okay well welcome everybody this is the economic development Commission meeting for Wednesday March 20th held at the Town Hall in attendance is Ina hotelling Greg DIY Greg Samuelson Pam Sani Amber Bach Serena Fuller Jean QB so welcome everyone uh I'd like to start off first by introducing herself because there are three Commissioners that you did not meet at our meeting uh two weeks ago so if you could just introduce yourself tell us a little bit about yourself and I'd like for the Commissioners to also then let her know how long you've been on the EBC hey Jack hello um well my name is Julie and I live in Southwick I have four children husband and um this is my third week into um working here as a new secretary for four boards I'm happy to meet you all but last time I didn't see half of you yeah and Julie's going to be supporting historical cultural and highspeed internet well what a nice addition yes great addition hello and I'm sorry I I was late obviously what is your last name PNE how you sp Julia um my legal name is Julia that's how they translated it back in Ukraine because I'm originally from Ukraine I was born in Ukraine but my dad is uh Turkish my mom is Bulgarian so I'm okay so do you want us to call you Julia um no Julie's fine Julie's F because it was much easier for most of the people to call me Julie so that's how I go J so Jack if you can introduce yourself then to Julie and let her know what your role is hi I'm Jack that's it the um I'm the treasurer and Secretary of the May okay awesome I had just shared with Julie that um part of or with Jack that Julie's going to be able to assist us with POS that was going to be my question yes so I've already got that confirmed Med so what I'd like to do after the meetings adjourned is have us look at our calendars to be able to set up a time for us all to meet with Laura to go through the process of keeping that flow going okay excellent and Pam if you can introduce yourself I'm I'm Pam scani I have been on the commission since the fall I believe fall and she just opened up a cafe just opened up a cafe yeah it's a Kong Coffee and Cafe and it's on Kong Road oh nice conratulations we're three weeks old okay we need something new Anda yeah you'll have to come visit for sure definitely we like visiting different places nice to meet you yes I'm Amber Bach I've been on We're just trying to figure out I don't five or six years I'm not sure give or take you know somewhere around there so um I'm a local realtor I kids that graduated from Southwick I've been a resident for well over 20 years nice yeah I forgot to mention I'm real thir as oh are you maybe that's why I recognize you oh and I Serena Fuller I've been maybe seven eight years on EDC I'm the principal of College Highway Insurance went to school here although I live in Westfield oh okay nice yes went to school with my husband yes oh wow so okay great so we're all set there so sking yeah oh Jean already met oh oh it's have we met we haven't met you haven't met okay so Jean is our new member of the EDC he was appointed two select board meetings ago and give us a little information on yourself Jean to the individuals that weren't here last week I've lived here in Southwick for 10 years now um I was uh very instrumental or very active in planning boards and started at the gr uh Roots Grassroots level when I lived in Charlotte uh where for 15 years worked with the local everything from local homeowners associations to Coalition associations with Community issue councils and but also participated in the development of the master plan which is now a format that was recently laid out last year for for Massachusetts Small Town or towns in Massachusetts I recognized it immediately because it was developed by the University of North Carolina Urban Institute and I was participating in actual development of that so it's part of the community you know citiz and then ultimately or lastly I was uh appointed was a zoning Board of adjustment Vice chair for six years which is significantly more than what the Zoning Board of adjustment does here significantly more and I participated in that I asked I heard that there was an opening on the planning board as an Alternet and presented my credentials and got shot down on that and I guess somebody tagged me because next yeah I was at that meeting and want well when they chose not to appoint well they had a couple of choices they had a couple of choices but when I was listening to Jean's presentation and knowing that you know let's forecast if the 2040 master plan goes through we're going to be partnering a lot with the planning board and I'm not going to have the time to sit down and read all the laws and the different applications and I'm sitting here and I'm listening to Jean talk about his credentials and I thought well experienced retired well spoken he'll be able to go to the planning board meetings we attended the first one a month ago together and be able to be our conduit to the planning board and be able to speak their language so it just made sense with our open seat to to have Jean part of the of the team here perfect work well yeah us too what's your last QB spelled k u e it's pronounced like and how do you spell your first name I never know how n g NE e okay so so everyone knows everyone now right I think we're good you guys have a moment if you guys can fill it out so I have your contact information and you already G yes your okay yes Hobbies yes it's called holding a cafe that's your hobby okay so let's start rocking and rolling and I might probably be out a little early we're supposed to get some are yeah okay that's what I saw okay okay so um before I open up our agenda are there any public comments anybody online wanting to make a public comment okay so let's continue our favorite Topic website update so where we are with the website is I opened up a new GoDaddy account yeah paid for it um it's a technical process and it was a little combersome but between Pam and Martin and I we got through it so the account's been open under the EDC so we own it I realize now that I'm probably going to have to go back to the finance committee because they're still doing meetings with other commissions and Boards can ask for any more money but I'm going to want to have about another $130 taking out of our marketing and supply line and put into our website line because I'm going to have to we're going to have to purchase the GoDaddy every year the hosting the hosting of it every year so I didn't factor that in and it's going to be about $140 $150 and we want to buy the URL saves out or shops out quick um that'll be a onetime charge that'll be a one time charge we want to do that soon it's not really a onetime charge you have to you have to renew that so you can buy it for like five years or whatever and it's not that expensive but it is a but it is a recurring but it's minimal yeah it's minimal so is there a monthly fee for the GoDaddy no I paid for I paid one year there was different options I had I could do it either monthly or um you get a discount you pay annually I paid I paid for the full whole year and it was about $133 for that so I'm going to reach out to the finance um committee and ask for another um sit down with them um to be able to make that line adjustment just so that we're right on track and that's something I was going to talk with you jack about to sit down and just banter about that after afterwards so with the website we have to understand that we're not Martin's only client and he basically runs Southwoods he right now is in the process of completing the background of the site he's going to be working on it over the weekend and on Monday he and I are talking and we're he's going to start then building the the front side or the what people are going to see um I might not have the right terminology Pam but I'm not an expert with that so um I will be able to I'll just send everybody out a FYI here's what the status is um he's going to be able to on Monday give me an idea as to when we can put that date on the business letter to get out to the businesses and um I'm probably looking at this point it's going to end up being probably mid April before before that happens but it'll be done it'll be tested and then the first objective and Martin's aware of it is to be able to get that um Tab and for the shop Southwick business survey and also for our dining guide which is going to be hosting with the 338 that's the the two top objectives at the moment so um more to come on that piece so in regards to the wick after our last meeting I shared the two different options that we had for the Billboards and I don't know if you ladies have looked at any of the past meetings but we have the opportunity to partner with the 338 for the whole season and this is going to be for three key foot traffic real estate areas at the wick during their entire season not just for one race and Rick who runs the wick is giving it to us at no cost it's going to be 4 feet by8 feet so they're Billboards literally they're good size and spot graphic is going to do the signage for us they've already given us a couple of designs we looked at them we've narrowed it down to to one and I want to get people's um opinion on this one today so that we can go to press and get these signs made they're going to be double-sided heavy corrugated material and they will be able to be reused and they're only charging us $200 per sign so this is the design that we went with we adjusted one or two two lines that's the one I loved I love that one the utensils ey I love that so we've got the utensils and feel free to pass them around so where is this gonna be placed it's going to be placed going up to the when you're at the wick when the motoc crosses are happening there anything that's sand and dirt y the 338 owns and they have key areas that they hang signage okay and where Rick gets a lot of the foot traffic is by the store by the business or by the building that also has all of the race information and they also have an information board okay so he's giving us three different locations throughout the wick that we can put these signs I wanted to keep the message consistent and what that QR code code is going to do is it's going to lead them right to that dining G uh dining page and I'd like to talk with you Pam just to be able to complete the dining guide so that we can give that to Martin yeah I I I after the I think it was a February meeting I thought that I had finalized it and there more changes I've got that and um we've got the fusion that I want to add there's a couple of new restaurants that are going to be going in where where the Krabby Joe's is I spoken to Ken eglon he gave me the name of the man who's leasing the space and running those two restaurants I have left him three messages and have not heard back from him his name is Joe he's not local to town and at this point if I don't hear back from him by Friday which I have as a deadline and I'm going to reach back to Ken and say well how can you help me get the information from Joe because that's two key new restaurants that I'd like to be able to have on one coffee shop one's going to be a coffee place breakfast place yeah and there's a Different Twist to it though with um oh God something virtual okay um from what I understand and then there's the fusion restaurant right that is going to be taking the the large space um at Krabby Joe's and I know Jen the owner of prime ex Lou be is waiting to get confirmation on a tenant as well okay so we could have three popping and believe you had already added yours into the one that you sent me so that one was all set right so and we had Roma to take off of that which you had done and so it's now just waiting on these other three so that's you know that's pending at the moment okay so that's easy enough to do yeah great so with this design what does everyone think I love it yes do we need to make a motion do you want to make a motion just want to see what people's thoughts are first I think it's great I love the I love the brightness of it I think it's big it's simply red you know it's easy to read and just scan the QR code red white and blue is fantastic so people will be how far away from it they'll be walking right by it then it's perfect right by it and uh Rick and I when we talked initially you know they do a lot of PA announcements yeah throughout the race two um I'm not prepared yet to maybe put these in all the packets