##VIDEO ID:adPyNMiOukY## okay good evening everyone this is the regular monthly meeting of the Southwick agricultural commission it is uh December 11 2024 7 PM um we do have a quorum with myself Bert Hansen uh Vice chair Zach Bert Barnett lenita bobber and online Sage Fury so we can get going uh Nicole you wanna yeah on couple a couple quick things before we get started with um Nicole um this is a pretty full agenda but I don't think we have to take too long um yeah that's on right it just be right in my face yeah because I one thing we'd like to do is possibly set up a couple of sub subcommittees but we'll we'll get to that um you know uh Dan Cook is is working at his shop tonight so he can't uh be with us and Jen Depetro also is not able to be with us so but we do have four of us so that's a quorum so that's good a couple things in the in the mail I got um forward this to you guys but this is the farm succession planning the annual workshops uh with land for good you know it's like several weeks I think of um of a succession planning program um there's uh friends of the Southwick Senior Center are having a Christmas wrapping fundraiser on Saturday December 14th from 8 to 1 excuse me no charge but donations appreciated oh back on Dan he said any you know you wanted to say want me to say that anybody who goes to the shop you know gets a friend discount so um you guys should have this in your email but I'll just run through this Lake management committee minutes [Music] and board of appeals minutes um and I haven't seen anything about the annual Christmas party Nicole do you know I don't know anything about an annual Christmas party usually there's something down in the um Auditorium the auditorium yeah but I don't know I mean think I'm not sure I know in the past um I don't know in the past actually I heard that you know they use Town funds to put it on but the funds that they would use were were gifts from businesses that no longer exist so there's not really any Town funding anymore and that's what I was told so then I said I'm happy to do something or we could do a potluck and that's where it ended so I don't know who organizes or who does that yeah I think it was Lisa Anderson yeah I asked sir you know she's probably gonna try to pass the torch up to the next person because she's now the COA director so maybe to Margaret who was our assistant yeah right right okay well we'll see okay so I'm happy to say that we have uh Nicole Parker with us tonight our new ceao um just for a kind of a meet and greet just wanted have you been visiting all the commissions yeah good for you yeah there's a lot of them this might this might be the only one that I haven't and I tried last month last month yeah I had an Emer well not an emergency but you know wakes don't you don't plan for those right so here I am so that's good so I'm Nicole Parker I don't think we've met um lenita Lita nice to meet you lenita owns blossoming acres oh okay very nice you got to go there well they have a lot of great stuff but especially the CER donuts and the strawberry rhubarb pie okay so I thought maybe Nicole just tell us a little bit about yourself okay yeah so um I've been doing this for about um 14 years and um I'm really excited to be here uh it's a lovely town I came from another rural town a little even more rural than this another Wick in the state Hardwick uh where I spent three years and um you know I'm really enjoying it everybody's very very nice and we are making some good progress on some Forward Motion uh you know projects and I'm really happy to be here and I do have um I didn't bring any business cards but my cell phone should be on this website and my email and all my contact information if anybody needs me please give it to anybody okay yeah great boy you don't hear that from people very often um any anything particular on the horizon any kind of big projects well I mean there's several projects on the horizon but they are you know uh they'll take some time we have the municipal aggregation it was just approved so what we'll be able to do is go out to bid and get electrical rates reduced electrical rates for the residents and businesses in the town so that was literally just approved yesterday yeah I saw thater yeah or maybe the day before so we'll be we'll be doing that that'll be you know we're working with DP Department of Public Utilities and our partners colonial power to get that going um Municipal fiber is moving along so um you know that that project we are in the beginning stages but um really moving forward it it passed at town meeting it was really um overwhelmingly approved so we are definitely moving forward with that um I'm we I just got the town a full-time Town planner approved at the T at the select board meeting on Monday night awesome and you know we have a part-time planner John Goddard who is now the assistant DPW director over at in D DPW and um and I can see and I this is what I've been saying since you know I've got here um when I did a little bit of research I saw the you know the big divide with carvana and then I saw a land trust created and those two things show me um you know that the town is very very much interested in protecting their land and also there are people that are very much interested in commercial development but it wants they want it to be smart development right so I would I am here to help move that forward where you you know you have to have development to be able to grow to have Revenue to be able to have any services but on the other hand you want to preserve your rural care so there's a good way to do that and I believe that's through smart planning and smart zoning and uh that need you know I think that really needs to be looked at very very closely and that's where I'm hoping that full-time planner economic development director would come in yeah for sure and I I feel like I would work probably the closest with that person than any other department head that I have and and the um sure there's connections there with the master plan of course yes so you know that fluid guidance document that you know the master plan implementation committee is meeting right now um you know that you you want