##VIDEO ID:_kcYzgFgZIc## okay good evening everyone uh it is um Wednesday January 8th 2025 this is the regular monthly meeting of the Southwick agricultural commission we do have a quorum with myself Bert Hansen Dan Cook Zack Barnett Manita bober Jen dietro and online uh Sage Fury so we're good good to um we don't really have there's some there was some mail between Cindy and me about we're still trying to get the reminder paid for our ads um I saw that we have different accounts but uh nothing we can do about that tonight so and there's no public to comment so here we can just go right to Lynn um and talk about the plant swap yeah so we anytime we do like an event or anything um we're always looking to partner with local boards commissions um and so we're we're trying to um um reach different demographics because we know we're really good about reaching the kids really good about reaching the seniors and then there's kind of like the group in then I hate to call them Millennials because I feel like such a bad connotation but you know the kind of the the younger adult crowd um and I was reaching out to other librar saying what kind of programs have you done that's been successful and a lot of people recommended doing a plant swap so I thought that that was something fun that we could try for the spring which just kind of bring the community together um yeah so my thoughts were and I'm if you are all interested in kind of collaborating helping us advertise lending a hand in any way you'd like to um yeah we actually brought this up at our last meeting we yeah we're in yeah so and I did watch the recording of the last meeting because I knew it was on there so I wanted to kind of prepare myself um so I'm open to any way that we want to run it um what I was thinking was I know you guys were talking about the Thursday and Friday dates I was thinking we would do like a drop off couple weekday do what people can drop their stuff off I can organize get ready and that way we do it on a Saturday because I I foresee like if we're doing it on a Saturday and people are dropping stuff off and people are trying to pick stuff up it could get a little chaotic but if people wanted to donate anything they could come in on like a Thursday or Friday leave stuff with us I could get everything nice looking organized and on Saturday we could kind of open the doors and and have at it yeah um so that was my thinking um or you thinking it would be inside like in a community room yeah if the weather was nice I'd love to do it outside um but obviously we have the community room as a backup just in case you know it weren't so nice weather can kind of be hit or miss um I don't have any specific dates planned yet I I have a couple of you know outside of work commitments that are still taking shape so once I kind of know about those dates then I can see what's open um I was thinking of sometime the end of April or the beginning of May I don't know if you guys had a recommendation on what might be better as far as um and these can be any type of plants house plants outdoor plants um you know that's why I was hoping to you know collect a couple days before so we can organize um so yeah I that's that's kind of what it is right now um we'd probably we're open 10 to one on Saturdays so I was you know run it 10 to noon or however long we have stuff um that gives me 12 to1 to clean up um and yeah that's that's kind of what I was thinking I thinking I think we said in an email you know house plants you know tend to kind of wake up you like in February because sunl gets to be more um but I think April would be okay yeah I was thinking more towards like the end of April or so yeah yeah and then um I wouldn't work really someone if you bring one PL you get to take one plant or can anyone just come in and take I mean I think people can come in a couple days before drop things off but if they don't have anything to drop off they could just come in on Saturday um you know the the biggest thing is kind of I think this could attract some new people the biggest thing is just getting them in getting them through the door and then they go wow you guys have a lot of stuff we didn't realize and that's you know just to kind of get them in welcome them to the library I think this could kind of get some people that you know don't normally come in and then we could promote our seed Library along with that which is fantastically popular um we're adding a couple new ones this year I think we're up to almost 20 different types and people people really love it um it gets a lot of attention so it's kind of a way we can you know get people in and then also if they're interested in Plants they're probably interested in seeds so I'm thinking for edcom we should do like seedlings of like vegetables yeah yeah that would be fantastic yeah I was gonna ask that question um like other than plants would you do a seed swap or something like that if I don't know people I've heard of that before too I don't know if you were going to incorporate that too we could potentially yeah we could advertise it as like a plant SE seed swap um you know as long as people brought their stuff in that's you know labeled um some of libraries that do seed libraries they take back seeds that people you know and add them to the collection I've never done that because I this is not my forte and I'm don't want to misidentify um but for like if we could do like a p a plant seed swap then that could open another door to you know somebody doesn't have any plants maybe they have seeds you know they could bring them in as long as they're labeled then yeah I think that would be that would be fun I would even expand it maybe like some people collect tons of pots and like Planters and stuff give those away yeah and like planting supplies you don't want to end up with too much trash at the end but yeah yeah you never know but I mean I think I think that could be good yeah absolutely yeah so that's what I'm thinking of um once I kind of nail down a date hopefully by the middle of this month then I can um I can let you guys know and then um we'll we'll probably start advertising it on the sooner side that way people know about it and they can kind of keep it in their mind as they're sure doing whatever they're doing to get ready for the spring that if they wanted to donate any yeah just just an FYI you may know um April 18th is Good Friday yes yeah 19th Easter on the 20th so yeah I was thinking the last the last weekend that might yeah yeah so I was thinking maybe the last weekend in April or even like the first weekend in May if I had to kind of push it out that far but yeah I'll definitely um I'll definitely let you guys know on the sooner side and then I'll get some like promotional materials and then if anybody can share in any way possible put on our Facebook on website stuff absolutely and then if if somebody's