##VIDEO ID:94ZWfELcwBM## 601 Wednesday October 16th and like to call our meeting of the economic development commission to order and Greg DIY chairman present and we're hoping to get camer at least one more maybe two more in order to take their votes you know we know that two will not be here but I think that that Mark and Jean should be here because they didn't tell me they wouldn't be making it and I know that Mark sometimes is traveling from a distance and Mar one that sits there um yeah he often sits there okay I'm trying [Music] to the camera we do have that do new business Valu can come so see um well the first several items on our agenda are ones that require vote and need to have at least one more person here for Forum be able to vote do we have any other or the the is it turned on the owl's not working is there switch on the side is it was work to do and he setting on the zoom plugged in yeah it doesn't look like it's llit up okay all right I hope so okay I will skip down to a couple things that are just updates here um number eight I was gonna report on the progress on our our the signage proposal that would promote South perk as a a recreational destination and there just want to say that I went and met with Martin at uh Southwoods and laid out the idea and requested that he give us a quote on it because the the process there we want to be able to do this early spring ideally if we all of you to do it so the first step is PA that the owl yes it chirped at us so the first step is to get the the quotes and then once I have those and I hope that I have them by the next meeting that and I put together um formal proposal which we will then at our next meeting discuss you know depending on the quotes how many signs we want and where they would be placed and the details of the proposal which I think would need we'd want to present to the select board they're the ones that appoint us and probably for a major initiative like that they would be the ones to did the guy from North Adams ever get back to you that initially this whole thing and I was I was I went back there and talked to went into the visitor Cent again but nobody was there that knew anything this time uh but I I think we can get the information what I'm quoting on in terms of the signs is a 2 foot by 18 inch wide probably um metal based you know aluminum sign with dur ility for all weather and protection we'll see what those would be each with the mounting and he showed me some examples of some they they do that is that something may be making up custom there are offthe shelf options for this kind of thing uh yeah there there are kind of standard uh things for this and he said yeah we can that's a a standard Dimension you get that many out of this thing their printing processes that will do this so there are are signs that they do that are similar to that and we'll find out what what they are and how we would Mount them and depending on the expense I wouldn't do a whole lot at once I'm thinking maybe three or four depending on how expensive they are initially in the durable rigid size and I like that size because they're they really stand out especially if you Bri color in it and a great design and it's right there on the side of a kiosk I think couple Prime positions I would want to do I'd want to do at our our main uh boat launch I'd like to have one there for sure i' like to have one at our primary parking for our bike trail there's a lot of people go through there have that off that kiosk and then depending on on the expense do a couple other p to maybe they they've got a brand new kiosk at the Grandville Gorge a lot of people go through there and then in addition to those using the same design I want to create some like 11 by 17 size um on a heavyduty paper but bright same color same design but paper versions that could be put on all the remaining kiosk behind the glass y as well as we'll come up with options that we'll try to get various businesses particularly restaurants and other businesses to display on their walls if they if we can get them because we want this to build more traffic to our website we're going to create a special landing page for this QR code it's going to be on the sign that will give them options to get rest restaurants to get other recreational sites in town and to get the full shops out with directory so it'll build traffic to all those things and we'll try to make it very easy just with a couple Taps that you can get to any of that information which now is very hard to find especially for a visitor and just on a cell phone they don't know where to look y um what's going to be on the sign though to like people are interested as opposed to just a bunch of or what do you well I don't know maybe you didn't see the presentation originally and I could pull that up here the file and this would be worth doing is this work no I don't okay I'll this yeah [Music] you see sign ideas it's the [Music] one so while to open these I'm share it onto the the screen are we going to start from the top or we going to genda I'm ski the early ones until we have a quorum I'm hoping we still get our Quorum but I can't we can't vote on yeah on any of those till we had five people so that's why I skipped ahead to some that are just updates and while I while this is opening I'll update you on the other thing I did present my proposal for lowering speed L adding crosswalks and the Town Center presented at the select board and you know hoping that you know it was positively received but what I was hoping is they would say yeah let's get this into the next town meeting is so War an artical which I'm just judging I didn't directly push them to to say that they would or not uh okay well I'll finish on that so since they left it kind of up in the air what I've decided to do and I talked to Nicole Parker the CEO about it and what I know that I have the ability to do I can put it in as a citizen warant article through petition and you have to tra the article yourself who would tra yeah I'll I've already drafted an article simple article that we don't have to design the crosswalk they somewhat got hung up on you know the design of the crosswalk they started talking about well it has to be this and that and you can't just have a crosswalk that's paint because one of them one of the parts of it if you remember I said it could be as simple as just a painted crosswalk and I said no it can't be in you've got to you know get all these designs and and you know showed up at Tanner Road a week later a painted crosswalk a painted crosswalk with nothing but paint anyway and it's across College Highway just before Tanner Road so it's the same kind of thing I think it could be so je has just joined oh Gan has joined so now we have a quum well I'll finish this sign question uh this is I'm following after this thing the sign that was at Adams it be it would be like this Adams they say explor is welcome then I even did a very rough concept just a cut and Pace concept where it could look like this enjoy Southwick Bike and Hike golf you know boat shop wine and dime scan here for whole directory so something that that would give kind of a branding of the town that would be eye-catching that people could in seconds really get to all the places that the other the other locations and go to our directory it build I want to build more and more traffic to our directory and to our website we're up to about 950 unique users now so we're approaching a thousand is that basically the sign that you got the quotes on yeah the the general dimension of that that and that's about i' 18 in by 2 feet high which is it doesn't have to be huge it's just got to be eye catching you know eye level and in places where you can walk up and and get it so I'm getting quotes on that quotes on the design because I want it professionally designed then I'm also getting quotes on on the Southwick destination map that we talked about where we would put those out at places where they put brochures out and that would be paid for by the businesses who were included in it that would be a Cooperative thing this signage we would we would do I think out of our gift account if we get that approved y uh because it's it's really pointing everyone whereas the