um I'm going to start with this and let's see how that rolls but maybe for the Nationals we might be able to do that the colors that were chosen did they kind of match the theme at the 338 yeah this is the Wix logo yeah okay then I think that's great because my question my comment was going to be count colors seem to be green and black but if we're tying in with the work we should tie in with their colors well that's where I'm thinking because Rick is going to support this and we' want so so I'm thinking there's you know a little dual message CH you support us we support you let's make all the colors happy colors and brand are the signs going to be durable enough from like graffiti weather all that kind of stuff well hopefully there won't be any graffiti put on you can put something on around them like but they're going to be the the lawn signs that you see out there that are double corrugated they're heavy corrugated and um in talking with Ali at Spotlight it is an extremely durable material they make over at Spotlight all of the signage that is at the 338 and that stuff stays up throughout the the season um I'll be able to take these down take down and then we can put them back up in the ground no there's grommets oh grommets grommets and they're hung oh all right okay so they're hung on a post where people are walking in front of it and then on the other side of it that's why they're going to be double-sided great so I tried to get the QR code in the shape of the town of Southwick but they simply were not able to do that so we compromised with the spork food Spork the spork this has been the longest week already the spork in the night and then up above it because that was I believe your question um at one of the meetings Craig was well how do people know that that's going to give them to the restaurants it's um scan for restaurant guide right up above the QR code now granted this is little imagine it three4 the length of this table eight feet Yeah by 8et so it's it's going to be big so so do I hear a motion to accept this design oh no uh we talked about this even though we didn't have a quum last week uh the supports our Southwest adies you can too and I think it was your comment that that has to go that's kind of well it it's changed changed before we we had you should to you should yeah you should we you should to which sounds like you know you're shaming them into yeah right I would say partnering you know the wick partnering with Southwick Aries yeah something about that you can too you know bone Appetit might be better or something I don't know I think it looks good that supporter South with eateries I don't know if that's big enough or does it get the message across right away I don't know if I notice that right away would you would you read that we don't forget it's G to be it's gonna be big it's going to be 4 feet wide by eight feet long yeah that's big okay and when you look at well when I look at this I don't see this stuff I see the wick supports our local leader as you can too that's that's what my eye draws to but we have to come up with a simple message just to get people that are just going to go by it and say oh the wick is supporting something what's the wick supporting because people are there because of the wick right so and I like the bone appe Petit piece but the average maybe visitor or guest at the mo at the races I got you might not get it don't know right you never know don't know are you hungry yeah are you hungry want eat even better even better are you hungry That's and thirsty yeah and thirsty or just hungry question mark want to eat there you go I think I think it's F I think it's perfect just the way it is I do I think it's keeping it simple it's sending the message they're supporting they can support our our businesses you know part of the EDC too is you know we need to support our businesses so yeah I think it's good it's a St I know that yeah and I mean and it's for the it's oh you put your finger on something I me too no I think it's fine here you're good hopefully not the other she put her she put her finger on yeah not your all your photos just popped up no um yeah it's it's keeping it simple and it's you know at least it's for this season you know if we hold them over to the next season eventually we're going to you know if we find we don't get a lot of gener you know lot generated from this then you know maybe switch it up well this is also going to be measurable right and in your packets is a letter that I am going to once we get the approv that I'm going to send them out to the restaurants and also Jean has Rec has um volunteered to go to the restaurants directly I'm going to hit some if anybody else is interested let me know because I want to be able to actually talk to every single restaurant in town and let them know that we are doing this for them and the letter that you're going to see in your packet is right to the point Y and it's a way for them to be able to see from last year a certain weekend to this year certain weekend was there a gain and if so could it have been generated by this possibly yeah so I'm also looking to see if we can get any of the local restaurants like the pizza joints primarily if they want to do delivery on the Nationals and do a specific time frame and a one in a specific location to do location so that's something that I'm going to talk to Mr Johnson about this weekend to see if that can they order like GrubHub from GrubHub and stuff from there I don't know and then how are they gonna find them though that's it they would go right to the main entrance it would strictly just be a main entrance drop off I just make a suggestion I really like Greg's idea um and and also Jean's idea too because when I look at that sign I see the wick and you can too that's what I'm I'm seeing I don't see our local eer so I would just add like right in front of the wick 338 I would just put hungry question mark and the rest can stay the same or right across right across the just a little Ang Banner not really saying what because that that says what that organite means hungry question mark you only have few seconds to grab their attention you only have a few seconds so if they don't really know what that's about you know they might might walk right by it whereas if you have the word hungry question mark just kindl right on top of that okay so and we're convinced the lettering above the QR code is going to be enough for people to know that's how they get their list I think that is sufficient myself I really what does it say and this is a 4 by8 scan for restaurant list most people know about QR codes right anyway but if they don't there it is right there and like you said it's big enough I think people you know if they're like what is this you'll be able to see it okay so your recommendation then Pam yeah keep everything the way it is up on top the QR code the way it is but just put an overlay on the forks and knives saying in Black hungry with a question mark sure okay so it sounds like we have potentially two motions here so does anybody want to make a motion about this sign can I make one other comment sure that QR code is tied to our website I'd like to and I think the committee should contemplate considering this an expense necessary to promote our website because we have a website budget for this year that we might not fully expend we consider this part of the promotion of the website it'll come out of the website 1500 we have versus the 2,000 of our general supplies creative thinking love it Jack so I don't know if that need to be a motion but I think that's the way we want to think that this is to promote our website I'll make a motion to promote have this expended out of our website budget second and then that would be the website budget for fiscal year 23 24 do I hear I want I think I want to do a roll call vote on that motion so Amber boach I Serena Fuller i q i hotelling i GRE DIY I GRE s i Jack Cody I ham scani I okay now do I hear another Motion in regards to the hungry in black on top of the fork and knives with a question mark I'm I moved that we add a little Banner in black with a white background so you can read it that just simply says hungry question mark uh overlaid over the top of porks and knives to make it even clear that this is about ordering food we going to get impr get improved okay so can somebody make a motion second second motion or second I second that okay let's do a roll call vote on that Amber Bach I Serena Fuller i j qby i Ina hotelling I GRE Dy i s i Jack Cody iani I so my only concern at this point with this is timing I was going to say can I make a motion that we're going to trust that angga and that tell me the name of the spotlight Graphics can handle putting hungry on it and we don't need to approve it at our next meeting so it can be put into the works we've all seen it at this point we all kind of have an idea so I will make a motion that we can just move forward and Trust spotlight graffics to be able to handle putting hungry over the forks and knives and spoons and we don't need to revisit the signage and then it can just be produced I second I just want to make an amend them to that motion where I will send it once I get the um proof I'll send it to Greg the vice chair and we'll both approve it fine yeah okay that's fine okay all right do I hear a roll call Voice Roll Roll Call what's up do tell it has been a brutal weakness Serena Fuller I Inga hotelling I Greg DIY I GRE s i Jack Cody I Pam scani I okay so that's done okay and you know now well I'm actually rethinking that um I like to have Pam's I take a look at it as well it's fine however you okay so it's still if it's still not a no when's the first race do you know they did open practice last weekend oh okay so and the turnaround time for Ally who is the daughter it's a mother and daughter that owns Spotlight Graphics here in Southwick uh then um it'll be within a week and they'll deliver they'll deliver the signs as well and um I'll be there when Rick puts them up perect there should be a photo up could be yes yeah the restaurant visits this overlaps the other website stop we can deliver those letters when we go to the restaurants if we can have that ready to do that'd be great because I'm going to propose that we hand deliver as much as possible in the center of town absolutely all the businesses on college so that will tie in with our next agenda item for the business listing mailers is once I talk to Ali tomorrow at Spotlight I'll get a time frame as well she'll be able to turn around this proof for me probably within 24 hours so by Friday we'll be able to look at it and then give them the blessing to make three of those double-sided signs and then I'll have a confirmation date as to when that will be ready um then we've got the website conversation with Mar Martin on Monday we'll then tie in with when we can project the business mailings to be dated folded stamped and sent so I see next week being some activity happening in regards to the website and the business mailings which would tie in with the restaurants and I know everybody is super busy that's why I can't speak tonight um but would we be willing to meet two weeks from now to finalize the business mailings launch the listings for the restaurants and um get that all approved I'm going to be out of town leave another the third not coming back to the 8 so it would be the 3 April 3rd so that would be April 3D yes and so sorry let's look you if we want to do it another date we can because we've been consistent with Wednesdays I can do any evening it's fine okay what are your thoughts Mr Samuelson um I don't know at this point I um let's just leave it on Wednesday yeah I can get confusing if we're switching dates when we normally meet Wednesday okay so I have a complect that night it's a time of year where it's very tight I not make either one but I'll try to make it if just need a quorum we need a quorum that's it so how does Wednesday the third look for you okay as far as right now it's okay okay so if we can put in the minutes then Julie um that we'll have a subsequent meeting on April 3D at 6 o'cl and because we're going to be talking about just a specific couple of items let's just do that agenda time from 6:00 to 7: I think we'll be able to knock it out you have to fold letters too though um that's something that we would be doing another time and we don't need a forum for that no we don't need a forum we just need a space maybe a cafe on Clon Road there's a beautiful big long harvest table there Latt so okay so April 3rd excellent okay new business oh anybody else have anything about old business that you want to bring up today from any of the previous meetings that you don't see on the agenda yeah let me just ask you about the restaurant information and what do you need is that in that letter what your requesting um we already have um hours of operation of the restaurant and location um I'm looking to see if on the 338 sign just to make sure that if somebody's just added takeout to their menu that we've got that captured if they do any kind of delivery and if they do it on a specific day capture that kind of information if there's a new product offering that you have so it's just to make sure that when somebody opens up that guide it has pertinent information it's not to have menus on we just have a website just a website yep well if it's on their they probably have their menu list yeah they're going they'll hit the QR code and then they'll drag them right to it yeah between the way that what about Zantos um the Santa's closed I heard closed did are we sure for for 100 % sure because then I just saw somebody say they were going to open they were open back up last night or the lights were on last night and they said they'd be back open for after remodeling okay I just saw that on one of the forums so I can't I mean I've been following this along trying to so I didn't want to I wasn't going to bring it up because I you know I don't know anything but I just saw something about that okay so I don't know if that's true or not I'll call Zantos and see somebody said that they called and woman answered and they'd be back open I believe they said today okay before so maybe okay do a drive want to confirm that okay but then I heard they didn't tell their employees that they had closed so yeah it appears like it was a little bit of a mess yeah maybe maybe there's a family you know what I mean sometimes there's emergencies and just okay an update on the business listings I spent several hours last week taking Ellen's listing and combining with with my listing and added a few and updated a few and Consolidated some so I I updated the list somewh spent several hours that and Ellen is the chair of the rotary or the secretary I don't know what her title is she's been with them forever but that's the list that Greg's referring to fundra [Music] so they had a not anywhere as large as what I had but it it was helpful when comparing the two was useful but it it made me all the more uh convinced that we should hand deliver as many as we can on the center of town because some of those I don't have a PO box and they might not get delivered yeah they don't get delivered there yeah they don't no so I think we'll do uh we'll have to look at when would be probably the most advantageous day for us to do that when most businesses are open and maybe like on a Friday do a three to five key locations and we all take X about of a radius and hand deliver yeah at least if our schedules allow it right yeah okay anything else with old business anyone wants to bring up okay so new business uh Greg and I met this morning at 11:00 a.m. at 1441 Main Street in Springfield and had an hourong meeting with Rick suin uh the president of the western Mass Economic Development Council and his counterpart um Zamara who's the vice president and chief of staff and the meeting in my opinion flowed beautifully um if you want to maybe give your impression of it Craig or Craig and then whatever you don't mention then I can revisit yeah I mean they they've got an impressive operation beautiful headquarters there staff and they're set up to post businesses and you know for the Springfield the big cities but then covering all of the western Mass primarily the three stack counties here in the middle but they deal somewhat with birkshire as well and uh very professional with Rick Sullivan who was I guess a mayor for a period of time in Westfield so uh he's knows the area well really well and just gave us a lot of good basic background information I was pleased that they they spent the time with us I was also in the first of the monthly meetings where their Economic Development Partners EDP they have people in many of the cities and towns that are both on economic development and on planning boards and on you know they have some of the um chamber Commerce people so that that's it was a large Zoom zo call that we had uh last Thursday morning and this one focused on the uh writing grants in a One-Stop website for several sources of grants that include include the housing and mass mass whatever work Mass works and also rural uh Brands and gave a lot of hints on how to do it said they in these meetings they bring in people from the state and you know have guests and and cover good information and it's a a forum to share best practices in those meetings but then there's other resources that they said we could tap into there uh one of the items was that they would inform us they have people that contact them you know sometimes it's a bunch at once sometimes there is an any for a long time but businesses that are looking for sites and that type of thing and and we made sure that they had a contact here to pass that kind of thing on to us now some of those will need a a quick response so we talked about how we probably need to coordinate between us and the planning board and select for and whoever else would need to review these kind of things so we can turn around quickly what they want would be an initial statement of Interest sometimes if if somebody was looking um and we want to be able to screen those and and know not to waste our time on on a big Logistics operation that we know we don't want but something that is a good bit we want to you know raise hand and jump in and look look for things that could be you know good tax revenue opportunities for us it would fit well with with our town um so that was one thing and we're initially the contact we gave was for Ina who will you know we will in future meetings probably talk about how we could set up a quick response way to deal with it and also the idea that we could have certain types of businesses preapproved even certain sites pre-approved for certain types of businesses as well as certain types of business we don't want so that that would allow them to screen a little better for for things that but the Rick Rick Sullivan would know the kind of things that we want to a degree although they are very care careful they emphasize very clearly that they don't either recommend or not recommend certain things they are neutral in passing things on but they will give their technical opinion yes they will they advice and whatever but they will not you know they'll just pass things on directly and when they do they're not you know either pushing us to do it or cannot do it yeah they're not right good so that was that was made clear uh and then he we had other questions about how we can get funding for different types of projects one we brought up is you know the Town Center we talked about crosswalks making more walkable that type of thing and he kind of directed he said well that would not fall into Mass work certain certain other things but there is um a shared Street program that potentially you could get in that you know that's probably years out but they used that for example they used it to get the changes on rout2 going uh to the east of Westfield you know beyond from Walmart to little George one lane things like that but that fit into the is it Mass do yep Mass do safe Street sh a shared Street program the idea that you can you know safely have bikes and pedestrians and whatever and there also have a project on Broad Street I think that's going to uh use that but that would be great if we could get our town center in that kind of thing to make it more walkable and safer and and more of a you said it would be that it'd be hard to go into Mass works because they need an economic development justification uh whereas this we strongly feel it has Economic Development benefits but it's harder to tie it directly like a sewer project that you could tie in but it would it would fit into that type of thing and he said for beautification they have some BCR grants BCR grants to the conservation so we're going to want to definitely talk with Department of Conservation Recreation the part service for state parks and stuff uh but they got in Westfield a couple of their neighborhoods got uh you know some got a considerable amount of money to put in all those trees that the bags are right now so um so it was I went in there with an agenda in regards to Grants through the mass Municipal Association crosswalks beautification and business solicitation and when we walked out of there we had information on all of those good points um I know that um two three meetings ago we talked about their website or and their Zoom meetings and I had a few people that I captured that that wanted to be participating with those they're the third Thursday yeah and this was in the morning morning from 8:30 to 9:30 9:30 and a c dial in Zoom meeting and you put your face in there or put your just name in there they have open comments at the end usually there's a plan presentation and then they have questions and answers at the end but what I liked about what they were saying is they they want to really focus on sharing best practices so if we're listening to one of these meeting and somebody is talking about say um a traffic problem they have in their community and this is what we did to solve it because we have a major highway going right through our community um people are willing to set up a time to talk with you afterwards to give you some ideas about how this has worked yeah there's a list of all names that participating so potential to follow up we you you know want to work with another town that's dealing with a similar issue so you don't have to recreate the wheel right so one of the things that came out of this meeting and um I'll reach I'll reach out to Mark focal directly because I was hoping he'd um be here this evening is Wil Bram who has the same kind of government we have a select board just recently um evolved into a a committee so that you've got somebody from economics somebody from the planning board maybe somebody from finance and a Gentleman who I had reached out to about three years ago Mike mazada is the chair of it and this is the actual committee that will get all of these solicitation you know requests from the western Mass Economic Development Council as to've got x amount of people that are looking for 5 acres of land this is what the business schematic look like what do you think so Mark had brought up in one of our previous meetings that we need to establish a way of communication as to who's reaching out to us and knocking on the door um for business opportunities granted we're going to use that as part of our our foundation with our website we're not going to start off with that though but eventually we'll have a a link for for people to go and get some information about how do they approach Southwick to say I'm interested what do you have available for us as a business but right now um I'd like to see about starting to form that kind of uh conversation between EDC planning Finance select board uh to be able to have an offset of another committee that actually would be able to say in that quick time frame yay or nay our town has interest or not interest and not even think about the master plan granted that's something that's in our background but look at what people are coming out now looking for um this is our today it it's not going to be our you know granted our future eventually but um if we have if we might miss out on a viable opportunity for shame on us to um get another business in here for tax purposes so um so I'm going to reach out to him to see if he would want to help facilitate that um but what are your thoughts about that solicitation piece which portion of it that the whole concept of it I mean I think it's great that there could be a point of contact because right now it appears that the point of contact that they had was our um CAO I mean honestly the the point of contact for for most and and you can tell me if I'm wrong but if a business goes into a big city they go to Economic Development first first from big cities have