HIGHTSTOWN — A borough council decision to allow lighted strands of garland on the town’s historic Civil War monument for the holiday season, a plan that had been rejected by an overwhelming majority of the Historic Preservation Commission, has prompted the resignation of all but one of the commission’s members.

“A war memorial is meant to be a place of quiet, serene contemplation, a place to honor the dead,” said former Commission Chairman Richard Pratt, who resigned Nov. 8, a day after the council unanimously approved the project. “It really isn’t a place to hold a holiday celebration, in my opinion and many other people’s opinion.”

The project, called Lights on the Square, calls for strands of garland lit with different colors to be draped from the top of the monument and anchored on the ground, mimicking the shape of a traditional Christmas tree and establishing Monument Square as an additional town center and holiday celebration site.

The project will start Nov. 25 with a lighting ceremony that will include additional lights in surrounding trees.

Commission member Daniel Buriak presented the plan to council Oct. 17, and council informally supported it. On Nov. 7, despite the objections of Pratt and other members of the commission, council formally supported the project.

Pratt said Buriak did not have the commission’s approval to bring the idea before council. In fact, the very idea of incorporating colored lighting on the monument had been struck down during a Sept. 15 commission meeting. Buriak wasn’t present for that vote, Pratt said, and Buriak expressed his disagreement with the decision via e-mail the following day.

Buriak’s presentation to council came three days before the commission’s next meeting, and Pratt said the remaining members of the commission found out about the decision only through a news report several days later.

“The commission wasn’t invited to the presentation,” Pratt said. “There was no involvement.”

Buriak, the only commission member who doesn’t plan to resign, could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.

Pratt’s discussions with council members after their vote indicated that several assumed Buriak was representing the commission.

“He didn’t identify himself as a commission member or not a commission member,” Pratt said.

At the Nov. 7 council meeting, Pratt delivered a lengthy speech detailing what had happened and pleading with the council to reverse its decision, stating that he would resign if the vote were to stand. Pratt submitted his resignation the next day, and, since then, at least three others have submitted formal letters of resignation as well. Pratt said the remaining commission members, except Buriak, have agreed to resign.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t get our way,” said Pratt. “The resigning was about council violating their own rules that they had set in place.”

He said the former mayor and council had established the commission and charged it with overseeing the Stockton Street Historic District and a streetscape project along with a $1.7 million federal grant for improvements. Pratt reasoned that the borough council had undermined the commission’s authority in approving Buriak’s plan.

“The borough council sort of violated their own commission by excluding them,” he said. “The commission’s input was not only not requested, but even after we brought it to light that our input was skipped, the council continued to still let this happen.”

Pratt expressed frustration that the commission didn’t have an opportunity to ask residents and veterans to gather their thoughts on the issue, noting that some had already contacted him with objections to the plan.

“This is not the Empire State Building,” David Martin, borough historian, said. “The park is there to commemorate the dead from the Civil War.”

Contact David Karas at (609) 989-5731 or dkaras@njtimes.com.

Follow the Times of Trenton on Twitter.