uh this is the regular monthly meeting of the Southwick agricultural commission it is April 10th 2024 uh we are recording the meeting um we do have a quorum uh with myself Bert Hansen uh Sage Fury Angie Simone um Marissa Kreon Tom jados Tammy Sak Bion and Jen Petro oh I'm sorry and Zach who's sitting across the table from me but who I didn't have on my pad for some reason that's um PL s a couple of things for communication um I got an email from Trisha sedelo sedo yeah she's the public health nurse and she is accepting um food pantry donations in her office here in town hall so if that's an easier way to do the donations that's good um I also got SE several of us got an email from Lisa Anderson today about being reappointed uh yeah you're not up till 202 25 I didn't BT I don't think I think I was tagged for 24 yeah actually she's had I just had um Jessica and Tammy you know as alternates but all the alternates need to be reappointed because that's a that's a one year that's a one-ear gig so my first son not having to do it yeah there you go and you've been on the commission what five years five years so anyway so Tom Jen Jess and Tammy all need to be um reappointed if you wish to and Angie and I I you're a full commissioner but I think we appointed you to fill a one-year term last time I mean I just got this at five o'clock so I didn't have a chance to check all my all my notes but um does that is that is that your yeah I was filling a term and then I think they might change it when they reappoint me yes right it would be a threeyear yeah should be a threee yeah okay um so I'll send a note to Lisa and clarify some of that stuff um so for that do we um just reapply and things like that or they said you can send a letter of interest through the online portal yeah an online like form to fill out or you can send them an email probably have to get swor in again oh yeah yeah have to get office they might have to have you do the umth test the ethics test ethics oh yeah I think you do because it's every year that's a long one but it's I think the ethics might be every other year I remember yeah I could be wrong on that the online was the online was very much uh better than the email experience I had just FYI I'll reach out for to Lisa and find out what I need to do I'm interested in staying so okay thank you sure um uh we don't have any public anywhere oh wait we have Kim wolf any public comments uh there's nobody in the room so um anybody online have a comment and as always we take comments pretty much what you know throughout the meeting [Music] um um actually Angie you said you had something to discuss with the commission so yeah did you want me to bring that up now sure if you so um my teacher friend at work um she's trying to start a farmers market in Springfield so and she doesn't know many obviously being from Springfield doesn't know many farmers so I was thinking maybe maybe we could advertise it on the website like if there's local farmers that are starting out that might want to try a farmers market or we could even advertise other Farmers Market doesn't have to be just this one but just because I know we we weren't going to do a local one right right just to give them options sure you know because the established Farms there's too many markets and N Farmers you right folks have said but there are some new some new folks coming on with with Farms um maybe any idea like uh when it might be or her Farmers Market is going to be at the Holy Cross Church in Springfield and it's going to be August 3rd to October 26 every Saturday from 9: to 1 August 3rd to October 26th yes did you say Saturday to one um and not to be Devil's Advocate but is she aware that there's a farmers market at Forest Park I'm not sure yeah I'm sorry what those are going to be on Tuesdays when they CFT sum yeah yeah they're on Tuesdays but just FYI there's okay another Market in Springfield there's a few of them different days though yeah yeah um okay well that's that's um good to notice do you think she needs any you know help or input or anything um she definitely does um this is her first time doing it so um I mean I told her I would talk to you guys about it maybe invite her to one of our meetings um but I wasn't sure because she's in Springfield how much we would be able to help her uh I know the manager of the Westfield want if you want to send me your friends email I can reach out to see if she can maybe give her advice or what they need to do or requirements helpful thank you you're welcome I mean I don't think there's any rule that says we can't operate in Springfield advocating for our Farmers Farmers right I I don't see any problem with that yeah I agree good thanks thanks for that so yeah if she if she would like to come to a a meeting and she's going to start what August so she can come to the next meeting if you know uh April 27th I think it is 24th sorry April 24th if she wants to come okay I'll let her know and I'll get to you on that okay well this is curious I so good for her but what's the what's her motivation well she's a crafter so it' be kind of like a Makers Market with farmers and crafter so um and obviously she works during the week as a teacher so she said there she hasn't experienced many um places for her to go on the weekend okay gotcha um I could maybe get some information from my daughter who lives in Tennessee and she runs a makers Makers Market down there yeah so um yeah okay cool that's good thank you let's see I just was thinking about something for public comments and now I've already it already went out of my brain so I'll get back to it um for our expenses this year you know I don't I'm not very organized about that yet um you know we talked about you know the water tanks and you sent me some info um the the the uh gas fired pump yeah for the community garden the um H what you know signs you know we can start getting some stuff for open Farm day in this year's budget so um guess haven't quite put pencil to paper so to speak with that June will come up pretty quick though yeah true uh yeah um oh but Sage I think I think I have signed the final documents for your wix's website most I think so hopefully you actually get a check pretty soon I saw Marissa just started a new one the uh what is it sou Land Trust yeah they have a brand new website oh yeah it's a wick site too okay still with us I am yes yeah hi so you have a website now for the SLT yeah um maybe later on in the meeting I can add a few words about it okay yeah I saw it posted on Facebook so I checked it out thank you thank you great if we have meeting I'd love to um yeah just update the commission on what that's about and give a little introduction so yeah thanks for mentioning it Zach you're welcome yeah get a space for it on the website too I thank you we can sort of cross reference sure yeah it's in relation we're trying to save the town right absolutely yeah well the good the good parts what's left of it yeah we can B the rest okay the uh uh commissioner skills and experience I sent around a kind of a list that Sage Sage put mostly P put together I had you know some input um so just as you are able um you know think that through you know some of the um the categories exuse me you know education interests skills experience Recreation aspirations I mean there may be some overlap I I would think but um you can get us that info and I just want go ahead stage I'd say pick the dominant whatever it more classifies under is what you put put it under this way we just know that you know you specifically are aimed that direction of that knowledge but uh if you want an example feel free I already made my lists so I'm happy to share just to give you an example of what kind of being H for yeah could you just send out an email to everyone or just respond okay uh I just want to emphasize that's not really for publication that's for us yes to know who might have expertise in certain areas or desires to do certain things it's easier to commit to things and to and to get people in the right roles when we know what you're capable of and what you're interested in right okay Dave pri's Pond um I got a I got some uh aerial photos oh you do from Melissa oh cool uh this I'll pass them around and I'll try to show them on uh Zoom this one is from the 1970s and this is the pond and now here's today and here's the pond and you can see that there's like yeah Melissa said Melissa priy says it you know you can see it flows toward Klein Road um and the issue here is that Dave wants to basically with an excavator get the silt and dredge it basically yeah dredge it um because the pond isn't holding as much water as it used to so that means that the land near the pond is wetter than they want and swampy it's more Swampy and they so therefore they can't grow as much hay um as as they have in the past do they use that pond for irrigation I don't know that shoot um they can yeah I think so yeah I think they can yeah uh they don't have livestock or anything though no but if we got a dry summer and they need to water yeah yeah so um what I'd like to do when we were uh working on John W's uh property on on North Lumis there's a stream that goes through there oh thank you Tammy sorry I know it's not straight I think you got aim at this and then talk yeah bird does talk yeah so anyway so um you guys all see it yeah ccle on a piece of paper yeah I think Marissa you're familiar with the property right yeah I advised um Mr and Mrs priy on this maybe about three years ago um it was also at the time when uh there were a lot of other things going on in the commission and in town and uh um ultimately the information that I gave them is that they're on 61a land they are legally entitled in terms of federal and state to do what they need to do at that pond if their wishes to dredge it up that's fine um I contacted the nrcs office at that time they confirmed that and um they're exempt from the same regulations that the Conservation Commission would put on a nonfarm uh parcel so as a courtesy um it's advised by nrcs that anybody who is a farmer and wants to adapt their uh Wetland or uh body of water to go to the local Conservation Commission and just let them know that they have this intention and then they can commence work um they don't need any further approval it's part of the statute that farmers get uh in terms of protection so that they can use the waterways on their land so um I mentioned this to them and I sent them that material over but again it has been some time so um yeah yeah and I know we've discussed this with other Farmers that have come to the commission but it would have to go to conservation just as a courtesy not an obligation but obviously for good communication but they're 61a so they should go for it yeah yeah yeah that's what I want to do uh starting to mention um a couple of years ago in John Wall's property on North Lumis he wanted to replace a bridge that goes across a stream there and so um at that time I wrote a letter to him you know saying that you know for the in term from the Adcom point of view is fine to do what you want to do and I copied the uh Conservation Commission and so that's what I want to do now okay same thing for Dave it's kind of like what Dan did too with his yes with his brid on his property right right right so um I don't know do we we probably should vote just to make it kind of Ironclad if that's the right word um so I'll make a motion that we communicate to the priy family and the Conservation Commission that um um that we' that we are we voted now I can't include that uh that we recommend that the priy family go ahead with uh returning the pond to its former State uh and that it does not um it it's not that it is exempt from environmental laws how's that I didn't say that very smoothly but um so that's my motion so um yes a second second Zack okay so um roll call V Bert Hansen I Zack hi Tammy hi Jen hi uh Marissa I sorry that's all right uh Sage Tom's an i Tom yeah Sage's I also okay so it's uh unanimous thanks you Angie I'm sorry Angie hi I'm sorry if I can just jump in here uh for one last comment on this it's specifically that act producers are allowed to maintain their Farm ponds and brainage through the a exemption and it's the Massachusetts Wetland protection ER it's chapter two in that yeah so if you do want to include that in your letter that might just give conservation I mean they should be used to this at this point but if they did want a citation it's Within chapter two of the wetlands act and they should be familiar hopefully with that since that's what they're trying to protect so when I spoke to Dave about this it sounded like he may want us help him get the pond better oh kind of like we did at the oh kind work day thing yeah oh I'm not not positive it was pouring rain when he was talking to me I was trying to rush but he had an umbrella I did not uhuh so you were in a compromising position yeah okay well we could we could look into that I'm guessing that would be I mean I'm just guessing after he dredges it with the excavator I don't know if he has one or he's gonna get one might need some landscaping for lack of a better yeah if there's trees in to be cut back like I don't know what I haven't seen it yeah yeah okay well thanks for that everybody um the chapter 61 protocols I talked to Lisa Anderson today in the select Board office about hey what's going on with that meeting with all the commissions and she said there has there is a date set uh and later in May she didn't know off the top of her head uh shortly after the town meeting there's going to be a date set with these various commissions um to to learn about this uh the chapter 61 uh protocols that Marissa has worked on um Marissa I'm assuming that you're going to want to be a presenter at that meeting um I offered uh to support that by citing how other towns have implemented the protocols once they've passed pass them it's one thing and and Doug moglin referenced this back when I presented The Proposal of the protocols way back in August 2023 that it's one thing for them to get past it's another thing to implement them and have them actually be useful and understood so yeah um when this got passed a few weeks ago I did send an email to all three of the select board members as well as naen and Carl steinhardt who I know is retiring so they're in the middle of that transition offering um to share examples of what the other towns I spoke with offered in terms of just tips for implementing and making sure that it actually gets used I never heard back from anybody but the offer still on the table by all means I'd be happy to share whatever notes um so I don't know if you have more communication with them Bert but um yeah if you want to reiterate that then I'd be happy to help however sure well I certainly want to advocate for that I mean it's your she's the expert on it you're the expert it's your baby you've been working on it for a year or something um so I can't understand why you would not be there but uh you know I'll as I say I I'll advocate for that sure I appreciate that and I know as well um because there's a transition going on in terms of CAO Carl retiring and and what not there may also be just some lag time in terms of follow up with that so um yeah I haven't I didn't watch the select board meeting on Monday and I haven't caught up with the recording yet but um is there any update on that like I know that it was down to Randy Brown and then the Hardwick Town Administrator has a decision been made yet or yes the Hardwick person got it no kidding okay wow um all right then maybe maybe then it would be good to kind of loop them in because if they're uh I mean they're I don't think they've gone I don't know how far back they may have gone in terms of researching what's going on um but this might just be something that would fall by the wayside otherwise unless someone reaches out and actively Advocates like you're saying for for this training to go through because a lot of it does fall on the CAO the way that um the way that I understand some of the protocol uh to have been edited uh by town council is a lot of it does fall in the CAO so I think it'd be important to have the CAO uh sure you know aware of that as well before the training