Economic Development Commission - Regular Meeting

So, we'll call our meeting to order and I ask if um there's any members of the public that have uh joined the virtual access. I don't see it says waiting for others to join. So, we're going to take that up as of you see a new game, but I don't know if they're on or not. All right. So, our first order of since there's no public comment as of yet, our first order of business is approval of the October 1st minutes. Um, do I hear a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. Okay,

I'll second it. Second. Any discussion? I'll recuse myself. Charl's trying to sabotage. I can try to log in or someone else can just so we just have someone else to put on mute. So I don't have the battery. See if I have the invitation.

Let's just post for one minute. Make sure we'll get this. Yeah, I don't have the invite. I just have should be synced.

Yeah, I don't have the link. So, oh, someone is here. I joined All right. Thank you.

Took me a while to figure out which button. All in favor of adopting the strategic plan say I. I. I. We have the unanimous adoption of the strategic plan. Thank you everyone and again especially Cheryl for initiating and providing considerable editorial assistance in the process. Thank you everyone. Now I have to try to execute on it. All right. But I think to Mona's point, now we have a framework and we can work through those during a meeting rather than Yes. the other topics.

Okay. Our next agenda item is grant funding status. Anything new or pending? And um does anybody have anything new or pending in the way of trying to avail ourselves of of any channel of funding?

Um since Wendy's not here, I'll mention that the Eastern Regional Tourism District has just announced their 2026 marketing uh grants. So we have had organizations in Old Lime take advantage of that. The last being the Midsummer Festival Committee um led by Lime Art Association and Lime Art Association I think was the lead on that. So um we'll make sure that we get the word out to our tourism assets that that grant is out there again.

Okay. So that's dy noted. That's important. Um, anything else that we So, I I assume everyone heard that we the town did receive a grant towards sidewalks. Yes, that's positive funding news.

Sidewalks at Walls Road. Right. And the only thing I can add is that I I'm going to try to pursue the Amtrak um Connecticut River Bridge project to try to see what's in there for the restorations after the completion of the bridge that there potentially could be some benefits to the town that might come out of that. uh simply because the magnitude of their project is so large and what we would be benefiting from could be very small relative to that. So that's something that I'm going to look into. the uh first selectman's office might have some of that documentation because before that

project started. Um there was a lot of information shared with us especially about how they were going to bring back the environment afterwards because that was um a big concern.

Yeah. I I had I attended a uh meeting that was uh predominantly it was consulting engineers council meeting but it was attended primarily by civil engineers and the Amtrak uh bridge project manager uh put a presentation on on the project and did talk about the environmental restorations that were going to be done at the completion of the project. So there is definitely work there that uh I'll try to learn more about. Okay. Uh next thing is real estate. Um under real estate and I guess businesses. Um we have no one no one familiar with real estate on the commission at this time. Wendy's not here. So um

well I think we could share. I spoke to Martha. I believe the old line marketplace transaction closed and then we were invited to meet with the new buyers out of Westport. Uh Joe was unable to attend so I attended with the gentleman of head zoning. I forget it's Paul bad names Paul Orzel. Yeah. So we met with the owners representative with Martha. You know they I thought they were very smart and prudent coming in and say what you know we're new to town. What should we be thinking of?

You know they were looking for concepts and ideas that they that they would consider. They als they also were testing a national brand uh concept that they wanted to bring in and got some feedback about a national brand. So I I um so we gave them some feedback on how it would be received. Um it was an exercise concept. I don't think I should probably name it since they're in the midst of negotiation. So um I think the feedback was that it would be a national, you know, exercise grant would work. You know, they're going to try to fill up the remaining parts of the uh facility. They're going to do some enhancements, I believe, some landscaping and and create that. I think a press release will come out in the next day or two up on

that that would be informative. Yes. I think it will be out in the next day or two. Okay. Great.

So I think they're trying to make a good effort to focus, you know, to fit in the community. The one com the comment I gave them was I thought it would be prudent for you on your vendor list to reach have an outreach to the local old line vendors people that work on HVAC and roofing and thing and get a group of old vendors that your management company could call and get them qualifiers insurance certificates and said that would make a nice emotional deposit to use local vendors and not part of your it was the management company I believe is out of Boston and not use your national brands maybe consider some of our local vendors,

which which certainly might be even more economically advantageous to them. Yeah. So, I I I asked them to consider that. So, it was about a 20-minute meeting, but I thought it was smart that they came in, listened. That's great. That's good. It was a good start. Yeah, that's super positive. I think now they had done some due diligence with talking with the current renters in the plaza. Correct. I believe so. I didn't ask that question, nor did he disclose that to me. So, so I had heard from some of the business owners that they were being called by

the prospective buyers in advance. So, I just wondered um if there was any disclosure on that, but

no, he did not just it was more of I'm new to town. What can I do to not, you know, make a mistake? um what do you you know he came to basically was asking for feedback on the national exercise tenant and um and then there's anything else and I just volunteered use local vendors and and I did also disclose that we're going to work on a new business packet. So when you have prospective tenants hopefully in 26 we'll have it. So here's you know a tenants evaluating the online shopping center. Here's here's our packet which is in initiative one I believe.

Yes. So I said we'll be working on that. So you'll have that. So yeah, it was a positive meeting. Jeff, thank you for covering that attendance. You're welcome. Okay. Um businesses. Did you have somebody else? I'm sorry. Well, it might it's falls under either one. Yeah, they kind of go hand in glove. Okay. Um, anyone who travels on the south side of town notice Blackfall Outfitters has a for sale sign up. Oh, no. I came home today and noticed it. I've been away for a week and I came home two hours ago and I saw that

marina and property. I don't know anything about it. um you know perhaps someone's retiring perhaps like I have no idea but I will say that Blackhole Outfitter has been an excellent marketing um marketing savvy tourism presence business on Shore Road. So, uh, you know, hopefully they'll be a great new owner of that business, but they've done a lot. They have to at the state level as well with state office of tourism to bring people to old line. They they transformed that location from a broken down bait check. Yeah. You know, to a a robust business,

great programming between events on Sunday afternoons and school groups that they would get out and kind Well, they did a great job. So that's that's a concern. Okay. Um the the commission has been approached by two businesses that want to come to town. One is Rooers Men's Grooming that wants to take up station in the Big Y Plaza, which we'll have to they're asking, you know, can you help us? And the other is Drift is interested in the salty monkey at Sound View. And that's a big deal. So I think they have a success, if it's the same business entity I'm thinking of, they have a very successful restaurant in Essex.

Yes, you're correct. Essex.

So that's that's good news. All of a sudden we you know we have two unsolicited uh interested businesses. So that's a great thing. Anything else on business anybody can bring forward? That's it. Okay. Um marketing and outreach efforts. Well, our strategic plan is going to get into the initiation of some of that to try to help kind of as as Jeff had said that if a business wants to come to town, we should be able to handle a packet since some pointers and assistance. So, in addition to that, um I posted on the town web the town Facebook page to um shop online, I think it's called, but it was about shopping local, you know, to support our businesses, gift certificates for restaurants, make good holiday gifts. Um just, you know,

trying to remind people to shop our old line businesses. And then with the arts district, we're doing holiday happenings which is on explore old lime.com and it's a rundown of all the different concerts and holiday markets and um sales and treelightings. So that will be on the Facebook page as well. And then the arts district is doing a lot of promotion of that as well. Is that I should know this. Is there a a Instagram page that cross-promotes from Facebook?

No, neither. Uh the arts district is considering an Instagram page. Um and I don't think the town is consider considering at this time an Instagram page because it's really, you know, more task, you know, you have to spend more time doing it. And now you can't even just post photos. They want video. So now you're getting into original content. Um, but something definitely to consider in the future.

Um, I've got one more item that I'll add to marketing and outreach is I'm still in pursuit of a manufacturer that is um looking to increase the size of their factory space. Our industrial park is going to have a vacancy in the order of 30,000 square feet. and I'm trying to see if I can get the proprietor of a manufacturing company to take a look at that. So, I'm trying to do that. I can't tell you who the manufacturer is because it's proprietary to them to, you know, that they're thinking of relocating. uh they're in a different town and the town has u met their request to expand their facility with every conceivable non-conformance, you know, to make it just unfriendly to a business that employs a lot of people. So, we have an industrial park. It's an appropriate use. And what's particularly interesting is they're not at all a burden relative to water and sewer, which is the biggest heartache we have, I think, for many industrials that would come to our town from. So anyway, I'm working on that. Um, okay. Next item is Shoreline Gateway Committee. uh shoreline gateway committee. Uh our last meeting was pretty much dedicated to reviewing the process of updating of the zoning rigs and that's kind of where we're at. Um, I again not having any full-time staff, I have to find my way to get on the agenda for a zoning meeting because we have submitted to zoning a blight and a exterior lighting ordinance. And um I uh will have to you know uh go there and see if I can help move that into the process of the zoning update at least to

have it seriously looked at. That's in your role as liaison to Shoreline Gateway. Correct. Um okay. Chamber of Commerce. I have not been participating heavily. However,

there is on the next third Thursday which are their they're doing first Thursday and third Thursdays this December 18th 8 to 9 a.m. at the old live end. So that is a info and register. So as members the EDC is a member so folks could attend. So December 1st then December 8. Well the first is gone. The first Thursday was was actually tomorrow. So that's tomorrow in old line tomorrow. No tomorrow in old Sabbrook where they hold it.

That's the Vicky Duffy Pavilion. Oh yeah. which is down right that's and then the first Thursday rotates or the third one is rotating and it's at the old lime in this month so December 18th and both are at 8 8 to 9:00 a.m. I might try I'll go to the December 18th walk. How's Andrew doing? I don't know. I haven't been to too many events lately. Hasn't been convenient. Yeah, either have I.

Okay. Um, Eastern Regional Tourism District. Cheryl's already reported that there's grant money alert and that that needs to be pursued. Anything further on that? But he has to volunteer. I don't know of anything else Wendy would be reporting. So um the Rivercog I uh I emailed everyone. I went to the virtual town hall meeting that was held which was November 14th I think it was and the two graphics that I sent kind of sum it up. you know that every dollar spent on downtown management generates $21 and change on new investment and here we are you know with no um if you will financial support to pursue such things I think it's significant that we we should talk about it in our budget discussion which will be a next a coming item and then also it seems like this is endemic to most towns so most towns you know only make it as far as as a volunteerrun uh effort and no paid staff, you know, no accredited skills for people doing the work. Um, but that's a significant statistic in my opinion if what they've presented is accurate. It's like, you know, a dollar spent gets you more than 20 back.

I think it's not something worth pursuing. Personally, I think you all know how I feel about this. I don't want to see there being a paid person in an economic development type spot in Old Lime because I've seen that in many other towns before where I have lived. I think that this town has done an excellent job of maintaining a lot of what people love about Old Lime and continuing to allow for growth at reasonable levels, which is in line with our planning and conservation plans that most people in the town feel they're in alignment with. Most people move here because they like the small town feel. And most towns that bring in this economic development grandiose thing turn into many cities like Old Sabbrook and East Slide. And that's not why a lot of people live in Old Line. And our revenue from business, our tax revenue is under 5%. It's not a huge percentage. And if you want to make it a bigger percentage, we're going to change our tab.

Well, Mona, I uh I understand where you're coming from. However, you know, from participating in Shoreline Gateway and also over the years in Sound View, we have whole derelict areas of town. Um and my classic of course is in the the Hideway Shopping Center, you know, an abandoned foundation that's been there abandoned for 40 years. You talk about that a lot, but it's private property. It's always understood, but there's private property rights and then there's government overreach. And I believe in private property rights. I do think that if if it was easier in the state of Connecticut for people to own a business, more people would have businesses,

but it doesn't mean the paid person coming in is going to make it any easier for somebody. There's a lot of rules and regulations to own businesses in the state of Connecticut. It's very expensive to own a business in the state of Connecticut. So, how does that change? It's not going to change by having a paid person here trying to sell people on bringing in business. It's not going to, you know, that's not going to make a difference.

I I don't know. I think that one we may have to agree to disagree because I I do think that a focused effort could make a difference. There are property owners I mean Martha has spoken to the owner of cherry stalls saying tear it down and plant grass. Uh meanwhile we have this abandoned hulk of a building just sits there. Um you know I I as much as I love the rural character of town and I do want to keep it that way derelict properties don't ring my bell. But der like properties aren't going to be solved by hiring somebody that's going to come in and do economic development. Like that's you guys are working on this blight ordinance now, right? I mean that's you know so many of the things can be accomplished with the groups that we already have working on things. The problem I feel strongly about is when we bring somebody in and hire them to do a position and there's one person there who can't necessarily be hired or fired. They're not voted in or voted out of that position and they could have very different ideas for how the town should be run and that could significantly affect everybody's tax base going forward. One of the things that's always been so great about old nine, which is changing significantly as we take on more and more debt, is our low taxes. You know, when you say the business contribution is 5%, you know, maybe it needs to be more than 5%. You know, as as a person who's now retired, I look at what my tax bill is and it's considerable. Well, next time the school wants to put in $58 million in repairs, think about how much interest is going to be paid off over 25 years. Think about it. You know, when people we can't just rubber stamp every project and say,

"Hey, yeah, let's do this." Because it costs us money, a lot of money. And when our town takes on $58 million in debt to fix four buildings and nobody is even thinking about the extremity of this or even trying to ask can we have a lower price. Nobody was doing that and there was significant ways that that could have been reduced on the on the people in our town. And you know what? Nobody votes in Ian Deviser in region 18. They're their own corporation. So they can do whatever they want despite what we want. And that's what I want to avoid is more entities like Ian Nvisor being able to drive up the cost of our education program as the number of students is decreasing. I think on the um the session that you went to and talking about downtowns and all, if we take the focus off of Hall's Road and put it instead on the village of Sound View. I mean, that is a very under utilized and sad area. I mean, half of us drive through it every day and it's just something that really needs to be addressed and sound the um shoreline gateway committee is working on it. people in town hall such as the uh land use coordinator. He brings his expertise to the table, but it's the commissions that are driving the vision and the strategies. And I think it would be the same thing if there were an economic development person. You know, we're not talking

about a highly paid professional. We're talking about someone who could perhaps think about grants to support what the Shoreline Gateway Commission is trying to do and help people find grants for improving the facades of their buildings or, you know, start to implement what the Shoreline Gateway Commission is going to come up with. That's a reasonable way to bring some life to that whole area. Um,

well, one of the reasons that our taxes did go up is that a lot of people are working more hours here at town hall. Isn't there somebody who's working more hours at town hall that could be doing some of these things? I mean, if all these people who were working part-time are now working more full-time hours, like I don't know what goes on here, but we've definitely got more staff or more staff hours happening at town hall than we did before. So, I don't know. I'm not here.

Yeah. I think Well, I would like to, you know, now that we have our strategic plan, we didn't put in a full-time person that, you know, I I would like to see if we can get some money to fund something. There's five initiatives and my analysis, three of them will not cost any money was one of them you volunteered to go observe the the um zoning commission, right? That's one of the initiatives that made it to the end. um you know the the district we have two like around marketing we have to print we have to print the books again I'm sorry I'm looking through my notes here um you know so we have to jumping ahead to the budget conversation so you know we probably don't need a lot of money to implement the strategic plan I think that's what we heard over and we ended up with this plan because we didn't want to have full-time staff person we wanted to go slow and get some things you the the the wayfinding signage. We said we're going to work on a collaborative matter on that with all the commissions and seek grants for a unified signage plan. So I think only initiative one initiative three need some money and it's probably not any more than $10,000 you know working on. So um it's not incrementally more than what we have sh you know the numbers better than I do. You asked for about $4,500 previously.

4145. So maybe it's an incremental 5,000 which I think to your point Mona there's an awful lot of you know when you look through the budget review there's an awful lot of people to get you know this and you know get some money from that I would like to see that we maybe they reallocate some money from someone else and give us an extra five grand or so you know what we decide as a group to see if we can and you know can initiate that. So, um, you know, it's probably an incremental five or $6,000 we need to kind of do this for the next fiscal year and see how we do, you know, how, you know, how we move forward on this. And um you know I to your point I would like to you know like to see them maybe have a zerobased budget maybe challenge some of the other groups to get money that maybe the money that we need that we can deliver some ROI on will come from some other groups and not add to the town

that's pivotal. I mean you know the reason that I flagged this thing Mona was that there's an ROI there. You know you spend a dollar you get $20 back. That's a pretty good ROI in my book. Yeah. But I'm not I'm not I would have to look more at the nobles and and really believe it to see it to believe. I think it depends on what you're spending the money on. Just a person may not be that, but thank you. Depending on what they're doing.

Yeah. I mean, I also I think it's like a pie in the sky thing. Like anybody could say that, but is it true? My my other concern though is that to any business to be sustaining, you need continuity. Volunteer commission, it's real hard to maintain that continuity. You know, is if you have a person that you can say, "This is your task. This is your job. Go do it." They stay the course. If you have volunteers, oh, I have to go babysit my grandchildren in Stanford and go to Stanford.

I think that we are getting way off. I mean, I think that we've been a very committed committee. And I feel that if people aren't committed to the committees that they're on in the town line, then they should step away from those committees. If you know, you know, that's how I feel. Yeah. But meanwhile, meanwhile, we have two vacancies that we haven't been able to fill just yet. We have a third pending. So, there is a definite problem with the availability.

I I applied again. I fill out the form with Martha um to to continue on the I'd like to continue. So I guess if I make it I'll be on the committee if I not get booted off the island. Yeah. So but one thing if I make it on the committee I I I don't really think I should be co-chair was my attendance is uh I miss too many meetings be you should be or someone else should be the lead. I'm glad to assist, but I shouldn't be a co-chair because my attendance is spotty at times, but I'm committed. You are I'll do the work. I'll do the work. You show up on the screen.

Yeah, but I should be, you know, you probably should be here. So, I'm Yeah, I'll show up on the screen.

But to your point, I think I think that with not a lot of incremental money, we can do some things. So, I you know, I'm thinking about spending in one and three. One, we have to spend the books. The three is build the business, you know, business. Welcome to online. I I I know from that gentleman online shopping center, we can help him on tenant recruitment and bring tenants there. We have doing business in online. We put together a book and we can get samples from other communities how they do it and um you know, maybe we could get somebody in town hall to help us and we should ask that question. So, I I I would be willing I think Joe and I would willing to go into town hall and say, "Look, will you help us with some of these? You have any time to do this? We'll we can do that."

And I do think that if with if there's a plan with signs, I think the town's very much going to want to be involved because it's going to be their the town's brand. Oh, yeah. No question. Can I can I just clarify for our clerk um 90s road that we're talking about that's the old line marketplace and the old line shopping center is the hideway right we're talking about the old line thank you okay well you're like the only one that remembers half street it's hard because one seems like a shopping center. I know.

But isn't the shopping center marketplace? Yeah. Someone else had the name first. Yes. Thank you. Um, and we're talking about 90 Halls Road is the marketplace, right? The big Y is because the market is in the marketplace. That makes sense. Okay. Um so anyway, Rivercog that was kind of you know or should we say from them.

So the actual regional economic development commission has not met. Um we were supposed to have a joint meeting with the regional housing commission in November and that was cancelled I think because there was a um affordable housing conference held by the partnership for strong communities which some folks from the regional the person in the um Rivercog who manages our our commission did attend um and there is no December meeting and the January meeting again will be a joint economic development housing commission and there's not a date or any information about that yet. Um they're normally on a Tuesday at like 11:30. I think it would have been next week would have been the December one, but we don't have a December meeting. So So I can't even remember the I think there was an October one, but it's hard to remember. And I they they also um we did I think that Rivercog has provided some funding for the group that you attended the meeting with the um I can't remember their name.

Main Street. Main Street. Yeah.

So there is potential opportunity for towns to get some you know support from there. I just don't know what the funding scheme is for that. Well, they're they're advocating, you know, supporting economic development efforts. So, they probably should only up if they have an access to funding. So, okay. Um, next agenda item is retention of in town talent, school to career. Um, as I have been looking at this candidate manufacturer to try to get into our industrial park, uh, they have a particular area of product that they make where it's a technology that is very up and cominging. You know, it's not chipm, but the idea is it's something that is new, new and novel and so on. And I'm seeing uh other products that are related and I'm thinking, wow, if we could if we could succeed in getting them to come to town, could we working with the high school school to career start getting our high school students familiarized with the technology and essentially try to create an industrial concentration, which was something that we used to have in Connecticut in a big way. You know, New Britain the hardware city, Waterbury the brass city. Um, you know, tremendous amount of of economic expansion occurred because there were particular technologies and skills that were sort of just feeding on itself and growing and I'd like to see us get back to that. So anyway, that's something that I'm thinking about for the school to career that it's kind of

I want to know more that you can disclose who the organization is. It it basically they manufacture a type of structural plastic that is becoming very it's an aerospace product that has worked its way now into multiple other areas. Mhm.

You know, so for example, buy a new fishing pole and the the high-end products, even consumer products that use these advanced, you know, plastic materials, very high-end, very expensive, you know. So, even though it started off as an aerospace product, it's now found its way into sporting equipment, um, specific types of, um, prosthetics, you know, there's there's quite a bit that's been done. So, materials have always been the key to new technology, you know, whether it's chips or whether it's structures. So my thoughts are this is a you know a technology and a type of product that doesn't put a lot of demand on water and sewer and that's our Achilles heel for a lot of industry that we would try to recruit into town.

You're not going to get a food processor to come to old line you know water not going to happen. Um, so anyway, that's just something that I'm thinking about. And if anybody has any other ideas relative to the, you know, school to career and the ability to retain and and organically grow business that employs people in the town. I'm very interested in trying to do that. That's kind of where I'm going with this effort. Right. Okay. Um, new and other business. I guess the budget we should talk about at this stage, Jeff. And then the one other thing we should add to this so you can decide which you want first is the zoning issues. Yeah. Go to the zoning meeting.

Do you want to talk about the budget first or zoning? Zoning. Zoning. Zoning is much more exciting than the budget. So Mona, three things I'm curious about as you give your update. Um the housing um you know debold um storage units and then the zoning regulations. Okay. So, here's the update. Um, well, we all we'll start with Debul. So, he is planning to sell the property. He's not planning on developing it himself. Soliced for sale with a broker out of Boston.

Yep. He was coming there strategic to look for some specific information. He wanted to find out what the the cost is for um you know how all of the affordable housing it's based on a formula of the medium income. So he was looking for those numbers and he was hoping that I could be able to come here get them and provide them to it. He did not end up presenting at the meeting at the zoning meeting. I

I I can help you where to get that. you know, the Connecticut Housing Authority, they have, you know, there's different that they tie it to the median housing income and old lime. They update them every April. So, it's the THFA. I'll I'll email it to you, Mona. Okay. I'll get it to you. Or do you have a contact with Do you have contact with him? Yeah. Yeah. You can send it to him, could you? Yeah, I can send it to you. Yes. Okay. So, that's all he was looking for for his marketing package really. and then he decided he wasn't going to present at the meeting.

So that was that. And then they went into executive session and I ended up leaving. And so as far as the storage units, well, we all know this happened after that meeting. We found out that the storage units won and zoning lost in court. So that was that. And then with zoning regulations, it was a regular zoning meeting. They weren't talking about the regulations that night. So, do we know are we getting an invitation to participate in that or are we expected to read what's online as draft regulation?

