so good evening everyone this is the economic development Commission meeting for Wednesday May 15 and in attendance is Inga hotelling the chair Greg DIY ham Sani Serena fer and at this point we do not have a quum so fortunately we're going to be able to still get things done because we're not going to be doing a lot of voting and first I'd like to introduce Marissa cook obon and Angie Simone who are here to do a presentation in regards to the new southw land trust so if you want you can come up and join us and Bert you can come join us too at this point um we have pretzels filled with peanut butter and carrot carrot cake cream cheese little goodies too so after your presentation feel free to take some home with you so has anyone received the postcard yes I did today you did I did yeah and do they were they sent out to businesses as well they were sent out to every post office box and mailbox in South so I think they stagger though I think three days yes my beautiful yeah jumped out thank you thank you so take it away ladies yeah good evening uh folks thank you for having us here um I'll actually give the floor to Angie and I'll just so not sure if you're familiar with man trust um but here in Southwick um we are a this is a first L trust in Southwick and we're brand new so um we are a nonprofit non-governmental organization and we're we're just community volunteers so our focus is to conserve important ecological Scenic historical agricultural land and to Pro promote U more appreciation for open space while providing accessible recreational opportunities for all so that's kind of like our mission statement and um we want to protect our rural Heritage and its diverse ecology so um this Saturday is our first kickoff U event and we're going to be doing um SP SPI up say that pass um we're gonna start at nine o'clock at The Daily Grind and everyone's going to kind of meet there we have donuts and coffee for everybody and then um we're going to assign different routs for people to go kind of um spit out their areas and SP up different roads I need it the most sounds great I wish I could be there I committed to chestone track volunteer have a car show going to working have multiple events in the future are there particular roads that you're really targeting important yes right now we're College we're gonna focus on College Highway okay cleaning up garbage is that yes the side of the road the rotary is to do that yep the we're we're partnering with the rotary and we're also partnering with the great Global cleanup national organization that does this in towns all over the country um so yeah we're gonna Focus primarily this time on College Highway um some little roads off of College Highway depending on how many people we get we'll add more um yeah we see doing this we're not really sure are you promoting it postcard here yes okay Facebook we're on Facebook also you can go to our website what's oh our website is Southwick land trust.org um so yeah like Andre said we've been promoting on social media via our website this mailer is um going out today well I think it started arriving in mailboxes in town yesterday it'll be today and then tomorrow they mentioned kind of three days to cover all of the mailboxes in town and PO Boxes um today we also did an interview at Mass Appeal wlp Studios so that's online now it's aired a few times today so we'll be promoting that as well um we've had some flyers up around town and we've also just been going around to boards though we're a non-governmental entity we do believe in Partnership um and it's important if something is for the common good of Southwick to create connection with boards like yourselves um Economic Development commission there's a lot that Dov Tales I see with with land conservation and recreational opportunities and making Southwick a viable place to live in going into the future so um yeah anything else that you wanted to add about um no we just support and partnership with EDC know I know um this benef the cleanup especially benefit benefits everybody in town businesses and homeowners so it'll be a fun event we're looking to do something probably in the spring of next year where it's going to be one of the ideas was flow flowers or blooms in Southwick and have the local Merchants do a contest to take pride in their their their storefront and maybe take a broom out there every now and then and sweep up and take pride in regards to do flower boxes so there's definitely a dovetail and and we need to do that in our community is just take pride in it by picking up litter and advocating for that so um I had um reached out to Marissa last night because myself and one of my neighbors aren't going to be able to make it to the Daily Grind for nine but we're going to do clein and Hastings and parts of 57 as well so we'll be out there with our barn boots and our safety vest and our poers picking up as well question I had for you Marissa and Angie is how are you going to be getting the funds to purchase potentially land in the future so we have a multi-prime approach to that and one is um obviously being a a private entity we're not accepting any state or government monies that's what differentiation differentiates us from something like a Conservation Commission or a CPC here at town hall or an Adcom that seeks to use town or government Monies to to purchase land and purchase APR which is a really common form of the conservation easement here um in Massachusetts uh that's a great model it just doesn't fit all so for us using private monies in the form of Grant monies that we apply to from private foundations there's a lot of money out there fundraising in terms of our community we're going to have a membership model where folks can have an annual membership at different tiers um we have a membership model annually that goes from $15 if you are youth or a student up to um whatever you can donate we're really trying to be accessible to everybody um we're also following the model of other land trusts in Connecticut specifically because this kind of model the town Focus model is not really common in Massachusetts you have krro land trust you have Franklin those are very Regional and they also accept a lot of State money we're not doing that we're doing all of our own kind of fundraising so what the Connecticut lanters do is that they also work um with businesses to procure funds from businesses in town and Beyond and they also work with individuals to procure donations and then because we have the flexibility of working oneon-one with a land owner we can possibly have an exchange where they might donate the land or give it to us at a very reasonable price and they get a good tax incentive it's just different when you can work oneon-one with a land owner and also have concessions put into place in the deed that might make it a little bit more competitive for them but also good for the land trust um that's where government programs fall a little short they have to have certain guidelines obviously you can't kind of flexx the rules um that's fine but we plan on operating a little bit differently so is that how the grand Bean works grany lanst works that way yes and another thing the grany Lantus does and that's who we're emulating ourselves after right I've always been impressed with oh yeah exactly and they've been a fantastic partner for us as well they've kind of let us um use their model and plan on kind of partnering with us in the future uh they also accept um various IR accounts um you know Memorial accounts and those then those funds those larger funds get put into kind of a money market account and they have a financial manager that manages that so you know they they oscillate from year to year obviously depending on what they have in terms of uh costs expenses but they have a $3 million endowment presently and that changes sometimes it goes down to less than a million but then other years depending on how the market goes so it's also making smart Investments with that money so it's not just okay um having big sales I mean we'll do that too well every penny counts but um it's kind of that multi-prong approach that I mentioned so I'm sure as time goes on we'll iterate on that and see what works so and you also have what an informational program in June at The Brass Rail yeah that's right as well yep it's on the postcard so it's kind of like um and then we also have a logo contest too since we're brand new we don't have a logo yet logo yeah so hoping to get lots of entries that's June 23rd the best for yeah that's kind of more of a launch party for folks to come and meet members of the land trust if people would like to volunteer or get involved with the board that's an opportunity to learn a little bit more about how we operate and um yeah connect with with the community mention about the logo Forst I forgot we are in need of a logo a little bit more branding so so tamam if you have any great ideas [Laughter] so any questions for Marissa or Angie how long you've been working on this since around the end of 2021 oh that long time yeah Tak a little bit of time research you know kind of looking at other Land Trust models seeing that's worked in Massachusetts it hasn't that's where we landed and all that and quite a few people as well yep right now we have seven um members on our executive committee and J are in that committee so yeah we're we're looking to hopefully expand that in the future because we are all volunteer run and that's another way that we're trying to stay efficient making it all volunteer run so we're taking on a lot of the work ourselves um another thing that we're trying to do similar to the grany Lan tress and I'll plug this here as well seeing that this is the EDC and there might be some cross-pollination is um the way the grany Lan also stays efficient is that a lot of their tasks are all volunteer runs so it's not just the board of directors that are all volunteers some nonprofits you know will pay their board of directors they don't do that we don't plan on doing that um but they also when they make calls out to have events or fix a property or build say a bridge um across a property across you know some water weight on one of their properties that they Steward they make a call out to the local community and they kind of have a network of folks that range from attorneys that can help them with legal documents anded real estate brokers down to people who you know have have skills in carpentry and can kind of help build those bridges so they try to really Source everything out locally to volunteers who are willing and it's also a way of just kind of building a little bit more connection and obviously doing some networking within within your um within your scope you know within gr and for us that would be within South so hopefully we can also connect with local businesses because we do feel it's also