Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes – April 19, 2012

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC” or the “Committee”) was held on April 19, 2012, in the meeting room at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Co-Chairs Tom Dagger and John Grossmann, Pat Rusak, Roberta Matalon, and Beth Mauro. Members John Lester, Brigid Walsh, Jess Mahony and Borough Council Liaison Peter Holmberg were absent. Also in attendance was prospective HPC member Chris Smith.

Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes

The Committee approved the minutes of the March 15th 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 March 14, 2012:  $26,213.15

 

Debits:

$183.10           Pat Rusak for Historic photos

 

Credits:

$250.00           Centennial posters

  280.50           Centennial books

    60.00           Notecards

    23.35           Boy Scout donation via John Dagger

$613.85

 

Closing Balance as of April 18, 2012: $26,643.90

 

Archivist’s Report

Pat Rusak reported no progress on tracking down descendents of Daniel Romine to ask about their interest in Daniel Romine’s gravestone.  She also shared that the UPS store in Del’s Village now looks like the best option for the first round of digitizing archival materials.  She got a quote for 25 cents a page to digitize early government papers and Hapgood work orders that includes two CDs.  Adding a backup paper copy of each document would likely increase this first digitizing project by upwards of $100.  She said she hopes to begin this in the fall.

Public Comments

None.

Old Business

Historic Preservation Ordinance

Tom Dagger provided an overview of the progress of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.  The ordinance was on the agenda for the April 9 meeting of the Borough Council, and Tom and Martin Kane of the Planning Board appeared at the meeting to discuss the ordinance and answer questions from the Council members.  In general, the Council members were very supportive, although some Council members questioned the need for the ordinance to establish a historic preservation commission instead of leaving the existing Committee in place and some other technical questions were raised about how the ordinance would be implemented in practice.  Tom and Marty had already revised the ordinance to address the technical questions raised by the Council members and submitted it to the Borough attorney for review, and Tom expected to have a conversation with the Borough attorney about the commission/committee issue in the near future.  It was expected that the ordinance would be on the Borough Council agenda again for a first reading at its May 14 meeting.

Oral Histories

No change here from last month.

Salvage Trailer

John Grossmann met with Tom Menard at the trailer so Menard could better assess the job of building shelves.  He drew up a basic plan for the design but told Grossmann in a follow-up phone conversation on the eve of this meeting that his work crews are currently too busy for him to divert them to the trailer.  He said he’d be in touch when he saw an opening to donate the necessary man-hours for the trailer work.

New Members

Chris Smith has agreed to serve on the Committee and his name was passed on to our council representative Peter Holmberg for the approval of the Borough Council. 

Centennial Banners

Discussion resumed about how to best sell the banners passed on by the Centennial Committee.  Grossmann brought two with him and passed them on to Pat Rusak for the archives.  That leaves16 for sale.  It was decided by a unanimous vote to set the price at $200 and to sell them at Mountain Lakes Day, after posting their availability on the town website on the eve of Memorial Weekend and taking orders via e-mail and at the HPC booth at Mountain Lakes Day.  Rusak said she been approached about the banners, asking if one could be bought before this weekend as a going away gift to last year’s Citizen of Year Ken Stokes. The going away party is this weekend. The Committee voted yes, at the newly established price. 

Town Club Walking Tour

Hosts Grossmann, Rusak and Dagger reported that the April 18 historic walking tour went well.  Nine Town Club members met them at St. Peter’s Church where the tour began, and continued along the Boulevard path to the Little Theatre, then on to several more stops on a wisely abbreviated version of the recorded historical tour.  (Even this 8-stop version took two hours.) After one of his narrations, Dagger provided a summary of the proposed Historic Preservation Ordinance.  This followed an earlier question about the status of the ordinance.

New Business

Mountain Lakes Day Booth

Grossmann mentioned the need to come up with—buy, rent, or borrow—a tent for the HPC booth at Mountain Lakes Day.  It was suggested perhaps an umbrella with stand might suffice.  However, the discussion might be moot, everyone realized, as this year’s event, still lacking a volunteer chairman, seemed in jeopardy. 

Date for Next Meeting

Due to schedule conflicts for some of the members, the Committee decided to next meet May 17th, downstairs at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.

Minutes prepared by John Grossmann and Tom Dagger.