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Friends of Sabino Canyon (FOSC) 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Rd. Tucson, AZ 85750 Annual Report for 2017 July 1, 2018

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Page 1: Friends of Sabino anyon (FOS) 5700 N. Sabino anyon Rd ... · Friends of Sabino anyon (FOS) 5700 N. Sabino anyon Rd. Tucson, AZ 85750 Annual Report for 2017 July 1, 2018

Friends of Sabino Canyon (FOSC)

5700 N. Sabino Canyon Rd.

Tucson, AZ 85750

Annual Report for 2017 July 1, 2018

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2017-18 FOSC

Board of Directors

And Partners

15 voting members

Paul Marques, President

Phil Bentley, Director

Terry DeWald, Director

Ted Forsberg, VP, Development

Conrad Grims, Director

Esther Holloway, Director

Jude McCarthy, VP, Projects

Jim McDougal, Treasurer

Gretchen McFarren, Director

Diane Meuser, Director

Sharon Vandergriff, Secretary

Bob Wenrick, Director

Board Voting Partners

Ricki Mensching, President SCVN

Marty Horowitz, President SCVP

Scott Clemans, Past Pres. SARA

Annual Report 2017 (June 2018)

Board Activity

In 2017-18, we expanded the FOSC Board of Directors adding Gretchen McFarren. Gretchen is a long standing member of the Sabino community having given service as a Naturalist with the SCVN for many years. Gretchen has assumed the responsibilities of the FOSC Tile Wall program, freeing Secretary Sharon from one of her many tasks.

Other members of the Executive Committee have continued in the roles they held previously: Jude McCarthy, the VP for Pro-jects, and Ted Forsberg, the VP for Development. In 2017-18 we defined a committee structure so all of the core functions of the President and Secretary are dispersed to other BOD members. The Projects and Development Committees will now have 3-4 other Board members to work on subprojects. We also defined the functions of a Communications Committee which will be headed by Esther Holloway beginning in fall 2018.

Much of the effort to restructure the Board responsibilities reflect a desire to disperse tasks to more Board members. When FOSC went to an all-volunteer Board in 2015, no thought was given to roles and responsibilities beyond the Officers. More of the discus-sion around those topics will be detailed in the Annual Report for next year. The objective has been to build a more engaged Board with roles that need attention between the Board meetings. The response of Board members has been favorable, supportive and encouraging; we are making good progress.

The Sabino Shuttle

In 2015-16, FOSC began urging the Forest Service to invite new bidders in to compete for the permit to operate the Shuttle sys-tem through Sabino and Bear Canyons, rather than giving right of first refusal to the same operator who has had the permit for 30+ years. We are confident that our efforts played an important role. Success followed a year later.

The open RFP/prospectus for the new Sabino Shuttle was re-leased on November 28, 2017. We expected about five bidding groups to come in, but fewer applied. After the submission period closed in January 2018, a review panel with expertise in the use of public conveyances on federal lands was asked to evaluate the proposals. To keep it independent of the US Forest Service (USFS), the reviewers were from the National Park Service (NPS). This was sensible for at least two reasons, but mostly because NPS has considerably more experience in people-moving than does the Forest Service.

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Shuttle Continued… Based on the expert panel review, Supervisor Dewberry awarded the permit on March 9, 2018 to the Re-gional Partnering Center (RPC). The RPC is a collaboration of the Pima Association of Governments, the Tucson Electric Power Company and the Regional Transportation Authority. The RPC permit was sched-uled to begin July 1, 2018, however, due a last minute objection filed in late April, the changeover in per-mit holders is now expected to be delayed through summer. You can read more details about the plans and the RPC phase-in schedule on their new website: www.rpcshuttle.org. This link will also take you to the RPC’s full proposal. Briefly, after a transition peri-od, during which regular gas and diesel transit buses will run through Sabino until spring 2019, the all-electric Shuttles will be introduced as they are built and made ready, in 2019. The image below, from the RPC proposal, shows the electric tow vehicle without the trailer. With trailers the seating capacity of 62, will be the same as the old shuttle. Unfortunately, while the appeals process plays out, the delay will add months to the time before we can have electric shuttles operating. These new shuttles will be custom-built based on many specifications and requirements unique to Sabino

Canyon. Among the features will be audio content delivered di-

rectly to small ear buds, or to smartphones. The new electric Shuttle

shown here when joined

with its trailer will have a

seating capacity of 62, equal

to the old shuttle.

While RPC Inc is the winner

of the competition, it will

take a while for the objec-

tion period to play out dur-

ing 2018.