interested in coming in to to help out that day that's Fant if not that's fine um but if somebody was interested in or you could even bring in if you have materials for the Adcom you know we can do a little table or something like that if you wanted to give like handouts or any information or if you had your planning stuff for your next Farm day or whatever we can oh yeah yeah third Sunday third Saturday in August wonderful wonderful yeah so that's what I'm thinking um and I also um sent a list to you Bert um I don't know if you've seen it yet I sent it just this afternoon um our homesteading session went really good in December and I sent you a list of um just they um she asked what types of programs people would be interested in along the lines of homest setting farming whatnot um and I shared with you the list of topics um so you guys are welcome to share amongst yourselves we'll probably try to do a couple scattered throughout the year um and if you guys know anybody on any of those topics then that would be super helpful that's great yeah yeah I sent this around at like 5:00 a lot yeah and she had even more selections but these were the ones that had the most votes on what people were really looking for that's great um so yeah we'll we'll probably try to do a couple of these throughout the year and um and yeah like I said if if you guys know of anybody who who knows about these topics then you're more than welcome to to send them my way or we can we can definitely collaborate on on hosting them y yep did you get um did people sign in for the home setting program I do we have they didn't they didn't sign in no I didn't I didn't collect emails um probably should have after the fact but um yeah no when I I and I think actually the woman who ran it probably knows a lot of them um so once we once we do something again we have a large list of like our email list our social media is pretty popular that we can get the word out again yeah because we have our Forum coming up in two weeks so maybe you could send out info about that to your to your list certainly I it's supposed to be for Farmers primarily but other folks you know can come our dead son works for me oh yeah yes Mark so I could say something to Mark about something to his mom about you know passing it on about okay I think you're right she probably knows most yeah I think she knew most of the people that came yep yeah I actually met her at second Eden Farm on open Farm day but I didn't know her name but she did talk about Mark so okay coming together here a little bit um yeah okay great oh and this is making me think back on the plant swap would there be could we do like some mini demos or many workshops about planting and gardening um yeah I mean yeah I was thinking of doing it for like a two-hour window so we you know we could have if if you know somebody who's interested in doing like a little demo or something Boo or something yeah absolutely yeah we our room is is generally pretty big and I'm hoping when we do it the weather would be nice so we could kind of keep the dirty stuff outside but we know how that goes um so yeah so absolutely I have some big tarps you could put on the floor we got a good vacuum clear we do the children's programs in there so unfortunately the carpet is used to quite a mess that's great okay that's okay very good if I um if I get the details together on the sooner side I can try to send it to you before your Farm Forum um and that way you know if if you have the chance you could also mention it maybe people have stuff that they would want to donate um so that they could mark their calendars and whatnot yeah okay yeah great yeah great and then moving ahead we're uh speaking of the the Farm Forum one thing we' thought about doing and we don't have any it's just a kind of an hint of an idea at this point is to do some kind of agricultural program in the schools yeah try to get the kids do they even know what the arming is about you know um and I saw that you have uh teen drop-ins I think on the 9th and the 23d yeah this month I mean would that be any kind of an opportunity to for us to go maybe not this month I might be soon and again it's just a hint of an idea and talk to the kids about about farming and yeah I mean I mean we could specifically do just a program on that um you know I could talk to our librarian who does the programs just for teens um he could we get a lot of kids after school so we could definitely have something just with you know the a commission comes in they they really like Hands-On stuff so like a demo or anything like that or even even if it's something um you know something that they could take home you know what I mean we and we we we have a programming budget too so we wouldn't expect you to kind of you know handle everything so if it was like a a planting demo too or even just like um you know something that like a Seedling or something that they could start and take home you know I like that they like to be able to kind of you know have something that they can you know that they can take and yeah hopefully not kill and I'm a bean on a wet piece of paper well um so I wonder so should we think about uh doing it during a a teen hangout or should we just pick a day and do it um I would I can put you um put you in touch with our librarian John who does the teen events um and then we I think it would be nice to have one just specifically on that um so that way because when the during the teen Hangouts there's usually snacks there's usually video games you know they're kind of distracted by that you know if we were to do something we'd want to make sure that you know you guys are the feature yeah okay okay that's pretty cool I would donate plants I don't know I can't promise I could be there okay because I people working right but I would donate PL okay just think about want whether it's flour vegetable whatever I steal your pen I'm just want to make sure that I make a note to let John know tomorrow so that I don't forget yeah so I'll talk to John tomorrow and then we'll see what he um yeah January January's booked um February might be an option or maybe maybe even March depending on what he's got scheduled already but have to discuss it quite a bit first oh yeah yeah so I mean have much time until after the farmer forms yeah so even March or April would be just fine too that way you know it's springtime and they're thinking about that kind of thing might early yeah yeah yeah oh I'm thinking peas though maybe an early CL Maybe radishes great okay great we're good thank you then thanks everybody and you're totally welcome to stay oh that's okay she watched last weeks I only watched the part where you talked about me and I shut guys it was nice to meet most of you that I haven't met yet soce to meet you to have a good one okay I just made copies of something because I I did some work on the um agenda for the