so right right thanks um I didn't see the select board meeting either but uh Cliff Clark had a article about it in the Westfield news a couple days ago and I guess it as Doug moglin put it apparently it was it was by a nose but they thought that the the woman from Hardwick I got the you know like little bit better problem solving skills is what I will took out of it um I mean Randy certainly has a ton of experience um but um anyway they went with the hardwood person um so yeah and speaking of selectboard meanings I don't think I mentioned this about um our reappointments uh Lisa would like to know Asa P because she wants to put it on the select board agenda for April 22nd which is only a week from Monday so um just W to get that out there um do we so so Bert it's Tom um question for the most recently appointed people do I really have to write another letter or submission I mean what would have what could have possibly changed if I'm expressing interest you know in like six months it's really really it's been that long I mean I'm going on vacation they're saying they want it in a week and a half I mean I don't have time to do that in the next 10 days can you just copy and paste what you wrote before I don't want to do any I don't want to do anything frankly I what I would rather say is C prior submission I mean you know right right I mean in the past I've just sent a really quick email saying I'm still interested yeah I think I think that's what it is I don't think they're super picky about it yeah so I Cy pasted I don't even know if i s I don't even know if I have mine because I did it on the form on the website I don't have anything they have it that's why I'm saying can't they pull that back up you would you would think you just have to say that you I don't think they'll have access to it though they probably need an IT person for that yeah I did the same thing when I I did everything online I just I sent an email the last time yeah so who does the who does the email have to go to select board right select board you could just I would say copy Bert yeah copy me send it to I would say Doug moglin and Lisa Anderson okay and just you know it could be a couple of sentences yeah um I don't think that's to much uh Z on it yeah you know just just saying that yes you are interested in being reappointed you think the Adcom is the best thing [Laughter] ever they already know that so okay I'll do I'll try to get that done tomorrow okay we probably have to be present at on the 22nd meeting right um for reappoint okay oh okay yeah do we have any new people looking to join that's the only thing I could think of that would cause any issues right not that I'm aware of um Sometimes they come out of the wwor yeah like find out about technically that was old SB not the new SB right okay but you know maybe that's why they want to know I mean it's the terms aren't up until the end of June um so you know April 22nd is plenty of lead time I guess they want to know if there are places to fill sometimes they have to carry things on to the next meeting so I give them time still yeah so so Tom where you going on vacation are you going away Aruba oh nice what' he say aruba aruba nice yeah so we're leaving on Friday okay morning at 5:30 in the morning so I I have tomorrow to get everything done and of course I'm behind yeah at least it's not a job forcing that like very quick motion yeah you can take your time a little bit you know if you I'll figure it out Bert I'll figure it out don't worry I'll get I'll get it done okay thank you I was gonna say you know I could maybe do it on your behalf I think that would probably be okay no no I'll I'll spend some time first thing in the morning trying to figure it out okay all right thank you all right thanks guys or we could just table it t one table till the next select boort meeting we're just not prepared yeah yeah I can't believe that every single commission is going to have every single person you know ready to roll a week for Monday the last one I zoomed I won't be the hold up Bert I'll make sure I send a note okay um okay open Farm day um I personally haven't spent a lot of time on this in the past two weeks um we did uh agreed last time to buy the signs that engga recommended for the ports of Entry so to speak into town you know um all the bigger ones yeah the bigger like 57 like chrisville Plaza area well you know coming from Westfield coming from Connecticut Etc um we said we want to reach out to other adcoms Tammy by any chance did you get a chance to talk to Granville the Granville Adcom isn't really active they do exist but they haven't had any issues I was at the riple farm at Maple Corner Farm on Sunday talked to Jess who talked to her father-in-law who said it's actually his son David who's the chair um but but they haven't really had a need to do anything but um at least Maple Corner firm would be interested in participating in some format I'm probably small to start and they said you know lenita sells their products their Maple products is it could be where um if Sean and I you know do that again you know we could have like a separate table side table with a cash box for her sales so just kind of like promote put their brochures because sure blueberry season at that point will probably be over but we could start promoting they have a new [Music] um shop I guess you can go and buy like their other their baked goods poyes things like that put their brochures out for like you know Maple season comes quick in February so yeah and she does um her father-in-law I don't know it's but Mr Ripley he follows us he checks on us so so he could be you know he says he he checks in on how we're what we're doing down here oh oh okay good that's good to hear yeah we're doing a lot yeah how do they not have issues I don't nothing going on in Grandville see that's the thing we make things happen while other people just wait for it to happen yeah that's why we're the fun crew no one's really trying to develop Granville so they don't have to f as very yet once we fill up start going yeah that's the next stop right um uh Dan Cook is checking into student volunteer requirements at St Mary's um oh I had I did have a couple of things I want now last year we did uh you know site visits to the Farms um we probably don't need to do that again with the Farms that participated last year we pretty much uh have the IDE have the idea but if there are new farms uh you know we should you know do the site visit have to think about how to reach out to additional farms uh last year Marissa did a mailing to everybody who has 61a property um probably do that again yeah yeah I think and like put in there how successful the first one was people that held out you know maybe we can push them over yeah I mean we could also put maybe Flyers around town saying hey if you have a Farm if you're a new Farm you want to participate in farm day y I was just thinking that maybe we could put something together for even volunteers too make it all one big Post Yeah The Forum you know yeah something in the center at the bank do we know for sure that all the Farms that participated last year are still interested in participating again we don't know that for sure um but there are some that have said they will yeah I mean it's hard to imagine they would not want to you know sending 200 people their way have we thought about what to do about the parking and stuff for Fireflight I we G talk about definitely getting them to park down at Brass Rail yeah have like have like a shuttle or some people could just walk up I live on I have a 10 car parking that's right there but oh you do I live on Lake View I have parking my driveway and I have people can park on my property fine even on my street I mean it's kind of tight on like view but you know a lot of people can park on my driveway oh okay a lot of people can park there I wish fireflies Road was that you nice it'sit forks and bats coming out way we're thinking we should hire police officer we were thinking about it I mean we haven't decided at least one I mean it's $60 an hour for you know could be six hours this year so