##VIDEO ID:_ggXQAEJT0k## good evening everyone and welcome to the select board meeting for August 12th 2024 uh present tonight for the select board is myself chairman Jason Peron Vice chairman Diane gaale Burke Doug moggin chief administrative officer ni Parker assistant ceao nine signon and secretary Lisa Anderson who's running our video down below um if we would for the stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Phelps would you be so kind I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America the it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice [Music] for we could um we're going to start the meeting also with a moment of silence um the town lost former town clerk po worker and uh she was a current member of the historical committee her name is Mrs Linda McQuade so if we could just have a moment of silence thank you you're go right into it first thing we're going to start with is public comments does anyone in the audience that's present wish to speak by public comments seeing no takers is there anyone on Zoom that is interested in speaking for public comment looks like we have no takers there is well if that is the case unless somebody pops up we are going to move on to the next next item on the agenda which is going to be our introductions with our firefighter paramedic Robert vetry did you do the uh did you guys do the the thing yet uh public comments yes but I if you have a public comment I will allow you to go back I I do it just connected me okay could you state your name and address for the recording please Sage Fury 91 Granville Road Southwick is a little longwinded so I apologize in advance this is coming from just me as a private citizen no other person organization or government standing commission representative or any affiliation to anything other than myself as a human being who loves my community this is in response to the misrepresentation and misinformation discussed on July 22nd at video timestamp 14725 I saw this meeting and frankly I'm beyond disappointed in the select board after the work that has gone on you miss the point of farm day Farm day is a chance to bring education to the kids that go to our schools the kids families and those without kids looking to experience farms and get an opportunity for knowledge and inspiration Farm day is about bringing Farm awareness to everyone it's getting all kinds of farming exposure work ethics processes and growth educating people as well as hopefully inspiring some to start their own farming Futures bringing families and individuals out for a focused experience to enjoy the farms around them our community as well as our fellow neighboring communities most of the farms around us are isolated due to the amount of land they have we are trying to get these Farms known so they don't fall into the sh Shadows forgotten and abandoned we need to inspire growth or the industry we know will be lost Farmers grow different crops usually each year to balance the nutrients in the soil and you will find most Farms have unique crops that others don't the same goes for Animals some have few While others have none fun facts Farmers own land inside and outside the Town Line Farmers make most of their income selling their crops to markets and stores we have Farms who purchase from each other between the communities Granville Farmers actively work with Southwick farmers and vice versa our food pantry also provides for Granville and toolland to correct the last meeting it takes eight minutes from solic farms to Granville scoop 11 minutes from town hall to Granville scoop we have our schools provide education to talin Granville and Southwick all these kids have friends and family from these different communities who also have Farms they are being taught how helping your community is a great thing whether it's your direct or neighboring Community we also collect taxes from Granville and talin for the schools I find it troubling that we have multiple communities using the school but you want to exclude these those communities from Community event participation where they literally run into their friends and family the purpose is about education and getting a behind scenes look at how Farms operate Farm day is only truly possible by the dedicated members of Adcom EDC support sponsors donations firmers themselves and hardworking volunteers that make this possible might I add all not all volunteers are from Southwick if you ever watch Adcom meetings you will have seen all the discussions about the whole process this includes asking all the Town Farmers how they would feel about including Farms outside of town not only were they fine with it but some also offered a spot on their property for a stand if that would help them be more a part of it that's what a community is about and what I love about our farmer our Farmers Open Farm day is open to all Farmers to join we do not pick and choose we will not brush people away so heartbroken that all of you said you wanted to change our community for the better but then worry about money over educational opportunities we also have people coming from other communities outside of our school district this extens this extension can pull us further in and grab more interest from their side of the region building more recognition to our town and event while giving some Spotlight to our neighbors open Farm day is trying to spread the awareness and need of farming where towns are lacking Comm uh committees like us we may Inspire new generations to expand in their towns and get more active towns can share information they get for grants for our Farmers as well as others we also share underground waterways and soil passages so if they make decisions like putting landfills near Town Line it can have a negative impact however if we have a good relationship with them they may reconsider compromising factors that could affect us and that is Sage Fury private citizen thank you very much thank you s there are no further takers I will now move on to the remaining business of the evening here we're going to go back to um our next item on the agenda is the going to be the introdu with firefighter parametric Robert vitry vetry I'm sorry call Force firefighter em Benjamin Cleveland and firefighter EMT Julia Noel for new appointments to the south at fire department um were these new ones just no that was been later okay okay just making sure so chief so good evening um as you know the town appropriated funding for three additional firefighter paramedics with with us this FAL year um we had a total of 17 applicants um we administered an attitude test 16 of them um we then got down to a core of about 10 that sat for our panel interview um which was very involved very good process we have each one of the candidates pretty well um and the panel decided on the top three and those three are here this evening um Robert vetry um Ben Cleland who is currently a call Force fire feder em with the department and Julia n Julia is currently in Hawaii finishing up a contract position there um so I was hoping that you'd be gracious enough to meet her over Zoom um but I'd like to start with Robert belet Robert you're welcome to come up if you wish you do not have to Robert BL nice to meet you hi Doug mowan nice to meet you have surgery so okay nice to meet you Diane Parker hi thank you for inviting me welcome so Robert yeah tell us about you and why you wanted to be a celic firefighter um so thanks for inviting me everybody my name's uh Robert vetry I've been a paramedic for 15 years uh been a par a firefighter for 16 years um I grew up in par campson Connecticut not too far from here and uh during my uh panel interview I I explained a little story and I think it'll maybe bring through here um I I was on as a child I was going adding on vacation with my uh with my family and we're coming up 202 through Southwick and there was a motor vehicle collision and um my stepfather was a police officer and my mom was a nurse so they stopped and um were rendering Aid and stuff like that and then I had my first interaction with fire department where they like came and treated that person like you know very well and treated them like they were their own family member and watching from a distance I'm like wow that's something I'd want to be so when the opportunity came to apply I put in application and put my best foot forward have a very impressive resume are you currently living in Watertown yes I live in Oakfield and how did you find this opening um so I'm always scanning for like you know different opportunities and stuff like that and uh also I have fiance and we're looking to like you know expand um our family and try and find a place to put our roots and you know um this area is uh one place that I really like so it popped up online and I'm like we should go for it we like it too thank you so you plan to relocate to somewhere near this area yeah yeah actually um my uh lease is up in December and so we're already kind of starting to look because of the you know housing market and stuff like that rental markets right now so we're trying to strategize now but yes so certainly um move a little closer yes awesome your resume is very impressive sorry but it did jump off the page to me that it's about an hour away from where you are right now so yeah that's great thank you very much thank you thank you Robert thank you appreciate it thank you so much yeah welcome board thank you so much yeah do thank you thank save the tough questions for the next kit all right second is a familiar face by cland who's been with call PR for just over a year right now good to see you ni to see you welcome back to the table well you already answered the question I asked earlier about a year go so ready I'm ready I see you're adding on thanks to your certification and stuff like that which I wouldn't have expected otherwise so so what's your ultimate goal and you get here so well you're here but y um the next step for me is going on to medic school which I have uh coming up in October um so I'll go through medic school and then I'll hopefully get cleared here at the department and uh live a long long career here wonderful that's that's what we like want to learn and grow with the Department we've been through it with this gentleman before we have it's really a thank you we supposed to ask hard questions yeah I love it here good well we don't actually have to ask the other questions today no we can't no you already answered it yeah so okay when you got then he lives in town so it's not the commute not going to if you're late for work though we're going to have to talk right yeah yeah oh yeah Ben we thank you very much it's I'm very happy for you to see that you're progressing in the direction you wanted to and with us thank you guys thank you thank you thanks for coming in again of course I remember at that age too and our fan candidate again is Julian noell um she's from Hampton Mass but currently in Hawaii she be probably F on some of Point why she's there hello Julia how are you good how are you can you hear me yep okay all right so what makes you want to come to us um first of all thank you for accommodating and accommodating me like me go on Zoom um so I'm from hamon I'm 22 um like Chief said I've been in hamon my whole life so I it really reminds me of Southwick we border Connecticut we border Summers Connecticut it's a small town southwick's a little bit bigger but um I always grew up with a really strong sense of community in my town um all through middle school high school after high school during covid I was still there working in my town um and I just really had a really strong sense of community there and I actually joined my town Department which is also a combination Department like Southwick um I joined that department because I was working a part-time job during covid after covid and I talked to a lot of people from my town and I met a couple firefighters and a couple police officers from my community and they made such a good impression on me um I was actually waitressing at the time so they made such a good impression on me about their careers and how they got into into what they do that I was really inspired to in my department and I would like to come to Southwick to continue to have that sense of community which I really miss being out here in Hawaii I don't have that um I know why but I miss that so um I'd like to and have a good community and make an impact hopefully on somebody else who was in my shoes once very nice thank you for that Miss scale um how did you pick Southwick or know about this opportunity here um so it was actually sent to me out here in Hawaii by um somebody on my department in hamen they knew I was plan coming back home and he'd been sending me different um places that were hiring and most of them were too far away bigger towns I just really wasn't interested so you guys stood out to me because it reminds me a lot of my town excellent excellent I have to say you have um presented a great letter you've addressed the the human as aspects of it in a very personal way and it was a great letter thank you Mr I'm continued to be surprised by the Hawaii Southwick connect not just this applicant but we had another applicant for another position of recent that was also relocated here from Hawaii I have an employee that works for me that moved here from Hawaii um just something about us I guess I guess I mean people would choose sou over Hawaii so write it down I don't know but no I think that's great and um you know your resume is great and I think it speaks volumes that you know someone from your hometown Department would send you a job application for Southwick while you're in Hawaii um and present that as a kind of a hopson's choice but okay great welcome to sou yes thank you thank you very much thank you all thank you thanks for zooming in thank you guys I appreciate it so our next item on the agenda yes this is sorry my bad I just take them all I would be looking for a motion based on the recommendation of the chief and his panel to um appoint the following three individuals to the fire department um Robert vitry I screwed it up again yeah vetry Benjamin Cleveland and Julia Noel pending the normal backgrounds although I think they some of them are already there so at least one right um and so on so yep that motion subject to the Y yatas I'm not going to say that's somebody else's terms but roll call vote Jason Peron I vanel I Doug mogin yes all righty okay so we're gonna move on to the next item on the agenda um we've been doing some research on this um we are going to strike this from the agenda because do based on our research to we do not actually have to appoint employees unless they have a length of term and they are due up for a re reup is the way I up a contract to renewal for contract um So based on that research we will be striking that from our agenda and the next item we're going to go on is the Cannabis application interviews so oh we're digging that up it's page 26 Chief when does um M no I want to Mis pronounce her name as well no yeah no when is she coming back from Hawaii within the next two weeks maybe three depending on she's got a contract out there for employment right now she's notified them that she's leaving and then the rest of it is just a matter of collecting her belongings and shipping and traveling back home we're going to start with so our top three based on the RFI and the scoring um formatting and no particular order our top three came out as Pioneer Valley Trading Company cannabis Hut and Haven So based on our discussion stupid um the last meeting uh we did decided that we were going to interview only the top three so again in no particular order I am going to call cannabis Hut up to the table for interview is there a list of questions or anything Mr chairman is this kind of free form it's based on each application yeah and and what you good to see it's been a while yeah it has hi dou did we use up all our with the in and this concludes our interview right thank you we have enough chairs yeah those are those are the trick chairs there we go thank you Ian all right so my questions are going to be I have one and it's going to be very easy for everybody um why do you want to open up a cannabis establishment here in Sala U we would like to be one of the candidates that we select for the cannabis dispensary because we are very experienced actually would do this one that word yeah you have you don't have the yell should pick up Prett okay we would like to be considered because we have the experience uh as a cannabis dispensary operator we have a location in Springfield Massachusetts the name of that store is ZaZa Green in Springfield it's been open for a little over a year it's the second busiest dispensary uh in Springfield we have a team here which is my son Tom who is from uh regulatory industry he was one of the cage operators at MGM casino before they had some layoffs KL G has extensive experience in retail right restaurant service healthc care this is Tom's wife Rachel you may have noticed is expecting and they are also looking at possibly living in Southwick they're thinking of relocating from Springfield so the the opportunity of cannabis is everybody thinks that cannabis is something different it's really just a retail store and you have to make sure that you have people in place who are responsible who understand the guidelines and are willing to become part of the community and I'll speak on being part of the community of a lot of cannabis owners don't get involved in the community and if you were to go to Springfield and ask how involved are we uh it's extensive um we sponsor 10 families even before we were open 10 families for Thanksgiving and 10 for Christmas and we asked uh we don't give the checks to anybody we give it to the neighborhood Council and we ask the neighborhood Council to distribute those the only preference that we ask is that they choose families of um single parents with children uh we've been involved with the East Springfield neighborhood Council and we sponsored a radar sign for them speed radar sign I believe it was around $6,000 uh on the lower end we've helped neighbors who cars won't start and we'll buy them batteries um and it's unlike me to I'm not bragging I'm just trying to give you an indication of how involved uh we get and it's uh we we really enjoy getting involved we sponsor