F Forum what date is it 22 2 second two weeks from today it's a little you know close oh it's on a Wednesday yeah so it would be our day work session day um yeah so this is what actually Jen started this um a few weeks ago and this is an update and I was trying to work out the timing so that we have uh you know the the meeting or the program for 90 minutes and then half an hour of mix and Mingle for people to sign in and half an hour after people want to stick around um I think we went over this before but we'll you do a welcome of course Sage you're going to do a an overview of the um website right fair thing okay and hopefully we can do all that in 15 minutes uh internet doesn't go down yeah um and then 24 in review and uh we talked about we need pictures and I I contacted Angie and uh because it was raining all day on the open Farm day she doesn't have Jason didn't do any no or any photos yeah I hope so um I have a few from caliber but um when I was there I can you know give a couple of those send them your way right okay I wonder if Tom has anything strong yeah um and he's oh by the way Tom couldn't come tonight it's his wife's 50th birthday so yes they're they're celebrating somewhere nice um and I told him you know the 50s the 50s are actually a good decade as I recall anyway and I took I'm taking I'm suggesting we take out out Outreach we didn't really do much formal Outreach this year we're in touch with these various groups but you know um nothing too tangible we had that one one um and that person came out early in the year regarding grants not grants but she talked about land um the succession planning one or yeah I think so yeah that was but that was just one of them for good I think that was about it that's true because and we did have we did have grant writing workshop and we did have the succession planning workshop so maybe we should mention those were really early in the year yeah yep okay and then Jen uh your GIS y I'm thinking do you think a half an hour I mean um prob yeah about 20 something like that I don't know I mean I can make it go um longer with questions and things like that you know proper probably you can pull like specific farms in the area yeah well the thing is is that I don't know if I have a live internet feed um but I can kind of give an example um my PowerPoint that I have um and I sent it to everybody huh you get her on the Wi-Fi here I would think so I don't have a I'll tell you two yeah and um so I would be the guest network has a password it it said there's a little note here it says Evergreen Evergreen yeah all lowercase uh uh capital E SE for greens SE green yeah green or greens Green so if we have Internet on the computer then ibly yeah I could just like put it to the TV and just show it like that I mean I used the internet yeah whenever I'm there I would use it on my iPad yeah anyone should be able to access it so um I was on the um the website on the town website so it's right on the homepage it's great you know you just click on it you can do whatever you can't do a lot with it that one um and I reached out to try to figure out who is in charge of the that okay in the town and it's a company it's a company that's in charge of it oh um and I then put a call out to who would be the contact person for that company and um I forgot what company it was but um and it says it right online it just says um and then it goes into talking about liabilities how it's not exact locations and things like that yeah to be able to get exact locations and things like you know you would have to get an accessor to come out kind of thing but you know um and then I went on to mass mappers which has a little bit more um layers and things like that the one thing I'm having a really hard time with is trying to trying to pin all the Farms like we have on that map I know Marissa made the map for the Farm open Farm day Okay and like pin them and then the other thing I was going to do was pin some um where visitors came from for open Farm day you know demographics like she was talking about opening up to certain demographics um and maybe reaching out and having people know more about Southwick Farms you know and things like that you know because I had visitors from Springfield West Springfield uh Nebraska yeah they were just visiting you know things like that so around surrounding areas um but that's what I'm hoping to do before our presentation I'm hoping to get it all pinned out but I did a presentation the PowerPoint just as a backup but I can go through and try to do it online for everybody interactive show them how to do it and we can look at your PowerPoint in a in a minute oh yeah just get through problem password yeah the password doesn't work oh okay it doesn't uh okay we'll find out have you guys ever use the geographical information systems on I've used the town one several times yeah any like anything that you guys ever did with it yeah sometimes um I look at a property and I know who owns it I put that in comes up with nothing you know not found you have to have it like just how they want it oh I know it's the way they program the the thing yeah and I mean you could build your own programs but that's like getting into the manual here so I'm not about to do that but you know trying to get you know um you know you can resources you know it's more about just showing them how to get more resources you know how to find out more information so but yeah like I said I'll show you what I have on the presentation but um that's what I was going with so yeah I think it was about a half an hour so yeah okay and these These Times Are Not Car in stone I you know might be shorter or longer just trying to get an idea yep absolutely what we can fit in um then the possibil resarch 2025 uh this Farm hop that we' talked about a couple of times this actually was um Jim putnam's idea in April when we went to the historical society and he said hey instead of a new you know Farm Stand you know Farmers Market okay how about get a van or something and take take people around to the existing farm so want to look into that I think Jen you're going to talk to Lisa Anderson I called the senior center okay and I talked to I forgot her name but she said she was going to talk to Lisa about it they said they tried to um talk to them about the um you know the is it called the CSA program how they can buy shares into the land and um and um they that was their first year last year to try to kind of promote that but I was like well this is kind of different where we're just wanting to take a day say like June 10th will set up a you know have the the the town bus or we have a vehicle here set up put it on the calendar and just say okay we're going to visit these Farms today and then maybe the month after we'll visit because it might take a while for everybody to go through the farms and you know oh yeah I imagine yeah so