The February meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on Feb. 13, 2002 at Borough Hall. In attendance were Emily Wolfe, Sally Santiago, Andy Bulfer, and Jed Breslin.

Accomplishments

• Library -- Andy updated the Library new acquisitions page which has to be done monthly. He also added a new feature on the Library page, a listing of all audio books the library owns.
  
  
• Dog/Cat Licenses -- The notice about pet licenses was updated at Gary Webb’s request
  
  
• What’s New -- A number of new items were added including notice about boat racks, Library audio books, and dog/cat liceneses
  
  
• Boat Rack Info -- The notice about pet moorings and racks was updated at Gary Webb’s request
  
  
• Andy Bulfer and Emily Wolfe fixed the HOME mouse-over image on the front page that was broken. A file on the web site had somehow gotten mangled.
  
  
• Joe Mullaney sent us a number of items about the Fire Dept, which Andy Bulfer installed on the VFD page. It is a major improvement to the page.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer received the Mayor’s letter concerning the Sep 11 attack. Since it was by fax, Andy had to type it and forward it to Emily Wolfe who installed it on the front page.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer installed the Chronology of Events related to the Sep 11 Attack and put a link in the What’s New section. It looked nice. Subsequently, Emily Wolfe applied her creative talents to it and then it looked awesome.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer fixed two errors in the census data page that had been pointed out by George Jackson.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer put notices about the VFD/Girl Scouts car wash and bake sale in the What’s New section.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer put some descriptive material on the Early Autos page that he had received from people around the world. The background is this: The Early Autos page is a compilation of the pictures of the antique cars that appear occasionally in the House Pictures. They are assembled in one place so that they may be seen together. The pictures include the first fire engine, a police motorcycle and car, an electric car and other vehicles. Several months ago, Bulfer put out a notice on the Internet requesting information about these cars. Responses flooded in from the US, Canada, and as far away as Australia. Bulfer summarized and crystallized the material and put it on the page.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer updated the New Library Acquisitions page as he does every month.
  
  

Discussion and Action Items

• Andy Bulfer put a link on the Community page to the new Town Club web site that was developed by Gerry Libertelli whose wife is a member of the Town Club. The web site is hosted on a machine owned by Gerry and hence the Town Club is a Class 4 organization.
  
  
• We still need pictures of the School Board members. Sally Santiago had planned to attend a school board meeting in early October to take the pictures but was disrupted by the terrorist attack. She now plans to do so in late October.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer still has reservations about the quality of the General Code’s search engine user interface. He was concerned that the search engine will be difficult for Mountain Lakes residents to use because it does not look like the search engines that people are used to (e.g. Google or Altavista). The committee discussed two possibilities: 1) developing our own user interface that somehow masks General Code’s, or 2) working through the Borough Manager to get General Code to improve their interface. It was decided to try #1 first to see if it is feasible. It would have the advantage of having our own look-and-feel and would be faster than waiting for General Code to do it if they would do it at all. Gerry Libertelli will look into it.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer received an MSword file of the “Residents Guide” to be distributed in printed form to Mountain Lakes homeowners. He got it from Calrisa Wangsness, the consultant the Borough has engaged to prepare the Guide. There is a desire to put the material on the Borough web site but Wangsness warned Bulfer that it would not look attractive on the web because it is formatted for a very small printed brochure. The committee was also concerned that material may be redundant with information already on the web site. Andy will send a copy of the MSword document to the members of the committee so that we can evaluate what to do with it.
  
  
• We need to approach the School Board about pointing the mtlakes.org domain toward the Borough site. The committee was concerned that the School Board might not follow through on their commitment to route mtlakes.org to the Borough site. George Jackson will follow up immediately with Kate Lareau.
  
  
• We still need to get more information about the recreation program on the web site. Emily Wolfe has been working with Nicey Chambers on it but the committee was worried that this may prove to be insufficient (through no fault of Emily and Nicey). It was decided to request the Recreation Committee for time on the agenda of their next meeting to discuss it. Andy Bulfer, Gerry Libertelli, and perhaps George Jackson would attend.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer has not made any progress on the Community Calendar.
  
  
• Emily Wolfe still has not yet had any luck getting information about the Lake Drive Education foundation.
  
  
• Sally Santiago volunteered to develop and install the Spirit 5K brochure as a pdf. She committed to a target date of 10/12/2001. When it is installed, she will tell Andy Bulfer who will put a What’s New notice on the front page.
  
  
• We need to figure out a way to weed out or replace obsolete material on the web site. Andy Bulfer will prepare a list of all files on the web site over 1 year old and distribute it to the Committee. Everyone will review the files that are theirs for currency and accuracy.
  
  
• We need to include material on Gary Webb. It is desired to have a picture and bio. The Borough Manager should be first on the Borough Hall page. Emily Wolfe reported that she has taken a photo of him. Webb has informed us that the bio is written but not yet typed. When we get it, Emily will put the material on the Borough Hall page. A suggestion from a past meeting was to have side-by-side pictures of him when he was a Philadelphia Eagle and him today or perhaps an animated gif that morphs from the Eagle picture to a current picture.
  
  
• No progress has been made on an old-timers mailing list. There was discussion last time of perhaps making some type of newsgroup or bulletin board system instead where people could post messages and they could be read by anyone. This still isn’t a priority.
  
  
• No progress has been made on making all the Education Foundations accessible from the Schools page. This includes the Mountain Lakes Education Foundation and the Lake Drive Education Foundation. It was decided not to pursue this since we have been unsuccessful in obtaining content about these foundations.
  
  
• Penny Leman has sent us updates to the Garden Club page. Sally Santiago will format it and install it. Leman told us that the Garden Club considers their page to be attractive and that we should only update the information, not the look and feel.
  
  
• There was discussion about the navigation characteristics of the Police page. It was decided to replicate the top menu items on the bottom so that they are visible when you browse down to the bottom of the page. Emily Wolfe will implement.
  
  
• The Dept. of Public Works is a major area that is not yet represented. They are responsible for water, roads, sewers, recycling, leaves and brush. They touch all of our lives. We need to get material about them. No progress has been made since last time. Andy Bulfer will put together an outline of what we need and send it to George Jackson and Gary Webb.
  
  
• Joe Mullaney sent photos of a recent VFD drill at the Morris County Fire Academy, some photos of the picnic and some Fire Prevention and Safety tips. Emily Wolfe will look over the photos and see what we can use. Andy Bulfer will install the tips.
  
  
• The Committee decided to remove the What’s New notice about the Sopranos from the front page and put an item describing the Library building program on the Library page. Andy Bulfer will do so.
  
  
• George Jackson suggested that we regularly put minutes of all Borough committees and commissions on the web site. Jackson felt there would be particular public interest in the minutes of the VFD, HPC, Borough Appearance Committee, and Trails Committee. Currently the only minutes we have are of the Borough Council and the Web Committee. Putting them all on would be a major work item. Jackson felt it could be done since all committee minutes flow through the Borough Clerk and it would simply be an extension of what she does now for the Borough Council. Andy Bulfer will discuss it with her.
  
  
• The Committee decided to put a notice of the Duck Race in the What’s New section. Andy Bulfer will implement.
  
  
• Gerry Libertelli mentioned he heard that GTI, the hosting company that we use, may be in financial trouble. It was decided to redouble our efforts to back up our site in case GTI goes dark. Gerry Libertelli will back the site up daily on his server and Andy Bulfer will be careful to back it up regularly on his PC as he has been doing.

The next meeting will be held on Nov 14, 2001.

Andy Bulfer,
Chairman