that's 360 um we did get the full budget right B yeah yeah and NAA has said all the sponsors from last year are ready to go you know said that they would do it again so that's $1,500 right there too um I do want to keep in mind that trunk Retreat I do wish to do that again because that was a huge point for us yeah okay for for a first time event we actually got you know second place tie yeah that's a great promotion 800 people yeah it seemed like a lot of a lot of people at one time too during that night yeah it was it was fun I don't know if you heard Zach but he said you know you better win this time yeah I wonder if it'll be the same day as the farm parade again but we won't know until yeah I like everything's on the same day yeah it's are we gonna try to do that again oh I think definitely yeah I like it yeah it was fun um and you can see a mile away I we got to make it bigger candy more cand h fireworks bubbles how about a bubble it's a good idea instead of throwing candy we'll have drones flyed in there you go okay Angie can you get J Jason to bring some drones over y any time a lot of kids like the widgets that they had in the prizes um or whatever they call oh in the whatever in the Trunk or Treat yeah throwing those up Poke Balls whatever they are I'm trying to think of a new theme this year okay I like Pokemon but I can't do it twice right I just have a quick comment about open Farm day and this is something that we touched on both in the feedback session that we had immediately after open Farm day and then this was also touched on during our Farmers Forum in January but um you know it was a really successful first day by and large I'd say and um you know a lot of the farmers yeah totally did seem on board with doing it on an annual basis but I just had a comment about making sure that we STI or we stick to to the to the um theme of open Farm day and that like the whole point is that if you're a farm that's going to participate you have to be willing to open up your farm operations because otherwise if it's just your storefront it's a waste of time for the farmers it's a waste of time for people who are stopping there and it's a waste of time it's a it's a misuse of our volunteers and our resources there's nothing wrong with not deciding to open up your operations for whatever reason if you're concerned about liability um if it's just not your style that's fine but I think um having places on the farm map that are not willing to open up um I think this it's a branding issue and I think the commission should be strict going forward and get that consent from Farmers and understanding and consensus that open Farm day is exactly what it means otherwise you know I do think that the event risks disappointing folks I know that that was the case with one of the Farms I went to all the Farms that day and um that one Farm I mean the volunteers had that feedback about that farm as well I know that the owners of the farm also felt that you know they felt disappointed that people weren't patronizing their store as much that wasn't necessarily the point of the day the point of the day was people understanding what the operations of your farm are getting familiar with your farm understanding the work that's entailed with running your farm and starting to build that connection so if it's also like you know people aren't willing to open up their farm and they're just expecting big Revenue that day new customers I don't think that's the point of farm day so I just want to make sure that the commission going forward keeps that conversation going as to what open Farm Day means because it could very well evolve as the years go on but last year was so successful and I think about all the other Farms that um just had really good accolades and good feedback from both the public from the volunteers from the farmers themselves and those were all the Farms that really did open up so just something to keep in mind going forward because it's so much work done to not have it be totally successful with all the farms you know um yeah can I add to that for SEC yeah um I 100% support what she just said the one thing I'd like to add is I also got to hear the cut the those who came visited that type of farm and then came to like Firefly I got to hear the aftermath of like oh that one Farm cost us this this other one that we sacrificed because we could not make it exactly that's a bad advertisement for everybody even the event yeah we just need to be upfront with the farms and you know convey what we want them to do right you know they may not make a lot of money that day but these people are now going to know that farm and they're going to go back to that farm so it's like a long-term investment right exactly amen Sage both great points exactly it's like the long game you know um yeah absolutely and and you said in previous meeting Sage um you know it's about education too you know people see the farm operations I always think about the uh coward Farm you know automated Greenhouse yeah I wish I got to see that may me too I missed out on that and uh but and Tammy I think you said there there were eight or 10 people at blaspheming Acres who live in the area who never been there right so that's the idea right so we have to just promote it that way and be yeah and be kind of strict about it what we could do what we could do is a misnomer because obviously everyone wants attention because that's what far is about if they are not willing to open up but they can still kind of have a kind of a say in there we can always advertise their business still in our pamphlets like these are other places that couldn't be with us in the event but here you could shop here tomorrow or whatnot just some kind of little blurb on one of our pamphlets just advertis them so at least they're not like left out yeah exactly it's I agree we can still promote them yeah find a way to just make sure it justifies right right yeah and you know we can put everybody on the pamphlet on the farm pamphlet and like that's that's a marketing tool no one should be left out if they're a farm but open Farm day yeah we have this criteria you can either meet them or not and um yeah if you can then we'll work with you and look at the variety of farms that we had last year in terms of people opening up their Farm quote unquote like look at Tom's Farm the way that they did it and then look at how lenita did it and then how all these other places did it they each put their own really unique spin on it so it's not that we're being close-minded it's just that open it up however whatever you do just open it up however works for your farm depending what kind of farm you have I mean we're flexible it's just has to be open if people are going to drive all the way there so and if they need more help from like volunteers if they tell us that we get more volunteers there that would help the situation yeah for sure I also think we need some b-roll actual video on each site this time around so we can make even better splash page presentation for our website and for future promotions because pictures say a lot but videos also help that I was going to say I know we were talking about just criteria for the farmers and the open firm day do we put like an outline for them when they say yes I would like to do that here's an outline of or some kind of like okay criteria like where I don't know um yeah do you meet these requirements kind of thing um here's you know I don't know if that's going to push them away or not you know what I mean like um you need rules yeah so I mean that's that's just that's just habit of human beings we we need rules we need kind of guidelines so I mean if people are against that we don't want Anarchy we need we need control at least somewhat control yeah yeah we have a questionnaire for the open uh Farm day site visits and a lot of that I think would be really good questions and criteria like already so we don't have to reinvent the wheel like I remember our site plan questions were like what part of the farm do you plan on opening up what will that show exactly like how do people get there is it like so we can