June 12 General Membership Meeting
Meeting:  Grills have been assembled and stored for the Festival.  Workday on June 14 was scheduled.  Hank Hoover, project leader, reminded those present about the El Paso County Park Volunteer Thinning Program.  Anyone wishing to help with thinning small trees from the adjacent areas of the park trail system in the Black Forest Regional Park can call Hank Hoover at 495-2945 or hhhoover@pcisys.net.  Those wishing to improve the trails in Section 16 (Black Forest) can call Greg Reals at 495-0816 or cgregr@hotmail.com. 

For additional information, visit:  www.BlackForestTrail.org/ParkVolunteer.htm.

Program:  Kathy Russell, a 6 year volunteer for the BF Fire and Rescue, gave a slide show presentation showing what the firemen and volunteers do for the community.  They do fire response, medical calls, vehicle extrication and rescue.  The fire station has a meeting/training room used by many different groups for meetings.  It was explained that the 20-year bond that was voted in to build Station 1 is costing residents less each year as new residents come in to dilute the cost to each taxpayer.  Groundbreaking for the new Station 2 on Black Forest Road at Hodgen Road will be held within the next few weeks.  With its completion, ISO ratings will probably drop for residents in that area too.
 
Jim Fennell, speaking for the architectural firm for the new fire station, explained how the building would look and how it was designed to work with the lay of the land. 

Dan Gorton gave a brief overview of the Black Forest Community Wildfire Protection Plan.  He praised Pete Burleson who did most of the technical writing with the input of various experts. 

Walt Seelye pointed out that volunteers would be working to help those who needed help with their trees.  The BFCC would put up front money for the grants to pay a professional to cut down big trees and volunteers could do the cleanup. This money would then be replaced by grant money to encourage residents to clean up their land. This should help reduce the fire danger for those who can’t afford or who are unable to do the work themselves. 

June 14th Great Workday! (Report by Phil Hosmer)
June 14th was Flag day, but it also marks the day a group of talented, generous folks turned out to spread mulch over the whole backyard of the old fire station next door to the club, and to rebuild the supports for the Festival stage shelter.  Some major excavation at the back of the building had left the entire area covered with fresh dirt and the Fire Chief agreed that our idea to cover the area with mulch was a good one to avoid a potential muddy field if we had any rain around Festival time.  It will help keep the weeds down and avoid any need for irrigation. Everyone who pitched in for the effort was up to the task.  Ron Davidson and Walt Seeley were the mulch haulers with their “heavy” equipment.  Ron Brown brought his tractor for spreading the mulch.  Sean Moore, Chuck Lidderdale, Phil Hosmer, Jim Brown, and Dick Augustine did most of the mulch raking.  Many thanks also to Ruth Ann Steele and Carolyn Brown who helped facilitate the Mulch pickup.

The effort to reset six of the seven posts that hold up the stage shelter required precision positioning to align the tops of the posts to the shelter legs.  Roger Schutte, Dan Hagmaier, and Eddie Bracken concentrated their efforts on the stage supports with help from Ron Davidson and Chuck Lidderdale (with his precision laser level).  They did a job to be proud of.

Another pre-Festival job done!  Thanks to everyone who showed up for the work and to Barbara Hosmer for the coffee and muffins!!! That crew was so efficient they could compete with any professional landscaping outfit.  Hey guys, looking for another career opportunity?

June 26th Board Meeting and Festival Update
Ron’s agenda had these items of interest: leases, by-law updates status, appreciation of cleaning crew, update of building repair estimates.  There are many building repair projects under discussion.  An Eagle Scout project being pursued was a flagpole at the front of the building.  Until Sue Fletcher is feeling better, Vice President Judy Augustine will fill in as Secretary.  Roger proposed a workday on July 15 and 17 starting at 8am to renovate the front entry platform.  A few volunteers would be appreciated.  Ruth Hogan was in attendance with concerns about the county wanting to pave our roads.  The consensus was that the county’s budget concerns makes this unlikely at the present. 

Eddie has most things firmly under control for the Festival.  There will be some new food vendors so we can all enjoy plenty of good food on August 9—one is the new Mexican food place is Falcon, Poblano’s.  There should be booths still available over at the old Spa location.  There will be two bounce houses for the kids, a Drunk Driving Simulator, snow cones and cotton candy sold at the BF Community Church.  The World’s Most Dangerous Summer Band will be playing in front of the Community Church before the parade starts.  Of course, the breakfast starts at 6:30am and tickets will be on sale until Chuck shuts down breakfast, hopefully, not before 9:30pm.  So, get there early for your pancakes and sausage.  Next Festival Meeting is Thursday, July 31, 7pm.  All interested people are invited to attend.