a lot of resources other towns though too a lot of town a lot of our surrounding towns it's very common to have you know kind of a runaround and disorganized reaction like to I think yeah I think I think the a lot of the surrounding towns though too is that's where they oh no oh I thought you were like you're allergic oh no um but they they even in some of our surrounding towns though they do they call Economic Development first I mean that's what people do Connecticut seld Connecticut Wilbraham they're just in the process of this so they call them first they're the first point and then they say and this is something we've discussed for years is you know hey can you tell us more about you know but they don't do that here they well we gave them in to be a point of contact good but we understand that we don't have a say so and we also why we want to have we want to form like a little committee right and that I think that's a great idea because we also don't have all the information and all the education on this either because we haven't had this you know responsibility prior but what what a great um initiative sure to be able to say okay we're going to take a member from finance a member from planning board um economic and we're all going to get the exact same email at the exact same time and then be able to react hopefully within a 48 hour period of time but it's a start to at least be in the no and do like what Craig Greg and I did when we sat with the select board back in October of last year saying what can we do how do you see us being utilized and part of that was marketing business solicitation so it's a start to at least know that we have a community right in wilam Mike and I spoke back in 22 I have all this information and um zamar was like I'm not even going to give you that information you just contact him directly and he'll tell you how they structured it so I can come to our next official meeting and get and outline what that structure looks like and how they did it so that we can all strategize how do we want to approach our other sister boards and commissions about having more of a unified voice opposed to a singular voice can I see something abely a little bit here um I Heard Greg say it and you just said it with respect to getting businesses to help our tax base and I think as as our committee um thinks about his mission statement and so forth I think it's really important that we Define it and really go and search out businesses forgetting about the tax PES it may be a net neutral thing here I think we need to also consider what's for the town here and if we put that ahead of everything else then then the Money Follows you know just you know I'm not being critical I'm just saying as I think about this stuff well part of this organization is to also make sure we don't get the wrong kind of stuff because if we would have had that organization back time Marana it never would have got that the first that shouldn't be the first thing appropriate businesses appropriate for our town that could also be Taxas but they may not the tax Bas at all it may be n neutral I'm just saying it could be but that's where at least if you've got maybe say six people looking at that proposal then that can help determine the viability of it or not it's just a way of thinking about stuff if we if we have our priorities right then we don't get into that trouble a while back and I we have to put the top of this whole thing what is best for this community and even at the point where we go out and look for those things that may not positively affect our tax phas it may just be good for our community and that's something Craig um I'm I believe you know where my stance is and that's where we have to um we all have personal opinions but we also have to think you know it's the community as a whole that we are supporting absolutely and that's where our mission statement is so clearly defined and that last sentence was you know in other Town boards and commissions to attract assist and retain businesses in Southwick to support the town's long-term economic health in keeping with the town's rural character and goals that is our Focus as we stand today but this could if you know not if but when we can get the other boards and commissions in Tandem and we are uh small at a unified Committee of like one person per those commissions it's a start for healthy assessment and does this make sense for us or not and um Rick suvin said you know we look at communities that are away from I mean artery if there's a lot of trucks coming in or a logistic service um it doesn't make sense to look at a community like ours and then that's where depending on where that solicitation comes in you know they're going to send them to everybody but they're probably going to outreach to like a chapi or Springfield and say we just sent you something you might really want to take a look at it because it could benefit your community better than others so when we go before the um you know the finance committee next year I mean it may not be strictly an economic thing I mean maybe we find as a committee some business that has really been a healthy business for this town and that out way just as much as you know some of the numbers that we're going to expect from restaurants and so forth that show that was worth doing the whip so I'm I'm saying there may be we may be able to show the finance committee hopefully they care about that rural aspect and so forth as much as they do finances and thereby justifying that that's a that's a market for us as well not just the money side of things it's how will we better the community money not withstanding right one of the initiatives that I sent forward to Spotlight Graphics was um somebody who works at the wick brought to my attention that they get a significant amount of request for God where are their ATMs where is there a hardware store where can I get oil so I've asked um Ally to come up with an 11 by 17 sign similar to the design of our billboard that will have another separate QR code that's going to be centered around cash oil Hardware um and that will go that will be in a separate place but I don't have a proof of that um but I'm thinking about adding that to our menu at the wick for the whole season but I don't have anything tangible to show you all yet and but will for that next meeting on the 3 um trying to spread the business as well and seeing how we can help support them it seems to you know maybe about a year ago we all talked about the need for you know physician and things like that in the small community as we get bigger I mean so that's the type of stuff I'm talking about not necessarily tied to money like support type operations and very important things of that so you know if we were to identify as a group things that might be important as we're drawings to get in this community and Target those and reach out I mean I I think we need to do that as well you know which might not have much to do with the task Fe but it's it's service I'd love to see a dry cleaner personally I would love to see a dry cleaner in town or a a seamstress there's not one in Grill anymore no no they closed a while ago now agan just closed Westfield's closed wow yeah the one on Main Street there's only the one now Stanley stle Stanley has one in awam as well next to the post office they're a hug one they don't do it there they bring it over to Westfield but you're thinking of Ann as Anna's closed and then when got hers he just he he just went too she was was phenomenal yeah it's Stanley so they have they have it and then they have a small one in agan right right by the Stop and Shop across the street youever absolutely absolutely so that's and I know we talked about that at our first meeting back in October and what I would like to do is I want to get the the website off I want to get our Facebook on I want to get the signs up for the 338 and then what I'd like to do going into the summer is really think about that business that marketing piece and between all of us we can just spitball different types of places that we go to that might be out of the area and then I would love to see some proactive knocking on doors saying we'd love to sit down and talk to you whether it's oneon-one or have them here to our meeting to say this is what we could offer you this is what we feel the community could benefit and luckily we got some data off of the 2040 survey too so we've got some data and and one of my theories is if you can get the town economic the current businesses well served economically Heth doing well that will automatically attract more of that kind of business in because I say it's a great place to do business that's why on our survey that we're going out you know how's the town helping you and what can we do to to make it a better place to do business and that'll bring in more people but I do agree we have to knock on some doors too bre right but it's Gotta yeah we'll we had a drrive clean why did they close maybe it had nothing to do with our environment you know what in as much so instead of giving us $1,500 you're own going to give us $4,000 your blood look the other businesses we brought in now come some doors and how you have services so that should go a on absolutely Ely Craig right there with you and I don't I'm not going to speak for anybody else but myself um I agree with what you're saying we doing that I like make a couple of motions number one with respect to the western Mass Economic Development Council I think we should have an alternate you new primary and an alternate so i' like Mo an alternate be chosen contact yeah absolutely somebody that go to the meetings Okay observe and come back compete so you may not all you're very busy well as we are but I I agree that's why I had mentioned that I would like to talk to Mark fulal who is one of our commissioners who's not here tonight um because he had brought up the fact about this exact thing okay how how do we know who's wanting to come into our town we need to have a system in place so I would love to be able to Let's Pretend This is a baton pass the Baton over toor and have him be the point person um because that's you know we all have our own little talents and our niches and I got something for you here too Amber oh I can't wait that's where um yeah I'll I'll put together the agenda and I'll do some initiatives but we all have got strengths and I definitely want to utilize those um because it's not just a singular show here but I totally agree with that and at this point I don't believe we need to do a motion for that Gene because we're we're not at the point of making that commitment for one person because it's the one so because I want the person who I feel that has the business savvy to do that and has the passion for it isn't here tonight but what was but what was your but right now we need to have at least one point of contact in regards to getting those emails that the western Mass Council was sending out so something comes into town tomorrow we'll at least know about it yeah which is better than what we don't know the other point that was is that you mentioned to have a subcommittee including that's what Willam has done okay and are you going to approach the chairs or yes okay yeah and that would be once I get from Mike and Wilbraham how they facilitated that because they started in 2022 with this because that was the first time I had reached out to to Mike and and Wilbraham um when I had supplied information to the original EDC about how other communities utilize the commission and it's like Amber said first point of contact for a business but that's not how we have rolled right I feel we need to evolve that well we all feel we need to evolve into that we're not in the closet anymore no no we're not we were in the Supply Closet upstairs believe it I can believe it yeah it was really tiny real tiny so okay so more to more to come on that um but yeah good good information from today's meeting and they were genuine when they said anything we need to or you need help supporting uh your initiatives let us know because Rick Sullivan is also connected with the legislature so he knows people at the state level that can help facilitate as well so it's good to have that contact that be including um having them come our meetings I mean somebody that you know with respect to Grants or absolutely absolutely we could use them as a resource for that um Adcom also has been doing