musicians to come into the store and they play you know for an hour could be someone from one of the well-known bands who comes in or it could be a young person over the age of 21 who's looking to get some experience we engage with artists we allow artists to hang artwork on the walls and if any artwork is sold 100% of the proceeds go back to the artist um we've been very involved for a long time they sponsor um families who are needed medical equipment and we'll make Anonymous donations and things like that that we hear through the community uh in the RFP you'll notice that we have an advisory committee from uh two women from South who are well known in helden high regard they would kind of direct us as to who we should be donating to U but we want to get involved in the fireworks the Open Pantry uh we open up our facility in Springfield during heat waves for elderly people uh we also have offered to allow shots to be given for the flu shot from covid which comes from our healthare uh Rachel would be offering two times a year dietician recommendations for people who are struggling with weight or diet um I mean I could go on and on and talk uh probably heard me talk about everything but cannabis um because we're a Wellness Center that happens to sell cannabis wel thank you speak or on that no yeah um you live in Springfield no I'm from Westchester bondy New York from where New York New York W Wester County yes will you be involved in the management of this location yes I it's you know I do day-to-day operations he updates me all the time and then I visit the dispensaries twice a week she she's up at the dispensary at least twice a week from twice a week they stay over they get hotels they're very very involved with the day today you you have to be yeah you have to be okay thank you go ahead um I don't want to talk about your financial projections in detail but um it didn't seem that the number of employees you were projecting and the rate of pay came out exactly right um but I on the other hand I don't know what's in other and is that owner's compensation in other is that where there's more salary information uh what is the question specifically when I looked your projections I looked at what your compensation for employees was and if I just take the number of employees you project at 21 or $22 it doesn't come out quite right oh it would probably be the are they somewhere else it would probably be a manager salary if we have a the hourly rate and then put manager and assistant managers usually get put on on a different line [Music] item so that the projected employees would be 5 to eight full-time employees and four to six it's part-time employees definitely having three to four on site daily um but the owners typically are not drawing a salary out of that there's a very high turnover in cannabis uh where typically business might be a 30% turn and where in cannabis it's about sometimes 50 to 60% oh and we would give preference to any I think you might need to speak up we would be giving preference to any s resident and we offer a training program so we offer them anyone that's interested in learning from the ground up uh we'd like to teach them starting as maybe a bud tender then going to a wholesale a wholesale manager and we we again work with the community to proide provide them with an opportunity to change some of their lives and we love the location that we're looking at because it's right now as you as you're very familiar with it's kind of I'm not up to best standard and would like to convert that into a farmhouse type style General Store with a porch on the front and having music there and providing some other opportunities inside similar to Springfield where we offer uh guest speakers we offer a uh a YouTube channel or that advertis interviews uh we offer yoga and we've had a comedy night all of those fundings go back into the community okay why do you supposed to turnover so high in this particular is this retail in general or in cannabis retail retail in general because uh you'd be surprised how many people don't realize that they have to show up on a Saturday nothing will surprise me anymore but yeah but I mean you mentioned that the turnover is high is that in cannabis retail or just retail as a category in in general both but higher in cannabis than even just general repon yes any Ona why uh the pool of applicants that are ATT tracks are somewhat different um but again we have people that if they're an hour late they don't call in they don't respond text messages they don't reply to phone call one person showed up two days after they were supposed to be there and pretended it was nothing wrong and didn't think it was a big deal that guy works for you too yeah I think we both know them any of my co-workers are listening no I I was just didn't comment because uh that's certainly a challenge and you m I was trying to drive it if that's an organizational issue or if it's General I'm certainly goingon to ask the same question against the other applicants as well if that's a cannabis retail particular issue or that's an issue with you know your particular operation or or what I'm interested to hear your perspective so I appreciate it thank you yeah I think we'll have less of a higher turnover in Southwick because we part of the application we submitted letters of support from leaders uh so if we're coming into your house we want you to know that we're being vouched for by people who have lived here who own businesses and many of them have said they would be interested in either applying or new a neighborhood person would be interested in a job that was a great marketing tool to include in your package that's that's who we are it's not marketing but thank you I don't have my package in front of me so and it all is a big blur at this point so I got him behind me if you want may I yeah well while you're digging please um on the location renovation what do you think has to be done in there and is your timeline realistic I for the project that we had in Springfield which was 7500 square feet it was uh ripped out and rebuilt and designed in five months it was delayed by one month because uh there was a problem with the floor someone had jumped the line on the construction and it caused a delay of about a month but would think think a concern is not the construction our concern is how much of a delay might be caused on the CCC side because they're talking about possibly a receivership a v list ship so the application goes in our attorney S Grant is on the line uh on the zoom U because we felt it's important to have our entire team here um she might be able to speak about what she anticipates for delays but we we we put some p in there but we think it's very realistic hi yeah good good evening um I I'm assuming you guys can hear me okay um could you say your name and yes of course yep uh my name is SAR Grant um my office is on State Street in Boston um but I'm an attorney at Smith costell Crawford um and I focus primarily in regulatory cannabis law um so to your question about timing the the process has gone through some changes in the past few months in terms of the new HCA um review during the application process but I do think that um the projected timeline we had still it stands and I think it would be about two to three months um sort of to provisional and then construction and all of that would uh would dictate when those next benchmarks can be met and um I actually had some thoughts about your question relative to turnover and I just wanted to uh to mention that so part of the the process with hiring is to run a background check because there's certain um you know background check requirements for working in this industry and because that process can take a week to two weeks um occasionally somebody will apply for the job but then while they wait for the background check um to come back maybe they find another job maybe they just change their mind about the opportunity um and so that's another reason why I think there tends to be a lot of turnover the industry um for for employees thank you yeah yeah I I was correct in my thought I was I just wanted to look it up I I went back and looked at the um there was a bunch of the I identical letter um with different folks that had signed on to it an address yes so that was the one I'm going to beg the Dipper I found most unappealing part of the application process to be honest with you yeah yeah um not that it's bad I just I if I had gotten eight letters from folks that really thought this was a great idea and they had put their name to it and put their thoughts down versus they had been given text and signed their put their address on it and signed it I I find that less of a positive to me it's just my opinion personally but deadline in the turn around time oh I get it I get it but just just you know my Frank observation as I was going through all of these I didn't I didn't give it as much I just thought the knowledge of the parties was an important piece that absolutely no I get it I just was uh the format yes AG could be correct time time allowing sure sure thank you anything further no I said I had my one question that's all I got so bottom line for me is I guess he kind of asked it but what puts you now that we've kind of talked about who are the the top one two three here or of the applicants that we have by you why this application and this this tenant and this location with this team that's going to make you successful a couple things one is the experience the other is being fully funded not being involved in any type of litigation or lawsuits that could delay a project uh in cannabis a lot of people run out of money and that's what causes a delay we are fully funded and I think we have about 1.4 million uh available the construction costs are estimated to be about 300,000 and uh it's we would be a good neighbor um you can check any of our references if you'd like you're wel to come out to the store uh we the deadline we're giving or the construction uh projection we're giving you is accurate it may be built much sooner than that the delay would be on the bureaucracy side uh we want to become part of the community and we want to be helpful um the attraction for us Southwick is being so close to Connecticut and also being close to Westfield and we think it's a great Community uh we would abide by your rules and regulations you're ours um and we have our advisory committee if a neighbor has a concern or a complaint they can talk to them and they talk to us we pick up the litter every morning we pick up any litter at night uh we keep our our location very clean and very curve appeal because that's a reflection on us and and what is your involvement in the Springfield operation my involvement is I'm retiring from Westfield State University uh so I will be volunteering for my son and for KL Jeet and Rachel uh have been involved in many different roles in my life I was an insurance agent I was an elected official I was an advisor to some uh higher level elected officials and now I'm in higher education helping them uh locate money at the state and federal money uh for students Over Westfield State graduated from stcc uh went to AIC so not a brain act by any stretch of the imagination but love my community you're not currently involved in the Springfield operation no but you are yes daily yes yeah I do the the day to-day every py on the inventory to the staff scheduling um all the compliance regulations that we have to hold up to and you will also be managing full I'm gon come to Southwick would be the fulltime one for us we have um we're on boarding a manager at the spring location now I would do here full time we actually are looking Mo here we have a on Friday say any more bedrooms I have one more question it's just for my own identification why would you have a different name in Southwick than than the one you're using in instead of having okay we have a location here and here and we have this separate silos always have separate silos for different companies and LLC or CCC um just the KE just for structural purposes 100% understand that but will this will this facility be called cannabis Hut here in Southwick and you'll still have J green and springfi correct we actually like the name better too that's another big part yeah that's why I asked I don't know what the answer is going to be that's why I asked sure little catcher it's like Pizza [Laughter] Hut I'm not going to say it yeah going there yeah right all right um okay I don't have any other questions that's it for me thank you very much thank you guys all very much for coming in we all appreciate it thank you thank you for coming in thank you thank you thank you thank thank you thank you your [Music] back all right so for next candidate um for interview is going to be Pioneer Valley Trading Company you did you can we yeah did we resolve or get an answer to that other question that was raised the distance one um technically GIS is not official so we have to there's no question it is well within the distance required there's no question about that it's the so no I so should I ask the question out loud because I don't want people wondering what talking about here but it was it was a fair question so please how are you good to see you hello hi hello I apologize for not bringing up interview and it really is I don't think it's going to have a ton of bearing until we hear from Council what that's going to mean but um it was brought to my attention or our attention that our bylaw has certain site distances within it and 500 fet from this 300 fet from that a th000 fet from another establishment well when you filled out your applications everybody was great however a couple of the applicants that are in the room if two of them are approved they conflict with each other on the thousand feet and we're frankly waiting for a legal opinion on how do you resolve that because we're one opinion is and we're creating a hardship because the hardship doesn't exist it didn't exist When you entered into either a purchase and sale or a lease agreement for the real estate because you were free and clear but for another applicant applied for another location that also was free and clear of any incumbrance in their application you look at the diagrams with the charts and even GIS is an official but this is not even gut shot close right if two of these guy two of the applicants make it and we decide to negotiate a host agreement within those two they're within a th000 feet each other how do you reconcile that now I personally I've spoken to the planning board chair just because I don't think it's even within our purview because it's a zoning issue it's not a permitting issue but we don't want to create one here so we are still going to work through that angle um on how that's going to work out so just just to be completely transparent hey we haven't done this before so we're going through this process and I don't I certainly didn't think of it in as part of the RFI how could you know where the other applicants are going to be you have a map that exists on the day you apply and it's it's correct now so how we're going to reconcile that I don't know the answer to it I had the same thought when I was looking through it I was like some of these applications if this one in the middle gets going to be next to by the other two correct and and one of the applications if I recall because of the nature of how it was applied for didn't have a location so how you couldn't even know as you apply and say okay unless you happen to have a building in the middle of a field that was a th000 feet from anything that would be the only sure way of assuring great use of the word yeah um the only way of assuring yourself that you it would be impossible for you to complain so we'll have to work through that and reconcile that as we go along here just so you just so you we understand so G I start off with the question I asked before and the only question I'm asking why you guys want to open a cannabis shop in South and what what can you do for us so we've been in this business for we've started the opportunity of trying to invest in cannabis probably three years ago we got our dispensary up in Westfield uh but we're townies in South been through and through I've been my family's worked in South for 50 years on at the comark building there so we I've lived here I own property here I paid my taxes I we have a lot of a development property we've done here um my we have a scholarship to the Southwick high school for $3,000 a year we've donated to the South High School probably for almost 20 years at this point um that's going to be in perpetuity my grandfathers when you best um but we're Community people we we worked with a food pantry and the opportunity came up and we're already in that business I that there' be mistake not to try to go for it in my honest and on the community side of things um I served for just about 10 years on Westville fire department um did a ton of calls and stuff in South as you're aware yeah um so uh it's always been a huge thing uh as a as a young kid I was in troop 338 um over at the racetrack um through the American Legion and uh that's where I got my Eagle Scout so I've just been doing doing things in Southwick in the community for pretty much since I could walk so this is an opportunity to do what we're doing in Westfield in our in my my town um and it's a it's it's an awesome opportunity so we definitely couldn't let this opportunity go by well I already have a a rental deal with my brother-in-law and my daughter for a room so I can always residency in South my brother was here but I do live myself the reason we thought I thought it was a good deal was he brought up 338 we're big on veter we're big on Veterans H orar um as well as you know minorities U we want to make sure that we always hire the appropriate people the right people and ones that were really interested in working and we found great people from Springfield Southwick areas that meet the requirements for everything we've done but the 338 really got a soft spot for me veterans so one of the things we want to do is work a lot with them because I think that they need specific needs relative to potentially medical and that's something we wanted to pick up in this facility that we have put money down on kind requiring um so that was a Big Mo for us because uh uh with the closing