recycle some of that and do what um Jen is saying like maybe just transform some of those questions from that site plan visit to like maybe a little questionnaire so that people understand like this is kind of what we're looking for not like they have to open up the entire Farm either I mean right like sections or something something to keep people interested yeah right and I think uh Jen you're saying it might push some Farms away well sure if that's thing right ex yeah but like you said it's about education and having people know about the farms in South I think right now we're only having an issue with one Farm I'm not going to say the name but we're trying to literally create opportunities for everyone yeah so that's that's basically what this is all about creating opportunities and all different levels and you either want to be on board or you don't that's what it comes down to right good good point Marissa thank you for bringing that up um so I'll get together uh we had a kind of a task list last year I I'll update that and get it around to you guys um start identifying when uh the deadlines are for various Publications and I think we should try to get the news to come out like 22 or 40 yeah yeah yeah maybe send one to one Farm send another to another farm so we get even more coverage yeah be hard 22s at Town Hall almost every week they are I don't think I yeah I'm always seeing them out there there's been a lot of controversies lately yes a lot you know another we've talked a couple of times about the new radio show The Fabulous 413 and they do a lot of segments on on various Farms yeah so maybe that that be was on right exact that was good I like that okay hey hey hey B uh this is Tom quick quick just thought and I don't know how to do this but is it possible for maybe putting an estimated time at each Farm just on the passport or something like how much time people could expect to spend at the various Farms so if they do want to plan or if they have limited time it it might help guide them a little bit interesting um we we probably can't really say for sure no about like a window yeah five 15es you got three kids and they all want a pony ride right right it's gonna take a while we could do this because what you're talking about Tom is doable but usually you have to have about three or four events to get a really good eye on that but we did have a person at each farm so as as long as that person is doing the judge maybe they can just estimate in their head like what they saw throughout the event that they they were staying at because they were there all day I mean a firefly it was easily you could spend 30 minutes there easily that' be minimal so yeah I would say the same for the beai farm right because we did the hay ride up in the back right I'm I'm just trying to think like because people were complaining about time but if there are some that they should expect to spend longer at if they know that even if it's you know 45 minutes versus 15 if one's like kind of a quick spin through or doesn't offer much of their operations that could be quicker and if they're trying to just plan out you know their their afternoon or their rout or whatever it just may help be a guide again it doesn't have to be definitive it's just a suggestion you know yeah what that's good yeah what is you know last year was the initial year but what if this year if you kind of get an idea of like what activity they're going to offer if they're going to offer one so that way they're like I know they want on L us hay ride it could have been 15 minutes they could have waited 15 minutes and then 15 it all depends on how busy if it's like a the self-guided walk through you know like or you just summ what happened last year yeah something like that because I'm thinking if people went to the Tobacco Barn and then the sunflowers well somebody could just get a sunflower in five 10 minutes or so listen to Dwight talk all day it's almost like giv a one pager with each like a onepage document with all the Farms what to expect and you have like hey this is what you know just like literally two sentences per Farm it would fit on one page and you could kind of provide that with with the passport and they could look at it or not look at it either way but at least it kind of gives them an idea and you know reading something may make them decide oh well you know that doesn't really sound like something I want to do this other one does so I want to go there first or whatever sure on the passport you have like a QR code that goes for a website for like each farm that has yeah yeah that's a great idea yeah QR codes are the way of the future right for the last 20 years at least they've been around just took 20 years to catch on and now they're everywhere okay uh good comments all that's great um I can't wait to get Monty Belmonte out here from The Fabulous 413 great okay so we have the Historical Society presentation coming up in 10 days um and oh here I'll pass around this here's the here's the flyer they gave to their people at their last meeting the one that [Music] um Joe who used to be director of the museums this last name is leaving my mind right now but anyway there were 65 people there they passed these out um so it's Bert Hansen and friends um and two of the friends are uh Jim it's it's farming in Southwick past present and future and um Jim putam is going to do the past I'll do the present and Marissa is going to do the future which is awesome that is cool um Jim said what he's going to do he said you can't you can't do history of farming in Southwick in 10 or 15 minutes so what he wants to do actually is do a kind of a um the story of blossoming acres and how it has evolved as farming has evolved from Native American times you know to now as a kind of a microcosm of the larger story which I thought so he would know for sure yeah um so and I was kind of debating about you know visuals he's going to bring pictures so so that's good I mean visuals are always good and we've talked about already Tom showing the open Farm day visuals like we did at the Forum y so I'm not sure what visuals to use for the present and Marissa uh not to put you on the spot or anything but mariss said she might not be able to do visuals right um you know just because of time time limitations if she could see into the future yeah Marissa bring a crystal ball and say okay here's well so excuse me Bert real quick um I did talk to Roger and he talked to Richard wooder so maybe when I get back I know it's tight but when I get back maybe you and I could head up there because he said he'd be happy to show us around and let us take some photos of his digestor okay which Marissa that could potentially at least be something to show for the future of farmer Farmer farming how are they trying to you know reduce some of their cost you know reduce food waste and you know how do they leverage that so I can coordinate that for when we get back like that 22nd 23rd and May maybe mer it's simple as me doing another little slideshow of however many pictures we get of the digestor and you know get I'll get some background and some information on that and you could just have some talking points about that you know yeah that's fine I know a little bit of about it I've heard about it actually I know that I think he's using it to help us to generate some electricity right yeah basically I think it offsets almost all the electricity of the farm and he sells back amazing and he sells and he sells back to the grid right right so um yeah I I can definitely include that and if you can get a little bit more information and just some good visuals um that would be enough it's just nice to show like one tangible thing you know that's happening now that's kind of uh yeah modern so thank you Tom yeah Marissa do you have any sense yet of what you might be touching on um I would like to touch on I I haven't done any research yet that's kind of for this weekend um but just some points that I was thinking about are and I'm glad you mentioned the point about um JY starting with Native American times I'd like to end with uh how in terms of