Historic Preservation Committee
Meeting Minutes – May 11, 2011
A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC” or the “Committee”) was held on May 11, 2011 in the upstairs meeting room at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall. In attendance were Co-Chairs Tom Dagger and John Grossmann. Also in attendance were Pat Rusak, Peggy Bulfer and Borough Council Liaison Blair Bravo.
Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes
The Committee approved the minutes of the April 7, 2011 meeting in the form distributed to the Committee in advance of the meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
John Grossmann read the Treasurer’s report prepared by Chris Sheasby.
Opening Balance as of April 6, 2011: $16,969.05
Debits:
$100.00 Roberta Matalon for Open House expenses
$10.03 Mtn. Lakes Library for tape
$113.00 Gaylord Bros for archive storage carton
$465.00 Tom Dagger for historic preservation class tuition
$770.00 Erie Landmark for 5 Hapgood plaques
Total Debits: $1,458.03
Credits:
$200.00 one plaque
$660.00 Centennial books
$154.00 Centennial books
Total Credits: $1,014.00
Closing Balance as of May 11, 2011: $16,525.02
Archivist’s Report
Pat Rusak reported good traffic by her displays at the Empty Bowls event at the High School and mentioned the upcoming inspection tour of the archives by the Morris County Heritage Commission, the provider of a $1,000 grant for Centennial year photos.
Centennial Report
Pat described upcoming events planned for Arbor Day, Laker Voices, July 4 and the Spirit 5K run. There is a tentative plan to route the Spirit 5K run along the route of the HPC Historic Walking Tour.
Public Comments
None.
Old Business
Centennial Book Sales – Peggy Bulfer reported that the book continues to sell a few copies each week. John Grossmann mentioned that after Patty Herold’s next talk at Craftsman’s Farm he will invoice Craftsman’s Farm for copies sold there to date and will check on how many copies they have on hand.
Historic Preservation Ordinance – Tom Dagger described the status of work on the historic preservation ordinance. An ad hoc committee is being formed, including architects, builders, a realtor, members of the Zoning and Planning Boards, and Tom and Jessica Mahony from the Committee, to discuss and provide input on various aspects of the proposed ordinance, beginning with the zoning incentives and disincentives recommended by the Master Plan Historic Preservation Element. It is hoped that the ad hoc committee could begin work in the coming weeks, and complete its work over the summer. Tom indicated that the Borough Council would be updated on the ad hoc committee’s progress over the summer, and Blair suggested that Tom work with Mayor Gormally to coordinate this.
John Steen Essays – Taking into account comments e-mailed from members unable to attend the meeting (Beth Sureth, Elizabeth Mauro, and Roberta Matalon) and the opinions of those present, the unanimous decision of the Committee (with one abstention) was to post the essays on the History Pages website. A decision was reached to do so via the following heading on the left margin of the page: Essays from Former Borough Historian John Steen.
Oral Histories – No progress to report on the in-progress Doug McWilliams oral history, but John Grossmann mentioned two new candidates. Joyce Leuchten suggested Kay Perroty, whose family moved to town in 1919. She volunteered to conduct the interview and the green light was given to proceed on that basis. Candidate number two is Frank Wiswall, a decorated WWII pilot now in his 90s living in Boonton. John said he would contact him and look to schedule a Q&A session. Tom Dagger said he knows Frank and would like to come along to sit in on the interview/recording session.
Historic Audio Walking Tour – John Grossmann reported he’d contracted to have another four dozen jewel boxes with art readied, bought blank CDs, and burned them with the walking tour stops. He turned them over to Tom for labeling and inserting of the maps. They are to be finished in time to be sold at the HPC tent on Mountain Lakes Day. Progress on a story about the Walking Tour in the Neighbor News is being held up until the website for the Walking Tour and Library iPods are fully up and operational.
Salvage Trailer Inspection/Cleanup – John Grossmann and Tom Dagger reported the trailer so thoroughly packed with doors, windows, molding, flooring and other salvaged parts as to be extremely difficult to access and determine exactly what’s there. In short, a limited asset at best to homeowners as it currently stands. The discussion turned to possibly culling unlikely to be reused items like single pane windows, which do not comply with current building codes and reorganizing the contents. Tom wondered if the salvage trailer might be a good Eagle Scout project and in the ensuing discussion it was suggested that with a contingent of Boy Scouts on hand, the trailer could perhaps be emptied, all of the worthy items photographed and inventoried (with descriptions and dimensions) so that the trailer contents could then be posted on the HPC website and much more easily accessed. Tom said he would discuss this possible Eagle Scout project with his son John and report back at the next meeting.
Mountain Lakes Day – Preparations were discussed for a two-site HPC presence. Peggy Bulfer said she would bring the tent. John will set that up and man the table displaying various HPC items. Pat Rusak will set up and supervise a special Centennial display of photos and maps in the downstairs meeting room of the library--and will put balloons out front to help draw folks in. Attending HPC members will assist as needed at both locales.
Dinner for Library Employees – John Grossmann showed Peggy Bulfer a draft of the invitation for the upcoming planned thank you dinner at the Market. The Library staff will pick a Thursday evening and contact John, who will confirm the date with the Market. Our guests for the evening order off the menu, with the bill picked up by the HPC in thanks for all of the help provided selling Centennial Books and Audio Walking Tour CDs. Mike Schmidt of the Market kindly offered a 20 percent discount for the town function.
New Business
Photo Pirate – The unauthorized use of website photos was discussed and John Grossmann volunteered to draft a response to the woman who has been selling local historical photos, including some of Mountain Lakes, without HPC permission. Tom Dagger, wearing his lawyer’s hat, will review the letter before it is sent out.
New Members – The committee agreed to submit John Lester to the council as a candidate for HPC membership.
Centennial Book Digital Files – John Grossmann reported that the files--which will be in PDF format – have yet to be sent from Rutgers, as Patty Herold is dealing with editor Judith Waterman to first correct a few typos and errors. It was decided the best place for the disks would be the archives.
Date for Next Meeting
It was decided to skip a June meeting and canvass members on whether to next meet on July 14th or July 21st. Following the meeting, the decision was made to schedule the next meeting for July 14th at 7:30 p.m. in the Borough Hall.