Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. Okay. Good evening everybody. Recording in progress. Yes. Okay. Wednesday, December 17th, 2025. I hereby call the Economic Development Commission meeting to order. So, good evening everybody. Hi Sean. Thanks. Thanks for taking the time everybody to be here. Um, we do a roll call. Yes. Yes, we can do the roll call.

Okay, we'll start. Okay. Angela, present. Carl Moyes, present. Laura present. John Mack present. Okay. So, um we have several commission members who won't be with us tonight. Craig Dolph, Justin Cook, and uh we are expecting guest speakers at 7:30.

Um so, our November 5th business networking event was I would say a a success and now um we're at the end of the year last meeting of the year and we need to uh just take a look at the calendar to set the meetings for next year.

Um after all the and forth that we did over the year and trying to tap dance and you know around other committees and commission schedules. I think unless anybody disagrees that the third Wednesday of the month here or in the municipal center once they get the kinks worked out of the audio issues um still seems like the best like the best option. Monday nights and Thursday nights we're just going to run into

Yeah. committees and conflict. So, um Sean, how do you feel about that? I'm all right. Okay. Keeping the same schedule. Terrific. Um so, let me just take a look. Um Nicole had proposed that we on the agenda which we have uh doing a survey not just of businesses existing businesses. Yes. Forget it was Shrewberry.

You said something like Shrewsbury. I can look it up in um Messenger. They did they did like a um forum with their whole community instead of just the business owners. They invited the entire community to come and talk about economic development within their community. And I think the second part of it was the survey, but I I just thought it was interesting that they threw it out to the entire community instead of just business owners

and then kind of like an education um forum sort of like we did for the affordable housing trust where we had speakers come in and we educated the group about what affordable housing actually meant so we could do it on the flip side of like economic development. What does that mean for Grafton? What does that look like? We could talk about the different um areas that we would like to get developed. Um just survey and then they did the attendees. Yep.

I think they actually conducted the survey at the forum and then they were going to send it out after the forum ended as well to collect additional information that they maybe didn't get from somebody that was at the forum, whatever it might be. Well, one thing we might be able to do because um I'm I'm a big fan of surveys. That's my life's blood in my professional life and uh etc. We have done a couple of surveys before. As a matter of fact, the town cribed on the survey that developed what was it two years ago.

But as we know, usually even in paid If you pay somebody to take a survey, which we would not do, but even in paid marketing surveys, you get on average 5 to 10% response rate, which is about what we got. One thing I thought we could do since the technology is available and we would have to talk to um Evan Rousard, town administrator, is when we have the town meetings and the town elections, we people out the clickers and they can give the response.

I don't know if if that's something that might be feasible for us to do

if we had we threw it open for people because certainly people from the select board and other committees at the very least as well as business owners in town and even concern, you know, even activist or concerned residents would show up. But that think if we could hold them on the spot the similar to the fashion that we have with the town elections that would really be great because we know that no matter what we do sending out mailings going online and posting at the various Grafton Facebook pages and website. It's a law of diminishing returns.

Yeah. So, I thought was more interesting about them inviting all of all community members instead of just business owners because what if somebody who lives in town knows a developer that's like looking for their next project or Yeah. something of that sort. It just feels like it feels like a little bit trying to figure out a way to get some of these parcels of land and north, you know, developed or get developers interested in it to bring more industry commercial stuff in.

I don't think about how we could get the message out a little bit broader. I think we're going to be intrigued with what Brian and Meredith have to say. We actually briefly talked about that. They're at a point in where that partners to refer to. There's no It's interesting because we also talked, the hotels,

etc., etc. Then you look at West Shbury, you know, they're got Route 9, they've got 495. It's we're at a disadvantage to a point. only because you know I think finally UPS stepping up and finally starting to build it's going to be huge. I think the goodman is going to do this property right that warehouse in front of Yeah. No, not that one that was shut down. Right. This one's over by uh

Okay. So, I think is he started to build or permanently yet or no? I don't believe so, but I also don't know. Right. We should probably have a I think we have a checklist of property somewhere, right? Yeah. We did at some point because I know we've talked about trying to distribute that somehow. Yeah. I think with this group of what we hear, we might be able to be a little bit more proactive with that that and Kevin speaker, he was I felt like talking something about um

getting like getting on like some list state level wise. He certainly knows where the sources are and how to tap into money and you know things like this and um so I think something big like that would make it like that's going to make an impact. I mean the next event we have you know if it's a open to the public he should be there no doubt about

yeah so maybe after we hear the speakers tonight we'll get even more ideas about what we want the next event to be

Yes. And by the way Meredith and Ryan are both as Carl said and as I found when I reached out to them um very very enthusiastic. One of the things that I wanted them to discuss here tonight is to basically talk about how they function which is a bit different from us because they have their own um building. They are an entity with 10 to 12 employees. They have the executive board. So they have a very well definfed and wellhed framework of operation

and they do have funding that we don't have. So therein lies the big difference but I also um wanted to pick their brains on how they're you know how they're doing what they what they do. I mean don't get me wrong I think if we look back in the past year and a half we've made great strides. regular meetings. We've had two events now. Um people know that we're here. We are populating the website and we are doing outreach. We have done outreach to say how can how can we help you? Um the next step in the new year is to actually get some of the people the business owners who would like to us to put their profiles up on our website to actually do that and I'm happy to take happy to take the lead on that. One thing that we have seen and I wanted to find out from Meredith and Ryan um you know how they advertise because in the past we spent I think 8 to10,000 when John Allen was here which we all voted on to have a have this in there and it's very difficult to know what type of ROI return on investment that we get. Now, one could argue that all you need is one person to come in or one business to come in and then the thing has paid for itself,

right?

But that this is going back to 2024 2025 and when the saleserson came around again, it wasn't feasible for us because we no longer had we were no longer a line item on the budget. Um, so John had some very good ideas. Of course, we were hamstrung as everyone was by by co for a good two or three years. But certainly I think we've got a great group here of raftonites and a lot of a lot of expertise and a lot of ideas. Now we just need you know we're toddling and now we just need to really get someone.

Yes.

Sean, have you got um anything to add? You always have uh you're a towny so you always have uh good ideas. Couple of quick thoughts on you say talked about survey for the residents and businesses. Uh I think going forward having more events similar to one you just had only not just businesses residents also. Uh the issue we all know is when people that will attend a gathering or a meeting if it pertains to something obviously that they care about uh I think the time the time might be better spent instead of surveying the town talking about hosting an event inviting businesses business people and residents and let's talk about XYZ. If you compose a we'll say an agenda for the for the meeting. You'll get obviously the residents that are interested and from that I think you may glean more information or feedback about what people in town want instead of reacting to a developer coming in and saying this is what I would like to do with this parcel of land. Well, respectfully, and this is my uh investigative reporting background coming out,

and you need empirical data. That's why you want to do the survey. Now, you've been at the town meetings and some of those things. If you have 155 articles and you're voting on all of them, it's and you're clicking. We don't need to do that. we can have a five to six question survey and then as we're at this meeting if you have residents, businesses, even prospective businesses that are considering Grafton, we can, you know, work the room as we did at all these things and take each of us take some notes to gather the anecdotal data. to back it up. But if we are, you know, the select board is going forward, one of the things that they were saying is that they're looking for us to take an initiative, but we just can't do it acting blind. We will need to back it up with some data and say, "Hey, when you do a survey, Sean, some of the responses are very predictable, but there's always one or two surprises in the thing and that's what it's good for so that we can say okay well we had 100 responses or 75 you know responses out of this survey and x% 82% said these are the hot button issues for them this is what they consider impediments to or challenges in business development and grafting. This is what they'd like to see. Um, so I think it doesn't have to be to your point, it doesn't have to be an either or. I think we can do both and we could keep it man we could keep the

survey manageable. What you do in these surveys is you have multiple choice and you do five or six questions so that it's not taking up the whole evening. And what we have seen in everyone of each of the events that we've hosted, people don't hold back. They're very very interested in talking and communicating what they need and they also they also, you know, uh enjoyed the networking aspect of it.

So for instance, Natalie Batista who has K9 Solutions, she was getting business just by being there. Then you have somebody like Chuck Brown of Bread breads.

All he has to do, I mean, he doesn't even have to advertise at this point. People are just following the smell of the baking, but it's, you know, but it's tougher for some other folks, especially in the outlying areas or people who have homebased businesses. We do have homebased bakers, but you have other businesses that are in South Grafton that might be, you know, off on a side street, so it's tougher for them. Hello Meredith. Hi, Brian. Come on in. How are you? Very well, thank you. Thanks for coming out. Pleasure. Great.

How are you? Nice to meet you. Angel, thanks for being so prompt and responding. Nice to meet you.

Thanks for Yeah, you can sit. You can sit down there. And we had a couple of little handouts to to give you so you can see what we did on our last um business meeting. This is just and it's on it's on our website, but we've been getting better at this as we go along. Sure. Thank you, Angela. Are we public? Are we on TV right now? All right. Yes. So, it's being recorded. Oh, okay.

That would be interesting. Um anyway, so um Just to finish just to finish up on that one point that we were doing with Sean talking about doing a survey at the next event and maybe maybe using the technology. I mean William um who would we talk to about that? Evan to see if we could get the the town moderator. The town meeting. Okay. So who is the town moderator? Domin. Okay. Person I haven't met yet. Okay. So what does everybody think of that idea? Stop the conversation.

Yeah. Okay. Terrific. So um without further ado, if nobody has anything else to say, I would like to um talk get going with our guest speakers. Um, is everybody on board? Yes. Okay.

Um, first of all, welcome Meredith Harris. You're the executive director of the Marlboro EDC and Brian Bouvier, who is a proud Grafton resident and business owner in Moral. Your company, your family business, Bouvier Pharmacy, has been in business now for 125 years. So obviously you folks are doing something right. Okay.

And uh we'd love to hear it. As as I mentioned on um an email today with Meredith, she says, "Do you want me to bring anything, you know, other than yourself?" No. We're very interested in hearing about how Marboro EDC operates, which is different from the way many town economic development commissions operate because you you are your own business entity. That's right. And you get funding. So tell us about tell us about this this magic.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Mary, executive director of Auburn Economic Development Corporation. Um, been in the role for about 10 years now. Um, very happy to be there. Very lucky to have a community that prioritizes economic development. Um, which is why we are successful at what we do. Um, what really makes us different from other communities is that we are fully funded through city tax dollars. There's no membership, you know, based, it's not a membership organization. We aren't going out to businesses looking We're not asking for anything. Um, and we have we are solely funed through the hotel tax.

Excuse me, Meredith. Could I just stop for a second? So, you can either move to this chair or one of these chairs or turn around so that people Yeah. People can can see can actually see you so that you're not it's not they're not just looking at the back of your head. Okay. Is that is that good for the folks who are in there? Bob, no it's not. Okay, the camera will move. Okay, so here Okay, so here we are. Okay, terrific. So yes,

so so we're bringing back to 2005 2006 time frame. So at that time, Fidelity was one of the biggest, largest employers in Malboro, had about 5,000 employees. They left seemingly overnight, took with all 5,000 of those employees, went to Nashville, New Hampshire. And the story, I was not there at the time, but the story is the the folks that were there, the administration, people much smarter than myself, said, "How do we make sure that this never happens again? That a business in our community that's this big and is this many jobs for our, you know, our residents doesn't We don't know or we don't at least have any idea why they're leaving. Have a shot a bite at the apple to keep them here. Things of that nature. So they created at the time it was called Marbor 2010. And Brian you might have been around at the time when they did that.

I was working for you were there. So at the time they came up with this idea of okay it was 2006. We're gonna put together this group. It's called Malber 2010. And they wanted to get to 2010 to really try to rebuild the economy come up with some economic development standpoint. how we could make sure that there were boots on the ground and that didn't happen. Well, 2010 came pretty quickly. During those four years, it was membership based, so we were out asking for money, looking for those membership fees, things of that nature. You know, again, realized pretty quickly that that model wasn't going to work if it was going to be sustainable long term.

Um, you know, it's hard to help a business and kind of cut through those barriers when you're constantly have your hand out and you're asking them to to give back. Um, and it also prevents you from being able to of all sizes and and really just be a resource for folks. So at the time the local option taxes were kind of new in the Commonwealth Mal um opted to approve both the hotel tax and the meals tax around the same time. The hotel tax, we do have the largest number of hotel rooms outside of greater Boston. We implemented that hotel tax, but there was a caveat through the state legislature that it could only be used for economic development. So instead of the money being collected and going into a general fun whatever is needed, you know, that day. It is only designated for economic development, much like the meals tax, which is only designated for upgrades to the parks and fields in the city. So, since then, every year we've got in front of the city council. We have our budget. Um, it's split pretty evenly between operations and special projects. Um, I have a team right now of four full-time staff that's including myself. Um, we do a lot of special projects which include business, attraction, retention, robust business attraction work program that we run. Um then we also have a hospitality um program as well where we're really trying to give back to that hospitality community which is where we're funed through and also kind of our economic engine in the city with the hotels that are there. The sports center as well which about two million visitors a year so we have the hospitality program and then we also ser that function as well. We get a specific amount of money from the council each year to put towards planning projects. We do it on a project basis. You know, whatever's coming in, we can partner with whether it's a private group, RKG, MAPC, whatever it may be, whatever we decide at the time. Um, and then we do

do a lot of um stuff in terms of community development, uh, downtown development, things of that nature as well. So, it's kind of the background of of how we got started, how we function. Um, would be happy to talk to you guys about any of the different that we have part of our special projects as well that's been a huge driver for us was the economic development toolbox. So that's a grant grant programs that we have a suite of programs that are available for small to midsize businesses that are looking to either come into the city or grow within the city. Um you know that's been really fruitful for us. We saw, you know, a lot of success with bringing what we call the big fish to the city, filling some of those vacant spaces that were available. But we realized pretty quickly, you know, okay, that's great. You want to bring in the big fish, but you also got to make sure that that middle middle tier of businesses are also doing well and that you're supporting them. Um, it's kind of your bread and butter in the city. So, so we would love to be able to pick your brain and work with you on how to replicate your success. That said, there are some very salient and uh differences between Marlboro and Grafton.

I mean, starting with the hotels and the sports comp. I mean, you know, we're eight miles from Polar Park, but that doesn't bring business to to Grafton. The other thing is that we are not we don't have a route n going through here, right? Like Shrewsbury, Westboro, you know, the whole Framingham part. So, is centrally located, but unless you're coming here for a specific reason, you're not necessarily going to,

you know, set up a business here. Even though we have done outreach and we had a Grafton open for business meeting that was very successful. Remember that was like in 2022 was a lunchon. We got a lot of people for that. It was held at one of the buildings at Tufts and I mean we have the other thing is and Carl could speak to this more. Um Grafton has not been able to fully realize and exploit some of the things we have like tough what in terms of the business taxes because they get a

you know they're nonprofit but big. We do have a couple of very big established businesses here. Wingman Gordon, Washington Mills. After that, of course, you know, you've got Stop and Shop and a few things. After that, it falls off and it's mainly, you know, small or midsize businesses like a lumber, but then you've got a lot of restaurants with, you know, liquor stores. You got a great Yes, we highly do. I when I was coming through I'm like, "Wow, this, you know, that's something that we

we strive for." I mean, it's beautiful. Yes, it is very it's very picturesque, but as the town we're trying to balance

the uh suburban diaspora and sprawl that we're getting, you know, so our 90% of uh the tax base comes from residential property taxes and people are groaning under the weight. So that's what we are tasked with is trying to see can we get attracted development like over on route 30 ideally there would be 100,000 square foot building but in order to even break ground for that you have to have a commitment for 25 to 30%

right like so and that's really difficult in today's market exactly it is we Even as successful as we've been in the bio, you know, tech and life sciences space, we still have empty buildings. So, it's hard. I mean, to to convince an owner to build brand new on spec is very difficult right now. It is. And we struggle with certain things in town, like a gas station closes, but it's still there. And then the pizza place had to close because

um move because they literally got flooded one day. So, we do have vibrant smaller businesses but we need to expand and we are actively having events to get people to come out and network. So that's why you know and the next step is trying to is hearing what folks like the Marboro EDC has to say and see how we might be able to leverage some of the things that you've done and turn it into real and I would add add to what was saying and again it's so funny because you know I joined the board there

um and you know and and but then I then I be so I go to these meetings and then I'd sit in on a town meeting you know here and and I'd hear people saying we want to keep it quain sick of these taxes you know you're like okay you can't have it both kind but but you know you've got to be prodevelopment if you don't want the taxes there's no else like you There's no one else to pay the tax. Someone's got to do it. Exactly. Um and maybe this groan that people are feeling is an opportunity to finally get the town's people serious about attracting development. You know, because you It's funny you didn't mention one of the things that I think of as the number one like selling point for Grafton for is the community.

I mean, Malber would kill. So, it's funny because we we used to be in our meetings and be like, "Yeah, we're not Westbro. We're not these guys. We don't have a route nine." So, we had to come up they had to come up with Right. So you know the you know the women sports center just kind of came upon us and was like holy cow. I mean it was it was a it was a big deal but the other stuff has kind of been more organic than it looks on the outside. I mean that that obviously spawned people wanting to put hotels in and things like that. So it kind of did build on itself. Um but I think the biggest thing that I see when I when I watch Meredith and her team and it's funny she says there four there's four that act like 15. Like you feel it's like an army like they're insane. um you know from from traveling the country going to these conferences and literally sitting out and saying come to Malre you know we have you know we this is what this is what we are this is what and one of the biggest selling points they have is they come out and they can really talk you know very honestly about their ability to work with the city

and and to make it so you're not going to have a a headache you know when you when you come here to you know we we're gonna well we'll help you through the head we'll get you the aspect for the headaches Yeah, we can't stop the headaches. It is it is local government, but you have an ability to really make them feel at ease that they have someone in their corner as we develop. But the the overall theme on the board has just always been um you know topline revenue that we need to find and we keep pushing you know the team is we need to find topline revenue period. Just it's that simple. You If you don't find the top line revenue, it's going to come from taxes.

And no one wants more taxes and and and you know, the schools are under budget and you know, all these other things. And that's what we're looking at the select board meeting. They're going to be talking about these these very issues because it's either going to be, you know, where's the revenue coming from or

cut the budget or an override, which is what I mean, Gra had one override in 30 years and now we've had what, three in the which is somewhat dismaying. I mean, I think it it really you have to decide what do who do you want to be? What do you want to go after? So, we kind of adopted pretty early on this life sciences biotech that we were going to glove on to that. We became one of the I see you guys are as well the platinum platinum level bior community. We did that very very early

and then we just marketed that every way we could in any way that we could and to really put yourself out there and the commercial brokers are kind of like the secret sauce where those are the folks that are talking to the the companies that are looking to move and that are making decisions and site site selection and location decisions. Those are the folks that you need to get in front of. We do go out nationally. We're at trade shows. So anything you can do and I recog Most communities don't have the budget to to do the travel and the things that we do or to put out ads in business journal or to do that stuff.

We did put out ads. We have it right here in Worcester Business Journal. We did that for a couple of years in a row, but we've had well be now I have no idea because what happened this is sort of unique situation. Um number one, we we changed town administrators three and a half years ago. Then as that happened of course like everybody else we were hit by co so things calmed down then the there was a part-time consultant that was employed by the town. Is that John?

Yes John who was being he was really very very much on the very active very intelligent man. Um he was the one who put together is open for business over at TUS and that we had um state senator more. We had several other colle. Yes. And he he went around literally pressing the flesh

here in Grafton visiting the small businesses. I went with with him, you know, so we had a presence. But um with the budget pressures, John's position was eliminated. So, and I have to say, it's funny, right? Sorry, I interrupt you, but the first one,

right? It's so funny because, you know, I and I say this to all the time. It's so funny. um coming from you know just a straight business background you know if you if you think of the town in this part of the town development as a business and truly it's a business if you're a business is struggling and you fire your salespeople you know you can't cut your way out of you can't cut your way to success isn't a business but in a town we always think oh yeah you can you know we can tighten up the belted you know the kids really need that extra teacher and all these things right to get there but at the end of the day point like and maybe there's an opportunity or or is there opportunity to get you know to what you want to be what does the town want to be and to get buy in for the town to understand especially facing another override and all these things to say

this this is the time that we need to commit dollars to development so we're not doing this again versus you know the other ways but last time we did an override and you know the structural deficits had a whole conversation you can have that accounting conversation or you can say no, we need to we need to do better sales people. We need to be buy from the community, right? Like again, one of the major reasons we're successful is that when I'm meeting with a company, whether it's here or in California, I know what I can promise them and I know that I have the mayor, the city council, the building department, they're behind me.

So, there's nothing that I'm saying expedited permaning. You want a tip, you want this? We can do all of these things. But I know I'm not just I'm not just You might be able I know we can do those things. You have to be able to put your mouth if I could. So let's let me put it this way. You have experience with a town in our circumstances. You know of a town in our circumstances. I know that Marvel's had a tremendous success. But reel back time and go back to where we are here today. What would you advise us to do? We don't have a budget.

We don't have a tax coming in and supporting the group. We don't even have a staff member. So I guess it's great to be applauded for the success. There's no doubt about it. But I I guess I'm trying to figure out how we as a as a commission get to the next step with what we have.

And I, you know, we put on presentations. We've had people come in. We had a nice scenario take place at TUS. Um, but that was all John's doing and his organizational skills. And now that he's gone, you know, it works. It worked. Well, it did. And we've got UPS coming in and they're building their building finally, which will help the tax base, but we need like three or four more UPS's and we need to because quite honestly, I don't mean to cut you off. We don't have a ton of space left.

You know what I'm saying? We I mean Sent Park or whatever it is, you know, that's up there that could be developed, but there's like three or four different scenarios and it's not we don't want the residential. We want the biotech. So So if it were me Yeah. I'm asking you if you're on a shoestring budget, right? And you're all volunteers. Yeah. Shoring is very very broad. We don't even have that. Chewing. I would pick two or three sites that you're looking to fill. What are those sites? One of you has to be able to go to Canva or something else, put together some very simple marketing materials

and then somehow someway in your free time or whatever time that you're able to find, put it in front of the right people. That's the commercial brokers, the mass bios of the world, mass life science center, the mass econ. Those are the folks that are going out and doing some of that site selection work on behalf of the commonwealth for communities that don't have anc on a printer and hand to the people that are out doing that. Massie found a great resource.

Now, where are they? Are they are they in Boston or where? So, they're based on a wall. Oh, okay. So, yeah, I'm on the I'm on the board of directors. It's folks from all over the Commonwealth that are trying to market Massachusetts as the place that people want to be. Um, they talk with site selectors across the country. Doug Kellum, who res many years. He's one of the he's like an awardwinning site selector across the country. Kind of like our secret weapon in Massachusetts that people don't even know about. And he's if you give him the information, you're giving him tools to go out to these events and things across the country that he didn't have before.

So even if one of you can't go with him to sell it, at least he has the information, right? Yeah. You know what I mean? And then again, those trade groups, Mass Science Center, M his name right here. Yeah, he came and he spoke. Yes. And we want we want to have him back. So, um what happened was we with all the economic pressures, no surprise when John Allen position was eliminated two years ago. Um was it was it 202 years?

It's only a year. Year and a half. Yes, it was in 2024. Um, I then met with Evan Brousard, our town administrator, who said, "Look, you don't have a line item on the budget, but that's not to say there is nothing there for you. So, we've been able to fund these things." So, certainly um if we can meet with Doug uh Kell and William Blake here, he is the assistant town administrator who was sort of asked to work with us and and help us out on these things. So if we present something to Evan and say, "Look, you know, it might be have another event like John did, but also as you said, go to one of the, you know, I'm happy to go to uh put together a little coalition of who's ever able to drum up some sponsors, too. Know if an event is where your money's best. No, we haven't we haven't really spent much money on events. Okay. We've been doing your point is just get the right material. Think micro and and get those things and even like even like you like we talk about this in our meetings all the time that we're getting to the point where

even our the bigger companies we brought into Mulro on the bio side are looking at us and going all right how does this steal to a regional right? they know that I mean again even more like we're out of space. We're out of space, right? Like and yet we are known now and and and when people call Meredith, you know, so so once everyone the Duns of the world know that geez, you know what, Grafton has a selling point here for a for a bio piece, you know, they have the commuter rail, they have toughs, they have some stuff that kind of makes sense and is sellable if we have the marketing piece. If people have the marketing, they know that Grafton's looking in the I mean by and platinum the platinum thing and all of that right that's all

we and I'm certainly you know willing to do that and work with we've got a very talented professional sure uh commission here you know we're putting together the marketing um it's just a case of as Carl said we need to focus and take the next step so I guess you know meeting with Doug and if there's a local conference something that's going on, you know. Well, I think having focus knowing that graph's on the on the map like on the map and and the idea that, you know, I have been to many of your restaurants. I'm not I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is that we're like we're infants.

Yes. And you were, you know, grown adults and you're running at 100 miles an hour. We're barely crawling. And I think, you know, to the point that we get these buyers together. We get some, you know, hard, we've got on our site, there's several lots of land and things like that that we can easily market. The platinum status is probably to our benefit. Yeah. And I think the more that if you are running out of space, you can say, "Hey, Gravil, that type of thing."

And we look at that as a positive. So in Malboro, we'd rather them land somewhere in central mass versus in Cambridge. I was going to say where was what was the the last one we won? What were the who were the finalists? It was like all over the country. It wasn't like I can't remember like the places, but it wasn't like they were thinking about just Malro or it was like right now we're competing for one. It's between two sites in Massachusetts and then one in they're saying southeastern United States. I think it's Florida. So it's like that's usually how it goes. Like they're going to narrow it down to one site in Massachusetts and then one site somewhere else.

And Mass can't really compete when it comes to incentives. We can't. We've got the talent and it has to be these other things that you kind of cobble together to make it attractive for companies to want to come here. Well, I mean, we are centrally located. I mean, this is a beautiful this a beautiful town. We are close uh to Worcester where there are things going on. Obviously, Boston is a big lure. Yeah. That's that's our tagline is live, work, and play because like you said, you know, there are selling points. people like the area. It's the location is fantastic.

You're close enough to Cambridge in Boston, but it's way cheaper to be out here. And any of these companies know we've seen like the a mailing address in Cambridge, but then they put their manufacturing facilities out here because you can get a lot more space for a lot cheaper of an expense. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, this is exactly what what we need.

And then what is what is the path to trying convince, you know, whoever, you know, the is it is through does it start with, you know, you and Evan kind of like to propose to get this role back because I mean it's it's so self-defeating. I mean, it's it's getting rid of that role at a time when you need more revenue is and and I understand short-term thinking, you know, everyone goes that way, but is is it is it something that needs to go to to the T? How do you start? I'm sure you already have started, but I mean, I'm sure you protested loudly when they heard him, but what is what is the what is the path there because I think that's important to find the funding to do that too. Um just to give you a little background without being

um too critical here. This is why we don't record

well the communications no nobody bothered to to tell anybody on the board when John was let go. I happened to f find out because as a reporter I called John up, you know, that's what I nosy girl and said, "John, when is our in June of 2024, when is our next meeting?" Well, I don't know. I don't have any. He says, "Um, I'm gone in a week and a half." I'm like, "Oh, nobody told us." So, I then called up the town administrator's office and made an appointment to see Evan and said, "Hey, I'm so and so and you know, we have to do better at communicating." And let's see what we can do. And that's when Evan and I had to talk. And he says, "Well, there isn't, you know, that's when I found out, well, you're not even a line item on the budget anymore." And I understand the reasons for that, you know, especially, you know,

there's a lot of people competing for pressure. We really didn't have any, you know, I don't think or was online yet. No. And so we really didn't have the ammunition to justify it. Yes. And now you have UPS say a guy like this. He has one more of those. He pays for a salary a month. Yes. Exactly. So uh well John was John was a part-time consultant. Yeah. Even better.

Okay. But he had he had an office. So now in a way I wouldn't has been replaced by William because William has other duties besides us, but William has certainly been supporting us and we've we've had some changes to the commission. You know, people come on, come on. So, as I said, we're we're at least we're able to lift our heads and we're at least at the toddler stage where we can crawl, you know, across the room. So, that's that's what we're trying to do to get set up for 2026 and really let's try and make this happen and see what we can do. So we we did have um uh people who were having people like yourselves come in

speak and talk the tax impact too like sometimes the numbers for people to see that is so impactful like our administrative part of our budget right is covered by one of the projects that we bring in for several years like so to be able to show like the ROI You know, you put this money into this group that's going to do this and you bring in one company and they're going to pay it annually. So, one development brings in a million dollars a year in revenue that pays for all of our salaries. Was John involved in John was trying to do it was seven years ago.

It was a long time ago the bio he was trying to do the push for the bio and life sciences and hoping to see over by the employment thing and over by the commuter rail and the old he was on the right track. Yeah, he totally was. He totally he totally was and he was he was he did a very professional and thorough job. Um, so now we've got to get, you know, yeah, now we've got to get momentum against and then by the way, when you have with UPS coming online to this point, you have a really good opportunity to to put together something for

a case for the internal people to say, hey, just so everyone can now, now that you can now that we've seen it, now that it's coming online, it's and we know the numbers and it's going to be real. Just to give you a sense, here's the revenue to the town from this one project and here's what and here's here's what it was before and You know, when we had John's role, he was working on this and this. If one of those had hit, it would have funded his role for five years, literally. And and he was probably chasing seven. And if he had been allowed to stay and get one, it would have paid selfunded. It's like I said, the concept that to not have a salesperson when you need revenue, right, is just it's it's I think it would resonate now that you can show the revenue

the actual numbers of town or or even for this town even better. Hey, one of these projects saves having to cut elementary school teachers that you're going to have to come next year.

My daughter comes, she's on the she's the student rep on the uh on the student on the um school committee. And so she comes home, she's like her head's exploding. She's 17 and her head like what are we doing? She's like, I'm not allowed to talk, but I want to scream. I'm like, I hear you. She's like, this is insane. She's like, the choices were they're forcing people to make it just make no sense. But but again, some of that case study, you know, show some of that like this could be Can we use I don't want to violate any confidentiality but are there any numbers of yours that we can use as as a case study because that would be very very helpful. I can uh you know I'm certain it's not helpful. It's compelling. Yes.

I mean the center so before that is now before it was bringing in like little to no bringing in you know a year. It's now a million dollars a year every year, you know. So to be able to show those figures, it is impactful. But that we have a ton of those. So I would, you know, even the tips like that's another program that I don't think people understand either and we have a ton of literature that I could share with you on those as well. People towns are afraid to utilize those because they feel like you're giving away.

Oh no, we're not afraid to utilize it. We we would we would like to really debate that. Well, no, but I mean as the chairman of the district, but you know what I'm you know what I'm saying. There are things that want to leverage and experience and I thought UPS did a very good job. Did they get

they get a a savings on the increased value? If they never came, you know, you know what I mean? It's an incremental thing. So, if they they never came, you're going to collect that tax the whole time and then when they come, they bring it all the way up to here and you're going to collect that at the end of the day. So it's it's all about in my opinion educating people on the benefits of these things and and we want to go from being reactive to proactive and actually coming up and you know this is this is one of the first steps if we can build these case studies find out what's there and then you know start meeting you know have you know get Doug Kellum meet with him have him come in even Kevin I mean Kevin Cur is a huge

he is and we want to we want to have him He was phenomenal. So, so Doug, so Mass is one of those membership based organizations. They will still talk to you. They'll take your information. But like Kevin Cur, his job is to be an advocate for business to come to your community. They're not membership based. They work for the state. He's a regional director. That's what he's there for. So, what would it cost us to get a membership in? Let me check. I mean, it's not huge dollars. I don't know. We'll take that alone. Yeah, we probably get that done for you.

I think that John like I think John became a member of Massie back then like he was he was doing all the right things. Yes, he was. Now what I should say is in backing up when this uh when John was here and the board who fired him. No, it wasn't that. It was it was total budget theory. It was just frustrating. No. Well, what happened was the board the commission was we had changed members. So there was some up there was some upheaval there and of course the co situation

didn't help. Sure. Now, so when some of us came on the board new like Sean who's lifelong, he's a grafting town. Um he came on, I came on. At one point we're sitting around the table and John said to us, "Oh, you have to um okay, you have to vote." And he says, "I can't vote." And I said, "Why not?" Now, this is going to sound I own up to, you know, sounding like uh ventriloquist dummy here. I said, He says, "Well, I'm not a member of the board." And I said, "Well, then who are you? Could you explain your role?" Because we just took it for granted because John was sending out the meeting invites. So, it's like, "Okay, could you explain?" Well, no, I'm a consultant and I do this and at the time I think Carl, you were the

reli on him all the time because he was great. Yes. But what I'm saying is did you was did you fully understand John's role at the time? Because I did not. So, I don't Like it's not just because in you know like you said Carl it's a right to look at like how can we focus our limited resource on one thing right and and and getting the site thing getting that one thing but that very quickly will be followed up by the need for this role because the first thing they're going to want if they start coming towards you is someone who can help usher through

this process right so that's the very next thing that they they're going to need someone to hold their hand through the process and make sure that it's smooth for them and all you know you don't want to be the golden retriever that catches the car Um, you know, like there's got to be there's got to be someone there. And if that roll's not there, well, we're the golden retriever that's off chasing in the park. Um, chasing tennis falls down the No, we're chasing our tails.

So, again, we're getting we've been getting back on track. Before uh you folks showed up here tonight, we were doing a lot of self, you know, I was leading the the cheer saying, "Hey, look, we've we've done a lot this year. had the business meetings. We've got the framework going, you know, we're putting populating the web page. We're doing outreach, having guest speakers come in more than a lot of communities, but we need this to actually show rubber to the road.

Rubber to the road. We need to show, okay, this is tangible. Let's let's see if we can bring some business in because and let me tell you, Grafton is such a great community. when something happens. There was there was a fire at uh Truth Organic Spa and Lori, the woman who runs it. Um she said, "Wow." Um she needed help. People started a GoFundMe for her so then she could pay her staff and then you know for the next six weeks she she found temporary quarters. Grafton people will come out and help her each other. Um, but it's hard even to get people at the town to vote at the town meetings.

Typically, people will come out and vote if there's going to be a hot button issue. Well, the school thing, that's a hot button issue. 30 38 39% of the residents here have kids in school.

I just I'm sorry to interrupt. I just just one thing. I don't I don't I don't want to lose it. I lose my thoughts real quickly. I don't want to forget to to kind of tote what Meredith's team does also. They're very good at. So, yes, finding the sites that you like right away you look at the town. You guys know the sites here better than anybody because you've been looking at them. So, you know, okay, these ones are vacant, these ones are these are the ones I think we can focus on. The other side of that is getting creative around sites you wouldn't have thought of

that you might start because it is a small town and you you might know an owner who's getting towards the end of the and getting ahead of that and saying like pick the sites that geez if I hear say it all the time if we could do something with that place you know fully owned fully you know occupied space but wow that would be a great spot we could do that would be really cool we could do something with that and and they start talking to people and little you know oh you know yeah my dad's getting ready to retire and this is, you know, and now if the she's planted the seed and now they come to her and say, "Hey, who do you know I'm ready?" versus them going out and and putting in something that you really don't want. Yeah.

In that space. So getting ahead of those conversations is and letting them know that you're here to do that or you're here as the represent of the town to do that to say, you know, we don't want a dollar tree showing up too soon. But by the way, that shows you really happy with the Dollar Tree. I mean, right now, we're still we're still at the stage where people are saying, "What can we do with that eyesore where Pepperoni Express before that Burger King was because there's a you know there's a swamp behind the Gordon fiasco. We have our eyes too, right? Oh yeah.

For all the success, there are still tons of pain points, right? So that's something communities don't think of like we're all we're all in similar votes. We've got a council right now that I'm battling with 247 about we almost have the opposite problem where there's too many projects coming tomorrow that the council send them to us. Send them to us. Yes. Or they're struggling with which ones did we choose and so it's just depends and they throw their hands up and they'll and they'll even though they're again city government they'll still put their hands up and be like you know what forget it. We don't you know we're anti-development now and we're all okay. We do have

but we try to get in front of like the other thing her team does and again this is a little further down the road but is they're constantly monitoring the you know Facebook pages and and keeping and so when you know leading up to town meetings and then making sure people aren't putting bad information out and saying you know like I think of the Wyman Gordon thing that went that went sideways that went off the rails probably because of a handful of people that would have been an amazing project it really probably would have been like from where it is now but a small group of people because there's nothing else you're going to do with that eyesore that place is crazy. But if you could have gotten ahead of and maybe seen other people in the town see the benefit of the case studies and the and you guys could have alone.

Okay. But yes, just to show some of the some of the other positives to it. So one of the issues I personally had with that and I am all for development, okay, was that there was no transparency. We had the lawyers for these people who propo developers who were proposing something come to us and John was still there and the lawyers are going to do what what lawyers do. No offense, no offense, Angela. And they said they wouldn't tell us what was going to go in there. And I wouldn't even talk. And but they they had already You had that lecture.

Yes. They had already had a letter drawn up very conveniently and said, "Hey, we wanted to save you some stuff, so could you please sign? We wrote the letter for you to endorse us and so that we can present this to the select board. Now, we only have input to the select board. We don't make the final decision.

So, I said, you know, as a writer, reporter, I said, that's very sweet of you. That's very nice and considerate, but we'll we'll take it under adisement. We'll review it. I knew it was going to go through, but all you can do at the front end without and we didn't have all of the information It it raises my suspicions and one of the one of the people who was involved in the other developer, one of the developers had had, you know, sort of checkered stuff. I I think I you're right, Laura, and I think, you know, that went sideways for multiple. Yes. And it went sideways because people who the residents who live nearby said, "Wait,

we're going to have 7 by 24 trucks coming in and who's going to take care of the road?" because that becomes a so this site is like 400 ft over the town line. So those trucks would be going like literally the pipe to where the site is. It's literally right over the line. So it's one of those things you look at you're like it's kind because there's no other impact except for the most you know what would happen with the trucks. They weren't just going to come off the pike if that got backed up which it invariably will do. they were going to go through the side streets and those side streets there are hilly and winding

you know to point you want to get you got to get in front of all of that and know that but we can't get in front of anything we can't even get out of the way if people are not being transparent and then we did have an issue which is not it's been rectified where our building inspector nobody even wanted to say that was actively Yeah. Yeah. He's in a neighboring town of Is it really? No. A neighbor. Oh, a neighbor. Yes. Was actively throwing up big roadblocks,

okay, to things. Um, and that so that's not that's been rectified. So, we're ready to go and we're raring to go. Sure. So, so William sit down with you and see if you can be a little more of an advocate point person type of spirit type of individual for us. When are we going to sit down and do that? Yeah. When do you want to do it? Okay, good. Because I I actually think that that's a role that you can fill. I mean, go to meet with go to you have the title. I was going to say this could be the first of many conversations.

Yeah. Oh, no. We're not letting I want I want all your list. I want all your realtors. I want all of that. No. You know, and I'm willing I'm willing to um I have my own business town. I'm you know, I'm in high-tech. Um I do consulting, writing, etc. Um, so I'm willing, my my schedule is is a little bit more flexible than, you know, possibly somebody like Angela, but I'm willing to spend the time, meet, start doing it. But yeah, we have to get other people here behind it because in the past it's been the select board says, well, we're looking to the economic development commission to take the initiative. Well, wait a second. We're ministers where we

call that an unfunded mandate. Yes. A ministers without portfolio. without wallets, a lot of congregation. The only reason we have been as successful as we have been is because of the buying from the community and the steady stream of funding because you start some of these programs and if you can't you can't continue to do it, forget it. Yes. And you and you build it. We talk about this in our meetings all the time. It's it's also something that requires constant attention because you can build the best reputation in the world and if you have one good developer have a bad experience they'll tell everybody

they'll tell everybody. I remember I was talking to Carl about this the other day. I remember being again with my background in EDC. I remember sitting at the meeting with UPS when UPS came to town meeting and I don't know if anyone else was in that meeting but UPS sits down and they I told my story they asked for a vote and the machines broke right at the time like the machines wouldn't weren't working for that meeting and they had to put the machines down so they didn't invote and the UPS guy was up front and they said all right you know can we see a show hand whatever and it was rain whatever quickly yeah because it was overwhelmingly in support yes it was quietly I'm sitting there I'm like that quietly gets up, goes up to the mutter and he's like, "Could we do that again?" And I'd like to hold it. He wanted to see if it was unanimous because he knew like Tom could go sideways over one person.

Yeah. He wanted to see if anybody was against it and he went and turned around and waited. Everyone anyone against him? He waited. He waited. He waited. Then he wasn't going to go for the voice. He wanted to be sure he had absolutely everything because you know that matters. That's money. It's a lot of money. resour the other one. They want to go where where people want to work. Yeah. Yeah. Where it's where it's easy the the path of least resistance. Yeah. And I mean in some ways Moralboro just from a geographic standpoint is further off the beaten path than than Grafton for sure.

You know, but you had you had the infrastructure there. You had Digital Equipment Corp and water and huge deal to these companies, you know. I don't know what if you guys have septic or sewer, but the infrastructure is a big deal, too. Oh, yeah. That's that's a whole other number. Um, I want to be mindful of everybody's time. Um, because it's 8 8:21. Um, what else can you tell us? Yeah, I guess to your point, Meredith, you know, this is the beginning of a dialogue, open dialogue and cooperation and happy to help. Yeah, that's what I think that's the biggest takeaway that we can have all day.

I think we have some good things to start us off and talk about and make any introductions, you know, definitely. So, when can you come back again? Back again in January. No, actually seriously, you work pro. No, what would what would be very helpful um our next meeting is going to be um we have meetings on the third Wednesday of the month. Okay. But we can do it by Zoom. So, especially when we're coming into January or something. So, would it be possible uh for you to um speak to us again at the January meeting? And

um I don't want to violate rules here. But if um we have a granted resident that as well. Yes. But what would be really helpful is to get some of the some of your business collateral and IP on the ROI and what you what you've done. I mean I I've been on your website obviously and I was very impressed with okay first we saw you had a budget and you're actually a functioning business entity which is a selfpituates and that's what I would encourage you know as you guys sell this to the town encourage some form of structure that does that

that selfunds that says hey you know when we do these projects at some percentage of this will because of the development will get will come back to economic development is the only way it's going to it can't the minute we if the minute if tomorrow Meredith stops returning phone calls quickly or anything like that it just stopped it wouldn't take long for it to because it requires constant attention. Um and and again though and I think everyone in Grafton is so focused right now on the tight budget on the taxes and the timing of UPS coming on and showing that revenues. It's just a perfect time to strike right now to show the town the case

to show them what what this looks like from all the decisions that we're they're about to have to make that are not good decisions, not fun decisions to have to make right now. I mean it's not gonna be fun for you guys, right? I mean you're not you're not you're not looking forward to this this next few uh few votes is going to be bad things. Basically what this board is doing they are going to have one one meeting a month um as a week a week. Yes, excuse me. Do you have anyone do you have like on this board because we also have on our board we have the president the mayor and the president of the city council are on the board. Is there someone

we have select board members who are representatives who they're not they're not here tonight. So yes, but um I think um the most appropriate next step and I'd like to do it, you know, soon is if you can get us some of those sure case studies and some of those things and um copy William on it as well and then we can set up a time um perhaps we can have Evan at the next meeting here and if you can if I can commit to generation no I I don't think that that's necessary right now you can only

we want your time we want your intellectual property yeah no I don't expect but by the way you wouldn't necessarily have to come all the way back here we have the Zoom option I gota but I got a three and a six-year-old that my nighttime yes I hear I hear what you're saying, "But no, this has been really helpful." Thank you. And Brian, you're here, so we can just grab you and hold it hostage. Well, I you know, I I told Carl, I said on the way in, my wife reminded me on the way out the door again, she's like, "No more boards. I have a I have a strict for marital success, I have a onein, one out policy right now for boards. I'm at my limit right now. I can only add another one if I drop one."

No, but you have you have enough. No, I I I'm happy to I'm happy to help. Obviously, I have a vested interest in helping. Yes. Where I can um and and I'll be very familiar with a lot of what she sends anyways anyway. So happy to provide color or if you just need to you know kind of when you know this people from the select board or is here and you want kind of someone else to kind of in person to talk I'm happy. Yeah. If you're doing that on the sooner side of things you want to I don't mind doing that. Well, yeah, but January is going to be pivotal for us since we've seen that the select board is going to be doing this. So, we need to make a case. Craig Dane, who is uh the select board representative to the EDC,

one of the first things Craig said when uh when we got it actually last year, but anyway, Craig replaced Ray me on the board and Craig says, "Well, we need to get back on the budget as a line item." And That hasn't happened so far. But as Carl said, hey, look, this is a very cogent, compelling argument to make with Sure. All we need is one. Yeah. To show that definitive ROI, right? And then, you know, we can put

I mean, as soon as UPS gets online, we're like, I don't know. It's got to be over $100,000 of tax revenue at least. Close to half a million. How big is it? Huge. So to get two grand a month out of that would be nothing. And two grand a month pays for a parttime job. So you know I think sells itself at this point. I'll be I'll be parttime whatever. No, whoever it is that role would be would be selfunding. Yes, exactly. It's a sliver of

um he had his own consulting business. He was more of a business broker. He was having success with that as well. So, um yeah, he was he was very he was very bright and he was very proactive and you know he was a commercial lender by trade, worked for a lot of banks, so he knew a lot of people was always proactive and he knew where to go and um who knows maybe yeah I mean yeah certainly um but meanwhile we you know those case studies would be good and so we can put that together so um

if you can send that to William and myself that would be that would be terrific so we can we can start working on this and then with Evan for our next

flip it down here. No, but thank you so much for coming out. No, I mean yeah, we definitely we definitely would love to stay in touch. Yeah. Well, no. Yeah, you're not going to get rid of us. I have to I have to I got to protect your No, but no, I mean this is this is you're a resource. Yes. No, this is this has been so so helpful because as I said, you know, Yeah. Sometimes you just don't know where to start, right? I do this every day. This is my world I live in. So, well, no. And you know, we need somebody and then So, you like that ad, huh?

I do. I think it's I think it's great. Simple to the point. All you need to do is tell this is what we have available. The greatest example we have is that we wanted a brewery downtown. So we literally put an advertisement in beer advocate magazine across the country. We want a brewery in downtown like this is what we can offer you. Here's the money we're expert this we end up with. So you got you don't put it out there what you're looking for. How does anyone ever know?

Well yeah and we did put that in you know you can take a look at the materials businessfriendly environment. We have the fund. We are platinum rated community for bio and life. John was John was really big on the bio and life sciences. We do want clean uh energy and businesses in here because unfortunately I'm sure you heard about the feedback earth. I heard about that. Oh yes. I know the name. But the the life sciences right now are a little tough. So that might not be where you want to put your but at the time though it it was this was a very hot market three four five years ago. Right now

yeah now we've got generative AI coming in all these different things. Yeah. All of those things. But again we can identify those once we can I mean once we show hey here's the business case here's here's where the focus matters right it'll it'll become a lot clearer. your marketing message becomes a lot clearer like this when you pick your sites and you're like, "Okay, we're gonna focus on marketing these two or three sites. That's it. I know we have a thousand other things we want to do, but we're just going to focus our resources on marketing these sites." Yeah. And then and that way that way it's less people. It's just like you're focused. Yeah. And we can we can work a little bit backwards. You only need one. You only get one. The ROI will lower our TCO,

right? And the you know the operating rather than lowering the TCO and then showing the ROI. I mean this would have impact is it commercial

and I don't know of any commercial that's okay. You get like some of the bigger brokerage firms have like central mass teams. Yeah. No, you know I know a couple of them. We had Todd Alexander

but we want to be in well like you said life sciences might be a little tough right now but there's opt there's options of that too. Right. Well, we we have to focus on you know what's the next big thing, right? Might have been life sciences or you know bio, but now you know it could be something you know something else. So or there any collabs that touch more the collabs with like with you know public private they would you know is there's a that's a huge deep pockets. I mean they they've got stuff there want is there stuff that they're chasing that they would be like wow it would be great if we had this you know and we had a scenario I think it was the swine lab, right? Yeah.

Yeah. That came through and that was working on that wasn't going to throw anything off the graph because they were on tough property. Oh, yeah. Now, one thing to me that's very that's very intriguing about graphing and that we've never really fully leveraged or monetized is this has been a very very historically equin community. It still is.

But if you look, Framingham managed to put in a big center and you can host events there and they're making bank on that. We have several we have 250 to 300 horses in this town. We have people who are keeping their horses in the backyard but we you know literally but we also have several big facilities and great access to trails on that. Yes, that's one thing that you know we have our own tax shop in town and you know animal tourism that you're you know what I mean like whatever your driver is sports tourism you know that's yeah so like you're saying you have the the sports center

what are your strengths what do you have that differentiates yeah okay so well thank you so much and we'll definitely be in touch now that I have your email which is which is good. Thank you so

hope you don't have a long not too bad. I like your skirt by the way so everybody move to adjourn. I have one thing. Sure. Just uh wanted to let everybody know we got an email from the executive office of economic development today that a graph and business epic polymer solutions received a $75,000 state tax credit award. Uh that is for expansion and to five new jobs. So, they're gonna send us a press release.

Yeah. Great. Terrific. Okay. So, our next meeting is going to be on January 21st. Yes. Because that's actually the fourth. Well, the 31st, New Year's Eve is on a Wednesday, but I looked and I said, "No." Yes. January 21st, which I think we have annual. Yes. In January, just Yes, we have that. And then um list of accomplishments year and we worked on that. We worked that through and think on that last year

and so we look to basically have that ready to go in January. Not that it has to be ready for our meeting, but you know to have it done by the end of the month. Yes. And we also have um to put the thing uh where we What is the um the open space and recreation open space and recreation and that's sort of a rubber stamp because we just you know that was that remember we what is that thing and oh people said well just they have to do a yearly report and so what we have to fill in is just one cell the progress we've made towards the goal in supporting economic development so

okay yeah so will it's pretty status it's pretty status quo very lightly. Yeah. So, we'll get that. That has to be in by January 31st. 31st. So, we can talk about that at our next meeting. At the next meeting. So, January 21st meeting, we can go over our um 2025 accomplishments. And then, yeah, I'll put I'll put together a list of the 20 25 accomplishments. And then also um at the next meeting we can talk about some of the you know the initiatives and goals and we'll want to fill in Craig and Justin etc. But I think this is a big big thing and

uh if we can get those the collateral the IP from Meredith that would be great. So she sends it to you and send it to me. I can then put it together for the I really review the potential spots that we want to kind of focus on for Brian's point. Yes. We get a list of those and I think we should talk about those crafting strengths. Yes. like for those spots. Do what do we want to focus our effort towards finding three flyers together, get them in hand so that you can get or somebody can go out and meet with Doug, whatever his name is. Tell them. Yeah.

And then maybe we can just, you know, this is what we're trying to do. These are the three spots that we think are viable. This is what we think is all about. Make, you know, 15, 20 minute presentation. Yeah. I mean, I can on camera very easily, right? If I have the Yeah. So, William, can you get us the information on the specific open spots? Yeah. Okay, that would be good. Um, even if it helps like Steve Goodman, if we can get him a tenant for his building, I'm sure he'd be ecstatic. Um, and that would be a good example. Which building?

Northampton. What's the name of that street? What's the street? We'll have to figure it out. It's behind the um that big development, the development. Yeah, almost across the street

quick question. What's the situation with discern? Somebody said they're only open two or three days a week now. No idea. Just one question for you. Do you want the list of like vacant properties as in to build something on or just whatever? Well, I know that there's rumors flying around about location there. What kind of rumors? I have no idea if I will be fair. Um maybe you know those type of situations as well and then we can pick which one we think is going to be best to put forward. Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah. Okay. And the last thing is if you can get me the minutes to the meeting. So then I'll get that to William and we'll you know uh am I send you like a Is that you know from basically what we said here tonight? Is that okay? I mean I know we're not supposed to have I can just Yeah. No, no. There's no It's not violating a deliberative process. So just one person. I just want to double double question. It's a good question.

Okay. Um so and then we can get the We get the collateral from Meredith. Um, so this is great. I got a move. Yes. Move to adjourn. All in favor? John, you second it. Second. Third. Terrific.