like take a few at a time and do like two a month or something and you know have people just be able to visit um so um I'm waiting to hear back from Lisa to see if that could be a thing um I'm not sure how much it would be if we would sponsor the trip um or you know um we have to talk about that right so what about 8 compliance I don't know if all the funds are wheelchair accessible around in the that's true we talked about that for open Farm day too anything with a store has to be right yeah and we can we can look into that and just um have a list of accessible ones and June 10th was just a date I know this early in the year for that kind of stuff but maybe I was just given an example of that but actually you have less than I don't remember what the numbers but we have under a certain amount of parking spots then we not okay we don't so a smaller SP say might not be yeah how many far actually have Stef you when they're open but that's only during yeah what's her name Jack oh yeah Jack has one he's open in the fall yeah he's open in the summer too oh is I yeah maybe you're right I think when the potatoes are ready September something August Jasmine's gone so that would be all well there's you know the new Fireflight Fields you know it's not exactly a farm no it could still be a fun field trip sure yeah it's Animal Farm yeah yeah yeah what do they have there they do sell like goat soaps and stuff like that yes just soaps lotions and uh there was something oh yeah the bath bombs oh y that's something I it I want to see somebody do that you know he's got to work on the sense for the farm though too oh man okay okay that's good thanks J for give an update next I wonder if it was you know Cara cartello and your name is the assistant director that might have been that might be who who answer the phone maybe possibly I'm not sure I'm not good at getting names when I first get on the phone with some I'm like Focus you know but right but um so she gave my name and number and stuff like that yeah so yeah and then obvious just we just talked about the program for kids I love that idea by the way I I do love that idea I kids go to libraries right there I mean that's that's a great platform for the kids to over the past this past summer I kept seeing people on Facebook looking for like farm jobs for their kids get these kids in touch with Farms that are looking for health yeah that's a tough at the farm for I was going to ask if um if the all the farmers are willing to give me their um job proposals I can post them specifically on our site under their listing so people will now know where to go to look at these jobs because posting on Facebook and stuff like this seriously is almost a lost cause these days but our site is dedicated to Southwick so people know they can go on our site and know exactly what's offered I figure this will help out all of our Farmers if we start posting the jobs up there it's just I gota kind of figure it out but I I can at least make a dynamic you know I can put it up there and at least they know about it for now until I make it fancy great you're saying think there's all the minimum wage and and to put kids on for Farm Health that minimum W yeah what is minimum wage 15 and I know Donna Donna Cali has mentioned um if they're under 18 there's a lot of stuff they can't do if they right can't touch the equipment not that a lot of them you'd want touching your anyway but um and then if they're under 16 they can't work during the school year including weekends after 7 o'clock even on even on a what the heck happened to this world everyone used to work tobacco when I was growing I got hit by wage an hour this summer which was a nightmare um and I got find $4,100 for one kid that worked she was she was scheduled on a Saturday night not October two different she only works weekends two different weeks when we're super busy with pumpkins she was scheduled to S we didn't finish because we were so busy and she was conscientious enough to finish her the dishes and stuff before she left she didn't finish till 7:30 but because she was there two nights a toal of one hour till 7:30 I 541 that's it that's all they find you for one hour wow so how who's they I mean how do they find out hour is a state and sponsored by a federal program that that comes and is it awarded to her no just go to the state or whatever state well they look at like you have time sheets or time cards or something everything they came in they hit me on a t the Tuesday before uh um Memorial Day weekend which I'm out straight anyway and I had to pull Katie and they gave me 72 hours to come up we ended up with 300 pages of of wow of P sheets and I mean Insurance everything you can think of yeah everything you can think of wow and um and then after we sent that the woman called back for the next two months ask well what about this what about that and I told Kae that does the the computer stuff for me you don't send send her anything else you figure out because we had it all on the computer so you tell her that she can look on page 222 and find what we already sent her because she just wasn't doing her job you know we had to come up with all that in 72 hours but then she didn't care enough to look it up and not so it was it was crazy so it really gives you my father should have went to prison it did to me should went it's all those laws and rules that made people start paying under the table so there was no document right yeah the whole reason that became a thing so did payroll like automatically trigger that audit no it uh I think what triggered it was we are for the second year used h2a the h2a program so I had Jamaicans okay and a farm in subfield first week their guys were on which they came on the same plane same flights as one got his hand stuck in a flat took his finger he lost his finger he didn't work all summer summer um and I think that kind of triggered this area looking were watching everything yeah and because I was a new newer person on that program and the other thing that triggered it for me I think is that there's a they set the wage that they program they the wage minimum wage for them I think this past year was1 1878 plus I have to pay to get them here I have to pay them housing all this other stuff so they making big money for farm work and um they um there's a different wage for field work as opposed to if you bring in a bunch of vegetables then they have to peel them or in any way alter them then that becomes a different wage and as soon as you have something like where you have the bakery soon as you have kitchen or any place where they might be getting used for for any of that processing type stuff they're on you right away because they think that you're bringing and they came went in my kitchen talk to the kids all the kids that worked for me on the side when they weren't even on the clock they called a couple of them and