Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

Um, I'd like to call the EDC meeting for Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 to order. Um, can we take a roll call? Dolphin AI. Angela Ichu present. Wood present. Nicole Eier present. And Will Blake from the town present.

And obviously Laura Dio um EDC chairperson present. Uh are we expecting anyone else? Oh, Elena is here. Hello, Elena. Hello. Sorry I'm late. I was in a rabbit hole watching the YouTube video of the uh of Kevin's talk, which was excellent. Um, so I apologize. Okay. So, we just need you to say for the record that you're present even though we can see you here virtually. Yes, present.

Okay. So then um we have a quorum. Uh we'll get started. Hopefully Carl will join us. Um Elena, I don't think you have met Craig Dolphin officially. Craig, I don't think you've met Elena officially. So say hi. Hello. Yes. Just at the at the meeting where Yes. Where I was applying. Yes. Yes, I met Alina the night that that we appointed her. So, it's good to see good to see you again. Likewise.

I wasn't there. So, I'm being very existential. If it didn't happen in front of me, it didn't happen. No, I appreciate it.

Um anyway, so opening remarks. I think we want to continue the discussion um on EDC 2026 meeting dates and also to uh bat around some ideas about uh potential 2026 EDC initiatives. Um so I guess we can start with the EDC meeting dates to see what works uh for folks. Um again, there's nothing there's nothing earthshattering here. Um I think unless something to the contrary, there's something out of the ordinary. Uh unless anybody and or unless anybody has any objections, we would continue to stick with the third Wednesday of the month. I mean, so what does everybody think?

That works for me. Okay. Yeah, that's good. I have no current blockers, but I don't know after the next planning board election if it'll be a different representative on this committee besides me, but that's till May.

Understood. Understood. Um, so then the next meeting would be uh April 15th, which is tax day. That would be a Wednesday. Um, does anybody have a preference to not having it on that date or perhaps moving it to the 22nd just in case you feel What week is uh I think we've already do we have spring break with the schools? Yes, it's that following week. Okay. Yeah.

So then I would imagine that April 15th would work for everyone. Yes. Good with me. Okay. Okay. Nicole, how about you? Yep, that works for me. Okay. Um, also, do you want to keep it all remote or do we want to do it hybrid in person? I it's great to be in a room if we can. I always feel like

Well, I was just thinking because it's income tax day just in case anybody's last minute. But no, that's fine. Okay. So, we will we will do it remote hybrid. So, if anybody can't join us or get stuck in traffic or last minute thing, you can you can dial in. But otherwise we'll plan to meet in person. Okay. So then the following month is May and that date would be May 20th. That's the third Wednesday of the month. That's kind of funny because actually April 29th is the first Wednesday. Well, it's April 29th, but it's the end. So we have April 6th, April 13th, April 20th, and April 27th. So, does May 20th work for everyone?

Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Terrific. Now, do we want to go out to June or do we want to wait on that? Okay, that's fine because the next Well, June would be June 17th. So, but we can we can wait if that's what everybody wants to do.

Yeah. The the day before May 20th is the town election day, and we may not just to say if the reason to wait has anything to do with just the election, we we probably won't have the final the final count officially tallied. And even if we did, if there was a new member to come on, it wouldn't be appointed by either select board or planning board or anybody because of other schedules as little did before. So, I'm okay going out to June, but I don't have a strong need to do so.

Okay. So, why don't we um It sounds like people would like to wait. It's not it's not a huge deal. No, we can just keep it the third Wednesday and then, you know, we can always just put it on the agenda next meeting and we can move it move it then. That way we know it's going to be the third Wednesday and if we have to change it at the prior meeting, we can have that discussion. Okay. So, right now we're looking at April 15 and May 20th for right now. Okay.

Okay. Terrific. So, um, do we need to formally get a quorum on this and take a vote? Meeting dates are up to the chair, so that that doesn't need a vote.

Okay. Well, I don't want to throw my weight around here. Okay. If nobody has anything else to say on this, um, I'd like to move on to the next agenda item. on further discussion of our 2026 potential EDC initiatives. Um and of course as we know this is going to be we might be challenged by the fact that um you know budgets budgets are tight. So um but we haven't spent a whole lot on the meet and greet. Um, last year we just had really I think the EDC cost the town, you know, under 25 under 2500. So, and that was just essentially for the meet and greets. I think going forward what might be advisable because we know we know we're in for tough sledding like every like other towns and municipalities you know throughout the state. Um if if at all possible we might want to keep any business meet and greets or workshops in the library because that doesn't cost us anything. What does everybody think about that? I mean, we we could do it. I mean, we could go to Evan and ask, you know, for money to have it as we have in the past at one of the local restaurants, but I just thought the library might be advisable because they have the space, they have the AV equipment, we can tape it, and it's free to us.

Um, remind me William, was any or Craig really was there, if the override that's on the table does not end up passing, is there any planned cuts to library staff or hours that we are aware of? There are $75,000 in cuts to the library that are on the table. Uh, last I spoke to the library director, those were all going to be programming expenses. Uh I haven't heard about any perfel cuts.

