go hi this is the regular schedule meeting of the dayon development and Industrial Commission this meeting is being recorded for rebroadcasts on the town um public askc Channel cable and also on YouTube if everyone could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance States um so I didn't have any old business um and for new business I just put one agenda item which is let's continue talking about our 2020 plans which there were a lot of different tentacles to that you know we've been talking about over the past couple months um so one of them was to come up with a marketing like trifold newsletter kind of yes I did review the PDF I know if you saw this yeah so I emailed that out looks awesome so this is a draft yep I saw all the qbas in there yeah yeah um and so this is something we could not traffic with um people when they sign up for business certificate yeah I'll be on the directory or I'm interested in the um being on the spotlight Series so I thought maybe if we gave these at the minimum to the town clerk so she could hand those out as people um sign up for a business certificate but then we can also use it you know any place else we're going um put them at the Town Hall um can also use it digitally you know just email it out to people that sort of thing um absolutely so a couple things in here um one is it starts off with this message from the Town Administrator which might be not right um I copied most of that from some Town out in Colorado but I just liked it so I emailed Mike and said you know you have the option of rewriting this this is just a placeholder but um and there's a lot of places in here where I mention like the business portal at www.tv.com so right now we do have a page on the town website but it's kind of buried it's hard to navigate to in the menu tree and you about trouble finding it and if you tell them the URL it's this long thing that no one's going to remember so I would like to like buy a domain like ww do titan connects.com or connected.com or Titan bus.com I would like to have the Doom in there as opposed to the Dogo because it's just more memorable people just you give them a URL they just assume it's a doom so I don't know I'm gonna have to ask mikee is that okay that the town has a DOT address instead of a.gov address right once upon a time and I only know this because when I took office I had to update a lot of contact information various Banks and things yeah know once upon a time the town used antown of.com email server yeah I found I found a lot of old stuff I was changing over there's no big deal about doing that but it goes for like $45 for 3 years you H the domain I think that's we could probably that we get a worn article or something um and that way too the software that the town uses is nice but form it's 12 yeah so this would allow us to just have a blank date we if we wanted to you know so I think that would be a good idea I just want to check with Mike before I like we talk about like actually pulling the trigger and come up with name see if there's a domain that we like and we can see if it's available and I like it okay um the other thing was like this picture in here one is from Shaw's and that's one the one the videographer took but Char's never signed the con the release form for us really yeah they verbally said okay and let her step foot in there and do everything but every time I said can you just sign this to let us use the pictures they just like Haven I'm got back so um I'm sure it's just they're not intentional it's just the busy he's not paying attention I've stopped in he's not there you know I don't know if anybody here actually has met the new owners or I haven't met the new owners I've got a friend who's got a vote there that I could talk to to see if I could try to get a contact number okay um but I haven't met them yet okay so that's just kind of one of the things we'd have to take off the bo you know his name um not off the top I I do but I have it I don't know the name off the top of my head it wouldn't happen to be Scott Kenny would it it's two guys from from a um Berkeley but I don't know their names okay that's okay definitely not yeah there one of the little things we have to te up here um I've got an aunt who lived in Berkeley for 75 years maybe she can maybe she okay I'll give you their names yeah okay um I also talking here about posting your business EV on our event calendar which of course we do not actually have an event calendar so let's get one know other towns do this where it's like you have something going on at your town post it advertise it and we'll put it on our calendar kind of thing we could also do if we have that web page or you know that sort of thing so yeah we could even do things like um you know share articles almost like like blog post type things to generate Buzz even ask um folks on some of the other committees like permitting bodies like planning board zoning board conservation if they'd be willing to contribute anything just just information that might be of note to somebody who's doing a project yeah absolutely um yeah I think that could be could be a lot of fun okay good um I also added in here about regular posts on the ddic Facebook and Linkedin page which we don't do regular posts I just I'm not a social media guy and I just don't I don't use Facebook much so I don't put anything out there and we've never gotten access to the town's LinkedIn page my keep saying oh we forgot the password we have to try to find it someplace and but uh John and I were in an event at the Chamber of Commerce and Taunton economic planner was there and he said link book is definitely where you want to be LinkedIn rather is definitely where you want to be he gets a lot of traction off of that so I guess hosting having that LinkedIn presence is important so yeah it's a LinkedIn yeah yeah what did I say I think said link book link okay no LinkedIn yeah is that is