a way for local businesses to maybe get a plug from us that they are involved in something charitable something important for the community and at the same time um we benefit as well so it can be you know One hand washes the other as we say in Peru um hopefully we see that here too oh great great great well I Know Jack you just came in at the last minute um this is Morris and Angie they are members or founding members of the South L Clan Trust okay and they just give us an overview do you have any questions um I'll make the very end nothing okay okay okay thank you well we'll definitely support you however we can thank you and um I know I'll be picking up trash this Saturday and I'll be at the event on June as well fabulous fabulous yeah and I know Angie mentioned we have some uh pre-designed Roots but if folks can't make it to those roots uh BPW is also collaborating with us and they're going to go through town and look for rubbish bags that day until 3:00 in the afternoon so if you're so inclined to to clean up but you can't make it down to the Daily grinding just leave that rubbish bag out on the side because they will be going through town from 11: to 3: that day and picking up any bags that they find so hopefully we'll make an impact um do you get involved in purchasing properties and keeping them I've seen three I think and something preservation capabil um the so you help uh de by development breaks and and world and trying to work for that yeah that that is our goal I mean right now we just started so we're trying to get our funding up and going but but that is a goal that's um built into our Charter and into our bylaws that we would acquire properties through direct purchase of the property buying conservation easements um on a property and um trying to figure out ways to conserve property through different modalities you know there's the APR program I had mentioned that and that works for some but it doesn't work for everybody so there are different ways of conserving property gramby for instance what they've done in some scenarios is that they've let land owners stay on that property and use it until the Next Generation so the farmer there gets to use it gets to have their livelihood but afterwards they know that it's going into conservation so it's a way of letting folks in that particular example it's still letting folks use the land do what they got to do with the land to keep their livelihood going um but at least they know okay afterwards you know there's some sort of arrangement made make the Landress has purchased some of those rights so then they can give that to their family members as some sort of inheritance but we can work out customized plants that's why we're private because we have that flexibility to kind of work oneon-one with folks and figure out what arrangement is going to work best um I can imagine it's probably a problem with some Farmers trying to turn to the Next Generation because I'm St in a one farmer huntingt said family it's been in her family for hundreds of years and she has nobody to turn it over to yeah would rather somebody preserve it and it be sold to a hous ET turned right right and you know another thing that gramby has done in an example similar to that that you just referenced in Huntington is that they've purchased a farm and they've kind of kept it up and going they also rent it to Young Farmers for a reasonable price so that way it continues to be Farmland but it also gives folks May otherwise not be able to afford starting their own Farm the means to kind of have their own a business so that's also I guess that's another kind of connection that you can um help grow a business in that way as well so yeah and that correlates with the Adcom too we have the Adcom share here all one big happy family a lot of intersection can happen you know exactly and you know we're also looking again we're a private non-governmental entity but we're looking to the master plan and I know your committee is as well so I'm sure there will be a lot of intersection in the future it's part of our beting tonight everyone's going to get their packet oh that's exciting so I'm sorry if I this is what you're um incorporated as a 501 C3 great well good luck congratulations a long time that's great thank you yeah this is a real good thing to the CH oh thank you thank you yeah we're looking forward to partnering with with you folks and other committees and other entities and thanks for letting us introduce ourselves tonight thank you likewise thank you very much some pretzels actually might this is dinner thank you so much thank you and likewise pack it oh I think we'll split this thank you they very generous good luck with everything oh thank you like and enjoy the master plan work okay thank you okay next we have Bert Hansen who is the chair of the agriculture commission and you're gonna sprinkle some Joy here tonight right probably for recording I probably should say 153 more mining Road anyway um yeah continuing the theme of partnership at a recent EG meeting um we've we've we've been talking for several meetings already the our second annual open Farm day in August it'll be August Sunday August 18th this year and um we we voted unanimously witha there to invite the ABC to to be co-sponsors with us um just to again that being partnership collaboration and sort of model that for the town I think say and so if you would you know vote you're ready uh to to join us we're also we're also going to formally invite the South L trist to also be post sponsors [Music] so many of the bases bettered um so what that would [Music] mean we would like to you can help us promote the open Farm day through your networks and your new website and and the tools that [Music] you we're going to need a lot of a lot of volunteers this year we had 35 volunteers last year to be at the farms and help people you know and the stickers I love those stickers yeah so a passport yeah yeah this is what we designed last year was a passport so we'll do some things very similar this year we're hoping to to increase the number of farms eight farms and distor Society just speak um and folks who who were guests and you know got this passport and then stickers did you expand the time to barely made it to all of them to year because you go someplace like that find sta Pony L you're going to stay there longer than yeah be 10 to four and that's why we we tear because we need to do shifts rather than ask somebody to be a f for six hours and another thing we heard last year from the volunteers was that gee you know I went to find new Stables or I went to Cal base or I went here and there and was stuck there all day and you know I volunteer wanted to go to Souther so if we can do you know two or three hour shifts then the volunteers can go see some of the alarms you know as well [Music] so so um August 18th Sunday it's a Sunday 10 to 4 10 to 4 and we're also going to try letting the Farms have variable hour say have to be [Music] open yeah that was a concern of Bey right farm so they might be the exception this year I said no way we can do more than four others they were so great last year that made got the prize team spirit matching t-shirts where was thisai they're on North longard used to be the Tish oh yes yes I was up there they I took a ride yeah was with me too yeah we went up in the back and yeah yeah they making ice cream out of you know local local milk and butter butter and and video you know history of the farm so they really they really got into it so I just want to give a little bit of background um to this as to why um I've been going to the Adcom meetings um as a private citizen last year before I joined the EDC um I was going to the economic development commission's meetings and Bert had come to one of those meetings and had asked the previous commission if they would be interested in helping sponsor or promote this Farm day concept and it's stayed idle I contacted Bert and said as a private citizen I think it's a hoot of an idea let's let's take it to poition so I said yes please yes please so Bert and I um started brainstorming and spitball following some ideas then I started going to the Adcom meetings and before we knew it my assistant at the time had designed this um we were just really just starting to make this all come to life and the event was in my opinion and Greg you can chime in as well because you were one of our volunteers it was it was a success we had things so well planned at each of these Farms regarding safety we before that even we did a training night with all the volunteers starting off with smile greet the people um I put together these Farm bags for each of the Farms that had the safety vests it had the stickers it had passports it had pens um it had everything that they needed to do to execute that farm as well as possible we gathered history on the farms too so we between Bart and I we visited all the Farms to make sure that they were right on point and we knew where people could go where they could not go on other people's property and we had on an average at a couple of the Farms there were over 400 participants and it was a great day too yeah Serena she visited um yeah she visited my place the Pine View Stables and we were nonstop for four hours because we're not only doing pony rides we were doing Arabian rides for adults in the arena and people were just they were just so happy you at cowards lot of people lot of people from oh we had people from all over somebody from say the area heard about it and we created some really cool signs that we still kept and we didn't put dates on them so they could be reused so when I attended them U about three meetings ago with the Adcom and Bert asked if this would be something that we the EDC would be interested in I said yes but obviously if we're going to need to vote on it because my yes doesn't mean anything it's all of us collectively um we don't have to give you any money the right to SP to be a sponsor thought it would be $100 a piece no no money yep no money and what I had um volunteered is that even if the EC as a commission as a whole chooses not to want to be a co-sponsor um that I was going to be able to donate and probably find 25 people to be volunteers because we want to be able to do it in two shifts so that we have an opportunity to go to other Farms as well um so this is an event too where we're going to be putting our green dine Southwick signs at as well that are list right on the bottom of it sponsored by the economic development commission to promote our local restaurants so that's going to be our contribution as a sponsor along with also potentially people volunteering and like Mark it'd be great if you and your wife wanted to volunteer for a couple of hours we could have you both at one Farm M so and that goes for all of us if anybody has others that they want to bring do I mean I brought one of my girlfriends from Springfield and she's she was at kle Dew Stables doing the the stickers so I was bringing people back and forth to the barn so we all can have our our space but it was a great event yeah not really should say thank you Inga was instrumental in getting this off the ground it was kind of the Three Musketeers Inga Marissa cook overan was just here and myself who who really spearheaded it I everybody all the members of the Agriculture Commission some way or another as we've been saying this was exceeded all our expectations right one my favorite example was um Sol Farm Grand Road they thought okay we'll get this satron right we thought you know maybe we'll get 25 30 people they had that many in the first half hour 180 or so and Andrew's a beekeeper and Andrew was like well CH do you think I should sell some honey and I'm like absolutely and and he um went and got also um a whole be display so that he could show people how the colony works and he sold all his [Music] H and at um Arnold's Farm which is a a civil war dated Tobacco Barn and his wife U produces sunflowers Dwight Arnold during one of our meetings is like well you know okay we'll participate when we did our followup with all the Farms as to what worked well what could we do better what are your thoughts Dwight was saying he never stopped talking for over four hours he was nonstop because he had people that were seers back in the day when they were teenagers here in town sewing the tobacco Nets and he had displays of the sewing machines and people were like oh my God I worked here so it just was really a well attended event so so so with the spirit of what we're doing with this conversation um would would somebody want to make a motion to see about being a co-sponsor for the agricultural commission's second annual Farm day and we be a Coons for the second annual F day second okay roll call Inga hoteling yes R yes yes Mark F yes Jack Cody yes Serena Fuller yes yay there you go thank you very anything else you want to educate us on about Farm Day this year not at the moment um we're starting to get into the nitty-gritty you details you know trying to reach out to some additional farmers and this year's materials updated we're doing a little Outreach to some other towns like Grandville for example yeah Granville School wants to guess they have a ice cream truck for better phrase Mr Brown has the cutest little unit that is propane and he uses it at the Granville Harvest Festival and also for one of the car shows up in Grandville and I know he said he was wanting to bring it to one of our Farms or maybe the Historical Society yeah I was thinking there we don't want to put him across the street for malicious that that might not be good my thought with the Historical Society too and um I know you've already connected with Mr Brown but he's a good friend of my husband's in mine but maybe he would be willing to donate a portion of his proceeds to the historical society as well that might be something to look at because if he does partner on their property that might be a good contribution back to the community that's a great idea thank you it would help them as well TR there added attraction yeah right and it would be promoted on the passport as well which would drive people there literally will drive people there it's say any prominent location and there's a lot of interconnectedness with the farms you know you're like we're talking about the B Farm used to be the Tish Farm they um it's 135 Acres they lease it out for ay for wooders in Grandville Fe the hay to their house [Music] and right and wooders cows are the cows that are on the Scoops property which is where they get the milk so it's it's connect the dots we still have quite a bit of tobacco from college H that's he does some shade in Broadley they're kind related nice sunfl Shear out and you cut yourself and it's like 50 cents and then you vill the money so they don't need anything there and when it was so cool at that open Farm day I don't know if you experienced this Greg at cowards but when people would pull into kleim view Stables I would see people in the front seat with these big bouquet of sunflowers because they had been to the the arold farm so it it was just a day that just brought a smile to everyone's face oh they w and the weather was phenomenal and it will be again to share right absolutely we put it in order for that so so more to come then but start thinking about volunteers who you might like to have come with you and we can make it somewhat site specific so that your partner to go to that's totally fine Society wh whoever we end up having you get to wear coveralls if you want and barn boots and funky straw hats I was tweaking my uh coveralls and my clim through Stables had all day so it's it was it's a lot of fun so bigger and better this year yeah and another person I could talk about was we both could the Westfield bear is same we're going to we we were we cded at that event last year and we will again this year just because August 18th is the day that myse want to do it you so for men so of course that's what we want to do we still have 300 people even [Music] there yeah great thank you very much for for your supporting and I I like to come to these meetings when I can I'm I'm guessing I'm going to be several between now and August 18th we're all about the businesses Farms Farms business yeah absolutely so take a couple goodies home for you and Julia will I think I actually might stick around for a couple more of your items okay sure no problem no problem just a quick question here um is there a new like logging operation in I saw yeah I was gonna ask about that too the logs over by race yeah it's Wally's property yeah I don't know every time I drive keeps getting bigger and bigger yeah yeah it's uh yeah huge piles right my impression of what's happening with that is um Mr Wall-E owns that property he also owns the property across the street that has the Westfield Brew on it and I know he's wanting to expand his fields mhm so I from what I'm assuming and I'll get validation on it he's clearing some of the the trees and then we'll take those trees and sell them the laws the laws are very neat same go by there every day there's another P think the same yeah I know curious what yeah he loves his fields and he's he's a farmer by trade so okay any other questions for Bert while he's talking about the Ecom okay great so next in review and I just want to make it a public notice on the recording too um Mark FAL is here and Jack Cody is as well so we do have a form so um the EDP uh last Thursday I listened to the I participated with the recording I didn't see you on there mark were you I wasn't I was okay so I found it extremely educational and it's something that we can definitely bring here into our community because there was the guest speakers for common capital and common capital is a small business lender they've been in business since 1990 they're based in the hoio area and the president Ray and also one of his cohorts Lewis gave a presentation about what their claim to fame is here in western Mass specifically is being able to offer to small businesses whoever wants to open that business if they might not be the most desirable candidate for a business loan through the traditional methods through going to a bank this is what they do and they really base a lot of their decisions on the person and also their business plan so it's not really about their assets because most of these people don't have the assets that they need hence why they're going to Common Capital they do coaching as well they do they do business business plan uh advice and recommendations um they were they gave me some they gave us some statistics where it's more character lending um opposed to credit and in just looking at 2022 they did 2.2 million in loans 2023 2.8 20 24 3.2 they're on track for this year 2024 8.3 million Prett it's been a big jump and really what they're facilitating that or looking at what's really promoting that growth is the fact that there's opportunities for people to open up a small business whether it's a woman-owned business or a minority owned business they're you know the communities are really promoting people to open up small storefronts and to be creative and they're just thrilled with how their business is growing um in Hampton County since they've been in business they have done 132 loans in Hampshire 31 Franklin County 16 and the berkshire's 13 so not large numbers but it's going to be a resource for us to be able to tap into when we are going to be able to start doing solicitation for other businesses in the community once we put a tab on our website in regards to vacancies here's a square footage anybody in the town locally have a creative idea of opening up a business we can connect you to a business partner um they're willing to come to a meeting as well and make a presentation to us but I think at this point it might be a little premature because we're not ready to start the solicitation piece but when we do this would be a great Avenue for us to look at it would be approprate for a standing um link on our website oh absolutely so we've gotta one of the agenda things we got to pill out our website right we have business listings then we got to focus on resources got and placeholders and some of the I think that sounds really nice too like even headline like you know you don't have the resources start your own small business or something like that and really get the attention of those people who they think that they they just can't like I don't have the money I don't have you know 30,000 or 40,000 or whatever it is to to open a small business but I have this great idea and I've got the passion yeah I think it was I think it was Bill Gates who said something wrong those life he would rather have somebody with passion than a college degree I can't begin to tell you how many of the clients that I work with that will say to me these are presidents of of organizations you know if you find somebody who has that and they'll say like that I'm like okay now you have to help me Define what that is I'll look at somebody with that opposed to looking for the Masters because sometimes they're so focused on the theory part of it they miss the human part of it and the passion and the desire so that's one of the things that really came across well and they had in the presentation they also had testimonials by some of the recent people that they've lended to and it was so heartfelt and you could tell that these business owners were just indebted to their services for giving them the opportunity to First share their idea pitch it to them to have them actually then embrace it now their rates are going to be a little bit higher than a conventional bank because there's more risk involved but once they