Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining. Um, we are not expecting to see Martha or Nancy or Georgian today. Um, Kathy was going to join us through Zoom, but her flight schedule got disrupted, so she is in the air right now and she sends her regrets and she has volunteered to do minutes from the recording of the meeting and it's her birthday. So, happy birthday. Yeah. Um Megan will join us by Zoom if she can. She is attending to a family matter. Um but the rest of us are are here which is wonderful. So hi Amy. I'm Carrie Sams and I'm one of the the co-chairs of the committee and welcome Nikki. I'm just naming sort of some new faces in the room. We thought we would start today with some introductions because we have a few new folks here and I was hoping that maybe Nikki could say a brief hello and then the rest of us could just say a brief introduction like I'm thinking how long you've been in the town and sort of what your interests in this committee and then we'll we'll start in this room and then we'll go to Zoom if that works. Okay. Um, hi, I'm Nikki Mzer, uh, artist, sculptor, nerd do well. Uh, we've been four years now. Uh, my husband is also an artist and we, uh, locked into a space on Tracy Road and, um, I'm sort of an sort of a what is the word? You do have to think an addicted community builder. So, um, I'm kind of here because I'm interested in community and I'd like the streets to not be any quieter than they are. Well said. Do you want to say hi, Matt? Uh, I guess I can. Uh, I'm Matt Hart. I'm the, um,

community relations director at the neighborhood house. Um about 24 years ago I moved here thinking I'd spend a couple years here and I'm still here glutton for punishment and I've been involved with the um economic development sort of many incarnations of this committee for probably the last 15 years or so. Awesome. Jamie I'm Jamie Blaine. I um I describe myself as a reforming summer person. I uh now live here all year round and have for several years. I've been on this committee for quite a few years and I'm on several other committees and I'm trying to actually step back from some of that. But um I I love the discussions we have here. We're we're sad you're stepping back but completely respect your decision. Thank you for all your service. Uh I'll go next on Carrie. I have lived in the town about seven years, but about 20 years ago, I think I lived in every single town on the island. Um, and when we decided to move back, we're really glad that we picked this town. Um, I work at College of the Atlantic and I joined this committee um, partly due to an enthusiastic invitation from Kathy, uh, one of our great community builders here. But I'm interested in giving back to this community that that I've really fallen in love with. And um I was attracted to it in part because of it because it its natural beauty, but also because of the the vibrancy and the seem like people are really excited about being here and I wanted to help continue that excitement in various forms. And I also want to support small business people who are trying to make a living here. I'm Jen Jud McGee. I live in Northeast Harbor near the Astiku in my my husband is a seventh generation local guy. I grew up in Hols Cove. I own a business

on Main Street called Swallfield and I'm an artist and we're going into my 10th year at Swallowfield this year. So, wow. Yeah, it's crazy for us. Yeah. How about you, Rick? Well, I'm been on the committee I think even a little longer than Jamie, which is hard to believe, but uh um I've uh grew up coming up in the summer in Ssville and spent a lot of time in Northeast Harbor. And uh I've enjoy this committee just because it's an opportunity not to just uh pop ideas, but to really think through them and to see how we can get them done. So, I think that's one of its to incubate ideas and to try to make them happen. I think that's that's what we're all about. Awesome. April. Well, I'm April Wilson. I'm I'm a not quite as reformed a summer person as Jamie is, but I'm reform I'm reforming. We're redefining summer. I'll put it that way. Um I came up here to visit my grandparents as a child, and I it's part of my soul. I love this community. I love this place. We actually were here in January and I was so heartened to to to see so much going on and to use a skating rink which by the way skating is not like riding a bike. It does not come right back if you've taken a 25-y year break. Um so just you know just a word of warning to those of you in my shoes but um I I actually come to this committee with I just love the discussions we have here. I come with a real um emphasis. I'm on the board of island Housing Trust. So with a real emphasis on building community and housing people year round on this island just to to ensure that it's vibrant and these communities can can really be sustainable. If they're not if nothing's happening in the winter, there's no way the summer can make up for that. So um I love being part of this committee. It's been great. That's so well said and so lovely to hear and thank you also for your public

service announcement about ice skating in the winter. Amy, would you like to say hello? Amy is a guest of of Rick and is I would say economic development committee curious and thinking thinking about her interest, right? Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes. Oh, okay. Good. Just want to make sure all systems are go over here. Um, yeah. So, uh, I have been going to Maine my entire life. Um, like I actually live next door to Rick's, uh, family home in Sville and, uh, we grew up going to, um, our camp on Long Pond and then and now my family and I spend every summer up in Ssville. and I'm I'm really curious to hear what you guys are all about um and see if maybe I can offer some ideas. That's great. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you Rick for making making the connection. And I'll just say in brief response to your question, Amy, um we were we were formed in 2017 with a mission to improve the vitality and livability of the town through the enhancement of public spaces and infrastructure improvements and other community projects and efforts. Um, and we have a sister organization called the Community Development Corporation, which is sort of our fundraising and accounting wing of of this committee. um people who have been on the committee much longer than I could give you a little bit more of of a history, but um some of our projects include sort of spearheading an effort to examine broadband in the community.

There was work on a Main Street plan that was um meant to sort of beautify and unify the visual aspects of Main Street and connect the marina to Main Street through better signage. That parts of that project are on hold, but this committee had a role in um sort of helping envision that and also doing some fundraising for it. And the latest and biggest project that we've done is an enthusiastic group of volunteers has been fundraising for the skating rank that is down at the tennis courts by the marina which has been I think an unqualified success. So that's just a brief a brief history and I'd be happy to chat with you after the meeting if you have any other questions. Oh great. Thanks. Um, and I see someone named Cole has joined us. And you're welcome to say hello. We were just doing introductions. If you'd like to say hello that or you could just listen in, that's totally fine. Um, so with Nikki joining us, at this moment we are actually fully populated as a committee, which is amazing, but there will be vacancies when Averil and Rick and at some point Jamie step down. And for for anyone who's thinking of stepping down in the near future, just give Megan and I a heads up and that will help us figure out our memberships going forward. Um, next thing to do is take a look at the minutes from January. Thank you so much to Kathy for preparing great minutes as usual. Did anyone have any questions or concerns or edits for the minutes? I don't think there were any questions or concerns. I think you're

looking for a motion which I will give. I second. Excellent. Thank you. Minutes are approved. All right, let's fly through some through some updates. Jamie, tell us about the skating rink. Um, I was just looking at the minutes what I reported last time. Um, the only the chain the uh everything's moving forward with the tennis court project that has to be approved at the town meeting. Um, it passed the warrant committee 13 to one. Um and uh the kicker for us is that the our initial uh belief uh this is two years ago about the cost of construction was 500,000 and we now have the final figures and it's 1.1 billion. So we we had uh yeah we uh had raised uh anyway 750 plus thousand um which we thought would allow us to do other things like an endowment and stuff and so now we need to raise 250,000 to um finish it which we will do but um we we put all that on hold because we just didn't know what was going on really And um so on we go with that. Um we met with the Harbor Committee uh yesterday afternoon. I would say there's not huge enthusiasm, but um it was an interesting meeting. I'll leave it at that. Jamie, did I'm sorry question. Did did the um these sudden overages right where we went from 500 to million one or whatever did they seem reasonable and was it what what was the main driver for

for the increase? I think part of it is just the time that has passed and and cost of the increase in cost of things. Um there wasn't anything uh on the list that I remember that we hadn't had in our original you know we got it from the rink and then there what what we got from the rink company uh did not include some things that turned out to be more expensive such as the cost of getting electricity down there. So um it's a it's a big number but we got to 750 so fast. Um I mean basically we have to start a new capital campaign but um and we have to finish it quickly. So, but we haven't done the community part yet and so that's not going to raise us a lot of money, but I think it will it will increase the there's a lot of enthusiasm there, but when you're so involved with something like this, you think everybody knows about it and in fact, you know, 10% of the people know about it. So, that will raise, I think, awareness and then we'll just um get the money. So is that increase to 1.1 million? I'm still confused a little bit. Is that related to the tennis court? No. Renov. So that's just with the rank. That's just the rank. And tennis court's another million. Okay. And so someone even though it's being privately funded, someone in the warrant committee still voted against it even though it's not costing the taxpayers. Yes. Just wanted to check. Yes. And that person is also on the harbor committee. Okay. Is there something related to this coming up at town meeting? Yes. The uh the uh the warrant for the tennis court which I

think is 600,000. Okay. And so that has nothing to do the guy who I don't want to get into. Okay. personalities. The guy who voted against it said this was all supposed to be funded by outside people and now we have this warrant. And I see he said that two meetings that I've been at and at both meetings I said this is all funded by outside money. That warrant is for the tennis court. And the connection is that if they shoot down the tennis court, we don't do the ring because there's no place to put it. There's no base for it. Yeah. Do does do you think it would be helpful to have people speak up at town meeting to explain that? Um if it becomes I'm hoping it won't become an issue. Okay. If it does, it would be very helpful to have people there who are enthusiastic because I mean um this thing has been really a a boon for a lot of people in this town and it would I I I don't think there's going to be an issue, but there might Okay. When would we when would we know about that? I think I would say if you can go to go to the town meeting. Okay. Yeah, we won't know anything. We won't know anything before time meeting. It's just sometimes well Darl has been a lot more than I have and so has Matt. But sometimes people um get something in their draw about the cost of really in this case it would be the cost of the tennis courts, right? Okay. And um good to know. But there was there was a warrant uh last year to do all the planning for the tennis courts which has been done. That's right. Okay. It makes sense. The reason this cost so much is because that's built on fill and you have to go down and you have to put in the substance down below that to prevent