of hea that really left a big open we heard a lot of traffic in the papers and on the internet about number of people being very upset about that closing they now have to either go to Springfield or all the way up to uh Northampton or eastampton Southampton uh anyway it's a longer Drive much longer and if you have to go through like I just did to go through the exit three traffic here from north northern Westfield it could be can be a pain um but those are the particular reasons and that we've got a lot of experience we now we have a great consultant that EES it's a m go being a betet makes the application process easier for us we go to the top of the Heap and uh we know a lot of people in the industry now so everything's been going smooth we've been running the facility over there now for 10 nine months eight months eight months and we started turning profits after fing so we kept the cost down we're moving forward we have enough funds to open this modify the building and get started um so we're ready to go we could probably be up and running I think ins side of 4 five months building after the after the inspections yeah y that was one of my first questions was how's it going in Westfield great it's great expected what was your biggest learning curve there biggest learning curve was um how to establish uh and and capture market share with two uh veteran stores uh that have been operating for so long um it's you know it's a highly saturated Market to begin with uh industry as a whole um so you really have to do small minor tweaks and really figure out what what resonates with your guests um one one of the things that really ex sets us apart from from the the we'll call it the vibe in the other two of our competitor stores is um you know we we aren't bombarding you at the door with blood tenders it's a it's a much more relaxed environment um in the in our dispensary itself um and ownership um we there I'm there about 110 hours a week um and it's it it really goes a long way with the guests knowing that you know it's not owned by some you know Corporation from out west or uh you know it it really resonates with the the people of Westfield um supporting a store that uh it is doing that kind of that kind of business um and as far as our menu goes too that's another large uh piece of the puzzle um in in gaining market share is uh supporting those smaller companies and offering your guest a variety in town rather than the same you know five six large uh corporate companies that are you know flooding the market with a ton of different products um where we really take the time and putting the effort into researching the cultivators the product manufacturers um and who has kind of a niche uh feel to their company um we go out and visit that their grows personally um to make sure everything's you know clean on the up and up um and we're very careful on who we bring into our store as far as for a selection of the guests and I think that has done wonders for us too in bringing the variety to the city um as well as a different option um and we we get along great with the other two stores I mean uh um we have a really good relationship with one of them um from the start um but the it is you know it's very apparent that there was a hole to fill in Westfield f with smaller operator Supply um and um that's what we've been doing and we've been seeing a 10 to 15% uh uh bi-weekly increase at the sense so um we're going to keep doing it and you're going to use that model here ex that exact model yep um it's it's just uh it it it worked so well for us um that there are other more senior stores that are kind of adopting the same kind of tactics on their menu uh building when they're doing their ordering um I have a bunch of friends out in the Northampton eastampton area with stores and um they're you know dropping off some of these multi-state operators and bringing on two or three smaller producers that the guests have been seeing in our store and they're doing well in sales now for that and and and we get a lot of good feedback from these these cultivators too um and these the smaller producers giving them a chance on the Shelf in a big city um because it's it's usually they're fighting tooth and nail to get that shelf space against these big guys so it's really important important to us just as a team um to keep that ball rolling and it it has resonated beautifully with our guests so um just like the small local you know Underdog feel I think has really done done well for us are your other two competitors there in town also medicinal or either of them one one of them was um they just recently closed uh on Monday um so there is no medical in in the city of Westfield and I I I really wish we could in in our facility in Westfield we just do not have the Vault space um for it um the way it works is in the vault um you need completely separate skewed item so that would differentiate your Westfield from your South absolutely yep yep Absolut build the building W in southw here has significantly more Force bace than we got out Dunkin Donut we required in M yeah okay lot of people still stop P for coffee yeah you would be amazed at how many people still think it's a Dun drive through window we kept that available to us in case they turn out with TR when it was going you guys were going through your process that was something I was joked about quite a bit keep the drive fing I don't think that'll work but go oh I wouldn't give this Triple C any ideas well I don't want to give them anything they'll change those rules in 5 seconds the whole time um you guys have your own row as well correct or you're working towards that we we we have a building at this particular point but uh it's unre committed to sell we were we were trying to get into the process of building but I think we took a and we were going to have our dispensary in because it was the only place that we could do in Westfield so one of the things that happened was the dun dness became available it was a quick fix and we could get it on get it up and running so we moved forward on we continued on with the building but we found out that the financing that was just Co hit us everything hit us at the wrong time and then the financing for all of the lighting just you know there were a lot of people that loved stund your money at 25% with a 10% big down so not knowing where the money was coming from because you can't borrow from Banks but we weren't really sure that these were good terms long term so we struggled for a while but we finally decided to sell that facility right now it's under contract we do not have grow but we we are we' got plans on growing in a smaller venue than what we had tried to bite off to begin with in Southwick so you may yeah and that's that's another thing we'll we'll be talk if we were awarded we'll be talking with you guys on on taking that cultivation license and applying it into the town of Southwick for location change so it expands margins too much not to do y it's it's very much worth the challenge was also when we initially costed out the strategy for actually doing a grow in that facility the number was x two years later it was 40 50% higher and the return on investment would have been seven years just to get your money back and at that point we decided that it probably wasn't the best Avenue to continue going forward it that was three months ago we made the decision I think or two months ago right around the same time we submitted this application um West gas electric came up about a month ago and said we want the building and it was just under what we put into it so I think we were we came to the conclusion that but cut ties that start over take that money buy this building into a grow get a greenhouse on okay I was just curious you know you were talking about how your you you know where your source of Supply is and then I remember from the application that there was plans for that to kind of be a little bit more even more self-sufficient than some of the others right want that's our goal is is vertically integrated that's that's always been the goal so we just this was a smart pivot on our end just because of uh you know the market um where things are headed in the industry on the cultivation side um and um just kind of make making it happen in town um and it's definitely a goal of ours to do that um we're not by any means abandoning the ship um and if we had done and put the dispensary down in that location where the growth facility was on mados and Westfield it would not have done well down there um it you know the main drive this one's right on Southampton Road in Westfield right on the main so we had to take about 1.7 million and divert it to that project sure um we as as Richard said now we're profitable there now um and comfortably paying bills there so um that's it was a it was a you know a thorn in the side but it it was definitely a smart pivot on on on the business end of things so understood thank you so your revenues are projected a little bit not a little bit they're are more aggressive than others projections that were um how does that compare to your Westfield starts it's well if you take out the medical component of it it' be similar because the medical We Believe will be more than 50% of the revenue that was my next question okay so with that in mind and being the lack of Medical in this area especially this cles to Connecticut We Believe there'll be a big impact on revenues because of that that's the big number if it wasn't with with if you remove the medical from the equation it would be in line with what we would see4 million a year okay that's what I was asking about your competitors did you have medical competition okay there's a there's a big hole right now uh in in the market for medical in this geographic area um so you you'll see people coming from far and wide coming into um any medical facility that that PO I I wish we could do it in Westfield we just don't have the square footage available on that lot um it would it would have would have been nice but um you know we made do with what we had over there it was a small little Dunkin Donuts and um but the the the medical component in this this town um I think would be a big success okay question I was waiting for Mrs G oh go ahead so with the closure of the place in Westfield do you think that's symptomatic or do you think that that's was an issue with that particular dispensary and how they ran their business because they were doing both and and you'd think that would they would have had a leg up vers Vis A these others and it didn't play out for them so I'd just be interested in your take on that yeah and I don't think we really have a lot of firsthand knowledge on what transpired and what happened other than what we've heard generally and I hate to say things that have been generalized and sure put out out there because you don't know what's true it's almost like politics you don't know what's true it's not uh so we do know that they had some bumps in the road starting out where they had to uh replace a lot of equipment um in their facility which was a big cost we do know that they had some problems and issues with mold because that was in the uh the television in the newspaper uh so we have to assume that that was true um and I think that hurt them more than they thought it would I that's all I can say because I don't know about their financial position but I figured that they had be pretty pretty heavily in in dep to do everything that they did so from more of a macro perspective you think that I think one or two dispensaries in the town of South are going to be okay yes I think that was an isolated an isolated thing up there in Westfield yeah grow too and they couldn't keep up with the grow so they had somebody come in didn't they have somebody come in to do the go I thought they did space then they they they that agreement went down and everything I don't think it's a macro issue I think the reality is is that the revenues May slide eventually at some point when it becomes more customized and you actually see more of them it's a it's going to be more like a liquor store thing where you have six liquor stores in the town at some point probably maybe not right now talk 20 years so maybe not being located next to the state police barrack is a good idea also I didn't want to say it one of the things I've heard I don't know my personal experience up there was the location was did not out also pulling out was night yeah pulling up I tell you if I have to go right in a cruiser to be able to do it then it's problematic yeah was they originally had wanted to hire details and they did have detail for a while when the work was work going on the bridge we wouldn't do it it was too dangerous wow you know nobody would take that me it was when the traffic gets going you know I don't have to say anything you guys so but that was one of the not that it's my opinion matters on that but I do know that that was one of the big things other than what you spoke about s all the proposed locations in South from all of us applicants though you could see a mile down the road either side it's all you know beautiful so there's no no hidden drives or anything wacky so think got the uh from the dot and and traffic standpoint I think either whoever you choose I think it's it's going to work out well for the town on that on that side of things good thank you anything else you wanna thr in the only thing I I'll add at the very end is we are Community people we've lived in town or you I lived in town we worked in town forever I eat lunch here every day I visit all the different towns I used to go to Murphy's for soup to have lunch with all the old guys he all the town politics and that's now it's over at the not where go there and you listen stuff yes it is yes so I mean we we are we fully intend on committing to the town of Southwick that either whatever happens here anyway so you know I built communities here we build the the greens of Southwick me my family's intimately Groll event I have three four four family members over there two onts and and uh my sister and my brother over there so I got a lot of family in soui so once we're out of the debt of having a new building hanging down all that debt we're fully intending on being a massive contributor to this town either through events with Wally Park or doing it uh with the food pantry we donated food pantry with coark for years we've always done that especially when we were much larger we to do much better than we are now um but we fully intend on doing that and you know obviously we will continue to help the police department and everything in that regard as well it's it's part of the process of being a good Community Serv so I I will say two things number one is that we were the first Industrial company to build a building over on the Industrial Park on Hudson Drive and that was you know St listen they had people come in Lieutenant Governor from the state came in they helicopter went all that good stuff and then of course Wally came in and rebuilt built everything the world in the back back of us but uh we were the first company to come in here making commitment to South that was in 1978 I remember that because I got to be the project manager of building that building and um and the second thing is my father passed away in 2000 we initiated the scholarship fund in 2002 it was Richard E fiori Memorial Scholarship then I think it's become the fiori memorial fiori family Memorial Scholarship and he's right it's it's $33,000 a year I think maybe 2500 but it is in perpetuation now so it will we no longer have to contribute to that it will always be be there for 2500 unless we want to contribute more money make it grow and that might be one of the things we to do and yeah I can tell you I spent a lot of money in this town in terms of lunches dinners and well just drinking you business meetings you understand let it all and that too all set sir I am sir I think I'm all set all right thank you gentlemen appr it all right thank you thank you I made these guys get dressed up hard to pull you good J you very much I all right and that leaves us with the third and final candidate for today of Haven apples Doug Jason meet welcome back thank you right think the uh the uncomfortable see here me you know the best job in the world be their toner s arm they really the hot seat like I said I've got the one question and the one question only why do you guys want to put a Canabis shop here in town and what can you do for self yeah well first off thank you so much for the opportunity to come and share a little bit about Haven an organization that I've been involved with for a number of years um and with these two gentlemen sitting here next to me so really the reason that haven is here today uh to interview for this store is is from these gentlemen right here uh Mark uh we put in the application kind of extensive ties to the the local community here as well as the broader Community um Mark's been a personal friend as well as a a business friend going back over a decade now um we have experience in California's medical marijuana industry transitioning into adult use uh Mark is a very capable cultivator and uh when this opportunity came up he he knew instantly who he would want to partner with um Haven because of our deep level of expertise and operating retail stores particular focus on the medical marijuana aspects um and really being able to develop a a store and a program that uh engages within the local community which I'd be happy to get into here shortly uh Brian is a associate of of Marks here with even deeper ties to Southwick and was very excited at the opportunity to partner with us so I think really what we present here is a a unique blend of I I heard you know West Coast Corporate operators or something like that and certainly I know that there is some of that appearance to to what we do um however we have a really small ownership team um at Haven you know it's it's myself and a couple other folks and um and in California we have to do very similar processes like what you guys are looking for here which is to develop a plan about not just how you're going to operate a store compliantly within the law sort of like the barrier to H the price of admission is what we call it but how do you do so in a way that really respects the local environment um and I'll let these guys