Okay. Yeah. The the other question on that for me was library hours of operation and you know like when it would be open because that could limit not only us but other groups that may want to do stuff at the library. So that could impact our ability to hold something there if it's going to be closed. Agreed. Um hopefully it won't come to that, but um that begs the question now, William, when would the those $75,000 cuts to the library go into effect? Do we have any idea?

July 1. Okay. So then it's possible then we could do the spring business meet and greet and those cuts would not be in effect. So we might be okay theoretically, but there's also no guarantee that the cuts would affect the EDC's ability to do the event there at all. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So, I guess I'll throw this in the floor. Um, I like the, you know, the event we did at the library I thought was the forum was fine. You know, I do like where we're, you know, we're kind of a economic development committee and we're here to support local business. I think it would be great to do that. Add a local business like we did the first one, you know, um, pick another just to support, you know, our our Grafton business economy. So, um, and I think we can get a room for short money and, you know, food is food, whether we get it from a a local place or or we have the event at a, you know, at a business that can supply it. I just think it's nice to support them especially for the spring you know where we know you know then as William said the new budget hasn't gone in will have not have gone into an effect you know at that point so I just like to you know let one of the businesses host let them you know show off their place let people come and see it that may not have been in in you know the establishment and um if they're willing to do it I think that's you know every town every town meeting is at a town facility, you know.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I'm I'm open I'm open to suggestions. So, yes, Justin, one idea that I have like I do agree with Craig. I think using businesses if if that's an option for us to do and if the business is open to it is probably a good idea. I do know the uncommon cow which was at one grafting common is moving just a few steps away to right next to the graft in now. They're doing renovations on that building last I knew.

And yes, so I don't I don't know if they're fully open at that location yet or when their timeline is set to do that. But if that given that's a new location for a fairly new business, that may be something that is a good venue for us to host an event. I don't think they have I don't remember what their food options may be at at this new location. They're the same owners of the Grafting Grill and Crust. So, we have a few options on how to facilitate food if we wanted to with there. But

that might be interesting to reach out to them and see as a different type of venue that we haven't done before. Um, agreed. And what's interesting about that and uh makes it convenient is the fact that there's parking there. You know, they've got the big, you know, parking lot behind them, so that would make it easier. Yeah. the the Grafton Inn parking lot is different building ownership and different lot ownership. No, but they they they do have their own Yes. Part of that. Yes. Part of that lot. Yes.

Yes. And then and they're right, you know, if necessary overflow people could go over to, you know, park around the common or go over to the libraryies parking lot. Does that get closed when the library closes? No. Okay. So, but so it's it's parking is is convenient there. Yes. So, yeah, you know, I like that idea. What does uh what does everybody else think?

I just have a question about um with the again because I don't know. Um, do we have an idea of how many people, let's say, two meet and greets ago, how many of those businesses came back and attended the next meet and greet? I know you had mentioned that there were some issues with weather, so it might be hard to tell, but just in general, do we have an idea of like how many, you know, essentially repeat customers we have of the meet and greets? Um, I think from the first one we did, we we had a lot of people that was at the post office pub and of all things it was a very cold night in on January and we had that was our biggest turnout. Then the second one that we did that was at uh reunion Okay, that was the night that we had the weather, so people had a hard time getting there, but we did have several people come back from that. But we had about we had 25 businesses that came to that one. The last one at the library on November 5th, we had about we had 37 businesses show up and there were some new faces. there were some repeat folks. The issue that we have is that no matter how what we do and we we we put this out on the website, we go on to the the Grafton Facebook pages, we put out mailers, etc. We don't get a lot of feedback or RSVPs. So, the short answer to the question is we don't know who's going to show up until they do.

Okay.

Um, cool. Um, that's that's encouraging. I think to me the the only things I can think of about you know the event would be you know how can we leverage it to collect more information about what is challenging those businesses whether it's something like you know they have each business gets like a sticker or a token and they put it in you know a different jar like for each you know type of concern they have hiring tax and regulations or you know whatever it is. So we can get an idea of like what what are they most interested in instead of just relying on like you know like I don't know we're doing like a hand raising or like one person asked and then that we can use that to sort of focus you know some of the follow-up materials. Um cuz I think it would be great if there were you know instead of like just you know if if there's like a PowerPoint but like like you said that presentation that Kevin did was so so informative almost like too informative. It was like there was a lot to process and so many action items. I think like either creating like a a very, you know, TLDDR sort of version, you know, I assume these business owners, especially if they're still writers, they know they don't have a lot of time, you know, or even creating like a Facebook campaign where each week we promote like one of the things that's mentioned in in the talk if someone is talking or even from the last one. um you know whether it's I don't know one of the grants that he mentioned or one of the programs he mentioned highlighting it having a link to that you know we could crossost on things like you know all things Grafton or whatever um things like that I don't know those are just some of the things that popped in my head when you were talking about this but I think I think an event could be could be a great thing

yeah no that's a good idea now one thing and I don't know if this is feasible William is there any way I mean I can put to we can put together as a group prior to this work on like say a five question survey that we would then ask them at the beginning of the meet and greet is there any way William to get those clickers where they could you know as we do with the town meeting or is that just not feasible no that's very feasible

okay so we could get the clickers and Then the votes would show the votes would show up and it wouldn't take that long because let's just say we have anywhere between 25 and 50 or 60 folks. Yeah. All the clickers are 10 ft to my left in my office. That's where they live.