to take that plan and you want to um you know sort of use it as a guide to move forward sometimes you pivot some you know in it's a 10-year plan so sometimes things will fall off that you know eventually you find you don't want and things you might in include so um yeah that's extremely important moving forward that you know and and even zoning is the same you know you have lots of well we call them shates so you have lots of public meetings lots of public input to see exactly where you want to go and what you want to do you know it's kind of at a pivotal time here where you have commercial development you have your rural land and it's really a time to to figure out where that rural farmland and the open space belongs and where your commercial development belongs and maybe they belong coinciding maybe commercial belongs here and Rural belongs somewhere but that's where the town's people tell us how you want to move forward and then us in our professional capacity help facilitate that to move that forward right right yeah I'm sure you know that the historical society is trying to buy yep I'm very much involved with them with that as well you know helping uh facilitate that with CPC um so yeah we we're gonna we scheduled a special town meeting we're writing the article um you know it's we're working with our attorney so very much involved in that yeah awesome is the is the special on January 13th 14th which is a Tuesday so in my you know I was naive and thinking Mondays and it was only because our our regular meetings are on Mondays so uh after we had talked about yes the 13th is available um it was brought to my attention that town meetings are usually on Tuesdays so I reached back out to the school to see if Tuesday was available and then the following Tuesday for a snow date so it's Tuesday the 14th with the snow date of the 21st okay yeah we we just have a few articles yeah yeah it's gonna it it's not going to be a very big meeting or long meeting I think I think do they all involve CPC funds not all so we have the CPC for the historical society which it's not giving the historical soci soy the funding it's purchasing the conservation restriction from of that land that is what the town is looking to do and then we have the facade of this building that needs at least some design work first um it's a historical building and it really needs some facade work and um you know just to see exactly where we're at where where we need to go we need some design work to get that done so there's that's on there um the fire department has has just settled their contract and the funding is in a different line item in the budget and it needs to be moved through town meeting so we'll be requesting that their you know whatever raise whatever settlement they decided on gets moved from the wage reserve line to the fire department salary line um and that's what we have thus far so okay not very exciting but still important I don't know I find Community Pres exciting yeah maybe not architectural you know just like this building you know the design and Engineering but yeah anyway just back a little bit on the master plan imp implementation committee as Nicole mentioned our meeting right downstairs right now their first meeting I just want to say this for you guys to get it in the minutes too uh so their first meeting not they're doing is things like selecting a chairperson and a vice chair and a secretary and just getting so that's it's been uh been a while coming yeah and the select board has also approved a charge for them so they can you know have a a guideline of what tasks they should do to really stay focused and stay on task and be able to accomplish the things that they need to accomplish so um that's introd being introduced to them tonight as well okay super um I had emailed a couple of questions to Nicole um where did they go why don't where they were um um I was asking if the Adcom could make a donation to another organization I was thinking specifically of land for good you know they've done a program for us and um didn't or an honorarium or anything on their mailing list so now they're doing their annual campaign so and Pa said no you can't use public money but I'm wondering can we use our gift account which is so that's um maybe so that's where that is I can't say yes or no okay it dep with gift accounts it depends on you know when the donation was given if it was specified for a certain use and okay um and how much I was just looking this up for another another department um so gift accounts can usually be used for the under the discretion of the board okay because here we go it's not public money that has been given to you it's been an individual or another you know um entity that has given you the money we as a community you as a a municipality no municipalities can give any public Public Funding to any other organization nonprofit or otherwise so the money that is taken in by the residents gets used for the good of the community okay so but I think I can I can reach back out to you regarding the gift account um we'll have to see again the donations that were given and if they had specified reasons for use when they were given well like the community garden that goes into that right you give community garden it has to be used for the garden yes right and also I I I'm answering my own question here Bas what you're saying uh most of the money in that account is for businesses and some individuals who sponsored the open Farm day and it was specifically for open Farm day and specifically for advertising for open Farm day so I think uh so if somebody donates to open Farm day then it needs to be used for open Farm day how do we track that this dollar went to this this dollar went yeah so that's exact that's I mean a huge reason on why you know you can't give gift cards you know you you have to be able to track all of that so um if a check comes into you and accounting would have this detailed information um you know to the town of Southwick for open Farm day advertising then you use it for your flyers for your mailers and to track it is really an accounting sort of function broken up but yeah interestingly enough we we were also talking