walk you through the process it makes sense so um that's something to um what's their name again common cap common capital A Holio yes common Capital they work with businesses that are maybe successful Ong going but in a cash crunch I don't know the answer I don't know the answer for that but they I can picture you know people starting up and we got lots of customers but you know we just can't right now can't meet their and how much can they loan they probably not FDIC and sure they're SBA they're an SBA microlender and their website is um obviously www common Capital mass.org because they are not for profit so but just a and uh a few a couple of months ago I received the most gorgeous flower bow pen actually from Marissa and it was from a company by the name of Willow and Moss and I think I know all the South or the um in the this western Mass area I couldn't figure out who they were and when I went on common capitals website it's one of their new businesses that opened up in West Springfield right on Route 20 in an old house that these people purchased and now has renovated it so it's beautification component of it they're running a business out of it and it was just the most Charming unique flower I've never seen what was What's that name again common Willow and Moss it's almost diagonally across from the um hot spot there on route 20 oh God the old it's a little divy bar no it's up above up above that Colin Tav colins Tavern almost directly across from colins Tavern years would not allow women to come in that was even back in the 80s here over there so um so that I thought was very advantageous for us and definitely a great plug for our website too then um also they um it went to Zamara who is one of the VPS with the um Economic Development partnership and there is a legislation push right now through the house and the senate for food science grants and it's they're looking at what's really going to be up and coming in our local area food science was one um Advanced manufacturing the Precision manufacturing and also Green Tech so they decided to focus on food science they're going to be partnering with um UMass and and it's going to be a really big push for a food hub for western Mass out of UMass so it's something that you might want to look into as well Bert because we're looking at potentially a100 million being brought into western Mass through the state to promote this food science program which be agure food Sciences well food science the way that they described it is looking at okay how are we going to produce food in the future if we don't have as much farm land how are we going to be able to do it so it could be using more Greenhouse applications looking at more scientific ways to prod production opposed to but there's also an arm of it regarding agriculture which is food production right which is food production so so it's going to be all product based they're really promoting it for a lot of startups as well that might want to become Farmers or look at how they can use their land as part of this program as well in regards to producing crops and able to link it to local agricultural pieces so it's something where she's going to keep updating she sent me the white paper that they've got right now proposed to the Commonwealth and and um hopefully within the next two months they'll know if it's been approved and if so UMass amers is going to be the home but it will extend through western Mass as well white so send that to [Music] everyone so next on our agenda is we have a town meeting happening next Tuesday the 21st and it's going to start at 6:15 it's going to be at the high school and I have made a request through the select board for us to be able to have a couple of minutes promoting our shops going to be able to have those two minutes but what we are going to be able to do I made three copies of it for people's reviews is we can have a table in the foyer of when you walk into the school but in my opinion that might not be the most advantageous way for us to hand out this flyer I would like for at least four to six volunteers so that we can be on at least two to three on each side of the door when you walk into the auditori OR into the school to be able to have us pass this out to every single person that comes in saying everybody we go a we have a a directory you know we're starting a business directory here in town please it's really easy take a look at this and and use later when you get home it'll be the first leg of our continual push of promoting the sign right so um Greg designed this um it's simple it's to the point and um I am going to produce them in color so this is exactly what it would look like one page real simple um what are your thoughts about participating with this next Tuesday I'll be happy to be there okay I'll be there as well okay I'm pretty sure I can be too okay so there's at least five of us I'll check it's it's good timing because we gave businesses the deadline today to submit now we didn't get as many as you know people are always compressed in but what I'm going to do I got um see I was to [Music] 56 but I'm going to add a 100 you that haven't responded that I know will want to be in make sure all the restaurants all the retail stores all the the public facing storefronts in there um particularly through the center of town so that's we're you know by next Tuesday we'll have 150 to 160 people in the listings so it'll be respectable and you know part of the effect of promoting it like this is those businesses who maybe didn't get in will say wow that's right I got one of those letters in you have the QR code or whatever that code is on here right well just shop.net I mean we I want people to be aware of what the the redirect is what the because it's something easy to remember and what we'll do is is we'll create signs we'll we'll come up the campaign to have this visible over um we'll put it on the homepage of the perhaps of the website certainly on our page we'll we'll do everything we can to keep that out there because it's about shop local it's a benefit to the so everybody has a state [Music] residents business people town government all of them have a stake and and promoting this shop open and we'll go through the survey whenever when I passed out um which I think really helps set some priorities for responses to the survey so far and what I'll do on Monday night at the select board meeting I think they have one on Monday night I'll double check um but I will ask for permission to reach at Jim Middleton to have this now put on the town website and also Jim in regards to the town fryer where the town Pryer is in case anybody does not know in the grismill plaza which it will be on it's on the east side of the West no the east side of 10 202 in their parking lot next to Brookshire bank is a town prior it's electronic here's what's going on in town so um I'll have reach out to Jim about getting approval to do that as well so' I'm sure you know this but I just want to say it just in case you know you can get color copies made here in town hall you without having to pay for them oh I was going to run them through my office oh so um but where would that be here is it upstairs in the L use building or luse room the select board has color printer the select board right there by Lisa's office okay fure good good good to know so do I hear a motion to accept the flyer and to distribute them at the annual town meeting on Tuesday May 21st weent present them at the meeting second okay roll call vote in yes GRE yes yes okay yes Ser yes so take a look at it too if you haven't heard yet let me know I only printed the three right so if there's any change I just did in in in word just not a designer but if you think there's something that needs fixing the the concept of it is make it super easy and clear the headline now you can get find any business here's how you can put it on your phone you can search by entering a search word or you can category here's what you get I use Southwick in as an example because it's right in the middle of town it's got Southwick in the name and it's got a very simple everybody knows it I and then say it's got phone numbers and websites you can just tap and go call or go to and you can put and I on your home screen so that it's always right there in a few Taps on your phone you can be connected with any business you want or find their hours or find their website so we'll tell them when we hand them out this is like our new business directory our first you say our first right it's it's a business directory we're going to keep updated We'll add add to it and you know they should have it on their phone tell them they should have this on their phone have it as a constant companion to you know you want lunch you can type in lunch and they'll bring up all the lunch places you can type in dinner you can actually hit the search bar hit your microphone and say restaurant or say anything you want plumber electrician and hit enter in list of the plumbers electricians will pop up in their phone numbers so the meeting starts at 6:15 M people are going to be there at least 30 minutes early so my recommendation is we rally at the front door of the high school by 5:40 the latest I'll probably be there around 5:30 there's going to be some people coming in early I know Marissa is going to be having a table for the South less there are you going to have a table there as well B okay so there might be other people that's why I think if we're on the outside we're going to be able to capture people on both sides so not a bad idea to have Dish of candy we're gonna be standing no yeah we're gonna be standing it' be nice to post some of these right at the doorways too people I don't know whatever we'll we'll talk about it as we I'll be there'll local businesses we posting locals well I'd like to have signs kind of semi-permanent signs at some point where people can just keep them up because businesses should want to promote this because it's easy access to the business and free and did you say this going go on the town prior I'm gonna contact you m tomorrow okay so it's something like this I know from being in marketing PR you need to repeat repeat oh yeah um reach and frequency are by words of advertising you you do a lot of frequency and you reach as many people as you can and and there are cheap ways we can do it and you know eventually it gets through say well hey this actually works really well right simple to to find a business thank you for doing us very nice it would and we should also tell people how much this cost the ongoing is a $40 posting $40 a year 42 $42 a year posting that's really the only ongoing we're we're going to manage so say this isn't costing you much in and we've already paid for it for two years sort of paid to but yeah I and and for the startup there's only $500 in start exactly so speaking of the town meeting um if you go on the town's website and you go under um select board and then town meeting for the 21st you'll see a few documents that you can download they'll have a literature in um at the meeting as well but I just want to bring mention that we are on the agenda and this is for the special town meeting and this one is the one that's starting at 6:15 and it's regarding our revolving account which is our gift account which right now has approximately $3,700 in it so we are going going to be or I'm going to have to make a presentation for article 6 and it's an amendment addition to the revolving account as of right now the revolving fund is in the economic development committee which it's a little typ Al should have been commissioned but I'm not going to freak out over that um Department board committee once again economic the Fe charge was or other receipts where that account had had generated from over the years which we didn't even know that we had until Jack and I met with Laura the controller when we first developed this commission it came from program fees but those fees were and you can probably attest to this better than I can Ser because I never participated with them you would host events at the at the ranch or Tuckers Town Hall I don't think we yeah we did charge them you have a table yeah and so those fees that were generated from those events went into this gift account it also included any ticket sales that might have been at any of those events donations and any other fees that could have been generated by the economic development commission and you used to also do a job fair did you charge people for the job fair so that's this money came from so when I spoke to the select Bo a couple of meetings ago it was with Ben Cole our attorney and the select board as to well what are your thoughts about this revolving fund and my response was well we have minimal budget we're becoming a robust committee we have initiatives which are probably going to have expenses associated with it so it'd be great if we could utilize this um we'd also like to be able to ask some guest speakers to come in maybe the capital common fund might want $20 or $50 to come to our meeting don't know but I'd want to have that money is available to use it for the common good of the community isn't even question because it's not in a budget line it's not a line item it is a separate fund that was generated from years ago that never had Merit I guess you could say Merit to it it just was there and no mechanism to spend it to spend there no authorization to spend spend any of it the previous so you just I didn't know about it either this is curious though because the agriculture has to GI to him it's not as big as yours but and we've never had to go to town meeting him this is because to spend it yeah that's where you yeah yeah the issue of course it's not taxpayer dollarars it's it's from sources so I'm so confused don't well Jack and I were as well because it's like well how can we utilize this money so what I'm going to be posing it's and it's going to be in the town meeting is where for revolving fund there's an item for restrictions or conditions on expenses payable from fund they've highlighted is none so it's going to be open for us to utilize other requirements or reports none and the fiscal year this is going to be fiscal years that begin on or after July 1 of 2023 so and full toown has to vote on that to vote make sure we have a an explanation that makes sense to the town we don't want them to be suspicious and say wow we don't want to well it has to be clear that this was not tax money and we just want an authorization to spend this and it's obviously going to be only for economic development correct just correct just a simple authorization so nobody i' I've seen people misunderstand the Articles they not explained well they they yeah I think if we explain it's money that's been accumulating from Fe with charge it's just been accumulating but emphasize this is not taxpayer money and we are going to spend it for the benefit of of town business as the way that article 6 is going to read and I've got it here in writing to see if the town will vote to amend chapter 25 255 departmental revolving fund bylaw to include the following revolving accounts in addition to the existing revolving accounts so clarification is definitely it's confusing so just right so so that is going to be part of the we don't want to waste time all people coming up to the microphone and giving speeches I'm surprised you they have to vote on there yeah so okay so that is and I've got my email from Celeste regarding not having the two minutes but one of the examples that I could bring to this depending on how long because it's only a two-minute verbiage for me to communicate it to the community um I could use I could also possibly plug such as our new directory business directory which um is not going to cost the taxpayers anything other than a renewal fee of 40 some dollars every yeah sneak it in they let anybody talk for two minutes we she so so that's the plier toown meeting um item number four so um item number five um Amber Bach has resigned from the economic development commission she uh reached out to me last Sunday and then sent a letter to the select board as well um she now has a full-time position in Springfield at the courthouse and um she's involved with her family she also just found out she's going to be a grandmother and and after working a day in the courthouse she's been averaging 15,000 steps and she spent by the time the night rolls around doing real estate and she's doing real estate well and and her company changed over as well so she's been on the commission for gosh you and her were on it for what about nine years I think I am n or 10 she's probably like six or seven so so it's um it's a decision that she's made um I offered if she wanted to come tonight and tell you all and she felt that it would be best just for me to you know let you folks know that she has resigned um that means that we have a vacant spot so we still under the guidelines have to have a quorum of five so so um renewals for applicants are going to start the end of June into July I did get approval from the select board last week that if there's an applicant that we have or that we know of that we feel would be a really good match for our group let us know and start talking to the person sooner than later and and we can always have an exception where they can be um appointed and then go through the process with the select board as well so we do have a vacancy any questions okay um open farm. Dave volunteers as I said earlier we're looking for 25 members from from our group here or people else that we know out there one one thing I'm not going to me to mentioned before they can be teenagers last year we had 11 National Honor Society kids so it's okay to yeah and and after open Farm day Bert and I went and met with Maria yeah what's her yes the she is the yeah Maran maranne the chair of the National Honors Society yes at the high school and we were there before the school even opened right and knocked out all the doors say we're supposed to be here at first seven o'clock and we presented to all the National Honor Society students a gift card from Dunkin Donuts and just thank them for their willingness to to come and they were really great contributors you had how many at coward Farms it was over 100 right but did you have a National Honors volunteers yeah we had we had two two at least and they made up signs even was and was EV on on the yeah some of them just you went up to the road and held up signs like there were like it was a car wash yeah they need to do their Community Service as part of their yeah so we're definitely going to tap into those again this year to get more of the students so um so that's what I have right now for new business um I do want to hand out to everyone I copied the economic development action plans for the master plan okay best Juliet well we need a member I already asked him yeah we walked in I'll take a couple for you jul thank you good to see you thanks B if you want me to send this to you electronically I will but this is our ownership of the master plan 2040 the the whole Master plan's available from it's yep yeah this here I wanted to just have everyone have a copy of what our marching orders are going to look like I also have for [Music] everyone we have a new handbook town of Southwick handbook and when I put it through the copier it stapled up here but content is exactly where it needs to be um you do need to review it and then sign the first page and submit it to the town clerk's office [Music] is there is there deadline um it's been effective as of April 1 I reviewed it it doesn't have a deadline but my recommendation would be do it sooner than later and if you don't want to drop it off at the town cler just bring it to our next meeting and we'll make sure that it gets upstairs where it needs to be it's not that intimidating when you actually do look through it so should not take you too long to to review the requirements those are my yeah those are my handouts okay so for old business Greg update on shop Southwick directory okay you should all have a copy of survey results I put it underneath the folder pleas and let's start just by going through this first I'll I'll say we had we sent the solicitation out to probably 480 total we mailed we we in and I personally delivered to everyone we could reach on the whole Corridor of Hodge highway from Westfield the Connecticut and then we mailed all the rest and mailed any we couldn't we gave him a deadline of today but people are procrastinators we've got as I say say 54 something like that but I'm going to add another 100 and we'll continue to get people coming in because they can I'm going to take the big button off the site before Tuesday because once we start promoting everybody I don't think be confused by seeing that big business listing but there's a menu item that's free business listing so they can just click on that menu item and and sign up at any point but the the website will start with just shop output exclamation point search or pick a category so just the idea is with few Taps on your phone or you can use it on your laptop so these are the from the responses I had to our survey questions after the listing we had the four survey ones and uh you know in one sense I'm surprised that that they were generally positive towards town government and business environment um there it's only one who answered very slow to responded much worse same person I'm I'm going to keep that Anonymous but you know I could figure it out but I'm not trying to figure out who's who's saying more I I look at just the summary information I mean it's it's there spreadsheet going I'm just looking at summary information the