good evening everyone um this is a regular no no this is a working session of the Southwick agricultural commission uh today is uh Wednesday April 24th 2024 uh we are recording the meeting and we do have um a quorum with myself Bert Hansen Sage Fury Angie Simone Marissa cook alberon Zack Barnett Jess um Parker and Jen deetra so um and we we can jump right into uh we have a guest speaker Vera Craig talking about a new farmers and Makers Market in Springfield so do you want to come up there there's room for both of you if you oh we got we sitting there okay can they see me yeah right here that's okay oh okay hi hello hello hi um so yeah we thought we would let you go first so you don't have to sit here for a whole hour you know and listen to all our okay first of all um thank you for having myself and Frank and um Angie I know Angie from Borg we are first grade teachers and she's on oh we're on the same team and um she keeps me inline at work and vice versa Andre yeah so yeah no her more than her keeping me in line and I'm new so she's she's kind of like guiding me along okay on the my job and I always try and go see her because she's a great teacher so um thank you an put that put that in a minute yeah so I mentioned to Angie that we're starting up we're we having a farmers market fourth year in Springfield on Plum Tree um as a fundraiser for Holy Cross church um it runs from August to October and um we're just we're looking for some really good Farmers to come and um share your local produce um to sell your local produce it's a great venue we're right on the Main Street Plum Tree Road if you know anything about Springfield and um we are um looking like I said for some really good Farmers to sell your products we're all in favor of keep of selling local produce to um uh any the residents in our neighborhood and um we also are going to have Crafters there also so it's Farmers Market SL Crafter but we really are emphasizing Farmers to be there because we have a a lot of people in our in our um sector of the city or in the city that are looking for fresh produce locally grown and we want to support our farmers and um what else can I say uh I have some packets here um with uh our application prices we are charging which is I think very um good it's not too high a Saturday yeah $10 a Saturday we have our um waiver of insurance and our regulations on it there's some wrong dates on some of it but oh our hours are from 9 to 1 on Saturdays but if Farmers feel like they're selling more they can stay open as long as they want Saturdays or Sundays Saturdays Saturday last year's yeah it was last year's yeah we we need we're going to update it because Sunday is your day for rest for Farmers day for rest so um we wanted to do Saturday this year and um yeah let me give you a little history this is Frank who's who's helping rock out for ver CR she wanted to raise money for the church and she says you know what we should do a farmers market and I have a history of um 28 years doing CFT air and um then then with Co and all we kind to let that slide by and this did seem like a wonderful idea and so we we researched it work very closely with what going on at Florest Park um as Vera mentioned Plum Tree Road is third in Access North South is Roosevelt Avenue and East West is SAR Avenue so we are one block off of each of those at the intersection it's heavily travel it's we and there's a high I mean here's a sales pit there's a high turnover in our neighborhood the young families you know they retired the people that are moving away and we're losing them as well so we have so many young families and they're walking their dogs and their baby carriages and it's a Village Green atmosphere on the front lawn of Holy Cross church 221 plary Road it's fun the the Crafters the Farmers uh literally enjoy the people in order to make additional money besides the fee for the farmers and Crafters our our women almost a couple men Bakers also but we literally had a bake sale every Sunday so we we tried to draw draw the uh the people um as Zur said we're very interested in helping and supporting local farmers we're deliberately going in A Wider Circle we we we went North and we went East and so now we've decided to come over toward Southwick and West Springfield I did try Westfield and I tried further north um so last year was a down year for us we had a gentleman that died of throat cancer another one with the terrible back injury and the season was not good for our fruit and Orchard man um we had a husband wife team that wanted Sundays off so ver said we're not going to give up we're try Saturday and if you can tell our person out we we have a ball doing this and the parisers are very faithful so are the young families we're heavily advertised we will be heavily advertising it for every Saturday and then the last day in October we have a big um is that Halloween C hay ride we have a big hay ride and um cookies apple cider so it's a big like finale in the last week in April I want to M her somebody's got a dog sorry that's my dog okay love so um does anybody have any questions for us that they want to ask us about the this farmers market coming up in August and in October every Saturday do you have any questions for us um well you said Frank last year was kind of a Down year was that in terms of numbers of farm Farmers we were solid with everybody else but no uh do you have a town bulletin that type of thing where we can put some information in uh sure try to get to our website we can put on our website yeah we we can put up stuff on our website for you um I just need graphic or just you know information basically I can put it up together if you don't have anything okay do you guys have a website we will okay yeah we put the link up we don't have a website but we'll send you the gra you have like a Facebook page or something we can link to that okay Frank we'll email all of them whatever he okay I don't have his email I can give it to Angie yeah Angie got Angie's my Goto person and who should I send it to whatever I I see her every day so I can give it to her at work okay any questions or anything you want to ask anybody is there any particular kind of produce or product that you're looking for that might be Dairy fruit um even I know some Farmers have meat yeah um eggs eggs would be great eggs really sell we we've done wine and we had two different actually three different people bring in US honey honey dropped off the other two we have a couple local honey ear yeah honey would be great there are some people that are looking to to widen their vegetables would be great tomatoes um ever seasonal yeah yeah whatever seasonal in the summer uh we're looking for I can't even now I'm drawing a blank on vegetables I just can think of tomatoes corn if it's food and produce yeah yeah and um welcome milk dairy jams jellies anything that you make in from the farm we're interested in I just have a question um say you get three people selling honey are you going to turn anyone away from selling there like if you have say you have too much honey we we tried we tried to that did not go well and and the large one there people could never sit down this amazed me the the young women that were working their display were all they could you know they they couldn't sit down and they were looking for a bigger Market than than what we had so we dropped to two in both yeah because we don't want them to compete one had the honey butter and you know slightly different problem right so um anything else to have specifics because I'm thinking in terms of a strategy we have some farms in town that already have their Farm Stand but may not have the capacity or bandwidth to do a farmers market but we do have some small kind of Homestead Farms where people are making jams they have eggs um some folks are also kind of starting like their own little like micro farm with vegetables and they're just starting like a tiny little stand outside of their you know plot of land and this may be perfect for them because it's from the way that you're describing it the level of commit the flexibility it just sounds like it could be right up their alley especially if they're just really small getting started maybe they don't have an outlet yet to sell to and this could be kind of a happy marriage of you guys getting that kicked off and it also helps from social media uh the social media standpoint because if we make a call out to folks that follow us on our website and Facebook uh if we have specifics like all these things that you gave us jams jellies honey like those are keywords and people who read that will say oh okay I actually do sell that this would be a great opportunity just makes it feel a little bit more accessible right like oh maybe this is a good place for me to try to sell my first year of produce you know so thank you for being so specific because that helps us maybe draw in some folks that otherwise you know might be intimidated you know if they're just getting up and going right no we welcome any fresh produce any Wonder um we even had a woman make her own tomato sauce oh tomato sauce and uh she made her own uh what's that thing you that H hot Jam jelly or something pepper jelly she made that along with tomato sauce and some other canned stuff that she was selling so yeah it can be extensive a variety we welcome a variety of all kinds of things that farmers would like to sell great that's really helpful so our social media people can specifically post those terms right thank you yes no problem and hopefully we hear back from some Farmers here yeah yeaha um hotel in 45 FR row if a farmer or an independent person like the homesteaders wanted to participate do they have to lock in for every Saturday Okay so they can pick what we have we have um different we different they can so there's different there's different pric on the application well it's if it's the full season it's $10 if it's no for the full season it's $1 $10 is Saturday sorry yeah and and then it jumps through um 15 by weekly biweekly and then U oh okay so it's in the literature okay so they want to come and try it out for a day yeah $10 okay if they they think this is going pretty good I think I want to come back again they can do a biweekly perfect and if that and if they really think they want to do it they can buy a season for you know to for a stand on whatever they PID in so far can talk 120 for 12 weeks awesome we're really accommodating we enjoy doing it yeah it's it's becomes family yeah I mean we we we hope to have some food trucks we had a seriously good barbecue yeah and then we have the ear we we lost the early um breakfast item person but we we had the hot dogs and we we tried an ice cream truck so have really been working on this because it's fun yeah it sounds like a winwin for people as well they're just getting up and going with their own small business this is a perfect opportunity to showcase and yeah so yep is sure like an incubator you know a business incubator that's great we are ready to rock this farmers market GL so are [Laughter] we I just had a quick comment um like I was wondering so some might feel like it might be a little bit too far but can they combine forces and maybe have like one person man their stand or something like that if they wanted to maybe if a couple Farmers wanted to get vegetables together or something yeah and maybe spell committed I don't know that's like an option too you know somebody's there Manning they volunteer like person and it's you're just setting up across the sidewalk it's to EAS set up and break down right is yeah we're on a main drag I live off that street I live off the Street yeah it's a busy street and like I said we're going to be advertising heavily for this farmers market we would like to get um an idea of who's coming so we can put them in our advertisement and make sure we publicize if they're going to be coming we have like Fresh Dairy fresh eggs butter whatever they're going to sell um Tomatoes we want to uh advertise if we get some Farmers com we want to start our advertising August September October we'd love to be adver in June or July yeah yeah June or July so coming soon I think Frank you mentioned it's a kind of a Village Green type of there's an extensive front lawn in front of the church so and that's where you're your you're set up on Plum Tree Road I say it's it's it's one one and a half blocks from Roosevelt and two blocks from they having you but anyway we you know with the tents we do have a an irrigation and sprinkling system so you can't really Drive Stakes into the ground but they wait they weigh their tents down and some have just tables and others have the tents and they get sered coffee early in the morning and are there places to sit picnic tables or anything like that or a few we want to put that in front of the um food truck yeah the tables so that when people order or something they have plac that sit down also wise enough to keep him up and moving from farmer to Farmer right so you don't want him too comfortable right we're trying to get some entertainment also yeah so I'm gonna hit up the uh high schools the um the bands um what's that what do you call it the jazz bands I forgot what they call we had a very senior woman that did all pep band Jas ban something with a rhythm I wanna I'm going to hit up some of the high schools in Springfield see if who did real traditional songs and all the little kids gathered around them around the church so I'm going to try and get some entertainment hopefully I'll get one of the local one of the high schools to get some of their what is that called now the band that plays it's not band music it's um upbeat music I can't think of course I'm big band no no I'm drawing a blank but I'll remember it when I'm driving home watch um stage ban Stage Band yeah oh that's nice listen yeah yeah so I have to call now to see if he can get kids because I called last time and I was too late in the season so I got a call now to see if I can get some kids on a volunteer basis to come and play for recognition yeah so we're trying to get entertainment too some music good music anybody else any other questions concerns it's right next to the Nathan bill right the playground yeah so that'll be that's kind of really nice like families can kind of spill over there yeah go to the par kid to the park right right there exactly where it is you know yeah yeah my father lives right off the plum trees so I know the area well so that's right next to the playground in that really nice little right exactly it's really for City location feel in the city there no there's some hidden jewels in Springfield nobody knows about you have to find it and I know where they are you'd think you'd in southw if you knew where they were I know I know some hidden Jewels feels like yeah very and green it is and uh yeah we we're right on the in front of the rectory and yeah we're we're getting pumped up about it so we just need to know who's going to be in it so we can put them in our advertisement what Farmers would like to join our Farmers Market because we want to get that advertisement going soon to get it out there and we have to announce it at church oh yeah do you want to mention Donal donalan gross has yeah we'll put it on her website donalan is mostly crafter but we we'll be back on there and that goes throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut so we we hope to uh throw some new people yeah and who what website is that who is that it's it's donalan well she's one of the Crafters that took it upon herself to list all kinds of craft fairs here in Farmers Market farmers markets everywhere so she'll she'll advertise for us too she's another outlet for advertising okay anybody else an no you sure I have anything I'll I'll mention all right thank you so thank you so much we're happy to help you get the word out as can get to the woods send us the info and that's fine that sounds great that's great thank you so much for having us com in see you tomorrow thanks for the information a good thank you guys on that Zoom where Zoomers okay does any other public have public comment I thought it spirited thank you we do try move so quick update on the um community garden like you're saying uh that Park and everything is best kept secret we have a community garden here in town and