Okay. So that's a way that's a way to do it and make it official without it looking like show of hands, please. That would make it that would make it official. Um what does everybody think of that? Do the clicker types we have currently, William, do they really allow for more than just yes no? Is it is yes I know just a feature of what we do at town meeting or is it No, it would be only two options. Okay. It would be one for X and two for Y. Okay.

There's there's also um there's some like a free website. I forget the name of the tool, but like you can create a poll that people can just fill out on their phone, you know, you just create the URL and people would just go to that. We could we could potentially use that. I can look up what it is, but there there's probably some sort of zero cost solve for that if we wanted to do multiple choice like which of these is the most, you know, most difficult issue type of thing.

Yeah. I'm just trying to think if there's a way to do a write in, you know, for like an essay type of thing. What would you what would you like to see? Check all that apply. Um, again, we don't want to overwhelm people, but yet we want to get, you know, good empirical as well as anecdotal data from writing. So,

if I if I remember correctly, you can actually freewrite the question in and the way it works, it's almost like a real time Reddit board. Like, everyone else can upvote the question so that like the most popular questions get to the top and you sort of go down and answer them in order is essentially how that works. And that's just one particular tool. We could also find I'm sure 20 odd other ones that have possibly better options. This is from years ago. So, yeah. Okay. Um, so if you want to look into that, that would be great. See what happens when you suggest something. You get Oh, yeah. Great. No problem. I'm happy. I'm happy to do that. You get assigned the task.

Wonderful. Angela, what do you think, Nicole? I'm I'm in favor of it. I think it's a great way to get feedback immediately and I think it also just incentivizes people to be able to attend in person and and have their voices opinions count, you know, and get the data collected.

Okay. Terrific. Now, the other thing I was thinking of for this meet and greet, and um I'd love to hear your feedback, is uh Elena brings up a great point, which is Kevin Kuros's presentation was amazing. It was chock full of information, almost too much. So if we could revisit that and say okay what aspect of that might we like to highlight my sense off the top of my head and this is just my opinion so I welcome everybody's feedback is that in these tough economic times people would like to know well gee what existing businesses in town what can we do to spike spike interest in our business. How can I, you know, funds are tough? Maybe we could look at something um and possibly have see if Kevin is available to come back or to um even dial in and highlight. Okay, here's here's some resources that are available to you, grants, things like this. and we could do a sort of mini presentation and walk people through here's here are the resources here are the links here's what you you know what you can do what does everybody think of that I'm just talking off the top of my head now but you know we've had several businesses you know go out of town go out of business you know specific businesses and we have others that are going gang busters but for instance I don't think discerned is open anymore. The the cannabis thing, but we do have other

cannabis places in town. Um, can I say something? I guess jump in here for a second. Absolutely.

Okay. So, to to me, one of the things that drives business to our business owners is events. So if if we had, you know, we had talked about one time doing a, you know, a taste of Grafton, you know, on the common, we could do it anywhere, but if we, you know, support our local business, our restaurants through that, set up, you know, kind of a um have them prepare food and have stations all over the common, you know, every restaurant can make their signature dish or whatever they want to do, have a come in, and it's going to drive people there, and it's going to drive them the support other businesses in town. Like I said, we can do one in South Grafton, one in North Grafton, one in the center. Events bring people to town and they're likely to go to the event and then support local businesses around there. Right. So, I think that's one thing that that we should do is we should try and drive some events other than the meet and greets, which you know, I think we've done a good job planning them. I think the attendance has been disappointing. Um, and I have one idea around that. The Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, they have a new executive director. Um, her name is Liz O'Neal. She's worked there for many years. So, um, she took, uh, um, God, Jean's place. Is it Jean? Um,

Jean. What's that? Was it Jeanie? Jeanie's place.

Yes. So, and she she's worked there for a long time. I've know I know her. She's awesome. You know, I think she could be a great resource for us. Maybe help us with this questionnaire. Maybe they've done that through the chamber. Um and maybe she could help us promote the event with with Grafton um businesses that are members of the chamber to try and help get the word out. We haven't tapped into that resource yet, but that's what they do. you know, they're there to to help businesses network, to support them, to offer educational opportunities, to promote what they do, you know, advertise what they do, and um we wouldn't want them to take over the event, which can happen, but we can certainly tap into that resource. They have a full-time staff there um that this is their wheelhouse. So, um, we might want to, you know, invite her to maybe, you know, speak, introduce herself, at least, maybe not be the the main speaker, but have her, uh, give her an opportunity to address the Grafton business community. Um, you know, plug the event, plug the chamber, and maybe she could help us, you know, with the planning of the event and maybe even some funding for it. No, I I think that's I think that's a great idea. Anything that you know brings people in. Um do you think can you reach out to her and see if she might be willing to uh dial in or appear in person at our

Now you're giving me work to do. What's

Yeah. Well, you guys see see what happens when you speak up um at our next Well, I mean, if she could if she could dial in remotely or appear in person at the April 15th meeting, you know, that would be great. And then I think depending upon how long it takes them to put it together, then we would talk about, you know, then we would move as as this thing takes shape, pick a date. And again, I think realistically, um, a date we we want to decide if we're going to do this, you know, before July. June is always a busy month with graduations, but you know, I think in July things, you know, shut down or, you know, um, do we want to do it in early June or do we want to wait until August or September?