goal here is to this is the Baseline I suggest we do the same survey a year from from now to all of the people we have email for and see if it changes and the goal will be to improve it um the one piece of good news is pretty much everyone who responded so hard gave us their email so we do are building a contact news and I think our first message going out maybe next month we should send them the results of the survey the percentages just let them know hey you filled it out here's what y'all said I won't give the counts I'll give the percentages read um I calculated a weighted score for these first three questions so that we could more easily compare the results from year to year and the way that I weighted the score if they were 100% they would have answered very quick to respond like in the first question they would have answered the most positive one 100% of the time that would be 100% positive if they answered very slow to respond 100% it would be at minus 100% so that's the scale from minus 100% to 100% I waited fairly quick to respond at 50% of the count of the percentage and fairly slow to respond at 50% negative so the the formula is if you to take these percentages it's 40% time 1+ 48% * .5 minus 10% * .5 - 2% * 1 so that's the waiting and it it gives you a scale and what I would say is we should aim to have these upper ones at at 75% that would be my my goal to get a weighted average of 75% because that would and you could achieve that by having uh half the people say very quick to respond and the other half say or very fairely if you had half same VAR and half barely you'd have 75% or if you had you know even more saying very quick to respond and a few negatives to subtract from still could get 75% but that should be I mean kind of a stretch Ro I think it would be nice to have a higher score in the third questions oh yeah we we have an identity issue we definitely have an identity issue and we have an opportunity to help um improve the town's perception as I mean business's perception um of the Town being in the business right oh absolutely and and here this the waiting of that 0% is you know the the last two questions just exactly offset the positive from the first two and and some of it could very well be just a communication um out of curiosity did many people opt out of receiving emails almost none beautiful almost because that gives us the opportunity to talk about things that we're doing and to let them know about things that are happening maybe even you know the success like we've got you know the the big promotion um around um uh you know promoting the restaurants and such when people come in for the wick right and if we start to see some positive results from that and some good feedback even anecdotal feedback from some of the businesses that we could insert into a little communication this is what your Economic Development commission is doing for you I'd like to be on a schedule of monthly Communications yeah and I bet you'll see that number absolutely we will well lots of things I mean when we do the farm day we we'll talk about that we'll talk about events we'll draw their attention every time we add a new event the website will'll draw their attention to it in an email we'll make them brief we'll make them relevant I mean with email the only emails that people get annoyed with is if the frequency is too great or if they're not relevant right but if it's if it's occasional and it's highly relevant they love [Music] getting so that's something that we'll talk about who would like to help with that kind of thing you know I'll research what kind of whether it's Constant Contact or one of those programs you know the other the other thing be could is to announce you know new businesses oh absolutely you know because then they see that hey you know okay this is good we're we're um bringing more um more businesses into yeah anniversaries well that's why on the restaurants I want their anniversary dates so that we can promote that and then expand it to other businesses as well and do a highlight on our website that month and depending on what other source we have maybe the town prior put it on the town prior visit Tuckers for celebrating 25 years this month good I do so and this is it can Smo well there's enhancements we can do to this directory too this plugin I'm so pleased it's a pre plugin to Wordpress they have a paid version but there's so much functionality just in the free version it's great it has the ability to put in images too these to the businesses which you know it could be just the you know their street view or it could be even more what I would love to see is get a picture the ones that have local ownership picture of the owners emphasize these are your neighbors that run these businesses look how friendly Pam is you got to come in and to her coffee shop this is her passion abely but kind of the humanizing piece for for the small businesses that's exactly how Y is too like you have to have a picture of yourself like I had to put my picture there and then if you want your logo for your business that's pre and you have to pay for that on your just FYI well we can also add logos yeah and charge no charge I mean this the whole idea this business directory is three so we get ideally 100% participation because there's no reason not to be in it doesn't make any sense EXC it's just people are they they don't have the vision they procrastinate when they see it's real and and that it's easy and that's part of passing these out at the meeting it's a way to sure to get at [Music] lunch and then a real interesting part of the survey are the priorities they have because I expected I knew this would happen certain priorities come to the top and more than twoth thirds had their priority as B Brad ongoing bilocal campaign around their Shop softw website so there's a lot of support for that they appreciate understand it and these percentages are based on people who responded um the divided by the number of responses number of people will check this one so almost 70% of the people responded check this one and then the next big one with over 50% was promotes South is great recreational destination prospects from Wild Water Area and about a third exploring the possibility of Chamber of Commerce and pration is tied with them now I have a thought on just throwing out an idea how we could fulfill the second and third in one shot and what would that be pre tell this is based on something they do in the H compies they have something called the Jacobs latter Business Association and they produce annually big map of all the hill and it's marked on the map Recreation and Trail heads and boat launches and then for everyone who belongs to this Business Association they get also their business on this m and a listing and it's all numbered and colorcoded so you look in Huntington there's you know numbers here and you look it up in the listing and you see the business and all their information their phone and website and everything all on this big map that people will save because it's also a recreational dist so we did have a map like that because I have it in the fyer of my office we did have and it was kind of cute with the different businesses one a real big one yeah you see those at a lot of like in Manchester when you go visit tury area they have those really yeah no I've seen those all around but but we the idea of this the way they do it with Jacob's Ladder is you have to join the Business Association to be on the map so I'm proposing this as an alternative to quote chamber of commer which always sounds like an updated Curr The Business Association is we had that I was on for like 15 years they had to SP anyway but you give them a very clear benefit in in Jacob's Ladder they charge $95 a year BL to that they get their listing on the map and a number of other benefits they have a website that shows the benefits they get they also get the ability to exhibit it at the chest Dr TR on Saturday they have they get a 10x10 plot they can set up the 10 and the table and promote their business and their that's part of their membership and you know some other rants but that would be a way to finance you know a map like this which you want it to be impressive and large and then they distribute it everywhere the the brochures are sightseing brochures and all the places so it's around and come up with cic attractions you destinations souw destinations without a zoo yeah not that you don't know how many people at least a week live oh move to right move here we could maybe we have a pot of land that we could put the zoo on yes southwick's in Southwick right so but that's a great idea but it it fulfills that second and third priority that people want to see it promoted as recreational destination so on this map you put we've got bike trail parking for bike trail parking for the New England trail uh boat launches our Motocross location get all those in there so people want to save things right that it also has all the restaurants and businesses maybe you color code B little circles and you know red might be restaurants and blue or other businesses and and then you have the the Recreations but you make it really colorful and professional impressive and you finance it by business by businesses and make it a membership you join the souck Business Association you get with your fee you get on the map and we'll come up with a bunch of other benefits that you get from being in the association and I'll you know you can go to b i I'll send a note on the website for the Jacobs lad is kind of a model and they're just they just a new map um in the last few days I'll pick up a bunch of them bring them to the next meeting sample their their newest one we just they've done it seven years now so it's been popular and successful I'm sure it's grown significantly during those seven years too and this is where we don't it's not we're not going to have to be recreating the whe right I know people working on this so I'll get all the Insight information how they do it as Marissa demonstrated with the South Land Trust they mirrored Ramy it's been successful why have to recreate something like that Su we have an advantage over they that bring together I think they are 15 pounds or something you know we can get more businesses in one time than they have 15 and we might even want to incorporate because I feel it's important for us to extend out to our sister communities for our high school our Regional School District Granville and also tland possibly could be part of that as well yeah no there isn't but whatever there is might not promoted as well yeah some nice recreational things yeah so and when we did the map for open Farm day it already highlights all of our walking trails so we already have some of that information be broader bigger scale course that'll be you want people to to save it