Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes – October 12, 2011

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC”) was held on October 12, 2011 in the meeting room at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Co-Chairs Tom Dagger and John Grossmann, Pat Rusak, Roberta Matalon, John Lester, and Borough Council Liaison Blair Bravo.  Absent were Peggy Bulfer, Jess Mahony, Beth Mauro, and Brigid Walsh.

Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes

The Committee approved the minutes of the September 8, 2011 meeting in the form distributed to the Committee in advance of the meeting. 

Treasurer’s Report

On behalf of the Treasurer, Chris Sheasby, John Grossmann reported the following financial information. 

Opening Balance as of September 7, 2011:  $19,407.40

Debits:

$  62.44           Pat Rusak for Historic photos

Total Debits:  $62.44

Credits:

$400.00           Two Hapgood plaques

    29.00           Historic Photos

Total Credits:       $429.00

Closing Balance as of October 11, 2011: $19,773.96

Archivist’s Report

Pat Rusak reported that the recent heavy rains caused a small bit of water to seep into the archive room but there was no damage. She said the signs identifying all of the stops on the Historic Audio Walking Tour had been made and that she would put them up on Saturday, Oct. 22, the day before the Centennial-enhanced version of the Spirit 5K Race, which this year has been rerouted to feature the Walking Tour route.

Centennial Report

Pat Rusak said this year’s Holiday House Tour, scheduled for Dec. 9, will feature an especially good collection of Hapgoods, including Linda Stansfield’s boathouse on Mountain Lake. Pat has been scanning photos for the Laker Voices program, scheduled for Oct. 29 and 30 at the High School.

Public Comments

None.

Old Business

Centennial Book Sales – John Grossmann reported that the books continue to sell well, so well in fact that not many books in pristine condition remain. We may soon be down to books with imperfections. Some books have slightly rippled pages near the end.  Others bear tears in the Midvale Stores double page photo visible upon opening the hardcover.  It was discussed and decided that when it comes to selling books with noticeable flaws, we will discount them by $10. 

Historic Preservation Ordinance – Tom Dagger reported that good progress has been made on the ordinance, with two additional meetings held in September (on the 13^th and 27^th), and another one scheduled for October 25.  Tom reported that the Ad Hoc Ordinance Committee was scheduled to attend the Borough Council meeting on Nov. 14 and present its ordinance proposal.  Tom described the latest version of the ordinance outline prepared by the Ordinance Committee and obtained further input from the HPC members on various aspects of the proposal.  Blair Bravo provided input on what types of information would be helpful to the Council members at the Council meeting.

Oral Histories – John Grossmann indicated he hoped to get to the transcription of Frank Wiswall’s oral history in the next month or two, and he had given Stephanie Hoopes Halpin a rundown on the oral histories and the process he used.

Historic Walking Tour – John Grossmann said that he will man a table promoting the Historic Audio Walking Tour at the Spirit 5K Run and will have CDs for sale.  The Committee also discussed the article regarding the Walking Tour that had appeared in the prior week’s edition of the Neighbor News.  There was discussion of whether the Committee should also try to get an article in the Mountain Lakes magazine.

Salvage Trailer – Co-chairs John Grossmann and Tom Dagger shared that work day plans are all set for Saturday Oct 22, which will coincide with Trash Day and help facilitate the disposal of unwanted items that currently crowd the trailer to the point where there’s no room to move inside.  No rain date had been set yet.  John Dagger will lead a group of Boy Scouts who will empty the trailer of most of its contents, discard unwanted items (with expert input from Gary Goldsmith and Joan Nix), and organize the items that are retained so they will be more accessible to those seeking to use the trailer.  He and Girl Scout Keara Walsh will see that items such as doors and windows deemed worth saving are tagged with a number, their dimensions recorded, and a digital photo of each item taken.   Keara will then create web pages to display the inventory so it can be easily viewed on the HPC website.

Little Theater House – John Grossmann reported that he’d been loaned a CD with dozens of photos – all recently taken – of the Hapgood at 171 Boulevard that includes the historic Little Theater building.  The photos show a Hapgood that has undergone very little modernizing over the years. The kitchen, especially, looks much as it did early in the last century.  He said he’d duplicate a copy of the CD for the archives by next month’s meeting.

New Business

None.

Date for Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on Thursday, November 10th, 2011, at 7:30 PM downstairs at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.