that Jay p p yeah great guy great guy yeah I I follow his content I actually follow him on LinkedIn I'm I'm one of those LinkedIn engagements that he gets yeah he post a lot of great stuff and um actually one of the things they post about that would be really great for us to learn more about and if we have the ability to take part in it is the um the underutilized properties Grant I know very little about it but I do know there's a state grant called the unutilized properties grant that Taunton is using in order to I believe it's to secure funds for people that are going to rehabilitate you know buildings that are commercial industrial but need a lot of work I believe that they that's a program designed to kind of soften the blow for somebody that's willing to take on a project but it's called the under the underutilized property program and he posts about it all the time really yeah they're doing they're doing a couple things down the Weir um I forget exactly what but think one thing down the Weir and something at the green I believe that's for existing buildings right right oh yeah that's true we don't have very many of actually we got the we've got the mill which I know that's not Town owned but um the mill oh yeah that's not I wonder if that's something that would qualify if somebody were to acquire it or if it were to be sold I wonder if that's something that would be um yeah I think what you're thinking of say in Taunton is the I think it's the belt it's right on the corner of uh c7th Fifth Street if I'm not mistaken in where Street um and the place they will actually give it to someone for a dollar providing that they do the right thing no kidding to it you know no kidding my dad grew up on Seventh Street that's funny I I bet he probably tell me the whole history of the building oh I'm sure he would I'm sure he would but I I don't know how that works supposedly there was somebody that was interested in it but they still Haven come up with the funds or something like that but it's pretty interesting so so you know this is kind of a track also I talk in here about people wanting to participate in our quarterly business round table which of course we do not have a quarterly business round table but it's one of the things we had talked about is having regular meetings where invite in I think it's a great idea absolutely yeah we could even offer it as a you know offer it hybrid that way if people want to come in like a digital coffee connect with the local government in a way to kind share sure what's going well what's not going well what are the pain points what can you know what can government do to to try to encourage economic activity so uh this a draft if people have feedback or comments um Mike's been on vacation but hope he's back this week he has some feedback and I know the town actually has a marketing firm that they use they have like a set number of hours they jgp John Gil foil public relations and I think that mic controls like he gets to use how many hours number of hours that they buy for the year and we might have plenty because we originally were the town I think I think unless they amended whatever deal they were going to do with them there was originally going to be a monthly newsletter that the town would be putting out that they had contracted um yeah I saw Facebook jpr about it they ended up moving it just because department heads were having a hard time coming up with content every month so they moved it to every other month so I'm not sure if we you know contracted hours based on monthly right so we may unless they changed it we may very well have uh you know have some in the kitty so to speak but if they could review this and give us you know their input and feedback and suggestions you know whether it's just about layout or colors or content or anything and you know more the marrier yeah um did anybody have anything else any feedback about about the the strike fold or what can be used for or how to change it prove it so um we'll just keep this you know we'll keep working on it see what they say Mike says and just feed me any any feedback you have about know improve it awesome okay um some of the other things we had talked about was um and I don't know if you had a chance to do anything about this Paul but we've been talking about whether the land use could identify properties that could be leased for agricultural purposes yes that is in process right now um I was I actually spoke with Stephanie today she's hoping to have a list for me this week of uh potential candidate uh properties so what I told her we'll do is once we get the full list of the potentials that um I'm going to ask her to do like five per 10 per week that what I'll do is I'll look on the gis map see what kind of seems like a non-starter from the get-go whether it's you know completely landlocked or or you know all swamp or if there's any that we know or kind of issues yeah then once we I think we'll be able to kind of do a quick preliminary filter and then get down to however many Parcels might be potential candidates to look at and then I will um I'll start examining those on a parcel by parcel basis and I can bring however many I have that have been kind of scrubbed as potential candidates I can bring those for next month's meeting okay and um hopefully a little bit more background on them and then what I'll do is um I'll see one of the things that I'll include would be if assassin can check to see if there are like enforcement orders recorded on the properties or anything because a lot of these I'm sure have never been engineered they've never been you know perked or anything like that and um so one of the things I'll do to see if it's like an enforcement order for Wetlands or anything like that on there that we we kind of know from the get-go won't be worth looking at and um hopefully we'll have a nice healthy list that we can look at but yes I did speak with