maybe even put up on their wall put up on a wall definitely you make starting point you got a started point so that that fits with the idea of the priorities that they businesses identify and we can Finance it so so my thought about this data Greg is let me confirm that there is a select word meeting on Monday and I'm hesitant that there isn't because of the annual tting the next dayan's on Diane can you hear us muted yes ma'am is there a selectboard meeting on this coming Monday the 20th nope I sent you a chat no meeting on Monday so what we could look at thanks Diane yep what I can do is um see if they can put us on the agenda for the following week and we can present the data to them yeah we'll have more complete picture then right yeah that that'd be nice I'd like to to right because we you know they've let us know what they would like for us to be able to do and this is good data points to bring up as our Baseline yeah the other thing I want to mention is I've been able to incorporate the full Suite of Google analytics into our website was able to connect it free still um but it can I'll be able to track traffic not only the volume but practically by the hour where it's coming from what pages they go to all of their links how long they stay the average session time you know they they have engagement measures they they have engage traffic versus people that just come and and leave all of those things we can track is this AI now oh this this is something Google analytics has been around they just they just launched an their fourth upgrade of it it's G4 I think just call it G4 but it's it's a very thorough way of of tracking your traffic which it's important to know if you're trying to sure you know it's not worth doing a website if nobody comes right so we're going to really focus that's why we've got to advertise the shop Southwick and the other things were our mailing list so that we can show you know we'll be able to present to the select board and whoever else you know here's the traffic to our site it's not enough to have a site you got to have traffic right and I love the fact of this kind of data to be able to show them what people are their perception in our community already yeah and we've got to show the change over time it's the real key we've got to right exactly that'll be the effect good of our the justification for our committee if we can make uh these numbers improve by the things that we do and that we do the things that that people actually want to have done right so I don't see us having a chamber so Business Association but a Business Association could be a bit of a spinoff once we are able to have well one of the things that I can see us doing in the future is having a forum with the businesses yeah and say okay now we're not going to develop a chamber but what about a Business Association and here's some of our ideas centered around that what are your thoughts and there 22% said they a business form well that was mostly focused on resources and funding but uh you know we we'll have communication um and and people will know who we are right yeah so we can kind of be the convenor um of a couple things one is you know Forum where we do invite um the the state in and perhaps um you know even the uh include folks like you know Common Capital right and and have some type of of form um where uh the folks from the state uh can uh share you know some of the uh opportunity that they have for businesses uh maybe there's somebody from the SBA and then um you know folks like common capital and and that that would probably be a fairly easy G and then um maybe we have um you know periodic sessions with businesses uh where we can you know talk about things that are of interest to businesses uh in town um you know keep them advised of what we're doing get their feedback back um and um you know do that on a on a regular basis in in some some type of forum format that would be kind of a de facto chamber where we're not doing the fluffy stuff but we're doing the things that are really meaningful gets right down to the anything we do will probably be a segment of the businesses because they're so diverse what is relevant to a retailer to a service yeah you know home based or you know their manufactur [Music] they're all very different right um and when you review the the information I gave you regarding the master plan you'll see that that's one of the initiatives so what I really am getting excited about is listening to the the spitball ideas here and it's right in tandem with where we're going to be taking the EDC perfect so this is exciting too y so anything else Craig in regards to the website and directory one thing I I wanted to mention I noticed that in our eating directory the online version it's not okay here's this is not an endorsement of any business person organization did did we have some legal consult that told us to say that and do I need to put that on the directory I just took it right from the it was from the original ones that Mike McMahon had I'm not sure and why do we say this is not an official Town publication it was on the it was on the original format that Mike had I would have to ask that question to the select board do we have to include that we have to include it or a better question is what do we need to include what right yeah we need to put you know Consulting a lawyer they'll say yeah put a hundred different things in there I mean it's I can see to me the only one that I could see that's important here would you know there's no implied endorsing to any you don't want you don't want somebody I had a bad experience got it from your directory and no this was just a directory it wasn't an urement I am putting at the bottom and you'll see it at the bottom of the categories I did put it you know thank you for for supporting our local businesses who serve us and provide jobs and pay taxes and pay taxes I saw that that looked really good put that right at the bottom I think that's a good thing to say okay and I did find it not responsible for err I found two small errors in this and I changed in website I don't know if we're printing this no I'm not printing them okay it was just Subway is at 535 not 6:35 College Highway and the website for freshfields Cafe had Fields misspell right Martin picked up on that too at Southwoods um but other than that you know we I I would like to ask everybody go through the website get familiar with it because I'm sure we're going to want to talk about at the next meeting how to fill it out and have divide up the tab I can I can put the information in it's really easy to to do and if anybody else wants to be an administrator it's not a hard thing to do although we don't want to have too many where it's hard to communicate but it's fine to have a couple and or to divide up and certain pages maybe somebody manages an event page and they can enter that directly but they don't do the other Pages let's spread it out spread out the the task maintaining website we want it we want it to be I'm competent to do that but you can learn WordPress is so easy just like editing a document is it okay it is so easy to do we have a lot of confidence in you Serena Lear you're it Serena and you just you just get a page that comes up that looks like the website although it has editing functions so you click on a block of whatever and you can just you know edit a copy or insert a block or add almost like Adobe where everything's in sections you just modify in that section yeah they're they're blocks and some of the blocks are the directory is a block that ties into a uh an addin a plugin that that I manage through that plugin but you can and images there's a library of images in one section of web site and if you put an image in you put it into the library first and then when you want to put it into a spot in in the website you just pull it out of the library so obviously there'll have to be a tutorial yes on that and um I'm sure Greg or Martin could help facilitate that yeah I don't think we'll need Martin much to so we won't have to pay that $80 an hour you know we'd like to do this through volunteer labor so that it doesn't up you a lot of our research editing time and that's something that we all have to be really cognitive of I know that we meet once a month maybe twice a month but there's with the initiatives going forward we're all going to have to devote some additional time during the month I know that we all work except for Greg who this is now is becoming his his career have fulltime work no you don't have full-time work but you got a lot of Stu feels like a lot of stuff that you're doing full time anyway um but we have to realize that it takes a takes a tribe takes everyone to make something happen and once you take a glance and a and also a deep dive you know you're going to glance then you'll dive into it the initiatives of the master plan 2040 we have we have some really cool things coming down the road that we're going to be able to make an impact this data here that Greg was able to pull out from just two weeks worth of results is telling and I'm going to be really proud to have us presented to the select board as this is our you know a baseline we're only going to go up from here right and to be fair this is a skewed sample what you call survey Feud sample these are the the First Responders yeah some of the later responders may have a different profile than the first first adopters first come from somewhere yeah so but this is the starting point yep so anything else about the website or directory Greg I also want everybody to put this on their phone put put it on the home screen of their phone and if you have trouble we'll help I'll help them because we want everybody in town to do that so we should do it too and get familiar with how easy it is look up businesses use the search function use the category function um just get get comfortable with using it so you can be a an ambassador for the site and tell all your friends and neighbors and you know promote it spread the news spread the newes tell them tell their friends so any questions regarding the direct great job lots of work yeah I say great J righted and it was fun walking to town passion project yeah well it's it's been a main Initiative for since October so but when Greg and I walked to the town it was two Fridays ago and we got absolutely no negative feedback good good it was really well received but some of those people still haven't put their information in yet right even the majority of the restaurants yeah exactly well yeah I can see that and we the first one was new Main Moon yeah you know popped up right in the first day they put it in the day they did that the first responded what yeah and the woman I spoke to I don't think she even really understood what I was saying tour but I was thrilled that later that afternoon when Greg and