Okay, I'm like to call the meeting of the SUFFK Economic Development Commission to order. It is 601 on June 18th. And uh this is Greg Dial go around the
room to Serena Fuller, Stephen Roach, and on on the phone we have Mark Falco is on the phone. Anyway, so we have Mark Fulco. Yes. And we hope that Craig comes in yet. So we hope to
have a four by Oh, okay. So we we do have five out of our nine. We have other people traveling and and different things right now. So we will move forward. And the first thing I would like to do is introduce
our new town planner and economic development director, Alvin Allen. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to ask you to introduce your background and and a little bit about yourself. Okay. I'm
originally from Springfield, Mass. I um graduated with a degree in regional planning from the uh Westfield State University. Uh that was 2005. I've worked with the city of Springfield uh beginning uh 2008 18 years with the city
of Springfield uh working in the planning department as in my I guess my last six months was with the DPW division engineering uh but mo majority of the years work with uh planning and economic development as a municipal planner.
All right. Um, do you have any particular philosophy you bring or point of view you bring to economic development in particular? I don't know if a particular philosophy, but again, I just want to learn the lay of the land and um, you know, anything that, you
know, my expertise that I can bring from city of Springfield to Southwick, you know, um, the other day just, you know, doing a walk audit was was a great sort of um, what's the word? Uh, just kind of kind of again just learning about
Southwick and the dynamics of the the town center and um there's a lot you know that I that I I have opinions on that you know at some point you know um we'll have a grand discussion. Okay. And now we have
our quorum. Craig Samuelson is entering the room and we're getting an introduction from Alvin Allen on our new town planner, economic development director. Right.
And he was mentioning a walking audit. I wanted to to meet with Alvin and I said, "But rather than sit down, I'd like to do it as a as a walk through the town center." And we spent a couple hours just walking down one side and then back
up the other back here and it was very productive. I Yes. Yes. You I had the sense that Alvin will fit in very well. And I'm encouraged. Thank you. Are are you commuting from from where?
commuting from back and forth Springfield 16 acres area around western New England unit. That's a drive. It is a little bit of a driveway. Sorry. Do you have family? Uh yes. Okay. Yes. Can you let us know what sort of projects that you worked on any time in
Springfield? It seems like you had a really long tenure there. Yes. So, I've worked on projects um uh more more planning focused, not so well uh in regards to economic development.
I've worked on like our um facade program uh for lighting and signage. Um we we did have facade grants uh in the city of Springfield that we uh acquired through CDBG uh funding. Um so I did
assist I I wasn't the manager of that program, but I did assist with the program. I've also managed um or was a facilitator for the Valley Bike program in the city of Springfield. Um,
I also administered um historic funding for historic homes in the city of Springfield uh particularly in the Mcnite neighborhood, Victorian homes um and received money from uh the community preservation
um funding to adhere or to to uh put towards historic uh facades. Okay. involved in grant writing. Yes, I was involved in grant writing even more
so on the DPW side with um complete streets uh chapter 90 um and just for for roadway projects for pedestrian friendliness and and bike safety. Um that's sort of my background. Yeah. And
you you know the people in the Western Mass Economic Development Group and Yes. and as well P out there. That's great. Thanks. No problem.
Any other questions for Alvin? Any experience with sewer grant money? No. Dived into that. That's a dead balance. Okay. Well, you're welcome to stay the whole meeting or leave at whatever point
you you want. Uh, you know, entirely up to you. We appreciate you dropping in and introducing yourself and no problem. And, uh, you're welcome to join in any of our topics of discussion as well. Okay. We also have another guest, Norm Chver from the Empic master plan
implementation committee, and he would like to talk with us about uh the scoring system. Yes. Tracking system before he does, I'm not real clear on on his total uh involvement with the town
right now. I what the arrangement is. Can you go over that or he go over that? Well, I'll just say I prior to to this, we had a part-time town planner in John Goddard. I think it was like 16 17 hours
a week. Okay. Now, we have a full-time planner plus economic development. Do you have anything to add to the description of your I mean, that's it's pretty spot on. So, I am a full-time planner and, you know, um
uh economic development director. So, you know, whatever, you know, I can provide uh to this group and, you know, and bring back to um Nicole and her staff, you know, I'm here for the conduit for that.
So, Nicole will report to the whiteboard Nicole. Yes. Yes. Nicole Parker, I'm sorry. Okay. All right. She replaced Carl Steinhard. Is that correct? Right. Okay. Yeah. And and you will be in all of the
planning meetings and yes, planning board and so yeah, I will be facilitating the all planning board meetings. Facilitating them. Yeah. I'm just wondering I mean is it will you be attending all or most of
our meetings or Yeah, probably. Okay. All right. Yeah, you're welcome. Any of them you can make it to you. We we are we're so glad to hear that they went ahead with this because we struggle to have enough time to to do the you know a
lot of the bigger projects and we focus and we'll get into this in a minute. We've we've got a very goal for focused approach where we had that we'll go through later 10 goals
to accomplish. Okay. By the end of the fiscal year, which is this month, we'll go over the ones we accomplished and didn't. Then we'll start another 10 goals or so. Okay? And we we like to focus on those tor short-term goals
in the service of some longer term strategies which are defined in the master plan and we have prioritized those for me and uh we are trying to coordinate with those
and and then a lot of our goals for next year will be tied in specifically to those master plan goals. Well, I think it's good that we have somebody that, you know, brick access to definitely going on. I think that'll be helpful. I mean, Julie's sort of our little um end
to, you know, some the way that some of the workings are, but it's nice to have somebody where where we have direct access to planning and uh can really keep our finger on the pulse. I think that's good. Otherwise, we used to sit on our own
little island and that was not right. We are on our own island. Yeah. Yeah. We we want to be in in more closely aligned to the planning board in particular as an advice giver. We don't have any
direct power to make things happen, but we do have our persuasion and advice and uh try to make that fact-based wherever we can. Any other questions on this topic? If
if not, we will proceed with Norman's plan. Do you want me to put up your your document? Maybe you can hand the mouse over to me and yeah, I won't have to ask you to flip pages. Let's
move this. It's on my just this little song. Okay. We put together actually now several months ago the proposal for a draft a master plan scorecard
and presented to the master plan implementation committee. They have modified it appropriately. Um, and they asked me to before we vote on it that it's the final product, they asked me to test the
waters with three different committees to get feedback on what they think of it. Uh, so I've done lake management last week. I did conservation commission Monday night and I'll do economic development today. So appreciate your
feedback at the end of the presentation. We have decided that u we're going to go along the town fiscal calendar. So year one will begin 7125. Okay.
Um this is the way the processes is proposed to work. Each lead organization has two opportunities to select their their goal setting. They could say, "We've got so many items to complete. We'll complete
it in x amount of years, and we'll just do the division there and say that's how many each year you will accomplish." Or you can come back and say, "We'll do two the first year, one the third year, three the fourth year, whatever." Okay?
And then we'll take that as a going forward target. Each action item will be worth 100 points. uh 100 points times the number of completions they signed up for a year will be the goal for that year.
The action outline will be where the points will accumulate from and I'll show you an example of that. Points will be cumulative. Uh so there's no penalty for early depletions. Okay. Actually that actually
helps you So going to the outline once you complete the basic and it's a simplistic outline. It does not have to be comprehensive. It's just just sets the targets. So once you've got the outline with responsibilities and cumulative
targets, you gain 15 points of the 100. When you reach 25% completion, you get 15 more. 50%, you get 15 more. 75, 15 more. Incorporation of support parties, you get 20 points for that. Secure
funding gets you 10 more points and project completion gets you 10 for a total of 100. Can you give an example though? I got to show you an example. Okay. Yeah, I'm a little Okay. So, so can we just back up one second? I just have to give something to mind. So, what
is the purpose of the score card? What what are we trying to achieve with that? They're trying to show progress overall for the town on attacking the the action items that have been identified in national advisors that have 135 action
plans. Okay. Forgotten how many economic go but they have quite a few. Yeah, we have 15. Correct. And and 32 supporting. Correct. And you have 134. Did you say it's 135?
