Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

of the economic development committee to order. It is Thursday, November 20th and the time is 8:03. We'll do this by roll call vote. So when I say your name, please say I. Rich Gazardi. Gazardi present. I uh Lala. Megan Connor present and John Nean present

and Reap present. Um just note that uh we're we're missing Mark tonight but we still have a quorum so we're all set. So we'll get to work. Um first order of business are the minutes from October 16th? Is that right? Yep. Yeah. Wow. You're right, Megan. It was a long time ago. And that's right. You weren't even there, so it's been even longer for you. Okay.

All right. Um, does anybody have any anything that needs correction or The only thing I saw was um I I think at u the bottom it said tonight's meeting we had for 7:30, but I believe we already we always had it planned for 8. Did we? Okay. I never knew that. Yeah, we had the discussion of is was it eight too late to start and then everybody kind of said no, it works fine. I'll change it.

Thanks, John. And then the other thing that Rich, you didn't have in there or maybe you left it, I can't remember, was does anybody remember whether Michelle Ryan, our Fincom rep, was here last month? Because I when I I didn't recall her being there. Uh she was there the meeting before cuz we would have talked the other thing is we would have talked to her about she had expressed an interest in having her company participate in village for a day and I don't that didn't come up in this meeting.

Okay. All right. Yeah cuz we she's not mentioned here and I thought oh just wanted to make sure. So all right so um any other corrections revisions necessary? Okay. If not, I'll take a motion to accept the meeting minutes from October 16th as amended. So moved. Okay. Rich moved. John seconded. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, I'll do a roll call vote. Uh Rich is already. Lala, I Megan Connor I. John

Neand. and reap I. Okay, great. Moving on to the next item. What was the date on those minutes again? October 16th. 16th. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, let's get to tonight's agenda. Just looked over at the agenda and I'm like, whoa, this is intense. I was like, oh, that's the planning board agenda from Oh, please.

That Nope. Nope. This is very different. Um, yeah. So, let's see. Let's Because Ian is here, of course. Ian, thank you for jumping on. I know you've been at a ton of meetings this week. Um, just wanted to do our debrief debrief on village for a day. Um, so we actually let me just turn it over to you Ann to talk about the survey results and then we'll kind of go from there.

Yeah. So um I will start at the two surveys that we cast out to participants and to vendors. Vendors we had a pretty direct line um because of the coordination the communication we had already set up the vendor or sorry the participants uh we had a bit more digging to do. Obviously, we had the two tables. Um, luckily working in Boxboro, very tight-knit community. Um, Abby and and friends were able to ask around and get an even more extensive list of uh goers who who participated in the day. I think we sent out to about 40 or 50 people. Um, and we did reup and um reach back out to them with the survey again. And um we did only get 11 responses, but uh let me pull those up right here. All good feedback. And a lot of the some of the questions were reflected in the posters that we had. Let me share my screen here. How's that look? Good. Um so yeah I also put this in our Dropbox in a Google sheet form uh like this. So we had 11 responses. Um we asked how many places uh how many areas the vendors went to. Most of them did go to all of them if not two. I think the location did end up working out. Um yeah we don't have to go through all of these but all of it was really great feedback. I'd say the this one, these two questions asking about the safety and and whether it felt like a village were great and new feedback compared to what we got on the posters. And a lot of people did really appreciate the efforts that we had with the police uh the crosswalks um and some people even going so far as to recommend further traffic

measures uh stop lightss um especially dependent on the future that that this area may have going forward. We also had uh Alec had suggested we put in um more of a monetary how much money did you spend? Um, Abby, I haven't had a chance to read your update, but you I know that you had asked me if there was any, you know, monetary value we could assign to this. Um, I don't have it here, but the, uh, average we got was about $20 per person, um, per vendor response. Um, and then if we're saying, you know, these are of the 11 people that responded, but we did see about 100 to 150, then you can definitely assume um a really great economic uh turnout on that day. Um, hopefully of a couple hundred to maybe even a,000 or more dollars. Um, yeah, and then feedback is always welcome here. Uh I think that most of the feedback we got was from the participants was about the timing. Um more outdoor seating you can see and then um more infrastructure, walkable infrastructure um and hard infrastructure to to help with the traffic calming there. Um but I will briefly run through the the vendors as well. Um

yeah,

we asked how many they got and uh a lot of them reported back that they they got a decent amount obviously. Um a pretty big range here from from 10 or or I guess that that one's Mark who was who was at a different location. But uh we did I guess get pretty spot on with our estimate of around 150 people overall during the day. and um and everybody was saying that it was a success which was really great for us and asking them to come back a lot of or all of the vendors show the piraphph said that they did want to come back which is really good for our future planning of this um we've built those communication routes and and next time we do want to do those uh do this again those will be the first people we can reach out to. They had a lot of really great feedback as well. Um, again about the timing specifically um for businesses that were selling items. Uh, big thing was Wi-Fi or um wireless compatibility cuz I know down at Middle Sex even up by the church is pretty hard to do. Um,

and so yeah, it I'd say overall it was it was a really successful event. Obviously a lot of uh learning lessons that we learned from it. Um, I had in my notes, um, at the table that there was a lot of energy for a builtout village center. Um, and in talking with the people there, I also got some neighbor concerns of people who lived in the vicinity, walked there, they were just concerned about, you know, how the downtown might change, whether or not they were going to be able to stay. So trying to quell those and and um and talking about the the many steps that kind of come in that process and the the collaborative community outreach that we we try to do in any planning process. Um so yeah, I I think that uh with that being said, through our posters, um we definitely see a lot of energy in the in the town for uh for updated zoning for a village center. And um yeah, so that's all I'll have to say. I'll I'll turn it over to you cuz I I do want to have more of a discussion on this, but yeah, I have uh that's pretty much all I got.

That's great. Thank you, Ian. Um yeah, you were just super helpful that day. Um we definitely couldn't have pulled this off without you and and then also pulling all this information together for us. So really, thank you so much. Um, I just want to kind of ask each of you if you want to take a couple of minutes to talk about what your impressions were in terms of what was good, what do you think could have been better, uh, should we do it again? Um, and if so, you know, what kind of other ideas that you that you have? So, anybody

I'm happy to go. I think it was a great a great turnout. Um, I love seeing so many new faces. Even in this survey, I'm seeing a lot of uh families that I have seen around, but nice to see them responding and involved. So, I think it brings a a nice a core group of community people that want to see this happen. Um, the bees obviously were an issue, but you know me, I know we all talked about that, but uh you know, certainly maybe we consider some ideas for the spring. um outlets as Ian said and compatibility for for wireless would be helpful in the future. Um yeah, my friend who was kind of she was singing but she no one could really hear her cuz you know issues with outlets. So I think we just need to be more considerate about who we can have for for opportunities. Um, and I do think that having the nonprofits there were really helpful because it is part of the village and I think it really helped collaborate with them and potential business outreach as well. So, um, appreciated having them there too.

Yeah. Uh, what are your thoughts about should we start planning another one? I think yes. I I know I I think like with Winterfest, with recreation, they're doing a little bit similar, but we're more kind of business outreach. So maybe breaking that up, but having something in in the spring. I know like for example, they're looking at Kid and Kin for their food vendor again because it's easiest in town. So it's maybe some of the food vendors that worked well, we don't have to reinvent the wheel again with some of the health issues, right? So

yeah. Okay, great. Great. Um, anybody else want to give their impressions and ideas? I think I think we should definitely uh do it again. Um, I got I guess we can debate whether we do it in the spring or we, you know, try and anchor, you know, a fall consistent. Um, I don't have strong feeling either way. Uh, the only other feedback I got from a few people is they wish there was more food. Okay. Than what was available. Yeah. Okay. And then the the vendors I think were, you know, the whole wireless thing being able to, you know, get their Square set up to be able to take payment and stuff was a little challenging for them.

All right. Great. Excellent. Yeah, I'll jump in. I think you know it. First of all, Ian, I'm going to echo Aby's comments. I mean, thank you very much for I mean, you were there the whole time. you, you know, you set it up, you you know, and and even beforehand, like you you set I mean, you really led this thing and and I mean, no offense to, you know, Megan and Abby and LA, you know, everybody else on the board, but like honestly, this would not have happened without you doing that. So, thank you. Um,

and having you there during the day was was great reassurance. Um, you know, I guess I I I think we should do it again. um the you know and does it always look the same? I don't know. Um you know the the I wonder if some of the outlying areas I say outlying areas like I know I saw dawn finally in the afternoon out on the back end of um the the uh far corner I guess if you will of of you know Massav and and Stow Road. And I just, you know, she I think her feedback was it was great, but like it would be good to get like there was a lot of people kind of sprawled out there and Middle Sex Bank Plaza felt sparser from the outside maybe because there was more space there. Um it certainly was busy. I mean there were people coming through it. Um, so you know, I you know, I guess it it's I like it because it created the sense that there there was a village there there are businesses, there are nonprofits. Are they always there? Can you always find them? No. But does that start to create energy around those local businesses like, hey, I might like to be a part of this community, right? So it it can it can create that kind of energy. So I also agree the there should be more food and you mentioned it John somebody mentioned it like that one food truck probably cleaned up um in terms of the you know the I'll say the food I know LA you had commented it was a good day I'll let you sort of make your own comment but you know so I think there were a couple of places where there was definitely a robust business but yes having more food I still like the idea of having a beer garden somewhere I don't know how that integrates you know this was very much demonstrating walkability. So, we obviously have to work out some of the kinks on making sure that if there's a grandstand or a

place where somebody's going to be doing performances, there's plenty of AV or, you know, audio equipment so that people can hear and having, you know, maybe we need a hot spot for Wi-Fi. Maybe there's a, you know, placemaking lights. I saw somebody put, does this go into the evening where the beer garden comes in. Um, so I I definitely agree. I think it doesn't have to always look the same, but I, you know, we there's areas where we can grow from this. Great. Thanks, Rich. Lala, your thoughts.