I talked after hours that new Main Moon had already put it in y I personally made sure the Daily Grind you know got in so that was one of the first ones yeah and then we had this KGAN cafe or whatever it was whatever this place is they signed up I hear it's new in town so okay and then then we but we've had a number of others we got some I got the summer house today I think finally came through and we the and the cre Sea House yeah so they're they're slowly coming in and I know no we know and I hand delivered it to the news store manager that day when Greg and I were walking the town um because Melissa who's used to run it now is running the one in Westfield so so that's where we can you know we'll just wait a couple more days see what happens worse comes to worse I just smile and dial and say hey what's going on and I put in you know I saw that we have dining guide here we had The Brass Rail meeting house I put that under catering in advance if that's okay the same thing with the westf brewery I put it under catering and advents rather than restaurants I want people to yeah Greg and I spoke to Sergio um the day that we were walking in town um Sergio is the one who runs the Westfield grou and he was there with his manager talking about whatever they were doing for business and he was absolutely thrilled about this directory because now they're more event focused so that's where we shared with them any events concerts things that you've got going in that's drawing masses of people you'll be able to use our site as a platform for that as well so but eff it's been great so okay so going on to our old business vacant retail properties this was an initiative that Amber was going to run with um is there anyone who would be willing to look at what we have available in town um the reason why I'm asking is because I did speak to John um who is um you know with the planning board as a um as an associate he's not an elected member when I asked him how would I be able to get a listing he said there really isn't one so that's where he said if you know a realer tap in on them you all you have to do is go to loopnet.com and type in Southwick Mass and everything will come up that's available that's that's listed it's either listed for sale or it's Lo l o o p ne.com it was on the original website that I did for soft so would we be able to create a link to that and would it like autop populate somehow so that if we put something in you know like a on our website you know looking for so I'm GNA do a your retail business looking for a location in Southwick click here search P isn't working yeah and we brought over I haven't really dug into any of the other pages but Martin brought over what you had um so I don't know if that was I know I don't want to hi people up close to eight let's yeah I'll look at this afterward let's move but anyway you have the web address okay I had it I had a link for that right in the um right in the website that I had done okay so we'll go that route it's easy okay another item that we wanted to talk about was also a Facebook page um there's already been one that was created that I had Jason gear do for us and I know that I had shared at one of our last meetings the other communities how they utilize their Facebook page and it's fairly robust so I'd like to see if we want to really talk seriously about creating one that we're going to utilize what's fairly robust they the the page is that some of local communities have and have a hard time finding any communities Lo around the local area but it went it captured mostly Connecticut oh and I think I got some out near boster or something like that but there wasn't a lot and do those have just ongoing dialogue you you have to monitor it that's well see that's where we don't want to have it be not come take the comments away right we the reason people go there is to that's but this is where we would be wanting to use it to promote specifically um events that are happening in town send them to our website too along with also events so oh all the ones that I had captured is no longer here the ones that are robust are probably the ones which have Lively discussions well a lot of them didn't have dialogue it because here's what's happening in our community and know how many people are you don't don't see how many users you know the traffic piece of it what I'll do for our next meeting is I'll make copies of these and we can look at them and discuss if it's something that we want to entertain I I had looked up because it was going to be you me and Amber were supposed to look up and I did I looked up I found a nice one by I found like four and I think New Bedford was really the best one if I can yeah I can send you the links to all of these but like Hoke I found something for H South Hadley wam but I think they were much those were much yeah and I had a couple from Connecticut that looked really sharp so I think the only one I found that was decent was New Bedford where is it somewhere in M House near the Cave the C well I was actually new we have a client there South Coast H have a nice have a nice website yeah so I'll have a couple of examples if you want to bring a couple of examples for the next meeting that would be great Pam and um initiatives I know we had spoken at the last meeting in regards to what do we want to do next now that we've got the the website launch and we're going to be building on that that's going to be a work in progress but what do we want to tackle going into the summer well I think you can just look right at your list here that Greg created to see what's most important to the people and then kind of go from there and I think crosswalking that to um the action items I think you know we take a look at at um you know the the master plan action items and then you know down what the businesses are asking for and kind of combine those would be right I recommend we come up with maybe three projects that we want to that are doable that aren't just Pie in the Sky correct we can say here's something I think we can get done within a a distinct period of time and their priorities and you know let's let's not be too broad let's very focused on two or three initiatives that we divide up and and have you know people working on between meetings right because with the size of the commission we can do that comfortably and we've already seen some good results by doing it that way as well one of the things that Greg and I spoke about the other evening was and that would fall into the master plan which was a shop local promotion or shop local initiatives is making the town more user friendly um for example looking at maybe establishing some more crosswalks in key areas of the community say maybe between Village Pizza and the other Plaza across the street uh looking at the amount of not only the crosswalks but having we were talking about time studies Drive studies do that myself CU I you know that's a pet project of mine is to do the crosswalks between intersections which they have in Westfield it's College Highway it's same road and they do it in Grand b as well and you know even the some of the little hilltowns and places and of course the birchers they have beautiful painted crosswalks and it and in combination with that slow down the speed limit um a state highway do you have to get their permission what do you what are you thinking a study why wouldn't they permit it if they do it I don't know it's a state highway that's the only thing I know they do it that's the same Highway in Westfield and they slow it down so I don't know why we couldn't get it done I talked to Jason a little bit about it yesterday while we're standing out he said he was in favor so I also asked him about getting accident studies and he said I they should be able to provide that to me so that's one of the research things I want to do is is get the accident studies because there's a whole presentation we can make about speed limits in terms of safety in terms of economic Vitality making it walkable noise levels you know multi-use Pathways some of it has to do with just changing the look of the street narrow up the Lanes put bike Lanes in put crosswalks in slow down the speed limit people drive through more relaxed with the attention it's more pleasant to walk around it's horrible to walk around it's horrible to cross that road those ter and they fly down the road oh they because you put it at 35 means they go 45 or 50 um it's way too fast this is we're not a super highway and what we were hearing as well when we were doing our solicitation on Friday on that Friday um was that businesses on one side of the road look at people that are trying to cross over and they get so frustrated that they don't so especially up in that Russell tropical fish area in the summerhouse yeah there are three at least three places three places where we can see that being the summerh house right at the high point it's visible I'd have one down at the dollar Plaza and over to the bike store and the other places and maybe one you know a little up the other end but at least two if not three between the lights there crosswalks obviously the lights but if you're at the summerh house you're not going to walk down to the light cross the street which is what you're being forced to do or take your life in your own hands and cross over so that could be something for us to look at going forward into the into the summer so but with this data and with our action items and the paperwork that I sent out to you for the EDC we should be able to come up with a couple of really good initiatives so anybody have any other business that they want to bring up no okay um truly gave me the minutes of the meeting meetings and they're in everyone's packet right so I'd like for you all to review those and then we can have an action item on the next meeting and to be able to approve these so they get us from September right so this is all the meetings and this will get us right up to Snuff in regards to being in compliance so if you can I'll take a look at those and then sign off and approve them then we can put a motion through at the next meeting when's the next meeting I would like to propose that we meet in two weeks and that would be on May 209th May 29th and it would be for just an hour from 6: to 7 how does that look for everyone I have to look I think think it's okay it's ify for me leave for a Memorial Day Weekend yeah wait for trick the next day and would be well I could see I mean I want hold just for me yep and it would be it would like I said be just for um one hour and it would be an opportunity just to tie up some business and um be able to have feedback as well from the select board meeting as well regarding the data points so I just want to also at this point I'd like to adj the meeting do I hear a motion I'll make a motion yes okay so we can turn off the video