that from continuing to heave. I think this is the down there. That's either the second or the third rebuild that we're currently on. And every time within, you know, six months to a year, you go through your first frost season and that will rise right back up again. So if you're going to have decent chords and with a decent playing surface and everything, Mitch will do it. Yeah. Right. Right. And I think I think most people the one the one person he's talking about is unfortunately I hope he's not a whole lot of them, but he's one of those that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. You know, we'll see. All right. We'll see. Well, I guess this is just a heads up that this might come up at town meeting and if anyone's there and wants to speak their personal opinion in favor of this project, that would be that may be welcome. Um Jamie or Darlin, quick question. If a lot of the money has to do with bringing electricity down to the marina, are there other entities that we could share the cost with since they might be able to benefit it from it as well? Yeah, I I think that that's all pretty much taken care of, Rick. And then another idea that um that Brian Hankle had uh was that we could put in some meters for electric cars down there and that that would also be a boon to um to bringing people into town that could come in and charge their cars and go up and shop for an hour and a half or two hours. You put fast chargers. Um Gordon Beck talking about those was a few years ago and you have to have I don't know anything about electricity but three-phase power and so if you're going to be running it down there that's you know we'd be foolish as a town not to put some fast chargers in. That didn't go over very well either. Good ideas never do. So but point taken

that there may be opportunities for collaboration. Oh well everybody's just going to leave their car there and go out on their boat for the day. All right. Thank you so much. So Kathy's not here for workforce housing, but she did ask me to convey to the group that the appeal for the Heelway um case is taking place tomorrow, April 10th. And in my meeting announcement, I sent a link where you can watch that live if if anyone is interested. We've been following that closely. And as you know, our committee is very supportive of the concept of workforce housing. What time is that? Um, I don't remember the oral oral arguments. Yes, I think it was in the morning like 10 or 11 in the morning, but don't quote me. It's in it's in the email announcing. I don't think there's an exact time, but I think and it should take not long. Yeah. Okay. I might tune in. Yeah. Kind of curious to see for all we've been invested just to hear final stages. If anybody needs the link, I'm happy to send it out. Yeah. Would you just send it out? Absolutely. Yeah. I'll have it in the morning. Yep. I'll send it on a secure line. Nothing happen. Okay. Committee expenses. This is just a brief update. technically their expenses for the community development corporation which is closely tied to us. Um last meeting we talked about putting in a third party request which I which I did for $3,500 and we'll we'll see where it goes from here. Um if it makes it to town meeting I have some talking points that I can stand up and and speak in favor of that and anyone else would be welcome to if they feel so moved and I'm happy to provide my bullet point. It will be a topic. Okay. Yeah, super. Yeah, that's great. Thanks for the heads up. Any warrant committee problems? Not

this last year. As you know, it didn't got nailed in warrant, but this year I don't think it did. Okay. I did I spoke to the joint is it joint select and warrant committee where you do third party requests and no one had any questions which was shocking. So I don't know if to take that as a good sign or not. But I'll be ready to speak up at town meeting if anyone has any excellent has any questions. Um comprehensive plan. Um all I wanted to do was put on everybody's radar that the comprehensive planning process is happening and right right now there's a survey out. It may have just closed. Their their timeline is to complete the survey and review key findings this spring and do community engagement around that. and then in summer draft vision and values and goals and more community engagement. Um a few more steps in the fall and then be drafting the full plan in fall and winter. So as as representatives of the economic development committee, if there are things that we feel we want to be reflected in the comprehensive plan or if we have opinions along those lines, this is our chance to to contribute. So, I just wanted to make people aware of that process that's going on. Oh, sorry, Rick. Um, go ahead, Rick, and then we'll hear from Eugene. I'm pretty sure this is right, but that survey and the plan has gone out to all residents, not just voters. So, all summer residents received it. I don't know. Actually, I'm not on the comprehensive planning committee and the two members of our committee who are are not here today. So, I'm not sure. It did not go out, Rick, to I don't think to anyone, but anyone can take it can can do the service website. It's on the

website. I got it. We got it and someone we got it and then Rick picked up a packet with it. I have actually You got it as a Somebody sent it to you. Yeah, I got it emailed. I did it over email and then Rick picked up one of these packets. This is the paper version, right? We have sent out an email blast on that possibly. Anyone that signed up for committee things usually gets probably Oh, maybe that's where I got it. I think that's probably where you picked it up. But it's open to all and everybody even even non-residents um and as well as some residents. I I sent it to all my family and said, "Here's your chance to make the town look like what you want it to look like." Do you want me to ask Rick from someone from the committee or are you on the committee J? No, it's over. I would I think it would be a good idea to send it to the summer residents association and ask them to I think you said the word. Yeah, it's close. It should have gone to the SR, I think. But can I suggest that we think about putting on next time's agenda a discussion of anything we would like to convey from this committee to the to the uh great to the group. Love it. Awesome. That's a great suggestion, Jamie. And Rick, I will I will see if I can talk to Suzanne or someone from the committee and find out if it went to the SRA because that's a great point. And by the way, the SRA doesn't necessarily get to every summer resident because there are a lot of people who are summer residents who for whatever reason have never joined the association, but uh Got it. Well, I guess the broader the broader thing I would ask is just, hey, how did this get promoted? And we'll see if we can get an answer for you. Good. Okay, great. So, I this is not on the

agenda, but I have two surprise updates from Georan. Um, she said that she's been working with Brian Hankle on getting some signage for that hidden staircase that connects the marina to the town, which is great. And in that meeting, he reported to her that Versant had showed up for a few days to work on the wires on Main Street. So, the first time that I just took Main Street update off the agenda, we actually have an little bit of a momentum there. They didn't finish. No way. I'm so shocked. But at least they've been here. So, okay. Um, winter gathering place. This has been a hot topic for us and we had some um we had a great discussion last time and there were a few action steps I think people people were going to take. So, I want to hear a little bit about those and and then talk about some some next steps. So, um one of the things I volunteered to do, I think it was Nikki's idea, was reach out to um like student chefs and technical um technical colleges to see if anyone would want to do like a popup restaurant. And I thought that was a great idea. And then I had some feedback like, well, let's see if our local restaurants actually want to do that first. So, I haven't done any steps on that. Sort of waiting to see if we have local restaurants that would be interested in in popup events. Um, I did create a document with a list of events and ideas and I shared it with all of you which then prompted Georgian to point out that the chamber actually keeps a list of events going on which I was not aware of. So, I was thrilled to know about that. Um, and then Neighborhood House has has stepped up with some winter events. Do you want to share a little bit about that, Matt? Uh,

well, we I think right around Christmas time like the we all like the word was circulating in the community that, oh, you know, Nor Easter is going to be closed and where are we going to gather? And um a seasonal resident um who's been a supporter and board member at the neighborhood house called uh our director Amory and said, "Oh, is this true?" Oh, that's too bad. And she said, "Well, what about the neighbor girls? Could you throw a couple of parties?" And when we hear the word party, I'm just thinking like a bad band playing till like 11:30 and just wanting to go home and like all the returnables I have to pay. So, we said, "Well, we'll do more of a low-key cocktail party." and you the donor said, "Well, I don't want to create extra work for you, so I'd be more than happy to pay for a caterer." And if you see Eliza Bishop around town, um, we wanted to try to keep it local, so we contacted uh, Milk and Honey and Salt Market. And, uh, at Salt Market, Mod was actually out of town until like the day before. So, but Mod or Eliza agreed to do both. Um, she didn't charge us for her time. She didn't charge any ingredients. Um, We still ended up spending over $8,700 on two cocktail parties. But they I depending on how you judge success if if it was financial success. No. But we don't make money on any of our events. That's what we fundraised for. This was it was definitely needed and appreciated. I feel like and we had 75 or so. We did it two times the end of February and tail end of March. And I think people enjoy themselves. Uh we were talking before the meeting. It's just nice to have that time of year something on your calendar that to look forward to. I think a lot of people would have done a donation if you'd had that available. Yeah, we we had talked about that and it's like, well, someone shows up. Oh, I don't have any cash on me. We want everyone to feel welcome. But you are that is a a good point. Uh,

it's funny. A day or two before the second cocktail party, um, I got a call from, um, someone who's like an estate manager here in town and she was asking about this committee and, "Oh, do you have any projects um that you're working on currently?" And I explained the ice rink thing and she's, "Oh, I heard you have a bunch of money." and I explained well restricted funds and uh that's you know so um but he's asking about this and I said that we don't have any like hard project we're working on but we're we've been talking about for a couple months gathering spots during the winter that sort of thing um and she said I don't know I I don't want to mention names on a recorded um video but I we can speak after certainly there's someone that in the future if we want to do some kind of community event there might be someone if we give him enough notice willing to help support that. And I was sort of thinking, you know, we didn't we had the donor support us this time because it wasn't something we had budgeted for the year. I suspect um next winter we'll do at least one more of these. But I think would be great if we could reach out to other organizations or even a business if they were willing to do something. If we had three or four of them over the course of the winter, I think that's sadly enough to kind of keep us going. You know, that's all it takes. sponsorships like we do for the community cafe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's a clearly successful model. Yeah. Do you can I ask Thank you Matt for that for a for doing the events and also for the update. Um the 8,700 was that did was that what the neighborhood house spent in addition to what No, that was fortunately covered. But, you know, a big part of that, like the little things you don't think of, like we rented those high top tables from Wallace Events. I think we have about $1,700 in rentals. I mean, it's just crazy stuff. So, you could certainly do it on a a smaller scale. Y and um, you know, and I'm sure there are other caterers or restaurants that would be willing to, you know, not look it as a

money-making opportunity, but just to do something for the community and, you know, if they can break even, that's good. What do other people think of the idea of this sort of like this event that rotates location throughout the winter? Yeah, I think it's great. I love that idea, but I didn't know what other people think of it. Yeah. How many people normally would show up for these events? Um, we were sort of flying blind going into we had no idea are we going to have 10 people or 110 people. We had each time about 75 people which I thought that was sort of a good number. It was you could bounce around between conversations and not feel stuck. It's really fun. Yeah. I was only able to go to the first one but it was great. Yeah. Music live music. We did. And Michael Anderson, he wanted to donate his time. He was know we're going to at least give you $100 because you're passing up other opportunities to go play. And I think that little I'm not a fan of like lounge music, but I thought that added something. So it wasn't like you were just like standing around someone's basement at a high school party, you know, um people were kind of limited as to where you could hold that, right? I mean, the neighborhood house would be one, but where else could you hold it? The library. The library potentially. Union Church meeting. Yeah, that's a good one. Oh, and I mean we I think it'd be great to find some place in like Sville, for example, that could host. Totally. Or the Otter Creek Hall because there's a that's where most of our residents are actually. And it is difficult to drag people back into town that time of year after it gets dark out. But great. Well, I think this is an idea that has some teeth that we could that we could run with. I feel like maybe in the fall if we could do a little more brainstorming and maybe approach a couple other spots that might be willing to to try

something. Yep. Yep. See, it would seem to me the the parish house and the the theater would be the two obvious places, right? The firehouse, I guess, but that's pretty straightforward. Awesome. And maybe, you know, maybe we're talking about sponsorships potentially. Maybe some place like Wells Interiors can get a little promotion out of saying we're a sponsor for this event and therefore they give you the high tops because I know rentals can be really expensive. Yeah, that's a good point. I'll throw out a odd idea. Would it make sense for a bunch of organizations, neighborhood house, library, whatever, to pull some money and actually buy some high tops and then just have them in inventory to avoid having to pay rental fees all the time or figure out who else. I mean, this island is so full is so event heavy. I'm sure somebody owns owns high tops that we can borrow. We got some down in the basement you can use. That's Exactly. Yeah. Yep. That's these are all great ideas. Cost saving costs saving ideas. Um we had talked about popping up in the salt market or sorry 123 space but it's now been rented by the salt market. Got it. Oh that actually I was going there next to to talk about the 123. Yes. M lot mod has taken over. Okay. for the the beginning of the season. She's going to be doing all the baking and cooking stuff in there anding it down the street to the market and then I think her plan is to open a restaurant maybe in September. Is this public information? Yeah. Wow. She just posted something about it on Instagram yesterday. Okay. I couldn't hear that. who who is opening what kind of um so Mod Cusero who has

the Salt Market has taken over the lease of 123 Main Street and then the beginning of the summer she's just going to be doing all the baking and cooking for the Salt Market in that kitchen. But I think she has a plan to open a restaurant with a bar later in the summerfall if she can get it done. So did you hear that, Rick? Yeah, I did. I did hear that. That's exciting. And that would be that would be open all winter. Is that the idea? It would go through the winter. I don't know about all winter. I think she was thinking into shoulder seasons and things like that, but I I don't know exactly. I wonder if she would be interested in being a popup partner in front of the, you know, the rotating community event. Yeah. Yep. it just as a way like you know if she's if she's sort of experimenting with being open in the shoulder season and maybe maybe you know like a lot of the businesses sort of go to bed and then pop up for the Christmas festival and then go to bed again. So yeah, that'd be nice. I'll see what I can find out. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the update. I was going to ask about um ask Jamie to report on his conversations with John Boon, but maybe that's irrelevant at this point. and Jen stole my thunder. But sorry, but no, I didn't know all that. So, so I did I had and actually it's worth think I had two or three very nice conversations with both of them. And actually, it's Joanna that is kind of the one who's the go-to person for these kinds of things in town. And they they were very interested in what we were trying to do. And they had already been trying to do it. And in fact, that was their idea when they built one 123 in the first place was that it would be a year round. So, um, but they were farther along. Um, and I think that they would like that place to be open all year round