her about that today um they've been a little short-handed they just had a new employee start today so they're working on that list now they hope to have it by the end of the week and um that was my update on that one okay then I also had a business Spotlight update as well yeah if you want to share that oh sure um so I just emailed Dan today um so Chris ready who's a retired firefighter from DFD now in retirement has started allout services on home inspection company which is based out of Tian and um so he has asked if we can try to identify a date so I just this afternoon I sent out a intro email connecting him and Dan said he does the scheduling and um you sent this after yeah oh you know what I sent it to I didn't send it to your email I sent it to ddic email that's what I did and um so hopefully we can get that scheduled I did talk to I had a brief conversation with Laura and said as long as we could um just sent her a request she said that the first two weekends of may she thinks she's available but we should kind of play by ear once we know and um yeah a lot of fun I see I thought you were G to talk about the last one you just did a week ago oh oh perfect perfect yeah we also just did another one um at long last we were done talking about um having the accessories come on we finally we finally done it so I um interviewed Stephanie Sher the principal assessor um she came on We did an interview of probably around a dozen ish questions and um yeah we had a lot of fun we got some good information out there and um I think that hopefully that will encourage some questions and then um maybe we can see based on the feedback we get from the interview if maybe there's a couple specific topics that were more interest to the business community that we could have areas to drill those down further and um but yes that was that was uh those our other update on that is we've we've interviewed Stephanie Sher from the assessors we've talked about personal property um commercial valuations and what go into determining your amounts what's taxable what's not um hopefully that is Will dispel some of the fear that I think people have of like coming out of the woodwork so to speak I know some people haven't wanted to appear in the business guide because you know they're worried that we're you know calling the IRS or something like that um so hopefully that will help the kind of better um inform people who does what so that they'll want to engage with us more yeah y quick question Dan can you um do you post the URL link um to those YouTube videos on Facebook I haven't been doing anything on Facebook for quite a while so I have not well I take that back um I haven't I've been posting them actually under my own name for the last couple times we actually until this last week we haven't done one in a good five months four or five months since our last one so it's been a long time right but yeah I I did post them back then correct yeah yeah I mean I think you know that's a that's a good Avenue for us to get some you know uptake on what I think is going to be some great in in information for the citizens of dayon you know about assessing in businesses right so the more we can get that information the better I think and I think whether it was Laura or you one of our previous meetings said you know after we do it and it's available that's actually posted because I to edit it yet um that um we put it on the town site if possible and use that as a way saying does this generic questions do you have any more do you have any feedback do you have any you know more information you like to know about kind of thing and you know as opposed to just putting it out there and see what happens just put it just start saying and like this is out there for you to give us feedback on and questions back to the assessors and you know that kind of thing so so some of the questions you had actually she answered like you know if you do have a piece of your house that you're using for uh commercial purposes they going to subdivide that little 500 sare ft or something deem it commercial tax it at the appropriate rate the rest of your house is at the other rate you know I I thought that that was uh some because the same thing happened to me here when I had the barber shop there yeah that's up um and um was another Point she made but I think that a lot of people are going to shy away from registering your business because of that re yeah I mean technically this is technically the state says if you're doing business you need a business certificate and you need to get from the town and if you go to insurance company that a bank they're going to require it so it's only if you're like you don't need financing you don't need insurance you're really small that you could probably not have a business certificate without anybody noticing it but if you go for financing you go for insurance it's going to force you to do it you know you want to declare it on your taxes it's probably should have to do that you know because you can get it deductible off your personal income taxes for having it you know there is there is quite a few businesses being rent out of people's homes um and they're not that far away from us from the immediate area you know and they're very happy running the business the way they are and nobody does anything about it you know so ask her because they have been talking at one point about does this and I believe Berkeley does it too which is if your total valuation for your business is like under $5,000 or I think in in rova that's 10,000 then they just say it's a wash we're not going to if it's under that valuation between your personal property and the land value for the business section we're not going to taach you anything you and part of that is it costs money just to tax people right I mean you need staff you're sending out bills postage occasional collection notices all those add up absolutely so