135. Yeah. But we've now we've now established five new ones. We did a total review of the of the master plan and said that we felt there were five areas that weren't properly covered. So, we've got five new ones. So, and
scorecards this type aren't unusual for pushing projects forward, right? Yeah. Manage and measure progress. Yeah. Mhm. It's really it's it's polite pressure. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, maybe Craig and I
have a question, too. So, the master plan, is that until 2040? 2040. Yes, that's the goal. Yes, another 20 years to complete the project. Okay. All right. I don't think so. We we we hope that
it's it takes less because they can't down the street. Everybody's got to keep up your diet and exercise the 24th just for the master plan. Yes. So this this is an example of an
outline. Okay. All right. And this was one that I did for lake management had to do with doing an analysis of erosion, lake erosion. Okay. So I put the outline together
and I got so I got uh 15 points for the outline. The next thing I had to research types of lake erosion because there's several of them and that's worth 15 points and that is that is done. Then I researched the
types of preventative solutions. I've done that. So I got 15 points for that. and I researched companies and approximate costs for each of those possible solutions. Okay? And I got some points for that. And then I prepared a draft letter to
the waterfront owners of Lake Kong, both Connecticut and Massachusetts. And we have finally come to an agreement on that letter. They got to modify it to the changes, but basically it's done.
And that will get us 75% complete, which gives us another 15 points. So what's left is is modify the letter, then send it out to support parties for their comments and
approvals, okay, and feedback. and modify the letter to incorporate the support parties. And we're kind of over overshadowed here. I can't see the formatting issues. Yeah.
And uh secure funding is is the only funding on this one is is the uh printing and and the postage. Okay. So, this is a this is a real simple one. Okay. And the takeaway was the greater the knowledge of the subject by the
support parties the earlier you should bring them into um the photograph. Okay. In this particular case this was a research project. We felt there was nobody on the support that offered a lot of knowledge about lake erosion. Okay. So we're
bringing them in at the end. on some of your stuff, you may want to bring them in very early and then and then very late to, you know, to endorse the final product. So what if I mean secure funding, what if our one of our projects require a grant or something like that? We really have no control over that. So
I mean does that hold up? Well, that that like that's covered in in I think the next chart. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Are you using AI chap GBT or what?
U okay so here is how the cumulative points work. Okay year one let's say this is all hypothetical data here. Okay this committee says that we're going to accomplish two completions the first
year two the second two the third the fourth and one the fifth. Okay, so they had to do 200 communal points the first time. 2 * 100. They actually completed 220.
So they're 110% of the gold. So they're going to be green for year one. And green is your 90 to 100%. Yellow your 75 to 89. In red you're below 75.
Okay. And the advantage of of the cumulative is if they didn't complete one of their action items that they promised to do, they can fill that gap for 20 points by working on another project. Okay, that's
the beauty of the cumulative. Okay, year two, they signed up for two, they did 190. So, they didn't quite make their goal on on the yearly basis, but cumulatively they did. They said it was 102%. So they still remain gleaned. Year
three they signed up for another 200. They did 170. So they were 97% u to date on a field basis. So they still remain green. Okay. Year two or
year year four, excuse me, they did only 85 out of 200. So they were what is that 38%. 83. So for the year they were they were red but the cumulative they remained
uh yellow and year five they didn't complete anything and they fell below 74%. So cumulative they were red at year five. Okay. So the beauty to answer your question, if you don't get funding, what
we're gonna I think we talked about that at the last time I was here in that what we'll do for unfunded programs is we'll keep it on the horizon for five years. We claim the 80 points, okay? But
unfunded, we're going to keep it for five years. After 5 years, if it still isn't funded, it goes to the select board to decide if they want to continue it open or close it. Okay. I think in most they'll keep it open. Okay.
But over time hopefully, you know, there's not a lot lot of federal grants right now. Yeah. And it may not be until we have another Democratic president, but uh uh so we may have some difficulty with funding, you know.
Okay. You also talked at the last meeting where I I mean I can I can see a a situation where we might just throw up our hands and say, you know, it doesn't look like we're going to get grant money, so why hang this on out there 5 years, so can't we have that abolished, didn't you? We talked about a way of we
we have ways to cancel. Yeah. Yes, we do. Right. Yep. You gave me the whole presentation about modification, right? Procedure. Okay. Okay, now we're looking at it the same uh
the same scorecard as before, but now it's got just the individual year because the MIP decided my my approach was only do cumulative. They said they wanted individual years, too. Okay, so it's the same numbers. Uh
for year one, they signed up for two, they got two, so they're green. Year two, signed up for two, did two, they're green. Year three, they signed up for two, only did one, they fall below 74%, so they're red. Year three. Year four,
signed up for two, did two, they're green again with 100%. Year five, they did sign up for one, did two, they're 200% for goals, so they were green. So, what I don't like about the one year is it's difficult.
There will be very few yellows under this under individual years because you're not going to sign up to do 10 action items in a year, you know. So, we're going to be either be red or we're going to be green in my eyes. But that's something that you guys
can think about, right? And I I like the cumulative because you're not penalized for getting stuff done early. You're not tempted to say, "Oh, we could get three done this year, but we're going to push one off to next year." Right. Yeah. Okay, this is just how to how to claim
an action item completion. You have to submit something to MPIC with the right information, a synopsis of what transpired, evidence of the support groups were involved. Is funding required? Has it been secured? What is the plan to keep the progress
sustainable? EPIC will approve the request and forward to the select board and planning boards for final approval. Okay, pretty straightforward. All right. And at the end of each year, we're going to give a year end report. And what would it look like? Okay.
Okay. So, this would be looking at the overall target, not the individual commissions. Hopefully, we're going to say all lead organization have set their goals for completions of all actions. Hopefully, they've completed some actions. X amount
have been completed. Y amount have hopefully been started and completed. uh of the 27 lead organizations have all started their projects. We're hoping they're going to say that and Z organizations have completed at least one action item. And then we're thinking
we'll do some sort of award from the the number one commission that does the does the best for aggressively attacking their action items. Okay. What are we thinking that award's going to look like? What's that? What do we think that award is going to look like? Oh, they
asked me that. We hadn't talked about that yet other than their name would be showing up on the run the annual report. Now who keeps track of this? Emp. Yeah. Yeah. Is that an entity that's here or? Yes. It's another committee
that was formed as a recommendation as from the master plan advisory committee to form this committee and to monitor the progress and assist in the progress. We're do we're doing all the upfront stuff now. Once we've done all the upfront stuff, we're planning on we'll
be able assisting those those committees that have an overabundance of action items to hopefully do research for them so that they can get get done because the planning board and select
board are just slammed. Yeah. Okay. So here is where uh the individual commissions would show up. On the first column we got the listing of the organizations whether the current year is red, yellow or green and the cumulative whether it's red, yellow or
green. Again the same targets are down below and we'll list them all. And I think this is all 27 that are listed up there right now. So, it's just going to be a simple red, yellow, green, and we'll take the
feedback we got from the three sample organizations. Go back, we'll talk the cumulative versus the and here's a sample that from the agricultural commission which also shows the cumulative effect.
