The September meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on September 10, 2003 at Borough Hall. In attendance were Emily Wolfe, Sally Santiago, Chairman Andy Bulfer and Borough Council Liaison, Louise Davis. A member of the public, Mark Watrous, also attended.

Activities Since Last Meeting

• Andy Bulfer submitted a letter to the editor of the Citizen (attached) describing how Borough Council and Board of Ed meeting minutes are on the Mountain Lakes Web site. The letter was printed but without the concluding sentence or Bulfer’s name so the letter’s author was invisible. Not surprisingly, no comments have been received.
  
  
• Sally Santiago installed material about the coming UN Weekend and put a notice in “What’s New”.
  
  
• Emily Wolfe installed a set of PowerPoint slides she obtained from the Schools Superintendent describing the MLHS Construction and Renovation proposal. Although Wolfe had nothing to do with the content, her implementation is very impressive and the committee congratulated her.
  
  
• At Robin Steele’s request, Andy Bulfer installed notices for the upcoming Flu clinic on Oct 12 and the Free Rabies clinic on Nov 22. A blurb was put in the “What’s New”.
• Sally Santiago did a complete update of the Mountain Lakes Educational Foundation. It included Home/Events/Committees/Calendar/Mission/Members. She included a notice of their upcoming 7th Annual Golf and Tennis Outing.
  
  
• In anticipation of the Citizen letter, Emily Wolfe went through the Borough Council and Board of Education members and brought their pictures, bios, and contact information up to date.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer received several completed oral history questionnaires from former residents, which he installed. He also forwarded copies to the HPC. There are now 31 oral history items in the “Voices from the Past” section on the Web site.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer received electronically from Kate McKulla the Sept Home and School Bulletin and installed it on the Web site. We subsequently received a very nice e-mail thank you and were pleased to find an ad in the Bulletin for the Web site.
  
  
• In anticipation of the Citizen letter, Andy Bulfer went through the entire list of Borough committees and made sure their membership listings were up-to-date based on a file he received from the Borough Clerk last Spring.
  
  
• We have made a change in the Environmental pages. Previously, the “Environment” link pointed to material about the Environmental Commission. However, much of the material is not strictly about the commission but is truly about the environment. Furthermore, the material is relatively old and the Environment Commission’s interest in the Web site has waned in recent years. We changed the section to include material from the Lakes Management, Trails, & Shade Tree committees, Borough Hall water reports, Trash information such collection schedules, recycling, trash days, as well as the Environmental Commission. Tom Carr has agreed to manage the section and was given a login. The committee hopes he will bring a broad, eclectic view and not a parochial interest in one committee or pet project.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer installed updated Library acquisitions, books-on-tape lists, and video lists at the request of the Director of the Mountain Lakes Library.
  
  

New Discussion Items

• Mark Watrous requested a login for Troop 41. He and his wife are skilled in Web design. He described their plans for a Boy Scouts Web page with listings of events, pictures, calendar, etc. The committee decided to provide the login and Andy Bulfer will do it. There are now 6 organizations that manage their own content on the Web site including Environment, League of Women Voters, Municipal Alliance, Recreation Commission, Town Club, and Troop 41.
  
  
• We have been asked to provide input for the next Borough Newsletter. It’s Andy Bulfer’s turn to write and submit it.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer received a series of elaborate MSWord pages from DPW about trash day, compost delivery, and leaf pickup. Emily Wolfe will install them with a “What’s New” notice.
  
  
• Sally Santiago agreed to obtain full information about UN Weekend and install it.
  
  
• The Town Club Web pages are much improved. This is an area whose quality has been poor in the past but these problems appear now to be completely eliminated.
  
  
• Sally Santiago reported that the Schools Site has vastly improved. Apparently one of the high school teachers has been assigned to spend 30% of their time on it and he has many high school students working on it. They have done a great job.
  
  
• Sally Santiago will obtain and install information about the Town Club Holiday House Tour later in the year. The committee asked that she work with the Town Club to see if people can register for tickets on the Web.
  
  
• In past winters, we have had a link to a local radio station page that contains school closing information. It was decided to wait until later in the year to restore the link.
  
  
• We have been requested by the Home and School Association to include information about how to prepare and submit material to the Bulletin. Kate McKulla has recently sent the material in MSWord format to Andy Bulfer. Bulfer will convert to HTML and install it.
  
  
• Sally Santiago will obtain and install information about the Spirit 5K event in October.
  