there's a there's a at some point there's like the town actually makes no money if they send you a bill for five bucks because it cost them 10 to run the process to begin with you know so there's some magic number where there's actually no Revenue to the town anyway you might as well say to the people right if you're under that we're not going to tax you but there's also some level where you just want to be you know encouraging business and you say at this level whether it's 5,000 10,000 whatever um so I asked her about that at the interview and she said although they brought it up once like six months ago they've not been discussing it since then right so I think that's something if they don't jump on that we might want to follow up and introduce it AB you know to say really you know that's the best thing you should do other towns do it there's no reason we don't so absolutely is that something that we could even put on for our next meeting to maybe consider doing a motion to draft a recommendation to send a letter to the board just recommending that they consider it yeah yeah I think so yeah and then between this meeting and next um I could get a little documentation from other towns that do that okay and just forward it to them that way they can kind of see the nuts and bolts yeah um oh when you're talking about leasing land for agriculture um I was going to say after you come up with a short list yes probably right off the top of their head laori and Barbara looking absolutely yeah you're not going to grow anything there and this is a great piece and you know absolutely because there are certainly things that are not landlocked we could leas but nobody in their right mind happy right I'd even be happy to drive them around all the different parts of right absolutely I I I like that idea a lot but there is one piece and I think we talked about this before which is on three month street that would be a very nice piece to develop um and I actually brought this up one time to all the people in town they got the way with then yes and the ddic was dissolved a month later true yeah that's true that's true but that was not the reason I think it was you think so but honestly we need housing for the elderly in this town really bad and I I still feel that we should try to bring that up again you know a different way presented by someone else other than Yours Truly well I will say the town is in the very early stages of putting together a housing production plan and there will probably be public hearings the board of Selectmen I think it's going through the board of Selectmen I believe can be the one spirting that so um if you don't see that on the agenda when it does come up I can try to shoot you an email or something like that as a reminder to let you know because that might be a great place to give some inut there I I just honestly I I don't know why I keep bringing that up the way it it took place before but I still feel that that would be a perfect spot for it sewer water well there is no sewer there the sewer would have to be brought up to it but I think a lot of other people would uh benefit from it uh instead of the septic systems that they have that are some of them are going south you know but I really I I don't know I you probably know more about it than than most of us other than myself oh about the parcel and sub General I mean yeah I mean it's it's a really really nice parcel my wife the other day you know about a year ago she goes do you still want this so no throw it away she tossed it all out you so I had an engineering friend of mine that that actually put something together on it the way it went out I I just that throw it out but I it keeps popping into my head somebody's going to make something of that someday may not be in my time but I think it should be done for that purpose you know but anyways um some of the other things that we talked about as part of you know things for 2024 and so some of these we talked about and just said people think about and see if there if you're interested in volunteering to like do some work on it um one was to update the town's Business Development and permitting guides um not so much to change the content but more the layout the flow just to make it easier and I think Paul you had said you had some interest in doing that yes yeah I um I have been attending as often as I can I've been attending packed meetings okay to try to identify what needs to be done to kind of bridge the silos between permitting bodies yeah um I've got a couple of ideas I don't know if I'm quite ready to you know hit the ground running with them yet but um I definitely have some I definitely have an interest in that because I think that's one of the things we really need is to kind of clarify what the rules of the road are for doing business here and I don't know if you were involved or just the chair of the Conservation Commission was involved but um Jeff um what's Jeff's last name kaval Jeff cavalo is the chair of the planning board has been part of working with Mike in conservation and storm water about reorganizing the whole permitting process oh good I I haven't been involved but I'd love to be a fly on the wall yeah about how to streamline it so it's people AR having to go to multiple committees spve more money than they really have to right for you know duplication of effort right and just make it go smoother and easier for Absol people whether it's a a house or a business AB we should look into adbar has a really really nice setup for permits this the building department so but it involves all the other departments I've seen I've no talk to people that within 48 hours they have a building permit in they through the system that they have they submit it online and from there it just goes right around and each department signs it or puts their feedback on it and stuff very very easy Taunton supposedly has one not perfected yet but they