it's very hard to get people to recognize that it's there anyway um uh Ron Chini and Dan Cook uh till it um March 30th and umly we're we're taking uh reservations a lot of lot of folks come back year after year have people started planting yet um I don't think anybody's planting yet but some of the noil plots are in there and they're weeding and getting ready and then this Sunday and I know you know but we're going to Ron and Dan are going to come over and he's going to bring his Rush hog Rush hog and try to tackle all the uh invasives that are there and and create that path from the garden to the pond that we've talked about wants to stop by for an hour or two I was planning on it but something came up I may not be able to make it in time I'm GNA try still come but oh okay um I do have Paul and Evan available 11 oh so good and we you know collaborated with the uh Conservation Commission on past sort of cleanup days um I haven't really done that this year partly because the land trust has their inaugural event coming up in just a few weeks and so I thought I don't know maybe this is just me but I thought you guys should have the oh great space the brain space hopefully you know there's a enough volunteer Gusto to go around so if you guys want to call on kcom by all means feel free to do so because they you know they also have a stake in that property so course for sure but thank you for that thoughtfulness appreciate it I do have a question about the community garden on the website for the community garden page we have uh a graphic there that I believe Sage made last year and it shows all the plots that are occupied but this is for 2023 can we put something up for this here uh so that it's updated and then can you send me a list yeah yeah then weic right exactly y that would be great so that we keep that current should I put a date on that just so it makes it official too on the graphic itself um there's verbi right before the graphic says um red Dash thoughts in the photo current denote currently occupied fots through the end of the growing season for 2023 so I would just keep that and then update your graphic with the same red dots and just change the verbiage part change it from 20234 that's it so okay that way people know what the red dots mean I think you could maybe put an as of date just in case yeah an as you know it's more recent updated just in case we get new people asking for plot yeah instead of end of growing season 20123 then say what just yeah what Tom said as of April 30th or if you could even put an Xbox on the picture just like on the graphic just say as of keep the verbiage right make it through 24 and then you can keep updating it as long as you change that date on the graphic then you know it's the most current right yeah I is stage as long as it's clear I mean you can double up because some people read graphics and some people read texts some people read matters you might want to put subject to change too in case someone has already reserved one and then someone else comes on before it gets updated and they get all out of shape because they okay now we're complicating things yeah discussion purp here's a current list good luck little tangent some years ago um a gardener planted his plot and then these two women wanted ad joining plots and they insisted on having that plot like the guy had already planted and there was you know the date on their application was earlier and you know so so my wife and I went and re took unplanted all his stuff and planted it I've got disclaimer subject to change wow will move you disclaimer if if you haven't paid your bill yet don't play it determination right let's see I think um oh also we're GNA do a little promoting of um there's a kind of a program I guess I'll call it called plant a row so trying to get people to plant a row of veggies to give to give to the food oh yeah that's a good idea so we're gonna promote that a [Music] bit Icom plant something or a couple little things like a row at least ancom have their own plot maybe you know what I mean like where we kind of alterate well put if it if it's right take it right you know like so where we don't want it for us necessarily just for whoever might I have tons of leftover seeds every year oh sorry yeah go ahead um Joe Dei met with my Economic Development commission meeting probably about three months ago and he brought that point up this is something that the Civic fund is trying to promote to get extra food to the food pantry because the demand at the food pantry has gone up I want to say approximately 52% thats a lot yeah so it's a way for like for myself I know with my garden I've already plotted where I'm going to put some extra zucchini and some peppers and that stuff I'll be bring to the food p so it's just for us who have our Gardens to plant another row to be able to donate it to the okay good I don't know you guys think you want we should have a lot I have one but at the Garden or at the Garden the garden is at home I don't know B that's a lot of pressure we gotta make it like outshine everybody I know we're we're we're the lead Runners here we gotta represent right Community PL dig it up asor so anyone that by Adcom that's a great yeah get other people to water it we lost video some that's already know the rain we've been getting we yeah Andy backing on Andrew's comment I think you should put a little sign up like laminated that just says this is the Adcom plot we to out at the end of or you know anything harvested from here you can take home or it'll go you know it's being gr with to go to the food pantry you know for someone in need just like put that disclaimer there like that's the reason why adc's doing it I think that might inspire people to keep an eye on it you know like maybe help water it feel free to weed and water know what it's going for it just incentivizes you a little more oh this is going to go to people who who need fresh food like I'll help out for 10 minutes you know yeah I think that's a great idea if we agree on the wording I I have a laminator that's right the laminator Master yeah had to restock so freshly stocked with eliminating pouches we'll be good for the track there you go ready to go are we having a video feed issue because we don't have video or at least I don't yeah it's popping it's popping up I think under like Cindy's name and then I see it okay and Sage I'm having something just happened I'm having trouble hearing you Sage um I think it's through the computer now not the yeah yeah I don't know what happened that the owl did someone hit it with their feet it is right up underneath where bird is oh do we have to reboot it once uh oh pleas it's still recording oh no can hear I just can't see that [Music] should not allowed to sit there I know broke the video say that again you might have to switch the audio video back broke video audio next to it oh yay yay we can see you again perfect hi I was blind for a minute there thumbs up all good yes all good all right what would a meeting be without a zoom glitch we don't usually have one anyway I think what I like to do is just jump ahead to the FYI things because we can kind of tick through that pretty quickly and then and then talk about uh open Farm day good good for coming thank you um I still don't know a meeting date with various boards and commissions for the pro the chapter 61 protocols um we have our Presentation tomorrow with the Historical Society what time are we supposed to be there uh where is it it's at the Congregational Church I'm guessing it's in their Auditorium yeah with their parking lot there they have two there's two double doors that say I used to go there a lot okay and uh presentation will be on the new there's two sets of doors the old is where the dinner is going to be the new is where the presentation like the basement same level it's just the old is on the left and kind of recessed the back okay I'll figure it out and I did reconnaissance so what what we're GNA do I'm a plan I didn't yeah soet has a business meeting at 6 and then dinners at 6:30 and then the presentation at 7:30 okay so get there like by 6:30 yeah we're not gonna interrupt their business or