HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 15Los Altos Hills History Committee
Minutes of Tuesday, September 15, 2020 3:30 PM Regular Meeting
Meeting Place: Zoom
Present on Zoom Meeting: Members—Carol Gottlieb, Jitze Couperus, Sally Wood, Denise
Williams Absent: Carol Grewal, Sylvia Jensen
Associate Members—Linda Swan, Karen Lemes
Town Council Rep—Roger Spcreen
Guests—Cody Einfalt
The meeting was called to order at 3:32 PM.
1. Presentations from the floor—None
2. Approval of Minutes for Meetings
August 18, 2020 Minutes—Motion to Approve by Jitze, Second by Sally
Vote 4-0: Sally—Yes; Denise—Yes; Jitze—Yes; Carol—Yes
Feb. 18, 2020 meeting minutes will be sent out to committee members for approval at next
meeting.
3. Old Business
a. Carol and Sally got into Heritage House to catalog files to be more user friendly. They are
deciding what to keep and what to scan and organize. Can now get into Heritage House to
catalog files to be more user friendly by appointment. Need to get laptop back and begin to scan.
b. New members are needed.
c. Mills Act—Nothing new
d. New Plaque for Flagpole—Carol talked to Mary Ann and will go through her files to see if she
can determine who Carol should talk to.
e. Equipment Purchased—Have scanner . Do not have laptop. Need to be able to hook into
Town IT system when we can get into Heritage House. Sally will talk to Cody about starting to
come in when no one else is there. Need to ask permission each time to go in.
f. Fall Zoom Presentation—“Tales of Page Mill Road”—Date is Sunday, October 11 at 2 PM.
Approval for presentation is on the Town Council meeting agenda for Thursday, September 17.
Each committee has now their own committee log-in. For webinar, hosts need to know who
panelists are. Cody volunteered to train one or two of us to be the host and how to run
meeting—need to control mikes and make sure program is being recorded. Program will have
presentations and Q & A. Can use raise hand feature to promote people to the ask questions.
Sally will be host. Linda will be back-up host. There will be at least four presenters. Eric
Bredo, second generation landowner, on Moon Lane, has presentation, including photos. John &
Gwyneth Dukes, Birgitta Sillins, Mike and Michelle Harrison will speak. Alisa will talk to the
Chowns to see if they are interested in participating.
Carol will try to see if participants want to get together this Friday to talk and brainstorm
memories.
Need to get URL for Zoom presentation to put on publicity for presentation.
Zoom run-through with Cody, Jitze, Sally, Linda, Carol, Denise, and presenters. Will check with
presenters to see of October 7, around 4 pm is available. Check to see anyone other than Eric
will have any documents or photos to share.
g. Foothill College Zoom Meeting—Nothing new. Construction going there. Intersection of Moody and
Elena closed.
h. Replacement date for March walk still up in the air. Probably will be next April, in order to
have access to Morgan Manor.
i. Plaques for the farm equipment, and other important historical artifacts.
Karen Lemes will look into the possible use of stainless steel rather than bronze for plaques.
Need spread sheet with info on each piece of equipment.
Carol will check on historical trees in Byrne Preserve. Historical designations of Heritage Tree
#2 and #3 were put on trees when Bill Siegel was around.
A tree near Moody Road and Rhus Ridge was used for surveying in the early years of Los Altos
Hills. Roger will look at it to see. May want to add to list of historic trees and make it a
Heritage Tree.
Karen Lemes read in Town Crier that they are asking people to measure their large trees and
document them.
There is a Rex Gardiner plaque on Old Snakey Road and Moody Road. This tree could become
Heritage Tree #4.
Pat Ley has two junipers in her yard that she thought may be Heritage Trees.
4-H Barn was built by volunteers. There is a small plate on the door listing donors.
Three bridges in town that are original. Not sure if they need plaques. May have been
extensively repaired.
Scan codes could be used on some of the plaque to allow viewers to get the history of each item.
Need to be prepared for technology changes that may make the scan codes obsolete.
Council minutes described an anvil and three-legged ladder being donated by Mr. Mauer. Don’t
know if it is in corp yard. Currently old records are stored there. Jitze said that there were ramed
aerial photos upstairs. There is no climate control in the building, and it is not a fire-proof
building, so safety of items is in question.
Carol made a draft list of structures, artifacts, and trees of significant interest we want to mark.
Please note any items that should be added.
j. New fence enclosing farm equipment
Deborah published the Town Manager’s report showing a new split rail fence around the farm
equipment. The farm equipment is now supported off the ground.
Jitze is building a webpage covering the old Town Hall and its demolition and then building of
the new town hall. The webpage will include the Heritage House. Jitze sent out link to website
showing photographs of old Town Hall being demolished. If anyone has photos of old Town
Hall, please send them to Jitze. When Heritage House was moved in, there was going to be a
Heritage Park around the area.
There is a picture of Simerall, architect of first Town Hall, in Florence Fava’s Book.
As part of the project to place plaques on farm equipment, it was discovered that Arleen Reed
Taafe donated a hay rake. There are two big ones, but not sure which one she donated on behalf
of her family. We have the info on the new donation from Los Altos Nursery. Carol has good
info on the Bean (brand name) sprayer. Carol’s neighbor loves old farm equipment. She will
ask him to look at equipment to get his opinion.
At Town Council meeting, Jitze will point out the fence to the public and give the URL for his
website. Sally moved to thank Carl for fence and upgrading area. Passed 4-0.
k. Peter Duxbury—At the last meeting the Council took action to name a room after Duxbury to
honor him. They did not approve putting picture of him in Town Hall, not wanting to start a
precedent.
l. Historical Files that would be on the Town Server—Two Missing Presentations. Deborah is
looking for the missing presentations. According to Jitze, the video made by Nancy Traficanti
for the 50th anniversary is missing from the town website. The video is on Vimeo, but link on
Town website keeps disappearing.
4. New Business—None
5. Candidate forum is on Hills 2000 website. When moved to YouTube, it is automatically has closes
captions.
Next Meeting—October 20, 2020
5. Zoom Adjournment at 4:57 PM