they have a very nice system coming one thing we just started and we're in the process of rolling out is um integrating different departments with permit link which I think will be huge so that's the software that the building department uses for issuing permits that's where they keep all them it's like their document repository and all that and what they have the ability to do is to build user profiles for different officials and then task them whenever something comes in so like that's how we do so we got rid of the paper form for tax sign offs now whenever a building permit application comes in I don't use the paper one anymore I get an email alert that a new one has been generated and I've been assigned a t so then I log into permit link and I pull it up pull the parcel and then you know check the property owner check the taxes all that stuff and then I do my sign off digitally and then um I think that so conservation now has just started utilizing that as well the assessors are on the cusp of it they just got a joint email box U that saves us from having to buy multiple licenses for each individual in a department like I made a separate email it's just treasur collector at titon Ma and it goes to everybody that way if I'm out of office and a permit request comes in somebody in the office can get it and log in um I think that that would be a really big win for um like if krie for example were to get a log in for that because she's you know office manager for Planning and Zoning so that would be able to kind of allow her to to weigh in if there's something some requirement for each individual thing um I think that's one step that will help a lot but um it's just one of those things there's so many moving Parts like every time I have my Eureka moment that solves the DI and permiting process like oh yeah wait still this still this school this that's the reason why I want no part of it because I I'm just terrible terrible actually that reminds me in the pamphlet I put in here um who do I contact about my news business and I say please start with the planning office that's car y That's directly because what Jeff is kind of pushing for that planning be kind of like the Hub yeah which storm water conservation feed right not that they don't have their own things that don't involve planning sometimes but really most things come in planning yeah so okay so did you need any working through the um I would love as know as much as you want to be involved yeah so let me something okay I'll as I get invited to packed meetings too I'll start um you know letting you know when they are in case you can make it if you can't if um there's any you know good nuggets that come out of it I'll I'll shoot you a synopsis okay all right good um the next item was um find ways to support or grow homebased businesses um I am going to reach out to Carrie she was out sick last week about trying to get on their planning board's agenda for June is she back um I don't she wasn't really out she was just working for home I think right right but um I don't know if she's back better okay um but to present it in June to the planning board our ideas about loosening up guidelines on homebased businesses letting a little bit more less restrictive um hopefully they'll buy into it and either some that or some version of it that they approve get on the um special town meeting you know see if they can can that pass nice um let's see um research how other towns approach rural landscape design this was a suggestion by the um by ciruit for the economic development plan I'm not 100% sure you know right how this would work in dayon um I think we've talked about how our planning guidelines right now particularly on businesses talk more about screening and buffers than they do a landscape design that has gives like the town a certain Vibe about how the town looks and presents itself and you know that kind of thing which is what some towns have done some you know to the extreme like historical town that kind of thing but the idea that you know the town start putting some guidelines like it's not just tall trees that screen you it's we want a certain look right when you drive down the street right you can pick one of these five types of trees you know particularly for businesses this is you know what we want you the neighborhoods to look like so some towns have done this you know I think actually John you were saying Bridgewater or has started something along those same lines am I correct J you're mute yeah um absolutely in Bridgewater they're starting to um actually it's coming up to a vote this week um to implement within the downtown district um a form based zoning I think it's called and um basically it doesn't there what they're trying to do is say show me what you want to do with this property and if it meets certain criteria then we're going to let you do it right so you know they're not going to consider height restrictions anymore they're you know they're really willing to combin um commercial and residential in the same unit um that sort of thing so um I think that is going to pass um this next week in bridgew war but there were even guidelines about like what the street side has to look like right in terms of size windows and sizes and shapes of window sills and they're trying to get a certain look right absolutely yes yeah so so I don't know if that's something you know we still want to think about I I just head it on there see if somebody wants to research that and see um you know what and come up with some ideas of what if at all that would you know how that would play out in di landscape design that reflects the character of the Town town right so Wetland plants that's that's going to open up a lot of I can only imagine telling some homeowner you have to do this some skunk cabbage over there I wasn't think it's so much homeowner I think businesses but just strictly business like going down County