land usage today it's it's a growing practice to do land acknowledgements that a lot of this land well all of this land um and these two continents obviously used to be indigenous Native American lands so there is a growing practice to make land acknowledgements which mean um recognizing the former inhabitants of the land but also looking at some of the practices and agricultural practices that um indigenous communities had and how some of those with modern technology are kind of helping um Farms today just be a little bit more prepared for the big changes that are happening both economically in terms of climate change looking to those methodologies for the future um and I wanted to mention as well obviously like the master plan has a heavy emphasis on Farming and green businesses and kind of what that means you know the types of Agro businesses that are emerging that aren't necessarily the traditional farm that we might know of in South like but new modalities for Farm that are coming online that might align with what we want in South VI by 2040 so kind of along those lines and like you mentioned different types of farming that maybe would be applicable in South with our climate and the type of soil we have you know silver culture things like that um the concept of agroecology just regenerative agriculture things that also have um like a tangible economic benefit to Farmers to think about not just because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy but you know new modalities that can actually make farming more efficient and uh sustainable so that was kind of it in a nutshell I mean I don't know trying to reflect on the master plan a little bit with all those things I my knew sorry go ahead B I was just say I knew you were gonna say that Marissa about the about the master plan and I'm happy to happy to hear you that you you are going to talk about that so we definitely should include that um excuse me go ahead Tom I have another couple of points but go ahead Tom oh yeah sorry Marissa one thing I was just thinking about maybe we could look at some of the Agricultural things and Farms that are happening in towns around us like The Vineyards and Southampton you know uh just something that may ultimately end up in Southwick which has worked fairly successfully in in towns near us as well oh absolutely yeah I'll definitely add that Tom yeah thank you for that suggestion I'll add that yeah well that's a little similar you know there's um hydroponic couple of hydroponic farms nearby now there's photo voltaic sets you know going up pretty much everywhere um oh there's a third one I wanted to bring up uh hydroponic anyway so can we do you mind Marissa if we kind of throw some of this stuff I would love suggestions no I was going to say I mean those were just kind of rough ideas I was going to start exploring this weekend but if any of the Commissioners have other suggestions please send them my way so that I can kind of look into them and uh yeah research them as well please thank you okay Marissa it's Tom one one last thought on this sorry I'm I'm I drive by it in Suffield so Pride's Corner nurseries is a commercial commercial you know flowers ornamental trees and all that stuff so is there potential for some of our farmland for a commercial business like that to take over again it's just looking to the Future maybe that's an opportunity to keep some of our you know Farmland in Farmers hands even if it's on a commercial level versus some smaller Farmers you know fabulous suggestion I will definitely add that to my research list and the only reason I bring that up too is I grew up in Lebanon Connecticut which is Eastern Connecticut and Pride's Corners actually was huge in that town so to see it in subfield like how however old I am now later you know it's it just shows that they're still around they've been around since I was a kid you know and they've expanded this far you know up toward Mass from Eastern Connecticut so you know I'm just thinking out loud is there commercial option if it's not small individual Farmers you know like we know the Midwest has huge far in California huge commercial grade Farms is that a potential here I mean sometimes maybe not because we don't have the continuous property but is that something that could happen down the road all thank you for those factoids I definitely and some of that does line up with what the master plan says as well so that's perfect and the examples that you gave are really good tangible so thank you Tom those are good leads okay and for the present I'm going to use part of that time to plug the Adcom as we talked about last last time um and maybe some focus on some things that are going on now I'm like one thing I'm curious about is what's happening with a Meadow View Farm it's been it's been dormant for a couple of years now trying to bring it back yeah I'm gon try to find out I ran into someone at Big Y last year they were doing some work there okay yeah good yeah okay I look into some of that stuff Al righty uh let's see subcommittees and projects by the way I ran this uh agenda by sage and you guys should be thankful that he didn't let me add anything that wasn't here anyway um so it's the web the website um sage and Marissa makes me think actually about the um Sage I sent you uh Diane Gail's um article about I didn't get you didn't get it no I didn't get it I did good I kind of had something that went over last weekend that like rolled my entire two weeks away so oh I I didn't get to it yeah okay well that's fine but then the other thing um I also uh sent you back the uh your article about floods and droughts yep saw that I'll yeah I'll rewrite it so it for Southwest okay very good um you know Banner science stationary we'll get to that the database I need to I'm delinquent in not sending the 2020 open space plan to you Jen and to Angie because there's a list of farm properties in there needs to be updated of course but um I was wondering did we get any feedback from the ad in the softw not that I have seen not um sadly I don't think so not not to the Adcom uh email address yeah um so okay yeah that was a great choice in pictures by the way just because it was Rogers my father-in-law he he was he was tickled he he was tickled he was laughing about it and happy oh good good good um you didn't think about paying any royalties or anything so is that that um the open space um is it like a a already printed or it's printed and I do have an online version I mean it's a 80 Pages or something yeah so um like I said I was doing I'm doing that mapping program right now right it's actually really interesting I'm learning how to type it in Excel and bring it into the map and it actually Maps everything out I'm learning how to do that maybe maybe talk about that for so Jen's taking a class in the you know the GIS mapping system like that's on our our town website it's I find it very hard to use it is hard to it is awful yes it is whole country uses it yeah yeah a lot of tech issues but um but it's very interesting you can layer on things you can you know top topographical um we have our own like that but I was hoping to do something like that for yeah you know put something together all our Farmers you know oh you reading my mind because I was going to ask you I'm learning that skill as speak this this a whole is this a whole semester no ends uh uh end of April but I think I get to still keep the in the southw the town hall uses that program progr too yeah so maybe I can help go to whoever is running that and then sure maybe I'm wondering if we could maybe even have have you you know have you talk about it at one of our meetings or maybe even have a separate Workshop um if you're comfortable absolutely doing that yeah okay I learned more I'm I'm almost I got two more weeks of it it's like I'm almost done with it but it's pretty awesome and I think it would help greatly where are you taking the class it's on uh snhu um online of course but part of my environmental science degree yeah I know the whole state of Mass uses it yeah um I've looked at other states some some of it's by like County even by