Yeah, I don't know. I William, do you know do you know, Liz, do have you do you know anybody over at the chamber? I don't, but I'm always happy to make new friends. Yeah. Would you uh would you mind making the initial call to her to ask for Liz Liz O'Neal? Of course. Um and you know, talk to her about what we're what we're discussing here. And that's if only if everybody obviously if everybody agrees that we want to engage the chamber. If we don't, if we want to continue to do our own thing, that's fine, too. I just think we've had it it's been challenging to get businesses to show up. Um, yes, that's true.

You know, as great a speaker we had at the library event, you know, there was there was only a, you know, a few people there to to really benefit by that. You know, what's her exact What's Liz's exact title? I don't know if it's executive director. That's what most association management people are called. I don't know if it's that or if it's president or another title, but

and that's at Blackstone Valley. It's the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce and they're affiliated with the Worcester Chamber um which is run by Tim Murray. So, you know, they're, you know, there's a resource there for us, too. I mean, they're there to help people and they run a great organization, do a lot of great work and, you know, so I'm a member of that and name Tim Murray. Tim Murray. Yeah. Former Lieutenant Governor. Yeah.

Okay. I mean, I think it's a great idea. Um, I think also, is this something that we could charge admission for? Because I think it would be great if possible, it could almost be like to give you an idea of what I'm thinking of because Craig gave me the idea with saying like everyone makes like a signature dish or something like each of the restaurants in either, you know, in North Grafton or South Grafton or what have you. I went to this um James Beard House dinner where they basically did that exact thing but with restaurants in Boston and they had the chef there explaining the dish and they had like a little thing on the table that explains what it is and what have you. Um but you know they charge a lot for that and my thought would be if we pull that money together and just split it evenly amongst all of the businesses that showed up to help defay the cost of you know the food that they are serving at this event. um and that sort of thing. Um

yeah, that's actually a great idea. I mean, if we did if we combined the two events, we could do a taste of Grafton and do it at the at the high school in their cafeteria, that big, you know, common area and have, you know, and do um a business event and have it combined with a taste of Grafton and yet charge admission to it. I mean that's a lot to plan but might be great. Yeah, I think that would be super fun. I would want to go to that. Yeah.

Yes. But does everybody want to pay to get in? I know. But that said, um this town loves to eat and drink. So if you got the right mix of people and we have some, you know, obviously great restaurants here, you know. Yeah. And if there was a restaurant that was willing to, you know, to be the space for it, you know, maybe we could compensate them with whatever the, you know, whatever the whatever generate. Craig's idea about doing it in the high school at the common space that keeps things very, you know, egalitarian.

True, true, true. Yeah. Yeah. And everybody can bring their own and gets a gets, you know, gets a shot at it. So far with the three events we've had, you know, we did um Reunion, we did Post Office Pub, and then the last one was at the library, but we did have Bushel and Peek and Pepperoni Express, you know, catering. Oh,

just off the top of my head, last thing, and sorry, Justin, I know you've had your hand up forever, so I definitely you, but just before I forget, um, with the businesses that that show up, might be interesting to make like almost like a a Grafton restaurant bingo card. And I don't know exactly how I would promote it somewhere somehow on Facebook or at various meetings or what have you, but basically and maybe at this event even as like a follow-up where it's like if you get a stamp at each one of these restaurants like within a certain time frame, you know, you can go to the town hall and turn it in and then you know there's like a raffle, you know, with a couple of different prizes like one's a gift card to one of the restaurants like maybe it's like a grafted town t-shirt or sweatshirt or something like that, you know, for for some other of the prize winners or something like that just as a way to sort of continue on that thing afterwards and say like you know also would be easy to track the success of it because we can see how many cards get turned in and and whatever.

You want to take point on that? I'm all I'm all for it I'm all for that.

Yeah, I think that would be fine. So my a few things to say my initial thought is the taste of graft and you know all that you know possible things we could do around that. Those are to me a very different target audience so to speak than the business meet and greets where the meet and greet type events are to bring the business owners or business managers whatever to to meet each other meet us get advice and get help as far as running a business. The taste of Grafton type event is would be primarily in my mind getting residents of Grafton and surrounding towns to come visit an event, see these businesses that they may not have typically tried or even even know about and get that exposure and an insight into it. I think the the taste type event would be wider visited as far as by people and in general would be my guess as well. And I think there's a lot of potential value there. I just hesitate to try to conflate the two and to do the same you to have the same target like the business owners are not going to want to go to a talk or have much of a back and forth if they're basically serving customers or talking about their business to to actual customers. That's you my take on it.

That's true. And we would probably you know we've got limited time. Usually these events you're looking at two two and a half hours max. Yes. So we don't, you know, I like the creativity, but we don't want to bite off more than we can chew either.

Yep. The other thing is that I like about the like tasted grafting idea is I know of at least one business that was told they are not eligible for this at least this year for the farmers market. Now the at least from my perception the farmers market is primarily intended for actual farmers but Grafton has typically had general businesses

you know attend it and have a booth there which is good but it does mean that you can't always have everyone there and it's not run by the town of Grafton directly it's it's a different group that runs the farmers market but the so like having something that gives that that venue for people to go in and try. The other thing in my mind is I'm not sure and I'm sure William can find this out or may know offand if we can as the EDC set up an event where we collect like an entrance fee. I don't know that we can unless like town meeting gives us that that ability to collect and even if it's only for giving it back out to the businesses in some way. I I don't know. I don't need the answer right now. I'm just saying that's a a thought

because I don't have it. But I'm happy to run that down and get it back to you.

Yep. And then like one way, one thing we could do if we can't collect like is have the businesses come do a taste thing where we suggest they bring a dish or two of type of thing as like a sample size offerings and they can charge, you know, couple bucks for a sample of whatever. And so people can still go see the see the featured dish or featured dishes and buy something. Yeah. But there's probably other laws and stuff around how that can actually work in the first place that I don't know. But I'm just kind of thinking out loud. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to say a love that farmers market sort of aspect angle cuz I completely agree if in my mind I'm also kind of picturing something that's kind of like that except just for restaurants. Exactly. Um second in my mind I was conce I was conceiving of these as like two totally separate events. I don't know if it's feasible to pull off both of them and you know maybe they're they are mutually exclusive and we would have to decide you know which of them is a priority and which do we think would be more helpful or something like that. I don't know what the process would be but I agree. I think those are two they're two very different things and they would have to be separate in my mind. I would agree just because of the time constraint you know we don't want what you do is if we try and do too much in a two 2 and 1/2 hour period people you know might say oh I spent a lot of time on this but I would have liked to have seen that and they could go away disappointed so we should probably stay focused that that's my thought but I'm willing to go along you know I'm go along with the majority you know, we used to do, you know, the the the congregational church used to do, you know, the apple pie social every

year and they still do it, but it's a very, you know, it's a much much smaller uh version of the original that was the common would be packed with people, you know. Um, and I just think about if we could pull off like um, you know, we could do two events a year to to uh to kind of follow up on uh, Alena's uh, you know, question. I mean, we usually do a spring and a fall. I mean, we could do a fall um, you know, October Fest food tasting. You know, do something like that. Do an October Fest theme. It's a beautiful time of year in the common. do it in, you know, either late September or early October and try and, you know, pair it with with that and, you know, have it a paid event and share the proceeds with the the businesses that contribute. And, you know, there's a lot of ideas. We just

Yeah, I I like that idea in the in the early fall. And by the way, Craig, that would dovetail nicely with the end of the farmers market. Yeah. Farmers Market ends usually like around October 23rd and you could do it just before um Halloween because everybody's gearing up on the common. Yeah. At that point, you know, for the for for Halloween trick-or-treating on South Street. Um we got the band stand. We could have some music playing too for the event. It's always nice to have music on the common when there's something going on like that. And aren't there there has there's at least one brewery in in Grafton, right? I

go ahead, Craig. I think you might know better than I do.

No, no, no. Well, there there is actually there's, you know, I don't know if they're physically brewing in Grafton. I know um at least one of them is a grafting guy because I've been speaking with him because they're going to be um their plan is to go into the building um Charlie Bolak's old plaza across from Noel's uh Richie Lahan. So I know him, I know his family well. Um so uh um so Fitzy who who built Fitzy's car wash bought that property in there. So they're renovating it um to make a space for for this for this brewery. But they're actively brewing just very very small quantities. And his beer is actually at Reunion on

Yes, that's where I saw it. That's right. And it's also at Anzios. Um nice up at the uh the North Burough Mall there. So we do have a brewer in town. Yeah. because then, you know, maybe that could be we could help tie that into like the the October Fest angle. I do also think that that's a great time of year, especially because a lot of the restaurants in Grafton are more like American food based and then I think that cuisine just kind of lends itself more to some of those like comfort foods and that sort of I think thematically makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. And the weather is the weather is still nice, too. um fall foliage which would have been probably a little bit past peak but you know people want to come out. So if we do that then what does everybody think about doing the business meet and greet in say the June time frame

if June isn't too late in terms of like you know people are like going for the summer I don't know we could we could try and shoot for early June you know late May what what what does everybody Think I think I think if you do it Go ahead, Nicole. Sorry. I think if you do it before the kids get out of school, it would be fine. Yeah, cuz usually once the kids get out of school, then everyone starts, you know, going on vacation and all that good stuff.

Yeah. And we we want to avoid the graduation rush. Uh when is the when are the when is the uh Grafton High School prom? True. That's usually a huge thing on the common, you know, with parents as well as the kids, etc., etc. According to the Grafton High School website, it May 2nd, 2026.

Oh, okay. So then, yeah. So if we did it in early June for the, you know, like a business meet and greet, we should be okay. Yeah. And that likely would align with this what I'm imagining of the of past the when Uncommon Cow finishes their venerations to be fully open. I could be wrong, but and they may not even want to host it there, but that's just getting my thought.

No, I mean it it sounds good. Um Nicole, Angela, yeah, sounds good to me. Yep, I'm in agreement. Okay. So then what we're looking at at this point is to try and do a meet and greet either late May, early June and then do a taste of Grafton type event or October Fest, whatever we want to call it in October.

Yeah, I would just stay away from the end of May for the Memorial Day holiday. It's the unofficial kickoff of summer. So,

yeah. So, I mean, if we're looking at, you know, early June, uh, and we can we can firm up the dates, but that week of the 1st of June or June 8th, the week of June 8th, that ends on June 12th, that that gives us a two week sweet spot for time from June 1st to June 12th because after after June 15th, then we're looking at, you know, more graduations and as Nicole said, we could be running, you know, running into people, you know, getting away on vacation, etc.

And I think the last day of school right now is listed as June 18th, unless I'm wrong, but that's what my calendar says. Yeah, that sounds right.

Okay. Yeah. so that we can we don't have to pick the exact date now, but if we're within that, you know, 10day time window from June 1st through June 12th, you know, I think that works. And um the nice thing about that is that's before the longest day of the year on the 21st. So it would be light out, you know, for the meet and greet that, you know, hopefully would encourage more people to show up. Just a thought. Okay. So, if we do that, I mean, are we agreed on on that in in theory without locking down the date tonight to do a meet and greet in early June? Okay. Then the elements that we would include, I like Elena's idea. We could do a survey. We can get the the clicker going and then we can put some meat around that. So, if Elena, if you can take point on looking at

Sure. some of those the multiple choice things and we could present that at our next meeting and then firm that up.

For sure. And just to be clear, is this something that we would want we would essentially want to survey people ahead of time and then get their answers and then have that inform the content of the meet and greet? you know like what kind of speakers or presentations we would want or is it something that we would sort of you know let's say we have a designated agenda you know it's going to be these topics you know drilling down within that like here are the questions that people might have within that subject like you know how do I get around this or you know how do I apply for for that you know then we could do that in the meeting so that the speaker knows what questions to answer in during the talk at the Okay. So,

here's what here's my feedback. And again, this is just off the top of my head. I think if we put out some things on our web page and on the various Grafton Facebook sites, um, saying, "Hey, here's what we're going to do. we'd like your feedback and maybe we could put up a questionnaire for them to send back in so we would at least get an you know that would include the topics then that would hopefully if we got some responses you know some good responses and if we don't get any responses then it's going to be on on us the onus will be on us to come up with something that we think that they'd like which would probably be might be along the lines of how do I drive business? These are tough times. What could I do or what resources are available to me? Then on the actual night, we could use the clicker and have the yes and no answers. So, I think it could be a twopronged approach. In other words, we try and solicit as much feedback as we can on what they'd like to hear so that we're speaking to that. But just in case we don't get much buy in, if if that's the case, then we fill in the blanks ourselves and then come up with another another survey. And then at that meet and greet, we could perhaps have, you know, Kevin Koros or, you know, you know, honing in on certain things, whether it's, hey, here are the resources or here's how to write a grant, um, etc. one resource that we have here

in town and I'd like to tap into this because it's been wildly successful and beneficial for Grafton. I'm also a member of the Grafton Emergency Management Commission which has ties to MIMA Massachusetts emer and FEMA. I'd love to bring uh Kathy Cedarberg in to maybe talk to us. She is the chairperson, the point person on GIMA. She has done she is worth her weight in gold 20 times over in terms of getting grants. So she knows how to write grants, things like this. She wouldn't. And I mean, if there's an emergency tomorrow, this town is ready in terms of all the supplies we have. Now, Kathy's expertise doesn't necessarily translate into what about businesses, but she would be very helpful in saying, okay, here's, you know, what you need and here's how, you know, with some of the mechanics of how to do it. that would I think be beneficial to not only grafted businesses but also to us as a committee. Um they have been you know and granted the charter for uh Grafton Emergency Management is different from ours. I mean it's structured. They have very very defined goals, but it's been one of the most successful in in very practical terms that I that I can witness just in, you know, my little corner of the world. And I haven't se I

haven't honed in on every committee in town, but I just know from being a member of uh GEIMA for the last three or four years that they've made great strides, you know, very focused. And I think that there's a lot that we could learn. So, um, if everybody is on board, I'd like to reach out and maybe have, you know, Kathy speak to us at our, you know, next meeting. What does everybody think of that? Yay. Nay. Not sure.

Well, I would say that we probably have a lot of planning to do with Yes. we do an event in early June coming up with a kind of an agenda and and a location and you know everything that we've gone through before. I mean I think I think having you're right she's she's incredible resource. Um she comes into the select board and um you know when they update a plan or to explain things. I think it would be great to to have a form where business owners could come in and she could educate them. I don't necessarily think that it really benefits us. That's just my two cents.

Nicole, Angela, Justin, I I agree. I think um we've we've discussed quite a bit. I think I have like six pages of notes already. So, it would be very helpful if we could just stay focused on the meet and greet and look at this as as an item when we're past the meet and greet. Yep.

Okay. My my only thought was and I don't disagree with you, Angela, um, in throwing it out there is that that would be a valuable thing ahead, you know, ahead of time. But, you know, to your point, we need to stay focused I like the idea of it as as a workshop to help um keeping it focused for the businesses as both you and you and Craig I think you both are on the a good point for that. Um making it more for the businesses who have an interest in it. It it seems more of like a niche type of of interest.