said do the Jamaicans ever work with you do you you know do you have to you know just kind of back back Stu so that's terrible so I think that's what triggered it more than anything else the fact that we could have been using them for some sort of processing like that so but wow wow that's unbelievable they make life hard don't they it was a nightmare any who wants to have a farm anymore I know that's the problem I'm sorry that happened to you I wish I could do something about it gotta have lots of your own kids that way they can't say anything the old days adop start adop I wonder if that's something an issue like that should we talk about that at the Farm Forum I other I know calab has been hit before she got hit a couple years ago yeah something an issue affecting Farmers yeah so and I mean it depends on how many I don't know there's too many more in town would be the tobacco guys I don't know if Dwight's ever them yet yeah Dwight hire is bun of yeah yeah his guys Jamaicans and other places too pretty much all Jamaicans because they come out and hang up and they all know each other is there any resource out there that would be on your side of things where they could help you through all that there should be some kind of like yeah some kind of the Arnold say fire Jamaicans too they they hire mlin yeah no he has a few workers for yeah I don't think he has Jamaicans do you know not sure I don't either but I know he has some high yeah sure he go I mean probably everybody has come up against this or is aware of the yeah I mean everybody's aware that it can happen yeah I don't know what we could help think about it yeah I mean we could make it a topic if you wanted to overation the topic might take the entire time though that's true leave it for the end I don't know Q Anda yeah I mean I've had a lot of people tell me that they're surprised even the woman that was doing the AIT said you have better employee retention than most anybody we ever see um that we keep them for longer they come back they come back so which is just you know treat the Dr or the well I've only been in that program for two years but and she went back for years through my all my Baker help and everything so wow and now how do you get those that help did they come and apply the h2a program no no no no the girls that you've had B they come in and apply yeah so yeah they um and then their girlfriend's hey my girlfriend wants to call thing you yeah yeah so which is can be good with with adults it could be tough with with kids yeah you don't know distractions around or fight with each other yeah or get clicky and exclude one or two oh gosh no clickies it's all you need is a click in a bakery you have dough everywhere [Laughter] maybe but maybe there's an I'm just thinking out loud is there an advantage aside from getting a weepy teenage advantage to hiring local kids and you not an h2a you can't find them you just can't find them to do the work I mean I have all local people in the um in the baker but the reason I went to H2 is because I just didn't have enough reliable help for the field amazing 70s and 80s yeah all the tobacco and for all high school kids yeah I get very few coming to light to work on Farm you know they want to work in the Farm Stand in the bakery something like that but not many of them yeah yeah yeah yeah start maybe we canote it promote it you know with these programs the library posting something in the high school saying hey there's these job opportunities yeah just like Sage was saying you know on the website as well as you know just you know even if we do programs with the kids in the libraries have openings like a list of openings you know with us that we could leave out H anyone under 16 right we have a few that are 15 but we have to really watch one all that yeah yeah so and then as far as the the field goes it's just and I did it for years but it's like it's like paying somebody so you can babysit them a large part of the time one kid tell me you just sitting there doing nothing like what you what are you doing sun is tightening the skin around my body to go sit in the man punch out and go sit in the excellent that's great anymore no no few of got a couple remember chick tell me get back in that rope yeah all I don't care how hot it is get in there yeah oh I know but you can't say that any no that's being mean yeah EX man yeah motivations kind of cracked down a lot in the past years people people need to push but you can't push anymore so it's like well I was thinking that you know there's possibilities for 2025 in the Forum you know ask folks for ideas you know so um maybe a little scary if something like this comes up we'll be there you know as Sage says for hours you know we should ask so you know anyway this something you got to follow with like a lawyer I mean I don't probably but you don't and you gotta pay the lawyer I know I'm thinking like bigger scale like get a bunch of farmers together yeah so I this is lawyer retained really hard and it would be really hard in the Democratic State because it's it's all about the employee not employer just like if you know there's no yeah happy Med in there so even though Mass they try they're really big on agricult during this state so you could maybe appeal to people right this is really hurting Farmers there's got to be something out there to protect the farmers and sadly there is a need for they just need I think there needs to be some training of their their people so that you recognize a place that you know you know maybe I shouldn't be torturing these people this is everybody's pretty happy but there are farms like that Chang Farm up in up in the valley that he had people living in like hor stalls and stuff I mean it was it was bad it was bad there so I mean there is a need for it there is definitely what does that four grand you had to pay go to yeah I don't know that lady who wanted you age 200 goodness okay and then um another another can of worms is chapter 61 and uh we're trying to how can I say this in a way that Mak sense find a way um you know Marissa worked on these protocols for what should happen when right and who should do what with it when a farm comes out of chapter 61 and you know the select board didn't really go for it um they didn't want a separate policy but we're trying to think of a way how can we just make it easier right you know because there's information all over the place about how that works so um anyway just want to may possibly ask people at the Forum do do they know about chapter 61 and how that works what do you do you I mean I think probably most of them do because they do get such a tax tax so but I don't know if a lot of them understand so what's the deal coming out of it you have to pay those taxes back yeah you fair market value yeah it has to be offered to to to the town first right yeah write a first refusal WR first refusal town