printed pieces would feature ones who participated and it would be a nominal charge think in maybe like $95 a business if we got you know 30 businesses in there it would be enough to specify printing 15 20,000 maps and and there are brochure distribution companies we could easily move 15 to 20,000 Maps the idea is to get it out to those in day trip distance we don't have you know overnight lodging unless they're in Camp so we would we would Target mostly people coming for a day triay an hour radius so you can unshare that okay hello do we have hello Jean hi there can you hear me yes I hear you so now we can go back to the beginning of our agenda and we'll start by voting to approve our minutes from the last meeting I got no revisions from anybody after I sent it out and and the process is you know within a few days after our meeting I'll I'll send out the the minutes it's designed to not only be the official minutes but also kind of to summarize the meeting in a way that gets people working between meetings here's what everybody agreed to do and and what they're going to have ready before the next meeting so to me it's an important working document that helps everybody know what's expected and what they talked about and agreed to so since we have all seen the minutes and and nobody gave a comment let's go ahead and have a motion to motion to approve okay second okay let all in favor of approving the minute say I I I okay unanimously approved so we can get those posted in a timely manner we're we're caught up at this point and hope to stay caught up um then the next item is we have an open Vice chair position and I know we're missing a three missing a couple people anyway we're missing well prob missing too many to act on that I think yeah good about that one okay yeah we're missing Serena Jack wouldn't be in in the running because he's he's already got off off position but with Mark okay we'll put that off more meeting but would like again the idea of that is I want people to express their willingness number one to be in the position then briefly you know tell what their experience and their their uh goals would be for for doing it and I think one of the legitimate goals is to be a training ground for taking a chair position again I my intention is to be chair for a year I don't like having permanent positions I I like having things move get mixed up I like having goals that we complete and then move on to other things and and um keep it all active not just have this kind of static committee that just sits and talks about things and it should all be about getting things done and that said I I would like to go ahead even though we're missing a couple people to at least start to fill out and people maybe we don't finalize the the list of people assigned each goal first thing I'll ask and nobody gave me any additional goals and I asked you know after the when I posted this list I said please let me know if you have any additions to the Solis of goals and the idea of a goal is something that's very specific and can can be reasonably accomplished by the end of the fiscal year which is June 30th at this point only eight months so that's and I I put out a list of of goals so I guess what I'll start with and they're printed at the end of the agenda does anybody have a change to any of these goals would anybody like to modify any of the goals that are on here Craig this does include the idea of to launch you know at the bottom here launch your proposed Southwick and Bloom that's one of them okay if there no revisions does anybody have any additions to this list of goals I I was at what's called a porch Fest recently I don't know how it would really help the business environment here in town I think the concept is something that's worth discussing it was a lot of fun and I brought a pile of people to the town was happen to be on vacation in Florida and essentially what it is is bands from around or just musical performers set up on somebody's porch and they play music for an hour and then another porch the other side of town has a band that plays on their porch for an hour then another band on the other side of town plays porch and people run around in cars or golf courts or bicycles whatever they go from house to house and listen to music on a porch and then they all converg on a restaurant outdoor restaurant bar area and had a good old time and drank a bunch of beer and ate a bunch of food and it was a big party I had a blast I thought it was great and it brought a pile of people to town whether or not we could do something here in South like I don't know I just figured I'd throw it out there as something to talk about maybe we could do it from restaurant to restaurant instead of people's porch to people's porch or something like that yeah I I think those kind of community events are are great and I I don't know Supreme would me bring it up but she was telling me that a just talking she came to one of the hikes that my hiking Club did we did one at the Grandville Gorge and and Beyond and she was telling me her idea was to have kind of a topas uh a that toas or you know Spanish type thing where you'd have you know kind of or deres or small appetizer type things served at different restur restaurants that would be rotated so people would go to multiple restaurant same idea instead of using music use a menu item yeah or combine them music and food is good combination so I think that's a great idea do do you want to develop it as a yeah I'll explore it because I know they do something similar in East Hampton so I could go to talk to somebody in New Hampton and get a feel for what and we don't have to finalize list of goals this is a starting list we can add to this at any meeting we can add a new goal yeah kind of with some more meat to it I guess okay yeah welcome those kind of ideas especially from people who are willing to take the lead on them which brings me to the the next issue that I want to do with these goals is I want to have two or three people assigned to each of the goals as maybe not a formal subcommittee but as people designated to take leadership on those and help drive them forward get them done and you know there's two or three people it's fine doesn't violate open meeting laws for them to meet and discuss it and and develop the idea further bring those ideas back to the the larger group for a vote so has anybody thought about which goals they would like to I'd be happy to be the guy that arranges meetings with business owners to get their input it's what I do all the time anyway it's my job excellent more than happy to do that okay I'll put and which one that's number six yeah I should have numbered these sorry um and so I'm gonna put names down here as we go through and Jack and I are kind of working on the first two website related things okay put both of you on on those and I will we'll talk about that later I appreciate that you're now got access to the admin and you're able to actually start building it on your own that's great I'd be happy to work with you I'd assume on the sign initiative yeah I will definitely be working on the sign ini issue so I appreciate your your help on that hey Greg yes assist on that sign issue also on establishing signs permanent signs yes right you said a two and three yeah the this would be the um design produce and install durable sence promoting South recreational assets or the recreational assets okay let me back off with that well yeah no we can go that route yeah these are the ones that that would go on the kiosk or in the kiosk or also have you know some durable paper versions that would be appropriate for hanging in restaurants and other public places okay because it would only help the restaurant for people to get hooked into the website um and then how about this destination map and anybody else I'm going to be on that for sure anybody else I can work on that for sure and that would be appropriate for you because that will involve meeting with the business people in fact I'd probably kick it off by pulling together we have the email addresses of of most of the restaurants okay and and several other appropriate businesses and the businesses that would go in this map would be things of interest to guests or