Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes -- Dec 06, 2007

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee was held on Dec 06, 2007 at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were co-chairs Andy Bulfer & Peggy Bulfer, John Grossmann, Maria Iacullo-Bird, Bonnie Rosenthall, Chris Sheasby, Pat Rusak, and Borough Council Liaison Ellen Emr.  Maria Iacullo-Bird had to leave early.

Opening Items

• Treasurer's Report -- Treasurer Chris Sheasby reported the following financial information for the period Oct 03, 2007, 2007 through Nov 07, 2007.
  
  

  Opening balance (11/07/2007)	$2218.32
  Revenue	$583.50
  Expenses	$0.80
  Closing balance (12/06/2007)	$2801.82

  Sheasby noted that the revenue was for historic plaques and photographs and that the costs associated with them will appear next month when the plaques are delivered.

Public Comments

None.

Old Business

• Historic Signs -- There was extensive discussion of the historic signs.  Ellen Emr reported that the purchase of two for mounting at each end of the Boulevard was approved by the Borough Council at their Nov 19 meeting.  The one at the Boonton end will be mounted on the pillar.  At the other end, the sign will be on a post between the tennis club and the Pocono Rd. traffic light.  It was decided to keep the size that had been originally proposed, 18 x 24".  Chris Sheasby will review the mounting techniques with the Borough Manager and then order the signs.
• Mountain Lakes Centennial Celebration -- Andy and Peggy Bulfer reviewed the status of the history book.  The RFP has been finalized and placed on the Web site.  The Dec 1^st Home and School Bulletin carried an article about it.  The Bulfers said that 4 potential authors have indicated that they will submit proposals and 3 others have expressed interest.  Proposals are due on Dec 31.

  Since there is substantial money as well as professional reputations involved, the HPC needs a process for evaluating the proposals that is open, fair, rigorous, and defendable.  A subcommittee was formed consisting of Peggy Bulfer (Borough Librarian), Pat Rusak (Borough Archivist) and John Grossmann (Professional Author) to evaluate the proposals and recommend a selection.  Peggy Bulfer is the chair.  They plan to meet in December to determine the process that they will use before they have seen any proposals.

  The subcommittee was asked to have their recommendation finished by mid-January.  The January HPC meeting, normally the first Wednesday, was changed to Jan 16, in order to receive the subcommittee's report.  The subcommittee will also review their selection with the Borough Council on Jan 28.

  Ellen Emr reported that the Borough Council plans to insert money in their 2008 budget to cover an initial payment to the selected author although the exact amount needed won't be known until the proposals are received.  The HPC asked Emr to inform the Council that the amount will be paid back from revenue from the book if the revenue is sufficient.

  A number of ideas for marketing the book were discussed.  One was to have presales to help estimate demand, reduce risk, and obtain early revenue.

• HPC Open House -- Bonnie Rosenthall reported on planning for this event.  She has recruited two other people to help her.  The open house will be held on the weekend of Mar 1-2, 2008.  The plan is to hold it at the Masonic temple but Rosenthall said that, after initially agreeing the temple is now asking for a substantial fee for use of the building.  The HPC asked Rosenthall to negotiate a lesser amount.

  The open house will feature local vendors of Arts and Crafts products such as carpeting, tile, hardware, lights, and furniture.  The Craftsman Farms gift shop has agreed to participate as has a large up-scale local home furnishings store.  Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase house plaques and historic photos.  Rosenthall is planning to offer several items of HPC merchandise as well such as sets of four desert plates with Mountain Lakes scenes, mugs, and tee/sweat shirts with embroidered scenes.

• HPC Brochure -- Peggy Bulfer showed the paper to be used and it was approved by the Committee.  There were several relatively minor changes requested.  Bulfer said she would finalize the brochure and send it to the members of the Committee by e-mail.
• Representative to the Borough Hall Facility Committee -- Pat Rusak reported on the committee's plans for engaging an architect for an "intermediate step" of studying the space needs for the building before a detailed architectural plan is developed.
• Oral Histories -- John Grossmann reported that the Faith Robertson oral history is on-hold and that the person who conducted the Peter Haas interview has unfortunately lost the tape.  Unless the tape can be found, the interview will have to be redone.
• Audio Walking Tour -- John Grossmann and his committee have made significant progress.  He reported that he had driven the route with architect Joan Nix who pointed out interesting historical and architectural points along the way.  Later, Grossman drove the route with Andy Bulfer taking photos of these points.  As reported last time, Andy Bulfer will use the photos to develop a PowerPoint slide show for use if the weather is inclement for the April 9 Town Club walking tour.

  Grossmann said his committee has completed rough drafts of four of the 12 stops on the route: Community Church, Train Station, Boulevard Trolley, St. Peters Church.  A module on Briarcliff School has also been started.  Ellen Emr said she has a document about the history of St. Peters which she will provide to Grossmann on a floppy disk.

• Updating the Borough Master Plan -- The entire Master Plan must be reviewed and updated by Oct 2008.  Andy Bulfer reported that a Master Plan Review committee has not been formed.  However, subsequent to the meeting, Bulfer received a call from Barbara Palmer, co-chair of the Planning Board.  They have formed a Master Plan update committee.  Palmer will be running it and asked Bulfer to be on it representing the HPC.  She is assembling a large committee which will include herself, Bulfer, Michael Lightener (current chair of the Planning Board), Councilwoman Louise Davis, Joan Nix, Celia Flynn representing the Recreation Committee, Cathy Harris representing the Environmental Commission, Gail Boertzel representing the school board, and Roberta Spray as an "at large" representative.  The first meeting will be on Jan 3.

No Progress

• Updating the HPC Pages on the Web Site
• Picture Scanning.
• Morris County Acroterion Survey.

New Business

• Next Steps on Public Awareness of the Historic District -- Andy Bulfer presented some ideas for changes to Borough stationary but the committee decided to table discussion of them until next time.

Date for Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on Weds January 16, 2008 at 7:30 PM in Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer