Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

[Music] So, welcome everyone. This is the um EDC meeting for Wednesday, March 19th. So, what we had, this is actually somewhat of a continuation from the meeting that we had on February. Um, and by the way, In case people nobody got the memo which was sent out by everybody so it would be hard to miss. From here on in the COVID era uh remote and hybrid Zoom meeting has pretty much expires at the end of this month March 31st. So unless something extraordinary happens from now on we are going to be meeting. Yeah we're going to be live. Um, and I hope that helps everyone. And before we start the meeting, William was just telling me that it was actually voted and passed in this in the state for 2027. Yes. But we I don't know if it's, you know, how quick will that take effect by April 1st. I I don't believe so. It's only been passed in the House. Okay. Yeah. So, I don't think it's gone to the governor's desk. Okay. So, until Yeah. Until further notice or until we hear otherwise that it has been passed. Okay, we'll just plan to meet on uh the in the third week of April and we are going to um pretty much uh the biggest thing on the agenda is here um item one is a continuation of the discussion of the EDC spring event. So I spoke to Craig, he called me. So essentially, uh, we know now pretty much what we knew the last time

that Craig confirmed that he has booked the reunion tap for Thursday, May 15th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for the EDC meet and greet. Um, we have Evan has approved the budget for up to $2500, which we all believe will be more than adequate. the food options. Um, he did call Reunion Tap and Table and Craig said to me he was going to meet with them in the next two weeks. He'll let us know. So, in case anybody wants to go along, you know, accompany him whenever that is to review that, it would be fine. But, you know, we we'll probably do like a cash bar as we did the last time. There will be drinks, you know, probably soft drinks, water, fruit, juice, whatever. Um, and then a buffet style as we had the last time, which people really like. Um, now the one thing that we need to discuss is the flyer and advertising for business owners, chamber of commerce. Um, anybody have any ideas on that? Again, it doesn't have to be elaborate. William and I had met and talked about this. So, we can probably put together something fairly easy, you know, in a graphics program, you know, and down, you know, download it and, you know, hand it out to some of the, you know, some of the businesses to put in their windows in town. And that will help. I mean, I'm happy to hit some of the businesses on my end of town. Um, I think, you know, if we print it up, it shouldn't be too much once,

you know, just to print out some flyers on regular stock paper. Um, and we can also email them out. Yeah. As a point of order of thought, since we have a member on Zoom, do we need to do a roll call for the board? I just I just thought of it. Oh, okay. Me too. Okay. Well, we're doing this a little out of order, folks, for anybody who's listening, you know, but um Okay. So, let's do a roll call. I'll start. Laura Dillio, chairperson, present. Sean Mbury, present. Angela, present. Justin Wood, present. And Carl M, present. Nicole Eier, present. Okay. And our guest here is um who's sitting in who's going to be working with us is William Blake who is the assistant uh Grafton Town Administrator. Good evening everybody. Yes. So thanks everybody for coming. Sorry I did that a little out of order. Um and of course as I mentioned Craig Doffany who is the EDC representative who is the select board representative to the EDC is unable to make it tonight. But we did we did speak and he confirmed some of the things that I've just been saying. Y um so if and William has um he's going to be working with us to get some of the flyers out and then also to look at the list of businesses and we can you know once everything is you know confirmed within the next few weeks we can then start sending out emails email invites etc. So, um, William, can you tell us, can you give us a little insight for those who didn't meet with you, which is everybody here except me, about how that's going to work? Yes. So, I reached out to the clerk's office. I already have the list of all the businesses in

town that currently have active business lists. It also includes those that are expired. Um, I got it as a PDF, so I'm trying to put it into a format that is useful to everybody, including addresses, so that way we know where things are going to go. Um, but I think the information on that will be useful for two purposes. One, I think if they have an expired business license, that's a good place to start to find out if they're still active. That's something we talked about, cleaning up their registry that's on the website. Um, and if they are still here, just nudging them to renew their business license. Okay. Now, that's that's that's good stuff. So, um, do you think that the number is accurate for, you know, anywhere between 100 and 200 businesses? 150 maybe. That's a wide range, but I'd say yeah, it's probably somewhere in there. Yeah. Um, the list we have is like 13 pages long. So, Oh, okay. So, that's good. And there's probably some new ones, and I know you and I discussed this. There are some businesses, you know, that have changed hands. Yep. um where it was the business was sold like some of the the health and nutrition juice bars and things like that that's happened probably and there's couple of pizza places that have opened up that are new things things like that and in the last year there was the um the extra mark that's basically right next to I think it's extra mark right next to uniake yes that changed hands post office pub recently the post office pub changed hands yep it was on the select board meeting two weeks ago, I want to say. I think it's still the same family if I remember right, but it's technically a new order, I think. I could be wrong. Oh, okay. Uh, and there's a new business in that block. Uh, what used to be Erikson's Hardware for 58 years. So, there's a new business there. So, the Legos. Yes, the

Legos. So, there's there's a ton of people. And last time, even when in 2024 when we had the meeting in late January, it was cold, but we drew a pretty good a pretty good crowd. I would say that there were uh probably 65 to 70 business owner attendees exclusive not including us on the the board and a couple of other representatives like you know Dave Muradian you know and other people. So, um, one thing I would say that if anybody has any ideas, you know, I'll send you a list of people that you might not have that you may not have, William, that we can send it out to. So, if anybody thinks of somebody that that we want to invite, um, that's good. The other um EDC, the other point um that I wanted to make is uh I also have been helping out informally as not part of any committee with uh the meals that matter which is a 501c3 with Lorie Holden Gerard. Oh yeah. Um, she I'm helping her out with some grant writing, but Lori has been making meals for the people in the community. No questions asked if you just need a lift, if somebody is, you know, stressed, they're a caregiver, you just don't have time to shop, you don't have enough money, whatever. Um, and she delivers, she has a group of volunteers that will donate portions of the meal. might be a dessert. It could be breads and rolls, um, vegetables,

whatever. She cooks them up. She has, you know, her kitchen. And then she has, she and other volunteers will deliver the meals on Sundays. The original intent with this was she was thinking, well, she'd have meals on a Sunday afternoon for, you know, a community center, you know, at a community center in town. and you know, could be 50 people, it could be hundred, but she backed off of that because she thought, well, people might not want to to do that, but this she's really thriving with this. So, she needs um you know, she's asking for donations and help. And of course, we're doing some grant writing, and at this point, you know, grant writing is going to be a little tough. So, I was thinking, and I haven't spoken to Lori about this idea yet. I wanted to present it to the group because this isn't something that I don't think we've done before. But if uh you recall Sean and Carl, you were both on the committee when John Allen was here and during the COVID era, what he did was secure money out of our line item budget, when we were a line item on the town budget to help out struggling businesses in town, like some of the restaurants and the small businesses by giving them, you know, so many $25 gift certificates each that they could hand out to their customers, you know, to have them, you know, come in and do business. So given that many people are struggling now and there is, we don't think of Grafton as being a town with that's food insufficient, but in fact, if you look at the municipal center here, what we do see is the food bank shelves are often

empty. There are some people who are just doing grassroots ad hoc volunteering like um is a fellow by the name of Ken who is always up at the Grafton Recycling Center dumpster diving for bottles and he brings in about anywhere from 80 to $150 a month just from that that he donates directly to the food bank. Mhm. So Lori has gotten this grassroots effort going and what I'd like to see in the spirit of activism and community help is if um there might be some way to help her out. Now I will invite her because she has a business. She also has Holden Interiors her own upholstery business which is she's the third or fourth generation doing it in town. So she would be there anyway. But um if everyone agrees that it's okay um I can help her make up a flyer just to have there so that people are aware of it that they could take and then perhaps at a future meeting she could address us and we might be able to think of you know formalizing you know putting together some more concrete ways to help her What does everybody think? I guess I'll start from my initial thoughts. I think having her have a flyer for promoting those that matter in general or really letting any business in town have a way to provide you information to others that come on their business, you know, would be to me completely acceptable. I I think that's I would be hesitant to say to just any one business

or any one endeavor, you can do it without offering the same thing to everyone else just to you say all that. That's my thought. But yeah, I wouldn't be opposed at all to having a flyer or leaflet or even just a business card, whatever saying what she's doing to get a hand out. All right, let's I I want to I'm thinking as I'm talking here, but I want to back up to creating our flyer and distri distributing it to the businesses advertising our event. All right. Uh if we get get that put together and can we at the same time we're walking around to businesses if she has a separate flyer and we're handing it out at the same time to say, "Hey, this is us. This is a resident in town doing her thing. We're just helping her distribute these flyers by doing that. Is it is it a sword. Are we promoting and cond not so much condoning but are we as you just said are we helping one business over another you know type of thing I think even though sir I'm sorry even though she is a nonprof this particular thing is a nonprofit are we I'm I'm going on building on what he just said no and it's it's a fair point there's there's a site there's what I was thinking is we would be going around handing out our flyer only at our event is where I was thinking they could have her flyers or her any other business would be able to have it at the event. They can that kind of I agree. And what we could do in the invitation and I'm happy to write up the copy for the invitation and of course we'll send it around to everybody so we can you know uh get input. You know, everybody

has great ideas. Um, we can invite people to bring, you know, their business cards or things like that and have have a bowl to put, you know, their business cards in and take, etc. Um, well, we could see if you has, you know, I'm assuming they would, but the space to have the table that they put, you people could put their, you know, flyers in a stack, their business cards in a stack. Yeah. It's easier than a bowl because you don't can't see which one want to take. Yeah, I think that this is the point of a of a networking event is to invite all the businesses, encourage them to bring their flyers, encourage them to bring their leaflets. So, I think it's an opportunity for everyone. So, I think as we hand out our flyer, as long as we have information on there supporting um that effort, then everybody has an intent chance. If we're looking at a three-hour meeting, I think on our flyer, if we could focus on that on what we're going to put on our flyer for this piece of the agenda, if we're looking at three hours and we roughly have somewhere between um 100 to 200 businesses, and it's going to come down to who's who's active, who's licensed. It would be nice, I think, to make this part of like a networking is to give people an opportunity to stand up, introduce themselves, speak, and have a time limit and hold everybody to it. Give everybody an opportunity opportunity to speak for at least a minute to a minute and 30 seconds, that would take up our three hours. But I think if we had some prompts, you introduce yourself. One of our questions has been that we've been discussing at meetings is what can we do EDC? what can Grafton as a community do to help support businesses? So, that's one. Um, but we could I think as we brainstorm if we had, you know, at least two questions, two to three questions. One, they've got to introduce themselves and give them a a question for a prompt and just hold everybody to a time a lot

and give them an opportunity if they don't want to stand up and speak, they don't have to, but I think it would be wonderful to to give that to really make that this piece of the networking. I agree. They're going to know each other, right? No, I I like I like that idea. The first one that we had, which was the inaugural event went over really well. And it was people milling around, introducing themselves, talking, and you know, we didn't really have a set agenda. It was a hey, hi, how are you? Nice to meet you. Oh, I didn't know you were doing that. You know, so yeah, but now we want to, you know, put a little more structure and a bit more framework. So that that makes a lot of sense. I like that idea, Angela, because if I'm if I'm a local business, right, and and you're trying to get me to come out on a on a night, and it might be during my work hours, my thought is what's what's in it to help that business, right? So, I think if our flyer can help do that, we're creating a space for businesses to come together, network with each other, and also let a board in town know what what we can do, what Grafton as a whole can do. So, I think that this is wonderful and thank you so much, Laura. I I didn't know about um this build, this business, and I think providing this opportunity to all. We're going to learn about a lot of other businesses. That's our that's our goal, right? To learn about some of these other businesses that might not have um they might not have the presence in the town or a storefront that's well known. So, and there are things there are things going on uh that people can choose to donate to. So, for example, different businesses in town will donate um a month or a week, one week, what have you for the ride and share, you know, to bring this, you know, the seniors around to different places. I know Tina Theu at Theu Dental does that quite a bit as well as other people. But, you know, I think we're at the

point now where we're past COVID where people want to say, well, what is what is the EDC doing? So, this would help. Carl, you're a business owner. What do you think of this? I I actually don't run the business or own the business, but I am the CEO of the business. Um, thank you, Barbara. Uh, um, I I I think, you know, to Angela's point about the elevator speech, um, give them, you know, a question. What can the EC do for you? Maybe let them introduce themselves. I think is a great way to start the network. I'm I'm also thinking that maybe we have some type of uh speaker maybe uh how to improve sales or you know get some type of speaker to uh give a 20 minute speak on whatever might be the appropriate topic um that would eat up some time give them some feedback maybe help their businesses and whatever they maybe social media maybe I don't know whatever topic might be beneficial to them as a group um to help their businesses. I I uh with regards to the the other scenario the the was it Laura Holden is that Lori Lori um Holden Lori. Yeah. So Holden Gage. Yeah. The credit union made a donation to her and her outfit. Um I know she's the interior uh designs. Yeah. Holden I guess. Um, I I I I think we concentrate on businesses and not necessarily nonprofits. I I applaud her for her efforts. Um, and by all means, we can, you know, put us she could put a flyer together to to spread the word, but and maybe don't have gather donations from the businesses, but I don't think that um, and I and I want to say this the right way. I don't, you know, I don't

want to have this be a an EDC function or or way in which we're endorsing that particular charity, if that makes any sense. No, or or to build on that to to have people thinking that we're we gathered them together so that we can ask for donations. I'm fully behind it because the credit union donated to it. Um, so I but I guess, you know, if if she wants to solicit donations from other businesses, I'm I'm all for that. But I guess I I want to kind of stay away from it as as an EDC, if that makes any sense. Right. No, it it makes sense. But having I thought, you know, as a Grafton resident, and I've also donated, too, um, it helps uh to raise awareness and increase visibility because, as Angela just said, she hadn't heard about it. Yes. and they have a need on a weekly basis. I mean, she's uh this past week because she put she's on All Things Grafton and she has meals that matter on Facebook. So, she's on those things and she helped feed TW, you know, she made almost 100 meals for, you know, 25 different families. So, it's it's worthy. But point taken that this is not our primary focus, nor should it be, or even, you know, a secondary. But, you know, I guess as as the individual that receives the numerous requests for donations, um, you know, we probably, I think last year was over $90,000 worth of donations to different organizations within the our marketplace. you know, from little league to softball to lacrosse to, um, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, food bank, um, uh, homeless shelters, veterans, you

name it. Um, you know, that's I guess part of being a, you know, a pillar of the community as a business. On the other side of that is, you know, I think our charge, and I think we've talked about this numerous times, is is try to attract business. And I know all these businesses get requests for donations and sponsorships all the time. So I guess I don't want to I like I said I think Lorie's we we've donated to that and I think it's a a valiant or a valuable entity or valuable you know scenario but I just don't think you know if she wants to come to the meeting and talk about it great but I don't I guess I want to stay away from it on the EC level. No I mean that's fine. I'm just trying to be a good Grafton resident, you know, and and highlight a worthy co cause cause acknowledging that there are a ton of worthy causes out there as you say, the little league, the this, you know, friends of the earth, whatever. True. I think I think we should just circle it back to as was as Kyle's saying, let's let's work on what was this our first our agenda so we can get get we want to we need and want to talk about our event and the other as he as he say we don't want to be we don't want businesses to misinterpret our intent as he just said they they get hit hit enough and so we could it could easily go against us go against us go against the spirit of the yes so why don't we just for now we'll focus on this we can have a side conversation with Lori how how she wants to come to the meeting and talk to you that's up to hers I think well I think we're all in agreement that we don't do anything out

of the ordinary for any any one business or endeavor which includes meals that matter where we do explain hey you can bring a flyer or pamphlet or something and leave it you know with our table how we're going to set up that I think we're all in agreement on that point. Yes. So the the second thing I wanted to just say that is in my mind it seems like I might be in the minority on on being having this be a concern but wanted just to share it anyway. If we do have the businesses have, you know, two minutes, three minutes to talk, potent have a speaker, we don't, it diminishes the ability for people to pop in and pop out, especially if they want to pop in to have some chances for networking and actually talking to people because they see people essentially lining up or doing, you know, brief speeches. They might go, well, I don't have time to wait for that to be done to talk to people and they might leave. That's one thought I have in my mind. I don't know if it's a concern to actually be, you know, to to have an issue with, but it was a thought I wanted to share. Right. So, when people do the introduction, they say, "Hi, I am John Smith. I own such and such welding company. We specialize in aluminum cast aluminum welding." Someone in the group might say, "I didn't know that. I saw you sign, but I didn't know what you did." I think that's what the introduction should be, not a little, as you said, a a spiel so I think and people can and you know a lot of people don't like to get up and speak so in lie of that they could bring their own little flyer and hand out what have you. Yep. And like I said I don't have any any reason to not to move forward with planning that as far as people speaking and whatever. It's just the Yeah. No, it's it's a valid No, it's a valid point. Justin Nicole, we haven't forgotten about you. You're you're just you've got a I think if we do the intro part um just near the

beginning of of the um meeting then people who can't stay long will still be able to introduce their business and you know stay for a drink and then leave. But if people want to stay longer they can. I think that's what we did last time. We did the intros like near the beginning of of the the meeting or the event. Yes. Yeah. So that will work. And I'm I'm guessing that a lot, you know, you might have maybe 15 or 20 people who want to get up and talk and others who don't. And but if we give them the option ahead of time of bringing a b business cards, stack of business cards, a flyer, that that works. Yep. Okay. So, um that's the next point. Hopefully um Craig uh will get back to us in the next couple of weeks. He'll let us know when he's going over to meet uh at Reunion Tap and Table ahead of time in case anyone wants to go with him, you know, um and we can email about if anybody has any ideas about options that they have for food. But you know that's it's that part is pretty straightforward. I think couple of things. We need to, shall we say, iron out the flyer and how we're going to distribute it. If if we're going to, obviously, it's social media. You put it's on so you put it on social media. Mhm. And the town websites, whatever available or applicable rather. And then if we get a a physical flyer and a list of businesses, we can at one of our meetings hopefully with enough time, we say, "Okay, you take 10 10 10 and we break it up or how you know." So that's

that's something I think that's that's important how we're going to physically get the flyer to the to the businesses. Yes. And then obviously we need to know you what business. We're not going to obviously hand it to Wanker Gordens or Cland Farms, but maybe we can put it on a Cland Farms window type of thing. So yes, you know, so that's that's a couple things that I'd like to see. You know, what are we going to put into the flyer? How do we want to word it? And then again, how are we going to hand it out? Okay, so first order of business, what are we going to include in the flyer? Mhm. Um, I can take the lead and write some of the copy and then send it around to all of us for, you know, to see if we what we want to add. Mhm. Okay. And then reach a consensus about what will be included by the next meeting because we want that. May May I suggest because of open meeting law and the desire to have something done by our next meeting? Mhm. Yeah, that we have a sub commmittee that we decide to do that in time for our next meeting. So it could be you plus any number of of us that want to do it but less than a quart. That way that way there can be worked on and then you people that might feel strongly would be involved in it and then the rest of us still won't be dealing with it until the next meeting because of reading law. That's my suggestion. Okay. So then the next question is, and by the way, I don't have to take the lead. I'm just volunteering to do so. I don't want to look like I'm usurping anybody and say, "I'll do it. I'll do it." You know, you're So does anybody Is there anybody who wants to take the lead? I'm I'll be honest with you. I My graphic design is terrible. Well, I'm not so much doing the graphic design.

I'm I'm I'm a wordssmith. Yeah. you know, but it's it's not that hard to get a template together and, you know, make it look nice. You know, even with templates, I'm bad. So, okay. So, I can take lead if everybody wants or if somebody else wants to take lead. Is it Nicole? Yeah, Nicole. She did it last time. She I believe No. Did you put the flyer together last time or what? No. Oh, John Allen did it. I don't know who I don't know if John did it himself or um Oh, that's right. had somebody do it. I'm not sure. So, it it really it just I think it needs to be just basic. Grafton EDC is sponsoring or hosting a Grafton business owners network. A spring a spring meet and greet. Right. Right. Yeah. at such and such time, you know, put the date and time and I don't, you know, I don't think we need a no a lot of thought and and time into it, Madam Chair. If you're looking for just a basic flyer like that, I think that's something we can take care of in my office. If you want to put together more substantial content for an article on the website, which could tie into updating the EDC page, I think that that would be great because there you can flesh it out as much as you want. you know, can find a onepage flyer. It can be a thousand words if you'd like. Yeah. And we could provide a link on the flyer. Yep. To the website and drive people there and also put it on social media. So, that's a great idea. And just one more thought with that, going back to the introductions and the question of how can EDC help businesses. Perhaps a link to a form on the website of if you can't attend, answer here. Yeah. Something of that nature. Yeah. Just check in. Tell us who you are, what what you'd like to see. Great idea, William. And the only thing not mentioned out loud that we should have on the flyer in

some way is that we are providing some food. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You got to have the little champagne glasses in the bottom corner. Yes. As a graphic providing food, you know, plus a cash bar. You say cash bar, food will be provided, cash bar available. Yep. Okay. So I'll I'll go and look up what John did last year and see how we can um piggy back off that and you know expand a little. So I think the question is then is anyone on this committee wanting to work with Laura to you and staff to create this or don't say it like that. Does anybody want to work with Laura? [Music] Does anybody want to be involved in the design and process before our next meeting which which point we'll probably need to be taking our next steps anyway? Yeah. I mean, I'd give it a shot, you know. Okay. Yeah, I think that this is fine. It sounds like it's Laura, Sean, and William. So, we've got seven three of you as a subcommittee. Okay. So, that's that's great. Sorry. I'm sorry. It's okay. It's all right. So, there's two. There's two. Well, we'll be going to William for Right. Yeah. administrative support. And Fiona did say she had a copy of John Allen's data. Yep. So, the previous flyer will probably be in there somewhere. I don't know. Yeah, I actually it was it was sent to me as well. I just have to go into all the files. They downloaded them and you know I have them on my home computer. Um but we can It might have been you that said it, not Fiona. I could be misremembering. Okay. So what I will do is get that um start working on that in the next week, you know, in the next few days and get something to everybody within the next two week time frame. So how many how many days or weeks do we actually have before this happens? Before the event happens, the actual

event is May 15th. So we have I can count seven weeks, I would think. I had for some reason the seventh seventh or eth. Okay. May 15th. So really, if we're only going to meet in four weeks, that's kind of what happened timeline, I think. Yeah. Well, as you say, we're not we're not doing war in peace here. You're right. You know, so it shouldn't be it shouldn't eight full weeks. So, yeah. All right. But yeah, point taken that we want this finished and signed off on by the next meeting so that we have a full month to get distri distribute the flyers and put the stuff up on the web page and put it on social media so that people know it's there. I mean, people have a hard enough time remembering going to the kids, picking the kids up from soccer and little league and, you know, go what meetings happen in town, select board, FinCon, you know, school board, what have you. So, this will give us some time. All right. One other thought on the flyer that might be good to have just because of technology awareness of some people is the Q a QR code so they can scan it with their phone or device to get to the website that we're putting up. Okay, that I'm assuming you guys know how to do that, but no, I can certainly help at least figure out how to give you information. No, we can do it. Yeah, that's awesome. That's good. Yeah, especially for the younger bis, you know, the younger business owners in town and there are there are a few of them as well. Okay, any other thoughts? Anybody else want to provide any input on this item? Sounds like a plan. I like it. Okay, Nicole.

Yep, sounds good to me. Okay. So then um if everyone is in agreement, we'll move to the next item. Um Fiona Coughlin, the town planner, and myself both received um communications from uh the Worcester Livability Magazine. uh in years past we have advertised here's I have a copy of it and I can pass this around and it basically they've got a digital edition they've got the online magazine etc and uh Sean I know you were here and um Carl you were also here when we voted oh a couple of you know two three years ago when we had a line item in the budget and there was money that we left, you know, needed to spend. So, we agreed to, we did pass the motion at the time. I'm thinking this is 2022, 2023, something like that. John Allen took care of this, right? Um, so we did advertise in the magazine. They do have a digital thing. And if you saw in the meeting agenda, um Matt McMortar, who is the marketing manager, he contacted us about renewing for print, digital, and online editions. Um and they they did have he did have a schedule of, you know, monies, but since we don't we are not a line item in the budget this year, right? And since money is tight. Yeah. And I myself, you know, I'm all for advertising, but I'm not sure how that best serves the EDC in the sense that it is difficult to quantify the return on investment for the

cheapest the the least expensive option for this is, you know, $4,400, I think. Yeah. The most expensive is $10,000. Now, obviously that's their list pricing. Mhm. As you can see by the size of the magazine, which has considerably shrunk. Um, any ROI would most likely come from digital editions, etc. But again, it's hard to quantify. So, given almost possible war, yes, it is. Well, yeah. So, I don't even know why, you know, I think at the time it made sense, but I I I haven't heard of this particular publish magazine or digital presence at all since you brought it up from the previous couple years ago. So, I I'm I'm I'm in agreement. I don't think we should Yeah, it's right. And by by the way um when I spoke Fiona passed it on to me and uh she she her opinion and it was strictly her own personal opinion since she is not a member of the EDC but she's a town planner is that she thought it was a non-starter. I had responded to Matt McMortar's email, you know, just as a prefuncter response basically saying I would bring it up at the EDC meeting and so I'm bringing it up, but I looking at the page that's in here. This feels like it's has a slight overlap with with us, but it's the in a way it's the town's as a town preference on what parcels and things could be developed that are not yet developed that they might not want

to see develop. And this magazine might be a venue to get that interest in and get, oh yeah, we have this, you know, available thing that might work out for us. Great. But at the same time, I feel a lot of businesses that might be looking to do this kind of, you know, develop on one of these parcels would most likely already have the information on, you know, what talents might they be interested in, you know, contacting the town, is there anything available that that fits these requirements or looking in their own sites. So, well, the the ad could be anything to put this Yeah. To provide context, at the time we were doing this where we were just coming out of COVID, one of the main marketing thrust, if you will, or main points was Grafton is open for business. Yeah. And there was a lot going on. You remember we had many discussions regarding what was going on over at Tufts and etc. So, yeah. No, absolutely. And one of the where I was going with that too is I think if it was to be an advertisement like this you that it just you in this one that you showed showed me. I think that would be likely a you know planning department line item to say that that that advertising makes sense or administrator's office saying that advertising makes sense and the town to incur that as themselves. And then if we are to do something like this, I would want to know what are we advertising that makes sense to be having, you know, this type of program like in in a year in this magazine. And I don't see anything that would make sense for that. In a way, if we were hosting these these events every month, that might make sense for us to do, but we're not. And we don't have the budget to do that every month. Well, again, going back to 2023, and I know Nicole,

um, you were at the we did have a a lunchon over on the TUS campus where we invited a lot of prospective people, you know, um, current current business owners in Grafton, but also outside people. And that was that was very very well attended. But again, that was 2023, 2022. Um, and I think the idea was to try and get that office building filled. That was that was one of the main Yes. for us. So that year, but you know, it's now two, three years later. So, yep. Um, okay. So, do we want to take this to a vote that we are I will move that The EDC does not pursue an advertisement renewal. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor? I think. Okay. Yeah. Um Carl Moyes. Hi. Nicole. Hi. Justin. Hi. Angela. Hi. Sean I I Okay. Okay. Terrific. Um now the the other item the other item of business EDC business first on the lift was we were originally um as part of what we had talked about the beginning of the year the January and February meetings trying to line up guest speakers to come in. Mhm. Um Craig Dolphin was trying to line up Craig Blazil who was unable to make this evening's meeting, but he's going to um he is tentatively set right now. He said

he would attend our April 16th meeting. So um that's [Music] the that's that. So that's that's the only thing that I have. Um I had an individual from the Marro CD EDC and um he was willing to bring the executive director of the Marro EDC as well as as a guest speaker. So um he mentioned it to me a couple days ago. Um he I think we had tried to get him on the uh the calendar for January, but um he had to cancel. So, you know, if we can get him on the count, when do you think our next meeting would be made? Um, after the Well, I mean, if they could do I mean, we can I can go back to Craig because it seems like Craig Blazel uh I think he's from Westboro. He he was willing, you know, he didn't he wasn't he didn't absolutely have to be here on April in the April meeting. So, okay. Um, either either one works works for me. I can ask him if the 16th works and maybe I, you know, maybe I can get back to you and confirm either way. So, okay. Great. And I can Yeah. All right. And I'll say having someone come on any day makes sense. I think two in the same day wouldn't. But otherwise, I think the idea since, you know, Craig's in touch with one, you know, Carl's in touch with the other and they can both work through you together and it's still less than a quorum. So, I don't have an issue on that front and we can have that straightened out and whoever is decided to be coming for April, it can be on the agenda. Okay, sounds good. Okay, terrific. Yeah. And if anybody, while