I don't think so Pat odor of the society says their business meeting is usually pretty short okay um going to do is uh it's farming in Southwick past president Jim putam is going to take the past segment and what he's going to do is kind of tell illustrate the history of farming in Southwick by telling the story of blossoming anres and puam farm which of course is where he used to live and then I'm going to do the present segment and talk about some things going on and also use that as a plug for the Adcom and the stuff that we have going on for on behalf of the farmers and then Marissa is going to be our future person Marissa I sent you an email I saw it yes I proved but yeah looks good thank you thank you for putting that together so we've known about this for six months and it's tomorrow and we're almost ready almost ready with the PowerPoint how government works so so if the presentation starts at 7:30 um I can't make it to the dinner I'll still be work so can I get there 7:15 like 7 I'll try to get there soon after 7 yeah okay it starts 7:30 Jim Jim's gonna he said he's gonna be 10 or 15 minutes I probably will be as well so you wouldn't be on until maybe eight okay good to know thank you there as of a few days ago there were 30 people coming to the dinner um I'm sure there's a few more now and but dinner cost money and presentation's free so they really have no idea how many people might be at the presentation presumably it's at least 30 dinner they wanted reservations yeah right they have any uh prior experience like when they've done something like this granted not the same topic but when they have a 30 person dinner is it a 60 person presentation oh yeah you know what I mean they done we could at least ask the question you get a lot of people in at 7:30 in the evening you know there all in the same area dinner and the presentation yeah the dinner's in one fellow in the old Fellowship Hall and the presentation in the new I think it's it's like 10 steps it's called the reason why we're calling it that is because there's signs above the doors one's Old One's new Fellowship Hall so that should be yeah they've done it for some years and it's always a roast pork um is a local pork I that I don't know yes oh you that's a good question though see and then as we mentioned a few minutes ago the first annual Southwick SPI up is Saturday May 18th um meets at Daily Grind and get assignments to go pick up trash right that's that the it's on roadways right it's yeah yeah Y and you're not doing signups for that right people just come just stop in sometime between 9 and 10: is how we're advertising it so yeah we'll have a little bit more marketing and promotion happening first week of May um around town yeah to mention in the current yeah Southwoods there's there's a little article by our own thank youa thank you for that yeah so we're starting I mean that will be like I mentioned at the last meeting our soft launch but we're going to start marketing this day of the 18th yeah um probably end of next week just to not get people to we've just I mean we' found here as well if promote something too early people will forget so we'll be going around and doing rounds at all of the commissions to kind of introduce ourselves and um invite all of the commissions to come out that day and at least be aware of what the land trust is doing so maybe for the next meeting there'll be some SLT members here to formally introduce the land trust so and that will happen at the other boards and commissions in town as well so like board EDC concom we just want to kind of do it with the start of the new month right right right well that's awesome congratulations to you guys you know that's brilant thank you we're we're excited and I mean like I mentioned last time as well we really hope to work closely with Adcom and partner for open Farm day and other events as well just because we do have a lot of overlap in our missions and it makes sense to kind of have a close partnership and help each other out so yeah we'll be we'll be helping out broken Farm day I just saw something about 75 volunteers I'm like boy have that many people yet but we'll send everybody we got absolutely yeah um see goad oh I'm sorry go ahead you should you want to come up here in regard to Spa I've been talking to a few people about it and I know I'm going to be coming with a few friends fabulous we bring our own safety vest and our own Pickers and pokers to pick up the trash um Pickers and pokers yes but safety vests I think we might be looking into providing those so we'll have more information coming out next week kind of still finessing those health and safety points at this time so we're also doing it in partnership with the Rotary Club so it's also been a little bit of a not negotiation but just kind of figuring out who's going to provide what and then making sure we can advertise this is what we'll have make sure to bring XYZ so yeah perfect a great idea thank you and we have some safety vests from last open Farm day yeah I had purchased there was quite a few there if we don't if we don't secure the supply that someone thinks they have I might have to borrow those for that warning so thank you thank you very much see the town meeting is May 21st we've Ted talked about I did not put on here that the election is May 14th so that's something to know I saw on the select board agenda for the other night that they were gonna uh recognize or whatever the Southwick Civic fund and Food Pantry pancake breakfast but I don't know when it is this Sunday this Sunday yes this coming Sunday okay the fire department they're opening up the fire department and the police department as well so if you have little people great event to go to and I want to say children under five are free and then there's another scale up I think below 10 is $5 and for the rest of people it's like 15 and what are uh what are the hours want to say 8 to noon I just saw it on the it's on the Marquee Outside the Fire Department looking around on various websites in town I couldn't I couldn't find it yeah it's it's right they put it on the electronic billboard yet the town Cho I saw it there yesterday okay oh good yeah well H 12 we can go have a pancake and then to that but I would definitely look on the sorry I just looked up on I saw it on the southw police department had posted it earlier today so I'm just looking at it now so it's uh 8 AM to 11: am it looks like okay 8 to 11 good okay I was like I knew I saw it somewhere earlier today okay good and then I didn't uh when I did the agenda I didn't have this but at our next meeting there's a new board commission and committee handbook that the town has put together so um make I think it's 58 pages honly but anyway um you know we'll get copies out and um I think there's a form in here that we should sign that we received this anyway we could do electronically instead of printing out 50 signing It's gotta be a PDF I can I can email the document to you whether you can sign electronically I don't it to us oh was it in that yeah sign know if it's a functionality no worst worst case scenario print one page sign it and and shoot back in there or can you do it via electronic confirmation via email received and read I don't know I don't know I believe Adobe Reader the free version of w reader let you sign documents yeah it does signever okay anyway that little light reading um you saved like 500 pieces of paper yeah right we saved a tree look we're doing our job well unless there a tree farm in South Vick that makes paper then we should do it capitalize in the market okay and then um so open Farm day um I just did a quick update of this kind of overview timeline from last year updating the you know moving working back from August 18th and the same like segments of time that we used um last year so just to kind of get get started we're a little ahead in that nothing really happened in terms of any publicity or ending until May 12th so I mean it was May what was it last year May 16th or something anyway it doesn't matter but we got going on that and Mara it's maybe 75 volunteers because you want to do the 10 to four yeah and have a couple of