and we had a few instances where people kind of had a deal going before they ever offered it right right yeah yeah yeah yeah so everything gets rushed and everything get so that's what we're trying to re we're just trying to make sure that the actual steps are followed right but I think that the people that you will have in that room some of them will be there because they want they have the land they want the break they're not really a farmer but trying to figure out how to be enough of a farmer to get that tax right but they may not know what happens on the other end if they want to sell that man yeah so okay probably a good okay I mean there is something we could do because all it was was a guideline just nicely planned so people knew exactly what to do why don't we just make it into an ebook and distribute it to our Farmers because it cost nothing to make an ebook I know I'm I'm a writer you make it you put it on our website so people have as a resource and then the suck board will say what the heck are you doing take that off now no they don't not necessar no I don't think so Diane was here left meeting yeah she doesn't want it to become a policy but we could still have it as our own thing as a resource I kind of think of it as a I've started to think of it as a you know if there's a big report anybody there's an executive summary you know a couple of page or two it gives you the highlights so it's kind of like that here's the executive summary of how this goes see then another uh topic we thought of was Master Plan actions there's there's a bunch that invol involved the Adcom and that would potentially impact armor help you know in a positive way U so might want to get into that and and I think we said maybe have a a separate Workshop of some kind on that on what's what's coming um again there's a lot so I don't know can we can ask people right because they might realize what yeah do we have we still have a list of the actions I believe somewhere we could just post I've haven't looked at it lately yeah I know it's been a while I probably even have it in here somewhere and now there's the master plan implementation committee they met once to kind of get organized and I just started the that just started like a month ago yeah right right so hopefully things will start happening and we thought uh maybe you know toward the end just a just a dialogue how can how can we help you know what are your issues what are your problems and you know it's so so comp what you're just talking about so complicated it's hard to imagine how we can make a difference but yeah you know there may be some some things you can just a place to be heard you know to discuss and have an open Forum you know for people to just like have this conversation with each other and we talked about really included in here we had included in here coming events um but you know there won't really be many the events you know between now and like Farm day you know so unless we have like the the farm hop and the the library prog programs and things like that let's see so I just reiterate about that then more mix and mingle so so far I only have one uh I sent out a an email to all our Farmers I only got one response to Farmers C could be there yeah but I'm going to start inviting people individually you know make sure they are aware that well should we post it in the town or like on the screen yeah we did a flyer last year yeah I went and drop some off to couple Farms so be a little L you can come up with one B I'll come pick them up at your house okay yeah I think I have one on a little list of some of the discussions that might interest them I'll look at what we did last year kind yeah updated I have it saved on you probably have it saved on your computer too somewhere but if I can find it I'll send it okay yeah I'm sure I do but yeah if you find it first yeah yeah yeah we'll work together like we always do um okay do we wna do you want to run through your PowerPoint yeah I mean I mean it's getting close I mean if you I can really quick if you want to so you guys can see it I did email it to everybody so if you guys feel like you want to just look at an email and just respond to me or I can bring it yeah you wanna what do you think you want to do that just s look at it individually and get back to yeah just give me notes I'm I'm welcome to any feedback um it's cut off like at to the point where I was going to start pinning the locations on the map and I'm still trying to figure that out I even went to the this program here where I this is the program that they did the class on and even that is having a hard time like you know it's you're supposed to be able to make an Excel spreadsheet with addresses and file it right into and just open it and file it and it would bring up all the location that you have addressed which would be great if it worked really well but I don't that's why I reached out to the person and maybe I'll just contact the company you know who does it um but it's interesting um Sage do you know anybody that would be running the geographic information systems on on the website on our town website at all do you know anybody that no idea that's a good point yeah proba DG I put a call out to um Margaret select board is it Margaret oh yeah the secretary I left her message so maybe she can put the word out there so okay just to try to get some more help but um yeah any feedback would be great um I think I sent it a couple couple days ago I yeah so I didn't I know it's close to the time where we should be ending but well yeah we don't really have a set end time he's trying not to be the [Laughter] selectboard so okay good yeah well so we'll be kind of going back and forth on all this stuff over the next it's great that you um brought l no it's fine it's great that you brought in Lynn from the library you know today that was awesome was great very cool thank you for doing it yeah prob no I know I recognized her and I was how do I know in the library I remember our first Farm meeting was at the library right and she was um is the meeting right here like last year good yeah a good spot it is yeah and you'll let me give me an idea on TR yeah that's uh yeah after I start I get a better account card too yes right thank you yeah brought in a $25 big wiard that we can used it's good um what kinds of things one like I think our first time you brought all kinds of pastries and donuts donuts yeah you think that kind can the te cut up the tea cakes again I think I did that the first year yes okay right right right so yeah is that work is that yeah so I just figure we don't really want anything that's trippy or messy or oh lot of feeling feeling chil just remember most of them are going to be Farmers they they understand what's gonna be the consequence of whatever you bring yeah and then you want me to bring coffee and I just was going to bring that up should