we're talking about this, you know, going forward, if anybody has ideas for future people going into, you know, the summer time frame, that works, too. But for right now, we'll work uh with Carl and Craig to set up who who the next person is going to be. Okay. And Angela, one quick question. We are going to have the event on May 5 on May 15th, which is a Thursday night. Mhm. Okay. Do we want to schedule the May meeting of the EDC? I think it makes more sense to have it after the May 15th thing. So does I think May 21st for our May meeting. Yeah. Yeah. To to maybe debrief if you want lack of a better word. May 21st is the immediate week after. And yeah, I'm free could and if something makes that not work out, the 28th is also still fairly close. Yeah. Um that week though we're we're sort of getting into close to when is Memorial Day is it the 26th 26th. Yeah. So there might be people away but so tentatively um what night is the 21st? It's a Wednesday. A Wednesday. It's a Wednesday. Okay. All right. Because uh I'm going to have BAC meeting 22nd, I believe. Okay. We'll see. Um, can we take a roll call right now for the 21st meeting to have it on the 21st? We can I meeting dates are usually car's discretion anyway. So, we don't even have to do that. Mhm. Okay. But we we can if you prefer Well, does anybody have a I guess you know things come up. So, if somebody has

a conflict and can't come at the last minute. Yeah. Whatever. So, we'll see. And there's always the possibility if um it's voted on that we might still be able to have remote meetings or hybrid meetings. Okay. But right now, let's sort of tentatively pencil that in for the May 21st and we can change it if need be. Okay. Sure. Okay. So then the only other thing is does anybody have any other business or point that they would like to raise? Sorry, just uh going back to the speakers just an idea. Um is there any feeling on potentially having some somebody from the CMRPC in the town works closely with them on a variety of projects and they do have an economic development branch. Um, I don't know what they offer, but I could certainly look into it if that's something the the committee is interested in. Yeah. Could you just for the sake of this being recorded and somebody who might watch it later? What's that? The Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission. Uh, so we do a lot of work with them specifically in the planning sphere. Um, I believe they're currently doing our comprehensive master plan. Oh yes, the master plan. But they they touch on a couple of different areas. Economic development is one of them. Again, I don't know what they specialize in or what they might be able to offer, but true, I can I'm certainly happy to reach out and find out. Yeah. Okay. The town earns a lot of hours from them as well when it comes to like them participating, you know, for us because Bob passengers are delegate to them and people that participate in CIPC meetings and situations are, you know, the towns get hours from them from CNC for doing that and Bob is on a lot. chair for heard a lot of things over there too. So, which brings up an interesting point because

CMRC reps and the mass development plan, they were at our meet and greet in 2024. So, it makes sense to invite them to the meet and greet. Yes. As well. Yeah. Um, so the last point of business is that uh Natalia and Fiona sent out information from the town planner's office about hey they wanted our input on the master plan so that is something that we should um put on the agenda for the next for the April meeting I would we I think we might need it before then yeah I would say it might need to be in before them for what they're looking for because I know it's a preliminary but it's not out and technically only the planning board needs to vote to approve the master But the planning board can also choose to try to send it to the town meeting, you know, for a formal vote that way. But, you know, by the When's the uh go to print date on that on the master plan? I don't think there's one in on paper, so to speak. I think, you know, planning board could choose to vote late this year instead of, you know, earlier, but I think there might be a date that ends the CMRPC's involvement in master plan. So, that would be that would be set effectively. Fiona would know for sure. All right. I will reach out to Fiona tomorrow and then just send around an email saying here's when we have to have Yep. the feedback for and then we can do that. Cool. Anything else? Thank you very much. Move to move ajourn second. Okay. All in favor? I. Roll call. Roll call.

Oh, I have the name. Roll. I feel like it's the mousketeer sound off now. Okay. I second. Okay. Carl. Uh, I Nicole. Just say yes. I think she fell asleep. Okay. Angela. Yes. Hi, Sean. I I Okay, well that's it. Thanks everybody for for coming out and um good meeting. And by the way, it's 8 o'clock on the dot. Wow. So,