundraising: Letters of Support for grant (Sage):
At the last City Council meeting a resolution was passed to apply for a 2002 Park Bond Grant in the amount of $500,000. The application is due on Dec. 10. They have last year’s application (which was not granted) as a good start. They can use help from seasoned grantwriters in this effort, and anyone available should call Sage at the City of Ukiah. It would greatly strengthen the application to have letters of support from local groups and organizations: the Ukiah Chamber, Ukiah Main Street Program, the County Board of Supervisors, Probation Department, the Youth Project, Child Protective Services, Ukiah Unified School District, AODP, Patty Berg’s office and Wes Chesbro’s office (one of the writers of the park bond act).
The letter should state something like they strongly support the effort to build a skatepark, in this rural community, positively stating some of the issues dealing with youth, that this activity will promote positive behavior, about youth-building assets. It would be best for us to draft a letter and let them add or subtract from it, to make it easier for them. The grant will be for $500,000, the maximum amount allowed. There are also 2 other grant applications going in for City projects, for Anton Stadium and the City Pool. We will have 8 years to spend the money, though the contract must be signed within 2 years, encumbering the funds. There is a need for 3/7% matching funds. There will be a budget going along with the application, including projected monetary and in-kind donations. Joy and Carole will come up with some formats and circulate via email.
We divvied up the groups among us: Bob will do AODP and Probation; Carole: Child Protective Services and the Youth Project; Joy: Main Street Program, Patty Berg & Wes Chesbro; John Lattimore: Chamber of Commerce; Sage: Ukiah Police Dept. We’ll ask Rex if he can do Ukiah Unified School District.
Carole gave Sage a copy of the results of our skater survey done up into a one-page statement of the pertinent questions with responses stated as percentages, for use as he sees fit for the grant application.

City of Susanville Contact (Sage): Sage talked to somebody in the City of Susanville regarding their park, which is 3 years old with skater interest waning. Apparently there are some statistics that initially successful skate parks see waning interest after 3 years. Sage’s contact said that if they had the opportunity to go back, they would rather have done a large cement slab with wooden ramps to keep the interest up with opportunities to vary the configuration to keep it fresh. Sage wanted to submit this information for the Design Subcommittee to consider. Sage thought it would be good to have skaters there talk to our skaters to get their take on the situation. Healdsburg’s park is 4 years old, still successful, but Piner in Santa Rosa not as much in favor with no surfaces to grind, all rollover, leaving more modern parks more interesting. It would be good for our skaters to talk to skaters at any park that was successful in the beginning and interest has waned, to ask them how they would have done differently. If we build the best quality park we can, it would be the best way to solve the problem. With a wide range of ability levels incorporated, interest shouldn’t wane any more than interest wanes with skateboarding in general. Variety is important. We should keep this in mind as a challenge to make our park great! Justin says Willits’ new park is the best from Novato all the way up to the Oregon border.

Begin creation of our “Case for Support”:
Handouts: one page covering The Case for Support (from last meeting) and Joy handed out an outline from National Service Resource Center’s website on Preparing a Case for Support.

Brainstorming facilitated by Bob:

Achievements of our effort/group:

We adjourned at this point, having made good progress on starting our Case for Support.
This topic will be continued at our next meeting, along with: “Fundraising Approaches” and Increasing attendance & participation at meetings, aka group commitment

Next Meeting:
Friday, December 10, 2004, noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday) (skipping Nov. 26 as a holiday)
Next Agenda:

Sage stopped by before the meeting to let us know he and Larry were finishing up the grant application due to be turned in today. Our committee came through with 10 letters of support, which will strengthen our application! They are from: Wes Chesbro, Patty Berg, Greater Ukiah Chamber of Commerce, the Ukiah Main Street Program, Rex Eiffert, Ukiah Unified School District, Mendocino County Public Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Programs, Mendocino County Children’s Services, and the Mendocino County Youth Project. Great job, everyone!

Not having a quorum, we skipped most of the agenda.

Final Planning for Dec. 11 Concession at Winter Concert:
Ed and Carole will be working the concession, hopefully with unexpected volunteer help. Joy has been busy gathering donations from all around town.: Lindy: brownies or cookie bars; Candace: something (Joy couldn’t remember); Dina: chocolate chip cookies; Mo: rice krispy bars & cookies; Carole: brownies; Jacquie: chocolate chip cookies; Valerie: snicker doodles or oatmeal raisin cookies; Coffee Critic: coffee, cups, tea, sugar & cream; Main Street Program: cider, plates, napkins, ice chest; Cheesecake Momma, 4 pre-sliced cheesecakes, Expressions Candy: 3 ½ lbs fudge, Ukiah Valley Conference Center: 100-cup hot water pot, ice; Thompson’s Party Rental: 100 cup coffee maker; 7-up Co.: leftover soda & water from PumpkinFest. Carole will bring a cheesecake server. Joy will bring the table skirt, menu/price list and sponsor signs, cash box and a $200 til. Joy will do up a 1-page information sheet about the Skate Park for display, since our display boards were destroyed in the rain at PumpkinFest.

Joy mentioned that she needs help taking inventory of the beverages left over from PumpkinFest, after the Winter Concert. Anyone who can help with that during office hours could give Joy a call.

Jonathan Whipple’s letter of resignation was read into the record. He felt he had to resign now that fundraising has become our sole purpose, as that is what he does for Ukiah Players Theatre, and he must give first priority to his work there. He is very much in support of our effort and has offered the Ukiah Playhouse as a site for fundraising events if we schedule far enough in advance. We really appreciate the letter and all his help over the last several years.

Justin brought the bill from KWNE for PumpkinFest, having received a second billing. Joy took it from him and will pay it from our account if Sage had no luck with City funds.

Next Meeting:
Friday, January 7, 2005, (assuming City of Ukiah continues the current schedule of Friday closures) noon to 1:00 p.m. at the City Hall meeting room at 411 W. Clay (every other Friday) (skipping Dec. 24 as a holiday)

Next Agenda: