The September meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on September 11, 2002 at Borough Hall. In attendance were Emily Wolfe, Sally Santiago, and Chairman Andy Bulfer.

Accomplishments

• Emily Wolfe modified the link to the King of Kings Lutheran Church Web site on our Houses of Worship page after we received a request from their new Webmaster, Fred D. Iradi. The site appears to be under construction and is not particularly impressive. Hopefully this will change. They are hosted by an advertising-supported ISP which occasionally displays ads inappropriate for a church. Andy Bulfer politely informed Iradi who did not appear to know. Wolfe also did minor redesign on the Houses of Worship page.

• Emily Wolfe modified the picture on the front page after the 4th of July. It now has a spectacular fade-in summer photo of a canoe on the lake. It is planned to put a more seasonal/patriotic one on soon.

• Andy Bulfer developed a module for the History section on the Trolley which operated in the early days where the Boulevard path is today. The write-up provides interesting detail and pictures about this little known aspect of early Mountain Lakes. Bulfer based it on a library book about the Morris County Traction Company (the company that operated the trolley), recollections of old timers, and discussions with the Boonton Historical Society. Duke Smith was a big help in the research.

• Sally Santiago coordinated with Chief Tovo to plan an update to the Police pages which need more and better pictures of the men and women on the force.

• Emily Wolfe reported that she has volunteered to be the Webmaster for the MacDowell Club Web site. This site is not hosted by us but we link to it.

• Andy Bulfer put on the Trails page several Environmental Integrated Curriculum projects on the Tourne done by 6th grade students at Briarcliff School. There are four, by Nina Simon, Michelle Deitrick, Michele Wieczorek, and Julia Chambers. Each student picked a topic related to the Tourne and did separate sub-projects on that topic in Social Studies, Science, Math, and English. These are high grade research projects on interesting aspects of the Tourne. We have received many favorable comments about this addition to the Web site.

• Emily Wolfe has been putting a lot of swim team information on the Web. This has included directions to meets and schedules by age group. Wolfe reported it has worked exceeding well, reducing the need for phone calls and paper handouts.

• Andy Bulfer put information provided by Robin Steele about the upcoming health clinics on the Health Commission page.

• Andy Bulfer repaired a number of broken links on the Town Club page.

• Andy Bulfer continues to support the Lakes Management Committee by installing their meeting minutes. He receives them monthly from Glen Tippy.

• Andy Bulfer took shameless advantage of the current 9/11 publicity and put a notice asking for volunteer firefighters on the front page.

• Andy Bulfer sent an e-mail to the Mayor suggesting that the Borough consider accepting credit card payments at Borough Hall for taxes, bills, license fees, etc. This would be a necessary first step toward our vision of building a “Virtual Borough Hall” on the Web at which routine business could be conveniently transacted 24x7. We subsequently heard from the Borough Manager that planning for credit cards has been initiated.

• Andy Bulfer suggested to the Borough Manager that either the police e-mail address (police@mtnlakes.org) or the Web site URL be put on police car rear bumpers. Bulfer has observed URLs on police cars in Denville and Cape May (where he recently vacationed) but feels the police e-mail address would be more appropriate on the bumpers to give the public an additional way to contact the police. The Borough Manager said he would discuss it with the Police Chief.

Discussion and Action Items

• We have not made any progress on correcting the Zoning/Planning Board application forms. A resident complained that several of the forms are out of date. Andy Bulfer will continue to pursue it.
  
  
• The Synagogues link on the Houses of Worship page is still broken. Sally Santiago will investigate and fix it.
  
  
• The Town Club pages are improving but still are not up to our standards. Sally Santiago will pursue it with them.
  
  
• The Police page is still not completed. The intention is to put bios and photos of individual officers in order to give them a more human face. We have a number of bios and photos in hand but they are not organized and we don’t know if the set is complete. Sally Santiago will pursue.
  
  
• 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 material about them. Jed Breslin had said he would work on it but no progress appears to have been made. Andy Bulfer will check with Breslin.
  
  
• Several months ago, it was decided to include a module on the Dams Renovation project. It was felt that the public didn’t understand what was planned or why the work was necessary. Jed Breslin had said he would work on it but no progress appears to have been made. Andy Bulfer will check with Breslin.
  
  
• The Recreation administration pages that Andy Bulfer promised to develop have not been completed. Bulfer had promised Niecy Chambers it would be done by Sept.25.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer has not made any progress on the Community Calendar.
  
  
• Emily Wolfe has not made any progress on the Medical Needs Foundation material.
  
  
• Back in March, we received an e-mail from Kate McKulla, the Editor and Designer of the Home & School "Bulletin." She inquired if it is possible to build a page within the Community section for the Home & School Association. There is only a brief description of the H&SA at present. One of the thoughts she had was to make the Bulletin available each month via PDF download on the webpage. Andy Bulfer responded back to her enthusiastically but we never heard from her again. Sally Santiago will contact her and negotiate what level of support we should provide.
  
  
• We have been trying unsuccessfully for several months to get material on UN Weekend. There is an advertisement for it in the Home and School Bulletin. Martha Dwyer Bergman is the chair. Emily Wolfe will contact her and either obtain copy for the Web site or put on the ad either by scanning it or data-entering the material.
  
  
• There was concern that we might not have a complete list of nursery schools and preschools on the Schools page. The ML telephone directory lists several we don’t have including: Bright Horizons, King of Kings Preschool, NACO, and the Lakeland YMCA Preschool. Sally Santiago will add a listing of these with their telephone numbers.
  
  
• We have been contacted by Mike Gutowitz, a resident of Mountain Lakes and a board member at The Mountain Lakes Club. He is building a Web site for the club and wanted to find out about getting a link to it from our site. After some discussion of whether the Club was a “community organization” or a “business”, it was decided to put the link, when it becomes available, on the Community page.
  
  
• This History section is rich in content from the early days of Mountain Lakes but has less material about other eras. Andy Bulfer reported that the following people have volunteered to prepare write-ups:
  
  

  1.	Change of Borough Government	Duke Smith
  2.	Defeat of the pumped storage reservoir in the Tourne	Lynn Goldswaithe
  3.	The Synthatron story	Sandy Batty
  4.	Getting Sewers into Mountain Lakes	Ruth Harrison

  
  
  
• There was a long discussion about the Schools site. The committee feels that there still needs to be better integration to make the two sites look more like one community site. The committee is concerned about clear navigational links not artistic style. For example, a link labeled “Home” should go to the Borough site. There is also the issue of 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. Andy Bulfer and Jud Breslin have met with School Board member Lisa Davidson who appears supportive. Davidson is working to set up a meeting with the Superintendent.
  
  
• Emily Wolfe graciously volunteered to prepare a write-up for the fall Borough Newsletter. The material is due to Gayle Joseph by Sept 30. There was discussion of what it should contain. Wolfe will prepare a draft for the committee’s review prior to submission.
  
  

The next regular meeting will be on Oct 9, 2002 at 8 pm at Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer,
Chairman