Yeah. And I think on the on the meet and greet side, forgive me if I didn't hear anyone say this or explicitly okay with the thought process, but we do need to find out what if anything uncommon cow would want to charge for us to use that space. And similarly, what our options are with regards to what Uncommon Cows owner is comfortable with as far as food options to to share people who show up, whether that be buying from Uncommon Cow's partner businesses or whatever, or if it's bringing in pizza or something from another business entirely because it's their space. They get to dictate what the rules are basically. But the just to know what we're working with and like if they're gonna charge us, you know, $20,000, that's a no. I don't think it won't be that much, but I'm just saying as an example. But

are we to just get there? Are we not doing in the library for the meet and greet? We're talking Well, my suggestion was using the uncommon cows new location, which is right next to the Graten Inn. Gotcha. Gotcha. just price dependent and I guess timing dependent. I can I can reach out and see what what the prices are and what would be the options and bring it to the next meeting. Okay, that would be great, Nicole. Thank you. Okay, it's 8:00 p.m.

Who runs the Who runs the uncommon cow? Steve. Steve. Yep. Thank you. same order as a grass and golden crust.

And good point about the time. I just wanted to ask quickly, do does the Grafton EDC have a Facebook account? Yes, it is managed by TA's office, I believe. So, William, I don't believe that's an EDC specific account. When we've done things in the past, they've been put on the general town page. Thought there was an EDC account. We

We do have We have an EDC site on the Gra town of Grafton web page, but not not a specific Facebook page. Yeah. Basically, we just wanted to post as the grafted EDC on something. Uh, we don't have a specific EDC Facebook or Instagram account. We've we just use the town's account. Got it. And is there So, we could we could certainly do that and then also on our own go in and post on the various

Grafton Facebook pages. All things Grafton, Buy Nothing, Grafton, Planet Grafton, Grafton Informed, there's there's a ton of them. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel like, you know, having an official one would make it easier to than explaining like I'm a member of the like we can also do that too. You know, that's that's good. We should definitely do that. Although cross promotion possible. Absolutely.

One point to that from me being in tech experience. Number one, I apologize about I misremembered that we do it was it is correct we do not have an EDC Facebook page. That said, if we did have one and we were posting on it just very rarely and periodically, we would get a lot less views and potential people to see it than if we did use a graft and official one because Facebook doesn't show things that are not commonly looked at, you know, to people generally. So,

for sure. I mean, I don't think the the goal of it would to be to generate a lot of visits to the page itself. It would really just be a means of posting. Like, I feel like we could also post from the town of Grafton, but it would just give us the more flexibility to post more frequently other things if we wanted to as opposed I assume it's probably more difficult like to have to send it to someone else and then have them, you know, post it or something. I think again, and we should also do both. Um because your point about the algorithm is is well taken.

It if we're posting frequently then it might make sense. But I think given the times we've at least in my time on the EDC we've used postings has been relatively infrequent that I'm comfortable just keep keeping with the Grafton page for now and then each of us could you know post other groups to boost the signal on the you know the things and stuff like that. So, but that's my opinion.

Okay. So, we're we're just past 8:00. Um, so we're agreed that Nicole will reach out to the uncommon cow. Elena will check and see what kind of survey tools, etc. And then at our next meeting on April 15th, we can firm up these plans for the business meet and greet. For sure. I'm going to work on the poll website. And also, I would say for the real time one, but then for the one that we would do in advance, which I would I picture being sort of like a it would be in Facebook, a Facebook poll, so they don't have to go to an external website because there would be a lot of drop off. They have to click through a link. Um, if I could get some help on like figuring out what the the topics might be and then we can always have like an other and then have people write something in. Um, if the Facebook poll isn't flexible enough for that, we can always make a a free Google poll and have a link. But, you know, anyway, I'm not sure what the options should be. I assume we have some sort of record of like, you know, the biggest problems facing business owners from the last thing that we've done or something. Um, although I wanted to ask where to find that um, information.

I I can I can shoot you that. I I'll I'll send it to the whole I'll send it to everyone on EDC and William as well. So it's a refresher course because Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. Terrific. So we can we can do that. Um does anyone Okay. So do we want to move on to item four, which is other EDC business if necessary? I think we just need to know if um someone would reach out to the library to see if there would be a date in early June that would be available in case the uncommon cow is not available. All right, I will do that. I'll do that. Um

thank you. So I'll reach out to the library. Okay. Um, yeah, those dates fill up fast. There's a lot of demand and competition for the dates in the library.

You know, we could always do it if if it doesn't work out at I think Justin's idea is great to do it at uh Belior's, you know, the Belfior's new new restaurant um if he's willing to to host. Um, but there's other places in town, too. I would still like another option for a business if we can. We can check with the library. I think that's a good idea to see if, you know, we can always have a placeholder there. Um, but, you know, there are other pl we can go back to the pub. There's new owners there. We can go to the townhouse tavern and get food from Bushell, which is right next door. Um, there's, I think, you know, a lot of businesses that we we want pe you know, we want businesses to support the event. I think we need to support them.

I Yeah. No. Yeah. Absolutely.