um yeah if you should we get the cream and sugar and that kind of stuff go with it yeah yeah we'll do that maybe bring okay paper cups we have all that so yeah okay yeah of course yeah okay great yeah okay thanks L that's huge that is huge for sure yes thank you everybody we should encourage everybody to take them home oh I took a dozen donuts last year what's your name I could bring like apple cider or something like that couple gallons of apple cider that always works for an alternative yeah not everyone drinks coffee yeah maybe some little Waters or something but um I can bring tablecloths I have a ton of them my husband and I we have two of them or one that you donated already yeah those are fall like that's true yeah I do have some that are just regular yeah we're going back to snow um but yeah so um I can bring that stuff and I think we can probably use these tables that are already in here so yeah I think it's more we can get through somewhere I think um yeah last year we had a couple over these um yeah file cabinets so we could do that again bring them up for us right yes cor yeah yeah that way people would feel more feel more comfortable to get something during yeah come out I say come in okay all right good starting to come together do you feel like we need a special meeting beforehand or you think we're pretty much okay with everything um that's a good thought what do do you guys want to have one special meeting before I don't know if we do because I think we pretty much have it I mean I like the agenda agenda looks good um yeah that's um so we have two weeks that'll be like our working session I think right right what am I doing here we've all done it before but we'd have to have it like next Wednesday that's right it would be get this room you're basically having three meetings in a row yeah I know well you play by ear Maybe by after if we have a meeting we have to post it Monday yes so um yeah we just kind of see by the weekend how we how we feel have to know by Sunday yeah well if there's any needs or anything just shout out let us know and if there's anything that we can do yeah I still don't know if I'm here or not physically so yeah that's always always in the air I don't know if you heard Zach what he says physically or mentally probably neither it's easier that way do you mean for the for the Forum stage or yeah yeah it's always a it's always a 50-50 because of the way the company treats me yep well we're not we're not doing Zoom for it we don't normally no um because we want everybody in person someone else would have to do the website presentation oh right I mean technically you can zoom without recording and without like you know telling everybody about it just tell the members yeah I don't know if we can legally do that yeah I wonder this is supposed to be yeah and I hate to push you but could you have some flyers by this weekend I can get them sure definitely yeah um about that fers y Sage do you have any of those pictures that you took um those great pictures of you being at almost every Farm on open Farm day have you sent those to Bert yet or uh I was only at two of the Farms oh you were okay I thought I saw a couple different like picture I don't know I was I was thinking that we should probably need more pictures I don't know how many pictures we have for the presentation it was so rainy well yeah it was so rainy that everyone was concentrating on just actually you know avoiding the rain everyone was huddled under tents and barns CL because we got the one day in like two weeks that rained oh well okay still went well though went well though yeah okay let's see well the chapter 61 subcomittee it's just Zach and me so far um I asked Jess but um haven't heard back yet so but we can talk about that you know offline so to speak did did anyone get um the email for the ethics course at all oh I got to do that it was uh due December 10th I think it was and I I just did mine so it was it was quite a long one oh yeah yeah it was it was it was about I get any emails yeah to do did we send in that list of all the sorry expenses for the talent that they wanted to S one of the emails oh that's right um but it looked like we had ours done someone took yeah showed our list that's right by I think February 3D is the um headline thank you for bringing that up um oh yeah I seen that email too I thought it looked like someone already done it because I saw all of our expenses and I was like maybe from last year yeah I didn't really I didn't pay attention um okay we do have a couple of sets of minutes here one going back to September believe it or not oh I think I have oh okay pass this stack over this the same those are all the same and then we have you say and do you have December with you thank there's December I have okay I'll start with September before we get away from Farm for Forum real quick uh we're GNA try to make sure like most of our numbers are there yeah uh attendance ahead of time yeah um you're to make it mandatory for our all all us volunteers sorry Ron email list has everybody on it that you sent the yeah the agenda to and everything so did I have the volunteers on there too I wonder um just good point um no I mean I know that we I mean yeah I don't know if we wanted to invite them or not but well we could try I mean presumably they're interested in yeah agriculture if they came to open Farm day yeah and that maybe they'll become members or something yeah yeah yeah is there another page to the September 11th one very small September 11th yeah there's like got cut off in the middle and mid sentence and then there's the place for the signatures okay I don't think we can even approve these yeah I do see one error though um fourth line from the bottom says a barrel be a BS oh okay getting nitpicky my name it didn't start with my name I so much but yeah right okay I don't think we can approve that no is there a page missing looks like yeah cind at least one page yeah and oh and two Zach it lists you as an alternate which well I might have been back then oh really yeah Angie was still on there so it was most likely the when we still had the titles okay we had a discussion I think it was literally right after that meeting that it changed over yeah okay let's okay so we'll put September 11th aside and let's see if we can do December 11 which one has a printed on the back yeah not on the back of the other one yeah okay should have been so Cindy I think you and I should get together and kind of go through the the minutes and um you know just kind of make sure what's what you know which ones we have and which we don't have and that's a little bit my bad I haven't really been paying attention to them so um no it's okay we can do that yeah yeah okay I think in December Tammy was no longer a member was she no I thought she was yeah it say advice yeah I was like oh I don't remember these and yeah I see