talk a little bit more about their ties of Southwick and then I'll share a little bit more about how we're a little bit uniquely positioned to kind of Leverage our deep level of operational expertise and marry it with a lot of the local things that we do to really respect the communities that we operate Mark you want to sh a little bit about yeah um I went to Westfield High School grew up in Westfield um um my grandfather actually gave each of his kids a piece of land on his farm so I grew up on the orchard there um it's always been a passion of mine to to be on a farm and to cultivate and that sort of thing um you know after high school I I moved to birkshire a for a couple years I rented a home with some friends from uh the Arnolds and uh you know I really I just love Southwick I raced motorcycles there here in Southwick um just a really great uh you know small farm town I like the vibe of it I I enjoyed living on the lake and uh you know I've met people like Brian my grandfather did business with his grandfather he actually cleared his farm in like the 90s or something uh so you know I'm a social Equity applicant and I I feel like that's probably one of the more important reasons that uh Southwick should consider this application because when the state rolled out cannabis you know everybody was excited but it seems like a lot of people who loved had a passion for the industry got left out you know and uh the state's done a ton to try to you know Rectify this and give people advantages but uh the main thing that you know you see a lot of business people that are already business people in the town that are you know they know people it's easy for them to come to these meetings and and they get you know they get their foot in the door you know what I mean and it's just it's been harder for people who who don't have that connection and who you know suffered from the war on drugs or the war on cannabis and uh I just think it's really really important that I know that when we get up and going we're going to try to deal with as many of these cultivators and other businesses as we can to really support the the equity community and uh you know that's that's I don't want to go too far into other questions but that's you know my experience with the city and why I think that we're a good fit here I'm Brian kachik and uh I spent half my life here my father lived here so when I would be at my mother sou Westfield I tend to find myself after school or after Sports here in town riding my dirt bike um I would even ride all the way to my dad's shop on Hudson Road the know landscape supply store there um or I'd end up at the summer house on the dirt bike from the trail but then they shut that down but that's right and uh that's progress yes so South for me is more uh more of a home for me um cannabis is something I'm very passionate about um I've grown medical cannabis in California I came back here and hopes to get into cannabis in Massachusetts and it has been hurdle after hurdle and um I finally got into a grow I'm the part owner of a grow here in Massachusetts in blanford um and I'd also be looking to bring my own grow that I own with these guys here to South Lake that would be my main goal bring that one here not that that that one's there I would sell my shares in that one toare yeah so what Haven really offers is is a Playbook and being able to partner with local owners gives us kind of that unique flexibility to take like I said that deep level of expertise that Playbook that we have combine it with some folks who are here on the ground who are passionate about the community and the environment and it gives us an opportunity to try to Branch out into another state which is there something we've been wanting to do and we're ready for and we think that this is really the perfect opportunity to be able to do that so again you know the the local owners are are sitting here right in front of you that are that are here that are committed to the community um that Playbook includes a lot of different things so one of the things that we're really uh proud of is is the way that we do our community benefits Community investment fund so you'll notice in our application we have charted out for example a community calendar that's a theoretical one really what happens is is if we're selected to move forward what one of the first things that we do is is we form a Citizens panel so it's a selection of folks from within the community and and we list you know typically the types of people that we're looking for person from a nonprofit agency really like to have somebody from school board so that we can get some varying um you know uh inputs as to what is important for the town and how can we mitigate some of the either perceived or real negative impacts of cannabis coming into a community whether that's youth access and prevention um or these types of things and so we bring those points of view and they help us to inform the community calendar that community calendar is is sort of our our blueprint for how we invest our community investment plan so with that we we pick an organization each month we do a series of lectures or talks on on that organization or the or the issues that are U kind of close to that organization we marry that with donations to to that fund again at the direction of the citizens panel um and for us that's really been a big part of what's Ena us to to maintain um our success with within the state State of California because we do this in every single community that we go into and whether that's a small community like a rural community Porterville and Central Valley which is you know it's not totally unlike Southwick or some of the broader cities like Long Beach it's it's a Playbook that's really worked very well to ensure that um again those perceived negative benefits of or excuse me those perceived kind of um negative externalities of a cannabis shop coming into a town we're ensuring that we're engaging with the local community to to actively uh mitigate them um you know there's again sort of the ephant of the room here I think is as we've heard a few of the comments is is like the out of state operator and I just want to remind you that a big part of of what makes us successful Is our commitment to local hiring so when I look at the um Bud tenders or guess sales associates as we call them in our stores you know without exception that I can think of every single one of our general managers is from the store in which they came from so it's from their Community they started at the bottom and work their way up and are now manager of a store so um for us ensuring that we're hiring locally is very very important at the same time we do have a a network of support through our head office so that's gives us an advantage to be able to deal with things like accounting issues so some of the challenges that are unique to cannabis are the uh tax regulations you know being able to properly calculate all the different layers of taxes as they go from the host Community agreement up to you know the uh sales tax the state and up to the federal tax and all of those complications uh being able to have a a team of professionals who have been dealing with this for many many years you know the roots of Haven really go back to uh the first company we started chog gr back in 2015 most of the people that are with Haven today are the same people that started that organization so we started as a medical marijuana facility only doing medical sales transition through adult use and brought along these folks with us again accounting legal um and that sort of thing so it gives us the ability to really Empower our our local operators with a team who's very knowledgeable and competent um and it goes beyond that you know so a big part of of cannabis is obviously being able to source and um and Implement a supply chain and so we've developed you know a certain level of sophistication related to how we identify what products work in what which market right we use very Advanced demographics to understand what the people are in in the particular area to ensure that the products that we're supplying meet the needs of the consumers that are within that area um it's really important to be able to do that because with cannabis very very low shelf life especially when you're talking about flour right so it's very easy to get in positions where you're supplying too much of the wrong product not enough of the right products and so there's a lot of deep expertise that we have in being able to ensure that the products that we put within the store are are well adapted to the environment that we're operating in um and those just an example of some of the the benefits that we're able to uh to offer by partnering with folks who are here on the ground operating mobile is um each of your locations privately owned by your managers or is it a corporate how's what's the structure the ownership structure varies a little bit across the locations so Haven is our trade name each license is operated under a separate LLC all those llc's have different names but all run under the same trade name of Haven um generally speaking the collection of folks that you see um in our agreement who are listed as owners who are not uh Mark and Brian they're common owners across um the majority of actually all of of our locations there may be you know for example we have a Lo local partner in our San Bernardino store who owns a chunk of that store we have a local partner in our Porter store who owns a small Chunk in that store but by by and large the same people own most of the equity this would actually be a unique situation because we've not gotten into a social Equity partnership but again Mark's been a friend for a long you know for much longer than he is very unique and so this was this was you know him being a social Equity partner yeah it really is him being a social Equity partner um you know it lent to a little different structure than we've done in others uh but really kind of makes sense here right um again being the out of estate operator coming into mass or into Southwick we really wanted to ensure that we did it the right way um and and this quite honestly you know even though it's a stretch for us from California to Massachusetts the reason we haven't grown outside of California is because there wasn't such a natural sort of organic um opportunity as this one are all of your other locations only in California correct yeah we have 10 retail locations yeah so shogo the company I mentioned earlier um which dissolved and then turned into Haven we operated a store in Nevada there um I was with Harvest Health and Recreation for a short period um which uh was dating barano who had a number of facilities in Massachusetts and so I have experience in uh like 23 regulated markets um doing various mergers and Acquisitions with uh with various cannabis companies um so that gives us you know kind of a unique breadth of of of depth as it as it relates to understand the in intricacies of the variation of regulations because even in you know California you'll have regulations that vary from the municipal level to the state level understanding how they operate from state to state it's it's something that we're quite Adept at and I think one thing that they've done is they in different towns they come up with different regulations like in Long Beach there's a community liaison that is you have to have that so when we put this together we were like we still want to have that here because it's a great great thing you know it gives Brian's our community liais on and it gives the public someone to go right directly to and hopefully not be bothering you guys about stuff you know like it'll go right to Brian first he can try to deal with the problem or whatever complaint question and that was having his number posted on the entrance that's like a requirement so I think it's an advantage when you have people that have operated in different states and different areas because they may pick up on something that Massachusetts hasn't even picked up on yet you know what I mean like it's a good idea there so we're going to bring it here too because you know frankly it it worked right yeah we truly understand industry best practices how many years um I've been in medical marijuana since 2009 um many of our our partners in the organization you know close to or that long um officially formed our first company in 2015 as shog and then and then that turned into Haven in 2018 yeah I think our our headline number is cross the ownership team like 66 years of direct cannabis experience yeah I'll just touch on because we do have you know a lot of this experience your question and I understand that you'll need um Council to to sort of inform you on what to do when you have the potential conflicts of of uh buffers between stores and scoring it's not an uncommon issue we've seen it happen many times and the sort of the prototypical way to deal with that is is you sort of blindly rank it irrespective of of whatever um you know the zoning of buffering you rank the individuals and then if you have a lower ranking that's buffered out by a higher ranking they're eliminated is typically how cities do this so we're going I'm strong on ranking right um I think your middle name is rubert you got to stick to something right it work like you said what works you carry it Forward yeah for us that's been cannabis okay um so you two will be the local managers you two me and Brian yeah are you recruiting um staff now yeah so we we put the name sorry to interrupt but I can speak to this specifically so we we put the name of an individual in our application it's been redacted so you have to look at one of the redacted FAS so we've been in talks with somebody who's who's not very far away um but because of their current situation we can't disclose who they are in a public forum could could jeopardize their their current opportunities um but that would be sort of the the first individual that we would go to for the on the ground day-to-day operations for us it's very very important to find people locally to to staff the stores so these gentlemen here would be our on the ground you know ownerly aison right so they would be the ones here responsible for ensuring that the folks that we put in um are going to be the right ones and and be in our local context on the ground but you know at the end of the day having operated you know we operate 10 re active retail stores now it's it's really important that you have good line level staff in there and you know to that that common earlier we don't experience near the the the late of attrition that um the other uh operators are experiencing um certainly uh entry-level service positions are subject to rates of turnover um but we don't see them to be uh much Beyond uh other Industries and in fact um we think we're we're probably running a little bit better um and and we think that's probably because of the uh the benefit package that we offer our employees is very very generous so you know there's an individual in our organization Johnny Hernandez um he comes from you know a long line of of like you know working at Best Buy corporate and he's he's just like the biggest employee champion and he quite frankly just you know was a stick he's like guys we this is what we have to do and and it's turned out to be the right move because we don't have the high rates of turnover we have much more productive effective happier staff all the way down yeah exactly yeah and and you know the the guest Associates that work on um pet insurance is really great I have it actually um the pet insurance I thought that's what she said yeah so the guest Associates you know they they make a really really decent wage they typically do very well with tips on top of that um and so you know and then they they do have Pathways to to grow right they can move up into lead positions into management positions um and and we're really looking at uh this opportunity as as our first foray into into the state quite frankly if this is successful we would like to to kind of take our blueprint from California and and grow it over here so as a followup to your managers do either of you have experience on the medical side oh yes tons of experience uh when I moved to Cali I think it was in 2007 there was there was only medical right so okay when you got there you there wasn't stores right it was collectives it was cooperatives and what that meant was is people would start a collective or cooperative and then you would be a member you weren't a customer you were a member and everybody worked together it was it was actually really great before they legalized it to tell you the truth but everyone work together and it was like a real Community you know what I mean and people would help each other give clone or you know you would go help trim or you know there would be you know and it was that's kind of how it operated it wasn't really like a a cash thing you know it was more of like particip yeah like a community thing so that's that's what it was I I personally liked it more that way but then they legalized it and it just became all about big business and you know that's what happened to it so you kind of got to go with it if you want to be part of it I guess yeah the roots of Haven really really Trace back to the medical marijuana movement in in California coming out of prop 25 in fact like a lot of the vernacular we still use is like still call people patience a lot of times and and that sort of thing um and what comes along with that is is we have a a pretty extensive training program it's actually pioneered by a gentleman who's uh the other redhead in our organization who whose wife is from Southwick coincidentally and um he's he's been uh he started as a bud tender at Berkeley Patient Group in in 2009 or something like this which was one of the very first city licensed uh dispensaries in California and just a wealth a wealth of knowledge of of cannabis um because you know especially now with all the minor cannaboids CBG CBN CBC um there's a lot more uh of a of a dialed in effect that you can achieve when you're helping somebody to treat a specific condition whether it's insomnia appetite pain there's all different formulations now of of specific blends of minor cannaboids uh which are really effective for different ailments and and Josh is really the epitome of of that he leads our training and so that's the type of training that we would bring to the employees uh here in Southwick is really a deep understanding of of how cannabis is synthesized by the body and what sort of effects that produces and so we think that's a really good benefit for people who are new to cannabis don't know what to do when they come into a store it's especially beneficial for people who are coming for medical purposes okay so this is the first look at kind of a franchise model that we've seen right I'm waiting for the words to come out franchise kind of sort of like that right I mean I mean there there is an element of that right where you have a uh you know you're kind of taking the advantage of of The Branding and kind of all that comes along with it but you're sponsoring the ability of of local operators to really be able to get into an industry um you know offset some of that risk reduce some of the barriers to entry especially when it comes things like access to Capital calling up an attorney with a question you know these things are hard and are really necessary when getting your your cannabis business off the ground it's it's you know it's not super easy right there's a lot of kind of technical nuances that people can trip over and and ultimately lead to to failure so in some some ways it is yeah and I think it's actually it's a it's a really good example of of how that can be a a well functioning model and Mark I don't want to mispronounce your last name it's D D so you alluded when you were we were talking earlier that that you had a lot of issues with um the application process maybe not in here so I'm kind of interested to hear what you felt the process was here Vis AES elsewhere was it easier or better um you know it was it was transparent you know you guys did a good job and I know Diane you guys are she did most of it I guess or whatever happened there I don't know but uh she did a great job I think I mean you're you're never going to get it perfect right someone's always going to feel upset but when we read the application it was clear to us and you can probably see by our our response to it it was clear what we needed to do it was it was when we had a question we emailed Diane got back to us in six hours I mean sometimes it takes you a week to get some cities so I I think you guys did as good of a job as you could I think that it was great to see some you know Reon recognizing the social equity and the economic empowerment and the other priority applicants um you know some cities didn't even know what that was when I when I spoke with them you know they they you know they said they wanted to let the other people open first which are the non social Equity applicants which is kind of backwards you know but I think uh you know I think it's it's just good to set some kind of standard guidelines and and stick to them right I mean because so so we can franchise the application process yeah hey I mean you know I think other C could use it and build off of it I chei it and I copied some of well hey that's that's how most the business is done I mean really I hate to say it I I've done it before I look at someone else's legal paper and copy and paste it and edit it a little bit and it didn't work so that's usually but I think you guys did a you know fair enough job to me anyways you know there's obviously you took a break to question some things and I mean you got to do that right I mean it's like I said coming from my background on the other side with negotiations there's no reason to rush through and then go backwards so I I think you guys did a great job on it honestly in my sense having having done a few of these is is that the group here is is uh really connected to and really cares about the community and sometimes you don't necessarily get that sentiment from from every single City and so I think that's that that really shows in in the way you guys are running the process and and the questions that you're asking and the connections that you're looking for from applicants because to me it feels like you you want to feel good about uh living in the community and the decisions that you make and how they impact the community that you live in so I think that's great and that's that's the I could have I've known many operators and I chose these guys because I've seen what they've done in their Community plans and how expensive they are and the name Haven I like it it's not really right in your face like cannabis this or you know I just you know seeing school kids drive by and go oh cannabis you know I just think it's it's clean you can see our application we we did 3D renderings of the inside the outside so you know exactly what you're getting I mean it's not like you're oh what are these guys going to build or what are they going to do like you can basically look at our application and say oh I see exactly what these guys are planning on doing you know and that's you know between that is why I thought it was a good fit you know our building is you know I think it's the best building everyone's going to say their building is the best building but I mean it's a beautiful building it's big we got plenty of room to do medical and all that if we can expand in other things down the road we would gladly do that I'd love to do a big huge cultivation here with someone who's already a farmer maybe in town who's got a farm that's struggling I would love to partner with more local Partners uh you know we the partners already run I think the biggest canopy in Oregon it's like 25 acres they're doing like 40,000 30,000 pounds a year or something right now so you know that's that would be my long-term goal I love cultivating and you know we're going to we're going to get the dispensary and running we're going to you know do that but ahead of that I'd love to do as much as we can here whether it's delivery you know social consumption what whatever we can do to bring more Revenue I'd love I would just love to go deliver over to Westfield and bring that Revenue here for Southwick you know for that that tax so if we can do it we will you know I think to kind of answer this there was I I think there was a question in there but I'm going to talk anyway I think to someone who just said that you know we we kind of care about the community one I can speak for myself and I with some confidence speak for the other two members of this board we certainly aren't doing it for the money yeah and you know we all have extensive experience whether it's in the community or in serving on boards and commissions for the sole purpose of this community and why we're here why we live here I'm fortunate um that I I live and work in in this town Diane lives and has a very you know great interest to town Jason lives in town obviously and you know Works in a neighboring Community but has got very deep roots in this community and you know I never for one second with any differences that we ever have have any doubt of of their uh you know where they're coming from on a given issue right and so and I think that's hugely important yeah um and now speaking for myself I said on I want to say it was probably eight or nine years ago now I sat on a um a subcommittee that we had about uh cannabis before we even had any bylaw I believe Mr Phelps who's in the audience was also on the same subcommittee as myself he might even been the chairman um and we we and the reason I I bring it up is because I was there's a picture somewhere from a newspaper that ran and um it was one of our first or second or third meetings and a a a troop I for lack of a better word came out from Boston to to tell us about cannabis and U we were talking about zoning and this and that and everything was new this Triple C was new you know the prospect of medicinal cannabis was new recreational was not on the table yet um and we were looking at where and the why and the how and and just general discussion and the interesting thing to me from that and and resulted in the picture in the paper and maybe it's just me was uh the person sitting next to me was from Boston and they proudly proclaimed that absolutely no one else should get a license unless you've done time and only those that had been incarcerated for a significant amount of time Marcus is nding his head because he was at the same meeting but the article ran in the paper my jaw was well I mean it's it's sad isn't it we have people in prison for cannabis and other people are profiting off of it I mean it's it's pretty sad really it's an interesting but you know and and it is an interesting turn of of how that mured and I think that and watching I think I've seen paral just from where I sit I've seen parallels with what's happened with legalized gaming and now legalized cannabis and I don't know what the next legalized thing is going to be psychedelics that's what they're saying you know and I don't know um as to how why we're here and why the state suddenly has a whole new division of government California has it too we have our Triple C they have whatever they call it out there you know gets in the I don't want to say get in the way but created an entire new bureaucracy to oversee it and uh frankly tax the crap out of it and then make it economically more difficult than it needs to be and Regulatory wise probably than it needs to be to to even open this type of place um and I think one of the other interview he's kind of said look this is this is a retail product that's going to be you know and I had likened it Marcus and I had this conversation sorry Marcus keep bringing you into this but you know why is this any different than uh a liquor store or why did we even have to do this why aren't the liquor folks overseeing this and why don't we give the medicinal to you know pharmacies they can protect and oversee prescriptions for way more dangerous things than this uh but here we yet here we are um so it's interesting to hear the take on it as to you know why why certain other things and why there's preference and whatnot um and and frankly we had to go through quite a process with what would have been an application to be on a board or commission or a board or to open an auto part store or a a used car dealership versus you wanted to open a cannabis dispensary we had to completely change how we went about m that whole process right it seemed incredulous to me but um so you know I I was interested you know I appreciate your cander as to you know why you know from the equity standpoint and from the um access standpoint you know what your take on it was as to did we make the process doable for yourselves as as part of the process versus not really really I mean and and now now the state seeing that and they're they're trying to implement you know some different things like they just Chang the delivery laws to where you only need one person in the car a delivery person can actually buy bulk product and then package it themselves and it's it's they're they're working toward it you know they you know how it is you have to have your public meetings you have to have your Outreach so they they get a bunch of stuff together and then they you know they put out a meeting and they try to just keep fine-tuning it the best that they can really they gotta go slow to get exactly so it was B fight and and for for you know from our perspective that you're right right like the the burd like the ground is the regulatory ground is like constantly shifting there are high barriers to entry um but at the end of the day we're we're an organization we're not an advocacy group when it comes to uh regulations and and legislation so our job is just to to take it in right to take in what are the regulatory requirements what are the employee and needs what is the economic reality and what is the environment that we're operating in and marry them into an operation and that's what we're presenting here so at the end of the day are we are we nearing the end or you have more I have more questions Mr I said in the beginning I got one and only one so at the end of the day why you why why with with everything that you've heard so you have the opportunity of batting last so why you so I think that we represent a a a unique blend of a deep level of experience operating across a number of markets with a core operation that respects the communities at which we operate in and a partnership with a couple of individuals who are deeply committed to this particular gym and for me personally I I love having employees I love taking people and giving them a career you know it's something that I've been passionate about when I've ran cultivation facilities I've had 20 30 people working for me and I've taken people that have never even had a real career and watched them bloom into like having a real career and they thank me and I you know I know their families I know you know everything and it's just it's been a great experience you know it really has uh my time that I have had in the industry and I hope that we can do it here I really do I hope we can you know do a big cultivation and and everything I hope we can just expand it as far as we can here in Southwick so I know Brian um so originally me and Mark were going to apply separately and then we noticed that we both were applying and we decided that with our expertise and his team that combining us together with me having the grow already here that we would make like the bound team um one thing with me I do own another business um and one thing I like to do is I like to be able to give people opportunities and for myself it's been a a process to be able to go get into legal cannabis and I want to be able to give other people opportunities that have not had that helping hand to get in get involved see where they can go and Sky Li for them that's really what I want to do I'm to help people that I've struggled to be get here I'm good good gentlemen thank you very very much thank thank you everybody for your Pati procone much appreciate it thank you thanks Jas thank you much appreciate thank you so much you appr it thank you do for I'd like to take a sweet a sweet a short recess if possible I need to use facilities there go so recess okay there you go there you go me e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] it's not that's going to be your opportunity you can do whatever you want on that one maybe we should have S round table at that for anything you guys want to talk about you know on the agenda for just something that you know just for you guys to have instead of business a lot yeah yeah not today not now no not today but usually under but if it's under bus under old business you want to talk about Sunday that's not all right we're gonna bring the meeting back into order and open it back up Lisa we recording again yeah you can't stop you can't stop she didn't stop it okay great wonderful good thing I didn't say anything bad never no yes I have no I mean you never do because yeah so all right so now we are going to move on um the next thing what we're going to do folks with that is we're gonna um discuss it and determine the decision we're going to make probably tonight at the when we get to the old business if that's all right with everybody which will be coming up not too long well we hope sometime before Tuesday so the next thing we're going to address goes pretty quick is the um with all the North Pond stuff we've discussed about having a North Pond task force so um we've gotten some letters of interest and Nicole can you yeah so obviously I mean I don't think we have to go back through what happened with North Pond recently um but we did really take um the matter into our own hands really quickly and um you know trying to mitigate what's going to happen in the future there and get some um some guidelines that would be safe but allow access to what is supposed to be allowed there which is not the water so uh you'd asked for a task force you know you spoke about it and you had conversations about it and so I reached out to some of the department heads um I tend to feel like it you know really should stem from staff this task force because we are the ones that are in the thick of it every day um so I I you know thought about who I think should be on here and I really think uh and I reached out to the police the fire um Lake management conservation Sabrina from conservation select board Diane has been with me through this all she's done the site visit she Vis she was there with the state so I thought just you know organically Diane could just be on the task force hopefully it's not a very long task force and we don't have to uh meet that often Randy from DPW a resident we had a few interests and obviously me just just ex officio no voting rights but just to help facilitate the meetings and come up with some suggestions too um and also one two three four five six seven yeah so there's seven people that are suggested here which would keep it odd which is what we'd want to do um i' make make the a which wouldn't have voting rights again um so I that's for you now I have um given you my um suggestion on a plate and now you guys can disseminate or ADD to it or completely remove it and and do whatever you'd like I I think we do need a task oh we do you know and I talked to Nicole earlier this week you know and I kind of at one point had wanted to be the hammer and because I like to put things I like to use rules and put people in their place so um I kind of wanted to do that but um that you're right Diane has been point on this um I'm still a little kind of you know under when I would under the weather but debilitated or disabled well wrong word but um and uh I also as you and I discussed I got a lot of other I have to you know be personal stuff that I have to attend to right now so I I definitely think um unless Mr moin has any interest or I mean i' i' listen to either one of you I think I want to step back I first of all I was a huge proponent of of putting together task force you know the night that this whole thing went way off the rails and this has been a problem that's been coming um or brewing for a while I don't think any of us saw what transpired to to actually transpire but the the absolute um abuse of the North Pond Conservation Area contrary to the way that the conservation restriction was written the way it was implemented and and the intended use of that beautiful piece of property um was totally