some programs regarding succession planning at the library uh for farms and also grant writing so we have some good resources here that we can tap into at a state level so because I've never written a grant so but that's something that we can learn ear or have a point person who's going to facilitate that or partner with another one of our commissions who has that can help us do it it's just wanting to really just partner and ai ai yeah AI punch it in okay I need a sidewalks or Crossroads so anything else about that Jean no no okay okay so uh let's see here here Jean do you have any highlights on the planning board meeting that you attended two weeks ago uh couple of things uh number one I think is a Dollar General U they just nothing actually came up about it nothing was discussed about it um on a personal level even though we're part Economic Development and we're looking to bring business in it has should be fit with the character as being outlined in the it was outlin in the uh master plan coming master plan and so it does not fit in with character citizen re at the previous meeting we're vocal about that we have a Dollar Tree we have a Family Dollar and Ocean State on the other end of town and so you're picking it up from one to the next particularly in the area that is proposed okay a high-end uh residential but one of the things and unfortunately don't know it's going to get shot down because it all fits within that but there is one thing I would throw into it and I would intend to speak about is is that uh the um advocate for the developer said that you know it's a major Thor thoroughfare but right now it's to Lan I've seen this before you know past experience you come in and you widen it up to a three lane or four lane and all that front edge and all that Landscaping they have it's now boom right off the on the road so that should be brought up and have them push the building back and provide for enough if it's got to go in enough uh screening from the highway so that when it in the future it does get developed it's not sitting right on the road one of the other things they talked about and it would be impossible to regulate is they didn't people didn't want you know the sitting out in the front of the parking lot okay these items on sale driving around here in the last week or so you you go buy these family dolls and they all have the stuff out on the street you know that's not the kind of character it's not in in the character with like on sidewalk oh on their sidew front of their yeah but don't most of like consignment stores do that the the furniture places is do all all of the businesses kind of promote some of their items right yeah Tractor Supply has everything their parking lots stuff but they don't advertise it's you know dollar dollar merchandise you know you know what I understand what you're well also we're Economic Development and you know we are one thing when you go into a a town meeting and if you have an opinion about a business coming in that's your personal business then that you're speaking as a resident but I'm from an economic standpoint we have to it's all together so we can't we can't say you can't do this even though everybody else can so no I understand that I understand that that was the concerns of the citiz andary you know they came up and spoke about yeah one of the me participants of the meeting that we went to um not the last meeting but the meeting before that is when LEC made a presentation on Dollar General and at that time it was an open meeting yeah meeting and one of the residents in the in a town said well can we make a request on that special permit for that Builder or the business going in instead of having all of that product out in front of their store that they don't and L said that would be something that he would look into so just to make it not look as cluttered not sure the the thought process behind behind it but I I drive by the Dollar General in agam every day to get on 57 and yeah they have a lot of things in front of it so but that was a con concern that a resident made then he had quite a few people from Windfield because their back ducks are right adjacent to that property that is being proposed to be developed and then you have Sal grass or the greens rather on the other side which are right on Saw Grass Road um which doesn't have an exit yet out onto 10 and 202 that had concerns about the value of their homes um being decreased by having a Dollar General next door to them so well that's where it was going to go I thought it was going down by the post office no it's going right between uh Winfield and the greens there's a 3.5 lot there with a home in the back the home that's in the back is one of the builders for the GRE so it was a spirited conversation very and that was supposed to be on the agenda for the March 12th meeting but it wasn't on the agenda for the March 12th meeting I sat on Zoom for about an hour and a half you were there for the full meeting it never came up again so but anything else about that meeting that you attended on the 12th uh they pushed forward again the master plan draft for the committee um originally it was um eight people from the community were going to participate with others and then now it's a member of the select board a member of the planning board and three um three citizens from the community I've appeal I put in for that as you know liaison planning board and because of my experience with the master plan went through that whole process and and knowing that so hopefully you know I'll get appointed to that not sure or selected to it but it just got pushed out till the next meeting actually April 26 April 26 so it's getting pushed out uh the only other real issue was they spent a lot of time enormous amount of time I thought on um non-conform uses and structures and changing the uh some of the zoning regulations one of the things that I have a little problem with is that buildings that have to be or should be demolished and torn down we got a few of them here in town you I'm think like there's a structure right across from um Meadow View Farm on the other side of the road oh yeah that house talking yes yeah it's been like that for years and they're saying now we're going to give them three years to tear it down so we got to look at some things didn't make much sense and I didn't get into all of it but that was one of the things and then nonconforming and if you change it can you make it less non-conforming or I and they got into wordage you know the lawyers talking about I said lesser non-conforming you know so it's it gets complicated in a hurry but that would took up the largest portion of it and then U cuz they're looking to rewrite the bylaws correct so they're looking to take the bylaws from the non-conforming structures from back in the 50s and revisit them so that what happened at the it was pretty much spearheaded at the town meeting in December with the crepe house that we look at our businesses that are flourishing and doing well but they've got constraints because of how the bylaw was written yeah so they're looking at seeing how can they um revisit the bylaw to allow businesses that are doing well that are contributing into the community and the community loves to maybe just have that little bit of flexibility um while still maintaining whatever the environment is where they are located because with the Crave house they're surrounded by residential so it's how do you find that how do you find the the balance you know the special town meeting was just confusion it wasn't what presented the people confused and and a lot of people that voted against the flexibility thought that they were voting in favor of wetlands when it really had nothing to do with that was a separate issue so that's a big buzz right now in the planning board right but that was pretty much it you know uh they were trying to figure out something that he could do with the cre seah house he wants to bring in a smoker yeah I just saw I saw in the trest market okay and just to try it out and it went on forever because you know they're within the setback and they can't do it you know it's absolute got a little bit of an issue with that okay but you know it's in back of the building and it's a temporary thing I wanted to try it out yeah like once a week then it said maybe a couple times a week yeah once a week try try it to see what the market says and if it goes well then work something out but it was a big deal just to have a test to have a smoker yeah I think a lot it has to do with the way the bylaws are written and you know we have we have conf you know we have to conform with what we have to work with but Amber brought up a good point you weren't privy to that meeting when we talked about it back in October of 23 we all have to just remember code of conduct when we go to these meetings um no matter what the meeting is that if we have a public opinion uh we have to stand up and identify ourselves as you know in a hoteling 45 Clin Road um because we as a committee or commission has not agreed to have a point person speak on behalf of the commission so just be cognitive of that so that we can play well with that code of conduct so um and I had one more comment on the Dollar General you know one function I think we can do as this committee is maybe do an analysis of the potential revenue from that type of thing just in a neutal basis because often that get exaggerated one of the problems with carbana is nobody did a real analysis of what the tax impact would be on on bringing it in many of these businesses sometimes the liabilities are greater than the gain right especially when they're chains or franchises sometimes the there's very little tax gain so I'm almost wondering if it wasn't put on because either a you know they were kind of still working out some of the Kinks with with you know with people had asked questions and they were going to come back and get the answers and so on and so forth or also because and last week they just said they're closing like stores or something they yeah they can't just afford a150 or whatever cost for an item well and they can't you know they're staff they can't it there's right now also a lawsuit against Dollar General regarding uh compensation and demands on their employees right and it's pretty heavy out in California um prior to that meeting I had done a little due diligence and contacted the dollar tree that we have here in town I keep just calling it the dollar store and I keep getting corrected no it's the Dollar Tree um they are desperately looking for help um I had tried to reach out and and they're paying ,550 an hour at the Dollar Tree um the Family Dollar I tried for two days to reach them and it was no pickup no pickup no pick there's only two people that work there next to my office no family doll there's only two people they could not get anybody else to work there they literally work around the clock and I believe they're a couple so you know sometimes they don't want to just work together they might want to go grab a bite to eat because I saw people complaining that they were closed but there's only two people I believe that work there and um the word on the street is there one of the ones that could be closing yeah for the Family Dollars so so that's where when I see that pop up on the agenda again for the planning board um I do believe some analysis would be healthy um but I want to see what happens with the next round of um concerns from Winfield and from the the community that they want to put that in but that's something Greg that I would love to see our commission be able to evolve into by looking at their statistics um what their reviews are um Staffing um contribution into the community does it match um our mission and be able to then maybe make a consensus and have a point person present a concern or an anal maybe not a concern but an analysis of what we've been able to ascertain to have the board consider it's how we would posture it the worst of all things is somebody come in and fail and have you know an eyore can't be adapted I we had a bank branch that moved out fortunately fild that in you know if we have other dollar stores that fail because we bring in yet another one and that one fails you know we've got a blighted thing right in our town center it doesn't fit with the character of the master plan for sure yeah and that's something we've got to be really cognitive of you know