that I was absent guess I wasn't at that one that's hard right you were doing something picking somebody up or doing yeah I think my mom I was having to be with my mom I don't know oh my my stepson I was picking him up from college yuk okay that's what I was doing is he playing sports he he did wrestling butuk no I wish he did that's he did wrestling in high school in high school but no he didn't do he does um actually he does sword fighting so that's I guess it's a thing um katana sword fighting and like fencing yeah something but with swords and so I guess that's a sport but nothing like college yeah I don't know if that's a thing but and then he's a part of um a concrete Canoe Club which he's an engineer so they're teaching him how to see see if a concrete canoe can actually float in the watery SE concrete they have a great agricultural school there they do they do remember being a kid they used to have a a cattle sale there every year and sell off some of their cat money at Yukon yeah they I don't know if they still do they used to have a good um ice cream shop yeah they're still there y yeah and they have the whole Farm toce yeah get back in mil on the second page of the one says either it the information are we here [Music] oh that's a real real word or not let's see it's an agricultural word okay pal yeah I think that's supposed to be either I T R I don't know if it's supposed to be either or not maybe I think either either it be information from Egon to the students or to the idea it's not a proper sentence either way otherwise we're okay I only see other other matter yeah I wonder if it's legit Cindy on the front page on public comment uh talking about Nicole Parker visiting and then please see video for full conversation yeah I can I can say that I can the link though okay that would be great [Music] yeah I'm sure we said that at one time I'm pretty sure I meant to say either I don't use the word either very much will now I do to use it now Al Slim yeah yeah either you do it or I okay so I'll um make a motion to approve the minutes of December 11th 2024 as amended second okay I guess I have do a roll call vote so Bert Hansen I Zack berett hi Dan Cook Hi l de hi jenro hi and Sage Fury hi hi okay sounds good okay uh I think oh under FYI we had talked about there was going to be a town H potluck supper this Friday the 10th usually the town kind of puts on a a dinner thing for the employees and the volunteers like us uh that's been postponed till sometime this spring okay hopefully hopefully you haven't been doing a lot of cooking you know getting ready by when was it this Friday it was going to be this Friday yeah remember seeing that yeah how did the meeting was the meeting yesterday time meeting no it's the 14th yeah next well that has to do with the we added the the town reviewing the traffic right yeah they're also talking about the land right yeah the land Historical Society wants to buy and money uh also CPC money for a engineering study of town hall the exterior needs to be all right yeah you repointed and maintained more more than repointed but anyway and there's a there's four things okay I forget what the other one was anyway it's next Tuesday I plan on being [Music] there okay uh there was another it s what voted against the yeah against yeah slowing from the uh they voted against it yeah yeah they're not they're not his favor getting dropped down 25 miles hour righton spe cause more accidents well you're G to have Angry driving like amped up like crazy we already have it and it is this this is kind of one of the points that the police would make yeah because Greg giley from EDC has some statistics about I about the crosswalk where summer house is because people come flying over that it's a blind Hill too or a bridge stupid place to put one yeah I mean if have those where you push button and it flashes like the bike that Hill you're not seeing anything on the other sideo late oh my mother-in-law lived on Southwick Hill there for a couple of years behind the summer house it was awful trying to pull out of there she would only take a right and go down to Zantos and pull go down and take another right to go to left traic over that the the worst is when it snows and ices that road over because now you got people who can't stop true yeah true I almost got hit twice getting out of the the grind in the winter because of that yeah it's bad yeah yeah so it's interesting that the select for to so against it but um see Town media may say yeah we want it I don't know even if they do po to pass it the state might come in and say right because a state highway it's a state highway plus it got redesigned for the center lane and everything there that have to go with that right I feel like in recent years though a lot more kids from the school when they get out are walking to the seh house to hang out especially on half days yeah I mean if they really wanted it to be a walk friendly route the stupidest thing was to put the sidewalk right on the curb even in the foreign countries it is like five feet in the land and then the sidewalk starts they gota they should redesign the sidewalks and and then they'd solve a lot of problems yeah well that was I know I've heard people complain about the sidewalks before and there's telephone polls sometimes like in the sidewalk but that you know the state did it you know a state thing so oh true so anyway it'll be a long process I'm sure if it happens but I'm not sure because it is a state the town can even change a speed limit if they have that kind of jurisdiction yeah what is the speed limit 35 from the center 45 from Tractor Supply up to post office I think yeah I think it is a state thing but I think what um EDC wants to do is hopefully get the the town to vote and so take kind of take that to the state and say okay there's I think they a lot of them maybe that would I don't I'm not an expert in that but yeah just put a rotary in the middle no I'm up everywhere they did that over there it seems to be working that's a bad place to pull out take a oh yeah but it keeps the traffic moving exactly trailers I me they're probably just driving straight over the they actually go over the sidewalk or the Meridian they go right over it there's no way they can turn yeah I want I've been behind trucks on that they don't care we other states they call them Circle they Cirus we gotta beat East Long Meadow East Long Meadow has the has the biggest one right now we got to beat them so let's make like a crazy figure eight in the down the road the the rotary of Doom there like East Long Meadow that that's horrible anyway all right that's not related not quite it depends if a farmer Gets In the Mix time it's been a long time since we hung out anyway so I will make a motion to adjourn at 8:20 PM your second second okay all those in favor hi thanks everyone good weekend night thanks Sage thanks