being ignored and um it there was not nearly enough attention by those who were um charged with the responsibility of upholding that conservation restriction um had abdicated their responsibility and it it it forced our hand and to have to step in and take the the unilateral step to close it and then you know put People's Health and Welfare at risk at the same time and that caused us to close it so the only way to go from here is to put together a task force and figure out um you know how we're going to do it now stepping back from that the thing that concerns me about having staff do it is the staff is going going to administer policy as set forth by their board that's the nature of the staff right so um the park and wreck um person is going to you know and I'm I'm purposely avoiding people on this um that are reported on this task force you know but I I I think you know they're going to have to go I don't want to hear the answer that we have to go back to their board to meet and discuss because they you know some of those boards and commissions be every other till once a month um and that's going to be a problem now having Randy on there I think is is a great idea having the police chief on there I'd be a proponent of having a former Chief Bishop on there as well um and and you know there was you know a resident that lives the two residents I believe that above the property would also be very you know they have kind of a vested interest in being involved in this process so whether they are are or not on said subcommittee you know I would assume that it would meet on a regular basis and you know certainly be able to take input from anyone who wants to bring ideas I I happen to catch I think it was the conservation meeting last week and um Marcus I'll use your name one more time Marcus showed up with some plants that would be a good thing to plant on the on that or a suggested plant that would make that Shore area or that Hillside less appealing for people to be going up and down because of the plant that would grow and take over that place I was also frankly a little bit surprised um it had been a little bit since I had been down at the bottom of how eroded that that Hillside was and how damaged did it become versus the whole premise behind that conservation restriction was to bring that property back to its absolute pristine and natural state so people could enjoy it and walk through it and and and so on and so forth but it's been absolutely devastated um so but back to the to the task force I you know I think we give it a try and see how it goes but we have to make sure that they're able to move swiftly one of the problems with you know just having us administer it for example is one you know there's other people that are absolute stakeholders in this and two you know we've been meeting um less frequently than even I would have liked so far just with that pressing issue here um so let's give it a go and let's try and let's try to and I fully support having Diane on it she I you know she has the time and and the willingness to do it right now so I would fully support doing that um but you know and to have you know one you know maybe we have to increase the resident count I don't know to get above an even number to to instead of one maybe you have three I don't know but that's just a suggestion because we had you know I know um I think I know all three of the folks that asked to be on it and they all have a really valid reason to want to be on it I have another suggestion for a resident as well um I think as far as being a task force um it is to come up with proposals to be accepted I don't think it would be everybody goes to their own boards and commissions to get approval it's to come up with a plan and present a plan and then determine how it gets implemented so I think that can happen swiftly so um and I just if I could just really quick I you know think Sabrina it is a conservation land and she has some perspective like what kind of plants to put in something like that I certainly when I was thinking about all these people didn't think that they're going to have to go back and get some feedback from anybody else this is the Task Force we are the staff we will bring our Solutions or suggestions right back to the select board so most of them I mean and you know most of them are just Town employees you know I she she she's the conservation agent but still under you know is appointed by the select board so um yeah I wasn't thinking even like Lake management I feel like you know they they make sure that everything's happening on the lake but the lake is the biggest is a part of the part of the reason so to have some input and have everybody kind of having their little expertise in here to see what the solution will be and hopefully to have it very quickly you know that we don't have to meet 11 times I'm hoping that it can be sooner right I don't I'm not sure I can't see it in the future but I I would hope that we could come up with some things pretty quick I have another person to throw in the mix Erica rosini um she grew up on South longard Road there are generations of her direct and extended fam still in town as she is she has a young child she's vested in the current situation and the current safety and the condition of our men um with her family being in the location she I feel like we need people who are One Step removed from the trauma that's exactly what I thought was and so other names and and I I I feel like the other people are too in emotionally attached traumatized you know and that's when I saw the names and I saw I we all live here it's part of all of us we're all aware of what is going on and and you know its impacts but I think people too involved are not the ones to make those kind of yeah and I don't mean it in a bad sense I don't I don't either it's like it's like that's exactly when I was home when I was sitting here that's exactly what I thought you take the right person to the doctor with you when it's bad news kind of thing I was having this discussion at home a little bit about it and so she's connect Ed but removed a little bit that's a name I want to throw out there I do like Chief Bish former Chief Bishop so do I especially where he's not on the weight again another one but he's very involved in the youth to the age you know everybody no he his his perspective is for the Youth as all the way through um so how many does that make one two 34 so the conservation would be Sabrina I mean would be Norm yeah I suggest Sabrina Sabrina told me Norm CH of conservation is also interested once again I was just keeping the boards out of it so that's I just wanted to let you but I thought Sabrina very well represented that's what I think too that commission but then what about Lake management they were voting last night who was who they were going well that could but that would be a board member of lake manag that would be to be a board member then that would be Norm right well I mean if that's who I guess then you start having this discussion and you know and Lake management is an appointe of this board as well it's an adhal advisory commission ad hoc Advisory Board to this board no objection but then it kind of gets away from the mission that we stated of we want to have yeah you know Town sta but it's cross it out if that you know if if Norm I you know completely respect Norm's opinion and I know Norm's been down there you know even with the closure is going down there to help continue to clean up and do stuff um there so that would be police fire conservation being Sabrina select board DP W that's five and then two two residents and you as the moderator which I think we all agree on and like I said I just think even if you name this I mean and we we have one elected on there but we are the you know the the chief administrative you know Board of the town and I think that that's fine and then like I said whoever if you are or not on this subcommittee and Norm you know he won't miss a meeting anyway there's a he's more than welcome to come and participate and and and take care you know bring back or bring forward any information that uh that he can bring yeah would these be posted meetings how does that yeah they'll be posted but they don't have to be evening but they they should be posted yeah so I mean residents could come oh yeah I don't know yeah I don't know if they're subject to a you know the open meeting law and everything else because it's a staff meeting but I don't know I don't think so no if it's staff it's staff but I think that for all intents and purposes this would be its own small yet temporary committee that should probably host and keep minutes yeah might as well no har minute so did we all agree on Bishop uh I'm I'm all for chief Bishop so one other Mak seven I I don't know the other the person you mentioned so I don't I don't maybe I don't think I know I don't think you know of her I know of her okay um I'm with two minds on this one with that I understand and that's why with me it was Chief Bishop in my mind was already there because he is the one set away from your Lake um so you're Miss rine has some sort of family connection there as well um so we've already got somebody that's not right her her house is in his neighborhood but her family lives on Granado I 100% know who you're talking about now thank you okay so the way I look at it is if we're gonna have somebody who's in in a sense still emotionally connected it might not be bad to have one of the other three attached to this committee and I of the three that I see there I would be able one is a victim let's say I understand that okay and the other one I'm going to be out with it is too emotionally attached to the project and and we understand what all of the concerns are we from from the origin of the project to where it is today I I think we've got that covered I'm not like I'm not opposed to that other person I know nothing about that other a person so other than they live in my neighborhood so uh at this point what's GNA be be acceptable for everybody else W just leave it how it is what you got six instead of seven you're I'm voting on it anything of substance anyway really you're not it's not a voting board you're going to be setting up some rules and some potential things to send back go with it and if if you come back in come back in two weeks say I need to put another person on figure it out it's not it's not a border subcommittee it's just um I don't necessarily think you need a motion but you can it doesn't hurt to create the task force motion to create the task force I just looking for motion to create the task force I'll make a motion to create that task force the members just stated very good um roll call vote Jason I and will you contact or you Rel a contact all the people that were ring into this yes they and I will let Erica Rini know that she may just be on T yes if that's if she's not on there I have no idea I I thought the name was familiar I couldn't place it till you put it in context great thank you anytime all right next item on the agenda is payables payroll and minutes we need to acknowledge payables warrant number 2503b dated 7 2224 in the amount of 4, 68488 uh 4,684 800 88469 uh and we need to acknowledge payable warrant 2503 dated 73020 24 in the amount of 29920 185 we also need to acknowledge payables warrant two number 254b dat 85 2024 in the amount of $ 49,5 19341 we need to a motion to approve the Open session meeting minutes from 71 2024 I make a motion to approve those minutes second roll call vote Jason Peron I thank I Doug mland yes we need to approve a motion to approve Open session meeting minutes from 7:15 2024 motion to approve minutes from 71524 second roll call vote Jason PR I thank you I Doug M yes and we need a motion to approve the Open session meeting minutes from 7222 table those we haven't seen them yet okay Mr BR the $4.7 million from that must have been a significant School assessment just asking yeah probably July's first the first payment of July to be honest didn't I'm not 100% sure to be honest with you it just jumped off the page you usually 300 $400,000 okay four and a half million finance committee knows where it goes you're the chair well go Finance Finance accounting so on and so forth so there anyways uh we need to go to their meeting discussion items action items bills mail correspondence vendor Andor Personnel contracts Personnel decisions policy adoptions and payroll we need to acknowledge the cic Regional School yearbook committee request for business ad we need to approve the request from the assessor's office to raise their abutters list request fee from 5 cents a page printed to $10 completed request we' be looking for a motion to approve that um Mr chair I think we need to determine if we're doing the business ad and what value is that correct acknowledge acknowled um so let me ask the question what is the size of the ad and we have it's usually a quar page isn't it it's it's on so is she asking the select board to support the yearbook is that what she's asking yeah yes I I I'll make a motion that we do the same thing we did last year whatever it was okay yeah perfect I'll second this roll call vote Jason BR I thank you dou yes very good sorry next quite all right next we do need to approve the request from the assessor's office to raise their abutters list request fee from 5 cents a page printed to $10 a requests completed be looking for a motion for that I'll make a motion to do that seems reasonable discussion go ahead sir uh is that a Butter's list I read it real quick but is there there's no uh it didn't seem to have a limit the 10 cents a page is kind of self-limiting so if you get something that's a thousand Pages it's going to be 10 cents a page you'll never have that size of in a Butters list sure so I mean so five cents a page is typically it's 10 in cities it's 25 yeah but when you get in a Butters list if it's 300 feet for planting or 500 feet you know you're going to get it's a butter typically are going to get a very long a Butters list um I I I guess I'm thinking about like very Urban places with a lot of apartments or something like that they might have a lot but I don't think that um that for one of our applicants there were 11 for instance oh I get it I I just was just thinking just if someone were to come in and say I want all the abutters of a mile from my place there's just no upper you know when it's 10 cents a page or 5 cents a page you know it's going to be whatever to cover your cost if you made it if you double the price per page to 10 or 25 cents that's great you know but if someone comes in and gets a 500 page report they're going to get that for 10 bucks they're GNA get one page for 10 bucks I don't I just want to make sure we're not putting ourselves I don't to your point I don't think it's going to be a big big deal that no one would ever come in there but I think you should have it could be stated with a caveat yeah above above 20 Pages or above 25 Pages it's you could 2 10 pages that's so that would be my motion that would be $10 for a Butters list up to what was the number of pages P 10 pages and then it's 25 cents a page there after just to protect town why was it like $18 for my not for my sandwich H finally I struck a Nerf okay so if that was a motion that was my motion then I will second that roll call vote Jason Peron hi thank ell Doug yes next we have the chief we need we need to appoint call Force firem Kristen nutting and call Force firefighter paramedic D Dwight greguar to the sou fire department if it pleases the board I'd like to add two names to that please so as an auction of the uh interview process for the career members we had two people very interested in becoming CM members as well too um so I'd like to add to that list Marissa lucette and Robert Baron I did try to get information to you earlier on their resumes um but two very good qualified people and again um out of the 10 people that we did interview if I was hiring six I would had seven very good candidates so it was a top argument so they're interested in for like to move forward on I'll make a motion to appoint those four Kristen nutting white brire Marissa and Robert Baron I'd like to offer a modified motion that subject to them coming in front of this board at our next meeting for a brief interview okay second we call vote Jason pron I thank Doug m i next we need to we have a library request to remove the three outdoor book drops from the libraries inventory I'll make that motion second roll call vote Jason Peron I Doug m i we need to approve the would be looking for that motion to approve the elderly sewer rate for 99 Berkshire Avenue make a motion to approve that sewer rate abatement 99 burshire ad second roll call vote Jason Peron I Doug moan I we need to approve the rate increase for Denise Hills McGary from 1650 to 1850 this is not a budget funded position it is Grant funded make a motion to approve that rate increase for Janice Hills McGary I'll second the motion all right roll call vote Jason Peron i i dou m yes we need to approve the rate increase for Denise Sebert from 1894 to 2367 this is also not a budget funded position it is a grant funded position I will make a motion to improve the rate increase for jise Sebert and just to say these are both seniors Cent to the grant positions just so we know where they are very good I'll second the motion roll call vote Jason Peron I I Doug moan I we need to approve and designate the chair to sign the cyber security improvements grant for $9,975 second that motion roll call vote Jason Peron I I Doug Mogan yes we are up to new business we need to review and discuss the letter from Board of Assessors for temporary assistant director of assessment position Nicole we talked about it did you um uh yeah so the assessors have been discussing and I had seen um them during the day what I was in the your office for reason reason and um you know they're talking about the principal assessor is going to be retiring in two years and the succession plan so they just want to put it on the radar that the you know what they would like to see is and I didn't I didn't call it a assistant director I called it a um a temporary Special Assistant to the assessor to so then this the principal assessor there now can train this person um to be an assessor uh in a very niche market where it's almost impossible hard uh to find