visitors right so it'd be restaurants you know could be some of the unique retail outlets that you know so can you share that database with me absolutely okay I in a sense you can see it yourself on on our directory is it complete the directory has 170 businesses okay and that has ownership names and that kind of stuff on there though because that's what I would really I need I don't make the email addresses public but you can see yeah you can see their address their phone their you know descrip starting point you can start developing the target list and you can filter them by category you can get an alphabetical list of all the restaurants and just go into the directory and pull them all out and see the retail of each of them and of the retail stores and of you know Farm stands would be another appropriate thing for for the destination map or or any farm that is selling products direct to the public or is open to the public in any way things that are special interest to town plus I would try to get things like a and I I talked about this with historic commission I wanted to get historical sites that would be of interest one thing I suggested to them is maybe we should have kind of a walking map of of our downtown historical buildings something written up about the ones that are that are older and and just I know that we're not a we didn't preserve a lot of our stuff unfortunately but uh we still have a few old buildings and old houses that might be of interest yeah I think Kirk has a power point that he's going to try to find okay um we would just try to build visitor interest in in that so yeah so I'm thinking obviously for sure I'll you know be involved in the last one there but I'm also mildly interested in the one above it but I don't want to commit to that yeah I want to explore a little bit more um because I I got some of the things I'm thinking about as well as far as adding list here so I don't want to okay so you're you're on Southwick and Bloom for sure and if I will be on the board I would love to do that as well okay you're on and I'm we'll make sure you I will push hard that you're on the board by next next meeting by this next meeting all the way to as far as timing goes on that though Diane's you know still recovering I think I think December is probably the earlier she'll be able to really yeah of course and it's the and we just brought it up here so we're we're prepared when it gets you know the real heavy work will be in in early next year right but we wanted to start talking about absolutely but I'm thinking um just to let you know I'm thinking uh something in terms which would dtail with this boom um what our relationship looks like with the local farm so that's that's I haven't developed that yet okay so that that's why I have not added to this or suggested what I'm thinking yet so I'm gonna which which is fine but we'll have you you down you and and Julie and again we'll we'll revisit this next week when we have the full group but at least we're starting to get uh people assigned on but the one just above it um is that have to do with the presentation we had from the library right and maybe maybe we should have Jean talk about I I assume Jean you're you're going to be on the partnership with the public library Yes actually I was looking for some Support also on that expanded a little bit so yeah Craig your help or anybody's assistance on that yeah I put you down on on that tempor and see what happen with local Farm concept and then on the enhancements to the town center I was starting to talk about how what I my plan for that after the presentation to the select board since they didn't they they're kind of dragging their feet I want to put it before a town meeting and it looks like we are going to have a special town meeting probably in December maybe as late as early January because the uh historical commission has proposed the purchase of a property next to to I don't know how many acres is it they've got it it's right where their their museum is the property to that the one down in south end of yeah right that was part of that early farm and it was a site that at one point I think was under consideration for marijuana cultivation but is out of the running now and it was valued really high and then that value dropped way low after it wasn't considered for that so they think it's a good value now to to get it for preservation maybe some trails and associated a historical area there so they want to present that in a town meeting but can't wait till May it has to be I think their their offer is only good into January mid January so they're they're going to have a special town meeting would have to be probably in December I think it's probably too late to get it into November um and I told our CAO Nico Nicole that if the select board wasn't going to put this in as an article I would do it as a citizen War an article for a regular town meeting I would just need 10 Mission signatures for a special town meeting according to state law requires 100 signatures but I think I could easily do that with help Eng already told me she would help and Bert and agriculture told me he would he would help and you know anybody individually it's you know it's not an official thing of the economic development commission unless we could do that but I know state law allows for a citizen to propose War article so I'm going to do it if if the select board won't because I think it'll get overwhelmingly voted in it then it the way I'll write it is we understand it has to be approved by the highway division of Department of Transportation of the state but we want to give them our opinion on it and there is uh specific laws in place that says a city council or legislative body of a town which is the town meeting can vote to assign a 245 M hour business district that's a law so I think we can vote on it now they still have to approve it because another law says if it's a state Highway it needs to be also approved by the state highway department so but I can't imagine that they would not approve it if the town overwhelm wanted it it's Town Council advised against it because Town Council would be there if it was um special town meeting he always there I don't know why he would I'm just saying that would be one way that that they could vote not to do it the town I don't I think I don't think the Town Council can stop the town from voting though if you have a word Artic yeah but he can he can voice an opinion saying it's not legal it's not going to fly I don't I don't know because I know he did do that that what was I can't remember what the last meeting was he stepped up and said we you can vote for it but it's not going to make it past the state and that's what he voice and we understand in this case that it also requires approval of state highway but as I've argued Westfield did it in in Westfield yeah just last month Worcester did it yeah Citywide Boston and Springfield I'm not arguing the merits of the the initiative I'm just saying that the Town Council would have the opportunity to stand up oh they can weigh in on it they can give an opinion they can't I want to get the vote right I want to know what because I have yet to find in two years talking about I've yet to find a single person who was against it when it was explained I've actually had quite a few um approach Pur me against it so I I almost wish we could C some time that that saw the meeting or saw the newspaper article I think heard the meeting yes so I'm just wonder if there's not a way that we could as a group have a conversation about this before um it's you know before we're in front of oh we yeah we we definitely could I think we will have another meeting before you know by next meeting we'll know whether it's going to go in front of and there's always an opportunity to have people speak poor and against it so I'm just I'm just thinking you've written it up I haven't seen what you wrote up and so I'm trying to defend something that I haven't seen so oh well uh I'll send it out again as I I try to address the arguments and the biggest argument I can see is it just will slow everything down and I've done tests it only adds 14 seconds to the average trip from here to tra Supply because you got to slow