Okay, they have four action items. So on year one they did on action item one which was 3.1 they they did the outline they did 25% complete did 25% 50% complete 75% complete and involve the so
parties so they did 80 points okay but they didn't complete it okay and they signed up for to do one completion on the second project they did 45 points on the third project they did 30 points so they did 150 55 against the goal of
100. So even though they did not complete the project, they got a green. Okay? Because they got they got 100 points. That's the advantage of the Kimwood. Okay. Year two, all the NAS they can't claim
for points because they took them in year one. Okay. So year two, they completed number one, they completed number two, and they got number three up to 80%. and they started the last item. So they did 295
um points for the two years. The cumulative goal was was 200. So they remain green. All right. So that's the advantage of the of the cumulative. And this is where we stand so far on the
prioritization of action items. 20 of 44 organizations have completed their prioritations of action items. Economic development I think was the first to complete. Right. In the green then
we're in the green there. So can we coast? You won't coast. I know that now. I was also recommending we put up a one that the organizations that haven't completed their prioritizations, but I get voted
down. They thought I was too harsh. And that's the presentation. I agree with Greg. I think that the way to go. Yeah. Can I in summary real quick? So, we'll
earn points by making progress on our action items. Correct. Those action items will be broken down into like 25% 50%. Yeah. You'll have to produce a a short That was my question. How is that defined? You'll have to produce that. Okay. I wouldn't spend a lot of time. I just put some targets on it and that's
just so that your liaison can can say they agree with you that you've done 50%, you've done 80%. You know, now I mean some of these action items we're already pretty much I mean pretty far into them. So will we accumulate points for previous actions?
Yes. Anything you've done so far will show up in year one. Okay. Okay. Which starts July 1st. That answers my questions. Okay, thanks. You know, I I like the approach somebody once said, I forget who, that you can't manage what
you can't measure, right? And providing measurements for things allows you to stay on top of any other feedback. Um I assume this will once you take it back
to the group and get voted on then it'll be distributed to all. Absolutely. We don't have to memorize this, right? No, no, no. It's still draft. Uh we we'll discuss whether u you want to present this our final version to the select
board and planning board for their approval or not. I'm re I'll recommend that. We'll see what the what the team says. Okay. And then then it'll be officially issued. Now, relatively soon, I would
think as soon as we get a few more prioritiz prioritizations in, we'll be we'll be submitting to you sign up for what you think is reasonable on completions. And I can tell you,
I want to warn you that working with support groups for approvals that only meet sometimes once a month or twice a month, sometimes they take the summer off, getting their buy in will always take you longer than you
think. Yeah. Okay. And for instance, on that erosion project, we the goal was to mail it out in February. We started I presented it to them in November and we couldn't agree on the final product for four months.
So we missed we missed a free a free mailing. So how are the support groups here? What define that? Well, well, every lead action has a bunch of support groups that in that case and the eros on the erosion, but
let's see. Conservation Commission is on that select boards on that. Oh, okay. I see. And we haven't even brought it to them yet. We couldn't amongst ourselves. It took us four months because we had in there like 13 items of things the town
could do to prevent lakefront erosion. And it took us four months to prioritize that list. Four months. I know. So be cautious when you sign up, right? And I encourage everybody to priorit prioritize according to the
things we think we can do quicker rather than later. Yeah. So hopefully it's in the order that that we can accomplish realistically. And now we have help. So that really help. So
now, how long will you be doing this? 5 years, 10 years. As long as it takes as long as we're showing progress. Okay. I would think at some point in time, we're going to fall off the deep end and say, you know, we've there's
28 items on the list that no longer should be done for number of reasons. Technology changes or Yeah. polit politics change. you know, but if we can get the majority
done by 2040, right, that'll be great. Absolutely. So, it'll be up to the select board how long we're an active group. Okay. We have an opening in case anybody's interested.
Pam, right? Pam was on it. Pam was on it. Yeah. So from an economic development standpoint, we like the fact that she's very busy and yes, that's really good for her in her really good Kangaman coffee
business. Okay. On the bike running on the bike trail. Okay. So if you don't mind, you don't have any more comments. I'll stay for a little while. I think Oh, yeah. Stay stay as long as you'd like and we'll
uh jump into other things. I'd like to first do our housekeeping here. Everybody got a copy of our minutes from the last meeting and I didn't get any comments from so we're ready to to vote. Well, all in favor of Oh, is the
gentleman still on the screen? Oh, yeah. We got to put him back on. Mark, I'm I'm here. Mark is still there. Our screen just Thank you. Thank you for uh Let's see. I can. No, it was on
June. I didn't click anything. You would see you. So, I'm here. Right. I It's I don't think it affects the the recording, but it's affecting the transmission to the screen,
but it it is on here. And since we've gotten through the presentation, all I did was stop the share. I didn't shut off it. So, you can see we're Yeah, there he is. Did you stop? We're all on the screen. Did
you stop the show? You're still broadcasting visually and and audio. So, and it says it's still recording. So, I think we're okay. I don't know what happened to the connection. I think it's just a a matter of connection to here. It looks like it's on. It's just not
transmitting it. So, we're going to vote on the minutes. Yes. Uh, all in favor of Well, let's let's have a motion to approve the minutes. Second. And all in favor of approving the minutes, say I. I.
Approved unanimously. Okay. Um, wanted to we we already know we have a couple vacancies. Want everybody to think about that. Encourage anybody, you know, to
hop in and and join that. Um, fill out an application. There's online applications for all of the boards and commissions. Uh, and so that can be considered soon. I don't know what the schedule of a select board in years past
often didn't get to it till August or even later, but maybe they're going to get to it sooner. So, encourage anybody, you know, to apply. And also wanted to talk about our meeting next month. I'm
I've been to every meeting for two years. I do have a family vacation up in northern Vermont uh with all my adult children and son-in-law and all and it's right in the middle of the month.
Couple choices. We could have somebody else chair meeting. You could go ahead or we could skip a meeting for summer. Any thoughts, discussion? I'm okay with skipping. I think we're due. We're
they usually have a lot to do with this boom and all. We're falling behind on that. So, I mean, yeah, we're continuing. We still have subcommittees that are still actively accomplishing things and and that's one of the the big ones and we're going to go through all of those goals and the subcommittees
very quickly um today. Okay, I'm okay with that too because it's kind of the perfect point to have a break. We're wrapping up the current fiscal year and then we'll all be refreshed when we come back in August to to start hard into the
new year and you'll have a couple months to prepare because I'm going to give you assignments to think about before our next next time we meet. Um, I also wanted to just mention last week I attended
a conference that of an organization that I've been a member of for for some time that is called Strong Counts. It was started by a guy named Charles Marone and and he was a traffic engineer and he's started an organization that was all about in
involved. Their priorities are to create strong economically strong towns or cities or neighborhoods that are also catering to the human needs at the same time. So he emphasizes
walkability and bike and mixed use and and the kind of human scale u retail and and doing it in a way that actually strengthens the economics of of a town.
that often the really large businesses and the ones that are outside of a town center don't really contribute as much to the strength of the community because they they spread out the the town center and
and so you don't get that synergy of having a bunch of business together and it incurs in some ways more infrastructure the more you spread out the town's center. uh that if you can have more walkable, more things in the town
center, that's better. One of our big challenges economically is our road infrastructure. Uh staying up with the maintenance of roads is a is a big deal. Um and we're behind on that. We can do a
little at a time, but it doesn't take much of a mile of road to eat up a million dollars or more to redo. So, those are things that were emphasized. And we had two days, it was in Providence, Rhode Island, and we had two days of speakers. A lot of valuable
stuff I'm going to uh use in in the coming year and things I'm looking at. And and was just a a whole lot of people from all over the country. It was their national gatherings. So there were people from Canada and all over the US, 600 some.
And they were both people that work for towns, employees, volunteers, and just citizen action people, but all all people that had practical action, but a
lot of great great ideas. had one guy that was a a super expert on on bike trails and how they interact with intersections was from California. Um, others that were really good at
analyzing property uh tax statistics and deciding what kind of development produced the the most value for a town or a city. A lot of things I'm going to be putting in. Just wanted to to mention that if
that's Strong Towns, it's the organization and they put out a ton of videos and articles. If you know anybody's interested, I can point you to to their website with a ton of content.