FOSC stands ready to help RPC make a smooth transition. Less than two weeks after notice of their

award, three of the RPC team attended the March 20 FOSC Board meeting at the Visitor Center, and for

about 45-minutes, gave us a briefing and answered questions about their implementation plans for our

new shuttle. Some of the RPC leaders, especially Jim DeGrood, Deputy Director of the Pima Association of

Governments (PAG), will be regulars at the FOSC BOD meeting going forward. The RPC team members

would like to integrate themselves into our community of non-profit groups that serve Sabino Canyon.

FOSC is happy to play a facilitative role, This interest in integration into the existing volunteer efforts in

Sabino already represents a sea change from the behavior of the prior Shuttle Operation. With represen-

tation from the other 3 major volunteer Sabino groups on the FOSC Board, this will vastly improve com-

munication.

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The RPC is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation. It is the recipient of financial support from the Tuc-

son Electric Power Company (TEP), which was eager to help showcase the benefits of clean electric

power. TEP donated $1.5 million of corporate assets, and made another $1 million available as a 10-

year interest-free loan. These funds will allow the RPC to purchase and run five all-electric open-air

shuttles through Sabino Canyon. It is very likely that the importance of Sabino Canyon as a destina-

tion for visitors and locals alike was one of the motives for the Tucson/Pima area governments and

business communities to collaborate on bringing the Sabino Shuttle into the modern era. In addition

to a vastly improved quieter, cleaner and safer Shuttle, the current cash-only requirement will be out.

There will be several ways to pay for a ride.

A Yeasty 2017 Ended with Several Unexpected Changes

Shortly after the release of the new RFP/prospectus, our fruitful partnership with District Ranger Ken

Born ended abruptly when he left Sabino for a federal position outside the Forest Service in Sacra-

mento. With Ken’s loss our plans and agreements all fell into a holding situation. The Spring 2018

Newsletter describes these problems in somewhat more detail. Our three major initiatives from 2017

were all put on hold (new signage, the new Tram Stop 9 ramada, and the restoration of the WPA-era

Sabino dam steps). We learned in early April 2018 that the interim Ranger, Beth Dykstra, on loan

from the Albuquerque office, signed off on the new Tram stop 9 Ramada; we plan to contract for its

construction this summer. Beth also signed off on FS initiated projects that FOSC will help fund includ-

ing new restroom roofs and stone bridge repairs in Sabino. Our new SCRA signage and Sabino Dam

steps projects are still delayed and await the arrival of our new permanent District Ranger, C.J.

Woodard.

A review of the May 2018 Newsletter found on the sabinocanyon.org website provides more detail

about the 2017 expenditure on buffelgrass abatement and parking lot control contributions to the FS.

Financial Performance in 2017 and Budgeting for 2018

In the financial performance tables and charts below, we show the three year (2016-2018) actual and

estimated budgets.

As noted, the Interim District Ranger gave us approval for the large Tram Stop #9 Ramada, the replace-

ment of 3 restroom roofs, and restoration of the stone bridges along the Sabino Road. We have had two

estimates on the Tram Stop 9 Ramada project. We budgeted $30K for that project, $14K for the im-

proved signage, and already committed $8K to the FS to use for bathroom roof replacements. In 2018,

we hope to make another $6-7K contribution to the Sky Island Alliance for control of invasive grasses.

Due to FS delay of our projects, we are considerably underspent in 2017 relative to prior years (2016 is

shown). We believe now we can get these projects completed in 2018. Our expenditures on the Rama-

da in 2017 were restricted to site survey costs and the non-contributed portion of the architect’s fee.

Evan Eglin the architect donated $1000 of the cost to draw up the plans.

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Financial Performance continued...

The big drop off in 2017 for expended project funds from $58K+ in 2016 down to $16K+ in

2017 reflects the delays in approvals subsequent to changes at the District Ranger level. The

approvals, we are told, were also slowed by a lot of fire activity in the Coronado NF last sum-

mer and contentious issues surrounding the shuttle permit. We are in a cash positive situa-

tion right now holding $200K+ reserve funds in Schwab (not shown here, but which our by-

laws require remain unspent except on extreme events such as floods and fires). The budget

numbers reflect donations and expenses from our Chase checking account that held

$110,000 in mid Spring, reflecting donations unspent in 2017. Some of the surge in assets re-

flect a lot of gratitude from the Sabino donor community for our efforts to open the new

Shuttle permit.

An important aspect of our appeal as a public interest non-profit company is the absence of

any costs associated with employment. All but 2 of our 15 voting Board members are retired.

That summarizes in brief where we are and where we are going with our program efforts. The

new District Ranger, C. J. Woodard, will be asked to approve our remaining safety projects in

the calendar year 2018 (restored dam steps, and new signage). The approvals we seek with

be for the SCRA signage project and the restoration of the WPA-era Sabino dam steps by fall

of 2018.

The Board of the Friends of Sabino Canyon thank you for your

interest in our work and efforts to Preserve, Protect, and Enhance

our remarkable canyon.