down anyway for people turning for traffic lights for all of that um but you know what I'm saying it's just if we could all maybe sit and look at it and just have a few comments you know together I mean I don't know we can endorse something as a committee that's the other well we already did we took the question that got to me is you really can't do that I oh that's not true well so that's why we need to talk about it and we can't we can't enforce it but we can we can present an opinion as a commission we can't implement it on our opinion of course but we can we can say we think this and the reason I think it's a for economic development because it is good for business and one thing I would you know talk about getting signatures on a petition I would go up and down to all the businesses in the town center and ask them for signatures and it' be great if you could say that you know a large number of the businesses sign the petition because they know it there are people that avoid shopping in downtown because it's too hard to turn back out on the highway when it's busy you know especially if that make a left turn slowing it down will make it easier to turn out when people are instead of coming you know you have 35 M hour people goow 45 it's scary to left turn yeah I just think if we could do you know put some time aside doesn't have to be a lot but yeah well we'll put it on the agenda for the next meeting because I'm pretty sure by the next meeting we'll know and know whether we've got the warrant article in but I'm I'm determined to put the Warren article in because I think I think yeah you're going to get some people vote Yes so I'm just saying for me to talk to so many people and not even get one person negative I think we're going to get a majority and that's what we need yeah I just we just need to be educated when you know when we give you I'll give you the whole argument I went into the number presentation was pretty spoton last time his presentation was pretty done a bunch of research on I did all the pros and cons and the only con I could come up with was it might take you 14 seconds longer to get through town but maybe not in a time where it's really busy it may not take any longer because you got to slow down anyway you're just speeding up to slow down it's it's unsafe and 40% of our car crashes occur on that mile and a half of road which out of 90 M Road in town it's only 2% of the road and 40% of the crashes and it's that compelling that's a very compelling argument you know that many miles 2% you know equates to 40% that that's in itself is compelling to to reduce the speed yeah and especially when I I talk to my neighbors who I say they're older I'm pretty old but you know she says H I hate going through downtown I don't feel safe driving through there people go so fast in that Middle Lane and it's hard to squeeze over in there'll squiz Val you and you know one business person in town isn't who moved out but just said she was scared to death of PE people she had a business near the top of the hill scared to death the way people came flying over that Hill can we make an action item for next meeting to go over the proposal again and prepare for maybe if there were to be a town meeting and and they usually publish these article War articles in advance too is that all you need to do yeah is everything fine nothing has switched no problem okay because it's on my account and I wasn't sure no no problem Julie is running two meetings at once you had to run up to you know CPC because they were I guess Sabrina is out and she usually takes that okay well so we're skipping around a little bit on on the agenda as well on as on these goals uh let's see if there's any more more that I the program to increase awareness of AC Town businesses Mark kind of took the lead on that so think about whether who would want to join with that one thing I I'll bring up in that relationship I just got a an email today from this guy here he is from Sean o from a company called Community Development and planning as I mentioned before he they are not a part of the government but they work very closely with the government and with grants and with all that type of thing they're they're kind of Consultants on development of of it it sounds like the way they explain it is development of kind of industrial parks and or business clusters they're doing a lot of work right now with Northfield so it's an example of a another small town where they're doing work with it and I'm wondering if maybe the the best St and I I hesitated to bring him in before we were prepared to talk about it but maybe I'll ask him if he just wants to come dur our next know us what they do explain to face he could do in virt right right he could zoom in uh I think that's what I'll propose to them and they can talk about what they're doing with Northfield as an example I know that he's going to ask us questions like well how many open spots are there in your industrial parks and you know what are the types of businesses you'd run in there and I'd say well haven't worked out all those details but we want you to talk about Northfield as an example and maybe other examples that we be relevant to Our Kind of Town yeah love to hear what he has to say okay I I'll respond to him me just emailed me this morning so I'll respond and and give him the date of her next meeting and ask him if he he's welcome to visit in person or to zoom in on it okay you know I do have one more that um we should probably hang it on out there and see where it should go but you and I have had the conversation about the transparency in this town with respect to equal and fair treatment as a release of taxes and property taxes and so forth I think it's very important that a business coming into this town that we can reasonbly represent that that is the case or will be the case um so I don't know how yeah that the challenge is how to how to address that because we you'd have to think of it in terms of something that fits into our our Authority our our mission is a you know certainly we want to advocate for for businesses and we have we did do an initial meeting uh Mark and Jean and I met with the U assessment board and U well maybe we had more questions than answers yeah maybe it's you know a matter of oversight and more transparency and accountability and all I mean how maybe just like we're giving a recommendation for the speed limit maybe we have to work on something like that okay let's FL that out a little bit more before we discuss it then okay in an open meeting you know maybe you and I or email me with some more thoughts and and we'll come up with something that we could discuss and if you excuse me sure if something just end the meeting okay just end the meeting if I'm not gonna come back I don't know what yeah yeah I don't know how long you guys are still rning to uh K 647 I'm trying to make this shorter than the average meeting but we'll see but yeah if I I can end it no problem right here all right thank you so much sorry no problem asking you to do a lot yeah I'll put that down as a possible goal that we can add to here I mean we're trying to create a safe place that's that's that's one of those things where that's so what's your your misgivings about it would is there you feel that people aren't being treated fairly inequity from a property stand property tax stand it's not a feeling really yeah okay yeah yeah was just a feeling I what you bring about how is it even possible because objective but I wouldn't think it is subjective at all especially we were no oversight interesting yeah I that's something we'll come up with that approach but that we can then bring to the open meeting in a way that we can talk about it as a group okay okay um so we referenced most of these I'll put Mark in initially on this vacant property we'll get uh sky from the west mass development for hopefully in our next meeting so that we're approaching uh I'll comment on we have this in in our agenda elsewhere but comment on the goal to implement a new business review process and I sent our initial draft out to everyone and what I'd like to do on that initially is to get the approval by vote for our subcommittee of G Mark and I to go ahead and present we we'll