Okay, let us now quickly go into a wrapup of our 20 2025 goals which I think we did pretty well. We had you know teams for each of these 10 goals
that worked on these and we actually completed a lot of them. Uh the first one was to populate all the tabs of our ADC website with useful content and links for target audiences. Stephen, you did a lot of great work making that
happen with with input from from Jack and and we've got a great start for the website. We'll continually add to it, but at least we have a a solid base website now to move forward and enjoy South is a big
part of that. So, thank you for your work on that. Excellent. Yeah, that was another goal that we'll get to. Um, then the second goal was it's great to have a website, but where what really matters is the traffic. You have to track that traffic and make sure people are seeing
the website. So, we've I tracked that. I look at it every day. Um, and we set a target. We said we want 2,000 unique users and 10,000 page views by the end of the year. While we beat the first
one, we're around 2,200 unique users as of now with more coming in every day. And we're around 8,500 page views. We'll get some more, but we're we're getting reasonably close to those those goals. And if we had better
weather the last few weeks, we might have got more on our our big signs. that is another goal that that has links to the website and adds is starting to add significant traffic. Okay. The third one is we wanted to do a
new business evaluation process in which we could get the support of the select board and planning board and and we did draft up a whole process. Mark helped we were was very involved with this. We sat down and had a long meeting
with Diane Gale in I think it was late December, early January and and talked through it. And the challenge with it and we had used Dollar General as a sample case where we would evaluate it.
It was only a sample case because we realized it would it had already uh been decided on at that point and already went into uh mediation I guess. So it was just a a sample but the idea of of looking at
well what what will this contribute? Is this the the kind of business do an an analysis project what the the tax revenues would be from it? Project what the impact to ups and and
the town whether it affects employment. You know what the competitive envir environment is. Does it really bring extra stuff or just dilute the the existing businesses? doing that kind of analysis and then
also look at the in expenses it could incur on the town. what impact does it have on infrastructure and on traffic and and any other kind of things? But we didn't actually implement it because the concern was that there were too many
things that were somewhat subjective. And so we we developed something. Our our goal is that if if you have a new business, a major new business, we're not worried about small businesses, you
know, they come and come and go and don't have that big of an impact, but if there's a major new business, uh we would like to have an opinion on it and we'd like to be able to to speak it, but we realize also we have to be careful what we say. We tried to even
have a disclaimer saying this was solely the opinion of economic development board and does not reflect the official position of the town or any other board commission. But there's concern about about that. But we would like to be able
to to present factual objective as possible information. So we're going back to the drawing board on that. I'm continuing as part of this process. I did through an information request got all of the property tax data for the
town in a database format and and an and put it into a a filtered spreadsheet in Excel so I could analyze what kinds of developments produced what kinds of of revenues and and especially
revenue per acre with the limited amount of acreage. We we want to focus on those things that have the highest return for the limited amount that land that can be developed. Uh it's not infinite. It's the one thing any town has, you know, purely limited
amount of. And a next step I want to do and thinking about is I want to delve into the expense side some more. I want to go to maybe I'll do an information request to DPW,
John Goddard, whoever is going to be running it to say, can I have a download of of all the costs per street and maybe there's a spreadsheet or database that has has what
what work they put in for each street over maybe 10 years or more. and kind of see the trend line. Where are we going and and what are the factors that add to that potential expense?
You know, looking at it like the town was a business. We have revenues and we have expenses. And in order to plan for economic development, you have to know your revenues and expenses and then have a a long-term
plan to stay in the black. And that if you can't stay in the black, then the thing that suffers is the maintenance of the town and the the tax rate and go up. and we want to focus on what kinds of developments can add to
the revenue and minimize expense. So formulating that into another goal that we look at more in the in the coming year. Uh so next goal was to design, produce
and install durable signs promoting Southwick recreational assets and we did that. Greg, can I just make a comment on that? Yeah. So, you know, one of the things now that we've got, you know, some some legs, some assistance, um I think it's
important, you know, we had talked about, you know, some of the the sort of the genesis of this this whole profile that we were trying to put together or or tool to profile businesses was, you know, I guess the best way to characterize it up to this point, we've
been very reactive. So, you know, people buying a parcel land and wanting to do something. Um and so you do need kind of a filter for some things that are inherently subjective like you know
there's there's some very broad language I think um um you know in in in the town bylaws that talk about um you know the types of businesses that would um meet you know the sort of the the the feeling
of the town you know the um and we've been you a very you know farm oriented recreationoriented community. So like when you know the Carvana proposal came forward there was really no tool to sort of measure that whether it was the you
know subjective or the objective um elements like is this good for the town as Greg was saying is this is good is this good economically for the town? Will it generate you know revenue? What about the you know the puts and takes?
will it generate enough revenue to cover the costs and expenses that that particular type of business is going to generate? Um, so I think you know what we were trying to do is is meet that objective of
providing a tool so that you can measure a business and provide some input because that is the role, you know, of economic development. We're supposed to advise the town on things that'll help improve the economy of Southway. Now, to
get proactive, we need to understand what the ideal business is for Southwick. Is it a, you know, um, agricultural application? Is it recreational? Is it, um, um, you
know, a carvana? Well, the answer to that was no. the people in town didn't want that. But we need to have at least a, you know, a yard stick, a measuring tape, if you will, to, you know, kind of look at things, you know, from a, you
know, an impact standpoint and, you know, sort of a cultural fit with the town and we don't have that. So, that's what this whole um, process was intended to do. And I don't I don't think we had, you know, things that were objectionable
other than the fact that what the town was going through because it didn't have a process for the second time and was now kind of being pushed by the the business owner in in a legal manner. So anyways, I'll stop there, but I I just think it's
important to frame that. That's good. Yeah. And what you're saying there, you know, triggers in my mind one thing we could do and maybe could consider for gold think about it is develop a list of of the businesses we would most like to see. You know, that wouldn't be
offensive in any way. uh things that fit our infrastructure that things that that fit the the needs, you know, that maybe are the ideal kind of employment that that are the the things that would enhance the quality of life and and fill
out round out the town. You know, we could develop a wish list perhaps to do that. And on the other proactive side is addressed by another one of our goals. We'll get to in a minute, the input to zoning because that could have preemptively
uh address the issues of Carvana and Dollar General if we had that place. And I got to tell you, there's other, you know, there's there's other considerations. I mean, please, no more dispensaries allowed in town. I don't think we can, but to have to have two
dispens This is this is just illogical to me to have two dispensaries that are so close to each other and on the same road. That's I it it's just unfathomable. We need to have some better guard rails about, you know,
decision making. And I think that's the other intent here. I mean, that's just it's, you know, it's re it's ridiculous, but that's my personal opinion, not the opinion of EDC. Okay. All right. Well, thanks for the
input. And, uh, you know, I I guess this will be your last meeting, right, Mark? Um, anything you want to say is no. Or did you change your mind and decide to stay on? You could tell I'm still very passionate
about it. Love the town. Yes. Uh love the people in the town. You all have been just a pleasure to serve with. I I I'm And Greg, you in particular, I'm just like so amazed with the amount of, you know, time and attention, energy, um that you put into things. It's really
it's it's humbling. Um um Well, I'm sure you could do that if you were retired. uh may maybe but you bring you certainly bring a lot of energy to it. I will tell you this, even though I'm not going to renew, you know, my my appointment,
which I appreciate um, you know, select board giving me the opportunity, um, I am available to help and I have pledged to you, Greg, that I will make sure that any sort of, you know, remaining elements, any straggling elements on the work that we've done together that need
to be, you know, have a bow put on them, I'm here to help and I'm here to help. You know, call me anytime. I'd love to be able to, you know, serve whether it's a committee or a task force or something, but it's just not fair um for me with my, you know, particularly with
my travel schedule when I can't be there to be part of the commission. So, thank you. Well, and I don't see why I couldn't include you on emails with our agendas and minutes just for your
so it's in front of you and you can you know provide your input as you want. Sure. Love to help. Thank you, Mark. Yes. Thank you for everything you've done. Okay. was just saying that that with the
the signs we did complete that I'm I'm tracking the traffic to the where the QR code goes, it's getting into the hundreds of of clicks. But as I say, as we get more people out on the bike trails and in the boat ramps and the
weekends, that's we put it all. I don't know, Alvin, if you've seen the big signs we have at the kiosks for the North and South boat ramp, for the Miller Road bike trail parking area, and for the Route 57
uh kiosk just off of Route 57 on the bike trail and the Granville Gorge, which is surprising. The Granville Gorge so far, I think, has more clicks on people looking up that site than anything. Well, it's in the recreation
area. Um, and it's Do you know where that is? No. No. Is it off of 57? Yeah. Yes. It's It says you're going just before you go up the hill toward Granville. It's off to the right. Kind of a a small sign. It's a little parking
lot and it's just a a beautiful little section of the water flowing through the rocks and and down through the deep gorge. There's a very deep gorge between Soda Mountain and Drake Mountain there that
you drive 57 out to Granville, you don't even realize how deep it is unless you really because you can't see to the bottom of it. Most of that road goes very deep. Check it. So, one thing that we did get done and
my goal was to get this done by early spring and we had the signs up by the end of March. So, a goal accomplished there. And you know, we have more things to do on on that front to promote, but we'll think about what additional goals
we might have. Then we had we wanted to start to arrange meetings with groups of business owners. We didn't really get that off the ground this year. We talked about it. I think we should revise that goal for next year and make it very specific.