shifts that makes sense so see what else is different we're gonna have the larger signs that uh Ina recommended and arranged for wires emails signs and passports stick to the Farms no no prizes there will be stickers so everybody lik I already I already have those I have over a thousand already and all this they were on sale um let's see we did advertising last year which is what mostly was covered by the sponsorships about $1,500 in sponsor ship last year so we had a volunteer orientation excuse me meeting at Saturday August 12th last year okay excuse me so we should do that again tote bag kits thank yous and Bops um so and perhaps needless to say since we've done it before you know we have lawn signs we have the bags the bags we have the file for the passport that can just be updated and the flyer and a question I had in terms of updating the marketing material that we develop and design are we just updating dates are we updating Graphics what are folks thoughts on that um because there were a few things that we designed so obviously the passport the red vine on there and then there was also a brochure that we made yes there we go there we go so I mean we we could start a trend and change one detail so that people collect the passports throughout the years and we can make an own little history trademark thing like a little creature a little critter yeah like start adding animals as we go yeah like a number two or a second or something on the barn or on yeah we're we're a fun committee we got to do fun things that's right those are good points I think we would want to C have to be similar but not exactly the same so it's a little little refreshed be my my two sense yeah and obviously the participating Farms may change map will be subject to yeah probably change these photos yeah exactly from photos that we got last year you know we had so farm and Bon acres for two different ones yeah exactly definitely that'll be very easy to update if we're just going to add small changes on basically keep the same format one little detail stting on the Tom brought up so cool the BC Farm is actually on the other side it's actually it is on the other side just pass the fork oh okay all right so that's right y all right you might have to rescale it is not but that's helpful you know for people to kind of there you go a little note not to scale if Google Maps can land me into like a landfill where a restaurant should have been you're you're fine you're doing great and uh one other thing that'll be different this year is that EDC is going to have some signs for our various registration tables do we talk about uh promote restaurants Yep they're actually going to be premiering this weekend here oh at the at the at the art show I'm GNA have them in front of each Port of entrance at that 10 being completed by Friday with our new QR code that we're going to be able to change and update when I get all the final information for the new restaurant going in to the old um Prime Steak and also Fusion that's going to be added right in they sound good too can't wait yeah I figure out how to turn off the fourwh steer until will there be brers sorry then developed as well as same as last here or is it just Flyers because I see flyers on here so oh yeah both both okay yeah I don't know that we have we have fires last year didn't we wait did we have we definitely Tri maybe that's what I was thinking you know but FES aren't a bad idea just because they can be easily posted everywhere whereas brochures it's like kind of have to have a stand and everything in a place for them to go you should do both I mean it's easy enough to just take whatever graphic have for the brochure and just make it in F format and PR out I don't know 50 of those and faster them around sure I think we did have Flyers last year because I went around posting them location my computer I'm sorry I can't remember anything that was a tiring I'm like sorry I can't remember okay then I'll just update that sorry I guess instead of a brochure could we have like said like a QR code on the bottom of the flyer right that's a one ganger so then that could link to like our website and them all the information they want good idea yeah and even have if we don't have the website on it put the just in case doesn't want to scan the QR code or no time they could maybe remember the website QR code on all of them all of the material that's a great idea to throw it on everything yeah last year we didn't have a website it's a whole new game yeah actually one thing that we can also do as a commission just uh s through the the photos and everyone uh just look through our pile pick your favorite one and then at the next meeting we can have a vote for the one that's going to represent our next Farm Day picture advertisement because we have so many pictures from that event why not use one of them did we have all the pictures stored somewhere like in one file I couldn't remember want a Google Drive link that I sent that I can resend for sure I I thought I was like I remember and I was looking for it the other day and I was like I can't remember who had sent it or or where it lived I just kept Marissa's email that had it in in there yeah I can look now that I know she sent it I'll try to find her that way I will send it out anyway it's good for all of us to have um so maybe we have that on the website or like does our website have storage where we could just put all the pictures there for archiving it could go in the archive section right Sage what's the storage capacity on the website do you know based off of um I don't know off hand but I know it's pretty decent sized I mean I I know I went for the bet that's why I went for the pro version because it gave a lot more storage but I just don't know the number off hand I know a lot yeah they all are high res I did notice what the high reses that is on there already um it does slow SLP down sometimes a little bit so maybe we would do like just like a camera roll function that way people can kind of scroll through they just site so people want to scroll through they have that option is that separate from Google Drive to do that or do it have yeah I have to manually upload each just because Google Drive great no I mean it's fine for storage but it is I agree but to make a video or Montage or whatever it's just not as user friendly you can't control the timing of like speed right yeah no it would be a manual upload one by one to our website and then put it in some modality that allows people to scroll to view it but it's probably Wix app that does it it might be yeah might be are you looking to absorb any of this cost on your current budget sure like the SC the larger science were already in the works okay so that's already been put through yeah yeah anything we can get paid for this year yeah because even the thank you signs that we gave out at the end once the design has been determined what this looks like because that's what we used for the thank you signs was the the graphic then you'd be able to maybe get that I don't know about timing is that that was did you donate those next year you donated a bunch of stuff I know but yeah we could potentially get those we got 8ish weeks before new fiscal year make the thank you signs a little more GNA say personal but you know special thanks to and have the farm name St Ann you know or you know I'm just trying to think this is just a generic yeah yeah everyone's getting yeah no because when he makes them he puts them on a big sheet yeah and then Cuts them it would be cost heavy to do each one separately unless you way to apply the name or some other yeah you know a different way you know where you can still do it that way like special thanks to and then we have the spot to add in a farm name or participant like you could stick it on where it wouldn't look cheesy yeah any calligraphers around here you know that's Zach secret Talent right I think she was pretty good it sometimes you stickers that would still look nice putting it on there but it just be more personal versus just general thing well let's let's into it yeah ask um Southwoods yeah I wonder if there's even a way to to print them