clean up the draft we'll talk about if anybody has any revisions they'd like to see in what I sent out and not talking about we'll we'll do a final review and and I have some suggestions but if anybody has some broad criticisms of it or things that they think that are missing in that process I have real misgivings with the whole process okay um I think it's far too subjective I don't think it's Town government's responsibility job or position to be picking winners and choosers in the marketplace if think it'ss up to the market not government and I think because it's so subjective that it potentially opens us up to a lawsuit which is the real concern okay and yeah since Mark isn't here I think we will need the we won't be able to go into that in detail especially without the the larger group I I understand what you're saying and Our intention is to try to make it as objective as possible I know and I see where you to do that I I put in and and the revisions I would try to make would be to add more data backing up every Point uh in there um so that that it's it's not objective it's not not subjective that is is more objective what we're trying to get at that and this was a you know criticism I had as an outsider looking in when the carvana thing came through is that groups like the economic develop were silent on it so you know as an outsider we just assumed they were all in favor of it and maybe they were the ones that recruited and they're trying to make it go I think it's important for different groups I know the Agri cultural commission spoke up was not being in favor of it uh I think we have we're in a position where we should be able to speak objectively and it shouldn't be just you know personal opinion and feeling and whatever it should be objected as much as possible Right but like the very first sentence in the draft talked about controversial businesses coming to town that term on its own is subjective just the word controversial means that there's people on both sides that have an opinion about it that's a subjective standard can't use a subjective standard in entity yeah and there's another way what I meant by that was that there was significant opposition that's what I meant by contal as opposed to you know you get a a new restaurant coming in and they're filling a an appropriate spot nobody's there's no need to do an elaborate evaluation of it it's not but all right I don't I don't want to be argumented but I'm gonna point something out you said um there's no need if there's a restaurant so someone needs to make a subjective determination of when there's a need and that's that's a line that we shouldn't be Crossing as a as a public entity well the the the objective thing is whether there's a lot of people if there's significant opposition and maybe we could quantify what we mean by significant opposition well I think what it really means is does the business fit the zoning standards for the application if it does or it doesn't very objective there's nothing subjective about that at all people can be be opposed to it somebody could be opposed to putting a barber shop across the street they can be opposed to anything that's not an objective standard that can be used but don't we in a backhanded sort of way even uh with the finding commission we pick when there's a mo not supposed to be supposed to be you're generating a set of laws that are applied to everybody but shouldn't we shouldn't we strive to be objective no I'm not saying we should but isn't that my question is does that not happen now I don't I don't think that's necessarily true really I think they they draw up a set of plans zoning regulations and they apply them as equ to everybody understanding of the case study that that we did is that something that the planning board deemed to to be something that they could chime in on that it required a certain special approval based on the the kind of Zing the zoner right that that they had to because of whether it was a some kind of restricted business district so they had some saying that right you know you could argue whether they're they had sufficient reason and that's where they came back to question it but uh if it's something like that that that is open to decisions like that I would like to be able to weigh into the planning board and say here's our opinion of whether we think it fits because ultimately they came down on the idea that it was not appropriate for that location right basically what we were writing was agreeing that it was not something that fit with our master plan it was not something that was going to be a big economic Boon for us it was not something that that uh would enhance the the economic growth of the Town suppose a business wants to come to town they go to the planning board only board and they make their proposal and we as a board use the template and determine this company is somebody that we don't want in town for whatever reason this whatever criteria were use if the planning board decides to deny that permit for a legitimate reason doesn't fit the zoning yet through public meeting and information yeah they find out that we as a board as a commission recommended against it for a list of subjest subject criteria that's on the template that exposes the town to a lawsuit okay and and that's could be something that that you know as we go as we present our process it would be shot down for that reason yeah and and yeah that that's a risk but I I would say my I don't want to too quickly give up on on this because too often you know for fear of that type of thing you become so timid that that you don't you're unable to be affected at anything I think being afraid of a lawsuit is reasonable I think that we initially said wouldn't it be nice if we could look at what the town has or what it needs you know whether it be um you a medical emergency facility or right you know a few doctors or something like that and go out and search which we used to do in the past that's how the is seeing up here that's how oh I can't remember the place up in Westfield um U where sign shop is right now what do that used to be for the cation there Franks that was brought in from Davis in Michigan you know so the I know the history behind all this stuff there was a we actually C call these people I think that's great because we're in the economic development commission we want to bring businesses in town I don't think it's appropriate for us to be in a position to say no we don't want you to come no I'm just I'm letting you that's some historical background so this kind of came out of that as far as led by this carvana deal and all and by the way being on the committee when that carvana thing happened we as a committee knew nothing about it now I think our only thing is it seems like we should know something about things instead of businesses just being courted by whomever um and maybe we don't have the right to know but it seems like as part of EDC we should be engaged otherwise we're just here for throwing parties and making signs and stuff like that so I I think we want to feel relevant and however that can be we've been invited by the planning board to do something along these lines whether they not this this is the correct way of doing it I don't know but they want us to be engaged so I think we need to shake that out and find out what it needs to look like that's all yeah I Echo that that our opinion is valuable I think we should focus that have the mindset that our opinion is valuable but I also see a lot of liability as you stated right and I I would I don't know all the the legal I would tend to think we're somewhat you know arms Link in that we don't don't have any powered action they could happen we're purely advisory right and I would would we couldn't be a su ass Sue just for you know giving advice no but look at the the example I used where the planning board can deny the application for a legitimate reason but the applicant could look at open meeting minutes and what I say well that's  the sorry public meeting um the EDC advised against granting the permit for whatever their reasons were and I think it's just a liability that we shouldn't be taken I think there's something similar going on currently there could be sure okay well they they I mean they're coming back um after the planning board turned down coming back claiming that the reasons were not legitimate uh Dollar General oh okay example right there I guess yes uh listening to this and thinking about some of the comments that I made and submitted on H economic impact and benefits and that sort uh was the traffic impact okay and I made some references that came out of the urban Institute uh of University of North Carolina uh I'm going to have to do some research but I would suggest or one of the things that need to do at that point is go in do the research and then put in footnotes to back up that information okay so data proven data has shown that this is the type of impact that we're going to see here's an equivalency and whatnot and you know and what kind of impact would it have at that point so make references to known statistical data or known referen you know would help minimize would say well that's you know you know it's not uh personal preferences or anything of that nature this is the data okay right and I was suggest that we add add some more actual uh attachments and footnotes whatever citing specifics and the other thing is that we wouldn't necessarily be giving an opinion at the end of it these are the the how we would score this business is based on these things but not not necessarily say therefore we recommend we turn them down um we would just say we're just being a research service right and may we would be careful not to to put anything in that says opinion obviously when you score something it's going going to be subjective qualities to it but we're trying to make categories and get as much backing so that it's not just pure opinion it's actually Based on data and information so I think that's a valuable valuable function the planning board the select board they don't have time to to do some of the the research and they should have it's just and that's how I guess we should be careful to present it what we'd be giving to the planning board is just data and research not opinion we try to say this is not a recommendation this is just right data and research and how we think it fits with those three areas with our master plan does it you know move that forward or not you know does it move our town economically forward I'd be willing to you know taking a look at it if some substantial changes are made relative to the subjective criteria okay but very good comments I that that helps us be a lot more careful in what we put it in because what I think I'm going to suggest is that we take that one and for Mark and Jean and I because I just they gave me their pieces I put them I just attached them to mine and put it into an overall format but we haven't done any editing really of that and I think the three of us need to get together one more time and with these comments in mind really go through and try to make it just pure data and research yeah rather than a recommendation very difficult task for sure yeah but worthwhile I think these are important things and I I disagree with one thing you said that you know yeah we are supposed to be bringing in businesses but we also don't want to we want to be cautious about bringing the wrong kind that's sub we go out and recruit businesses we shouldn't be indiscriminate we we should not bring in things that are not appropriate to the infrastructure we shouldn't bring in a you know a logistics company it's just not the place for it we don't have the the roads and the and the transportation connections that would be appropriate to certain types of businesses we should be clear about those things I would recommend in your criteria the current scale is -22 the find exactly what a two is what a one zero exactly is and and I tried to do that on each page yeah um the formatting didn't come over really clear either had a tough time reading some of the on the case study one the idea was you know you would have a strongly positive impact is plus two moderately positive plus one neutral zero moderately negative impact minus one strongly my moderately positive and your moderately positive are different I would guess as well as anybody else's so like if possible like a strict figure it will create x amount of jobs or whatever well that would be I that would be my recommendation for creating a more solid rubric on so to try to get objective goals at to get two or one or whatever well I we could abandon we could abandon the scoring Al together and just do is do an analysis without scoring I think that's probably a better idea but that may be what what bothered you is that that comes across is an opinion when there score there's always certain sub to it so we could we could uh we could just give the pros and cons maybe that's a better approach for something like does the applicant meet the criteria expressed in master plan section yada yada yada either yes or no does the applicant whatever yes or no as opposed to a subjective sliding scale it's a suggestion I it's even workable yeah I mean that the yes or no is still can be certain subjective it's like does this does I suppose our master plan calls for uh a walkable livable downtown area which is you know all of the master plan in some ways are subjec and the argument is you know this the Dollar General proposal you know is outside of our town center and it just pulls business away it competes with a lot of other businesses that are there um and so it it actually you know deconcentrate her town center and disperses it and and spreads it out into you know an area that should be shouldn't have large businesses necessarily we don't want to see the whole so why not change the zoning so that you can't something like I agree and one of the other goals I was thinking about putting on here is to develop and I I see what you think about this for the EDC to develop recommendations on where zoning should be changed that it's a great idea okay good yeah I think that's a great idea okay let's make that a We'll add that to the goal develop revised you know recommendations for revised zonings yeah that I think Falls right within our prview yeah so who wants to be on that well being uh the liaison between EDC and planning I guess that falls right in my lap but I'm going to that's okay that's a all order I mean it's well it's a recommendation and and zonings can be changed anybody can initiate a you know a request for zone change it's not even limited limited private citizens can do that uh and I think that you know that's the best legal protection absolutely that we should have is if we don't think that that's an appropriate place for certain kind of business write the zoning laws absolutely eliminate them up front y absolutely I had that discussion with with Mark and he was concerned about the the decision to turn down Dollar General so well you I'm in favor but I think you know the better way to approach it is to try to preempt it with with z changes I me to get going so I have one question since we have a form right now if I leave and you're not able to close the meeting you guys going to still be here next week I get here yeah we'll we'll just have a continuous meeting let me see if there are any other I don't think we have any other we we minutes we we delayed the uh Vice chair position um South we and Bloom yeah we talked about that I didn't catch that from there okay so I mean our goal discussion a couple of these things I was hoping to get an opinion on are going to we pushed off because we didn't we're missing some people but this was a initial I'm glad you were here for we'll follow I don't think there's anything else vote discussing vote on list of goals go to vote on the goals that we've got already right yeah we could but and I think we made good progress on them but I think it'll be a more meaningful vote when we finalize the assignments of everybody and we have you know Mark and and Jack and seren get on on the goals so I don't I don't see anything we're gonna lose by putting that off yeah when we're meeting we we're starting to to get these goals in better shape we had a good discussion that we'll start putting that into into shape so we made progress on it and I think if if we can all think about it I'll put out what we talked about