This kind of meeting for this kind of group. And uh any thoughts you have, Stephen? I agree with that. Um last meeting spoke about um small business lending and it seems like a good idea. Response was a little lukewarm, but um
actually kind of anecdotal, but I had multiple people say, "Oh, are you guys doing farm day thing again?" So that might be at least an in people that um an intro there. Um, just anecdotally,
yeah, I I think to be get specific, we it didn't hurt to wait a little bit. You have to have some accomplishments to build credibility so the businesses are you don't want the worst thing is to bring a bunch of businesses. What do you
guys want to do? Right. No, we should have Yeah. We should be full of ideas that would excite businesses and to get their input on on the types of things they want to see. And like we talked about perhaps doing a print brochure that could be distributed where they
distribute brochures that would be a map of that people would actually a map that could be funded by the businesses to have a a nominal membership cost. Maybe if you follow the South of Wick Business Association, you know, they put in a
hundred bucks or something like that and they get us a place on the map and you get 50 people and you could fund printing, you know, 10,000 of these maps and distribute them and it would be a a printed directory.
We have our online directory, but doesn't hurt to have printed version of it. Sometimes people like to just browse through and oh here's where all the businesses are and you know have and I didn't bring my sample maps but
there's a couple sample maps that I you know particularly the Jake Ladder Business Association the Hilltown puts out a map they have the last seven years that they've had some that fold out real big of all the hilltowns and and the locations and and you make it valuable
to people because it's not just the businesses, but you put your recreational locations in there so they know the way to to places. So, it's something they keep. It'sformational. And then it also has the locations of the restaurants and the farm stands and anything that would be
of interest not just to the residents but especially to visitors from out of town and can be distributed in places where where out of town visitors would would pick them up and again not be a cost to the taxpayers at all. But if they could be funded as an advertising
cost of businesses, we've got a revolving account set up to collect uh business association fees that could fund something like this. In fact, our gift account was done from past efforts like that.
And uh before I forget, I want to mention our accounts. Um we want to, you know, we got to the end of June to wrap that up. Now I we put through the expenses for for the
production of these signs and and the larger metal ones and we prioritized it to come out of our annual account. So hopefully that will be mostly zeroed out by the end of of June and the balance
coming out of that gift account which is what like was it $4,000? It was 3,700 something, right? Um, and I think we're going to end up with 1,500 or 2,000 left. It depends on what additional expenses are in Southwick and in Bloom.
Okay. We need to wrap up those expenses by the end of the month. Make sure they're get those signs and on the lawn signs. Yeah. Get that number down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Somehow did you get those and and it takes a week or so once you
get once you get the all the you have to have they have to have the original bill in accounting has to be signed off. I'll come in anytime you want to sign off okay the bills. But once that's all signed off, I think it's all under 3,000, which doesn't need a
purchase request. But I'd come in and sign off, but it still takes a week after that to go into the next week. Right. Right. Uh, and is it fiscally your 6:30? Is it the end? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, get them in. Okay.
Right away. So, what about the banners? Is that already been processed? I don't know. Has that been processed? I haven't seen it come through. Who'd you get that through? Southwoods. Oh,
between that and the yard signs. I think that's all we have, isn't it? I think so. And we um the posters or whatever that I don't know. Okay. I think Julie knows. Get them. Make sure. Is Julie
Julie was away or something? Is or is she going away? I was away. Um well somebody get in touch with her and make sure that that anything she has you know get your group
together okay and you know let me know get the invoices make sure the invoices are delivered next week to accounting and I'll come down and sign it and then make sure it gets in the check run for the before the end of the month. Okay.
because I I don't want that to go over into next year. We we want to have a clean although in one sense if we come out of the gift account we've already that that's carries over. So maybe it's
not quite as urgent but I'd like to get I'd still like to wrap it up. By the way, do we still have some in the other account or you think it's zeroed out? I I requested for Julie to put it in to zero it out as much as possible because we put in all of this the website stuff
and everything. We put in all of this and we had very little website. Okay. I just do the website myself. We have very low cost website. But for all these signs, especially the big metal ones, yeah, those have all been put in and and
uh I I asked that that give priority come out of the annual account first. So hopefully that's okay. Nearly zeroed out. We just have a 15 16700 15 to $1,700 annual budget. We're not We didn't get
the 3,000. We How much do we have? 2,000. But in the gift account there was yeah the 3,700 there was third 30 3743.36 and and that's the amount I guess it's not it's not a disaster if we don't wrap
up the south and bloom because that that is a carryover account but okay I still want to do it yeah like to get the I like to pay our bills bills promptly. What do we have coming for next year? What's our budget? It's the same as this
year for the 15. Yeah. Oh, we've got I thought we used to have more than that. 15 or 1700. That's that's all we've got. And I I they wanted to level fund everything in
next year and even drop it by 5%. So I don't know that we have any projects as big as as this coming up. As I say, if we do this print brochure, I want it to be business funded rather than than
tax base funded. You know, I've got a bias as economic development. I I want to keep taxes down. I don't want to spend anything we don't have to spend. Amen. Amen.
Anyway, well, I think we're I think it's it's okay because we should be using up as of this coming the check run this week. I think we'll pretty much zero out our our annual account. So, I think we're going to be okay. But, I still
would like to get that wrapped up. Um Okay. So meetings with we want to formulate a new new uh goal for meetings that's much more specific. Our sixth goal was to
increase awareness of vacant town business properties. We did get link in the website. So that part we we we got done. We we're not going to try to actively maintain some kind of promotion at this point and but maybe I I
appreciate Alvin any ideas you have on how to to better make our vacant business properties visible to Are there any other ideas to put it out there? We
We've got that nursery property that I showed you there that I'm not sure that's being promoted. It's not on the business listings that I can find. I'm not sure how that's being being promoted there. It's not just by private sale
with a um a sign on the property. I I I I agree. I couldn't find anything question. The data that you're receiving in regards to the vacant uh properties, are you getting that from assessors or or from the building department or or where do you get get that information
from? We don't Mark we look at at business for sale websites like uh Go Mark go ahead there there's several that like the real
estate agencies use and Pam had given us some guidance on this because Pam came from that world and so um that's where we go the you know the the web listings
that the commercial real estate, whether it's a sale, a lease, you know, a rent of a a building, um, or or raw land, you know, we that's what we
we we've been keeping our eye on. Okay. So, we just want to be aware of it. We're we haven't come up with any great ideas for how to to make these more visible other than putting them on our EDC website, putting the links to
that. We don't try to, you know, do something we have to change every time. We just put the links to say if you want to find out what opportunities are here, here are some links to business for sale websites. when we had asked if you remember Greg
we had asked there's no like you know credible reliable way that the commission can be fed information about you know vacant properties or properties for sale through any town
mechanism. So we thought well we'll go out and we'll develop that mechanism. So, at the very least, if somebody were to call you and say, you know, I'm interested in coming to town. Here's what I need. At least there would be a source to go to either by that, you
know, company um or business concern um or, you know, by you know, somebody in your role. you have a sort of a a shortcut to get to what is currently on,
you know, the commercial registries for sale or lease. Um, and that nursery is just a private sale, which there seems to be a lot of here in town. So, there's no like reliable way other than through network
um, you know, talking with people and kind of driving around town that you see these things. Right, Greg? Right. Right. And I I would encourage every all of our group to be aware of those businesses for sale and bring them up. If we see
something new on the market, we can talk about it in our meeting and kind of spread it around. We had, for example, with Julie's church is this large uh Russian Baptist church up down the road toward Connecticut that is for sale
because they're moving to a they they ran out of space. even as large as it was. They're moving to Awam Sha Joseph Joseph. Yeah. Um and that's on an R40 zone,
but maybe it's something for a medical facility or whatever. It's It's like a million dollar plus building and a lot of parking and and some land up the hill behind it.