Attention:  ATV’s and parade marshals needed for the Festival Parade August 9.  Anyone wishing to help with this most important part of getting the parade started is asked to contact Bob Erler at 495-0867. 

Related Message from George Rosental:
Attention, Festival volunteers:
The plan:  Here’s an update on the post-festival chili fest…. 
Purpose is to have an informal social following Festival break down.   Event will take place either in the BFCC parking lot, weather permitting, or indoors in the Hall.  Start time is 4:30 or 5:00, depending on Festival clean-up progress.  The target for food & drink is to supply about enough for about 30-40 people (subject to revision depending on the number of Festival volunteers who are interested).

Recap:  Here’s what we need:

                Judy & Dick Augustine
                Joan & Eddie Bracken
                Barbara & Phil Hosmer
                Sherrie & Chuck Lidderdale
                Diane & Mike Saign 

What we’re short on:  volunteers to provide:

Please let us know, per the contact information below, by 31 July.

Terry & George Rosental
Voice 495-8849
Fax 495-8859
E-mail:  curmegan@att.net

Teach a child to be polite and courteous.
When he grows up, he'll never be able to merge
his car onto the freeway.

As I watched the guys do the Saturday morning workday, someone mentioned that my unsung hero for July should be Ron Davidson.  You don’t see Ron very much at the Club, but he shows up for the heavy work and cheerfully does more than his share.  He has been part of the Festival preparation for several years and pitches in with all the drudgery of cleanup.  It’s easy to pick him out with his perpetual smile and good humor.

Ron and his wife, Kathie, moved to the Forest in August of 1986.  He was born in Denver and served 30 years in the Air Force in Communications, Electronics, and Logistics.  He served two tours in Colorado Springs and, after leaving the military, worked with companies like Honeywell before retiring in 2005.

Describing himself as a hunter and fisherman, Ron makes plenty of trips to follow his hobby.  Kathie has horses and does dressage.  But, they also have a dog, 5 pigeons, 1 goose and many wild rabbits that they feed lots of carrots too.  The dog is not allowed to chase the rabbits….

Since he left on a fishing trip before I got my picture, Kathie helped me out with an explanation why Ron’s nickname is Griz.  As you see above, there is Griz and griz.  The latter stays now in their living room—no more fishing trips for him.

Thanks, Ron, for taking time out of your well-earned retirement to help make the Black Forest Festival possible.  I’m sure Eddie will find more jobs for you to do.

The Black Forest Homemakers are hosting a celebration of the 90th birthday of Anna Mitchener on Thursday July 10, 2008 from 11:00am to 2:00pm.  The event will be held at the Black Forest Community Center.  Light refreshments will be served. This special celebration is open to all of Anna’s many friends and acquaintances. Just bring your cards and congratulations, no gifts please.

Anna is a most active lady; she established the Black Forest Senior Assistance Program and was honored by the Black Forest Community Club as “Keeper of the Keys to the Forest 2006”.  Contact Rosanne at 495-2418 to RSVP, for information or to help out.

Plan on enjoying an evening with Tom May, at the BFCC.  Tickets are $12.  He’s back again!  Tickets are available at Black Rose Open Stage, online at blackroseacoustic.org in July, or call 719 495-8750 to reserve.  Tom May, a folksinger for over 3 decades, with 12 CD’s and a book to his credit has also produced River City Folk on public radio since 1991.  He has opened for Willie Nelson, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell.

Visit www.sonicbids.com/tommay for more.  Opening act will be Black Forest’s own Jon Wieland (pictured).  This is a Black Forest Community Club event.  Thanks to Black Rose Acoustic Society, Edward Jones of Black Forest, and Black Forest News for providing us Foresters with such good entertainment.

Hank Hoover, BFCC member and citizen volunteer, got authorization for citizen volunteers to start thinning small trees in Black Forest Regional Park and Section 16.  Go to the Black Forest Trails Association web site at: www.BlackForestTrails.org.  Choose Projects and click on the Park Volunteer link in the Black Forest Thinning topic.  There is a Power Point presentation that shows what a volunteer would be asked to do.  If you would like to do your part in making our local parks look better and be less of a fire hazard, call Hank Hoover at 495-2702 or hhhoover@pcisys.net to sign up for the Regional Park or Greg Reals at 495-0816 or cgregr@hotmail.com for Section 16.  Volunteering is a great way to make a Difference!  We had 12 workers on Saturday, June 28—got a lot accomplished.

Chuck Lidderdale:
The County Clerk’s Office has issued an appeal for 500 more election judges to serve during the election in November.  Call 575-8683