about that getting a we get reports on a regular basis of you know our various line items how much we've used how much is available but we don't get you know a specific this has been paid this has been paid this has been paid so Nicole said we could did you do you get expenditure reports um so you can get it if you ask ask me for it I can give you the report it it's probably too cumbersome and really time consuming to have accounting give every single Department an expenditure report if they don't have an account for our finance system but for a you know commission that doesn't meet very often and doesn't have access to our finance software we can certainly get you an expenditure report which will show who you paid and one any time throughout the year and the gift account probably isn't in the general fund so it probably is not in your list that you get it's separate they're set up a different way so you'd have to request that separately for the gift account to see what's left what you've spent right and then a detailed report on what You' spent is also available okay yeah great it was funny um I haven't talked to anybody in accounting lately but I I've talked to them a lot and I we even talked about the fact that I mean here's little old Adcom our entire budget is 20 $700 yeah and we constantly have questions about how to spend it but you know oh that's good I mean you your your commission is a little bit unique you know so um you know agricultural commission it's not right out there like um cultural or planning or conservation you know you so you have a little bit broader of a of a I think Spectrum on what you can do you know agricultural wise it's not just open Farm day but lots things to do with agriculture on the town so right yeah right so yeah okay and if you don't hear from accounting reach out to me too I can always help you with that or facilitate that yeah okay and just along those lines so I got you know these you know the percent of budget used um year- to-day budget report got went on 1210 1126 11:13 10:30 I mean every every other week every every every time they do every time they do a either it's payroll week or just bills payable week everybody gets a report for their department and I get a full report so I'm able to see everyone's right okay just I I say that just because if you have a question I may know the answer um if accounting isn't available okay okay I I should totally know that I mean I this commission for like eight years or something but um okay uh I'm I'm sorry that some of our other members are not here I can come back I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon usually we have more people than us yeah yeah we had um we've lost a couple people recently um the way town meeting set it up is there are seven Commissioners and five alternates oh wow total of 12 Doug mogin Loves to say you know we're the biggest Adcom in the Commonwealth but right now we're down a few books so we're um no anyone else to join yeah we're looking looking for one B commissioner and three alternates okay yeah I've been asking some folks but so far did you have another question in your email or did we already answer that no it was about the donation to another organization and about the itemized reports so what we now know is the expenditure report okay yeah yeah okay that's great well it's great great you could be here you're 100% welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting if you if you'd like to okay I'll probably go take a seat back here I will just say quickly I know that if you don't mind um chapter 61 is on here do you have any questions for me for that not at the moment um we're trying to not let it die so chapter chapter 61 will never die because state law we're trying to make it more enforced in the town and like presented when someone like purchases a property or yeah so has to come to the select board if something's in chapter 61 and they kind of just wrote it off well if we had like a whole plan together our former um some um protocols we've been calling them yeah and that's all so Diane had did you had asked Diane for an update right and and we we were you know really looking into it and um you know the the protocol that you had was is almost mirrors the state yeah the problem is when you go to the state it's out everywhere you kind of put it all in one spot yeah that was yeah it it was organized so people actually knew how to take the steps and that's what we're that's what Marissa was actually trying to do was make it so that it was readable and also manage time management was just precise we actually had enough time to get all the facts together on each end until the the end because that's the problem getting people to actually know what to do when to do it because of the small timeline and if you don't know where to go it even holds up further and this is why it kept falling through so I don't know I mean since I've been here there hasn't been any rate of first refusals so that means that nothing's come to the select board but one of the problems is that whole part is getting overlooked it can't be overlooked that's the state law that's what I mean if they're selling land from chapter 61 it must come to the select board for right of first refusal and if it's not then they're doing it illegally that's not anything for us to be getting involved in there was something that started you if if somebody is selling chapter 61 land it must come to the town first I felt like I think the the difference was that the that um document was allowing the town to give it to the land trust as well and not just a town entity I don't think the land involved in that a nonprofit land preservation organization I think it was before the Southwick Land Trust was formed so maybe we were talking about you know Franklin land Tru or you know you know these others well I mean it went to Legal it was advis this is the state law this is what you should go by um you know this is basically everything you have in here is is in the law and this is you know you really should abide by the law that was our advice that we got from leg we were just kind of trying to put it all basically a guide book well maybe if somebody that if you know people with Farms you can and they're thinking about getting rid of them but I don't it's not necessarily going to be a town policy that's what I'm getting out I think it's not going to be a town policy it's in the state law already and that's where it lives that's where it is governed and again if somebody wants to sell their land I can they cannot sell it without going to the town first for first refusal I mean and then they sell it and if they sell it to somebody who isn't doesn't want farmly and then they have to pay all the taxes for the past five years so you know there's implications and like red flags I think that would come up for somebody that wants to sell Farmland yeah I think the problem in the past is some of these steps have been kind of bypass not necessarily on purpose but just because yeah there was one property some years ago art panel's place on Mort Ving Road and the owner is supposed to bring the action so to speak but in this case the buyer did and that shouldn't have happened yeah you know happening so right order or in a timely fashion so yeah so we just wna basically make it easier you know make we're not trying to rewrite the law or anything We're just trying course you know puty it all one one nice package so people know what to do yeah okay so so we're gonna kind of Chun well and if somebody comes to me if somebody comes in to my office into the Town Administrator off into the chief administrator office I mean oh my gosh I can never get this word Chief cao's office um then I then I will certainly guide them and direct them into what they need to do and understand I've done it many times again I come from an even more rural community um where we've done it and we've never fallen by the wayside or not followed the law or the timeline I think it's kind of been misinterpreted what we were trying to do maybe um yeah yeah we're not trying to rewrite any laws we're just trying to make it like hey here's the steps you're supposed to follow and we probably should do some Outreach mailing or something to the to the chapter 61 yeah Farms that we have and just make sure do you know if we just kind of want to put a packet together like this is the steps you're supposed to take people know that they even exist that's part of it you know they go to sell their land or somebody's buying land they don't know any of this stuff exists um that's our thought anyway yeah I mean and it's a good thought and again because you're the agricultural Commission of course that's exactly what you think I I kind of think that the the duties and the responsibilities of the Town um it does it necessarily go to educating the land owners um I just I I start I think to start to get convoluted with more than just agricultural land more than 61 if I start telling everybody how they are supposed to um you know do their 61 when they want to sell then should I be telling everybody that is in residential and Commercial and Industrial and all the different you know different zones and and how can I just single one out I and this is my over you know you know overview that I see of the entire town um so it's not a bad idea by any means um and it's th% good intentions um I I just I I don't really think that it's something that the town the municipality should be um tweeting out to our 61 land it especially when the state law is right there and where our legal said leave it to the state law please it's not this is not something that you want to be giving out or using as a a town policy but it is appropriate for the Adcom to be able to kind of say FYI to the farmers in town de you're not you weren't giving them bad information yeah we were just trying to get theboard to back us up on it well and again I think the the hesitation is not it's not just agricultural land you know that the town it's everything it's all the zones and to start getting Nitty Gritty down with one zone is really a disservice to all of the zon so it's best to leave the state law one subsection of one type of you do right and the town cares about all the zones so yeah of course you know so that's I think where we have to stay kind of at Arms lengths with that but for the agricultural commission to support that and promote that or you know promote promote telling chapter land people if that's you know how you I I don't I'm not giving you advice to do that I still think that the land owner should be knowledgeable enough to know what they're doing and they have to come to the town for right of first refusal so if they don't I don't I have I don't know I have no idea what could even happen if if they ended up selling without going for first yeah who's the who's the enforcer we don't know you know if we are state law or um you know yeah state law I don't know what the enforcement is on that yeah I think that's the thing there's so many laws now no one knows who's supposed to enforce them then there well that's the biggest thing about writing laws is making sure you have enforcement written in there that's what some people forget you write this great law and then there's like what do we do if they don't do anything about it so there's no enforcement there so many of them it's hard to do track I just had one in a couple towns ago for driveway permits you have to get a curb cut to have a driveway in your in your driveway and at the neor this neighbor's house from the complainer they you know they're driving over the curb and I was like you need to get a cur you need to get a curb cut because you're ruining our curb and they said what are you gonna do about it and I was like there's no enforcement so anytime I write something there's always a lot of enforcement yeah there really no consequences to most of this yeah so we're GNA um one of our things we want to do with chapter 61 has form a subcommittee that could I mean I personally just really want to know how this all works and the 61 yeah this the assessor can educate you on that for sure Y and they even know all the all the chapter land in the town we invite the assessor to a meeting yeah maybe y one of their meetings easier yep right right so so we just want to look into it be sure we understand not trying to step on anybody's toes or that was not our in course I didn't take it that way at all yeah so um yeah so okay well thanks for that Insight app thank you nice to meet you guys nice to me nice to meet you it's okay so while we're while we're on that um Zack and I had a little communication about forming some you know like you know subcommittee that could work just continue looking into this and not take regular meeting time right um so I'm thinking I'm not really sure how subcommittee works there rules to I know yeah well it can't it can only be three correct me if I'm wrong Nicole if uh only three members of the commission because that's not a quorum right and I believe we could have you know other towns people as volunteers to help us out um so that's that's what I was thinking and I'm not sure who else yeah we don't really have enough numbers here that right to discuss it hope more people be I know the new was going to be a long one yeah that's right yeah we don't have guest speakers that often we used to have some regular you know Farmers used to you know come but but nobody has lately anyway I wonder I think there are four of us here so I think we could vote to create the chapter 61 sub committee okay and then then figure it out out okay yeah so okay well I will make a motion that we we create a subcommittee to look into chapter one chapter one chapter 61 and I probably should be APR you know too it's a similar thing and what am i g to say subcommittee look into these land use laws um and and be sure they're communicated to the farmers how that sound about right yeah the monthly okay uh so roll call vote all those in favor Bert Hanson I okay lenita and Sage hi okay let's see now backing up um so lenita you went to a heat tolerant crops Workshop yeah that's what it was yeah that's what it was um what they said it was going to be it was more there was a representing Johnny selected seeds and somebody from UMass talking about not really any kind of varieties that are more heat tolerant or any type of of they just were more kind of pushing stuff with and they have been talking about um that's kind of what it felt like um and not not suggesting anything different that can be done kind of just you know saying well this is what we have currently but something something different needs to start to happen because heat like we had in July this year is just unusual and um yeah and starting to affect the crops that we can grow successfully um we lost we lost stuff that normally you know like carrots I last the whole planting of carrots when they got up about that big it was just too hot too long and there's not anything you can do to about it and um and that's not an irrigation issue that's a temperature that's a temperature issue yeah because it was a lot of mornings we got up to start picking at six o'clock and it was already well into the 80s you know the temperatures just W down this consistently um so and at those temperatures things like tomatoes and peppers and eggplant and all don't set they just they just abort their flowers so so what happens is then you get five six weeks out from there and and you're short of you know um so I was hoping that what what they would start to talk about was you know Southern variety there's got to be Southern varieties that are bread for these things and you know all different things that they really want that's disappointing especially with CA right I mean they're usually very good yeah they were yeah they were just um are you going to try experimenting things on your own yeah so what about like growing like you know tent tent tobacco your plants under a tent you can but on a commercial um you know the size that the number of plants that we're doing it's kind of of cost prohibit you know so and you like a planting of tomatoes for me has 5,000 plants and to to tent all that or and then still be able to work in them and spray them and you know whatever needs to be done irrigation whatever lease like tobacco land that already has them um maybe but then you you you've got a whole different set of problems of picking and yeah you know all of that and it's tense oh yeah yeah it's and it's not so much uh Sun intensity or light intensity with with tomatoes and stuff it's the temperature yeah so and because you're trying to get a fruit whereas with tobacco you're trying you just it's a different a different I mean it's that the whole point of tenting the to and make a tropical type because they want the leaves bigger yeah and they want to protect them themselves so because any with shade tobacco is mostly for wrapper and they don't want any scarring and they don't want any any reps and yeah yeah probably cuts down on damage from like heavy rains too right take just okay well so I wish I had better yeah you think You' be planning more of like something that's more heat resistant than and less like tomatoes less carrots like more corn um if you thought I mean I try to plant as much as I think I can yeah I mean we we grew Oak this yearo which is a but it did well you know we are starting to grow some more and were people interested in buying it they buy it yeah good I'm G grow more next year soy growing work yeah did did pretty well it's good yeah yeah so I think it's just going to be a something that we have to start to deal with changes right okay well good unfortunate information but good to have the information okay our third annual Farmers forum um somewhere here's a outline a schedule you know agenda and Sage you should have it in your email from this afternoon yep okay um Jen put this together based on what we did last year and what we talked about last meeting at some point we gotta kind of time this out I think this is you know supposed to be an hour and a half and I think this might be more might be more than that um but we'll we'll get there um so 5:30 you know registration mix and mingle six o'clock welcome everyone introduce the Adcom members and then Sage we um we always want to incl include a a promo of our website I'm thinking you know because this agenda is pretty full maybe that could be pretty kind of brief and just in the in the beginning when we're introducing ourselves maybe just show some new new features or things that we're working on oh I can at least break down what what has on it and stuff I mean not much has happened really with it because we had a kind of it was kind of a long year for the most part until we slowed it down with the one month meeting but I've uh been caught unfortunately with a lot of stuff going on but yeah no I'll break down what I can of what it has on it and uh there is I think there's one new feature since we talked before I do want to add some features I just have to wait for the time to do it um like uh Farms having uh they need to start hiring help or looking for people volunteers or whatever I want to make a section on the website so they can actually post them I just got to figure out the coding on it to see if I can actually pull it off um last year we had a like a slideshow going too yeah yep updated photos for that yeah you'll see Jen put here for the 2024 year review pictures needed yeah um we didn't we about this a little bit last time and we don't know if Angie Simone and and Jason Jer never saw anything yeah was never on Facebook yeah I remember seeing a drone in the air yeah and um well Marissa took pictures again though right she went around I don't know if she was sharing those or yeah I haven't are you asking just about the farm Day or about your farms in general for 2400 just do farm no farms in general Farm day would be one thing Facebook I said let's we got 300 followers and so for our cover photo I got lots of really nice shots of the Farms throughout Town that's all I meant so you okay yeah you our way that's great yeah okay that's awesome Nicole maybe you want to become a member of this Commission um yeah so we had our second annual second annual Farm Forum last January second annual Farm open Farm day the parade um the Outreach here I've got to look at this um library programs yeah um H Hampton County Improvement League haven't done much with them this past year Trust for Public land that was the previous year with the property on um longard that was purchased land for good Ling Consulting you know nothing with them so I'll I'll update that um and here's uh chapter 61 again this might be a place where we could ask the farmers how can we help you you the one thing about the one thing about chapter 61 if we ask them that we actually might have to write down an explanation in case they don't know what it is because I guarantee you most of them don't okay um remember now we have a lot more newer Farmers coming in town now yeah and they're new Farmers right I we could maybe even ask if morissa is interest interested in coming that night to explain her in her own way the 61 since she did so much research and work on it at least she can broaden it into a very small Spiel that be coherent for those who are new you can ask but I'm not sure she's going to see that interested than us anymore uh that's a good point though Sage about an explanation and then some possibilities they have uh come up before a farm hop this actually was Jim putam brought this up that um maybe it was that when we went to with the do the presentation with the Historical Society last April and we're talking about oh New farmers market you know and and he said why don't we put that on its head why don't we have get a van and take people to the existing to the existing farms and the existing farm markets so um I think Jen is gonna uh reach out to uh Lisa Anderson at Council on Aging and see if we can use their van yeah to do that yeah I think that's a better plan than kind yeah yeah pick your day well you know we can sort of canvas you know you know you and Cal Rees and where okay what's this what's a slower day you know like Tuesday afternoon you know not Saturday morning no yeah the it's a c in Grandy I it comes up to our place fairly regularly oh yeah it's usually at I think okay thanks so much [Music] here yeah okay and then a farm program to educate children the school Sage was this was this your rainstorm I'm not remembering yeah I want I want to try and get uh or at least have someone go into the schools and talk to uh well that's problem is they keep changing hands with the positions over there so it's hard to know who to talk to anymore yeah every year it's different yeah so because we want to talk to someone to see if we can maybe get uh programs or something interactive with the kids in farming whether it be uh information or if we have an activity or if we can convince them to have like a little garden that they can start doing and then we can uh you know or even have them visit farms and get like Intel like literal int tell that they can bring to class and talk about so at least they're spreading some kind of knowledge but until we really have someone we can have steadily be there so that we can actually maybe get a thought out and it be followed through as the problem I think maybe you'd have to either go through the select I me not select or the superintendent's office or even like a school committee meeting get on their agenda like that we have to go there right yes and that will be some work yeah uhuh it's a little long term it's a good goal yeah it's got to start somewhere right for sure okay so um Jen's uh geographic information systems presentation she I sent around but unfortunately I apparently a sage I did not copy you and I did not copy Cindy so we can't get it on here it's in your email it's 12 slides is she got a pres yeah yeah she she took a course I think it was a whole full semester yeah and she used the town the town GIS um system and then something called I don't have it in front of me but another one that she that she used and to talk about how that works and how maybe help farmers are you familiar with it no it's like a map system and basically all the Massachusetts is on it every town bur on the town you bur on the property level with it and you put different layers over it so it could be used for like you know soil um Rin stff like that water taable stuff like that yeah couple of her slides were about waterers sheds and okay and you can get you do these layers of different kinds of data build your own yeah anyone can so I look I looked through it and