So, from my business, like, you know, I couldn't go out and see anything. So, I have no idea what it was outside my job, right? But I can say like what happened for us. We just opened the door at 11:00 and until 2:30, we didn't have any break. And initially my thought was like okay it is going to be open house people will just come we'll talk about like you know about our business we will be giving samples that's what all was my idea but nothing worked out because everyone came for drinks

and weather was really good so like three people we were just keep doing drinks that's all what we did until 2:45 so and also we sold enough chocolates too so it was kind of like a you know even out I would say like in terms of how much um you know um the turnover was but it is like good to see so many new people at the same time same old customers keep coming back again and they said like when you know we have to come for this we know you will be open and we just came for just that so like there were like so many comments on that and again about the internet I think like it's very important that next time we should have otherwise it's going to be more difficult

and also someone mentioned to me that like there was not enough seating like near the food truck like there was no place like there was no enough garbage and cans were there like people actually came to Middle Sex Bank Plaza to put the garbage. So they said like you know when you have to walk we cannot just walk with the food right like you have to sit and eat somewhere. So they came and they used our chairs on that day. We were okay with it like but you know this is all the comments that they had it like it's very hard to hold the you know food and find a place to sit. Good point. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that.

Yeah. Like many were sitting inside our shop, some were sitting outside our shop. It was just one day, you know, we were just like let it go. But like for future, we should plan something to have. So it's very comfortable for people to come, right? Like yeah,

it um it might be worth looking. So, there is a mass uh Commonwealth Places grant program that we originally thought we'd go after, but we didn't really have the like the venue or the thing. But like this is exactly what that grant is intended for. And you like we could say, well, we need chairs. We need anorandic chairs. We need some tables. We need some lighting. And it's not huge money. It's like we need like, you know, $5,000 to go buy these things. It would be worth Ian making a note of that and seeing when does that because it's on a cycle with the onetop as I recall. So it'd be worth seeing like is there an opportunity maybe we need like a a data hub for internet like you know there's

anyway it's something I think worth exploring. Another option with seating is for Winterfest, we've always asked the DPW to borrow a lot of the picnic tables that are over at Flara or at Liberty and they put them in the truck and we borrow them and then they put them back. That tends to help a lot. I think that's a good idea that will village feel like, you know, it's not like too just Yeah, I feel that's a good idea.

Mhm. Yeah. I um I honestly I I think it was great. It was the first time we did it. Um, everybody that I know that was there gave very positive feedback. Um, one of the things that I realized really early on because I was at the Middle Sex Bank Plaza to start was that we could do a better job telling people where to park. They didn't know that they were to go to the back of the building to park and then walk around. So early on people were trying to park, you know, in front of Middle Sex Bank. So that just got a little dicey. We just kind of have to But I think those are really small detail details and and this is like what we're going to gain with experience like yeah, we need more places to sit and yeah, we need a Wi-Fi hotspot. Um, you know, Rich, I I like what you said that if we do it the next time, it doesn't have to look the same. we we can we can think about another way to um to to do a to set up a village. Um and again, it doesn't have to be the be the same. Um I think we should start, you know, kicking around some ideas uh pretty soon. My thought and I want to ask you guys also was or my question is was it a good idea to do it um on the same day as a freebie or should we if we do it the next time should we just have it be its own event and not try to piggyback on another event that's happening?

It was congested at town hall in at the beginning. Um, but was that just a short-term inconvenience or is that a real thing? I don't know. Um, and did it did it take people away from the village for a day because they were kind of done after freebie market or did it keep people around? Those are kind of the two questions in my mind. Right. Right. I guess I'm thinking now like now that we've done it once and we kind of have a a following, people are like they know what it is. Um

I think like I feel like they came after the uh freebie market just for village for the day is what my understanding from what we have seen from our side like we got more people from like what 12:30 to 1:30. Yeah. So I'm assuming it is not from the freebie market like rather people just came thinking like okay we have to see what is happening here.

Okay. Yeah. Um because if we did want to do this in the spring then you know freebie doesn't officially they don't open until mid May usually like last this year I think it was like May 15th or something. Um so I think we should just kind of think about it. I I think that we have some momentum. Um people are excited about it. um in the next month or so, you know, we'll know a little bit more about where the fire station is going. We can kind of start to think about um a more concrete concept for a for a village center. Um so I I do think we should try to not tonight, but pick a date in the spring and and I guess we just have to decide, do we want to do it with freebie? Should I reach out to the freebie folks to see whether, you know, what their thoughts were, like whether they'd rather not have us do it? Um, if we don't do it on a freebie date, then we'd have more space up there at the church because we could use that space in front of the community center as well as the lawn. So, it would be more expansive. That's a possibility. So, um, just, you know, something to think about. I think that's a good idea to ask ask those folks if that worked well. I know a lot of them or it was kind of tricky with setting up because we couldn't sell things because it was technically free and I don't know if that was logistical cause causing a lot of issues or not but or if it provided more people

but maybe ask them. I will I I'll reach out to to Mary and and Heather. Heather. Yeah. if you could put that in the minutes as an action item for me. That way I'll remember

that I have something to do. Um yeah, I just I really I am feeling like a spring if we could try to get this event twice a year. I know it's a lot of work, but um again, I think it it just helps us build build momentum for what we're we're really trying to do. So, and if we can't get it in the spring, we definitely don't want to do it in the summer. So, we'd have to wait till next fall and that wouldn't be awful either, but um yeah, let's let's uh see how it goes. When is run BXB? That um I'm not sure if they've set a date yet. I couldn't find out. Um

yeah, last year was end of April. Yeah. Yeah. If you kind of think about just spacing things out, right, you have the end of April, then the next public event is Memorial Day, then you've got Feifer's Day. Memorial Day is more of a morning thing, but like or or we could coincide with that because that again that might bring in different people and but I'm not sure where they're looking to have. Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's nice to think about like I maybe I'm too much of a thinking about it from a business perspective, but like what's our cal cadence calendar? When do things fall and everything kind of like nothing overlaps in a in a bad way? Everything kind of,

you know, works together and there's probably a sweet spot between run BXB and Fifer's Day that maybe works or maybe it is an offshoot of BXB. Maybe maybe this is a good thing to leverage an existing thing happening in town and then you you convert it to economics right that you know so yeah I'm supportive of doing another one it is a lot of work I mean but if I could be convinced that to keep momentum spring spring is good yeah I think there'd be fewer bees

the bees were relentless Um, all right. Well, this is all this is all really good. Lala, I'm so glad that you had a good business day that day. Yes, for sure. We didn't even expect and it was like really good. Yeah. And I do know that, you know, over the past several months, you have told me that so many times people come in and they're like, "Ah, I never knew you were here." Um, so hopefully, you know, and now that Thinking Flower is open, I mean, I'm sure there's there's tons of people that don't even know that that she's open either.

They don't even know that that exists. So, um, anyway, yeah, I think it'd be really good to be able to promote more, you know, more businesses. Um and you know we have to also kind of figure out how do we increase our communication with all the businesses so that we you know we can help them. Abby, one more thing if I could. The so and maybe you and I talked about this, you know, um, so Thinking Flower had their grand opening. We had the village for a day. Thinking Flower had their grand opening. Now we're heading into the holidays. So, and you know, Lala, you and I had this conversation that like you, it was a great business day and it took away two day with between that and Dwali took away two production days, right? Because you were selling

that that time particularly next day was Diwali Fest, right, for us. Oh, right. with you know so I saw the same people again of course

that's right you built built great great repeat customers right they so but like so we talk about leveraging existing events like Run BXB or Winterfest we tal yeah I mean you and I talked about the Christmas tree lighting and I look at you know LA I look at that plaza Middle Sex Bank Plaza and I actually happened to get to talk to Mark when he was at the at the grand opening for thinking flower and you know I he's done really a nice job you know with that plaza with with you guys and um you know you've got the bank there but I I think like hey coming off the Christmas tree lighting I know there's hot chocolate and cookies or whatever they do after that but boy you guys are like literally

you know 100 steps up the road you know is there an opportunity and this is not about doing an EDC event but there's an opportunity potentially for you and Divia and maybe Gina's like for to to open your like not that you want to work more but to open your doors and like you're here's the there's all these people with the tree lighting yes they're going to get stuff with cookies or whatever but

you know same thing with with Run BXB like how do we make businesses aware of these events that are happening and then they can through social media or with our help and connectivity you know we can we can help them spawn some business off that. Uh it was just a thought in how to leverage all those things. That's all I'll say. I mean, I don't have any

No, it's all right. I I mentioned your your idea to Becky Neville, who is on the public celebrations committee, um about like, hey, you know, you've got these businesses right up the street from the treelighting, and you know, that could be a a way to, you know, um to help those businesses to encourage people to walk up walk up the street there. But um it's kind of like the village the West Actton village stroll where they have the tree lighting and then people go walk around after to their businesses. I like that idea.

Well, maybe that's something because I know right when I joined the EDC um Kristen Hillberg was on and she had talked about a winter market. um, you know, talked about, oh, you know, maybe I could rent an empty storefront in the Middle Sex Bank Plaza. At the time there was one um and and do a, you know, a winter market kind of thing. And so perhaps we consider because we've got plenty of time to plan it. You know, we could do an outdoor thing in the spring, another village for the day a day to to test the walkability, but we could also consider a winter market. Yeah. And you know, I I'm thinking how do we connect these things? Like

Yeah. You know, for example, um Boxboro Conservation Trust probably does landalks or trail hikes. How do you connect that to it's a trail hike and then it's a visit to the chocolate shop and the bakery? Yeah. like you know just it's somehow you bring that was one of the things we found in the in the UMass study is connecting like the the Boxboro recreational aspects of town and how do you connect that to the economics

like people like to go crosscountry skiing like so we talked about when Kristen was talking about that winter market we were talking about oh we could do cross country skiing in Fla we if we somehow had somebody who had you know if we had a ski hut and all And oh boy, after the skiing you could head over and get a hot chocolate. Like it's just try to connect all that. And I don't know, it was just a it's an observation more than anything. I'm not I'm not, you know, recommending let's go do a winter market. You know, we could, but like I'm thinking how do we help businesses connect all that? And yes, there could be events that we sort of help and push to bring it to make the connectivity. But I think that's that's how the sort of small businesses, consumer-based businesses can kind of there can be a nice symbiotic relationship there between what happens in town and and the fact that we have businesses here that can feed off that.

Right. Right. So that kind of is connected like you said earlier, run BXB could be one of those events that we leverage, right, for businesses. So I like this. I think we can um I think at the next meeting, I think we should just take some time to start pitching some more ideas and and think about what we want to do since we have we do have time. Um I think this is really good. Anybody else have anything else they want to say about village for a day? So, um, just I in the for the future, I think they're looking at March 29th before spring sports.

They did like having it at the Cisco area because they didn't have to deal with any roadblocks and issues. So, that's run by XP. Yeah. But they, you know, would love to love to partner or talk about ideas. That'd be a great day for craft food halls.

Then on that note, I did uh um I think it's Matt Alec will know better. Um Matt from Craft Food Halls did get back to me afterwards and um he just missed the email. He had something going on, but he said that uh he'd love to participate next time. sounds like it'd be a good opportunity if we're talking about possibly more food vendors for a local food vendor, a more local food vendor to to participate. Um, he said it was right up their alley of what they do. Um, he just he he couldn't swing it this time around, unfortunately.

Well, yeah. Well, thanks. I think again, so we've got all of this, you know, we've got one of these things under our belt, and I think, you know, using this experience, we'll do it again. It doesn't, again, as Rich said, have to look the same. But, um, I think it I think it was really good. I'm so glad we did it. And, you know, thank you, Ian. Thank you, Alec. It was, um, it was just a a really good good event. So, no, thank you guys for all the all the help and support. I thought it I thought it went very very well.

All right. All right. Are we ready to move on to the next agenda item? I believe so. And I think Ian, you can go ahead and sign off for the night. All right. Thank you, Kevin, weekend. And I appreciate you putting that time in on Monday. I know that was a special day. I I I heard you saying that as I was logging off. I was like, "Thanks, Rich." I didn't get to say thank you, but yeah. Thank you very much. Have a great one, guys. Bye bye. All right. Take care. Bye.

All right. Let me get to my agenda here. Sorry. All right. So, Alec, can you give us the update on business grants?

Happy to do so. So, at this stage, um, all but one of our awardees has demonstrated successful completion and implementation of their project. Um, as Lala can attest, December is a good month for me to get all the paperwork done and out the door. She probably had five or six different emails from me last December. um and she'll be getting at least one from me as I close out the second award. But um the only outstanding award is Oscars Burritos, which uh if you've been in in the last couple weeks, it sounds like there has been activity. Um as we had briefly discussed uh this past summer, uh there was a brief pause in activity. I had extended his grant deadline. Um the latest that we extend grant deadlines to is December of this year, 2025. Um so anything beyond that would require authorization of the board. Uh we can take ARPA funds into 2026. That is allowable. Uh the secretary or sorry the treasury's guidance gives us through 2026. However, uh the terms of the NOA that we had originally announced only go through 2025. So anything beyond that would take direct authorization from you as a committee. Um I am going to get in touch with Oscar, get a timeline and an update from him. uh and should he require anything beyond uh December 30th of this year, he will be attending your December meeting, if you have one, um if he says if you opt not to have a December meeting for any reason, um then we will take that into January and I'll just uh I'll get the paperwork out the door, just take my stick my neck out a little bit just so that we can get to that next milestone. Uh but from my understanding um and from what I've seen, sounds like he's actually making some pretty good progress. So, it sounds like December may be reasonable. All along he's had that deadline in the back of his head. Um, and as many of you are aware, he already spent the majority of funds on the water treatment system which was installed on the second floor. Uh, the most major piece of infrastructure. Uh, the rest of it being

light construction work on the first floor. Otherwise, we'll be wrapping up closing out the grants. Um, once we close everything out, uh, we can then discuss whether we want to collect highle data, what that looks like. Um Abby and I have had a separate discussion. She's already been collecting some of the data and information on actual yields, whether that's employment or otherwise. Uh which is good information to have, especially if you uh potentially in a better fiscal year. But if if you do want to bring this program back on a local scale, uh we can really put some meat to it because it sounds like there were some really great demonstrated achievements and successes because of this program. um beyond just the new business that was launched, the new infrastructure that was provided to our existing businesses um and the new methods and models that some new businesses or existing businesses are able to undertake. So

great. Thank you, Alec. I did have a conversation with Oscar on Monday um cuz he happened to be there and he said that he is planning on he said they're very very close to being able to uh open the cafe part of the the business. He's still looking at which hours really he should open. Um, and he was checking with the folks at the ice rink because he was kind of feeling like he shouldn't necessarily be, you know, open for breakfast and coffee if the rink wasn't open in the morning cuz that's going to be kind of, you know, a big draw um until commuters realize that, you know, he does um, you know, he does have have coffee in the morning and and that they could stop in. He is planning um, also on serving ice cream. That is definitely a plan for him. He's going to go um and he's going to have the windows open so people can, you know, um get the ice cream from the outside and he's planning um next summer and, you know, hiring, you know, high school kids and he's he's pretty excited about it. Um I don't know whether he'll actually get everything done by December. My I'm anticipating that he will want an extension. I didn't mention that in our conversation, but um yeah, I mean, he's he's definitely moving forward with with the plan and I think it's it is really exciting. Um, was it just going to say something about the business? But, um, yeah. So, his grant was 20,000

and he he did do the water filtration system. Technically, you know, I is has he fulfilled um the requirements of the grant or no? like do we have to wait until he's actually open with the cafe to say that he can build it?

Yeah. So, um best practice is that yes, the services are open and being provided or he can demonstrate that they're able to be turned on at the time. So, for example, he might not be serving ice cream right now, but if he had the freezers installed and he had the system available so we can visually see that it's available and ready to be turned on, that would be satisfactory. However, that's really to your discretion as a commission. The minimum requirements per your NA is that he demonstrates he has spent the funds plus the matching funds. So, as long as he has spent in his case 40,000 including your grant funds, so 40,000 in total, then you have fulfilled the minimum requirements to close out a grant. Um whether we then choose to tag that as substantial completion or we wait to start his substantial completion date for forgiveness purposes can be a secondary discussion

is he has to be operational for two years. Right. for correct to receive full um full forgiveness on the loan um the business has to demonstrate that they continued to provide the services that were described in the NOA or if in some cases they might choose to deviate for example one of your grants was specifically a hiring component if they needed to pause employment and restart at a later date or they needed to go in a different direction with the employee and offer different services they can come before you and justify why that might be, but ultimately it's two total years um offering services in some form.

Okay. All right. Great. Okay. So, um yeah, Alec, if you could, you know, touch base with him and then give us an update, that would be that would be great. Sounds great. All right. Super. So, that one's going to be coming off of our our uh future agendas. That's great. Um, all right. And Alec, can you give us an update on the rural development fund grant?