and then somehow reprint the various names you know well I think that's what we were saying like make the generic template and then you get the vinyl thing where we can stick the like you can do that personal what having I don't know we made the master plan signs we did something like that so that we'd have VAR ability and can change stuff so maybe that's where there's just two Fox yeah we we specific ordered to kind of make it cost effective keep that but then have that part where you can stick something on and then you know personalize it or change the date depending on the event so that's what you know like even when you go to Village Pizza when they sponsor softball or baseball team or whatever it always is is personalized somehow whether it's a certificate that we could do separately maybe and present it maybe a little different I don't know I'm just taking out of box for the effort that's going forth from the f right bit differ on once you get prices then that can factor into what we might want to ask our sponsors because we kept it you know it was 50 was the minimum and then it went up to we had sponsors from 50 to $400 yeah so I think 50 is still a nice entry it is yeah I think you know if they can give clearly they will right what's the deadline for hearing from Farmers like who's going to participate because last year we had to get everything printed so that we wouldn't get Rush printing prices which are much higher um a good month before the open Farm day because it took time to print these passports and have you know who's participating on there so I think we by early June we had a list going mid June something like that by mid July and we got them like second week of August I it was a little nerve-wracking yeah it t i mean they were there but it was still just like okay you know anything can happen right I'm star getting authorization now sure but like any deadline date that we can kind of work by and if we hear people like you know kind of have a cut off like sorry we already have stuff being printed just to kind of what was the process last year last year I believe we heard from Folks by the end oh it was kind of like last minute I remember we were changing stuff I I was changing Farms list like oh my gosh maybe until late June early July how did we get engagement from the farmers though like and a commitment from them we just kind of like we used all of our connections we go ask them yeah Marissa did you did a mailing right to to the 61a people that's right and then you had the open Farm Forum yep that's what initiated the whole thing and then networking and right right that's how we connected with your father-in-law I sent him mail to his address in Connecticut I went through the town list and just sent him a little notice and was like we exist here you know this is what we're planning on doing so that was back in January so and then I think we heard back from him pretty early on I think it was one of the first it was good if only everybody could be like Roger and just be like I'm committed I'm doing this but obviously well maybe this year now that people know what it's like we'll get commitment earlier but yeah June maybe end of June at the latest to hear back from folks does that sound end of June reasonable and that way getes us two weeks to make any adjustments get printing going and hopefully it'll be here end of July early August yeah well Ro Roger was fun because he said I don't really have a farm uh but I want I want to be in this yeah remember yeah he was an early open Farm day adop yeah I he believed in that okay any other thoughts or comments I think this is a good start well I thinking about this yeah Sage a slight off subject I just found out we have a 100 gigs of space on the website currently and apparently they have um storage plans if you want it increased they have 200 gig 500 gig and one terabyte storages just just food for thought like for the 100 Farm or next 50 Farm days right yeah sounds good wow yeah um I have a question kind of a bigger picture three 30,000 foot question about open Farm day you know this is your second year participating now you're doing EDC work EDC is doing a lot of work towards this as well how does this commission feel about formally notice I your commission the EDC as a co-sponsor or some sort of suppor I just feel like you have a website I don't know if your EDC has a social media presence but you have networks and those are building simultaneously right with well our website we just tested it live on Friday exciting because we had a hiccup oh yeah we know yeah so we had a major Hiccup and so we had to start from Fresh So I hired Southwoods to to do our our website and and so we are meeting this Saturday downstairs to fold our 487 letters that we're going to hand deliver to a lot of the businesses to start building up our directory um so hasn't gone officially live yet but within the next two weeks it will yeah and at the last meeting last Wednesday they asked me so what is our relationship with Adcom and I say well right now it's it's just me personally right because I wasn't last year so um they would be interested in developing more of a relationship yeah and it's probably one of the largest edcs in the Commonwealth we know that Trend yeah I've got eight Commissioners including myself we're nine people deep and a variety of talent this so I would be flattered if we could partner together I just think it would increase this event's visibility it would also bolster kind of its standing in the business Community as well you know it's not just cultural but there's that it's going to be tying in with what we're doing with developing a directory in the town that's never been before and relationships that we're building with our community it can only help strengthen also support regarding the cost of running an event like this when we have so minimal of a budget so I think that's a wonderful idea I wonder should we have a vote to invite EDC to co-sponsor yeah and then what I'll do is I'll bring it to my commission maybe you can be a guest at our next meeting sure and you can make a presentation and then we can vote as well and then we're in harmony yeah and then we can present it to the select board yeah and it also lines up the blot of Master Plan part absolutely these commissions doing is going to work together which is my new Bible yes here you go tap this yeah all my action items um Marissa is your you brought it up so do you want to make a motion sure um I'd like to make a motion to have the economic development Commission of the town of Southwick be a co-sponsor for the open Farm day 2024 I'll second oh save seconds okay I guess we have to do roll call so um Bert Hansen I Tom Janos jenro hi I almost wanted to say you hi and Marissa Angie and Sage you didn't vote yet right Sage hi and uh Jessica hi un name itous excellent yeah that's great if on that note if I can ask if there'd be any interest for the South land trusts also be a co-sponsor we would like to be able to support however we can if we have obviously some money at that point we'd also be willing to help out with advertising um I would recuse myself from this vote if the commission did decide to take it or if they want to think about it but we've discussed it at our meetings and it's something that from the GetGo was kind of understood that we would do everything to support this because it intersects with our mission as well so I don't know if Angie wants to say anything further being no I agree with you I definitely think the land trust has a lot to offer in this event and it will just help um get more Community more together next more showing that people are working together sure they're also building a strong like social media presence on Instagram and Facebook I'm kind of connecting with say um a different demographic than the Adcom page has done so far so we could also offer that to with this TR back that effort ches any anybody have other ments um I'll make a motion on this one that we the Agriculture Commission um officially invite the new Southwick land trust to be co-sponsors of open Farm day 2024 second okay Zach seconds okay Bert Hansen I Tom Jen