Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes – June 13, 2013

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC” or the “Committee”) was held on June 13, 2013, at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Co-Chairs Tom Dagger and John Grossmann, Mike DeWitt, Roberta Matalon, and Ginny Cassidy. Absent were Pat Rusak, Chris Smith, Bridgid Walsh, Margaret DeWitt, and Borough Liaison Jason Bradlee.

Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes

The Committee approved the minutes of the May meeting in the form distributed to the Committee in advance of the meeting, with one small correction. 

Treasurer’s Report

John Grossmann presented the report prepared by Chris Sheasby:

 

Opening Balance as of May 6, 2013: $29,021.68

 

Debits:

  $98.77           Pat Rusak for historic photos

 

Credits:

$278.00           Historic photos, notecards, and centennial books

 

Closing Balance as of June 5, 2013: $29,200.91

 

Archivist’s Report

Though unable to attend, Pat Rusak reported via e-mail that she was still waiting word from a monument company about costs to repair the gravestone for Belle DeRivera at Greenwood Cemetery in Boonton, a project the HPC is looking into. (Roberta Matalon, the new president of the Mountain Lakes Women’s Club, noted that DeRivera was the organization’s first president and said she would inform the organization of the project, which might be embraced during the organization’s upcoming centennial.)

Old Business

Historic Preservation Incentive Ordinance

Tom Dagger reported that he and John Grossmann were scheduled to address a meeting of the realtors at the Mountain Lakes office of Coldwell Banker on July 10 concerning the new ordinance.  He has also made contact with Cindy Grebenstein at the RE/MAX office about doing a similar presentation at one of their office meetings in the future.  Ginny Cassidy offered to talk to Nancy Doyne at the Weichert Morris Plains office to see if they would be interested in a presentation on the ordinance.

Midvale Stores Sidewalk Project

John Grossmann reported that he had met at the site with Mayor Dan Happer and showed him the drawings prepared by landscape architect Bruce Davies.  The Mayor thanked the HPC for its alternative proposal and said the next step was to bring Borough Manager Bob Tovo up to speed.  John soon thereafter met with Tovo, who was happy to see that the cost estimate “was in the ballpark” of what had earlier been projected for sidewalk/fence repair along the same stretch.  Grossmann left the drawings with Tovo, who said he would discuss the matter further with the Mayor before the sidewalk project made it closer to a Borough Council agenda item.

Hapgood and Belhall Plaque Order

Roberta Matalon reported that the 23 Hapgood and Belhall plaques had all been distributed.  She said she had wrapped them and tied them with orange and blue ribbons.  Included inside were the mounting screws and instructions and a card from The Goldsmith Company, which has offered to mount them for $75.  She said she has orders for three more plaques, including one for 2 Ball Road.  The owners of that home have requested a plaque commemorating the house’s status as the original Manse for the Community Church.  Roberta said the wording would say:

Old Church Manse

2 Ball Road

Discussion ensued as to whether it might be better to say Old Community Church Manse and talk shifted more broadly to the idea of placing other possible plaques or signs around town to commemorate significant locations in the Borough’s history, such as Hapgood’s Sales Office, The Mountain Lakes Garage, and The Midvale Stores.  With many members absent and a clear need for ongoing consideration of an important topic, it was decided to resume the discussion at a later meeting. Wording on the plaque for 2 Ball Road was to continue via e-mail so that that decision might be made prior to the next meeting.

Roberta suggested that the new plaque prices be added to the HPC website.  Grossmann said he would make that request of the webmaster.

Arcadia Publishing Interest in New Mountain Lakes Book

John Grossmann updated the committee on his conversations pertaining to the book since the last meeting.  The Arcadia editor shared the necessary photo specs -- 300 to 900 dpi, high resolution images.  The per-copy royalty would likely be about $1.  Grossmann said he believed that most of that should be allocated to Patty Herold, who confirmed that she would be willing to undertake the author’s role -- writing the 2,000-word introduction and brief chapter intros for the recommended three to 10 chapters. 

Discussion then turned to the downsides and difficulties of such an undertaking.  These ran to:  the book coming soon after the centennial book; an objection noted by Pat Rusak in her email to the Committee that it would be “too redundant”; that Arcadia’s photo-filled book would contain mostly the same photos as the HPC-produced centennial book; that the work of providing these photos -- especially a batch of new ones that came in during the centennial -- would fall largely on the archivist; and that the writing of captions for 180 to 240 photographs would in itself be a major undertaking. 

On the plus side, Committee members noted:  the different price point of $21.95 made the book perhaps affordable to some who bypassed the much higher priced hardcover centennial history; the Arcadia book could be a helpful realtor’s tool; Committee involvement could perhaps be streamlined by sharing the previously digitized photo files from the centennial book, captions included, supplemented with newly scanned photos of additional images.

Talk turned to the out-of-print “This is Mountain Lakes” booklet published by The League of Women Voters, which might offer an alternative informative publication.  Ginny Cassidy said she would get in touch with the League so that this option might be included in the ongoing Arcadia book discussion.

HPC Merchandise Webpage Displays

John Grossmann said that photos had yet to be taken.  He and Chris Smith will try to get to that this summer.  Mike DeWitt shared that he had set up an experimental Flickr page, using Salvage Trailer photos for his trial displays.  The webpage displays, which residents would visit via a link from the HPC site, could be easily administered by HPC members without having to go through the town webmaster.  Mike said he would take the HPC request to make this change to the webmaster – for the contents of the salvage trailer.  Hopefully the same new system would display HPC merchandise when those photos and descriptions and prices become ready. 

Briarcliff Photo Spread from 1949 Magazine

Mike DeWitt shared the good news regarding the photos from Seventeen magazine he had acquired on eBay.  Superintendent Anne Mucci told Mike that the Board of Ed was eager to display the coverage at Briarcliff and was seeking a vendor to frame copies of the photos it would make (the originals would be returned to the HPC for storage in the archives).  Mike brought with him a check for $300 made out to the HPC that he had been sent from the Town Club -- their generous response to his request for a donation to help pay for framing.  He would tell Superintendent Mucci of that grant so that both Town Club and HPC could be noted on the matting of the framed magazine pages. 

New Business 

Remote Monitoring for Archives/ML Library

Mike DeWitt, who volunteered to look in on the archives this month while Pat Rusak is on vacation, brought up the topic of remote monitoring.  He said he had preliminarily priced a remote monitoring system -- one that could operate on the library’s Wi-Fi network -- and help protect both the archives and library from damage.  The option he had checked out would cost about $500.  Currently, he said, untended gutters can lead to water damage.  This has previously happened in one corner of the archives.  The loss of air conditioning in the archives -- which has also happened -- also poses a potential problem to fragile historical documents and photos.  A remote system could alert the HPC of a rise in temperature as well as an intrusion of water.  It was suggested that the idea be discussed with the board of the Library, which might want to help cover the costs for a system that could help protect their downstairs rooms and maybe offer upstairs benefits as well.  Grossmann said he would start by discussing this with Peggy Bulfer. 

Date for Next Meeting

Thursday, July 11, at 7:30 pm at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.

No meeting for August.

Minutes prepared by John Grossmann and Tom Dagger.