  
• The Garden Club has requested we update their material including officers and events listing. Sally Santiago will contact them and do the updates.
  
  
• Emily Wolfe mentioned that a Parsippany company is offering to collect old PC monitors & TV sets for recycling. Although not strictly and Mountain Lakes activity, it was decided that it would be of sufficient interest to residents to have a “What’s New” notice. Wolfe will do it.
  
  

Review of Past Items

• The new Master Plan update needs to be on the Web site. Louise Davis reported it is a simple 1-2 page update and is not extensive. Davis will obtain it as an MSWord file and forward it to Emily Wolfe who will convert it to HTML and install it in the Planning Board section.
  
  
• Several of the Zoning/Planning Board application forms are out of date. Also, there is no e-mail address for use by the public to contact these boards. Louise Davis will obtain the forms from Borough Hall as MSWord files and forward them to Emily Wolfe who will convert them to PDF and install them in the Planning Board/Zoning Board sections.
  
  
• The Police page is still not completed. The original intention was 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 the set is not complete. It was decided to forego further changes since the page is pretty good already. At the next opportunity when the police force is assembled in dress uniforms, we will take another group picture.
  
  
• The Dept. of Public Works is a major area that is not yet represented. They are responsible for water, roads, sewers, recycling, leaves, and trash. They touch all of our lives. The committee would like to have a section about them including who they are, how they are organized, what their day-to-day activities are, how to contact them, their equipment, a group picture, etc. No decision was made.
  
  
• There was discussion on a proposed Community Calendar. This would contain information from the H&S Bulletin, the Borough Calendar, and any other material Mountain Lakes residents wish to add. Several suggestions were made and Andy Bulfer will pursue it.
  
  
• This History section is rich in content from the early days of Mountain Lakes but has less material about other eras. Andy Bulfer said 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

  
  
  We have received write-ups from Smith and Harrison and they are installed. Andy Bulfer will pester Goldswaithe and Batty to complete their material. In the past, the committee has made several additional suggestions for material including: Building the High School (expert: Hoke Briessendon), Transformation of Lake Drive School into a school for the deaf, the story of UN Weekend, and the story of the GAA show.
  
  
• A project to display in the “What’s New” section the material on the Bulletin Board (the physical one on the corner) was discussed. Doing so would assure a constant supply of fresh material on the front page. Andy Bulfer said he envisioned that the material could be inserted with a simple Web form wherein someone could input the text and click “Submit”. However, Louise Davis reported there would be operational problems if the keepers of the Bulletin Board were asked to do it. Davis will pursue with Gary Webb whether someone in the office could input the text after one of the Bulletin Board committee members has installed it on the Bulletin Board. There were also several suggestions about where to put it other than “What’s New”. Emily Wolfe will consider the design aspects and make a recommendation.
  
  
• The committee would still like to have links from particular old house pictures to the oral histories of past residents of that house. Andy Bulfer will add this to his to-do list.
  
  

Date for Next Meeting

The next regular meeting will be on October 8, 2003 at Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer,
Chairman

To the Editor:

You were right to congratulate Boonton for putting their minutes on the Web. Mountain Lakes has had agendas and minutes of the Borough Council on its Web site for several years and we believe our citizens really appreciate it and use them. Minutes and Agendas of the Board of Education have recently begun to be posted too.

Like Boonton, Mountain Lakes only posts Borough Council minutes that have been approved by the Council so there is a several week delay. Agendas are posted prior to each meeting after they have been approved by the mayor. It takes the Borough Clerk only seconds to upload them to our Web site after they have been approved.

The Mountain Lakes Web site has a number of other features that residents find useful including:

• A searchable database of all Borough ordinances;
• On-line searchable access to the entire library catalog so you can find any book in the Mountain Lakes Library and other Morris County libraries too, and reserve it if you wish;
• Listings of all borough committees and commissions with their mission, members, meeting schedule and how to contact them. Some even have minutes of their meetings and action plans;
• Printable forms for common tasks like applying for pet licenses or parking permits;
• A portfolio of Laker House Photos sponsored by the Historic Preservation Committee. It contains over 400 original photos from the early days of Mountain Lakes including hundreds of individual houses and nearly 80 old photos of early life in town.

Mountain Lakes believes strongly in using the Web to deliver information that Mountain Lakes residents need, make Mountain Lakes residents more aware of their town's history, culture, and values, and make government more accessible and convenient for its citizens.

Andy Bulfer
Webmaster
Mountain Lakes