Street if we had a way to like make everybody says County sleep treat is ugly it's just Barren is what it is you know there's no trees is just dirt in buildings and maybe a little bit of graph and pavement so that's just if you picture that but said know what if this looked different would it help the town and would it help grow businesses If this just looked different it looked appealing as you were going down I know that the Conservation Commission has um I know Laura Barbara are probably G to watch this meeting I'll tell you I'm not a farmer so I'm not going to tell you if they've like grow sprouted or otherwise um hatched so to speak a bunch of um chestnuts so they now have I think there's somewhere like around a hundred of them remaining right now and um they've all you know they've cracked and started to come out and I know that the chairman of the Conservation Commission is um is stated he's willing to give them for free to anybody who's got an appropriate amount of land who would be interested in revitalizing the uh you know North American chestnut population um but he also told he also told me that some people let them grow to a certain size and then they go there and take them so where are they going I don't know but he's already had a couple of them disappear interesting yeah so I I I'm going to ask him to take a few because I I have spots that I can put them on nice but um I don't know exact I'm even thinking of putting some around the house over here nice on U on the corner that'll be a great place for somebody to go there and take it it's gone in 60 seconds right yeah well we can just you know just leave that as an item um and circle back to it because I know other people are working on different things so um one was something that um had said she would look into she's not here tonight but research how other towns have found ways to enhance um agriculture through the use of incubator spaces and I know John often brings up the example of um I'm sorry what's the name of the incubator space in Rhode Island yeah um thanks thanks you're gonna make me remember it remember it it's in it's inage yeah yeah so but you know are there what would be required right what's a feasible size of a building to take on such an Endeavor what are the requirements in terms of Power and Water and health code restrictions and all that kind of thing both of them were really excited about the very idea of it because you know they said you know professional ovens and all those kind of things are so expensive but there's always a need for people who are looking to to make use of that kind of thing absolutely they just wanted to do so you know I think Laura said she would do some research on that to just to get us more information and see if that's something that could exist in dayon what are the requirements for it so um let's see research ideas for technical support the town could offer to small businesses like what have other towns done what would be the cost benefits um I think John you had mentioned that you might have some time to look into to that and I haven't okay fair enough that's okay this is research only this was not to come up with a deliverable so yep okay um I know that you know when you talk about some of that you're like the town putting up money to get X benefit available to the businesses which would be a struggle you know for dyon but are there things that are either no real cost to the town but they could just make available for sharing or minimal cost that would really help a business you know so they don't have to do as much um on their end in terms of services that they're trying to stand up to support things okay um and then Laura Laura also agreed to look at more about ecotourism things like Farm to Table dinners corn mazes all those kind of side things that Farms can do to like add extra money but they're kind of adjacent to running a farm absolutely but she actually said it's big business you know and it really helps you know the farmers to You Know cover their costs when they do those sorts of things you know so um so she just going to give some more information on that I think those are all the things we had talked about like maybe working on or looking at this year so I don't know if I missed anything I think you got them okay um so that's actually all I had for for today I didn't have any correspondents uh we have no public input um I didn't get the chance to do the meetings meet minutes so we can vote on those next time sounds good did anybody have anything they want to bring up before we adjourn no all right entertain a motion oh our next meeting date will keep for the fourth Monday of the month for May okay which I think would be May 20th I double check here Monday looks to me like the 27th Monday the 27th that's oh it's Memorial Day it's Memorial Day so do people want to keep it on Memorial day do we want to reschedule are people going away do they travel plans I don't have any plans on that as of yet um do we want to skip May um I can't do the I can't bring It Forward a week because Rafael and I are going away for that week um so so and I don't know if we just want if we meet in two weeks it might not really be we don't have a lot to talk about in terms of progress to discuss so um we can either I would suggest either we stick with the Memorial Day or we not meet in May and just resume in June I think those are two best choices yeah let's go with that if something pops up then okay does that work for people we meet uh the fourth Monday in June but if there's something that comes up we can always plan around it and and put together a meeting that sound great sounds good um and somebody want to make a motion forment I'll make a motion toour have a second second second okay all in favor I um meetings adjourn um thank you for joining have a great night have a good night byee you know I actually do now that we're done I have some interesting