the master plan it's great and it was a lot of hours and volunteers to come up with it um it's not been passed so I think we have to always be cognitive of that we have to yes appreciate the vision but is it going to come to fruition and do we make our decisions today based on what might or might not happen so I think it's we keep in mind the character of our community and saturation that's how we want to be able to talk when we're at these different boards and commissions because I've heard it that well it's not even passed and we're talking about it as if it has who passes at the town at a town meeting it would go to town yeah so but we're not even there yet so um but I really appreciate you going to that planning board meeting and anybody else that wants to go pleas please you know feel free in the packets that you ladies just got too is a list of all the boards and commissions and when their meetings are so make it a little bit easier to to look at so Jack do you have an update on finance well do you want to talk about the meeting with the go for commit yeah we were told that our budget was going from 3500 to 2000 so we presented our budget in the two lines that we currently have now that's 350 for the website for next year's budget and ,650 for General supplies which general expenses um we presented it I think Eng did a great job presenting our case um only my own thought was it seemed like we got a lot of questions about what we're doing for bringing a new business and hopefully we can present that going forward I don't know if you've heard whether that's when we're going to hear appro for uh they're still in the process of doing these meetings um I want to go back to finance and let them know that we need another $150 for our website okay just because it's going to be a renewal process for our platform Pi your word for that Pam I was saying Go Daddy yeah platform okay platform and and they drilled down on what we needed to 354 and you explain that it was $100 for Martin then 240 250 for his time so if he went back and said we need 150 that's certainly explainable right or did it take it out of our other mine item and bring that down 50 that's where it's going to have to come from because it's a flat budget this year flat budget and we have a gift account right correct but we don't have clarification yet at least we didn't it at that meeting exactly what we can use it for right Mr Dei had shared that he was going to be looking into that and getting back to us on that account and the gift account came from different events that you folks would host and there was monies that would come in from people participating and that gift account as of today has $3,743 and3 36 Cents in it so um I would think that that's be maybe since we used since it got there because of events you should be able to give it to us the regular account that maybe we look at hosting different events or having guest speakers come in and using it to pay for that but we need clarification before we can start putting POS against it well we did put one po against it don't know if it's been approved yet well what happened was at the time we had met I had in place the P so I put the P against our operating because we didn't have clarification okay for freedom cand and I have where we are with our budget right now perfect and one of the items in there we've already addressed about the uh Billboards for 338 where we can put it one of the items was Pam I sent you an email recently they they may ask for a W9 or information from you I don't it it doesn't seem like they should have to to approve your bill because it's just a reimbursement of expense but I found with other vendors that if there's any oh yeah any hitch in a process yeah it just takes a while and hopefully we can solve all those FS right she can help us with that just pushing it through she'll be there to be able to address the question when it happens as opposed to the you needed to get A9 from Jason right for the video correct and that happened and yeah and it sled down the whole process what happens is at least for myself I can't speak TR but you know I periodically walk you know every week or two dip my toe in and do the present whatever P I'm doing whereas there's a time delay we put it in it goes in the Box Ang get and just put it you got to expedite it expedite more that's it so that all being said and uh Ang had asked me last time to put in the line for propos fature spending so I saw that email come through I just have not been able to get to it well I have it here and if anybody wants to change anything or disagree or whatever think think something to do that so don't worry these aren't [Laughter] cheaters well as you look at it you can see why the banners 338 why I wanted to move that up to the Top Line the top section and I'm also going to look into for the website um seeing if Southwoods would accept a retain like a retainer and give them x amount of Monies to year into from this year for next year that'd be a great idea right because I want to spend every dime of it and understanding we just have to have it in the PO right actually doesn't have to be spent as long as that PO is in by the end of June it's coming out of this disc you know the 23 24 if we don't spend understand okay okay we have very little yeah oh you guys you think you have little you have no idea well one other thing I just wanted to talk about the the budget that we proposed was they asked us to extrapolate for five years in future I kind of winged it put $1,000 in for next year additional then 500 there you year after but I don't think we're loed in stone I think they just wanted that for future there were no references or questions no no question but your numbers so forgot to mention IE so just thought the feedback I got as well for the delivery that we made to the finance committee that was two Saturdays ago two Saturday March 9th uh we had 10 minutes and I felt so proud when I walked into the land use building because Jean was there Greg was there Craig was there and Jack was there I've gone a couple times with Michael I'm sorry I wasn't there I was SI and and we and I don't know why you didn't you didn't come to the table because there wasn't another seat right well well there only two I think cuz there was you know the four of you folks came up well there was four of us up there but the delivery was really firm to the point um they were inquisitive about the website what are we looking to do with it and it was you know this is our initial Foundation we want to do the business survey understand how we can support our business Community do a promotion and promote our restaurants but then we're going to have other tabs to look at employment events um business solicitation so there's going to it's will build as the need builds as well and um I was given feedback afterwards that we had we were the only commission that had contingence there opposed to just the chair and that it was the most enthusiastic delivery that they heard all day good good job so so thank you all for attending I got to sit back that was purposeful and I got to sit back there and watch the reaction of everybody on up here was Happ oh that was strategy I like it well I know how to ask ni excellent excellent so this looks good to me Jack any comments or concerns anyone okay so anyone want to make a motion to approve Jack's work okay roll call ambery hotelling EY okay great work so we stopped sorry D perfect so Amber you're next here am I yes you are what am I up for well I reached out to John um up in the up in the planning board yes and said how can we get a list of vacant buildings said call Amber Bo vac she calls me all the time real EST um uh land that's for sale that is zoned um business so this is the email from John I'm going to pass it over to you because I would love to see if you would like to be our PI private investigator to find out what's available in town y from from business fronts that are vacant yep that we can use to solicit potential business because so this is a start of where you were going earlier Craig and also what property is available that we could also utilize once we start looking at what the West Mass Economic Council is going to be sending to us so I can a lot of that's commercial I'm not commercial real estate that's separate but that's like do Loop and stuff like that or not do Loop um Loop net sorry um which is fine and then um anything that's vacant not necessarily if it's in a unit I'm not going to be able to have access to so I mean I can definitely find out I can call I can look up you know with you know things are on websites for Leasing and stuff like that I don't have a problem with it I can do I'm a pretty good Pi okay excellent so do I hear a motion to allow Amber to do a little bit of Pi work to help us determine will you give me will you do me a favor because you know I can read this will you give me a little out little bullet point send me an email of exactly you know some of the line items of what you'd like me to look for oh why don't we just do that right now okie dokie so my first thought would be vacant storefronts storefronts because there's a great Grant out there right now for first floor vacant storefronts that's been vacant for a year that would be about a $10,000 tax credit and then that would be a great way to do some solicitation too um land for sale but it has to be zoned business um businesses for sale churches the the Baptist Church they yeah they bought sh that well they got they're going yeah they bought that a while ago at an auction hard to believe that's not there yeah I know very Vibrant Community great Christmas parties there where sh sh like proms weddings everything there oh my gosh uh commercial churches businesses for sale land Zone businesses vacant store fronts anything else we can think of what do you think think anything's the list yeah seems like it anything that we're missing here [Music] folks all those things and related sure right that it's not limited to those specific ones but things that would be potential okay business opportunities so I'm I'll move the Amber be uh investigator for these kind of real estate oriented opportunities that can be when do you feel would be appropriate for you to share information with us based on what your schedule looks like so not at in the two week meeting but probably at the our at our next from yeah four weeks I'll do that excellent we have to vote on this we had a motion right I'll second it okay roll call vote Serena Fuller yes J yes engga hotelling yes gregy yes Greg serson yes Jack Cody yes Pam scani yes do I vote Amber Bach yes go Amber yeah might as well you don't vote for yourself true that is true true great point there agree I agree great Point okay so that's good Mark was um I wanted to talk to him about the the business certificates and then the Outreach from today's meeting so we'll um sidebar that for the next meeting and um with Craig um the the idea because Pam wasn't here and I don't believe Amber was here want to just a little recap of the idea that you and oh okay that you and Diane and Diane is Craig's lovely wife have thought of and what we determined at the last meeting or the meeting before last you know I don't have my cheat sheet here I don't know where the folder is um I do know where it is it's not here um but anyway um I think that as we began discussing this we were concerned that you know we have one chance to kiss the proverbial Pig here you know what I mean so if we don't do this ight it's um it needs to be done quite the first time around so there's so much work I think it needs to be done in dealing with local farmers and so forth getting Buy in there um getting the relationship established and all that we really need the balance of this year and really hit the ground running the first of next year for this be successful because we talked about different you know Havey themes and I think there's a lot of things we need to discuss um we're just not there yet and I I just I felt easy Diane cannot handle it right now next year I believe she could I think I think we have a lot better shot next year so what we what we were going to do and Meg and I talked about this is Dian sort of trying to hand this off to somebody else but you know she knows what she's doing with it you know and it's it's just hard to hand things off you know who's going to take the Baton again right right anyway I think this is our best shot so not to table us for long but we've got so much and I start feeling the strain of the website and all these other things that we're trying to do right right now that I just think one more thing might get us a mile wide or an inch deep and we don't need to be there so no anyway I feel a lot better about this and again not to put it off because it'll have to start getting some traction but um for right now I think that's the best thing to do I that we um aim for next year to launch this but can early start this year right and this is going to be in your March 6 uh agenda packet that I handed out to those who weren't able to hand um to see it um Diane and Craig has called it Southwick flower project and it's souck businesses in bloom and it's doing a contest throughout the community to encourage beautification of their stores maybe a little bit more pride in the storefronts it's amazing what a broom and a dust pan can do to a storefront and um get the not only the businesses involved but do some type of a discount on vessels at our tractor supplies at our cowards Farms or raay Farms whoever sells product South big florist um and then be able to talk to those businesses as well about okay if Serena comes in the principal of College Highway insurance and she's going to participate there'll be a discount for her to purchase the flowers or to purchase the vessels or the dirt but also to create more of a sustainability flower vessel and look at maybe doing vegetables with it and using a certain type of a compost or using rain buckets so it's being a little sustainable and focusing on the green part of where Southwick now has been certified as a green Community to leverage this and who knows this might be something for us to even run by the western Mass economic about is there any kind of grants for something like this a DCR thing DCR the uh and and when we get these discounts in exchange for it you would you know give credit to those our local businesses we will be marketing that on the website and spreading the news throughout the community so I we all that were here thought it was a a great idea and an initiative but like Craig said it's time we meet once maybe twice a month and right now we know what we have to do but this could be a great feel bad because Craig had this idea for a long time and we've always been like yes but so but I think the website getting the website up and running and and making sure all these other things in the background are done that way it's able to be promoted properly as well I think that was one of our other things too we were just like all right how you know how do we go about this it was a lot of logistics that weren't in place that are almost coming to fruition that'll help right and plus we would like to have Diane's expertise mhm to to help facilitate it as well so you're right the website is a big thing and we we struggle with that so once that's done it keeps me up at night yeah so but we're the process we're in the process of making that happen so that's all I had on the agenda for this evening does anybody have any other topics that you want to bring up I had suggested earlier and now there here that we make a line item in that budget and I don't know if that improved it you know where we add those things that we're would budget for next year so that when next year comes around scrambling to come up with what do we need you know we discussed this one of the things I'd like to add in there also the budget for uh Hospitality events and that that Hospitality might be able to come right out of our gift that's where we're hoping that get ins so the so the gift a lot of those came from our Hospitality events so therefore I believe they can probably go back into Hospitality events so can you add another line item potentially then just in case for what Jean is referring to yeah what exactly would you want the line items say what the no it's just categories we were going to set aside a couple of minutes at the meetings for identifying things that we want to get into next year's budget so at the end of the year we said okay we've identified all these things we have a tally of it and this is then we go before the board and it's not just a Hospitality it's anything else that we might need so kind of keep that tally throughout the year yeah which is yeah that's what what he does which is what we're doing currently can I so you guys went in front of the finance committee and asked for our budget for next year already is that what you said me did you send out an email on that y I'm not getting anybody's emails because I invited everyone to I'm not getting I'm gonna have to look and I'm I've been going into my junk emails too I did not get it yeah we had to make a presentation to the finance committee um and I shared this at one of the meetings the agenda probably right people yeah yeah I was and um asked who would want to come to it yeah so and we had for fiscal year 23 24 3500 but we have to always look at we had 2,000 in our budget then we had V 1500 for the website and what did you end up asking for for this year we had to keep it flat we could not ask for anymore it was a level funded year this year so we had to keep every committee commission board had to keep the same budget that they had the previous year but had to justify it and they said our website was a one time that was one time hit okay so could I think to satisfy Jean maybe as we put expenses we come out with a category or type of the expense yeah what I had suggested was is that made it part of our regular agenda are there any budgetary items that we should be considering but I'm also thinking of category so that said what are you spending your money on it's a general thing called supplies I think as it was just under supplies what what makes up supplies and maybe we can decide categories like I'll propose it people can like signage or right and then another category that way they say what do you need 2000 for well here's where we spent it right now it's just L listing items as well spending right right and I think as as it progresses so I mean Gina how privy are you to to our large committee here at this point at all um so or our past okay so in the past we were a very small committee um we when I say we're we're out of the closet now we're in basically a Supply Closet upstairs we didn't have the owl you know we just did little recordings there wasn't there was a year I think we had $800 they gave us if that or maybe one year they gave us 600 or $600 so I mean we did not have a whole lot there was not a lot we could do we partnered with the Westfield Chamber of Commerce on a lot so when I'm so some of these events um that we're talking about we used to do these um home and Business shows and stuff like that we' pair up with them um which I was going to ask any word on them wanting to restart those up no okay no okay okay we had to get creative I mean so so then now we're jumping ahead we were proposed to become a larger committee things kind of shifted a little bit and at that point we have a little bit more Indians at the table where we can say like let's do the website and let's ask for more money and let's let's do some of these things so a lot of these things that we're discussing is very new obviously ly like we don't have a website but a lot of this is very new and we're going from some of us seniors um right seniors um going from you know having these $600 budgets to now being able to have this option so we don't we don't have the um history I guess with these line items quite yet so we're just kind of forging through that yeah one of the things I I understand where you're coming from trust me I understand where you're coming from uh but one of the things I think is absolutely wrong that you're spending money out of your pocket for some of these projects plus all the travel there should be in there you know they should give 35 $50 gas card you know not going to break the bank for the for the town but still you know for members that may need it you know if you got to travel to wilham go meet with somebody up there you know it's money out of so just could is can we put in a reimbursement on aace travel that but just set it put it into the agenda that we discuss you know those things that we can then justify show justification for and we go exp for and say hey we're spending our our last chair paid for a lot himself he paid for the websites every what else websites a lot of the copies all the boards lot of the boards a lot of the sign I mean we had nothing so and and that's where you got to pick and choose your battles because this money that we have it's the community's money all well yeah so I think adding in a travel and expense might be something to look at based on what we do this year and how much we are doing that next year maybe adding in the justification for that for business solicitation put a separate line in a separate line in just for that so as we're all spitball and thinking about where are we going um that's where that's going to expand definitely but I have a hard time bringing this in and using our taxpayers money for goodies at table than you always bring goodies so I'll continue doing that because I just love to do it and I've always been told never go any place open um empty-handed there you go what said though I think that we have been in a process of becoming relevant correct which we haven't been in the past so it's it's sort of merging all at the same time you're seeing the results of this right now um well this Wick uh is going to be huge if we can get the business you have to impress on the businesses because it that's direct you know tax dollars result it has to be measurable right you know but what I'm saying we've really wanted to prove ourselves before we we're asking I think that's the that we're in right now so I think yeah we we'll get bold we will get bold yeah especially when we have the forces we' been waiting and and um our Julie just reminded me I didn't flip the page here we have two more other events and but we still have the time um what I'd like to talk about is when we get the date okay here's the defined date for our business listings that Greg has been diligently working on website is going to be live and that's where we also can go do the Outreach with the restaurants because that information is going to go into that QR code um but we can actually do this before then just to gather the information so we're ready to go live because you have got a great personality and you like talking with people Serena likes talking with the local businesses because you're known in the local area so I would like to ask if you two would be willing to work with me and believe me this is open to everyone else but I know we all are super busy especially opening up also a new Cafe um would you two be willing to meet with me separately and come up with a plan about where and how to tackle the restaurants sure sure absolutely does your time allow that yeah except I'm leaving in two weeks for like I tell you you can come to the next me but okay and your date of travel is the third through the eth okay so does anyone else want to help us solicit to the restaurants so I think going in person is going to be ideal I'm going to be sending out an email first requesting time also sending the letter to them and then we would also be able to piggyback with uh Greg's letter right so I'll I'll go okay what are you soliciting just the information but yeah we're just going to Brak making sure fill them the sign not the the real big sign all walk with these 4 signs but we can double it up and and deliver that letter and and make sure they put their listing and it's and maybe give them a copy of that brochure too because I'm sure we're going to have some of those at this at some of the events as well okay correct that would be nice to to hand them that so you'd be interested in doing that H up for like a Mother's Day event or Father's Day you'd like to do that with us great food on hand right they should know what they earn last year pardon okay say on this Mother's brought in this much and now here we're adding Wick and it brings in this much right so what I'll do is I'll send out a couple of dates um are you folks flexible on a weekend to to sit down talk decide what we going do have the literature given and come up with our plan okay okay I will get back to you within 24 hours with a couple of options we can