Spirit of the Woods Chapter NCTA Executive Committee Minutes of 10/9/03

Members present: Rich Krieger, Deb Krieger, Ed Morse, Phil Miller, Natasha Miller, Ramona Venegas, Joan Young Forest Service staff present: Scott Haas, Kathy Bietau

Meeting opened at 7:10 pm by President Rich Krieger

HECKMAN MEMORIAL FUND- Rich & Scott

Letter from Heckman's- they are thrilled if funds would be used at Bowman Lake- lots of family history there
Scott- tent pad designs obtained from Park Service, 12'x12', one 12'x18' 3, possibly 4 sites
Waiting on cost estimates
Layered gravel for drainage, contained by logs, stakes to be pounded outside of sites
Kathy- will have to excavate for the sites, add some retaining walls, fire pits
Maybe cable steps up to larger site at SW end of the lake
The gravel will be the most expensive part
Bench can be added- waiting to hear from FS engineer- with back would be nice
"Materials for this site development were donated through the Heckman Memorial Fund"
Could rout the words on the back side of the bench, so more visible
Timeline- existing sites, so categorical exclusion from NEPA can work.
They will try for next spring
Prison crew can move the gravel, Heckman's have friends who want to help
Potentially able to complete in 2 days- maybe Friday, Saturday
Vote to redirect Heckman Memorial Funds to Bowman Lake- unanimous

BLAZING

Discussion of whether to have blazing teams or continue to leave it in the hands of section adopters What if we create a team who can talk to the adopters and either teach them or do it for them.
Team members: Deb, Joan, Rich, Van

SNOW PLOWING- what TH's will be kept open?
Timber Creek
High Bridge
Bowman
Maybe Udell
Maybe 76th
Big M

NEWSLETTER
Rich will follow up with Angie
Need 45 minutes for meetings prior to programs
Coffee room in Manistee is ok for 12 people
Maybe could meet at Chittendon (Wellston)
Programs- alternate Exec Com with Baldwin/ Manistee
General programs might be at Chittendon Center
Deb will coordinate leaders for our events
She has also agreed to be librarian
Collected ideas for programs and events
Deb & Ramona will do promo for Nov 13- Joan to give her trail program, flyers to real estate, tourist assocs, etc

SIGNAGE
GT road crossing signs
Fred Szarka has more questions: What is purpose, who are they visible for, standard is carsonite posts, how do they work with carsonite, what roads, speed limits, etc
Rich- suggested that Fred look at what is actually in the field
Fred- all kinds of discouragement
Kathy- also talked with him about them- these signs don't meet their standards
FS- emblems can't go on a block- they are supposed to have no backing
Ramona- also talked with Szarka- they are probably going to table it to try to get standardized road crossing signs
Scott- they want to be consistent with the plan. 9" sign alone is consistent. They don't want to put up the signs because it will attract parking.
The issue will come up at the Triad meeting.
We must change "Foot Travel Only with map" stickers back to FS hiker trail. Baldwin District is not happy that we changed them to the NPS stickers. Scott and Ramona will get them for us.
Kathy gave out copy of the FS Standards for Construction and Maintenance.

T-SHIRT AWARD
50 hours will be cumulative. T-shirt can be awarded for each 50 accumulated

BROCHURE
Should we make a chapter brochure? General agreement
We should wait for boilerplate language from Tom Gilbert
Want to include strip map
Tabled for now

STERLING MARSH
Scott- we can continue with prison crew, or use chapter work day
Hard to guarantee people for work days- finish with prisoners
Pile of Cedar posts- we don't know what they are for

MANISTEE RIVER TRAIL
Possibility of requesting FS to move NCT to Manistee River Trail side of river to eliminate bike use on one section of NCT.
Rich has prepared agood side by side report, and concludes that NCT should stay where it is
Will study the reports and make Chapter recommendation at next meeting

GPS DATA
Big M and all but 2 miles of NCT are done but not to GIS standards- has to be redone
Are you sharing that with Tiffany?- not yet- don't have all the pieces
Ed Morse, and Steve Webster may be willing to help

West MI Chapter will have intern again in 2004
FS is out of money for trails this year
Ramona moved to adjourn, Natasha seconded- Adjourned 9:25 pm
minutes taken by Joan Young, secretary