Um just one thing under other business while I'm thinking about it. Um so the old Burger King property um so there's um I I know the owners of the property and they've reached out to me several times over the last year. So I'm um was helping them kind of in the preliminary stages. They're trying to redevelop that site. So, it's um looks like they have um McDonald's that's looking at redeveloping that property and they have council and I know they've approached I think the planning office um and had discussions and I know they were supposed to file some paperwork. They have to obviously go through conservation, but they're thinking about tearing that whole, you know, that existing building down, moving it out of the swamp,

taking the the I was just going to say they need to build up a hill, put a boat around it. They'll need ZBA, they'll need conservation, and they'll need planning for several pieces on each. I was told it was meant to be, they didn't want to have it widely known. That's what I was told just recently. Say what? I was told recently that the current people working on that didn't want it widely known that they were doing so until they filed. I I could be wrong. secondhand, but well, it's it's certainly a huge eyesore and, you know, to see something go there is going to be is going to be fantastic because Yeah, absolutely.

the propertyy's a mess. So, um, I hope you know the EDC would I don't know if we have to make an official vote or send a letter to our to the boards and committees that Justin just mentioned, but you know, I think we have to bend over backwards to get something there. Um, and really work with these people to to make that happen. Yeah. Have have Craig, since you seem to be very plugged in, any any movement at all on the gas station next door, the old, you know. No, unfortunately. That's because that's those two properties are, you know. Yeah, that's different property owners. The property just they're just adjacent to one another in terms of being

No, unfortunately. No. Unused. Yeah. I I think from my seat to your point Craig on having like a letter of support and you know urging urging I think once there is enough meat in those you know in the project for to have these letters I think we should have it on one of our on our agenda. Yes. We just have it on our agenda to take a vote and have a draft letter by somebody to that we can vote on and just send to the to the various committees planning ZPA that that the EDC supports the the project etc.

Yeah. William, is that something you could draft up? Just a simple letter um of support from this committee that we could vote on? Yep. Yep. I can add that to the list. That'd be great. Thank you. Okay. So, if there's nothing else then I will Anything else? Does anybody have anything else? I'm sorry, Justin. Uh, it was Concom, ZBA, and planning you said, correct? Those are the three I know of. Depending on what the actual plan that comes out, it may it may need to be board of health and other types of things that

could come into play. Well, we'll start with those three and go from there. Yeah, that would be down the road. Board of Health, but certainly the land planning. Yep. Piece of it.

Okay. The only other thing is um Angela, how are we doing? I I need to send you a couple of items from our past meeting the the minutes of the meetings from past meetings so that we can get those posted. How are you doing on pulling together meeting minutes from the ones that you were involved with?

So those I have almost completed and so I expect to bring those to our group. We're just going to need some time for people to be able to review. I mean, like tonight, unfortunately, with our agendas and what we discuss,

we don't have a lot of motions, but we we have a lot of verbal discussion. So, um I'm planning on that. We just had a short a short transition time from our last meeting to this one. And so, I'll be able to cover the period that I've been involved in um from the end of 24 to the present. and then I'm going to be uh turning the position over. I think that it's it's time for a change and for someone else to be able to take the notes and for the period of time before that I don't know who was responsible for note takingaking. Um, well, Sean was for a while, but and I did it a couple of times. So, I'll be sending you some of the things that I had, but as I said from uh it was pretty sparse in 2024 when there was that changeover. Well, and even before then during, you know, COVID and postcoid. So, we'll fill in as many of the gaps as we can. But we did not have uh in some of those years, we didn't have very many meetings. So, um, do for next month, do we want to have a formal discussion since you you bring it up, Angela, changing roles? I I definitely think for the for the role that that I've been in. Yes. And maybe just take a look it would be a

good idea to take a look at it for the board as a whole. Yeah. I mean Yeah. Because it's it's been pretty open-ended. So if somebody else wanted to be chairperson, vice chair, whatever, secretary, do we want to put that up for discussion? changing all of the roles or

it it's probably best to to do that for all the roles. I know at least the practice that I've done for the nonedc committees is planning board because that changes with the town election. We typically will redo the you chair, vice chair, etc. at the meeting or meeting you know the next the second meeting after the town election regarding the community preservation committee. We've typically done that after the select board makes their their appoint appointments at the end of the June roughly. So that the next meeting that we have the new formation is when we typically have done the the vote on who gets you know what position. But there's not there's no rule or anything that says you can't do it whenever. So if we just had it on the agenda to to re to do appointments for this committee, we can get that handled and it could be the exact same people if they roles etc. My only frame of reference on that, Justin, was when Carl Moyes was originally the chairperson and he elected to take it to pull back from that because he had too many other commitments. And at that point, he nominated Ray me to be the the next chairperson. So, and then there was a lot of turnover and etc. So, that's how I got to be chairperson, but you know, I'm democratic about all of this. So, we can put that on the, you know, next month's agenda to discuss it and see who wants to do what.

Okay, sounds good. Okay. So, if that's all, I will entertain uh a motion to adjourn. So, moved. Second. Okay, great. We are adjourned. Thanks everybody. I uh appreciate everybody showing up. I think we've gotten a lot uh accomplished in terms of where we want to go. So, we'll see you on April 15th.