The February meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on Feb 11, 2004 at Borough Hall. In attendance were Emily Wolfe, Chairman Andy Bulfer and Borough Council Liaison, Blair Wilson. Newcomer Mark Watrous was also present.

Activities Since Last Meeting

• Andy Bulfer received electronically from Kathy Watrous the February Home and School Bulletin and installed it on the Web site.
  
  

New Discussion Items

• Unfortunately, recently appointed Web Committee member, Kate McKulla, has decided to resign because a long-term family problem is taking all her time.
  
  
• Mark Watrous expressed interest in being on the Committee. He has a technical background and he and his wife have a Web design business. It was decided to recommend to the Borough Council that he be appointed to the Committee.
  
  
• Every year at this time, the Web Committee updates the listings of all the Borough committees and commissions. Andy Bulfer has requested the new membership lists from Christina Whitaker but has not yet received them.

Review of Past Items

Unfortunately, little progress has been made on the following older items:

• At the last meeting, a rough conceptual proposal was presented for using the Web to order beach & tennis tags. The objective would be to make the process more convenient for residents by allowing 24x7 ordering from the comfort of their home or office. The committee would like to begin the system around May 1, about six weeks before the beaches open. A notice would be put in the April H&SA Bulletin whose deadline is Mar 10. Thus there is some urgency to get started. Andy will discuss with Gary Webb. In the meantime, the committee will start investigating Internet e-commerce companies that could handle the credit card processing. Mark Watrous has a magazine article that he will forward.
  
  
• The Borough has decided to discontinue the annual orientation meetings for new committee members. It had been planned to use this year's meeting to emphasize the importance of putting committee reports and notices on the Web and instruct how to do it.
  
  
• Last time, a project to display in the “What’s New” section, the material on the Bulletin Board (the physical one on the corner) was discussed. However, it appears too burdensome for the Bulletin Board volunteers. Although it had been planned to meet with the entire Bulletin Board committee, it was pointed out that this committee is loosely organized and does not have regular meetings. It was decided to set up a meeting with a few "idea" members of the committee to brainstorm the proposal.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer has completed about 2/3 the software for the Web site to carry notifications of emergency school closings on the front page. The objective would be to make it easier for residents to know about emergency closings, delayed openings, or early closings. Unfortunately, it is already late in the Winter and there may not be too many closings left. Bulfer said he would try to complete it quickly.
  
  
• The Garden Club has requested we update their material including officers and events listing. However, Sally Santiago has not received anything. She will contact them again for the material
  
  
• 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 obtained the forms from Borough Hall last year as MS Word files but the committee has not made much progress in converting them to PDF and installing them in the Planning Board/Zoning Board sections. Mark Watrous agreed to undertake the job.
  
  
• The new Master Plan update needs to be on the Web site. It is apparently not extensive: a simple 1-2 page update. Louise Davis had obtained it as an MS Word file but it may have fallen through the cracks. Mark Watrous will obtain it and get it installed.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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 some ideas how to do this which he has discussed with HPC Chair Joan Nix.
  
  

Date for Next Meeting

The next regular meeting will be on Weds Mar 10, 2004 at Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer,
Chairman