Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes – February 6, 2014

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC” or the “Committee”) was held on February 6, 2014, at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Co-Chairs Tom Dagger and John Grossmann, Mike DeWitt, Margaret DeWitt, Pat Rusak, and Ginny Cassidy. Absent were Roberta Matalon, Chris Smith, Bridgid Walsh, and Borough Liaison Frank Borin. 

Approval of Prior Meeting’s Minutes

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

New Business 

Mountain Lakes News Archives High School Project

Frank Sanchez, MLHS teacher and district director of curriculum, spoke on past, present, and future ways of integrating Mountain Lakes history into the school system.  This effort, Sanchez explained, began during the Centennial celebrations with the help of the Centennial Committee and has continued under his guidance at all three Borough schools.  He said student document-based projects have tapped into such materials as the Centennial Book, materials on the HPC website, digitized copies of The Mountain Lakes News, and the collection of high school yearbooks housed at the high school.  For example, he said one project asked:  How did Mountain Lakes support the war effort during WWII? 

We discussed ways of building on this important connection to our mutual benefit—Pat Rusak will meet with Sanchez to explore the resumption of Hapgood house tours for Wildwood students.  We will see that Sanchez gets a digital copy of the Centennial book.  And we will keep in mind that it may be possible to store our digitized archival material on the school system Google site—as our form of backup and to aid student projects. 

Treasurer’s Report

John Grossmann presented the report prepared by Chris Sheasby:

 

Opening Balance as of January 15, 2014: $30,985.71

 

Debits:

 

$00.00

 

Credits:

$00.00

 

Closing balance as of February 3, 2014:  $30,985.71

 

Archivist’s Report

There was no report this month.

Old Business

Transition to Borough Administration of HPC Account

Tom Dagger said there had been no response yet from Borough officials on their readiness for the handoff of our account, thus we are continuing with business as usual pending word from the Borough.

Ordinance Implementation/17 Condit update

Tom Dagger stated there were no new developments to report.

Remote Monitoring for Archives/ML Library

Mike DeWitt reported a successful preliminary test of an enabling router and will continue on with a more extensive testing of the monitoring system he has at home and report back on its efficacy in the archives.

Old Briarcliff Magazine Photos

Mike DeWitt said it was now time to send a check to the Board of Education, as promised, for $300.  John Grossmann said he would see that the check was sent.

Walking Tour CDs

Tom Dagger said his son Glen had printed labels for the walking tours CDs.  John said the jewel cases and artwork was ready for pickup at Alpha Graphics, so there would soon be an inventory of 50 new walking tour CDs, which should be enough for several years.

Date for Next Meeting

Thursday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.

Minutes prepared by John Grossmann and Tom Dagger.