hi Jen D Petro hi Zack Barnett Marissa's recused Angie same oh you're recused as well sorry and let's see Sage hi and Jessica wh more Parker hi okay oh this is awesome more the marrier it online and everything yeah yeah that means you each have to come up 25 volunteers that's right the math I accept that challenge it's like we all want to help this T out all together oh gosh she up with 50 because she's on both oh man okay that's great this is cool so uh I or I'll come to your EDC meeting I should come SLT meeting well absolutely I mean anybody else can join in you know too yeah I usually try to drop in so I might I'll hopefully be there on your phone yeah are your meetings on Zoom they not been in person third week anybody who wants to come definitely once we have our next one plan very the first do you have like a regular you know second Thursday type of thing or trying to figure it out right now some folks who sit on other boards and commissions as well in town and um yeah it's like I don't know it's like playing Frogger in terms of like our schedule so we kind of are figuring out that out as just just let us know absolutely absolutely I the EDC is May 15th Wednesday May 15th what time is that six o' right before I don't know if we have a meeting that I think ours is I think yours I don't think so I think because I think we meet the eth and then the 22nd yeah okay thank you sometimes we overlap but it's it's rare yeah and our meetings are in the basement which is which is better than where it was in the closet Lobby don't laugh it really soy it's a summer those basements are cold so we're in the lower level got it okay maybe someday you can Elevate to this room we were once and we got spoiled we loved the lighting yeah so that's okay yeah we can still be effective even in the closet oh that's true that's true not at the turn I'll take the challenge okay well this is very positive very awesome start for open Farm day number two so quick question who's going to do the graphic upgrade on I can do it I have the files so I'll do the up uh updates for both uh for this the fer that I can't remember but must be saved somewhere on my hard drive and um the brochure as well based off of what we've discussed tonight and then make sure that it gets proofed by folks you know theti and then we can iterate from there on the first draft so because once we have something crafted then I want to start doing solicitation okay to see what we have you used brochure for that last year right I used the brochure okay so that means and I also show yeah I showed a mockup of what we had which was the first condition so I was using this to walk but we had brochure brochure came in like right at the cusp of starting I just remember that yeah I'm glad you brought this up because I think if if we can have a couple more minutes to just discuss the deadline then for um confirming I mean that I think is more of the passport thing do you need do you feel that you need to know exactly who's participating in order to Pro people for the individuals who participated last year every single individual said they want to do it again this year okay and what we generated last year and just the first round was $1,428 wow okay yeah so which really took care of a lot of the advertising then we got another additional 200 so600 is what we were playing with last year I feel with the collaboration we it would be great if we could probably generate maybe $2,500 so for you to go to sponsors and offer or rather ask for the um you know their their support having a brochure than is helpful you just don't need to have folks confirmed our brocher last year didn't have the confirmed Farms it was just kind of a spiel about what it is right okay when would you want that buy though because right now the only deadline I have for printing is to get stuff by like Late July early August that's too late for Your sponsorship okay so when would you like I guess because we can that's easy to edit that I could to see something for the end of June oh okay definitely and it's just because I know what my schedule is going to be looking like going into the summer Y and as soon as I can start getting commitments and we can start getting checks yeah then that's one less thing to have to scramble with and then it helps to also decide the mediums that you want to advertise in local has really gotten more circulation in the area so maybe doing a larger ad with them so at least if we know what we have to play with for money then we can choose the sources we want to distribute it to and I don't want to have to get into that scramble like we did last year right we don't need to do that we have material and it worked well yeah so if we just learn by what we did and just tweak it a little bit better yeah and it was a very similar publication to go local Westfield life or something like that um yeah the one that Pam was on the cover and K coffee were on the cover of the current one are and she's one of our commissioners yeah and she just opened up the cafe which used to be Reds the old kill is a kill Market yeah before red red riding hood right right so and if you haven't been to Kong coffee you should go it's really good the coffee's good so June ading that means that for the next meeting I will you be at the next meeting next meeting and that meeting is May no no not May May 8 yeah that's piing ah head too far um I should have something I mean again it's just a matter kind of editing and adding new photos sprucing it up a little bit I can have something that if I get approval then that means the ball rolling and get it at least the print ordering may and'll we don't do the expensive shipping and then that should be end of June yeah and then that falls into the fiscal budget too spend it you lose it that's right [Music] May excellent okay very good everyone thank you as always for good ideas and input and willingness to jump in yeah something yeah nonfarm Day related uh are we moving on I just know that we have a session starting soon so I wanted to mention something between that okay yeah go ahead sure then I'm gonna exit yeah thank you good night everyone good night sorted by L it's all I spoke with Laura Fletcher in the accounting office because there were some questions about the website plan that was paid for by sage and that tax was um tax was on that bill because Sage paid for it and it wasn't right you know we are we are tax exempt however we didn't have I guess the proof and Wix was asking for like some sort of certificate or or something that could just demonstrate we're a town entity government entity and eligible for that so when I asked the accounting office for that I spoke with Laura the other day good night Ang um she mentioned that they don't necessarily offer that the way to circumvent having to pay tax would be for us to I guess do our due diligence and add Wix as a vendor and have the town Beil for it not stage build for it so I mentioned that's really hard in the day and age to like go online and use an e-commerce service and be like can you fill me later like that doesn't exist like it can't work so the way that she said it was we can go through a manual process of adding them as a vendor and basically fill out this form um note that they're a vendor that we're going to be working with the town then goes through an authorization process authorizes Wix as a town approved vendor and then at that point the billing would go over to the town like Sage would take the account and then have to input the town address like town of Southwick 454 College Highway blah blah blah and that would be enough to um generate the non- tax I guess billing for the next cycle now Sage I know you've probably paid in bolk for like three years because Wix tends to offer better packages if you pay for three years in one go right yeah that was see it on your yeah it we got three years okay because it was the better deal have to pay with a credit card exactly you have to pay with a credit card they would still I guess like the that's what I was trying to communicate I was like this is like a very Antiquated way of doing business um what we can do in the meantime though because