So there's things we might assist in in discussing zoning and whatever and but just being aware of what kinds of businesses and and any connections we might have through Western Mass EDC or
any other groups that that might talk about I by the way I I participated last week on Thursday once a month on Thursday the economic development partners um have a presentation in through Zoom
and I participated in the last one and it was well one thing they talked about a little bit the was how the governor has priorities to have
certain areas with and I forget all the things but one of it was like quantum computing or something centers for that and that Western Mass wanted to to claim. And they said, you know, what what do you think any of the people on
the the call, you know, interested in? And I spoke up right away and said, let us know uh you know, opportunities, you know, make us aware of them so that if it's something we think fits that we can pitch for it.
So that church down there, how hard would it be to get that zoning change? I mean, that's sort of a catch 22 because we don't want to really get in a situation where favors are played and well, I mean, you got to have the neighbors. It's not a it's not a big
residential area. There's there's a lot of kind of farm businesses and things down there. It's it there's not really much in the way of residential. So, whose call is it? The buying I don't know how hard it is to do spot
zoning changes and maybe we don't need to. There are there are some uses that fit into R40, but that could be business. I I don't know. When you say spot zone, is there any other R40 surrounding the site? It's all R40, so both sides of the road up
and down there. Okay. But whether we could get you know that that particular building or facility broadened in any way by looking to is there there's I mean there is room
even up behind I forget how many acres it's it's 30 acres. Is it that much? Wow. It's it's quite a bit because it has land up the hill. Why didn't they just expand there? Well, it it's an odd shaped lot. It kind of goes into a neck and then broadens
out. Oh, I mean, it could the the upper part has an access road to it, but uh you know, for their purpose, it wasn't easy easy to expand their facility there and and it might have been more
expensive than moving through one already built. Okay. I mean maybe their demographics were such that they have a lot of clientele from over there or something too. Whatever. Yeah. Maybe it's more centralized,
you know, for for their for the people that go. Yeah, that probably it looks like it could be used for a school of some sort, too. Like a preschool or or a um daycare. Daycare. That's what it looks like to me. There's
a number of different uses that might fit in the R40. So, it doesn't necessarily need to be be changed. Although, those are, you know, when we get to the Well, we'll wait till we get
to the zoning one. I'll I'll mention a couple things. Okay. Number seven was the goal was make a strong economic case for nets town center starting with the lower speed limits and crosswalks. Yeah, we did make the the case. So in a
sense we we completed that goal because we presented the case directly to the select board. We voted on here unanimously supported it. Uh but when I took it to special town meeting it didn't get support of select board and that's what what killed it. But I think
we can revise that in some ways. And you know, one of the the goals I want to formulate next year involves the the rail trail connector to the town center that I've got proposed that
I haven't seen any negatives to it yet. We we've even I've got uh David D. Lori involved from Chair Park and Wreck and also friends and he's fully supportive of it. Uh Diane Gail said she loved the idea.
Fully I think the abutters wouldn't be like my friend that owns that house there. He wouldn't be in favor of that. Well, it's he's he's going to have there's a fence around his property. Right. Right. So, I don't think Seattle see he already has it coming down one
way. The bigger issue for him is he's going to have the whole u townhouse condo property whatever will abut his his back there. This is just a a little avenue. It it crosses
crosses a couple hundred feet of his his property. It's not going to go into his property. It just crosses the edge of it and then goes straight up the hill. But would you have to get variances for all those people on that road? What people that that back up to that on
that street? It doesn't No, no, that it doesn't go near Septton at all. Oh, it doesn't go near Septton. Okay. It's way in inward. It's And from his property. It's not visible from his house. It's way in the back and he's got a fenced in
area and some it's a hill and a pond construction. It's not inside of his his property at all. and it's not anywhere close to the the other ones there. And I've already even a couple weeks ago had the people from the gas line because it
was gas and and had a rep come out. We walked to it with David Delore and and the rep said, "I don't see any problem with this. You you have to fulfill this and
this requirement. That shouldn't be a problem." and the developer has been contacted and he says, you know, we're we're fine with it. We'll support whatever we're telling us to do on that. So, I I I think it's open the questions
or, you know, applying getting grant money for it and and moving the process forward as as we can. So, I'm just staying in touch with because Bark Park park and wreck maintains the the rail
trail rail trails. they they will take the lead on on it. But I want to, you know, have as one of our goals to support that in every way we can because it's a huge economic boost to bring what can be in the summer 12 or 1500 people
go through it in a in a day on a weekend on that trail and it's just another quarter mile in the town center and no easy way either on depot or feeding hill street to do it. So that could
could help all of it and it brings in customers without bringing in more cars which is is good. So, I'll work that into, you know, a modification of this goal. Then the partnership of Southwick Public
Library, Jean was was doing that on the team or Craig, you're also on it, but I I talked I met with a week ago. I I met with Jack since he wasn't going to
be here. I we talked about goals and things that we were doing and he wants to get more involved actively with some things in the coming year and he said he'd be willing to take a lead on the the library one
and since his expertise is in the finance area I also want to get him involved in in some of our analysis of revenues and expenses um for the other project we're talked up. So, we'll we'll keep that going. We do
have the link. So, we did get it started, but there are other the library has a lot of information both to help small businesses and also to help people seeking jobs. Um, we want to be sure that is we'd like
our website to be a resource for several audience audiences. The the priority we gave was to be a resource for residents. We have the whole business directory and the enjoy south on there. Then as a resource for uh business owners, we have information
on common capital on a bunch of places where they get information about how to help their businesses or business information and the library has a lot of that. So we can link to things the library has. Um at some point we'd like
to have information on for job seekers on our site. We don't really have that yet, but the library has a lot of. So, for now, we can send people to the library to get information for for job seekers. And then the a fourth potential audience is for businesses that are considering Southwick as a location.
