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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNovember 13TOWN OF LOS ALTOS HILLS Community Relations Committee Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 7:30PM Chair Barbara Waldeck called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. on Tuesday, November 13, 2012. Members present were Barbara Waldeck, Roger Burnell, Barbara Cannon, Karen Emerzian, Jane Kawasaki, Ron Knapp and Roy Woolsey. Sarah Gualtieri, Town Staff Liaison was also in attendance. Introduction of Members of the Public Susan Jackson, who is interested in joining the Committee, and John Harpootlian, who will be a Councilmember beginning in December, attended the meeting. Committee members introduced themselves. Sarah Gualtieri introduced herself and her many roles with the Town. She gave a brief overview of the Youth Commission that meets twice a month. The minutes of the October meeting were approved unanimously as distributed on a motion by Roger Burnell and seconded by Ron Knapp. Review of City Council meeting: October is the month that the CRC makes its annual report to the Council. Roger Burnell presented an excellent report complete with pictures of the picnic and a brief history of past projects. Subcommittee Reports: New Resident Outreach: Roy Woolsey, a Committee member for 18 years and Chair for 12 of them has decided not to continue as a full-time member. He has kindly offered to continue as an associate and help with the picnic this year. Sadly, the Committee accepted his resignation. He has been in charge of New Resident Outreach. He explained how he has handled this job. There are about 175 people moving into Los Altos Hills each year. He gets their names from the garbage company monthly and makes address labels for the Town to use to mail a welcoming letter to them. Roy reported that the garbage company solved their data processing problem that prevented the company from reporting newcomer names; for the months of August, September and October, respectively, there were 17, 16, and 16 newcomer families. Jane Kawasaki agreed to take over from him. They will get together to make sure the transition goes smoothly. Barbara Cannon said that she and a friend delivered about 32 packets of newcomer information to the summer arrivals. We agreed to discuss whether the Committee should continue to deliver packets in lieu of a welcoming letter at a future meeting. 2013 Picnic – June 2, 2013 Entertainment: Roger Burnell attempted to contact the Pirates we had several years ago but they are probably busy with another gig. Ron Knapp suggested the Pirates of Emerson who do not do a show but would walk around during the picnic entertaining the crowd. After considerable discussion, it was decided that the time had come to bring back a magic show. Roger Burnell will find a magician and report back at the January 8th meeting, He will also look into hiring a petting zoo. Music: Ron Knapp reported that Ye Olde Towne Band was not available to play at the picnic. Several suggestions for music were: Peninsula Symphony, Megatones, Jazz Unlimited, Tony Lindsey or a Mariachi band to walk around the picnic entertaining the picnic goers at various tables. Ron will research the suggestions and report back at the January meeting with his recommendations and prices. We are looking for background music and easy listening. Barbara Cannon suggested that a band without a sound system would go a long way to mitigating the complaints from residents that the music is too loud. Drinks: Ron Knapp will handle this again. Ron has turned this job into a massive money saving effort. He will need some help. He suggested buying glasses to serve wine and beer for residents to take home as a souvenir. He had a sample glass with a logo on it. Sarah Gualtieri also had a sample that she has ordered for the Barn Lighting. Sarah reported that the glasses cost $1.78 plus shipping. Ron thought that he could get them for less money and that he would pick them up in the East Bay to save on shipping. It was decided to get glasses for the 2013 picnic on a motion by Karen Emerzian, seconded by Barbara Cannon. Ron estimated the cost for 1000 glasses would be about $1300. They will be used on a first come, first served basis. Train and Inflatables: Roger Burnell has a verbal commitment from Nick Golden at Stars and Stripes for his train and inflatables. He and Sarah will attempt to get a contract signed. There is a rumor that Nick has a possibility of a two-day affair the same weekend as our picnic. We would like to get the train nailed down. Games: Nick French will not be available on the day of the picnic but has offered to help whoever takes his place as Games Coordinator. Sarah Gualtieri will contact Jamie Lucia who did a wonderful job a few years ago. She has moved to Los Altos but is still involved with the Barn so we hope she will agree. Roger Burnell suggested that it is time to bring back the arcade games. He will look into it. Barbara Cannon made a brief detour from the discussion and asked that we stress “green” at the picnic. She would like someone who is not affiliated with a particular company to offer information on solar power. It was suggested that the Environmental Committee should handle this. Someone will talk to them about it closer to the picnic. Food: Roy Woolsey reported that there were two problems with the Fire Department volunteers and the food at the 2012 picnic. The first was that several residents made disparaging remarks to the volunteers serving the food as they went through the line. The second was the countermanding of the original plan of allowing residents to have one or two pieces of chicken or chicken and a hot dog. The amount of food ordered allowed for this and one result of decreeing that each resident could have only one piece of chicken was a massive amount of leftovers. Art Marshall, head of the Firefighters Union who put on the barbeque, was very upset as were his fire fighter volunteers and the result was that they are not sure that they want to go on giving up an entire Sunday slaving over hot barbeques. Roy feels that one problem is that our residents may not realize that the fire fighters are volunteers who are giving up a Sunday to feed us. Roy had prepared a three-paragraph article to be inserted in the March Town Newsletter explaining to residents that the barbeque is a volunteer effort and the Town only plays for the wholesale cost of the food. These paragraphs will be part of the article about the upcoming June picnic. The Committee approved the article with a couple of minor changes on a motion by Karen Emerzian, seconded by Ron Knapp. Roy will deliver the article to Art Marshall after Thanksgiving in hopes of getting him to agree to continue to provide our meals. Ice Cream: It is hoped that Marc Sidel will continue to be in charge of ice cream sundaes. Dottie the Clown and Wendy of Neverland Faces: Sarah Gualtieri will contact both of them and arrange for them to come back in June. Last year Wendy put out a tip jar. We will have to be sure that she doesn’t do that again. Ron Knapp pointed out that one reason we can give away wine and beer without a license is that there is no money involved in any aspect of the picnic. Climbing Wall: Sarah Gualtieri has a contract with Mobile Rock in hand. She will complete it. The cost is, once again, $800. Bookmobile: The Bookmobile would be welcome to set up at the picnic again. Currently, it is stopping at Gardner Bullis every other Friday. Car Show: Bill Downey and Bob Mabe have offered to be in charge of the Car Show again this year. Completion of Old Business: Election of a chair for the 2012-2013 year: Barbara Waldeck was elected to serve as Chair for another year. Introduction of New Business: Upcoming Town Events: The Barn Lighting will be held on December 2 from 1 – 4 p.m. Karen Emerzian will get cookies. She will need to find the holiday tablecloths she purchased last year. Sarah will buy the cider. Ron said that Lucky’s is a good place to get the cider for about $2 per gallon. Barbara Waldeck will deliver her coffee urn to heat the cider to Jane Kawasaki who agreed to help Karen at the event. There will be no Town Tree Lighting this year but caroling will be held on December 20. Barbara Waldeck agreed to provide and serve refreshments for that event. She will need to retrieve the urn from Jane. Next Meeting Dates: It was agreed to cancel the December meeting. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, January 8 at 7:30 p.m. The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Barbara Waldeck, Chair