it is paid for for three years we have like a lot of time to then set Wix up as a vendor at least and ask then before the term is Up 3 years from now and we renew the website contract to get that bill ahead of time mean Wix must deal with other exactly well I talked I actually talked to Wix directly and uh they they're okay with setting stuff like that up you just gotta give them all the information they need so when it comes time they can do that kind of stuff right right so I think now is the time like while we're still fresh on this to just get this done and out of the way that way going forward it's just in the system already because we're going to forget in three years time and be back at this and then you're not going to get reimbursed for your tax I still haven't and you're not going to either because you've already been paid out for it so I asked her about that and she said unfortunately they're not going to reimburse you for the tax at this point so it's tax I don't care about the tax it was like 20 something dollars as long as I get the you know the actual expense you can probably write it off under taxes though that's true true a donation Char $23 is relevant to a penny pretty much to them yeah a certain amount to actually collect it's hard to get a benefit for minimizing now because the deduction standard deduction standard deductions are so much higher than yeah that's a tangent yeah okay well thanks for looking into that sure I think that would be the case with thank you very much as well I would tomorrow or whenever um just get that form going so that I have it handy otherwise we're going to go through the same thing like last year because I guess we've been doing it a little bit um Outlaw sound like there's a handbook on this stuff we were just trying to get stuff done is any of us in the handbook I haven't read it yet yeah now there's a handbook it's probably exists because of us yeah it might be we're we're the biggest commission and we're we're also the troublemakers of of all of them true darn activists shame on you and of course people like IBS and Southwoods and they're already vendors so the town doesn't have a sales and use tax form that just that seems ridiculous I know should be on our town website where anyone go so Sage doesn't get sock I mean all of us that have all these expenses that we do with vendors that are living in the 21st century like andit we should petition for that as a commission because I think other commissions as well it's it's just a nice thing to have if people are doing and taking on expenses I know I haven't gotten reimbursed on taxes for a lot of things over the years but it's just like same here yeah exactly we kind of eat the cost out of love for the commission but almost look as poorly upon Town yeah when a person you know volunteering time and I I I disagree with that completely I I'm 100% with you yeah second what did you call that form time sales and new stack form like a lot of manufacturing companies have it like they don't have to pay taxes or utilities and stuff like that and that's what Wix in the email that Sage forwarded my way that's what they asked for so they're used to getting that from vendors that are you know still living in the stone or or clients that are living the Stone Age I mean you can actually if you get a form there is a process to go back and get that tax money returned so Sage if you get that they should theoretically give you that I mean I I worked at a company in Pennsylvania that they didn't do that and when I went down there I found out you could and I recovered like $26,000 from the utility because we paid tax a certain tax that we shouldn't have because we were manufacturing business so there you know there is an obligation on behalf of the vendor as well if you can ultimately prove that you are in fact exempt from those taxes that they should Reimers probably have like a threeyear window to go back this was like five five so it's it's again it's probably different for but it's something you could look into I don't know why the town wouldn't provide that it's such an easy to the commissions right yeah say Hey you know the commission chairs hey here's our right you know tax exempt certificate for these tax maybe they just don't want to make it easy for people to do that but we're also executing on behalf of the town like it it does add up if 23 here 20 there like every year I mean it does add up because we're not we also have a lot of things changing hands so now everyone's learning again which is great for our Community to everyone getting their hands deep into it but unfortunately we're all going to hit pitfalls along the way which it's 20 bucks I'm not losing sleep over it I mean if it was 500 it'd be different but it's 20 bucks I don't care at the end of the day it takes more time to write up the form send it all out and all this anguish for $20 I I'll just you know mental stress just get out of my head we're good it shouldn't exactly shouldn't cost the volunteer yes but the town's worth it I'm I I think the town's very much my effort and $20 isn't going to kill me for volunteering no but if it's 20 person times however many people volunteer in the town I mean it does add up I'll just be responsible and make sure that I don't let it get out of hand that's all it's on me at the end right oh good it's just some of those things that a corporate environment could improve slightly that municipal government I mean I get the government has to have a check and balance for everything but is that something that commissions can bring to the S Flo is might be something we want to talk to the torney or something about I'm sure someone knows more than whoever we talk to I mean I see the EDC possibly running into this issue as well they're working with a few vendors it sounds like for their work and you know the person to probably ask is Carl yeah sure that would take our accountant or town finance person literally minutes yeah exactly it would just take minutes Well we I'm sure you go in and populate some data oh yeah I'm the town of Southwick okay here's your form exactly it's probably they just fill out Adobe Reader like he said print out yeah sadly we can't ask Carl anything anymore he I thought he was standing in I thought he was standing in until they replace him or did they replace him I just missed it I had I thought the former fire chief or somebody was doing it I don't know I don't know information changes way too much in town yeah hey if Carl's still around we'll find him does he live in the town yeah asking per his advice as citizen I think he's over numorous I think he's on South Lis no kidding Carl is my name Carl I think Co yeah anyway okay uh thank you for that Marissa um hey Alex priy joined a few minutes ago Alex did you have anything you want to um bring bring up for us hello um Alex pr8 Klein no I'm just tuning in it's been a little while and I was like oh it's Wednesday night let me let me hop on and see what the okay what the new stuff is um nothing to contribute though but enjoying listening okay good good good we uh we're starting to talk about uh this year's open Farm day uh in a in a tangible way so August 18th Sunday August 18th yeah you'll be hearing more about it okay I'll keep my eyes open yeah did anyone talk to Dave priy about he wanted I did um and we actually voted I think maybe you weren't at when you were in Arizona or whatever oh maybe and we voted to to say that he was exempt from the oh no I was here for that oh you were okay I thought we wanted to get more information from him yeah we do um and Sabrina conservation conservation said I saw what she said okay yeah that there's some circumstances where that doesn't apply I haven't been able to follow up on that okay I will shortly okay well I'm I'm sorry Alex but we're about to go into executive session um it's good to see you on here though again okay so I guess I'll make a motion oh byebye make a motion that we go into executive session to discuss Personnel matters and that we will not be reconvening in Open Session second second okay uh my motion so B Hansen I I Jen I Zack Hi Marissa hi Angie hi Sage hi and Jessica hi