Um, and I'd like to develop that further. So, we will reformulate that goal for next year. Then we have our lunch Southwick and Bloom. And we did that. We succeeded in launching. And the news is I've been
checking, we had a glitch in getting the applications come through, but I've got that fixed. And just in the last 24 hours, I got How many? Seven more. Seven or eight more. We're up to
a total of 12 now. But I'm sure there's more that didn't get through initially. Yeah, I'm gonna guess that there's about 20 right now. Yeah, I'm I was gonna say 20. That's probably what we have. And we'll Julie said they're going to reach out to the ones that you knew were
participating and make sure you had the application information. Yeah, I I got a quick report right here that Diane just put together walking out the door. So, um yeah, that glitch was fixed on the 23rd. And of course, the problem is the ones that had signed up, especially residential, we don't have any way of
knowing. So, I wish there was a way that we could um I wish you would have let me know as soon as it was happening and I I would have I don't think we knew. We didn't know. We didn't know until we were going to give that report that night. So, anyway, um we don't know what
we've lost. I don't know if there's I wish there was a way to put on the town crier if you signed up. Yeah. you know, or you know, the sign down there, the reader or something, meet and discuss ways to reach out to to people in the town that may have
Well, we're running out of time. That's why the gun's coming into our head right now because Well, what's the deadline you're working on? Well, I mean, they need to be growing flowers right now. We need to get signs in their lawns if they're doing it, right? But if they if they decided to grow flowers, they'd
probably plant them. So, it's just a matter of connecting with them. make sure they're entered officially and got the signs. I mean, judging takes place on the between the 26th and July and August 9th. So, I mean, uh, we have some time from that standpoint, right? From
that standpoint, there's about two two month one month, one month and a half. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I just feel bad for those people because we're having to go back now to the business owners that we knew
signed up and don't show up there and it's too embarrassing to say we need you to sign up again. We're just taking their name and and dealing with it, signing them up. So um but the others we have no way of knowing what we don't know. So if if anybody's got an idea on
how we can reach back out to them, you know, a very public way, like like I said, that reader board might be a good thing if we could have something concise on that for write write something up and and what's his name? Ken Ken Stamsky or something like that. The ones that get
in touch with him and there's a form you can fill out where you can write and he's got little squares you can write a message and and have them put it in rotation. What do you think, Serena? I mean, I'm at a loss. I know. I'm kind of at a loss, too, because Diane had mentioned
maybe contacting the guy from the newspaper, but I don't want like negative publicity or, you know, and I don't know if people would really if that would they recognize that or see it. Yeah. I don't know. I got to try to make some calls and go
to people. And the hard thing is getting these business owners that do it. You know, you get the help and they're, you know, they don't really know what they're doing. Well, that's why I said it's So, so you do you have these signs that are going to be Well, we were waiting That's the next thing is we were waiting to see how
many we needed to get made for lawn signs. Yeah. For people that are in it. So, maybe you could build it around that. If if you didn't get your lawn sign, contact us. Publicize. Suppose we could do that. Yeah. That we
I don't think they knew they were getting one, did they? I'm not sure. Probably not. No, I don't think so. Well, just come up with another I one way to make a situation so it's not embarrassing if if if the person thinks
they're the only one that missed it. Yeah, it's not that embarrassing. You know, everybody else got it. If you missed it, let us know if somehow you fell through the cracks and didn't get the salon sign or didn't get the notice. Mhm. Uh are you going to
acknowledge you got email addresses of the people? Are you going to send them back some instructions or information? Yes. Are we Yeah. respond. We're going to we're going to thank them, notify them about the yard signs and then encourage them to share their photos, you know, on social media,
you know, their efforts. Um and then notify when judging will take place and that the winner will be announced on Farm Day on the 17th. Is it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cowards. Yeah. do that. I'll send you the additional ones. I've sent the
the ones I had up to now. I'll send the additional ones by very early tomorrow morning. Okay. Um so you'll have the the list of 12 that we've got signed up so far. And then if you can make sure Summerhouse or whoever that you know is
entering, add them to the list. Okay. Um, let's see. Puckers came in and and did come in. Did Pam didn't see she made before. That's one That's one of those things. Living Hope Church.
Mhm. Came in with one. Okay. Yeah. So, anyway, and then a couple other several other residential ones. It took hold. They did everything they was supposed to and we have people that are volunteering for next year which is good. Yeah. I think this will as say
this first year will be, you know, for the a lot of people don't want to do it do something new, but they then they see it happens and people got prizes and they see the displays here and there. Oh, I'm going to do that next year. Yeah. Right. So, we we'll work out some
of the bugs and and all, but we our target was around 15 or so, wasn't it? And so, Um yeah and I'd like to you know think about our goal for next year. What what's the next step in this? Could do we expand
this the idea of beautifification? I think we ended up prioritizing the beautifification committee as is one of our top ones that we'd like to to do in master plan. But what's nice is it does fit in with the 2040, you know, plan as far as community and
uh values and and also recommendation on take photos of all the stores that are participating. So we have something that say, hey, this is what this is. Maybe we can promote, hey, this business and this was the winning business or something. Yes. Yeah. We're going to take pictures. Yeah,
definitely. Yeah, that we could pop that on our website of all the here are here here's a tab with all the entries of Southwick and Bloom for the first South and Bloom and then promote people to go there and look at it. Yeah. So, there's no way on social media to try to reach
out to find out who we've missed and uh well, I don't know. I'm not on social media at all. I'm not a I'm not a Facebook person, but if if that's one thing I want to get into the gold. We have somebody who is
is good at Facebook in our group and I want to push that harder next year. We didn't have we had our website, we had our our online directory and stuff. I can do that, but promoting in Facebook, I'd like to get into that more
um in the coming year. And if someone can post some things out there to reach some of these people, Southwick and Bloom, if you didn't get your sign or whatever and you entered, contact us. Try to try to really promote
it in social media. Okay. Maybe Julie's Julie could do it. Diane, does Diane do Facebook? No. Yeah, I don't either. I don't either. I did. I wouldn't get 90% of the other things I do. Well, that's what I I you
know why I never got into it is I I was online for when I was full-time work for email and flooded and keeping up with things. I didn't need one more online Yeah. obligation. So, yeah. Well, we may have to eat some
cruel, but uh we can figure out a way to People are forgiving if you Yeah. If you and and this is not something they they paid an entrance fee or no whatever, you know, if somebody
I put something out on on our reader board down there if I if I knew what we could say that would be concise and and like you said, not negative. I throw something on in a minute, but well, think think about it and and uh in terms
of timing, as long as we get them on the list by judging time, that's what matters. If they think they've entered, if they put in a thing and it didn't come through, yeah, they're they're growing the flowers. And the message I would get, you know, we
have signs. If you didn't get your sign for South and Bloom, let us know and we'll provide it. We should get extra, right? Are they how how much do they cost? I don't know. Julie talked to them. Get enough. Yeah. I don't know how much they were. I think they're
reasonable. Okay. Well, we got a gift account. Let's Let's not skimp on them. If we don't use them this year, we'll use them next year. So, they get all the handles of thing up there near the bank. Um, what's his name? Martin. Do you know him? No. The reader the town. Oh. Um,
well, I thought the the guy that did channel 15 and stuff was managing the reader. Was he's doing it now? I think so. Okay. He's got his office right over off the kitchen here. The data center. So,
online. Oh, really? Do you know Melvin? Oh, you do? All right. Well, if you have any ideas, that's Are you going to pull together your team here in Yeah, we're going to have to next couple of days, I would say. Yeah.
Do you get get together? Well, we were and then we kind of fell off the Zoom or you do Well, we did Zoom once and then we we were meeting regularly, but then I don't know. I'll just kind of well it let me know and I could join your next
team meeting and okay help in any way I can all right I'll mention that to the yeah you know we'll we'll get through this first one we'll and we'll have lessons for the next what actually happened I like to always learn from
well I you know when when I was setting it up with with Julie I said I can just have the responses come to me and I'll pass on said I'd really like them to come to me. So we tried to set it up to go to her Google account and we tested
it and and it came through and so I thought we're all set and then I I didn't know until our last meeting that there was an issue but I switched it to come to my account and it works for me. I don't know why it didn't work for Julie
some other account. All right. Okay. I'm gonna take off. All right. Thanks for your time. Thank you very much. Enjoy it. Okay. We're almost done here. So, let me know when you're meeting and
and I'll okay help in whatever way I can. Um, thank you. Then the last one on here was the review of of zoning and I I met with Bill a couple weeks ago and we spent most of the time talking about zoning ideas.