the additions and the initial assignments and then we'll pick it up uh the next time sorry okay need a motion go or um we could I want to continue through the other items but I just want to make sure there was nothing else we needed to quum to vote on so we I don't we need to vote vote whether we let PR leave I think you can uh are we good yes we're good good with you we're going to continue uh with just general discussion with the group good good night all okay night good night night see you okay that we'll wrap up there on the discussion of goals we'll we'll note the ones that are are going to be assigned and and the addition of the zoning as a goal um and our qualifications is we're going to you know hold off on the business evaluation until the three of us can I just had a thought yeah who's taking notes for the meeting minutes I'm I'm reced okay I I you know when I I thought about minutes when I started to chair the meeting and I decided that I wanted to do them okay because I want to use them as a way to give out assignment to confirm the assignments I wanted to put some thought in I wanted to get it done Y in in the new format where you see I've I've done items discussed things voted on and uh then assignments given at the end those are important so I like to you know get the transcript after the meeting think about it and and do a thoughtful presentation of the minutes that are actually help make us have better progress between meetings so that's not a problem Julie got everything set up and and got us started well so that's perfect that was it was good um so I just want to touch on the other ones it won't take we're not going to go as late as we generally have been uh so we went to the list of goals we talked about what people initially could take leadership on the goals um which I think once we we have this list in place we probably will have somebody who will take the prime leadership of the group of the assignment yeah of the assignment so they can it's always good to have a point person as well as a team on each of them um Jack isn't here so we can't talk about his website content but unless oh just briefly yeah Jack reviewed our website and kind of compared it to a couple other websit surrounding communities um biggest finding was that um there's quite a few redundancies in our website um I think on our resources page we had about 12 or so links and they all Resort back to about four State uh State websites so our kind of goal here that I Envision is that um if we're going to invest in signage that brings us to a landing page uh we should have a very good idea of people that are going to use our website and I kind of see that in three different pools as consumers uh we already have a main kind of project focused on consumers that's a shop Southwick portal yeah um I think another one would be people that are trying to bring their business to Southwick one initiative that I would like to spearhead is a um like a business kit a new business kit um and it's kind of came from the idea that if someone were to ask me all right I want to bring my business to Southwick how do I do it I couldn't answer them completely on go see this person that person have this document so I'd like to make a one to two page sheet on first you do this they recommend having this and this ready for them and then you go on to this as someone that want to bring their businesses out um and then third um I believe that we should have something on there for existing businesses I just don't know exactly how we would cater to that kind of person that would be our website so looking for input on people that have businesses recommendations on what would help them in starting their business and then existing businesses as so those are the three kind of areas I want to focus on providing resources on our website yeah and that it's I totally agree you always should think of audience when you're thinking of a website who are you writing to and you most of the work I've put in so far is for the the average resident audience with our business directory and we're going to expand that with our signage and destinations and recreational assets you we're going to put on there too um but the ones targeted to you say existing businesses and potential new businesses coming in I I know that one of the things they have to do is get a certificate a business certificate through the clerk's office so one place start is talk to our town clerk to see what what requirements are yeah found Clerk and then um like licensing commission stuff like that and incorporate our you know if they wanted to create a business plan stuff like that we already have state things on there so it's just uh trying to put them together where it's chronologically makes sense for somebody creting a business um also drafted kind of a a little bit of a redesign for the website getting key kind of quick button issues like um I have like history like GIS map then uh like all our forms and everything are on the town website so it's a quick link to that right right at the one click button right on the website um things like that are kind of my first kind of key items I to focus on right we should you know links we don't have to recreate anything that's already out there we just do a link yeah I mean all information's there I think we're just kind of assign post it just means to make chronological sense and I showed you I gave you I put your email into as a user of our Google analytics [Music] traffic which commission um CPC they're finished so I'm back okay yeah we pray God to go but we're so we we' got no more voting we don't have a quum anymore but we cover that we make progress on the goals um and now we're we're talking about the website and and go to town on putting together the templates that you have in mind just just do because they we can look at them when you think they're ready to review and and then just click publish because they're in draft form now I can see them yeah so I can look at it anybody else that wants access to the admin of the website just let me know it's easy to do um I think having broad access to everything might be a mistake there's too many cooks in the kitchen um not that I mean I want to do everything on it um but I think having a one Web Master that has and then proe uh presents it I think if if if you know what tabs you're working on I don't NE neily want you to go into the business directory and start changing things because I'm I'm directly managing that but I haven't done any work on any of these tabs you're working on so that's not a conflict I would just assume you total freedom there to you're just developing drafts nothing's permit but you click publish so I don't see a problem with that and I can I can look at it anytime because even when you have it in draft form I can see it yeah on the admin so I don't see a problem with that you know if we run into that we can restrict access but I I can't imagine that that's going to be an isue okay as long as everybody knows what tabs they're working on don't worry I'm not GNA go in there you don't want to do any direct work no I hir people for that stuff well and completely clu about what goes on behind the front door and I've given everybody an option that you know if they're not comfortable working directly on the website they're willing they they can still write up something in a Word document or a spreadsheet and say could you put this in the website we'll put it in one of us will put it in um and Gene that goes for you on the library materials um you know if you want access to the website I'll give that to you if you want to write up what you want to publish in a Word document or any other kind of document or paper document if you want right uh and I know you've been been sick but whatever you get to the point where you have something just get it to me email it to me whatever and I'll I'll put it in a draft of a web page and yeah we'll do so I'll Circle back with you on that as a matter of fact right so I'm I'm not pushing you hard on that yet and Mark isn't here to talk about the business vacancy piece of it um I've already talked about the quotes I'm getting for the the destination map and and that and I think we have the approval to we voted