do that great I'm looking forward to too excellent okay and Facebook I just got pinged I mean talk about perfect timing um we are going to create a new Facebook page and I have asked one of the members of uh um a connection I have here in town who is a phenomenal photographer Jason he's the one who gave who we paid for the video of the town and this is and I'll send it around for everyone to look at that is his um idea was in our meeting tonight was he in the I saw him early yeah oh sorry I well it depends what I'm wearing this this is using the town seal he was on online a beach um the name um he's going to put the name of all the Commissioners on it as well and then ma with your home address pardon yeah right with your home address no no no um well let me ask you are people comfortable having their names on the on the Facebook page I think of we Commissioners we we're already on the town we're already on the town website so why not yeah yeah it's fine okay sure no contact info just your names right okay so what is he doing now is he handling all of our Jason is going to handle our Facebook so what is he going to post so what we're going to post is any events that well he will once we get the confirmation of the signs going up on the wick he'll put that out there he'll put out um if there's an event that we are privy to from the library the Civic fund any events that we're aware of in town will utilize that through the website as well or through Facebook as well I'd like to see us be able to evolve the Facebook into maybe sponsoring or talking about a new business that's comeing town as well I'd also like to see us use it to recognize anniversaries of businesses and restaurants that's where when we're talking to the restaurants initially we're going to find out what their anniversary date is so that we can promote that um when we're getting our business surveys and I was and I I don't have it with me right at the moment but did it have an anniversary date on the survey so that might be something that we might want to add to it um so that we can recognize businesses that have been in business for x amount of years so right now that's all that I'm thinking of utilizing it for um to see how many people we get that even want to follow it so I think it's important to track the followers so if he's posting on Facebook he it's going to come up under the post as Southwick Economic Development commission only information only there's not going to be banter going back and forth okay that's you know what that's always been my main concern yeah but then he can take those posts and share them on to the forums also and it comes out so he's left out of the mix as as Jason gear you say it again g g jer jer Jason g j okay Jason G all right so it's left out Jason G is not attached to this so anybody it's just going to say Economic Development commission as the okay correct now is there a fee he's charging us to do this is he are we paying him to to aot social media or is he doing this as volunteer I'm I'm taking care of this on my own this is initiative that I wanted to do so because it's an expense and we worked out a amicable price so we don't like it but yeah I was going to say not sure how I think about that well I have to think about you know we have only so much money and Facebook in my opinion could be a viable resource for us and the selectboard agreed to let us have a Facebook page and it's not going to be a large sum of money and I want to track it first and see what kind of results we get based on that then I would put a line budget in for next year does he have experience in doing this yes he does what what Facebook page um he has his own business that he promotes on Facebook look at his numbers right now yeah so um I just want to have at least a presence out there on Facebook yeah we could think of it as a it's a test yeah test I'm personally myself I am not on Facebook I've never been on so you you can also if I I don't know if Instagram is going to be a separate entity that you have to ask for but you can actually link your Facebook Instagram account so anything that you post on Facebook it'll automatically post onto Instagram so if we had an Instagram page as well it just so we can what's the difference younger younger people a lot more younger a lot more a lot yeah lot of younger people Instagram huh L experienced people is that what they are no that's putting that no no no no that's derogatory that's derogatory um but yeah so it's you know it's beneficial in that in that sense where if we were allowed to have an Instagram page it's the same it's the same concept you would put the you know just open up the Instagram page Economic Development or you know Economic Development commission and anything he posts on there should automatically transfer right to Instagram it's just something that you push in the back end and it connects with every single time you post it comes they post to places right and I he can probably do the same thing with the Instagram like no you can shut off comments and stuff like that yes because that's part of with what we have to follow through with for our commitment to the town is that it's only for information only so and like short little videos things like that little clip you know what I mean that's you did ribbon cuttings or something like that what you just said in regards to the Billboards going up at the 338 right yeah perfect opportunity toe okay here's the EDC at work for the restaurants the at you know the bank ATMs and Auto Parts Oil Company you know Tractor Supply O'Reilly Nappa so it's something that we need to do and this is at least a start of what it could look like so um do I hear a motion to continue looking at Facebook as an option for us I'll move we continue looking at it at Facebook I'll second to continue looking at it I agree okay do you need to vote do we need to vote do I hear a r call just looking just pursuing this potentially and having the idea we've talked about it before but I think it's always me that has the reservations I'm the only one that's always like I I've so many qu like you know just questions and concerns I think and my concern really to be honest with you is just like his experience that's it you know I mean I'm looking at his site it's his Facebook page it's pretty he's posting lots of you know really not lots of he's posting pictures of the things that he does which is wonderful but like the last one is January January January January well fortunately I would be feeding him the information to post okay now is that something where we should control it ourselves Then I then my issue would be I'm not going to do the posting yeah this look at this as a test program yeah this is not a roll out it's not something we're committing money to it's it's exploratory that's fine yeah I I totally get that I just I wish that we had money in the budget to to pay somebody who who this is what they specialize in and it's not like yes a side thing Al then you have the more you pay the more you have to justify and then you want to drive more traffic you pay you're putting a lot of effort into content no we can look at Southwoods because Southwoods has an option for managing our Facebook page as well we did do that in the past oh you did yeah that was well it was little pricey as I recall and also I I don't I don't quite remember all the reservations well it would mean giving information so it would be supplying them with whatever the data was it was like time it was hourly or something like or was it time do you remember I might create a Facebook page for the EDC to promote events create Facebook post campaign to post twice a week or frequency based on event initial setup would be 5985 so $59.95 Facebook campaign cost depending on how many posts needs to be created and scheduled starting at $100 per month that doesn't tell me anything that doesn't tell me how many times they're posting per day are they doing like graphic design for us you know like we're doing we're celebrating anniversaries businesses we don't have to do a major effort just don't have it it's not can I get can I propose something you this is an option it's definitely a viable option we don't even have the website up and running yet yeah let's just can we table this for at least the next meeting to kind of then we can kind of discuss more while it kind of registers with all of us too with maybe some questions and concerns and I'm not I'm not opposed to it don't think I am because I I was gonna say yes let's let's let's look because it looks good and and I think you know it is informative and I think social media is huge but I'm going to say go on the west field Economic Development commission's Facebook they haven't posted in three years oh they haven't yeah I was Wonder post but the thing is is if they posted and then shared it to the forums but that's where it's going to be like is somebody in a post and then now you've got to share it to all the forums and how often are you going to do that and every day you're going to say hey this is a new event this is a new event and by the time you're we're giving feeding this information to someone we could just do it ourselves yeah that too so much you know for communication with businesses we are building an email up and that will be more efficient than Facebook because we will control the exact frequency and then you know push it well that will be very efficient for the businesses but for the community as a whole not so much right are not going to be consumers of Economic Development Council stuff okay but if we're posting PR our that's what I'm think so if my business is having 20% off sale or you're having buy one latte get one free I don't know well that's that would and that's reaching the community that's not that I I think has to be branded different if you're going to reach residents you can't brand it as EDC okay so then let's start there if this if Facebook who's the target market for our Facebook group is it the businesses to me it's the community that's right that's what I would yeah me too you know that design doesn't work people are not going to go to Economic Development Mission it's residents but that's where we have to Market it but that's where but that's when you share you share it onto the other forums the the Southwood Community Forum the South Tallen Granville Forum the KGAN Lakes for the I mean there's like 500 million forums right if you if you go to other go outside of that right but that's what you do so like you share it from there and a lot of people do they share their businesses and they share their business page and then you click on their theirs and you see everything else kind of going on but that's what I'm saying is somebody so I just I just need to think about it for a minute I just well believe me it's this is new me I know and but this at least is an idea of what it could look like yeah and then yes the whole Essence is to share it with our community forums that have a tendency to have a good reputation and a following and we do have a handful of them here in the community that could help benefit yeah they're extremely active they have and lots of opinions yeah so but the benefit of this is it's not ask it's no feedback it's just here 's the information but the thing is is don't forget when we're sharing it to those forums now now there's feedback because you can't control okay then we can't do that right so then now so then now again can so maybe we should all look at the economic development commission Facebook groups for some of the surrounding towns why don't we do that and then sounds great because I'm going to only because I in the past I had looked into to it and it was nil it really was and we could be the Pioneer we could be the Pioneers but the thing is is they have done it and it just maybe it just didn't take off but look at what effort like anything right so let's look at and look at some of what their content was as well so maybe we can allant cont can we all just do that and then we'll Circle back sounds like plan okay so we're we going to take motion on that oh we're not going to take motion yeah we don't have to we're just going to circle back so talk about it in our four we meeting from now so maybe look at two communities a piece definitely and come back with some feedback okay okay okay it's a wrap thanks everyone do we need to make how about we make a motion to the dur in the meeting oh second okay y