Um Bill's wife Roz was on the planning board for many years and is a kind of an expert on zoning. She came a couple meetings ago and and we had a whole presentation and a give and take about, you know, the history of Southwick
zoning starting in the 50s and how it's structured and what things we could watch the video and all right and you can catch up on that because I know you weren't here. But the idea of getting into zoning is we would we want to be able to provide
recommendations to the planning board to our town plan or whoever that might be. And uh we got them right here. And I've mentioned some of the the broad level of things we want. You know, our goal
is to one is to make it easier for MDU multi-welling unit developments in near the town center. Some of those are R40, some of them are already zoned, right? To make it easier, whatever
avenue to go. Another one is to make sure our our zones just outside of the town center are appropriately zoned. I like in town of Greenfield, they have specific transition zones that transition from from residential to
business and have certain kinds of limitations on what kind of businesses, but mixed there are certain businesses that mix really well with residential and and it's really a a growing trend to have mixed use areas and that would be ideal for a
for a transitioned out just leading into a town center in uh in Northampton. They even have zoning they call character-based zoning. They try to get on on their lead in so that transition
into the downtown is is positive. Uh so we'll we'll talk about you know what I would like to do is is just have a team that that works on a a position statement in a broad sense. It
won't necessarily be uh all the technical ways that the process of getting it done which I know can be longterm and difficult and you have to contact all the butters and get votes and whatever but just to make a broad level
uh recommendation with persuasive arguments about why this would be beneficial for everyone. Good question. Have you been tapped in? I know they're doing a a zoning mo modernization with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in uh conjunction
with the town. Have you been a part of any of those meetings? No. Have there been meetings, actual meetings on it? I I listen to I I read the agendas. I haven't seen on the agenda the planning board. Is that separate from the planning board meetings? I don't I I'll
check with John. I'm not I know they're in process. I just don't I don't know if they've rolled out to the public. I'm not sure. I can't speak to that. Yeah, I' I'd be interested in knowing what what kind of recommendations they're getting. I know some of it just
formatting. I one reason I like Greenfield is because they're formatted so nicely with a a statement at the beginning of each zoning type that explains exactly what the purpose of it is and it's it's structured in a much
more userfriendly way. Yes. Yes. Um, so that's just making it more user friendly is is different than actually modifying some of the requirements. [Music] And I know that some of them might have
to be modified just because of state requirements for the accessory dwelling units. Mark, you saying something? Um, just I'll refrain.
Okay. Um, anyway, yeah, I'd like No, when when you said we're we're user friendly, we're about to be, you know, two dispensaries in a concert venue.
Okay, that's good one. Okay, very useful. No, I just I you know, all joking aside, I think we've got some real gems. I mean, I I I'm just, you know, kind of personally disappointed that, um, you know, what a a landmark in
town. Um, you know, I just think is underutilized. Um, and and we've got a lot of those gems here. And from an outsider perspective, just, you know, kind of looking at the zoning, I think there's a just an incredible opportunity
to do some smart things. That's all. And I think we've tried to bring some of that with, you know, our our business profiles. But, you know, I would just urge that, you know, there are just some great opportunities here that shouldn't
be squandered. Um, rich rich opportunities for the town, right? And we we'd like to, you know, when we talk about being persuasive about zoning changes, we want it, you know, to frame it all in and look at
what our town could be, the the improvements, the the get people to capture the vision that is in our master plan and and to say this is not just some pipe
dream. we could actually work toward it. And I believe in in incrementalism in in taking little steps. Don't wait to you know put it off saying, "Well, we don't want to do that until we complete our big master plan." Well, take all the
little steps you take. You you have you have a vision and a direction now uh with the master plan, but I think it's really important and I'll kind of leave leave this as my kind of parting thoughts. I think there's an opportunity and there's really a need to develop
some, you know, sort of visionary sort of uh materials for the town that could be used to, you know, promote like the direction that we want this town to take. Again, with some of the gems that we have here, the lake, um, uh, and and
other things, you know, the the recreational venues, um, you know, golf courses. Um, I I think there's just an incredible opportunity um to put together some kind of proactive marketing about the town
directing, you know, the types of, you know, residencies and businesses that we want in town and and I think that should be, you know, a key next step. I know, Greg, you've done some great
foundational work um in that effort, but I think it's time to really bring it to the next level. Okay, we appreciate your encouragement. All right. Uh we've talked already about
all the new goals and my main assignment is to think about the give some serious thought because what I want to do when we pick up in August and maybe we should have an official vote about you know skipping the July. Oh.
Um, I'll make a motion that we skip our our July scheduled meeting and instead go on to August third Wednesday of the month. I'll second that. All in favor say I. I. I think it's unanimous. So,
you have two months to come up with a set of goals for launch our new year and think about which of those teams you want to be on. What are you most passionate about? I want teams of two and three. We
that keeps it small enough that you don't have the open meeting rule rules kicking in and just the teams then report to the open meeting. Um, and I'll I'll mention one more time because I'm still open to it. I'm fine
with rotating the chairmanship around. If anybody wants to step into the chair, I'll support it in any every way that I can. I move we adjourn. Second that. Okay. Well, all right. Well, I think
we've wrapped up. So, we got one more before we close up. Races are coming to town end of June. In June, um I know they've been a long round longer than I've been around. Um, and really a kind of multi-generational
kind of thing of people coming to Southwick. So, I know it's kind of late in the game to kind of prepare for our presence perhaps at this event. Um, does anybody have a contact for uh the racetrack and maybe we could have a sign for Enjoy Southwick or something there?
You've been kind of I have the phone number, the guy, what's his name that runs it? I could reach out to him. I've given it thought and I just can't there's no good place to I've I've never attended the races but I've walked
around the grounds to kind of picture the crowds and where they would be. It's Do we still have our sign up? We could put a Yeah, we still have our our signs our our restaurant sign there but it got
no traffic for two reasons. We we didn't get any clickthroughs. Two reasons. There's food trucks all over the place. They don't need to go off and it's with all the the their camp they're set up. They don't really want to go off. And the second reason is the
big signs are not where they can walk right up to them. They're kind of in the distance. It's harder to to use a QR code when And yeah, if you want to Is it Crest View Construction that's running that or no?
But they're a sponsor. Okay. Yeah, they have Big Sun, too. And we've got lots of these. Anybody Yeah. Do they charge for parking when you come into their grounds? Do they I I haven't been to a race event, but we should find out if
they charge for parking. If they do, we could have a zillion little of those QR code things made up and just ask them say when people pay for the parking, just give them one of these cuz I I guarantee you people would love even though, yeah, I agree they're going to
camp out, whatever, but they're still going to want to access some. I mean, go to summer house for an ice cream. Who doesn't want for a donut? Come on. Yeah. Right. Well, don't they pay just an entrance fee to get to the event? I
think there's an event. Yeah. I don't think it's separate parking. I don't think parking is Okay. Well, whatever. When they come in, like wherever the the gate is. I don't know. I've never been there. So, yeah. And I I don't know that that you can really post there. When
I've talked to other people about it, they said about the only place you can put one of these is right in indoors in the the legion there. Uh, but I don't know how many people go through that. No, that's there's Steve, do you live on powder?
Yeah, that's if you have ideas for post put them on trees on fence posts. Yeah, we could probably walk. I could give you the the phone number of that guy since you're over near there. Sure. Yeah, if you provide a I'll pass on my contact name and be
nice. And do you have a bunch of these? I have more in my car. I I have a box full. Is it Saturday the 28th? Is that when the race is? Uh when we walk out, I'll I'll hand you a bunch of them and and I'll give you the number for you can
call them and say, "Is is is there any way we can we've got signs for Enjoy Southic. Is there any are there any places we could post it? He's been cooperative with other stuff. Okay. And we have the the large banner two of the
real 4 by8 or whatever big banners, but I don't think they're even with big banners with the crowds wandering around, it's hard to to get something in front of the right people at the right place. And a lot of
them are just there for that event. Yeah. Right. you know, something to think about for next year, like if we really want to promote the businesses, um, you know, a card with like a little, you know, discount coupon on it with
that QR code and get, you know, participating businesses to say, "Yeah, you know, honor the discount or whatever." And then, you know, give it away. I mean, it's something that even the people at the wick might appreciate as like a kind of a kind of a freebie.
Yeah. Well, well, let's put that as a goal for ideas. It's maybe something we discussed with the businesses, the business association idea. There can be things to pass out, coupons, whatever.
There there are things we could we could help be kind. We don't want to do the advertising for for businesses, but we want to be a a venue that they can do cooperative things through.
Okay, we had our motion to dismiss. Second. All in favor say I. I. I.