Town not all states are covered completely but I Ed looking at properties and stuff like that oh absolutely yeah yeah yeah and you can solve problems too so if somebody has like an issue like um not many people are visiting my farm let's see why maybe we can try to it's it's interesting you get data in there too oh which is awesome just like anyone can make their own layers too yes yeah so I have to come across some weird ones yeah so but yeah that's what I was hoping to do at some point with that you know that' be kind of yeah aw oh that's awesome yeah okay let's see uh commun Garden uh Ron and and Dan uh till the Garden on Saturday March 30th uh even though we had a monsoon a few days before that you didn't get stuck no work out soft softer dirt at least yeah um as funny the uh the area around the garden which is grass basically is still really wet but the garden itself is okay you know um I guess we maybe the water you know percolates through better um anyway there's 11 plots rented so far for this for this year a couple of newcomers um one of whom is you know it's like the best kept secret one person signed up for a plot and then emailed me today and said where is it where's the garden so it's The Secret Garden yeah yep um so we want to have uh we should have a couple of work parties and one of them you know we've been talking about having Ron come with his um brush hog and and we should do that pretty soon before you know the leaves are coming quickly and so we can see better um previous work days that we've done I think we're on Sundays right at the soski yeah and I realized I was looking through my last year's calendar we didn't do it last year it was in 2022 it's been a whole over a year already yeah I mean I could be wrong but um we did we did second one I thought so too but I think it well anyway I should double triple check but anyway no yeah I thought we had a second one we did yep um are we going to get um conservation committee yeah yeah once we have a date I'd like to get them so um some Sundays coming up uh are we GNA need to have them say you can cut this but not this again well we should well we've already talked to them about this about you know clearing invasives and making a path to the uh Pond like I know the seeds and they were trying to collect before yeah but it's early in the season though it's not the end of the season so some of that should be a problem right right I don't think the seed's ever got collected she uh Sabrina yeah what we worked out last time with Sabrina she just helped us so why don't we just invite her to do it again and then if she has a problem she tells us yeah yeah so I think we should you know revisit you know go to the Conservation Commission or at least communicate with them and say you know we've talked about this and now we're going to move forward with it um and please you know send some people you know help us help us out you know so um maybe she could go there ahead of time if there's stuff she doesn't want touched she could mark it or something yeah so a little bit of a side note but um eversource is taking trees down the entire length they more B so there's so you can see the pond from the road now oh oh um pretty back farther yeah 15 ft they've been doing that a lot last like 5 years yeah ever since that October storm we get that's a long time ago now but they've been cutting back a lot further than they used to so we're gonna lose oh they had a couple of car accidents yeah um this a my my own property we're going to lose three or four pretty big oak trees but I'm going to say leave the wood please yeah I can use it for sure anyway uh so you w to you know Sunday April 21st Sunday April 27th um probably 27th is very famar it 27th or 28 oh oh sorry 28 28 I'm sorry 28th y yep um that's a little bit more notice obviously two yeah it' be tricky for me to do it on May and then start S the may we could get drunk doing it we well we could do the fifth I think if we go blindfold conser conservation it'll be too fighting more than we have to yeah so what's today's the um and so if we did the 28th that's two full weeks two and a half weeks from now in terms of notifying folks well I guess I should say our sun Sunday seemed good last time we we did it you said it gives us a little bit time to tell everybody and get people to help us you know and I don't think I have anything going on then so is that when we're putting in the post no I don't think so yety okay two things yep please don't rain and I do have that portapotty thing good idea oh that's right I forgot about that okay we have it so I'm okay with the 28th I don't know about everybody else though like okay like you said you don't want to get it too late season did we ever find out what all that stuff was dumped on that trail behind the garden why that's there who did it why I think the solex did it uh that's been they came in oh they didate yeah not 100% but it's pretty good it was but that's been uh it needs more actually needs more wood chips try to F in to keep higher yeah um could and again could use more um okay so let's go with the 28 we'll see who can be there obviously gotta check with Ron and Dan because Ron you know Ron's got the equipment [Music] um he B just real quick just again thinking Ser potential service hours you could reach out to the school for the Honor Society at least even even the gentleman you're speaking with at St Mary's you know mayble to get some some extra volunteers to help out that need hours y thanks for bringing that up Tom that's good we did one of the work days we had we had some high school kids um yeah so that's good more than especially as it's getting closer to the end of the school year where they have to meet their hours and if they're if they're in crunch time so they're cring yeah yeah they may they may be like oh cool at least I get to be outside desperate good unless it's raining right right now we could do Saturday the 27th rain date Sunday but I think you know I kind of feel like people have things going on Satur Saturday is a little hard for me yeah we know Sunday and if it rains it rains you know and maybe do it like noon or after just because of church for people yep you know yep yeah we did it earlier in the morning they they can come whatever well I would say you could start early but yeah it just may prude people yeah no well the thing is when we did this last time we stayed for a long time I mean some of us were there at like what eight or nine or that and then we stayed until like five so yeah that that that's fine Sage yeah I agree with you that works as long as it's that long a duration because then people can come and go you know as needed that's how it was it's pretty come and go and we had people there the entire time so so the only reason why everyone broke up early is because we were soaked because that was rain on and off and it literally just kept doing that it would like get like a maybe a 10 minutes of nowhere rain we'd all take all our stuff off and we're like oh yes finally and then all rain again oh boy oh boy that's why I said no rain like the um gloves and things like that or just everybody brings their own stuff did we try to have some we bring them if you can yeah okay I actually went to Tractor Supply and and got all the gear for just keeping me from not having mud and all that in my boots and stuff so I just went all out the PVC gear um do we want to say something like 10 to four kind of like the um open bar just make yeah exactly come and go as you want just so people don't get intimidated by a sixh hour time you know right right yeah we can even say you know can you give us a couple of hours I I would definitely say have a end limit so this way you don't have like un unsupervised children there doing stuff right right right yeah okay good good good we need a few more things to do BR I guess the uh to Sage's point should we say under a certain age must have a parent or Guardian I I hate to be like that but to Sage point we're not babysitting either you know don't drop your kids off go have a nice breakfast or lunch and come back and pick them up you know we're