Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes – July 11, 2013

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC” or the “Committee”) was held on July 11, 2013, at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Co-Chairs Tom Dagger and John Grossmann, Mike DeWitt, Chris Smith, and Bridgid Walsh.  Absent were Pat Rusak, Margaret DeWitt, Roberta Matalon, Ginny Cassidy, and Borough Liaison Jason Bradlee.

Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes

The Committee approved the minutes of the June meeting in the form distributed to the Committee in advance of the meeting. 

Treasurer’s Report

John Grossmann presented the report prepared by Chris Sheasby:

Opening Balance as of June5, 2013: $29,200.91

Debits:

  $14.00           Refund for plaque overpayment

    25.00           Michael DeWitt for eBay purchase of old Briarcliff magazine photos

  $39.00

Credits:

$428.00           Plaques

  300.00           Grant from Town Club

  269.00           One plaque, one centennial book, and one walking tour

$997.00

Closing Balance as of July 10, 2013: $30,158.91

Archivist’s Report

Though unable to attend, Pat Rusak reported via e-mail that Greenwood Cemetery was repairing Belle DeRivera’s headstone as part of its ongoing maintenance.  She suggested a group visit to the cemetery to locate other headstones of important early town residents.

Discussion turned to the next round of digitizing of documents, which Pat has planned for the fall, and also to the wisdom of working towards an inventory sheet and guide of sorts to the contents of the archives.  Brigid Walsh volunteered to help Pat as needed and said she had a tape recorder that could help facilitate a brief verbal accounting of materials in each category, and important facts and instructions regarding these materials:  where they are stored in the archive room; how they were acquired; how best to care for them and store them, etc. 

Old Business

Historic Preservation Incentive Ordinance

Tom Dagger and John Grossmann reported on a presentation they had done on the new Ordinance at the local office of Coldwell Banker Realtors on July 10.  They indicated the presentation was well attended by the realtors and well received.  There was discussion about how to roll this out to other realtors’ offices that focus on the Mountain Lakes market.

There was also discussion about the comments fields on the photos on the Ordinance website.  It was decided that the comments fields would be removed when the photos are updated.

Midvale Stores Sidewalk Project

John Grossmann reported that he had recently e-mailed Mayor Happer for an update from the Borough’s perspective, but has not yet heard back.

Hapgood and Belhall Plaque Order

In the absence of both Roberta Matalon and Pat Rusk, discussion continued about the homeowner requested plaque for 2 Ball Road but no decision was reached. 

Arcadia Publishing Interest in Mountain Lakes Book

John Grossmann updated the Committee on his ongoing conversations with the representative from Arcadia Publishing.  After sharing that Arcadia would not permit duplication of captions from the Centennial Book, and with enthusiasm waning among Committee members, it was decided to shelve the project.  The Committee would still await word from Ginny Cassidy, who was inquiring of The League of Women Voters about possibly updating and reprinting their This is Mountain Lakes publication. 

HPC Merchandise Webpage Displays

Conflicting travel schedules prevented John Grossmann and Chris Smith from photographing the various items -- T-shirts, notecards, audio walking tour CDs, Centennial banners, and more -- that the HPC has in inventory.  They hope that the date they are scheduled to meet – July 27 -- will enable them to accomplish this first step in displaying the merchandise online. 

Briarcliff Photo Spread from 1949 Magazine

Mike DeWitt said that he will arrange to get the magazine pages from the archives and move on to duplicating them, framing them and seeing that a check comes from HPC to help defray the costs of readying them for display at Briarcliff School. 

Remote Monitoring for Archives/ML Library

John Grossmann reported that he had talked with Peggy Bulfer at the Library, who recommended he speak with Jonathan Holacek, a member of the Library board.  Holacek confirmed that the Library will soon be putting in an emergency generator, a plus for the kind of remote monitoring system the Mike DeWitt has been looking into.  Mike will reach out to Holacek to continue the dialog, enabling Holacek to brief his board about the possibility of remote monitoring of the archives—and possible monitoring of other portions of the building—at its September meeting.

New Business 

Mike DeWitt mentioned that the town buildings at Island Beach and Birchwood Lake have carpenter ant damage and wondered if either of these buildings were historically significant.  No one believed so, but Tom Dagger suggested that Mike peruse the Historic District Application to see if they might possibly be referenced as contributing structures.

Mike also mentioned that he had been in contact with a West Coast stucco expert, Kirk Giordano, with numerous instructional videos on the web.  He said that Giordano was open to his off-the-cuff invitation to come to Mountain Lakes the next time he was in the metropolitan area.  The Committee agreed that this would be a wonderful idea and started brainstorming an HPC sponsored stucco symposium featuring this expert, a talk and slide show by him followed by a Q&A.  Builders, contractors, and homeowers could be invited to attend. 

Date for Next Meeting

Thursday, September 12, at 7:30 pm at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.

No meeting for August.

Minutes prepared by John Grossmann and Tom Dagger.