Absolutely. So, uh, everyone should have received this by email, uh, last month, but, uh, we were successful in our application to the community onetop for growth specifically for your economic development plan. Uh, as a reminder, this grant was to fund the economic development plan to be completed by our regional councils of government. This award is 60,000, but it was matched by 15,000 provided previously by the regional council of government. So in total, a $75,000 plan at no cost to the Boxboro taxpayers, all funded through regional and state dollars. Um, a component of this award letter, as you can read right here in the middle, was compliance with the MBTA Communities Act. We have maintained our compliance. Uh, we will actually be submitting in the next couple weeks all the paperwork that goes with it. we've already sent off to the attorney general for them to review the zoning component. Uh but now we get out the door the actual map stuff that goes off to the state offices for them to review and do our compliance check which we are confident on. Um the additional item that is included is your scope of work as MAPC prepared it. Uh so this was prepared based on the feedback that we had provided them the different methodology. It is subject to revision and change. So, I've completed as of today, I've completed the pre-contract forms with the state. That's just to reserve our place in line so they start working on our contract. I expect late December, early January, they will give us a copy for Mike, the town administrator, to sign. Once that is returned to the state, they'll give us a go-ahhead within about 2 weeks. Uh I also gave our town accountant the authorization today to create the reimburseable grant account. Uh and in the meantime, you and the team can re-evaluate this scope of work, decide whether you want to make any revisions or changes. And a component to this application as well was inclusion of the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. So, we should talk about how we ultimately want to engage them in the

process. I've talked to a couple committee members, told them about the scope of work we prepared. Um, and overall I've heard good positive feedback, uh, but not a substantial conversation at how we're going to engage them in the planning process. Uh, but this was a strong selling point for our application and I think in 2025 it makes sense for us to really invest in this part of the component. So I think Boxboro's business community, as we learned through your grant program in particular, is just as diverse as Boxboro is as a community. So, it's important that we're doing the best practice to ensure proper engagement and proper consideration in your economic future.

Great.

All right. What do you recommend um our next steps be? Do we have any next steps before January? Um I would say uh between now and your December meeting uh board and committee members should uh or committee members should review this scope of work should consider whether they want to make any changes to it. Uh I'd recommend sending me any markups between now and your next meeting just so that way we can bring them all to the table discuss if we want to make any changes. Um I think this was well thought out. We took several meetings in 2024 developing this so I am confident that it'll hold true. Uh, and the other thought process is how we want to engage the diversity, equity, inclusion committee.

Obviously, as we're coming out of the holiday season, we always say, "Oh, life will get quiet or it'll slow down." Never really does. It's always still busy. Um, so my recommendation to the economic development committee is to probably consider doing a working group or a subcommittee, perhaps two members of the EDC, two members of the diversity, equity, inclusion committee. Um, and we could rotate those individuals. So maybe have three of each um with those three rotating two at a time. So that way no one person um or no not the whole group is trying to schedule and contend to different schedules to get uh secondary meetings. Um but uh I think the direct working relationship will will work well. You do have until June of 2027 to spend all funding, but I expect that you'll actually conclude this work probably around October or November of 2026.

Okay. Who else other than uh the diversity and equity committee do we need? I mean, you know, when I think of an economic development plan, this is this is as broadreaching, right? This is like should there be someone from the select board, fin um housing? Yeah. Um it can really be to your discretion. Uh the way this was scoped out and applied, uh you are in the driver's seat. You have complete jurisdiction on that. So if you want to consider additional members to tag into the subcommittee or working group, I think that makes all the sense in the world. Um, typically when I have done economic development plans, you include one or more members of local banking institutions. So, you might want to outright invite um, whether it's a branch manager, a financial advisor from uh, Middle Sex Bank to come participate in the process. They're always excited to know what's going on, know what the trends are, but they also offer valuable advice on what they're seeing for the future of lending and markets. Um, additionally, including a couple business owners is always a best practice, always a great idea. Um, I want to stress that this isn't so much about including boards and committees so much as including your economic makeup. So, think about what goes into that. If you think there's a border committee that plays an important role here in Boxboro in your economy, then yes, absolutely include them. But focus more on the economy itself. Yep,

that makes sense. Great. Anybody have any other questions regarding the grant? And um Megan, for the purpose of the minutes, if you could um indicate what uh what each of us are what we're supposed to do in terms of Yeah. So, I'm just putting in like the the next steps including the including the the village for a day reach out. Um, great. Yeah, putting those kind of at the end so everyone can see um that all together. So, I have Yeah.

Thank you. All right. Um, are we okay to move on from this topic? All good. All right. Um, Alex, should so are you saying like we should maybe assign people to reach out to DEI or

um that probably works best. You know, I I've had successful conversations so far, but it's always a better touch if it's committee to member to committee member. If one person wanted to kind of take the lead on that, whether that's reaching out to Wes, who I believe is the current chair, or other members of the committee as a whole, um, I would encourage one person to be assigned that task. I'm just looking to see who's on DEI. Last I remember it was uh it was Westfolks chairing the committee. I believe Pesan Bartley and John Fallon, but that was the extent of who I remember.

Right. Um it's funny. Yeah, it says Pesan's term ending 2025. So I don't know whether she was reappointed. Um Amy Oser is the clerk. Uh Lakshmi Kaja and Brenda Martinez. So any volunteers to reach out to one of the DEI members? I happen to be meeting with Pan on December 5th about something else, but if she's still on it, I could reach out. I could talk to her.

Yeah, let's find out um if she is. That would be great. I mean, even just to, you know, give her an update about this if she doesn't already know about this grant um and that we want to collaborate. Sounds great.

Thanks. All right. All right, that's good. Let me go back here. All right, so Boxboro 2030 update that is the master plan that we have to give our report. Um, I just did it because I'm the chair and it was my job to get it done. Uh, and the deadline is today. So, that's all done. It's um it's in the packet. I don't know if anybody looked at it. I um I did have a question. I think Alec, I don't know whether I had listed one of the items I the under the grant I had listed as completed. Um

I wasn't sure whether it's completed or still in process, you know. So, was it the the item on public private partnerships and incentives and I got to find it now. Sorry. Which um

I'll pull it up here. Uh it was the third one reported on and it was uh this action item 3.1.5.3. Um, so we really we as the person who intakes and process this, um, I have the discretion to interpret based on what I receive, but you also have the complete discretion to determine whether it's in in progress, complete, not started, or whether you want to outright strike it. Um, what I'm reading from your response here, and I think complete is a good status for it, is you not only considered this financial incentive, you implemented it, you tested it, you found it successful. I think it's realistic to say that between now and your next plan or now and the next long range comprehensive plan um you may not be able to implement this again. So I think calling this complete at this stage is valuable and I would say that what we do is not only do we tag this as complete but I as the planner I'm going to interpret this to say as a successful program the next long range comprehensive plan should follow up specifically with the economic development committee to determine whether this should be a recurring financial program.

Okay. All right. Great. And of course, this is the kind of great work that we love to promote in the annual report. So, thank you to to the whole team for for bringing this forward, getting the work done. I know this went long before I got to Boxboro. So, very happy that we were able to complete it and uh very successful in my opinion.

Yeah, this is it felt good to have one that was complete. Um, and you know, I don't know if we'll see more money for for grants like this. I certainly hope that we we do. Um, I'm not it's not out of the realm of possibility because I I there are sources of money for those kinds of things, but All right, great. Anybody have any questions about the 2030 update? All right. The annual report is also due in a couple of weeks. I'll take care of that as well. Um, if any of you want to review or you have, you know, what what I've written before it goes in, let me know and I'll I'll send it around, make sure everybody's good with it.

I mean, feel free to I I totally trust what you come up with, Abby. I mean, it'll be great. I mean, feel free to send it around and if you want any feedback, we can send it to Alec, but I mean, I'm sure I'm sure you'll get like, you know, looks great. Thanks. It's, you know, it's kind of there's a the framework just kind of changed some things from last year and no need to reinvent the wheel. So, because I took yours the year before,

last year and and just updated it and I'll just keep keep it going. I'll just I mean this may be a little self-promoting from a from a economic development perspective but I mean I honestly I think this committee's done a great if you look at the results against the master plan. Yeah, we still have to do this long range study but we knew that we purposely deferred it because there were a lot of questions as to which direction this was all going to go and then now we got a grant to do it and that's like our second grant like we've got like $125,000 in grant. Well, no. Then you count the CO stuff. We're like, you know, approaching $140,000 in grant money. Um, more than that. No, we got $100,000 on the co. We're like over $200,000 in grants.

And, you know, we did the village center, uh, which there's more legs to that, but like we've completed a lot there. I mean, this I honestly I can't be more thrilled with the work that the EDC has done. I mean, this is this has been great. Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. Everybody,

I'm feeling really good especially that we got that village for a day done. I mean that was kind of really great publicity for our committee as well that we actually sponsored an event and it was you know a public facing event as opposed you know the grant program was a grant program and that was great but um yeah so this is great. Thank you everybody. Rich, um you mentioned a grant earlier and for the future. What what one is that for events and things? Oh, it's the um Commonwealth Places. Okay. And it's they're generally smaller grants and they're very focused around specific like place making type things like

you know string of lights if you're creating an outdoor market. Um it's all economically focused um but it's about placemaking and um wow

they they generally like to see like as it was described to you maybe you did Alec like that there's some community involvement engagement like village for a day was tremend like that we have the we did it we demonstrated it so we could go for a grant say we want to accelerate it and it that's like they they tend to want to provide grant money when there's a demonstrated commitment. Like somebody might start like a GoFundMe page and raise $5,000 to go buy, you know, I don't know, raetball paddles, right? And they're going to create a pick or pickle ball paddles. So like it we've that's what that is. Commonwealth place. Oh, definitely something for us to look at. Yeah, that's interesting. Thanks,

Megan. I'll I'll send you the the link to the page. Uh shameless plug. There is a really great example of a project out in Orange, Massachusetts that might know about that. If you come to the seventh grade talk, we'll know, right?

It's a it's a really great project. Yes. Um I can't speak highly enough about the grant program. Rich, you hit the nail on the head. It's one of those things where they love to see a little proof of concept. It then transitions into a 50/50 matching grant where you crowdfund half of it. Um, and then ultimately the the the end product is a very community communitydriven space. Um, I have to do some research into its current status. I'm not seeing a ton of new projects, but I know at one point it was consolidated within community onetop. Um, so it's figuring it's about figuring out how the current administration handles the implementation. it fantastic program and um there are ample examples of the successes within even just a 30 minute radius of Boxboro. Um so visit the visit the website it's just called Commonwealth Places and go check out some of the great things it did.

Yeah, we might get some ideas for for us. Yeah, that is great. Thank you.

Yeah, this is excellent. All right. Yeah, thanks Rich. Um, all right. So, the business brunch, we really have to get to work on this. So, which is why I do want to schedule a meeting for for December. Um, I think um in the past we we've kind of scrambled last minute to get the invitations out. I am thinking that invitations should go out the first week of December if possible. And we I I talked to um Alec and Ian um about actually it was just you Alec I think about getting a speaker um to try to bring you know bring people uh to come and and feel like they're going to get something out of it and to know that you know what what we're working on and just kind of about economic development in general in our region. And so, Alec, you had suggested somebody for Mass Econ.

Yeah. Yeah. Um I give yourself the credit, Abby. You had the idea first. Um I just did some of the research, but um it's not unheard of. They do speaking events um from time to time. Um they are uh in part a researchbased organization. So, I think there might be a great opportunity for overlap. They can come speak about some emerging trends, some of the work that's being done within the region. Um, and simultaneously it helps them build their own network, potentially help collect some data. Um, I have not yet been able to make contact with the the team over at Mass Econ. U, but between myself and Rich, I know you have a couple points of contact over there. You've interacted with them before. Um, I think we can probably draw up some some great ideas. So, um, that's on my list of things for next Monday, um, to make contact with the Mass Econ team to start sourcing some ideas and concepts and put an outright request in. Um, I do want to firm the date with this committee because if I'm going to be doing that, I'm going to be booking based on their schedule. Um, so I believe your agenda lists a specific date, uh, January 14th.

Right. Um, with a snow date of I believe we said the 15th. Is that right, guys? Is that Yeah, we said the 14th. I have Well, I don't know. Is that what we said? That's what I'm reading. Yeah, we did say the 14th, but we also scheduled the snow date and now I can't remember whether it was a week later or the next day. No, it's it's the very next day. I'm looking Yeah, I'm looking at our meeting room reservation calendar and the Graange is tenatively booked out both days for the Boxboro business brunch. Great. Um, Alec, is the contact you have at Mass Econ Doug Kellum? Is that the name you were

That name rings a bell. Uh, there was one other individual in the uh in the billing department that I've worked with, but her title isn't billing or anything like that.

Doug's a regional director for our area. The and the contact I mean we can talk I'm happy to work with you on that engagement. I think what's important is so mass econ is like you know mass is open for business, right? This is the group that engages when big proposals go out and they're looking for the community like Boxboro, what's your role? What's your what are you offering? And Stow, what are you offering? And they they put together the the sell Massachusetts package. So it my impression is it tends to be big company based, but like we need to we need to rightsize it because most of the people that come to this branch are small businesses. But like we talked about, are we expanding the invite to TUV and to uh craft food? Well, craft food halls came last time anyway, but to Cisco to, you know, Campanelli properties like do we want to start to integrate the diversity of our businesses and then bring mass econ? They just have to be able to speak at all levels, right? want the message to be whatever the theme is or yeah

yeah I will share there is another organization um that we could attempt to connect with it's called mass competes um and they are another organization with a similar objective effectively how does Massachusetts compete um in a nationwide economy um it's founded on a lot of STEM principles and the concepts there but um under um former secretary uh Jay Ash's leadership ship. He's their executive director. They have done some really cool case studies and some really great uh research based work. So, if we're thinking about speakers, they're another organization that can come in. Um, one of their recent publications just within the last couple years is actually on um empowering small businesses and how exactly we do that. Um, so that's just another group to be thinking about.

Yeah. I mean, again, um, empowering small business is right up our alley. Um so and do either of those um organizations will they request a fee? We're a member of Mass Econ. So there should be fee for Massie. We pay a thousand bucks a year. We pay them. We've already paid them. So that should be free. Uh this other one I'm looking now MACP Massachusetts Competitive Partnership. Yeah,

that that one could like we're not members so that one could be with a fee, but like we can I'm I'm okay to work with Alec to explore who the right organization is and what's the right speaker that kind of would be a good fit. I'm happy to do that.

Thank you. Um I definitely feel like we should get, you know, we should line somebody up to speak. I know we had originally talked about Sharon Rooney from Ty and Bond um to talk about our our village center, but I'm kind of thinking I I I I felt like if we want to attract different types of businesses, not just like the small businesses, um we should maybe go a little broader, but I'm open to suggestions if you guys think it should be Sharon. I'm sorry. The date we have again is the 14th. 14th of January.

January 14th with the snow date. The fifth. Yes. 15. Yes. Thank you.

I think we can talk like I mean there's a lot to talk about, right? We're doing an economic development study or sorry, we're putting together an economic development plan. We have the town center concept. We did we just did a village for a day. We have a very diverse business group that you're trying to attract people and speak to businesses at a different at different levels. So I think having a speaker like that is good. I I mean Sharon's great. I don't know that we need to go so hyperfocused on our the output from our study. Exactly. We can talk, one of us, you Abby can talk more holistically around what we're doing, what we've done about Town Center between the study village for a day, how that all connects. Like we talked about a website. I don't know where that is, but like,

you know, it doesn't have to be anywhere, frankly. It's I'm just like, but I think there's a more holistic story to be told about Boxboro Center, Town Center. Agree. All right. Yeah. Um, well, regardless of, you know, what we come up with for a speaker, because if we don't have anybody, we're still going to do the brunch. We We'll come up with a program, but I do feel like we need a program. We'll have a speaker. We'll have a speaker. Mr. Speaker, we'll have one. I nominate one you guys.

All right. Great. Um, as far as the list of businesses go, I think we kind of take with the exception of um, let me back up. We have the database that, you know, Ian started to clean up. I think we can go through that. Um, maybe I could ask Ian to, you know, send that list out again. We could all kind of go through it. But I also thought that we should consider inviting businesses that are not in Boxboro as well. If you, you know, have any other thoughts on that, what businesses?

Well, what about even like the like are you talking about like the West Actton? Like there's that new illuminated birth. There's all those small ones. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, if we want to focus on small businesses that are, you know, outside of Boxboro, I think that could be worthwhile. But I think we should cast a pretty wide net because in the past we haven't had great attendance. And I know there's like the the acting coffee isn't is new ownership now. Um, you know, maybe just people that are kind of coming in and maybe showcasing that Boxboro could be another place, right? businesses.

I don't know. Like it's tricky though. I feel like Yeah. Lala, what do you think? You're a You're a local business. We're going to invite I don't know. Is there a chocolate shop in Actton? I don't know. What? Like what do what do you think? There is. Personally I think like you know if any business has to come if I've been invited to go some some other town if I'm not doing anything over there I wouldn't be wasting my time to go there right like

that's what I would do as a business like you know if anything if you have to take like something you're going there there should be something like you know I get it from there either like you know there is networking maybe I will go but if it is not It's nothing like it's I'm going to gain for my business there. So, I may not be even trying to do. That's a good point. It is a good point. Then perhaps we just focus on Boxboro businesses, all sizes. I think that is the best way to do it. We We need to

It can get complicated. The last time we did it, because the first time we did it, we had like property owners and like people from New York came in with their, you know, three-piece suits and, you know, it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like, you know, and then the second time we did it, it was like it was great, but it was, you know, and then the third time we did it, we had less turnout. I think we go back to like bringing like invite TUV, get Campanelli, see if he can get all the businesses in his park to show up next time. Yeah. you know, bring and then if we if we have the speaker, then it then it brings additional credibility to it. Right. It's not just us talking about, oh, you know, we want to have a village someday. Right. Right.

Yeah. All right. Um I can work with Ian on that on that database list. And um Alec, how were the invitations done last year? Were they mailed? Emmailed? I don't recall. I know we tried to collect email addresses at the brunch and we didn't I don't know that we got all of them.

Yeah. So, we we do a three-phased approach. We do a direct mailing which continues to be the most successful method. Um the the mailing rate takes within two weeks for them all to hit the inboxes around this time of year. That's what we've learned from from doing this a couple times now. Uh the door knocking coupled with it is successful. Um, and we do do the emailing for as many as we can. That's successful in getting a lot of our return businesses, but the new businesses that do come each time always say it's either from word of mouth or from uh from the direct mailing. Okay. I mean, these invites have to hit people by like the 15th, right?

That's what I was thinking. Which means invite you to have invites out by the first. All right. Or third. You know, we can work on it next week. Abby, I'm happy to help look at the list, too. I know a few new people that have come in to play, right, past few months. So, excellent. I can reach out to Ian tomorrow and just, you know, ask him to resend that that database because he may have, you know, additional data in there from when we looked at it for village for a day,

but All right. Great. All right. Um All right. So I think we already talked about invitation strategy and deadlines. Kind of happened organically. Um Abby is there any way that we can do like you know I know like some other towns they do like you know in social media whatever is happening like you know they put it out there the businesses follow them so you know before everything goes out in mail everyone knows it

because the main thing is like first they have to know there's something happening like when it is happening is like next thing and you get an invitation you're already prepared your mind okay there's something was happening you know it's easy for businesses Right. Like you wait for the mail to reach out and like for me I don't check my mailbox like 3 4 weeks. Mhm. Right. Until like because I don't know how other businesses are but like most of our mail comes to my home and anything goes to my business is like I don't see it and if everything is online right now right like nothing. So is it something that we could work with like because if you're planning to do village for a day, you're planning to develop this like you know in much bigger broader way then there should be a mass reach right like Mhm.

social media. Yeah, that's the way to go because that's how people are now more inclined to I guess. Can we create um I don't know if this is where you're going Lala but like how hard would it be for us to just create an Instagram account? Yeah, our Facebook because like it's more as a group that you can do like you know it's more you can talk you can post much maybe both right like you know you just have it any short videos you know something that you can post on Instagram it's like more you're out there people will know like there is something happening in box pro terms of EDC otherwise I think

you know it is going to take lot of time to reach and I think with the new generation and everything everyone is like okay what I where I can scan where information like we are still like you know mailing and doing it. It's going to take more time and expensive and expensive. Exactly. Because we have to find a way to do like how you know what's happening like when we decide here it should be next day out like that's what like you know fast we could get to reach to people.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm thinking just even setting up a like simple put like you know box town hall on it economic development committee or some economic picture like maybe your plaza la like some economic picture

it's something that it says that it is you know it's valid you know there are so many pages for box have no idea which is what but something which is like maybe we should get like you know there is this validation that you can get from things like you know something to do it so that way people know it is legit. It is what it is rather than like just many box pages. How do we if we were to set something can we I guess where I was going is can we set something up in the same amount of time it's going to take to get the invitations done like within a week

that we have published verified and pushed out to I don't know even know how to get to the businesses that would then follow us so we can then start to communicate almost within a week right it's easy because now that we have the database on what uh businesses we have just go follow them and you know if I someone like follows me immediately I go and follow them because I know it is like going to you know bring something to me and businesses if they're interested in EDC what EDC brings for particularly for their business and town I think they will be immediately doing it particularly after the village for a day they will have more awareness of what's happened

all right so question Alec there is a Boxboro MA Instagram page yes Instagram account who manages Is that um Rajan manages the majority of our social medias. Um I don't know how active that one is, but uh if it is, it's him right now.

Okay. Because it has the last post that I can see was from 2000 from 20 2023. So Lala, you brought up a really good point that it needs to be a legitimate page because it's not, you know, neighbors of friends of Boxboro EDC like we should be something from the town.

Great. And so the town of Boxboro has an Insta and it already has followers. It's got like 673 followers. Um, I think we use that and we get we figure out how we can get EDC information posted there. We're we're we're an appointed committee by the select board. We are part of the town of Boxboro. Um, I think it makes a lot of sense. What do you guys think? Yeah, I'm not a I'm not a poster. Like I know Facebook how you do a post, but I I'm I'm all for it if we have something. This may not be the the only way, but like this might be the today way, right?

Mhm. Um, I'm I'm all for it if we could find a way to get a me like start f like can the town of Boxboro now start following businesses like who like this town of Boxboro is only following two people. Boxboro Police. Is that right? Um, Boxboro News and Boxboro Oh no. Following. They're following AB Compass and Boxboro Police. That's it, right? And yet they have 673 followers. Correct. So like

including Flamingo Market, which just pops up, right? And that's a brand and that's the new uh grapevine. Yeah, I'm all for Why are we only following two people? Like, is anybody doing it? All right, so I'm not going to I guess Alec, how do we how do we crack the seal on this thing? Do we have to talk to Rajan? Um, if Rajan's got the login info, it's predominantly him, but uh that doesn't mean that doesn't mean uh someone like myself can't get uh hands on the login info. Can you or Ian tie off with I just think that we need to careful about us just you know what what do you call it? Take over. We're

we're gonna take over. Yes, that's called a takeover. Yeah, maybe somewhere we have to add the EDC something to you know change the name you know to make it more you know I don't know like it's too municipal is what you're saying right well wait are you saying that we shouldn't use that cage

I if we use that I'm I'm not sure what page we are referring to and how it's been used before what information was put. If we are going to do maybe change the name to something because like if you're going to follow businesses and going to put post about what's happening it is like it's same thing like what it was that page before or it is something different you know how like I see like if it's a new page and new everything people will be more curious if it's already there you know you didn't post for 2 years it's lying there and you're using it back again I'm not sure I don't know how it works. But

well, you know, my my thought is, you know, we shouldn't be the only committee that uses it. I mean, the town of Boxboro should really I I think it'd be really beneficial to be able to get word out, you know, official from from the town on there unless unless we can get permission to get our own. But that seems like a lot to ramp up.

I think I Well, I there could be a policy we're breaching here, but I say to to just do it and ask for forgiveness. I mean, I like this is the EDC. Like, we're going to we're trying to market our ourselves and this brunch and you know, we're the Boxboro EDC. I don't know. Are we Alex? There's probably a policy that says we can't do that, right? I don't know if there is.

I in my three years here have never come across a social media policy at the town of Boxboro. So, I if there is one, it's not one I'm aware of. Um, I will say that uh at one point I had scoped out an intern to specifically do a case on social media uses for communities. Uh, we didn't get that off the ground, but at the time when I did do a little research, I didn't come across anything that would prevent it. Um, I think it's a simple discussion with the town administration on uh guidelines that we need to be aware of. Um, and otherwise from there just build as we go. Yeah. Now, do you guys think uh just Instagram or should we also do Facebook?

I think both. Both talk to each other. Yeah. Nowadays, if if you set up any one of the the kind of the primary accounts, you can pair them all. Just make one post and it'll just carbon copy it across all your channels. Right. What's the I'm actually creating one right now on Facebook. I won't do it. I'll I'll pause. But it's so easy. I mean, what what do we want to call it? The town of Boxboro Economic Development Committee. Call it Boxboro Economic Development Committee.

Well, unless somebody's got a better idea. So, unless you guys want to do something about and and not call the committee name and say something about, you know, Boxboro business something. I don't know. But But we can't, you know, if we want to use the the town seal or whatever to make it official. Any ideas? We could do Boxboro EDC, but no one really knows what that is, right? From the name. Yeah, I'll call it Boxboro Economic Development Committee.

I don't have a better idea. Anybody else? Just keep it short and sweet. Business in Boxboro. Wow. Yeah, that sounds Yep. I like it. Sponsored by the Boxboro Economic Development Committee. All right. Great. Good. I am not adept at social media, so I'm going to have to ask one of you guys to spearhead this. Ian's probably got a Tik Tok account, right? He can manage it. All right, we'll hit him. We'll hit him up tomorrow while I can or Alec, you can talk to him.

Yep. I'll um I'll get in touch with uh with Rajan and Mike tomorrow just to make sure there aren't any guidelines or anything we have to be aware of. And from there, uh, between he and I, we can scope out setting up a bunch of pages all at once. It's just it's maybe an hour's worth of time, um, getting your branding and and your initial imaging right. And then another quick plug for the committee, if if we're going to go through this, um, something to be aware of is you can work on your page without turning it on to the public. A lot of times what businesses will do, um, or companies will do is populate your first couple posts and then turn it on. So, it already been open for a while. Um I I'm somehow I'm still the manager of the Blanchard school one for example and as the administrator I it constantly getting like requests to join that's mostly Facebook but social but for for um Instagram I it would be helpful to have someone at the town hall to manage some of that like take down posts or report posts that that might come up. It would be really helpful cuz it's a pain.

But I mean, it's it's it's just if it's there anyways and it kind of comes from you guys, it'd be helpful for maybe I'm I'm signing you up, Ian. Sorry. Yeah. Well, Ian's not here to say no. That's what he gets for leaving. Um Yeah. No, that that would be great. Lala, that's I I think that you you really hit upon something that's that's we've lacked and we've you know, if we want to really start communicating with the public and with local businesses, I mean, I'm sure Alpha Cars, you know, they'll follow us, we'll follow them. It it just it really will kind of

spread pretty quickly, I would think. Um, thank you.

So, let's see. The other item that I just wanted to talk about um under chairperson's items was about zoning. Um I think if just so you know the property at 72 Stow Road is zoned agricultural residential. So, as it stands now, if the fire station does not go there, the only thing that would be permissible there are single family homes or anything that would fall under the do amendment, which would be like educational use or um a church, that kind of thing. Um, and I'm just thinking like that property could it's it's really right there in the center of town, which I'm, you know, back to talking about Village Center. And I think we should explore asking the planning board um about considering a zoning change for that parcel. And one thing I would consider, you know, ask them to consider is zone it as town center just like the properties across the street are zoned town center which would allow um mixed use. So just something I wanted to throw out there.