again I apologize so we can't share screen right now um it's a great start we have you know have a month to get it together January 22nd um so I don't know if we need we need another subcommittee to do this presentation or can Jen should be a Jen is just doing it we can provide input she's not here we can volteer her luckily sh volunteered herself so we'll just um you want her to present that through the farmers yeah yeah yeah she feels like she's ready for it yeah yeah oh yeah she said she would be in yep yep um and that's going to take a little time yeah absolutely say almost a half an hour proba yeah probably yeah an intro an overw of Master Plan actions for Adcom she said and EDC now there are some overlaps there but I wonder if we should have it be sort of strictly a our oh Economic Development commission um and I think didn't we say we wanted to do a brief kind of overview of the action steps in the master plan that involve Agriculture and then see if Farmers would want go to a separate Workshop about that and what's if we if when we Implement these things what what it might mean to the farmers what do you think I mean that's I don't farmers are not necessarily keen on going to meetings butow yeah more like they don't have time well exactly so yes we should write their names down right we signed up yeah yeah signups yeah and then um you know how can we help you and that's basically the theme of the whole Workshop he these things yeah how can we help and coming events I don't know um it's going to be janary f f parade so we'll see we may not we'll see if that need to be like a separate section do much of the spring no that's true we do uh we talked a little bit last time I think about a a plant swap that Lyn Blair wants to do at the library um she was going to come to this to our meeting tonight but it was um you know they had those the gift basket raffle going on at the yeah library tonight tonight was the drawing in their hot chocolate bar so she couldn't so she couldn't come but she'll come next time I think and we talked a little bit she and I emailed a little bit actually about um the plant Swap and she was thinking house plants and doing it in April but and I said well the house plant's really kind of February you know the light is getting better and the plants kind of okay they kind of start coming out of dormy so I wonder if April might be a little you know a little late for that I vegetables yeaha flow yeah um I'm more interested in that yeah that's just me yeah and you know we talked about you know it could be a plant Swap and a seed Swap and thing together so we'll work out those excuse me work out those details you have this room reserves a little bit I don't yet um yeah I've looked on the calendar you know there's a calendar on the town website nobody yeah nobody's in here yet but at least not that's showing up so I'll do that tomorrow for sure like that really and then uh you know open conversations and comments and then probably we like we did last time kind of close the workshop and then let people just you know talk among themselves if they don't want to be sort of right expressing themselves to the whole room maybe just want bit smaller right yeah I mean I remember last time they all didn't care they were all talking to each other and everything yeah yeah that was pretty pretty good bu yeah and uh lenita can you help out with um some some goodies great advertisement everyone was happy that's right yeah yeah yeah food I can do coffee again okay coffe did we get um water bottles from Big W yeah okay although I'd almost rather have some like decanters and have you know rather than all the classic botles I thought we did uh apple cider didn't we do cider last one yeah we had cider I think yeah I know there's a lot of stuff left over yeah people didn't eat a lot people don't like e in public yeah shy maybe what we should do is towards the end if there's still a lot left invite them to take some home yeah maybe get some like brown paper bags yeah I can bring bags yeah okay yeah I know I took six home last time because there's so much yeah we don't have buy water bottles we can buy gallons yeah true can is not a bad idea yeah yeah let's get um um I we could use tap water too but I think people like to some people are picy about be I know water yeah we bring one of those tanks that you took to the community garden what of those 175 G that's right oh did you happen to take pictures of the tanks the new tanks because we can show them too yeah I have I have a couple pictures yeah yeah let's see because even Farmers have friends that don't have land and if they can't really rent it say it's overbooked they can always come to the community garden H yeah I mean so 12 by 24 yeah okay that's good we'll continue chugging along on this and we meet again uh January 8th I believe it is I I even had on the agenda Maybe yes and oh yeah and the fourth Wednesday which would be our work session is is the is the workshop so okay we will get it together by then let's see we have a few sets of minutes here Sage did you get the minutes in Cindy's email I believe so yes okay uh so it's um August 14th the one never approved August 14 I know I don't know are you sure we didn't I don't think so s doesn't think so what about last meetings last meetings are here too 11 11:20 they're here and 109 should be yeah like three three yeah so guess maybe should we go back to the oldest one first August 14th well 10 doesn't really have anything written AUST I October 9th that one's a quick one yeah um August 14th no 20 oh here we goou uh I did look through these I have had mostly kind of you know spelling changes in that kind of thing when did me and Zach switch Vice was that August um that's right is it says on Vice but I think we changed it before August or on August yes we got to check that let's and we had a vote I mean we had a vote on that so SP at the bottom yeah two te's right and also oh this is it's uh I think we correct these each time Len right not L and then public comment uh the last sentence I don't think we need to capitalize the word Farm or in the next sentence the word idea and farm again fourth line there um that being said