last time to bring that to the point of a more formal presentation and I hope to get quotes So by the next meeting I can have something put together as a fairly detailed proposal for those projects the map and the signage and then we can look at it and decide whether to to formally present that proposal to the select board um let's see so I think we covered everything under old business and under new business we talked a little bit about Southwick and Bloom which which Craig's gonna maybe we'll talk about that more next week he had some things he wanted to think about there um the one other item of new business that we don't have great we don't have anybody that was on the the board last year or the year before that went through that I wasn't involved in it in the past I think Ina said she had some ideas and she used to be the driver of that she did promotions with the restaurants in town for the special shop local day and November anybody that's here have any thoughts about doing a a shop local promotion seems like it's great something a good idea to do tie it into like a porch Fest or a tapis Fest or tie it all together into one shop local Day promotion but pull it all together comprehensive yeah I we do we have the the resources to do it for this November this next month absolutely no so planing ahead if you want to use it as a promotion for the portal for to say maybe just on not sure if we utilize social media or anything like that or whatever Avenue we have for promotion or Shel up with I and use this to drive traffic to the website but I don't think that would be smart to we kind of have the website up and going I mean the Portal's up and going so we could drive it yeah the portal I mean one thing I could see doing at some point with the portal is we have the ability on these directories to put photos put coupons to put promotions I can put them up and take them down uh how we would promote it whether where we you know that's the key to it's hard to promote something widely without spending money and we don't have a lot of surplus money to spend and my big biggest concern about doing shop local I don't want to do something like that unless we can do something that gives a measurable clearly measurable positive result because sometimes you do do things that you think would be great and when you measure them you find that that they didn't really move the needle and did our big signs at the the Motocross Nationals and it didn't move the needle at all it was wrong place yeah they put the wrong spot right probably the wrong kind of sign and it probably wasn't the best place to promote D local because they had food trucks all over the place that was maybe the biggest yeah reason there wasn't need a need for people to go off the spot there and it was probably hard to get around get the vehicles and trucks and whatever it just wasn't something that generated a lot of interest with the food trucks and stuff on site uh anyway that that's the idea with the shop local promotion I'd like to know that it actually made a difference that it boosted uh business that you know was a just a temporary one day if you push them to to give away a prize or spend money or give away a discount did it pay back did it boost enough traffic did it pay back the trouble and and difficulty and to Discount dollars and I've been my career was all in marketing everything had to have payb that we did I'm get budgeted next time yeah we everything was the bottom line sure spend and here for one thing we don't have a lot of money to spend and you know I don't know that it's our job to do advertising for our businesses I think it's our job to pull together co-ops that they couldn't do on their own that's where this map thing where it's a mutual thing and and the signage thing that's something they couldn't do on their own and that boosts businesses for the town in general but to do promotions for a specific day for specific set of businesses I don't think we can justify spending money on that so and I know in had a different opinion on or approach on that and did a lot of it just by getting out and getting on the street and talking to people and pulling together promotion but we've got so many other things going I don't know that any of us are able to you know on certain notice do that in a in the way that it should be done I don't want to do something halfway so I think that for this year we'll we're not in position to do that but it's something we can keep in mind how can we do it in a measurable significant way in the future I think we have agreement we can't take a a vote on it but yeah uh okay that does it for the the agenda we have any public comments oh I I just stopped by was up at the CPC meeting but uh I don't know Marcus Phelps 208 Depot Street I don't know did you talk earlier in the evening about the College Highway uh crosswalk yeah possibilities I had an opportunity to go up through Southampton not that long ago yes and they have several I mean it's College Highway just like here in southw and they have several crosswalks that they you know have been installed there so I think you were talking like two and they may have three or four that oh yeah yeah if you get a chance or you need to go to the DMV or RMV in in East Hampton oh yeah I I looked at I've had my eyes open for the last couple years in all the towns in western Mass and there's crosswalks everywhere and you know after the discussion with the select board which we talked about earlier a crosswalk appeared and I don't think it was related to our discussion but there's a painted crosswalk now across College Highway at Tractor Supply at the end of the sidewalk wow if you go out that end you'll see it it it when they painted repainted the lines they added that yeah and there it's just paint it's nothing there's no signs nothing else flashing or yeah no so I mean it shows that it wasn't a crazy idea that yeah p on a crosswalk but what what I talked about earlier that I'm going to do is if if the S board doesn't want to take it up and if we have a special town meeting in December I'm going to submit it as a citizen warrant article so we'll get a vote on it yeah it'll need to be approved by the state highway department I understand that but I just want to vote that does the town want to see the speed limits slower and do they want to see crosswalks at the same time the I I will not try to show the design of it I'll just say crosswalks that meet the required safety uh stacks and a design that needs when we did the master plan it didn't come up from a number of people but there were a couple comments about the hazard Crossing College Highway like down by the Village Green there Village no Village shopping center uh high school kids come from the high school they go up to the ice cream place there on the top of the hill and then they'll go down maybe go to Dollar Tree and you know that just a couple strategic places and you know it has to meet all the standards of visibility and all this but if you drop the speed limit down right they go to increase the time they have to see somebody in the cross right the lower speed limit helps make the crosswalk safer and the crosswalks help the speed to be slower because they now become another uh barrier so so to speak for on our otherwise open Drag Strip Town Center yeah y That's all I just wanted to stop by mentioned that Southampton which you know is about the same size as Southwick and is right on oh yeah there's a a lot of the Hill towns have have crosswalks and all of the Berkshire towns lenx Lee and Stockbridge all have painted crosswalks and on the on their not only state highways but the us20 M crosswalks across it and they don't generally have flashing lights they do have flexible signs on some of them that you know help signal it and and lower speed limits oh I think you're on the right track it'll help it'll help the businesses because people are afraid to turn into a business if they don't think they're going to you sit there and risk their life to turn back out on the highway the people ping by yeah okay that's my uh Four Cents for you night okay I guess we can't take a vote on adjournment because we lost our for but we will we will go ahead and journ and and stop the recording