Yeah, I think there's a couple things there, Abby. one is I agree I agree with you like you know that the the current zoning is not going to be if if it's not a fire station then it's it's land that doesn't it's like right in town center but it doesn't it's not zoned appropriately. So yeah, we could we we should look at how do we how do we address that? The other piece is I think there are some in the study some recommendations about there should be some changes to our zoning both in town center as well as potentially in the adjacent business district

um you know we demonstrated walkability from what's your address l 629 Massav up to the town center so like in my that stretch you it it probably you know we should be discussing what does that zoning look like and Sharon laid it all out in the study like the setbacks in town center aren't currently conducive to village development in fact the buildings some of the buildings that are there are non-conforming to setback pretty sure Alec that that building on the corner can't be 30 feet off of Stow Road

I'm going to venture a guess that maybe 20% of your structures um are non-conforming. Okay. The in the actual core center area. Y yeah. And some of the buildings the frontage is in what's the 50 foot front setback? No, I don't I don't I have to look at the bylaw. But so I I think there's two things Abby. One is yes zoning that land, but then addressing what we believe is the village core

and addressing that and and is it done like do you change those? Do you do an overlay to even include town center, right? like you just draw a map that represents the core that we're talking about and do a village overlay

that would allow that type of flexibility. So, it doesn't it doesn't have to change the underlying zoning, but it could be an overlay. That's just one approach. You could say, "No, we're going to go and make that land something else. We're going to change the zone of that land to say a town center and then we're going to go address other adjacent parcels that are within our village core. So I think there's two things to be done. One is that parcel. Two is I think there's some issues with the current zoning. It was as was highlighted

by Sharon in that study. So we really should be looking at that whole village core in my mind. Yeah, you're you're absolutely right and and we have the research to to back it up. You know, we have that whole that study. Um, again, we're not going to get this done tonight. I wanted to throw it out there to kind of take the temperature of the committee to see whether you think we should advocate for zoning changes on Massav and Yes. Okay. Yes, you should. There needs to be anybody besides Rich,

there needs to be a push for it because the planning board does really well hearing and acting on things. We do bring forward things that are, you know, issues, but like this is a hard thing to get across and and the EDC is kind they've done we've done the study. We like there's there's data out there. This really becomes an an an advocacy and an ask to go get something to happen. Yeah. And you know this is also part of the master plan um in terms of zoning and um facilitating um business growth. So um again not tonight perhaps at our next meeting we start crafting a plan for you know how we're going to approach the planning board. um if they are not willing to work on writing zoning bylaw, you know, zoning articles, um we certainly can do it. We only need 10 signatures to get um on the warrant.

I think that I don't know. I'm optimistic. I think that I think they'll there you'll find uh I think they'll be receptive. Okay. I'm just saying that it's, you know, it would be great to get get their buy in um to say, "Yeah, we do want to work on it. This is a really this is a really meaty zoning article and we can get it, you know, hopefully um in May. If we can't get it May, then fall town meeting. We've got opportunities." So anyway, um if if you want May, this has to be on this probably does need to be on the December agenda and then definitely on the January agenda. Ours or you talking about the planning boards? Ours.

Okay. Oh, yeah. because you're going to have to be in you're you know the problem is Abby that this is the problem is that it's Alec is it like five months ahead of town meeting that you need to start because you've got to do hearings and yeah article writing and and it's right now it's you just said the idea and then so that has to then get translated to what is the ask that then has to get developed by the planning board that I don't want to sound negative I'm just saying it takes time So, it should be on the December agenda.

Okay, we'll put it on the December agenda. Um, and then the last thing that I had under chairperson's items was about um property owner outreach. Um, I think you know, Rich, you and I had hadn't heard back from Tyler from Newark. I'm not sure. And just to fill everybody else in on the board, um we were speaking with um a broker just to try to get some land valuation data um for, you know, 72 Stow Road included in the parcels of, you know, 61 Stow Road and the 25 Sto Road there. Um assuming that because we do know Keith Lions does want to sell 61 and now of course the the fire station building committee has taken off um 750. Um the the parcel is is growing in terms of you know what's what's under you know his purview or partial purview. Um, I think we need to do more outreach again, either go back to Keith or also, um, you know, I know I don't know what happened with Tyler, whether I did follow up with him, but it was crickets. And I mean, I could try one more time, but I do think we should still start talking to to the property owners in the village center just to kind of see where they're at, what they're thinking. Um,

it it would be worth trying to get Tyler that they I don't know that he would ghost us, but they may be they may have been asked to just pause. Okay. Um, while they work through while their clients work through some things. Um, I can reach back out to Tyler again. Yeah. But it and but I I do think getting the the property owners together like having you know getting some discussion set up and I know Alec you've been talking to the Genson's

you know opportunity to get a discussion there. Um, uh, yeah, that I think is the that might be kind of the key that might be a key engagement as well as the Lions, Keith,

right? Yeah. Jeansen, Lions. Um, yeah. Here, my my concern is that if we don't start talking to people, um, something bad is going to happen to these parcels. something that we don't want to happen. And so if we can kind of start um pulling people together and trying to get people on the same page with similar goals or at least kind of start, you know, moving it a little bit, we won't be taken by surprise. Um and especially with 72 Still Road, the housing board, they need the money. they do they are going to want to sell that if the if the town is not going to um build a fire station there. So I'm just I have serious concerns that we could wake up one day and

our vision will be like so once it's gone it's gone. Yep. Agreed. Agreed. What's the valuation on that property? Uh 1.2 two on 72, but who knows? Okay. All right. Um, I do think we should have a meeting in December primarily to Well, we got a lot of stuff to talk about, but

why don't we do it kind of earlyish in the month before things get kind of nuts. I think I talked to Ian about December 11th. How does everybody feel about December 11th? I think I have a holiday function that night for work. Yeah, that runs till about 8:00 and then I'll Yeah, but it's probably off site, right? Then I'll be in the car. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, so I can be in the car. Anybody else available on the 11th? That works for me. That works for me. For me, like month of December, it's fully packed, but I guess anytime works for me. Yeah, if it's over Zoom, that would be really helpful, though. Yeah. No, let let's stick with Zoom. It's it's dark, cold, and we just need to get it done. Um, John, are you available on December 11th? As far as I know, I believe I am.

Okay. And do you guys want to stick with 8:00? I know we end up going a little later, but um, is do you want 8:00 or 7:30? Preferably for me 8, but I'm okay with 7:32. I'm okay with 8.

Let's say 8. That way everybody has time to eat and kind of settle before. And um yeah, let's say December 11th at 8. Um and then Ian and I also talked about January 8th because that's that'll be right before the business brunch. So we'll keep that on the calendar. I don't have anything else. Does anybody else have something they need to bring up? Um, so I did just find out Pesan texted me. She is no longer on the DEI committee. So we need to find someone else to reach out to. I can reach out to Lockshi.

Okay. Whom I know or or John Fallon who I know. Yeah. Okay. That sounds like a good plan. Yeah. Can you put that on an action item in those minutes? I got a lot of stuff to do and I'm not going to remember if I don't have it. Thank you. All right,

I Abby, I just wanted to talk about one thing that um I think we need to get on our radar and have some discussion over. um on the planning board. Um I I sit in and and listen to the meetings and things and um one of the biggest things that concerns me is um when it comes to commercial development, uh there's just a a completely unreasonable um standard that gets imposed. Um, for example, it's it's there's a push back on a color of a building. Um, this last meeting there was a hours long discussion about plantings and screenings and um it it seems to be that the that the underlying goal and it's not the entire board, but um that a commercial building has to be 100% screened from view. Mhm.

And you know, you you see these things and I I keep going in my head and saying we never once try to impose these kind of things on residential development. We don't tell people what color their houses have to be. We don't make them put 12ft tall arborites all along the entire road so you can't see the house. And or do we have an expectation that you know a new building going in is going to be there for a hundred years and yet we seem to want to have plantings that have to be full mature instantly day one. And uh it it just I mean Rich was that a site plan hearing that was a site plan and a for that was a site plan plus

975 Mass. Yeah. Plus it was a um storm water Yeah. That was site plan and a special no site plan. Site plan. Yeah. So, so what literally blows my mind is that the process was eight months just to close the hearing.