not a babysits Club exactly so that was a that's a good point Sage you know like 13 years and above fine anyone under 13 years yeah yeah exactly we're there till eight good call dropping the kids off and going to have breakfast that's kind of tempting I'm G drop all my kids off that that's where my head was at initially burn but I think that would be frowned [Music] upon right no liability is a thing it's not even our land so we do have to watch that right uh I don't know what the cuto off would be you know I'll I'll check with Town Hall you know 14 16 you know whatever you need to there might be a limit on how long they can work yeah I don't know well they they have to establish credits for schools and they usually Li them they say like you have you have so much for this so much of this kind of thing usually you can also ask them at that time if they want to be interested if they're interested in the open Farm d yeah yeah become honorary members of AG agcom there you go yeah there you go we can give out like some buttons or something junior junior members there you go with that Junior badge members like the junior member you know we uh I never really went anywhere now Lucas is going to graduate June did you he's graduating this year graduating June yeah yeah did anybody get to see go to see Fiddler on the Roof by chance he was the lead yeah I saw his picture somewhere it was really good was it the the whole production was good nice I was glad we went didn't it get postponed or something yeah because the Thursday which was supposed to be opening night was that day that it rained and then snowed and then and then rained some more school was cancelled yeah you know so they didn't they didn't open on Thursday um yeah okay let's see we have a set of minutes from Angie good J what ABS yeah sorry about that did um I'm not sure if I emailed to everybody I don't think I did actually I think you sent it think I got it there's two other items you sent us okay yeah it was like two emails ago from think it was um so I can take a look at take a minute to look at the uh minutes I looked at him earlier today I didn't I didn't find anything I just have to take your word for it okay yeah okay hope yeah want make motion to approve the minutes okay second 10 I okay okay um Mo motion by Zach second in by by Jen I yep yeah anyway so roll call vote uh Bert Hansen I Zach hi Tammy hi Jen Sage Hi Marissa obain abstain um Tom hi and last but not least Angie hi okay uh one exstension uh and thanks for putting those together Angie um okay I think we are done for this evening oh just of course you know holiday on Monday and uh the marathon in the 15th not yeah the 15th is next Monday and uh town meeting is um May 21st and I should put elections May 14th I believe yeah uh before we close the meeting could I just uh get a quick word in about the land trust very very that sure yeah thank you folks um yeah so the South land trust is launching it's a private um entity so it's non-governmental it's a nonprofit um we just uh got our official status or in the earlier part of 2024 um I'll mention that Bert and Sage uh helped us get off the ground um so thank you to them and currently we are a Board of Trustees all volunteer um Angie Simone is a trustee member as am I so um yeah so the purpose of this land trust the mission is to uh protect land in Southwick and uh you know protect land that has ecological value Wildlife value agricultural value and historic um historical value to specifically Vistas uh maybe historical farmsteads so um and to and to eventually acquire properties and uh make them accessible to all so it's very much founded on the Granby Land Trust model so if people are familiar with how the gramby land trust works just to the south of us it's basically that same uh type of uh yeah approach so we are going to be officially launching um at the end of June with a launch party but we're doing a few events in the meantime to just kind of get our name out there and get to know people our first event will be on May 18th and it's going to be a cleanup day we're partnering with the global cleanup um which is this movement to to collect rubbish across the planet so will be um having our first event in partnership with them and the South Lake Rotary Club so there'll be some information coming out between now in early may but we're really excited we feel that Southwick has needed its own land trust for some time everything that's kind of gone down in town over the last three years nearly um you know it's really brought into sharp relief the fact that yeah there are APR programs yeah there are conservation programs but they don't always fit the bill for farmers and what ends up happening is that we end up um having Farmland that doesn't have any sort of planning um for what happens after it's no longer farmed by a particular family or if a farmer um stops farming it and then you know moves on what happens then so we're really hopeful to to be able to kind of um develop an approach that sees us conserve Farmland as well as recreational open space space so hopefully um we'll be able to work with the commission pretty closely we like the grany land trust they also work with the gby Adcom and they're the ones that jointly put together the open Farm day so um just wanted to mention that at this point you can definitely count on the south L Land Trust um helping out when it comes to open Farm day in August and that we will be on hand to to support however we can and we' like to co-partner eventually we will have um fundraising and money as well so I'm not sure that we'd be able to collaborate financially the first year because right now we have zero in our bank account but um you know part of co-p partnering as well with with with other groups and especially the local Adcom would be so that we can also um share those resources where we think it would be really effective and I think seeing that our open Farm day went so well this last year um and hopefully this land trust can can just provide more support my hope is in the future that we'd be able to to sponsor in that capacity as well as you know just volunteer support too so looking forward to to working with the Adcom um in the future thank you yeah congratulations yeah that's awesome um did you say you did you say you have your 501c3 uh yeah so we finally we finally have been able to so we officially are still waiting from the IRS for that acknowledgement but the Secretary of State in Massachusetts has given us that so legally our attorney say we can start fundraising as a as a 501c3 woohoo that's awesome thank you very good yeah and thank you to Bert and Sage for their support in the early days to get it off the ground um they were really instrumental in that so I want to acknowledge them both um and Angie's a newer member so it's really great to kind of see how Adcom has been very much a part of it all along and will be going forward so thank you yeah excellent well two things I I don't see any reason we couldn't mention that a bit to the Historical Society uh I thought that too yeah and also um in terms of partnering for open Farm day maybe at one of the farms you guys could have some kind of presence have some uh you know a table you know whatever um and and you know promote uh the land trust great yeah thank you very open to all of these ideas so those all sound great thank you okay well that's super I know well congratulations again mariss I know you've been working on this for couple of years I want to say yeah yeah yeah I mean you you know you were there at the start along with sage and it's taken us a long time to kind of um get this far you know and and kind of have the legal support as well to to come up with a strong model for Southwick so yeah we're very excited thank you excellent okay and you don't have to even go to town meeting to spend your money that's the beauty of it right when you have red tape gone exactly V anyway well thank you for that uh marison I think we are all set for now any other stuff we should know about okay uh motion to adjourn motion to motion to adjourn Z second second all those in favor hi hi