and obviously they can't dictate the economics of how you run a restaurant, but that would be ideal for them. Be ideal for us, too. Yeah. Yeah. Be great. And I just add as a caveat here, I but my feeling on all of this is I think we're we're making much more progress than I thought we were we're were making. But I I think we need a better mechanism for getting from the idea part to the implementation part. We only meet four times a year and things kind of get dropped sometimes in the in that intervening period. And so if we had a better means of keeping the ball rolling uh without having a lot of meetings and so forth I don't know what that would be but maybe appointing somebody to say all right you you take this and run with it and report back. I did I did try to do that because I connected Ma with with the buoy after our last meeting and so something good came out and because they had they had Oh, that's interesting because they didn't name but they said they had been talking to two two different people. Yeah. So I'm Yeah, trying to keep little heat up. Um at the risk of being too blunt, should we would anyone like to to be the champion for this project? of the winter gatherings. Yeah. Of the winter gatherings and and blending what you did with your suggestion, Jamie, about you know, we just need some someone to sort of keep it moving in between in between meetings. Um I'll do that. I I'll help. Jim and um the other space Sorry. Go ahead.

The other space that's of curiosity to me is the old lodge space because apparently it has a fantastic pool table in it and our commercial kitchen. I have yet to walk the space but where's that above the post office? Kim Swan owns it. It's for sale. Right. Right. Right. It's for sale but not moving. And I'm I'm just sort of cur I I haven't been in the space, but everyone who has been in is like, "Oh, we should be doing something there." And I was thinking like that's a great place, you know, get an air hockey table, get a pool. There's already pool table. People could have a small gathering because there's food. There's you could have band practice. You could have an event where you could have a small group of people, maybe a low rental, um a donation. I don't know. I don't know anything about the logistics of it, but it is available empty space, which is a premium around here. So, someone is uh above the the home store where there used to be a lodge. Yeah, it's the old base Masonic lodge. Yeah, I've been up there and um it needs a lot of work, but it's it's a fairly large space. Um, and I think I think Kim Swan actually owns that space. Um, or or actually or it might be um who are the guys who um who run the Norastery [Music] Kim own Kim own two buildings. So the Nor Easter owns the other part, I believe. Right. Yeah. So if someone purchased that, they'd and and it they would have to like make it available for community. Yeah. But maybe while it's Well, maybe there's someone out there who might be interested. Who might be interested? Yeah. And if it's still available next off season, maybe

one of these pop-up gatherings could be there as a way to show off the space. For sale. Yeah. Yes. There's a for sale sign in the window on the ground floor. on the circle grandpa in the drawer. Oh, Eric is doing that. I want to ask him about interesting. Cool. So many cool ideas. Yeah. Another thought for a for a popup restaurant. I don't know if we've talked about this, and I don't even know who these people are, but they they recently opened a restaurant in Townill serves mostly organic food. Yeah. I don't know whether they're they would be a candidate for a popup or not. They could certainly be asked. I have a feeling they'd say no, but it's worth asking. Right. It's worth opening the dialogue just to let them know what we're trying to do. Yeah. Even though maybe they'd have ideas. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great great idea. Um and in terms of the Thank you for being strong armed into that role. I didn't think that much, but I think we can talk about the finer points of what we want to get accomplished, but I think Jaime's point is that we just need a point person to kind of hold the reins between these these long gaps where where we we only meet quarterly. So, that's that's great. Well, I think the um YWCA has been doing that winter farmers market in Bar Harbor and different people pop up there. Yeah. So, I don't think the popup thing needs to be limited to dinner. they could organize that a couple times in the winter as a lunch with soup and bread or something. That would be really nice. People would love that. Yeah. So that's that would be something to to look at. Um and you probably know this Jen on being on the chamber, but Georgian has told me that the chamber is hosting a roundt. Yeah. For members on the topic of year round year roundness, year-

round gatherings. Do people want to collaborate on opening and closing dates? who would be interested in winter pop-ups. And we as the economic development committee are invited to to that meeting if we want to go. It's going to be May 21st from 9:15 to 10:15 at the neighborhood house. Um, and I will try to attend if I can get away from campus that day. But, um, I would love to just listen in, be a fly on the wall, and hear what the business owners are saying about that idea. Yeah, that was one of the the things we planned for this year. There's also um business after hours at the Seal Cove Auto Museum. Oh, fun. And then at Tim Murphy's I'll I'll make sure everybody has that info. Okay. Thanks, J. part. Yeah, I would really be curious to hear what people's, you know, which way the wind is blowing on that and what the and what the concerns are because it's, you know, it's all well and good for, I think, members of the community to say, "We want this and please deliver it to us, but you know, what does that actually mean for the business owners in terms of ponying up and you know, is it is it worth the cost?" basically. Um, and one other update, um, based on past conversations that Georgian has had with Atlantic Hospitality, the AsticU, um, they are considering being open on weekends in the winter for both rooms and dining. So, I don't know if that's real or not, but that's a we've heard it a few times. Yeah, that's great. So, you know, we may have some critical mass of momentum here. That would be great. So Matt had mentioned something. Yeah, go ahead. Um, another thought for a popup, and this may be totally off the wall, but uh, actually Amy might be able to speak to it or Stephanie. Um, the Northeast Harbor Tennis Club, the pool is closed this year and will be closed next year, but they're talking about

serving food at the tennis club facility as opposed to at the pool. Would there be an opportunity for a popup at the tennis club facility potentially, but I think everybody who might be psyched to do a popup in the winter is too busy in the summer. That's my gut feeling, but I don't know for sure. I would say good luck. Yeah. Okay. Well, I got my answer. It's a good idea. It is. You're welcome to float float the idea, Rick, to some people who might have an inside inside knowledge of that and just see, you know, as they say, run it up the flag pole and see who salutes. Yeah. Collect some intel on that. Yeah. In Philadelphia, we're very good at greasing flag polls, so they come down very quickly. Um, well, this is all really, really exciting. Um, it sounded like so Matt had mentioned maybe in the fall we start sort of talking with with people, but I feel like we should probably keep some momentum going through the summer. I know people are super like the business owners are super busy and communities here but as much as we can keep the conversation going it would probably be probably be really great and and I will do whatever I can to help. Um so we are cruising to a close here. Um, the next thing I wanted to do was just open up the floor to hear what other projects, what other topics, what other areas of concern should we be tackling as a community? Um, I know for example, Jamie has shared the article about the maternity and

obstetrics ward closing and Kathy had echoed that in an email to me. Um there's some other things that people have mentioned in the past but just wanted to hear what you know where is our energy and along with that what what is this committee's role in tackling that do you want to say anything about the No it's just sort of another veil in the coffin um I I I you hear rumors all the time about who's closing and it's closing and it just gets kind of weary, right, after a while. And so I don't want to name any stores that I've heard are closing, but um I I think this whole notion of what we've been talking about and the chambers um um meeting uh in May is where I mean if if we can't I I feel this town sort of sliding away and um that sounds negative, but it it's just so much here to keep and but we we can't just just can't just just keep trying to keep it. We have to build it. And um that's my Yeah, I do I do think the home store is not going to reopen and it's for sale, which is really sad. I hope somebody figures it out. But all those gifts are gifts I gave my children for Christmas. Peggy Peggy will honor those, I'm sure. Bill, I ask her. She's got another I think she's just ready to retire. Yeah. I do think there's an opportunity that's uh in front of us right now and that is with the good news that the AsticU will be opening for business uh starting early this summer. And we

talked about this before, but possibly having the AsticU run sort of like a a trolley between the AsticU and and the village. And obviously it would be primarily for their guests, but if it could run by and and stop in the marina and then go up into the village and so on. And assuming there are open seats, people get on on board. I mean, I think it's a it's a it's a great opportunity for AsticU to generate goodwill and it's a good opportunity for us as a town to um create more mobilities to get people up to Main Street like people coming from the off their boats in the harbor. Yeah. For the marina. And so I mean if if they knew that they they they saw a clearly recognizable Asticu van or something. Um or it could be one of those fun things with you know banana boats or whatever they call them these days. Um but just something that that would people's and they just hop on board and uh you know it would be again primarily for the for the guests but I think um it would also take people out to AsticU who might be going there for lunch or dinner or tea and um gives them an opportunity. But I think going back to Jaime's point, we need somebody to run with that. And I'm I'm afraid it has to be somebody on the island to do that. I don't know who that would be, but uh it would seem this is the time to do it when he's just opening and it probably be open to new ideas. I think they are from what I've heard that they are interested in that kind of thing. And we're looking into the

possibility of putting in a dock, but I don't think that's going to work out. So then there's also the the possibility people could go to the Asticum dock and walk from there, which I I I think I have a way to communicate with him indirectly. So maybe I'll try that. Can't say more than that. Yeah. Just Yeah, it would be like is there is there any interest in that? And would it you know, I'll do that. Yeah. Do they do they do that over in Southwest have a little gem car service that takes They have they have a vintage like station wagon that they drive people back. It's really the gem cars would be sweet and then you have another reason to have more electric chargers because maybe if you let them dock them there at night like I know for example the gem cars in Bar Harbor have made a agreement with a local business to lease their parking lot for the night and they put in all the electric chargers there so all the gem cars go there. The business is closed at night so the parking isn't a problem. Everybody is happy with the solution and everybody makes a little money. Right. We like we like those kinds of solutions. It doesn't it doesn't impede anyone because it's off-site parking. It wouldn't be available for people anyway and then they put in eight chargers and all the junk cars are there at night tucked in sleeping. That would be good to know if if when you float that idea like hey there's this example that might be char. He might be I don't know. If you were looking for sort of more fuel for to have chargers, you know, over there's no overnight parking in the harbor. That's correct. Right. So, if they were able to shuttle cars over and let them be there at night and charge some reciprocity there, that might be attractive to everyone. Great idea. Um, I would think Tim Harrington would be, you know, he seems to be very