And you know that's and that was eight months. That's what that's what was said in the meeting. Eight months. And you know it's it just even if it's six months that's it's incredulous to me that that I mean that's an entire building season and you know so somebody with commercial property is carrying costs and you know how much does it cost to have all their consultants and engineers on six months worth of meetings and it's that you know it's this belief that just because it's commercial that there's zillionaires that just have unlimited

funds and can just do this stuff and uh it's just it seems just unfair that uh the process can be that dragged out. Uh you know, it's I mean you that meeting after all those months of talking and everything like that, it almost devolved into that we're going to rescend how big the building can be. It was agreed on months before. Um, so I I think that as a a we have to have some discussions, you know, with the planning board or advocate that some of this stuff, you know, should be a little more streamlined or a little more reasonable uh when it comes to commercial property. Yeah, John, I think you should go to the planning board and speak um for

Well, see that's this this is the thing that makes it difficult because you're not meeting but there is nowhere for anybody in the public to just say, "Hey, I want to say something in your in your talk." It's like all of a sudden it's like you have public discussion up front and then it's it's all the discussion is within the committee. You you should

the board. So I I'll take the feedback and I can bring it but like you're you know you can certainly say like hey you know you ask that discussion happen during a hearing both you know you get board opinion you get public opinion you go back to the P like that's that's something you could that's a that's a discretion of the board item so that that can be adjusted like that's not you know my I'll give you my personal opinion. I'm not going to give you the board view. I'll just give you my personal opinion. I think if these buildings looked more like Mark White's operation, we might be less I might be less concerned about screening. Um I don't know what other people would feel, but like I think I mean that's probably something as a town we need to get our head around is what do we want Massap to look like?

Um and I asked I was just going to say I was just going to comment about having experience with Liberty Field. I was grateful that the loan company had to have a certain p height of trees that were along the playground and I don't know it just helps to to have some of those criteria in play but I can see I can understand perspective

they they absolutely have the criteria but the thing is is that if if I plant an arborite whether it's 2 foot 4T 6t or 12 foot it's going to grow but it's like the the cost from a a a small plant to a fully mature plant is multiples. And so you you know all of a sudden it's like say you got to put 50 arborites in that are 3 ft high you know that cost you $5,000. But if you have to put 50 arborites in that are 12 feet all of a sudden it went to 25,000. And it's like the the not the tolerance to say I mean everybody you know you build a new house in a new subdivision and everybody's bushes are everybody's trees in their front yards are little tiny things but another 10 years or 15 years or whatever they look beautiful and they're full. So I you know I think there's a balance there that yes you're asking for certain screenings and things like that and I'm all for that but it can't be like you have to install a jungle from day one. And uh and you know and the same thing it's like it it keeps getting thrown out there that it has to match the surrounding areas and stuff but you know it's like designs change. I mean if we did that I mean do we all got to put split log siding on our houses like they were in the 1700s?

You know it's like the red brick was in the 70s and then you know now it's it's gray and white cladding with you know high performance finishes and stuff. So it, you know, it's like, why are we locking ourselves into a look that happened maybe 50 years ago was was good, but something new. So, it's just trying to to balance a uh a reasonable stance versus residential versus commercial. You know, even even Campanelli when he was putting his building up, you know, the comment was thrown out there is, you know, I'm concerned for the neighbors because it doesn't look like the building next to it. Well, the nearest neighbor was one mile away. I was like, okay.

So, um, at the beginning of the planning board meetings, um, there are there is an opportunity for public comment. Um, I think you know as as an individual and you can even say you know you're you're on the EDC and so you definitely and of course as a business owner um you can express your concern with the way the hearings have gone in terms of um what you feel is are unreasonable um conditions imposed on on um on owners. I think the bigger picture is um is again it goes back to zoning and maybe having design guidelines that pertain to Route 111. Um because you know we do have an issue with the way buildings look on on Route 111. Um, so I think it's it's worth it at the next meeting just because it's it would be unrelated to because they already um they closed the hearing, they wrote the conditions, they they they voted to approve that. But I think you certainly should um go to the next meeting and and make a comment to to that effect. um

which I'm happy to do and but you know it's a very general when you do that and then a hearing gets into specific things where it would be nice to be able to say hold on here you know I want to comment on this specific thing right but um right you know and it's it's again it's it's going through six eight months a year of wrangling back and forth having you know well look white they went on forever and ever and ever came down to 72 conditions imposed on And then two of the members voted no anyways. Mhm.

And it's like, so how can you spend months and months and months saying this condition is okay, that's this, this this this and just, you know, know you're going to say no to it anyways. My my my overall disposition is that I personally don't want to let um uh the what is it? The let great be the enemy of good or good be the enemy of Yeah, great be the enemy. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Yeah. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. And you know, frankly, Rich's opinion, the consequence of the Larry White situation is what we're seeing right now, right? I agree.

And you know, you can ask the neighbors, what would they rather have? And I think those neighbors were pretty good with Larry's proposal, right? Yeah. Right. Um, anyways, I I don't want to make this meeting longer. I just wanted to

No, I'm glad that you that you said something. I mean, if we were to I mean, the EDC could actually, you know, write a statement or a letter to the planning board. Um but I think at this point in time it's we we would be I think our best way to communicate with the planning board is through you know advocating for zoning advocating for on certain um applications just like we did on the open space commercial development um permit which is still before the planning board. Um I can't remember when their next hearing is on that, but in any case, it's Yeah, I don't know.

Even that's even that's tough to get on because you know you're going to go and you're going to say we want to look at some some changes and I know you're optimistic, Rich, but the guaranteed that's going to be back is our plates are completely full. We've got this this this and this. You know, we don't have the time to dedicate to it. Yeah. I So I'll tell you, I'm I personally am going to push forward because it's on the agenda to do uh future articles. I am personally going to push forward

um the zoning change that I had brought up before and I'm you know which is basically to avoid uh industrial buildings manufacturing industrial large industrial buildings on Massav which the zoning allows today by right number one. Number two, to advocate that we establish a some level of design review um for buildings. I mean, because fundamentally the my opinion is we were trying to make that building disappear, make it invisible. And it's like we shouldn't be trying to make businesses invisible. They you should want to see these businesses. And so if if the building looked the way we felt was okay, then maybe we'd be less concerned about this the height of the arborite.

Um if there were six barns along Massav, that might we might be okay with that, right? You know, woodclad barns like I So I'm personally, John, going to bring forward um the zoning change that I proposed before. I'm probably going to simplify it a bit and I'm going to advocate for some level of design control. Um, and I'm also going to add bring forward a recommendation on um, Town Center, probably an overlay. Um, but I got a little homework to do on that. So, those are ambitious plans. Um, and I'll probably get push back, but like a board like this needs to advocate for that. Yeah. Like get off

Well, that's that's why I'm bringing it up is that do we, you know, just talk about some strategy? You know, certainly any individual could speak, but do we have, you know, does it make sense of some sort of strategy by the EDC, you know, to help that process? I'd say yes. Yeah. So, you know, Rich, if you, you know, you could, you know, as a planning board member and somebody who is willing to bring forth the zoning, I mean, telling us how we can support that and we can and helping us strategize to I'm the planning board rep. I'm the Yeah,

I'm your local planning board rep. But yeah, no, that that's really good. And John, I feel your frustration with what happened on at 975. And but it's, you know, that's the latest example, but it's it's, you know, they I mean, the same thing, the Campanelli process took so long that, you know, Rust Dion, you could hear his voice almost shaking that they were about to lose their build the suit client, which is tens of millions of dollars, you know, because everything is so dragged out and torturous, right? Even the guy even guy for 975 who's sitting in a waiting room of a hospital.

I know this meeting and he's just like just vote for God's sakes. He's just pleading with him. Yeah. Um I did talk to Alec today. There there are rules about how long the planning board actually has, you know, from the time they receive the application. Most of those but most of those clocks start when the hearing closes. And so the strategy always seems to be that don't close the hearing site plan and then you can indefinitely postpone

site plan has a specific date like it's Alec can comment but I think it's I don't know Alec how long do we have for a site plan it's not tied to closing a public hearing right it's it's a date certain we lost Alec it's all right I I have my notes from my conversation with him today so it is 65 days you have 65 days to act on a site plan approval application unless otherwise extended in writing right from the application.

So what happens they submit the application they have 35 the planning board has 35 days to open the public hearing and then they have 30 days to close the hearing unless the applicant will sign off on a on an extension. So in the case of 975, there were seven hearings the applicant kept agreeing to to extend because put yourself in his shoes. What else would you do other than last night where they finally declined they finally declined last night to grant an extension?

You know, if you're trying to build something and you're trying to have favor of of the the planning board, you know, you're going to say, "Okay, I'll extend. I'll extend. I'll extend." But, you know, should it take seven extensions? No, it shouldn't. Before I got on the planning board, I observed that it's a it's a hearing board. Too much of a hearing board, not enough of a planning board. Unfortunately, I have been in effective in changing that.

Well, I I wouldn't say that, Rich. It's the the the It's definitely changed and over the last uh election or two. It's um it it's definitely better. I think it just and and that's the thing. It's a tough job. It's a the planning board is is no cakewalk on any way, shape or form. Um I think it just needs, you know, if there's no feedback to them that this is this is too much,

then that becomes the norm and it just keeps perpetuating. Then I think it just needs to be, you know, they have to think along the lines of the of the applicant too and say, "Okay, I've got an obligation to, you know, not bankrupt them and and be reasonable at the same time, right? Especially when it's site plan approval. It's not special permit." So, yeah. Anyway, all right. Anybody else have anything they want to discuss? If not, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. When's our next meeting? Next meeting is December 11th at 8 o'clock. Yep. Motion to adjurnn.

Okay. Motion from Rich. Do I have a second? Second. John seconded. There's going to be no discussion over this. I'll take Sorry guys. Take a roll call vote. Um, Rich is RDI. Lala John and I. Megan Connor I. All right. Thanks everybody.