HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 19History Committee Meeting Minutes
October 19, 2010
1. Meeting called to order in Parks and Recreation Building at 2:10 pm by Nobuko
Cleary, Chair.
Committee Members present: Nobuko Cleary, Les Earnest, Maryann Malcolm, Barbara
Packard.
Committee Members absent: Bill Downey, LeeAnn Vojvoda
Council Liaison present: Jean Mordo
2. Minutes of the 9/21/2010 Committee meeting
Reviewed and approved.
3. OLD BUSINESS
a. Inventory Subcommittee
Les Earnest reported that based on continued cataloging of historical artifacts on
September 28, the number of pages in scrapbooks and news clipping folders is
around 4,000 with two more boxes to be inventoried. Cataloging will continue on
Tuesday, October 26 beginning at 1:30 pm in Council Chambers.
b. Town Newsletter scanning project
Earnest reported that a review of newsletters returned from the Internet Archive
revealed that there were none from1994, whereas their web site shows two in that
year. In other words, they failed to return at least two newsletters. Earnest plans to
provide those to Duffy Price who had been kind enough to loan us the originals.
Earnest also discovered another glitch in the scanning process: He had placed
blank Post it notes over private addresses on copies that were donated to the
archive, so as to protect privacy, but some of the scanners apparently removed
them before scanning. Earnest plans to find suitable software to edit that
information out of the resulting PDF files.
c. Street and path name history project
No report, since Bill Downey did not attend.
d. Dedication ceremonies for paths and a road named for historical figures
Nobuko Cleary and Maryann Malcolm proposed holding a single dedication
ceremony for the two paths and a road, to be held on December 5 in conjunction
with the Westwind Barn Lighting ceremony. Earnest argued that the three
ceremonies should be held separately but noted that it would be possible to hold a
hike beginning and ending at Westwind Barn and going over the Wallace Stegner
and Packard Paths, which would be similar to one held a year ago by Nick Dunkel
of the Pathways Committee, who has already volunteered to help with the
dedication ceremonies.
e. Update of Town History web page
Earnest has started drafting a new web page to fix errors in the existing one and to
broaden its coverage. He plans to add a small section on geological history,
describing how the hills were formed and will try to make the human history less
Eurocentric by going back to the earliest people who came here about 15,000
years ago.
f. Historical Sites and Structures project
Barbara Packard got Karen Jost to provide Committee members with copies of
Ordinance N. 257, which amended the Town Municipal Code on “Landmark
Designation and Preservation.” Earnest noted that it was obsolete in that it
assigned duties to the Town Historian and the Los Altos Hills Historical Society
rather than the History Committee. Karen Jost then came in to point out that any
recommendations from the Committee should address the Municipal Code rather
than this old Ordinance. There was a consensus among Committee members that
an update should be recommended to the Council.
4. Presentations from the floor
Barbara Packard brought multiple copies of a recent book on “Early Los Altos and Los
Altos Hills” by Don McDonald and the Los Altos History Museum and freely offered
them to Committee members. Earnest took one to be included in the Town Archives.
5. Meeting Adjourned at 2:57 pm
Submitted by Les Earnest, Secretary