WESTWOOD—Troop 321 Life Scout Bella Tirri earned fans at Borough Hall and further afield, Dec. 16, 2025, outlining for the governing body her Eagle Scout proposal to renovate the Westwood Heritage Society’s museum room inside the historic train station.
Her idea is straightforward, and roll-up-your-sleeves tough: turn a room that functions more like storage than an exhibit into something closer to a gracious space showcasing decades of irreplaceable “Hub of the Pascack Valley” history.
That theme came through in the questions from Mayor Ray Arroyo and councilmembers, who pressed her on the practical things that make or break any volunteer project: painting, prep work, storage and how artifacts would be handled while the room is cleared, reorganized, and renewed.
Addressing the dais, Bella described a plan to remove and organize materials, refresh the room, improve shelving and storage, and return items in a more intentional layout — so the Society isn’t constantly hauling materials out and back for displays.
After the meeting, council members described the room as “kind of like a storage room” now, and said Bella’s work could allow the Society to keep it set up so visitors can more easily step in and experience — and researchers use — the growing collection. One called the archive a treasure.
In subsequent interviews, Westwood Heritage Society chairman and borough historian Robert Hibler told Pascack Press that Bella has impressed the group from the start. “She’s an extraordinary young lady. So articulate.” He noted that she comes to meetings prepared — always in uniform — and presents “what she envisioned,” along with the plan the Society agreed would make a good project for her.
Hibler said “Before we even knew she had a project in mind, we wanted to do something to mark the country’s 250th anniversary [in 2026] and remind people that, while Westwood is 141 years old (founded in 1894), we have a deep history. Much of it is archived in boxes, photos and albums — and in the memories of our members, especially [founding members] Jim Gines and Linda Salib.”
He said, “With all of that information available, and it is somewhat organized but not
easily accessible, our goal was to preserve it and make it searchable. We won’t reach Westwood’s 250th ourselves — we’re all in our eighties — but we hope to carry the project through and make the material more available, at least in a searchable form.”
Hibler said, “Then Bella came along, working with Councilman Anthony Greco, who is very interested in Westwood history. He suggested that since our materials are stored at the Westwood train station, we could better organize them and ultimately open the storage area — the old luggage room — for public viewing. The storage area is in the original section of the station, and Bella proposed several steps to make it more accessible.”
He described her proposal as a two-part effort: restore the room’s condition and improve its storage system. One piece is paint — using a historically matched color. Hibler said the Society knows what the original color was and feels it will be a welcome change.
The second piece is organizing. The work requires shifting contents out of the room and securing them while painting and shelving installation takes place, Hibler said. Because the train station is open, the materials would need to be stored in a secure location — possibly in a pod — until everything can be moved back in.
Beyond Bella’s work, Hibler said the Society is tackling a longer-term archiving project — digitizing and organizing materials so they can be searched and accessed more widely.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said. The next steps, Hibler added, would require professional help to copy and catalog materials and build a database. The platform — whether on the Society’s own site, through the Westwood Free Public Library, or elsewhere — has not yet been decided.
For now, Hibler said the Society remains accessible in the old-fashioned way: by showing up and asking.
He said the group holds a business meeting at 7:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month, and 7:30 p.m. work sessions at the train station on the other Wednesdays, when members answer questions and pull materials from the collection. Hibler added that “anyone who comes to a meeting is automatically a member” of the Westwood Heritage Society.
The Society also rotates display cases at the train station, Borough Hall and the library, Hibler said, and hosts museum days.
Book in the works
He teased a related project: a book of Westwood history with the input of himself, Gines, and Salib and other volunteers, and largely flowing from the meticulous research and care of the late Helen Whalen, 94, (a volunteer here and a trustee at the Pascack Historical Society in Park Ridge, and author and editor on Westwood and River Vale history). Her daughter Kathleen is continuing her local work.
Troop 321 has its eyes on history
This is the most recent of Troop 321 scouts’ commitments to celebrating Westwood’s history. Westwood Eagle Scout candidate Michael Rocco Greco in August 2025 completed a Veterans Park project restoring a large, mid-20th-century naval anchor he located through Facebook Marketplace.
After some 14 hours of sandblasting over four Saturdays, he finished the piece with marine epoxy paint — a coat of white primer followed by multiple coats of black and gray — and helped install it in the park as a tribute to U.S. sea service members. The anchor sits near a memorial bench dedicated to his grandfather, Alfred Greco, a Korean War-era U.S. Navy petty officer.
Museum’s home is itself historic
The Westwood Historic Preservation Commission announced on Feb. 4, 2020 the listing of the Westwood Train Station on the National Register of Historic Places. The listing, which became official that Jan. 28, recognized the station’s “significance in relation to the development of Westwood and embodiment of distinctive architectural characteristics as an early 20th century commuter railroad station.”
There are more than 90,000 such sites listed nationwide, with more 1,700 in New Jersey and approximately 275 in Bergen County. The Westwood Train Station was the first listing on the National Register for Westwood.
The news reached Westwood Historic Preservation Committee chair (she was since elected to council)Lauren Letizia and councilwomen Erin Collins and Beth Dell in congratulatory email from HPC preservation consultant Gregory Dietrich, who had drafted and submitted the application.
Formal notification followed from the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office is on the way, Dietrich said.
The National Register of Historic Places is the list of the nation’s historic resources worthy of preservation. Established by Congress in 1966 under the National Historic Preservation Act, it includes districts, sites, structures, buildings, and objects of local, state, and national significance. To mark the listing on both registers, the HPC held a public rededication ceremony that May.