Historic Preservation Committee

Meeting Minutes -- Mar 18, 2008

A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Historic Preservation Committee was held on March 18, 2008 at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were co-chair Andy Bulfer, John Grossmann, Bonnie Rosenthall, Chris Sheasby, Pat Rusak, and Borough Council Liaison Steve Shaw.  Absent were Peggy Bulfer and Maria Iacullo-Bird.

Opening Items

• Treasurer's Report -- Treasurer Chris Sheasby reported the following financial information for the period Feb 6, 2008 through Mar 18, 2008.
  
  

  Opening balance	$2453.77
  Revenue	$1806.50
  Expenses	700.00
  Closing balance	$3560.27

  Sheasby noted that the revenue was for 5 historic plaques, library book sales, and the HPC open house.  Expenses were for the tee-shirts sold at the open house.

Public Comments

None.

Old Business

• HPC Open House -- Bonnie Rosenthall reported on the event, held on Fri/Sat Feb 29-Mar 1, 2008 at the Community Church.  More than 100 people attended the event and she collected 85 names from the door prize drawings.  She said everyone loved the venue.  Ray, the caretaker, was easy to work with and a big help.  All the vendors reported they would come back if it were held again.  Rosenthall was particularly enthusiastic about the signs advertising the event, done by Nancy LaBeau.  The slide show was a big hit too.

  Rosenthall said that she had taken the other members of her committee out to lunch to show her appreciation and had written thank-you notes to everyone involved.

  There were a number of suggestions for next time including:

  • Live music;
  • Friday night preview;
  • More HPC merchandise;
  • HPC desert plates;
  • Getting other town organizations involved (town club? garden club?).
• Historic Signs -- Chris Sheasby reported the signs are ready to be picked up at Nichol Artistic.  They are heavy.  She and Pat Rusak will go with a worker from DPW to pick them up in a DPW truck within a day or two.  One will be mounted on the north-west pillar at the Boonton end of the Boulevard, facing incoming traffic.  The other will be mounted on a post facing incoming traffic on the south-east side of Boulevard across from St. Catherine between the Pocono Rd. intersection and the existing guard rail.
• Audio Walking Tour -- John Grossmann said the writing will be completed by the Town Club walking tour on April 9.  He has coordinated with Town Club program chair Wendy ...  and everything is still "go".  The tour will begin at 9 am at the Library and include a talk by Pat Rusak about the archive room.  If the weather is inclement, Grossmann will give a talk indoors at the Library using a PowerPoint slide show of the stops on the tour prepared by Andy Bulfer.

  The "stops" on the tour will be:

  1. Library
  2. Midvale Market
  3. Train Station
  4. Midvale dock
  5. Luellen House
  6. Mountain Lakes Club
  7. Lake Drive School
  8. Boulevard Trolley
  9. St Peters Church
  10. Original Sales Office
  11. Little Theater
  12. Kaufmann Park at the corner of Briarcliff and the Boulevard
  13. Community Church
  14. Briarcliff School
  
  in addition there will be modules on some of the architecturally interesting houses along the way.
• Mountain Lakes History Book -- The writing samples have been received from the four semi-finalists.  On the basis of this input, the evaluation committee has whittled the field down to two finalists.  The committee has interviewed each but has not yet made a final selection.  The committee is meeting tomorrow and will make their decision.  More investigation of publishers must be done.  A presentation will be made to the Borough Council on March 24.
• Oral Histories -- John Grossmann reported that he has received comments from Peter Haas on the draft interview.  However, there is still work to be done on it.
• Next Steps on Public Awareness of the Historic District -- Andy Bulfer has not yet met with Borough Manager Joe Tempesta regarding the Borough Stationary, as the Committee had requested, however Steve Shaw reported that the Borough has recently purchased a large quantity of stationary.

  Chris Sheasby investigated the feasibility and cost of an embossed or routed indoor wooden sign for the Borough Council chamber of the same design as the outdoor bronze historic signs except in 27 x 36 inch size.  She found that such signs, wooden with carved letters and gold leaf, range in cost from $350 to $800 depend on how elaborate they are.  No decision was made.

• Morris County Acroterion Survey -- This has been delayed many times.  The project manager now asserts that bids are scheduled for April.

No Progress

• Updating the HPC Pages on the Web Site.
• Picture Scanning.

New Business

Date for Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on Weds April 2, 2008 at 7:30 PM in Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer