okay today is Wednesday March 19th and like to call to order our meeting of the economic development commission we do have a quorum with Gan on the line nobody else on on the line so
no public comments and so we'll just start in and move through the agenda uh first to approve our minutes from our last meeting and everybody is re received it so I'd like to make a is
there any discussion of the minuts okay so make a motion to approve them do have a second second okay all in favor approving amance say I I I and Jean you said I your microphone is muted I'll assume
it's uh unanimous that's unanimous okay thank you um just wanted to very briefly say that I did present our budget to the select board at their annual budget hearings it took only
about 10 minutes and uh went through the the fact that we were the only things we we we hadn't spent anything up to there and we were just beginning to spend on both Southwick and Bloom and on our our signage for
recreation and uh you know that we were well within our existing dollars between our annual budget and our our gift account and I think the only question I had from one of the finance committee so
you're out soliciting businesses and and all and I said no we don't feel like we really have the resources for that now and so what we're trying to do is to make sure that Southwick is a place that's a really
good place to do business for people who are already here and that's why we did directory and that's why we're we're trying to do other things that support our existing businesses because if it's a great place to do business that will attract the kind of businesses we want
and as far as as soliciting businesses we hope that you know when they hire the town planner who will also be somebody employed as CDC all the resources and will support them and work with them to to solicit the right kind of businesses
for for here so that was presentation the budget hitting what hearing what fine uh I'll wait and talk about master plan priorities when if Craig gets here a little later because
we're expecting him to come in late okay we'll go through the the goals and our teams our 10 goals uh starting with popular calculating all the tabs of our EDC
website and we'll just get an update from Stephen on where we are on that and what we can do to support that sure we have fairly new updates to the website um still working on all our all our links are um checked is kind of a
formatting issue um it's still in progress on now so okay well we did you get anything more on the vacancies from from Mark well we'll we'll bring it up with
him and maybe I can contact Mark during the week to move forward on some other things where I'm on a team with him since he hasn't been here in a while um okay mean we do have our link through
loopnet everything like that is linked and we have the latest properties showing up then that are on loopet are we just linking to there linking through loopnet and loopnet updates it's there all right so just letting it go through
automatically okay we got hello and I sorry I'm a couple minutes late and now that you're here I should go around which I neglected to do at the beginning to say introduce everybody's at the meeting right now um
I'm Greg dialy chair and we'll go around the room Julie Serena Fuller Steven roach Mark fulco and we have Jean Q on yes fine so
hi Mark we we may get Craig a little bit later so will be here around 6:45 okay we'll catch him at the end which will fine you can catch up delay those things which
which would be related to him okay I'm we're down to to and just we're talking about updating the website is there anything you would have for the the vacancy area that just the link to
uh loopnet I think is probably the best there's one other site that I found that has essentially the same information um but we could add that I could get the link addressed just so people come you know we could do a
feed but it's just as easy to folks just and we don't need to really add anything to it it's just you know the only the only thing we could do is
um add information about what you won't find on loopnet our businesses is for sale like if an entire business is for sale you know like we reported last time on that rental business a property yeah I I think the most important thing of
the properties that are for sale or for lease and so there's two separate ways to access that on Loop net okay do you know anything about the ANS Nursery property in at the intersection no it's not I I know that
it's sign but it's not listed on any real estate looked up on that site I couldn't find it um it's um it's kind of I was told maybe you told me it was uh there's there's somebody from out of state that owns the property what it
what it me I don't know who owns that so yeah somebody told me it's somebody out of state that owns it um and I don't know where that number goes to um but it's not they they haven't put it on um any of the um the commercial listing so
we should call the number I was thinking that to yeah okay but uh those are you know we're never going to have a comprehensive listing no matter what we do and to keep it up to date would be
very difficult the last thing you want to do is have people go in if they see something that we post it could be out of date you know any from day to day so I think the best way is looping it to those because I for example there was land for sale on
the last report that I gave there was the um uh property on it was land um that was previously approved for marijuana cultivation on College Highway that's been removed from the listings itical land that the Historical Society
bought I don't know I think I don't know that they bought it but it they did buy it it could very well be that's why it's off the market what you're refer to um but you know something like that from the last time I updated to this time unless somebody's doing this daily it's not going to be up to completely up to
date and you don't want people going to something that's stale so I think the best way is to say you know click here and and I agree we don't want to we don't want to put wrong information to so we hesitate to enhance it or sure rework it in some way you know from time
to time you know the only other thing we could do is you know have a feature section and a little disclaimer that says as of this date you know here are some featured properties like I know um on the agenda there's a couple of um we were going to talk about a couple of vacant properties I think um and there
are some significant properties we bring that up right now the Jordan Healthcare one is I wanted to get your thoughts on uh Jordan Healthcare is it's now listed that's 800 um College Highway is that is 4,400 Square F feet for sale or for w no
it's the it's for leas it's leas um it's for leas um the one that is is for sale um is the king brother King Brothers King Brothers is for sale there's a couple
others the former Coulson Dairy is for sale and those are those are prime well the um the Coulson Dairy I would consider a prime Redevelopment location yeah that's a tear down rebuild I would
suspect I've not gone through it but it's it's very and and yeah the building in the back just collapsed yeah and and the price tag is steep I mean it's a million dollars so somebody's not going to buy that as a home um it's a commercial property that
will be you know re you know repurposed I would assume into a commercial property um so uh that's a good example of one that I think you know would be you know if we're going to feature something you know like a featured development site uh I don't know who
else we would want to coordinate with in in in town planning and I think that excuse me yeah I spoke last time I spoke with John Goddard about that site he says he's explored just about every option that he can think uh there are
some issues that uh I don't know if it's been confirmed whether there's not there's ASB bestus abatement that has to be taken care of for prior to demolition of the dairy operation uh I don't think
the home will be an issue but you asked you just mentioned Mark that you know who could we coordinate with John Gard has done a lot of work in that regard so I just throw that his name out there right and and probably the best
opportunity is when they find a town planner uh to work full-time because John Gard has only been 16 hours at Max on and he's now got a full-time job offer from DPW so as soon as they find
that town planner will also be economic development that would be the person who could do the kind of ground work that we don't have the resources to sure the other Prime what I would think is a prime site for development is um 636
College Highway which is where the flower shop is but there's the parcel of land right it's about 10 acres yeah um and and I think it in the sale includes that acreage for one point uh 1.6 let's
say 1.6 million um but that's a probleme and that's right smack in the center of town so if we were going to have a you know featured properties section we could talk about that I would say those are two that you know lease properties are one thing somebody's going to come
in and lease it but in terms of new development and true growth for the town of something that right now is you know um Baron nobody's paying taxes on it oh well I'm sure somebody's paying taxes on the Coulson Dairy they PL paying taxes
on the vacant land but it's for the opportunity very yeah for the opportunity to generate you know new revenue for the town and sort of meet all the um goals that we kind of set out um as as a group um those two properties
you know strike me as ones that maybe a feature section and then in regard to Jordan healthc care as I told you in an email right after the selectboard meeting where Doug moglin brought up the fact that in 200 years we've always had
a position in town or just about always and do you have any contacts I do but I will tell you this that first of all there is a physician shortage for that type of space that's suited for Primary Care now
you could put a specialist in there but there is a a physician shortage so the health system in the area um are are trying to recruit but they're essentially recruiting into their existing practices now that said perhaps
if there's uh you know an opportunity I think there might be an opportunity for somebody to you know to sort of move move into that space and you know the type of Provider that would go there count' be out on control but um the other thing that is a little um
disheartening is there have been um uh uh urgent care centers that some of the health system Sy have set up and and they've closed those in Westfield and Feeding Hills um and right I have a
friend who had a long time GP at the B State location on Union Avenue in Westfield and he retired and they couldn't replace him they said well we could send you to Wilbraham and then you know said I'm not
going to drive all the way over there and said well you can come to BL actually and even you have to if you want to set up an appointment there you have to go two or three months out just to get an appointment if you want an appointment at Urgent Care it's not an an urgency um the space would be well
suited for an Urgent Care location that would have you know primary care and um and and um kind of urgent care um but the question is who might be interested in that I think um maybe some of the proprietary Urgent Care
um companies might um have an interest um if you know we choose to sort of actively solicit you know the property I I just you know I don't know if it's better to put our energy into
that or our energy into I mean it's vacant but somebody's paying taxes on it yeah so from a Economic Development standpoint do we want to put our energies into something like that or perhaps promoting some of the properties that
are available for sale that and I have no preference it's just I'm raising it as a question what would be a better R I don't know that we have the expertise or the tools I mean to I've heard of of other towns setting up incentive
programs to get a a physician to come in and that's beyond what what we can do um so I would say that's something that we hope that a full-time EDC planner will be absolutely
but you know keep your ear to the ground pass around in your network oh for sure of the healthcare field okay uh in regard to the third
goal I'd like to get back together sometime in regroup with on our subcommittee there to talk about the new business evaluation process and
maybe maybe it's premature maybe we should wait till we get the new planner but I'd like to be ready the new planner comes in to engage with that because I don't want to give up on being a a partner to have input I I just think
it's something that we as economic development should have an opinion on new businesses coming in and be able to give an evaluation in in as objective as possible
way and and doing and I've I've got that tax database so I think we could do a real Fair evaluation of tax taxes and they're out recruiting for a new assessor uh so that's going to change some time but okay I particularly Focus
focus on looking at businesses and what the general tax rates for businesses and I have a a lot of questions I sent sugar list of questions I had on on current assessments because I don't understand it doesn't not consistent in my mind
with sure with the idea that I the very basis of all property tax is it should be the market value of the property what it would actually sell for on an open market and seems to be way off of that on on a
bunch of things so trying to get that settled out but that's certainly one objective side is to evaluate what the revenue side and then the other side is I'd like to get a breakdown of our town budget
and analyze where in our town budget if you brought in a business where would be variable costs that would increase if you brought in a business the one thing that comes to mind if there's an impact on DPW some somehow I
don't know if there's anything else that think mentally would increase a lot of our pound costs I think are relatively fixed but the idea is to get objectively the revenue side and the cost side and then also to objectively compare it to
Alternative developments such as residential and that's where in this database we see what the return per acre is on residential versus business and right now it's you know there's a lot of residential it's a higher return than business so I you
certainly don't want to bring in a less than ideal business or recruit one uh and then that goes into the zoning discussion which is a later one which I'd like to to progress on that as well yeah I think they're they're
somewhat related um as we bus but I'd be all in favor of reconvening and I think the one piece that uh we could look at which you mentioned is objectivity you know how do we make this as fashional and objective as possible because I think that's the only um sort of push
back that we received was as long as it's uh you know we don't want to do anything based on you know some of the town's experience um with um uh applications for new businesses uh and and some of the experience they
zoning comes in if we make a determination that a certain area is not suitable for certain types of businesses put in the zoning so we don't have that that's right but I think looking at the uh sort of the objectivity of those criteria and seeing how we can um you
know just tweak it a bit uh for example there was really uh strong support for things like you know publicly available information about wages that a particular business might pay or the financial status of those businesses and
their you know sustainability right and we can put that in objectively without making an editorial comment right exactly so here are the facts see what we can do here are the facts which I think is important and that's kind of the role um and
um good okay well go to the next goal was to design produce install durable signs and I've said since last year that I wanted to have these installed by the end of March and it's March 19th and I've something to show wow very nice it's really nice love
the colors yeah do too awesome Tada very nice and came out really heav yeah and that's not going to blow around it's one-sided correct well that's a a
thing that I want to bring up because when I went in there originally the idea was these brackets would be able to show a sign on both sides and Dian dearco when I went in to look at it said she said well actually
the brackets came in and they're set up for one side now we could redo them but there's an alternative said we can create because most of the places we're putting have a dominant side I right actually I went back and looked at
it of the six places we're going to put in two of them really are one-sided only there's no benefit in doing the other side the other four have some benefit and having the other side and she said we could do a version of the sign that
would paste on the back here or maybe just QR code and what sign okay but slightly smaller and and could adhere to this side so we can still make it two-sided
which I like the idea of doing that because if we got the investment in this I want to get the maximum exposure and I went and visited all went back to all the places and and positioned you know where where it would
go and I think it's going to look great and you can back like on the bike trail way up the trail you can see this from a nice distance and and it draws you in could that frame be replicated and then just screwed in the other side
well that would be a another thing but that right there yeah replicate it you could screw another one on the other side and that that could be an alternative but it would be again most of the places I went to
have a one side of the kiosk is a little more visible than the other um and more preferable and two of them one the two that are only one-sided the Grandville Gorge the back of it goes
to the Steep drop off of nobody's going to be looking at that there's nobody going to look at it from the other side and on the south Bo boat ramp it's Graff a back faces the lake and there's some kind of trees it's not even that visible from the lake so again those two we
don't need it but I I wanted to vote on it and maybe what we could start with I would suggest starting with seeing how hearing a a sign to the other side just so they know what it is and you know come side
they don't it is anybody want to feel it they can't afterward that uh but that's good and these frame pieces screw in from the end so this is fully that was one question people had whether this would
slide out or people would take it no they're all you have to take three sides of the frame out in order to take the thing out it comes out can they put plexiglass or anything say someone puts graffiti on it yeah I was GNA just I I
of want to bring that up but you don't know I kind of hesitate for any kind of covering because often moisture gets in up and it's not as clear or or it's too shiny and then you won't be able
this is just beautiful printing job it is and these are $60 each if something just to gets totally ruined we'll get oh that's not bad for the whole sign and the no the bracket is 395 uh the bracket nobody's G to you
know unscrew that and walk off to you we have eight screws going in at least three Ines into the post that won't be easy to remove um but if in other words for $60 we could fully
repair it if we can't clean it right but I've I recently walked with a friend on the Westfield bike trail that's been up and running for more than a year and they've got signs that are just no glass in front of them but that are tilted
back and down at easy access ground level given history they've got at least eight or 10 of those signs and they're all in perfect condition still looked at all of them good so even in the middle Westfield I don't think good we're gonna
have a big okay problem with the do we have to vote on that well I wanted to vote on and and then the other thing I want to show you
is the smaller version to pick from put in all the businesses and this is on a a kind of a card stock which will be better than you know a paper that could curl up or that's need or tear we need big business yeah and it's a small
enough size that yeah you can test the QR code if you want you as well oh you did yes it brings to have wait till I get home well it goes to I brought it up here a minute ago
it the enjoy southw landing page yeah this this one well okay back this one yeah okay and then when you hit re recreation
guide I've got all of the categories within the recreation recreation guide I'm jumping ahead to shop Southwick sorry yeah the shop Southwick is our current dat database the dining Southwick is our
current one the new one is the recreation guide which gives the recreation locations and they make a choice and that'll give the website you know background information on each of the you know where they can
park what they can do at these locations so I that's great and and we'll my next step in I've been talking to people on the Committees about this I I told them I gave him the final design and asked them if if they want to come
out while I install them I can do that but what I'm going to do is now that that we've all seen it looked at it I want to vote on I would make a motion that we proceed with these one-sided
signs but have them on four of them uh a sign that will adhere to the back you get the maximum exposure out of it and see how that goes you know if we decide down the line to add an extra frame on the other side we could who
would install them I will you will but yeah Greg and I are on that installation committee what I'll do is is yeah I'll I'll make arrangements like David
Dori said he would like to be there when I install it on the bike trail and so I'll coordinate with him I've been working with him on another project and the same as I'll talk to Sabrina about
whether somebody on on conservation wants to be there at the Gorge they haven't even completed the kiosk at the Gorge yet it's been in the works for almost a year and there's the the roofing is not put on yet and there's nothing on but
it's it's in place so I could put this sign on might as well make use of it and have the sign on there right right and it's a fairly obvious position where that would go the I'd like to have these in place when people start going to these locations yeah so I'll just give
them a chance to say well you know I'll go ahead and install it unless somebody wants to be there um help but I I will contact Spotlight tomorrow to have them go ahead well let's let's take a formal
vote on it uh I propose that I was about saying I make a motion that we go ahead and and use these Brack ET put a sign in the full sizee sign in one side and then an adhering sign on on four of them and
that we also order this card stock version and we wanted to do a 100 so move do that second all in favor say I I I unanimous all right too
late will it be more cost to add will it be any cost associated with adding something to the back of that or were they well they were going to do a two-sided so I think doing the adhering one on four of them and six of them
one-sided I think it'll be a minimal difference and voted before for for 3,000 and and we had had some extra available yeah Greg how about see other side well we could but I don't I don't
really like that I it'd probably be the same cost to do that I mean for for example one place that that I I really want to see two sides is at the Miller Road Bike Trail because people come from
both directions and if they're coming you know the dominant one would be the one facing the parking where people from local go in and go south but what if people are coming up from the the other way they just see the back of a sign I'd
like to have something there to and it should be almost as visible as as the other side you know just slightly smaller um so I think it would be a good use and and a couple other places uh you
know on the southb ramp it would face out toward the road as people come in it'll be a little more visible and even on the where where the kiosk is near near uh Feeding Hills Road on the bike trail I think you
can see that from from the other side too is a little bit and the New England trail the dominant one would face inside but there's a back that faces the road I'd like it to be visible there
so okay we I'll go ahead and order that and I'll I'll start to do that and Jean will let you know when I have appointments set up with various people to uh install these I think that
Diana will be able to have them done maybe by Friday or certainly the weekend next week and I'll start scheduling the installations uh and and give others the opportunity
and also get the hardware needed probably just some 3inch the largest screws that would fit in those holes and and go nice and deeply right you know eight of them would would hold that up
securely okay a goal getting completed here um next goal to arrange meetings with groups of business owners this is where really need to get Bill involved um
I don't know Stephen if you could get in touch and set up a time and Serena you want to still be involved what are you talk about meeting them in here or bringing them to our meeting you propose what you know any anything is open I on
the see the master plan I think talks about or something talks about where you might have different groups of businesses or different businesses invited into our meetings uh I'm open to just about anything one of the things that I that I
am interested in meeting at some point about is we talked about this printed map and that would be a Cooperative effort oh with businesses who wanted to pay a relatively small fee to be included on the map would be enough to
finance the printing of the map um and the reason that I didn't go ahead with it is I didn't feel like we're ready to right do that yet or had the resources and we need to I like to get the input from businesses and we could meet with some
of them we could contact also start communicating with them by email because we have email addresses for most of the ones in our directory so we can send out a a mass email and start talking to them at any time we
want Southwick and Bloom seems to be a great opportunity to invite them in to I mean we're going to get that on the list um but maybe a kickoff meeting introduce a new sign with here's a poster for your business if you want to sign up you can sign up here right but I don't want to I
want to hear about your IDE have you talked about maybe having a meeting of people interested to talk about it well we've talked about going to the businesses and giving them the posters and that kind of thing telling them that way we did say
no that's EI either way I don't I don't have a opinion One Direction or another just one of the things we'd like to get into at some point it's accomplishing I think the same task whether we go to them or they go to us at least introducing them to EDC or reacquainting
them with EDC well I'll let you take a lead and maybe trying to pull together you know ser and Bill into you know brainstorming session or something if if we're able to make any progress without putting it off a whole another month
that'd be great Greg yes [Music] I would suggest instead of a mass mailing do a Target mailing and schedule it for you know restaurant owners because we have a significant number of them uh maybe
landscape businesses and uh or Automotive or you know just Target the you know do a Target mailing and have your meetings geared toward that because if you just go out mess every there's too many diverse interests in what EDC
may bring to the table or how we could work with them but by targeting them you know we can get those particular people in interests and then work it into our agenda I absolutely agree you're totally
right and you know agre of course we we email them right right you'll we'll email them but we can we can select by category from our email list we have the email list set up by category but yeah you set up the purpose of the meeting
and then you try to pull together those who are interested in that topic of the meeting if it's relevant to restaurants then that's who we would mail not not everybody I I totally agree okay so we'll try to keep that
moving we talked about the next goal the bacing town business properties already um unless there's anything else Serena you'd have on that no don't really uh
on the economic case for Town Center you I have some more thoughts on that and Gan if at any time you're available we could sit down and brainstorm that some more and where to where to take it next you I totally
agree with you um you still take it aback that the crosswalk and the walkability of center of town you know didn't get the support that we needed because we definitely got it from the people that were
canvased well yes yes and no um and the need and you pointed it out from a tax perspective businesses in the center of town you know generate a you know a better revenue for the town from a tax
perspective but um we need work we definitely need work in this area right I have of town is what we're looking for that's the centerpiece of the town is the center of town yeah and I I'm not
I'm not in any way giving up on this I I think you know and even the Southwick In Bloom really is part of this goal it's very much related to this goal because we're trying to beautify the Town Center
attract people who would enjoy it much more by walking than just by whizzing by at 45 miles an hour um and they we want people to you know as I brought up before one of the issues they had were was parking
we don't have any Municipal lots and I suggested that we work with people with large lots and set aside some some lots that we could designate as Park and walk Lots I think businesses that had Surplus
spaces that had more than enough spaces and they were vacant most of the time that would be to their benefit to encourage people to park there because they're likely to visit if they park there I've already talked
to about this to to my church Christ Lutheran up on on the hill which we have a bunch of parking spaces are almost never used up near the road and Pastor said yeah we'd be happy to designate
some Town parking spaces for people to park and walk it's by The Daily Grind because people if they park there they may come into the Daily Grind too I mean people come come to a they want to locate in a town center because of the
synergism of of other businesses and they know that they'll get more business even with with neighboring businesses that may be related because it brings in more people and the idea that that you don't want people to walk from one
business to another and park in one place is really kind of a a negative for that that integration that synergism yeah you know it was a good idea um I don't necessarily think we should give up on
it but just caution that there was really such you know strong opposition to it that we just need to think about other other asks that we may have coming up that we would