this is only the second annual Farm day notifications Zack Barnett the two teams second page uh fourth line Dan Cook was talking about creating pro products for locally Source goods and that it has it has run deep many years I think is correct and then uh Randle mass does have an agricultural Commission of their own but at this time it is disordered I don't I hope I hope we didn't say that inactive maybe um I don't even know if this is so let's let's lay back the video enact it right and then clerk Angelina Simone brought up to select boards needed an apostrophe oh and Cindy I'll I'll give you marked up copies um hopefully that'll make your life a little easier um again third line I don't think we need to capitalize sponsors and a moment of silence for local farmer Douglas wooder need the you there Doug yeah who departed this life well be parted his life too I guess but dogless that need to be changed I think uh usually it's this life um well anybody as we're kind of zipping through here any other thought we definitely double check uh Sage on when you when Zach became uh Vice chairman so uh this an Angie's still in this so I don't I think that we exchanged after she left I don't think she was still part of the commission I don't know that was very recent though um that she that she resigned matter of fact I think it was like our last meeting I thought it was two meetings agoo okay and we still haven't picked a a replacement have we for um clerk a little bit yeah no right no we have not we haven't had enough people show up except for us and we need yes we need a we Ron there you go seen almost a year oh really yeah it's been a while maybe not a year but I can't really remember the last time he here yeah oh it says right here that she left on the uh October 9th was her resignation oh okay that's what I was looking for um Andre Okay October oh same thing with Zach Zach got it on that day too so it happened the same day same meeting it was October that's right we empowered Zach to sign sign papers and stuff yeah so that that's so this is legit after this it should not no longer say me as Vice but him right so this the minutes for this meeting right here it should yeah be updated okay Tom was not on it right and when when did she well she just didn't uh get reappointed and you know which would have been he still on the November 20th yeah oh that's right yeah we had November meeting the meeting I I thought I missed I didn't in the other room yeah 20th yeah yeah I thought we should take Tammy off of the November 20th oh and also then uh Jen was full commissioner by November 20 would you guys like me to double check in all this stuff and then we can vote on the minutes yeah next time yeah just to make sure you don't want uh September November 20th says shair Man makesense chapter 61 oh yeah chairman chairman okay land land owners I think it's one let's see a Google Mouse yeah I know that matters it be nice to they're looking for one commissioner yeah looking have a oh we did we did Sage is online so we had four and we had no we're still we're going almost we're just going through some minutes and that we will be done in a few minutes Alterna on well and three where are you yeah oh I see okay and then Reach Out is two words what happen with the small stuff I know we should fix that I mean just not yeah I think it was copied and pasted from something else so Diane I don't know if you looked at our agenda but um Nicole was here which is very very helpful you know for us to meet her and she gave some good good input on some stuff that we're doing like how we pay our bills for example that's one yeah um yeah okay so anyway so so I'll go through these and and work with Cindy you make these updates and we can actually vote on them yeah next time just and be sure everybody's titles yeah next meeting maybe we should try and think of the uh clerk too yes right they say put that on the agenda so that's way we can make an official vote yep I mean and we gotta we gotta find somebody who wants to do itna wants to do it oh she might I feel like she's taking on a lot though but that's her that's her decision yeah I don't know who else we would really after he comes to more meetings and most people right yeah yes right that you don't really need a clerk if you have your secretary right you don't need an official oh we don't or secretary if you have an ad I know when we um think in the handbook it says we supposed to have one we I think unless you have have administrative support it's really for that purpose yeah okay I think you and I no that's right I think you and I even talked a little bit about well what does the clerk do um could Cindy join our mission has to come to it anyway Cindy our secretary if she wants to we just appointed Julie to Economic Development yeah C you are you the ma or one Cindy actually gets paid for this so if you became member I don't know she wouldn't get paid right she still be the administrative support that she is yeah so she could she still get paid job yeah okay that wouldn't be a conflict okay oh all right oh that's right her kids are sick that's why you don't hear from her she had to do something with okay yeah she things off yeah she'll have to message in chat okay we don't have the chat up yeah probably should yeah that's true sorry team I have to scoot out to deal with a sick kid I need text something yeah I don't know she's yelling now she the kids are and says have a wonderful holiday okay yeah she mentioned that when she was trying to get everything logged in I just forgot okay good good um I think we are all set Diane did you have anything you wanted to actually bring up or you just want to no I see what okay I know well it's good to see you I'll love you all no no hey I get it yeah also just curious um who's the who's going to be the chair nor oh okay for the um yeah another guy that takes on a lot remember Jessica Taylor is the vice chair first time on any board commission good dive and WR that's good that's good they do not have a secretary an administrative secretary so they had to nominate one p okay yeah okay good um I think we are all set [Music] I'll make a motion to adjourn all in favor I I good night