assessors um so you know I think basically they just wanted the board to understand that you know in this in the climate of Municipal workers especially assessors that it's it is hard to find and we could potentially have an in-house person that's willing to become an assessor and and train and learn under our principal assessor Wing um so but that's two years and that's probably I probably wouldn't be looking for that yet I don't think I don't think somebody used two years I think if I sorry absolutely jump up I think that it's a great idea and I think what we should do is go through the process of posting for it with the road map of that that this person is a future assessor and then the timing of this is also great because you can get it into in the budget for next year because it's going to be a you know a onetime or you know a year and a half type expense and you're going to also have to backfill if if there's if that position fills from in town you're going to have to back fill that position that's also going to take time so you can get all that stuff in motion um yeah it's not a bad idea I think you you just got to but it's got to get put into the budget because we can't just we don't have the money to just fill it now and I don't I think it's too soon anyway but yeah but the timing the timing of asking for a two years out is perfect exactly at the rate government can move right that's about the right amount of time is there a date of retirement David yet no okay it's a window I there might be a date but there's not nothing concrete came in saying that there but I think it's the end of next year the end of next cender or fisal no and 2025 yeah but I so then you can but that will also start cementing those plans if they're asking for it then you can ask for that as well so that you can start putting your plan in motion to get to a certain place at a certain date so yeah an option would be also to find out from like MRI what a temporary skilled assessor would cost or to recruit through them as well we we had success with that firm in particular um I feel more comfortable with someone with experience in that role that can answer questions and is willing to provide answers they have an excellent back stop to support the assessor's office now the firm that we employ for many years has done a yman work with that I mean the assessor does a great job and the the board of assessors do a great job as well um and two years is a good window to start look you know having this discussion because there's a lot of lot of moving pieces that have to happen if you're going to replace the assessor how long has she been in that 30 years yeah a little while yeah another good reason to maybe go outside that's right we brought it up your you and discuss carry this under old business we'll carry it we do the research and see what we come up with like you said we've got plenty of time well we got it goes faster than we know so if we put it on the calendar we got we'll address it next we need to review the assistant DPW director job description um this was uh worked on with Randy um it would take the place uh s but Dickel did um as a Special Assistant we're looking for um an assistant Public Works not a special assistant and um we modified Vick's job description to match more of what Randy thought was necessary for the dep and we discussed this the last time we met which I realized was a long time ago but we didn't have any issues with this one that I recall no I think there were no changes since we met no I thought that I thought the one that we needed to come back to was the buildings and grounds yes I don't recall anything I don't recall anything on this either so I thought we had already done this I'm not sure that you but we hadn't seen the minutes yet so we can't tell well go ahead I'm sure that you loved it the first time or the second time and so I I don't think there was anything to discuss here on this one I didn't see anything in the folder but it's it's on my agenda so we needed to folder again that's sure oh is it in the old old stuff no it's in the new business see it's under new business after all Department reports sir we go so uh next we have to do department head CAO report you want to update anything no I just um they're all in there um I go back up if you have any questions I kind of highlighted from some departments what I thought was important in well it's all important but maybe some dates or something specific um I just went dra allong too far down typically once a month I will submit these to you and uh you know not necessarily take a lot of time to go over them one by one if you have any questions about come back then we can come back to it I must say it's excellent I like them I really appreciate it thank you good great that's my goal to stay informed I guess we are on to Old business chapter 90 Road decision again I think we had time so I think we're good there yeah pretty much made the decision I'm not mistaken yeah we voted on it it's done that sewer finances and rates discussion did we lose Randy he was on vac for a second how you doing hello Randy he's still awake still with us so we tally said we discuss this pretty good the um chapter 90 we're done yeah's he's next on the sewer yeah so so Randy sewer rates and finances discussion yeah so we met uh last meet we talked about had a hard discussion about the sewer rates and um I think the discussion where we need to focus is uh you know what what role and I guess how much how much is a town going to going to contribute uh to the Sewer budget in FY 25 or FY 26 and Beyond so what uh at the last letter I gave you some you know kind preliminary projections what I did here in this August 8th letter as I refined some of those projections and I gave you I think there's 22 different scenarios uh based on varying rate increases for the three tiers tier one two and three and I hope you can follow through and kind of see where you know where the rates are today which is scenario one and then um basically you know moving forward with various rate increases for each of those three tiers and ultimately seeing okay if you if you implement that scenario what do you need for the town subsidy to to balance that budget for next next fiscal year so there's many many other scenarios out there I try to get a flavor of all the the range um and I'm hoping that maybe you have some discussion amongst yourselves to kind of figure out where about where you want to be uh and then also at some point we need to have a discussion with the finance committee after our last meeting I did meet with u Mr Dei I gave him an update on our discussion and he suggested having a a full meeting amongst both uh the full Boards of the finance and the SL board to kind of detail this issue out further I think that's the right step yep agreed so we need to so do you want to look at these individually come up with some ideas and bring them all to that meeting and talk about some of the ideas today I think we should just have the discussion amongst everybody and see where everybody stands on this one um after talking to to duranty in the past and Nicole it's the way we're doing it now isn't sustainable so nor do I I I've heard the discussions about uh the fairness of it all and gonna be honest you're not pay if you're not using it it's not fair to continue this route and not going to be a popular thing to say but I know this rate's got to go up and it ain't going to be pretty not by my considerations uh as a counter to the fairness argument if you're using it it's not fair that you're the only one paying for the weight of it how that so I think it's the only way to be fair is it is split on the total tax rate and the users no well agree to disagree on that one I don't think you can put the gazillion when you move to Westfield you hook up the sewer sewer is there you don't have a choice and I understand correct people don't have some people who would want to don't have a choice they're going to pay it on their tax bill those people who are on it didn't necessarily have a choice it went by them they had to hook in they didn't have a choice they can't be the only 800 entities whether their residences or businesses they can't be the only 800 paying for the commitment the entire to it has to be I'm not saying it should be the entire commitment I'm just saying it there needs to be some work done on this yeah and know and me I'm gonna come right out and say it I'd be looking at a 50% rate hike it's it's at least 20 it's at least not a popular thing to say I don't care at least 15 but there's ways to I mean work with the te because I mean you look at the tiers and the numbers ry's got to get to a number to me that's comfortable and that that I think is fair across the board you're looking at about a 50% you know it's so that's about a just under a $6 raise thousand I know I don't want to raise anybody's rates but I mean you can't continue at the subsidy rate that we've got when and Randy said you the revenues going to continue to go down on the the loans and whatnot Randy correct the different yeah these projections will get us through FY the next two fiscal years and then and then after that our our our projection is that our expenses are going to increase I'm sorry does this take into consideration the 8% per year with Westfield it does correct it does okay but the rates our user rates aren't the only factor in the equation it's that user rate to Westfield that again I suggested we try to do something with cost as well oh we can try that GNA have to I won't be the one trying it no it'll be [Laughter] right that's the beauty of us she has to do it I will not be inol but I Doug's got thoughts he's holding well I mean we we don't want to rehash everything we've talked about we have 800 users on a system that's built for you know way more than that right and we're you know we have to buy down that infrastructure that we paid for and the flow is not going to support the the rate infrastructure so it's required a town we've carried the sewers on a tax rate forever we're going to have to carry some portion on it for a long time now yes rates are going to go up and one other thing to think about was you know we we've talked about getting another sewer project off the ground perhaps as you increase the rates to reduce the subsidy you repurpose some of the subsidy towards the sewer project toward some of the bond payment on a sewer project and you start biting off pieces of it so that you can do it I mean these numbers are chump change compared to what a sewer Project's going to be you know and the the fact is that town meeting has created this monster by doing phase one and phase two of the sewer project the US RDA gave us low interest loans then they were slightly less low interest loans now those are maybe they're coming back again as what you know from some of the research I've done um and then maybe you know they're probably still not going to be as advantageous as they were but I will also note um and I I think I alluded to it at our previous meeting but it was a while ago so I don't remember um a lot of the sewer infrastructure went around the Lakes a lot of that sewer infrastructure around the Lakes has benefited more than just those houses around the Lakes look at the valuations of the properties that are around the Lakes especially those on the water and that are on the sewer and what that's done for the lake and what that's done for property values Vis of these the the the property taxes that come in so it's not possible I don't even think it's possible you looking at the scenarios and I think Randy God bless him I think he sent us 25 scenarios for um it's pretty close to it right 21 22 scenarios on on how to how to skin this cat with you know different numbers of the increase versus the town subsidy um but I don't see how you you wean yourself off of the subsidy for in any near-term future until you put more people on it and by the way we can't just say oh we're done with sewers so go back and put a septic system in your yard that's impossible um we have to try to get more people on it um I don't I do not have the easy button but I I don't think it's also it's not tenable and we'd have to look at the overall you know dollars that you're talking about here because it's not insignificant dollars when you Jack the rates have to see what the average increase is you know I like I said I don't want to hurt people but I mean we're going to continue this just going to continue snowballing yep you know and as we paid you know we paid down the bonds on on the infrastructure that out there what's going to be reduced is the betterments as the people that have been paying us uh the cost plus interest on the loan to install sewers on their property that's the betterment that's going to go down and then the flow rates from Westfield which you know uh I I we we've agreed to disagree that's the deal that the that's been executed with Westfield um and went to town meeting and was approved or it was it's an IMA so we you know it had to be approved you know they kind of have us and I think one of the other well one other thing to do is we need to look at Revenue the revenue side of things for other infrastructure um that's in our town that Westfield's paying us to to utilize um rights of way through the town of South right um and whether that's a negotiation piece for discussion or it's a real factual thing we need to look at that you know the rail trail is an absolute asset the the the linear Park there's a lot of entities that have stuff in the linear Park including our neighbors to the north I don't know what they're paying us but it obviously isn't enough so we need to look at that yep thank you perod so L Paul will try to coordinate some dates okay for meeting all right um job description for buildings and grounds supervisor so I um so we did a director position which we wanted me come closer to David's position um so I updated the job description accordingly I'm happy to answer any questions or want to keep the meeting moving and we go forward with this during the day Diane if you have changes questions I think my only real concern was the titling the right and demonstrated experience and so forth so as long as those are yeah they're included in there I'm I'm good with it okay they were wording changes you have to use a pack machine yeah still there it is I keep that out it is so I'm f one today rotary dial phone on there somewhere okay all right appointments process and Status already talk we talked about the the employee one we still have the other we have all the other ones um I just want to complain that the time it takes to do this is completely unacceptable to me and I don't understand why it's so difficult um and I feel like it's disrespectful to the boards and commissions that are sitting there waiting and the volunteers that come forward and we can't get our act together so I don't know what we have to do to improve this going around but I'd like to get the next one scheduled I can give a list of all the new applicants to in here next week if we can when we meet or when are we meeting is it next week 26 I think what are we what's today this one 26 if we can get there is probably what did I say seven eight n new people interested including the master plan implementation people can we get them all I would be fine with that in one because we're not meeting lat day either let's get it taken care of I will get the list to sure absolutely because we don't have access to what you have you don't no to this list well there's a problem we can resolve Lisa told me today that only you and do have access I don't have reading all right but I will get her the list okay HS I IMA for WG for the ISP yep ASAP we are meeting this Thursday at six o'clock we're going to have uh whip City fiber back in uh we've been looking at some Revenue projections and financial modeling this has been a very deliberate drawn out process um as we enter the next phase of this where um we're going to be looking at spending real money and start to to uh look at spending against the arpa allocation and or drawing on uh the first bonding authorization from town once you take that step you're committed you're you're committed to all of it and the committee wants to be and to report back to this board that they're of sound they're on sound financial footing that when we go and execute that this is going to retire the bonds within their the useful life of the pro and then at the end of 10 or 11 or 12 years we go okay we don't want to do this anymore but we paid down the bonds and no harm no foul or we want to continue on because we need to redo things or re revisit things because things have changed and we're in a position to to expend more money um but we're going to have uh wh City fiber and a member or two of the finance committee in just to go through the numbers and then we want to come back to this board as as the subcommittee it's a just ad hoc advisory to this board with that opinion and because you know I I know I personally stood at town meeting when we asked for the $3 million and said look I I don't want to be the it's a cup of coffee a day or it's you know this is nothing you know this is a significant amount of money it's double digit millions of dollars by the time we're all done uh can can the revenues from it pay its own way and pay down its debt and if it can't we'll stop that I don't think we're at that point I think we're going to be okay but we want to be really you know much more sure than we are at this very moment so we're going to meet again this Thursday uh as a board have have our finance guys and have whip City come in with a little bit more detailed knowledge of what other towns have done including like West Springfield that also had an incumbent and Westfield themselves that had an incumbent provider we don't think that the Hilltown reference is valid excuse me because uh you have one choice of provider in those towns it was you know whip City because they they got a contract from the state the state heavily subsidized everything else and then you sign up they're they're sitting pretty pay down their debt whip City's also done a masterful job of paying down their own debt in their own City with revenues from the other communities that they are operating in which kudos to them for the foresight to even set up this operation but we want