progressive in his thinking, but if if he wanted to create an image is not only is this a renovated Victorian hotel, but it's very progressive because we do a lot of things with EVs and so on and and uh we have chargers there and we provide these electric vehicles to go in and out of the village. I think that would that would help his brand. Um, on the on the maternity ward closing, um, I'm just switching topics. I wonder if I'm trying to think of what we can do as a committee to register, you know, our dismay, like who would you even send a letter to about that? And would they care? We can, we can all sign. I've already done. That's pretty easy. Okay. Um I didn't know about the petition. So I'll your parents involved in um sort of just interest as former employees. Yeah. My mom used to be the head nurse and OB there. It's Yeah. And the from our perspective, I mean the message is we're trying to we're trying to be you know have vitality and growth and you can't do that with without young families, right? So, I mean, this this clinic here has been a boom. That's awesome. But I don't know whether that they make I don't know if the hospital was thinks they're worth it or not, but it's been It's been great. I hope really Yeah. Okay. So, I guess then this action step for us is to sign the petition if you feel if we feel moved to speak from the perspective of economic development on the island. Awesome. Great. Um, so any other like can we sign it as the committee or Oh, what an interesting

idea. It's a Google form. I don't think you could, but yeah, we could if people wanted to say, "Hey, I'm on the economic development committee. You know, this is of concern to us." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That's great. Um, so is this this is this Google form something that all of us you can forward it to all of us and we can is there a place to put our affiliation with the economic development committee? I can't remember if there is a a note option but I'll send it along to everybody. Is there a place that be great to add comments? I can't remember. Okay. Yeah. If if there's no April, if there's no place to say like your affiliation, but if there's like a short form comment field where you can, you know, write write a center, that might be a place to say and I don't even if people name the committee, you know, but you but we're trying to highlight the economic angle of this, not just the sort of loss of care, but the the economic implications. have seen a number of people posting requesting that people stop donating to the hospital. Oh wow. Which is Wow. Yeah. When Megan um when Megan is back then we might be able to tap her for some access to some studies. You know, I'm sure as an economist she has some studies that say, you know, here's what happens to a community when you lose the school. Here's what happens to community when you lose the OB ward. Here's what happens to a community. Their shutdown time is really fast, right? It's they're really really not giving very much opportunity for there to be any push back. It's like June 1st, isn't it? July July 1. But yeah, it's really their their time table is fast. So, this is a to-do. Yeah. Great. And maybe um I hate to say it this way, but maybe there

would be an opportunity for some midwives to set up shop, you know, on, you know, if they if the if the if this goes forward, then then our role changes to figure out, okay, how can we help fill the gap? Birthing center in the home store. Birthing center. Yeah, that'll awesome. Um, let's move on to any any brief announcements. Martha wanted me to remind everyone to go to town meeting May 6. Is that right? Yeah, May 6. Yep. Um, I have another brief announcement. Um, Isabella Connelly who joined us at I think by Zoom for one of our meetings. I have never met her in person, but she is a local entrepreneur who on Monday night won a pitch competition in Bangor for $5,000. She made it through several rounds. And her business is called Pathmaker Projects, and it's all about repairing outdoor equipment and gear, and I think she's looking for a place to set up shop. So, some of these ideas that we've talked about might be good connections for her. Um, I've never met her in person, but she and I are just in email dialogue and she's curious about what resources and opportunities are are here. So, I'm going to push our town as an option for her. Um, does anyone any other brief brief announcements? Happy birthday, Kathy. Happy birthday, Kathy. Um, anything from folks on Zoom? No announcements from the West Coast. From the west. Oh, we had we we did wake up to like an inch of snow here. That's Is that right? Oh my gosh. It's not gone

on top of McFarland Hill though. No. Coming from coming from Bar Harbor. I drove up into winter and then back. Um, okay. Upcoming meeting dates for our committee are July 9th and October 8th. And we will figure out a secure Zoom option for that meeting. That was that was disturbing. Yeah. I wonder how that person Yeah. felt away. We don't know how they put it on its own website. Somebody that made me angry at the community sitting in media or something just almost could have been a bot or something. Well, thank you everybody. Go. Yeah, it definitely light it up. Yeah, I say that's the first time we've been doing Zoom since co that's the first time we've ever had I'm glad our committee could provide that opportunity for the town. What's your official retirement date? 31st of August, but the 28th is a Friday, so I think that would be probably August 28th. That's exciting. Yeah, it's it's going to be a change. That's why I gave myself a long time uh lead time so I could sort of figure out how to reinvent myself. But I've enjoyed it very much. Well, there we go.