well well approaching it from a number of places I'm not necessarily saying we should go to the you know in the same direction there's some other things I'm working on that could bring in in more
uh Walkers and other kind of uh traffic in town and that's what I see all over the state people are doing things that do that Westfield is expanding their their bike trails
they're now Paving the levy Trail along the Westfield River they just got that all graded out ready to to pave and it's really enhancing the town for businesses so
we're Greg getting back to you know the Lutheran Church is a great uh suggestion but I'd like to ask you know what is our next steps to implementing or getting a uh far local farmers market going uh at
that site well that that's something as I said the last meeting I I said we need to get Bert Hansen involved in that and maybe I should invite him to our next meeting
maybe that would be the next step okay is invite Bert to the to our meeting and and bring that up as a as a topic Craig brought it up in our last meeting about a way to to to get activity and
you know Farmers crafts whatever a local market of any local producers uh and I suggested the the big lawn they have there and they've done craft things they've done the car shows they have the
car shows there every mon done things like that and and there's I'm sure the parking Romas has excess parking right across the street you could get a lot of people in into you know kind of an event on a weekend or once a month or
whatever but it's it's something worth talking about we talked about how there are some concerns among people with existing Farm stands that they're competing with it and they could be represented there but that adds to their labor blah blah blah U but we'll work
that we could I think it's worth talking about uh and making it kind of an event because if it's once a month I can see an advantage for a farm stand that had Specialty Products that nobody stopped into the stand and there it is they come
to this big thing and they put their very best items out and like a sampling thing and you know come to stand and you get it anytime you want right Greg I'd like to suggest that we uh have a joint meeting with the uh
Southwick and Bloom committee and discuss how we can bring them together along with us with us as far as increasing the uh the enhancement to the town center and do a joint effort together with
them um if as long as we don't exceed a have a quorum it can't be we can't be more than four people in a subcommittee because once you have five people from our our committee it has to be an open
meeting publicized and all the formalities we can only invite a couple of people right well there would be five but what is a quorum is is five right so we can only have four in a
subcommittee because well we can cycle one person in and out right yeah you do that so if you'd like to I'm sure they'd welcome you to join the their next committee meeting if it's a to listen in or
whatever you don't have more than more than four and and they're reporting back to our group so I think we're integrating it just by them doing the work and Reporting back to our group Craig will
have more information about this right now right and Craig may come walk in here any minute now will you excuse will you excuse me for you just end meeting yes I will do that thank you so much okay and you guys still have the quum
without me right and we've done our we don't have any other items to to vote on it to him he wanted to show every if if we get to 7 o'clock and Craig isn't here we may end anyway because we're coming to the end okay awesome thank you
so much good I thank you uh so as as I say we'll we'll have PL in here to talk a little bit about more about the Southwick and Bloom and update
this meeting so I feel like we're integrating it with our other programs just by the reporting that we get at each meeting uh and implementing it but I'd like to get I'd like to extend uh that I
could be involved in their next subcommittee meeting which would not constitute a quorum but at least discuss it with him options with him or ideas okay we'll bring it up when Craig comes comes in in a little
bit um okay and while you're speaking do you have anything new about the library uh I have a meeting set up with Julie coming up we have some other things that are going on I do need to get that link over to Stephen but that's
about the extent of it right now uh they're uh employment and resumé writing opportunities are pretty strong and we do need to get that linked into our website right if it's nothing I'd like to see
something go live on that link and it doesn't have to be elaborate or complicated but it'll be a start and then it can be enhanced down the line but we'll get it done they have a program for employment and you know
program for how to do your business better to start a new business you know that's relevant we should use our site as as a link to any of those kind of resources you know whether it's at the
library or I mentioned common capital is that something you've looked into is there stuff we can link probably yeah some point they all kind of blend into one yeah I they have free a lot of free resources to help businesses because
they they depend on coaching the the businesses that they lend money to that's how they can can get by lending to to businesses that Banks you know won't touch through
objective metrics but if they you know work personally with them they make it work so they have a lot of of resources that help them do that and I'm fine with promoting that you know
any partner like that it's not a resource we have the ability to create so let's use what other people have in place and just enrich our site to the degree we
can okay so we'll skip to the last one and see if if Craig's going to reviewing the town zoning map and I've done some work on on this and you know we've got to get
jean that's something I'd like to have a a meeting with you and and Bill on sometime in the next couple weeks maybe AB absolutely absolutely I've gone I've spent a lot of time in the and a
zoning map and how it relates to the zoning I got one or two suggestions but we'll wait till we can get together because this ties into the work that I did on the the property tax thing
because how things are zoned you know it's a big impact on on the type of development can be done and the principle that I'm going at is we've got a very limited amount of developable land we've got land that is
in different kinds of preservation and agriculture restriction conservation we've got some that's too steep all right just in time I'm so sorry the saving sign is good for some people not for other okay well we're just coming to the
last item on the agenda here and which is Southwick and Bloom all right and and just to wrap up the last one we talk about zoning I will send a note out to Jean to you and to Bill about when we might be able to
to meet and talk about zoning and how we can provide some decent input on this because I think we we have the we have some tools that I've been developing some tools and I've sketched out some simplified
maps and we can also compare to what some other towns are doing we can we can do some groundwork that maybe even the planning board doesn't have time to dig into we could I see us being at the very
least you know developing some advice advice resources to the planning board and to our new town planner whatever you try again so I would like to move forward to on that goal so we'll try to do that
prior to the next meeting okay Southwick and Bloom all right what do we have for us these gals have been working feverishly on this it's really coming together did you get I I'm short
one so I'll let yeah scen is you know been very active obviously with the group there much more than me I'm just kind of the husband here all right yeah so anyway Dian just typed this up and I said next time maybe we'll do is we'll
put some dates next to these so you can see what's happening but when you look at Roman number one there those are things that's what's already been done um and I don't know did you hand out this uh no because she only made one of these oh okay so I don't know you want
want me passes around yeah pass it on I can show it right here on the scen so and it's on their website the registration form not the flyer I don't think the Flyer's on there yet or maybe it is it is closer oh it is
the flyer is yeah okay I think so yes okay because we were going back and forth about the colors and everything and I'll who's putting these up on the website Julie okay so she's figured out she's she's able to work yeah in that
and do it okay good I'm just take a picture of this I know some people that'll be interested in it okay so then you can see the critical path from there um this uh what's going to print soon the fire right yes okay I don't know how
soon real soon probably this week or next week okay and once we have that then you guys are going to make the rounds and we're going to campus the business is mainly the center prob try to engage some others here right do that while you're going around I'll try
to get you some of these because these I was showing earlier and I've got the sample very nice ready to start installing we we've got a approval for that to start going up
on in the next few days so do you have some of these already can put up or no not not yet I wanted to prove this format and it's a card stock you can feel that it's I think we're going to do that for South Bloom too so the idea is
while you're going around and talking to businesses yeah say put one of these because that'll get you to the website that has South and Bloom on it too this takes you to all the recreational places as well as business
directory and our dining directory so we want to kind of blanket the town all the businesses they can put it in a a window they can put it on a wall they can put it in a folder if they want any any place on a
shelf we'd like to have people see this all over and build traffic because any business you're talking to should be in this directory so it's to their benefit to get this displayed everywhere anyway didn't mean tender up did you
want to go over any of this with them or why really I think it kind of just well our next you know our plan is to get the flyer and then I'm going to put it in we're going to try to get some publicity out of Southwoods and also that Westfield citycape or that magazine you
seen that did you get that meal to your house your I don't get um and like I said then we're going to try yeah bring the the Flyers and we're going to try to get some bigger posters to like high traffic areas like summerhouse and a banner maybe on an
antson Nursery property um and I guess what we need to do what we haven't done yet is come up with what kind of prizes we're gonna give out so we've got to work on that yet but um
Julie's posted that she's got it on Facebook um and then we still have to come up with dates when we're going to go see the participants and do the judging and all of that so that's still in the work
your wife's done so much work on this is the registration the sign up Live Now can I I believe it is yes I'll go ahead and I'll sign up for okay for the church my entry we'll try it yeah see if we can do it yeah yeah
um I don't know what other you're having something at the notch right what's that they're going to do something at the notch like a garden thing I thought your wife was saying some kind of forum or something oh yeah oh well she's got to get with um Ling Acres there right she's
going to teach that I think so that's that's that's the plan container gardening Workshop right oh okay so that'll be an educational right component to this whole thing so yeah so some of these items I think
you guys are going to nail down dates yes we are yes on of these so we'll have a pretty good critical path on when it's all going to take place but uh the biggest thing was getting this done and without this we were nothing so we
just got this taken care of yeah excellent well Craig S I would like to meet with you guys at a subcommittee meeting and and put in some different things so if you could include me on your next meeting I would appreciate it
awesome do yes okay any else on Southwick and Bloom or we I don't think so it's it's coming along good so um it is we're working pretty hard on
you guys brainstorming it up and oh yeah y okay and the at some point we'll get some invoices to you you know I think are you going to take care of that Terina well the invoices should probably be sent
directly to you know hand delivered or mailed to the accounting office would J and then then they will contact yeah Julie will handle that and and then Julie will code it but there we just got
to make sure to get the original invoice in their hands because and if it goes to them first they have it in their hands Julie will will make sure it's coded properly I'll come in and sign it if if they need my signature on it to approve so hopefully by next meeting we'll have
some budget numbers on the balance of what it's going to take to do this so right yeah we still got to nail down like the wall signs and things like that so I don't know what else to say I don't know I think it's good so your wife doesn't need this she's got it I'll give
her this one okay is that the whole thing yeah all I'll take this don't mind that one's upside down is I I see what they did okay yeah I can get another one from okay okay so last thing are there any
items we need to put on the next agenda that are not part of the goals or something that somebody wants to have in the I want to make sure and you don't have if you don't have it today generally I like to put in the
agenda about a week before before week or seven or eight days before so if you do have agenda items for an upcoming meeting just to email me or text me okay with the item and I can get it into the agenda I just want to
make sure everybody knows they can participate in in bringing agenda items yeah uh yes Greg U this is more of a something for consideration
[Music] um with respect to Southwick but there are no little league baseball teams in this town uh kind of speaks volumes for the
participation I we got the ball fields but we don't have we don't have coaches we don't have you know a lot of things we don't have and I think it's a sad state that Southwick doesn't have at least a soft uh a little league softball
team I mean teams would that fall under or yes I think so yeah I don't know if that's something we could do a lot about in economic development but parks and wreck they used to have with the recre center my my daughters were
both on you know on t-ball and soccer and and basketball and softball and they did all that stuff at the rec center so I I don't know that I was involved in help back then that was 20 years ago 25
years ago um so I don't something from it well there's money in little league softball huge we got three fields we could have Regional games
here Ian it it's from an economic development perspective it would be huge if it could be developed but maybe we need to reach out to you know Parks and Recreation and find out you know what are they proposing you know well why don't you
here's here's a suggestion why don't you go and make a public comment at the next Park and wck meeting and and see if there's any input that I can do Jean Jean there's a a gentleman in town who
was actually a former professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox organization his name is Brian barowski and Brian um um has been trying for a while uh to um
raise awareness about this issue so you may want to connect with Brian he actually had a proposal from what I understand to uh create you mentioned a stadium I think he his concept was you bring back Little League um he had a
nephew in town as well who couldn't play in town and went to another town to play L but he was also looking at um an opportunity that he thought was uh readily available to create a um a a
little league stadium for lack of a better um term that would um attract what you're saying some you know Regional play um you know the the U precursors to the Little League World Series I know they have one of these in
uh Bristol Connecticut it's for the you know the the I guess the Super Regional but this would be one step down from that but he did have a plan and he had started to raise some money for this and I think he has uh some funds already available so um um it's it's Brian
barowski I can get you his his contact information if you can't find it but if you just Google Brian barnowski he was a a star for I think South Wick High uh many years ago and he's still in in town or he came back to town oh wow so from
what I understand he was working through a private entity and the concept was is that they had certain number of fields and we could actually um put up those fields or rename rename those fields uh for a
price kind of like you know in New Orleans they have the Mercedes dome which was formerly the super doome so you have sponsorships there but a local entity kind of shot it down that's my understanding I can dig into that a
little bit further I have some contacts I've been working with on that but that was presented to me and it's kind of tragic that number one Southwick doesn't have a little league team a little league team to start kick the ball well
when to say throw out the first pitch instead of kick the ball you know down the road but uh nonetheless you know it needs to be investigated and I'll meet with I'll request a meeting with parkerson Recreation uh I think it's a significant
opportunity from a sports Endeavor neighborhood economic development for Southwick yeah I think Westfield has a Babe Ruth leag because they've been Champions I don't
know it would be huge yeah well there's another person that um I can recommend that you talk to it's the new um head coach of the Southwick High School baseball team okay and uh
his name is uh Alex fulco F that's cool um so he um he shared with me that uh you know he has been um you know trying to um develop some of the younger um players as uh
feeders into the high school program um which has uh proven to be a little bit of a challenge and because of the lack of little league the the um the kids tend to gravitate to other sports um because we don't have it in town so could be a way of keeping some of that
um in town a bit so can either either you get me his contact or have him contact me yeah I'll I'll shoot you his contact info for sure okay any other
items okay if not I'll make a motion to adjourn second second [Music]