to be sure for the as a steward of the the taxpayers money from the um you know and I you know with all that we're doing but this especially because it's it's a ginormous amount of money with you know there's some downside risk to it yeah we think we're going to be successful we want to be sure yeah watch some Thursday at Thursday at 6 yes now I don't know where it's going to be because where we always met is not available anymore so probably maybe here I don't know in town hall next marijuana dispensary next step of scoring to be completed we're at that point we're done with scoring things yeah we ready to make a decision do you we're ready to discuss it I think we need to I think we need to figure out how I'm sorry to jump in this so I really like to have Diane lead the way here because she's done a lot of the work on the scoring and but I really want to I want to think that we need to talk about unless we think it's a non-issue the thousand foot issue because I think we can create a problem depending on on if we offer host agreements to enter into negotiation for a host agreement with with two that would conflict that we would create our own conflict with our own bylaw so how do you resolve that um do you have a firm one and two in your mind I do look at them and see if there are two that can conflict Jason do you I have an idea which way I'm going but this you know I I do want to say something that I talked about last time the interviews brought to light some things that in my opinion were not clearly spelled out into some of these things and to me the interview mattered brought it a lot closer has really changed what what I came up with but it definitely changed my uh what it would have definitely brought it really really tight um again I'm a I've talked about how I feel about interviews in certain aspects so but that's it I'm I'm ready to move forward at this point you have a number one and two choice where are they on the map you know they wouldn't conflict neither would mind so I think we're ready to vot checking you have all three on here or you only have it two no I have all three this is one this is two and the other one is there that one sorry remember when I was young I could see I can see the glasses presenting so this is one two 11 this is 660 that church yeah yeah y okay so these two are not a problem this one you need three numbers you need I mean we can you can you need a distance from I didn't frame my book s would you have the I think that's a different map the one that was on the com s probably yeah yeah I think you got problems some right you need three numbers right you need the distance just you have three people in front of Haven and cannabis Hut cannabis Hut and Pioneer Valley Pioneer Valley and Haven then you have all your numbers yep thanks this one um this one is 867 to so that that's you have this one right that's this one that is yes yeah this is this is and you need this distance yeah so this one I'm sorry yeah this one and this one yeah so this is um this to this sorry that's yeah that's that's this one right and then this is yes right so you need this distance here which obviously it's going to be if that's that this is way less than that on its face yes I was looking at this one to this one and this one to this one isn't this the same thing this is this is this is Haven right it's in I thought you just wrote that this is the same place this is this is the Family Dollar location today right yes right so that's haven oh yeah that's what that means yeah that that is that so this is 867 to that this is greater this is more than yes this one and this one but then this one to this one is way less just on its face you could see it right okay so you have two potential you'd have to look at what your ones and twos are but that's this is a conflict this is a conflict this is probably not a conflict maybe correct and it's building to building not loot to lock correct this is not the conflict yeah wait beyond the Thousand yeah this to this correct right but this is and then this is correct you have two two conflicts correct okay but if you're one and two are not in Conflict there's no conflict oops okay so we have a compliment yeah I do so I I don't know how we would do it so you do you do you grant I I don't know that you've moveed to move any of them or do you move one and then you say we got to figure out the legal expanation second and by the way I'm but one member of this board and I have no idea where you guys are we know we have a social Equity who gets the weighted score and CCC expedited processing which we said we were going to Grant one of them we only have one of them but that doesn't affect our ranking we still they did they did rank in the top right coming out of the inter how how did they well okay just why of we were uh I'm not monopolizing your meeting I'm just trying to get here so from our rankings how did they come out for for the public numerically yeah uh was number one 4326 pvtc was number two at 4273 and cannabis Hut was number three at 3914 and four that was sunrise at 3.85 n okay and our social Equity one is aen and and there was another component to this one no uh number three this one and this oneing oh she she was but she wasn't in our top three yeah that we were moving forward all interesting so we saying that this this one has to move forward based on that by our agreement how we were going to do it so then it's all over but the shouting for these two correct and this one has no this one does not and this one had no other component to it I looked on the scet I know they didn't looked that was one of the things I was looking at right I was trying to make my decision any advice on on as far as this this issue yeah I I knew one and four had the extra components right that's that's right um but how to settle the issue um you now you have a conflict is that what you're saying we have a district conflict his number two okay is with my personal two but apparently yeah my personal two are not so you're saying this so it's where are your personal two well we can't you gotta we're in public so you go we gotta just I already said mine wouldn't conflict so there you go so I think I think you got to move for barring distance those are my personal two let me just say that they were my one and two well barring distance barring everything else this is my issue my number two were Haven and P pbtc and you're of like mine like I said it the interviews did matter to me because it was absolutely abs abolutely you know and I have my opinion on things I'm just going to say nothing those I'm of the like mind as far as one and two I had the same one and two and I do like one and two because they're both medical as well which is an important factor that I think they offer different products um which doesn't make them the same in the community have a lot of other Reas if can well I mean this really should be I mean it we are a three member board y I just think from you know you did a lot of the heavy lifting on the score sheet setup and and I you know I did the scoring I went through each one and frankly I to I kind of try to take a blind eye to it knowing we but I wanted to score each application on it on its own absolutely and um and then I wanted to go through this interview process um kind of not looking at that either you know we we did have a robust discussion on it during the interview process as well um but I I'm I'm they also have I'm sorry they also have the heaviest local management input longest running and deepest rooted investment in Comm and they're all great applications they they were great they're in roughly the same time frame for up and running one is leasing one is purchasing great Community programs yeah I tried to answer what all the naysayers that aren't going to like it I tried to address what their concerns would be and these two kept coming out at the to as package as a whole and they very if the only the Picker that pushed it one way for me was the community relationships and but I just want to say you guys have an amazing cannabis Hut folks your interview was amazing everybody had great interviews you your interview was amazing great depending on how these scores had come out it could have pushed me one way or the this is why you like I said I wish I could have interviewed everybody I wish maybe it there was things that tweaked a little bit different but it makes you you guys really for me I'm torn but that's the way my numbers came out and that's the way we agreed to kind of steer this so that's where I am right now I mean we can think of or we can I but at this point I mean we've dragged this out long enough and I'm Mr M I'm not going to you have your right to your your TOS absolutely so you know I well not really because I think one of them's going to get a license based on on the equity and we only had one Equity applicant in front of us that we interview that's and that was that's part of the tough thing of the whole process is the way the state put some of this stuff in front of and then well in our own bylaws the well the you definitely with the the distance thing that threw a Mony we said we said that byog was going to be self-limiting by its nature as well and if they want to grow that's going to be have to be a thousand feet from any of these locations as well oh give give the Triple C 10 minutes go I mean unless it's collocated but I don't know if do that what are you looking for Mr chairman I guess I'd be looking for a motion to for the top two I do one at a time because in case there's any any any discussion or or or anything else you don't want you want to be able to proceed on on entering into a host agreement with any one of these as we vote my just my advice I don't no that's that's fair makes sense so I will make a motion to award the first post Community agreement negotiation to Haven we'll have to second a motion Mr chairman I'll second the motion roll call vote Jason P I thank you Doug M no okay and the second motion for a post Community agreement negotiation to go to Piner Valley Trading Company Doug Mogan will second the motion roll call vote Jason Peron I van I Doug moglin yes and there we be that's it okay I want to thank everybody for putting in for it I know it's been a very interesting and crazy process so but we're at least we're at this point now and we'll go from there okay are we still waiting Town Council input on 61 a um we got something I don't think that he necessarily understood what I was asking and he was on vacation so I really need to have a verbal conversation with our attorney and I also have a call in an M our attorney so I want to get it all but he was on um Ben was on vacation last week the week before so I wasn't and kind of takes a while to get back but I'll make sure that I talk to him this week and have an answer to get this off of Old business for the next meeting very good I'm with a de mopal Hometown Grant I'll be going to the either in person or zooming into to the park and wreck uh with the uh Mr Columbo I believe his name is with the company that's going to be um proposing the mesh program to uh provide the Wi-Fi for the park and then from that point forward after we've got everybody's in uh concerns done myself and Cara are going to finish up on the Grant and send it out okay um the last on our list right now is to select the master plan implementation subcommittee [Music] members so we'll invite those new volunteers to the next one I guess the question next meeting we interview and then we'll figure out who of us is going to be the select board person at that correct same time that sounds good I have no old business personally oh gosh I forgot all about that um can we go back to new business real quick I I saw it and just rang in my head I just wanted to call out the open Farm day even though it was brought up in public comment that is Sunday 10 to 4 and I think there's Maps downstairs some BL as well and that's really all I had there was a big agenda to me did anyone else have anything new that we wanted to discuss on your new business yes we we jumped ahead a little bit think why I was any Rush maybe not a rush but anxious to get the some some conclusion on some certain things yeah it was a heavy agenda um there no old business of it no Mr M I just have one I was gonna was going to carry the farm day under old business because we've talked about it extensively I encourage everyone to to visit the establishments in our town that are participating in in u the open Farm day and I wanted to relate back to the board I did send an email to the chairman of the Agricultural commission Mr Hansen and I received a very wonderful and kind reply with an explanation for their thought process around uh what I had brought up under uh report last week and um I kind of thought that was the end of it um I will take um exception to a member of the Agricultural commission um prend I think he might even be the vice chair but to come on and say well I'm not talking about someone from the Adcom this is just this but I'm involved with open F day and I I think this um as is his right to speak under public comment as is my right as an elected select board member um to to discuss this under old business um I like Mr Fury he's a good guy his heart's in the right place I I thought that I had addressed this with Mr with the chairman I sent it to him to to be read at his board under public comment and which was the proper way to address it and I sent it as as a select board member because I had vetted it or I had mentioned it in front of this board um but um I still think that an activity that's being sponsored with taxpayer dollars and co-sponsored with our Economic Development commission um I think our Point's still valid I have nothing against the interner relationships and and the economic relationships that we have with you know our neighbors to the west and the North and the South for that matter and I get that we have you know farmers and businesses that have locations in both but uh I'll be honest that you know part of this was a thinly veiled shot at One Singular business in town which we which was remedy the work of another select board member who I deeply appreciate their effort to take care of this um and I you know I completely understand that hey from Southwick goes to Granville to make ice cream up there I get it and I encourage everyone to visit businesses all over the place but I'm an elected selectman from the town of Southwick and it's my job to represent the interestes of of the businesses in in the town of Southwick that are participating in the open Farm day and to keep the folks that come and visit our town to stay in town and have a meal or visit our shops and do whatever so I'll stand by what we talked about um and I'll still agree with you and and you know I appreciate that I really do so I'll get off my soap box now so we can we can get out of here and as I said if I'm going to say it there was never any clarification or discussion that I've ever heard about including other towns maybe that should have been more clearly dis you know discussed but I I agree with you if they want to expand it to Pioneer Valley Farm day great you know that makes sense you know I understand their inter relation between the yeah the uh uh Regional you know the whole Regional aspect of it but maybe that should have been stated at some point and to beat a dead horse no Farm pun intended right right we I I I mentioned last week and I said it in my letter to Bert you know how much I'm so looking forward to open Farm day cuz I got to like a third of the places that we had in town last week and to a person was lamenting that they couldn't get everywhere in South and now we're going to make it have more and make it harder I get the hours they're GNA have two shifts of people and that the hours are slightly longer but they're asking all the businesses to step up and do more things to entertain people for longer you know I never got out of out of the place at the at the South End for an hour and a half and was just talking to the owner and petting his dog let alone a Hy ride and all this other stuff that they're trying to do this year I think that you know that that was really my point of this whole thing it wasn't to aggravate a business to you know that's not in our town but you know from a budgeting perspective we allocate money in our budget taxpayer dollars in our budget to support this activity and we wholeheartedly did it well obviously we put too much money behind it if we're having to go and spend it outside of our town and you know Economic Development you know committee you know God bless them they're doing yman work with the website and some of the other stuff but as you know this is kind of a bit of a mission free for them too um to you know they should be trying to figure out how we're going to get more people into the town of Southwick participate in the events in our town and then have people stay here after the thing we did that you know they did a great job with the Motocross and a couple other events with signage and drawing people to other attractions and things in our business again I'll get off my soap box but it really it really frosted me tonight to have have a member of the of of that committee after you know what we had a discussion with the chairman uh you know how this was going to go and then to report that oh I'm not speaking as a member of the commission but he was you know you know obviously involved in the planning and implementation of this this event and like I said you know I I I really respect Mr Mr Fury we've done a lot of things together we've had some great conversations together I guess we'll just agree to disagree on this one particular issue but thank you F gr is open to all counts just want to get it out there so there's no and how much how many tax dollars are involved in the expenditure on on the farm parade zero sir we actually donate money back thank you sir do we have executive session we do not we do not n do you have anything old Nicole anything old uh I would like just for our next meeting please can we schedule executive session to discuss pending litigation yes I we can't do it wasn't posted for this meeting so we need to do that okay please and that is about it so I would be looking for a motion to adjourn the meeting motion to adjourn second roll call vote Jason Peron Doug Mogan absolutely