That's a good question because I feel like a lot of people have that same question. They don't know where the process is going and it was supposed to be like at a certain point they were supposed to get community input. So do you think that Joe that we as a committee as you as our leader should reach out to them and see if we can participate and ask Mona to be you know as part of our strategic plan. Mona is our representative to participate and is that okay? That makes sense. We should probably do that. got to get some clarification. So,

of course, I didn't realize when I volunteered, I have a standing meeting every Monday at 8:00 p.m. That kind of conflicts a little bit, but their meetings are recorded. So, I don't mind going back and reading their minutes and Okay. I just might not always make it live. And that's fair. I don't think you necessarily have to be. I mean, from my perspective, people may feel differently. I don't think you have to be there in person unless there's a public hearing that we want. Um, but I was very glad to go that night because it was a great opportunity when we got kicked out for their executive session.

That's when Mark and I got talking and I got to find out about everything that he was planning. He said he, you know, he he would potentially pursue it himself, but he'd also potentially market it as a project to be sold. And um overall, you know, it could be a a great benefit if people are looking for alternative housing that's easy on.

It's listed for sale at Kush Kush Kushman Wakefield, the 38 acres. Here's the this right here. I can So, it's it's been out since this for sale for a while now as um a prospective development. It's tabled as a 38 acre residential development opportunity. And what's the market price on it for the asking price? Um uh I it's not in here. I think you have to talk to the

Yeah. Well, it could potentially if somebody does come in and take advantage of it, which now with HB80002 and the unrestricted building for developers was going to make it very attractive for a developer then that this is already out there and they potentially would become the largest taxpayer in the town of Old if this were to get built. There's over 200 units, I think. 230 units. Yeah,

200 multif family units and 30 towns. And it doesn't need to be sewarded. I don't think I think he bought the extra property. He bought additional property. He could do septic. Does that answer your question, Cheryl? Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions? No.

I actually had like a piece of paper with all my notes on it, but I was in such a rush that I forgot to take a number out of my Totally. Okay. If I think of anything else, I'll send it through email. Okay. Thank you.

All right. So, our final order of business under new business or necessary business is budget. Yeah. So just got over spending we roughly asked for we we received 4500 last year. I'm I'm stalling here while I find the schedule. Last year we got 45 new Was it 45? It was 4,000 something. I would say it was 4,100 41. Yeah, 4136 you're correct. Okay.

So, um very specific number carefully calculated. Um so again going back to strategic plan there's out of the five initiatives I think two if we could have a little money we can make some progress on. So the first initiative was promotion and marketing you know print the materials you know the website management the town the town pays for the website yes every three years I have to look and see when it's due up again

so so specifically does our committee pay for the All right so we have to make sure if the three years we carry that in the budget um we print 1,200 copies of the um summertime book, right? The old little trifold pamphlet. Yeah.

And then um that was it for initiative one. And initiative three, you know, it talks about help business resource initiative and um you know build you having a doing business and alignment built that could also be posted the website and things like that. Um you know probably need some month money for that. And um so that's um something I think that we should discuss as a group and maybe we get some approval from the committee to maybe submit a budget not to exceed X for initiatives one and three as and maybe empower Joe and I to work on it. So, does that sound like something that the group would

I just need you to step I I got a little lost. So, under initiative three, it's the doing business and old line guide that you're talking about or something else that No, doing business and old lime is a new new business guide under initiative three. That's new. Yes. And then under initiative one is our legacy but initiative three it was that new business guide that you're talking about. Yes. There's no other things that need money. Um

okay I mean I mean I mean to find out what's going on there there's these member you know there's these organ group software it's called cexy or other software you can find out what's going on so subscription like that is maybe $100 a month so instead of relying on somebody we could have our own subscription download the reports and see what's available so that would be another you know kind of that bundle Have you used it? I'm sorry for interrupting. Have you Have you had a subscription and used it before?

I use something called yard for my company called Yarding Matrix, which is $3500. It's a little more detail, but I think you get something scaled down and we could potentially look into something like that to do our, you know, look at and it'll give you beyond online. You can look into southeastern Connecticut. Okay, you could say okay the 30,000 people old line a square foot for industrialist X compared to town Y which is a little more and we have the you know so it gives you a broader view on that. So I I get I guess you know could you could the committee give us you Joe and I up to 10 you know submit approval to submit up to $10,000 you know five for initiative one and five for initiative three not to exceed that and we'll fill in the details I guess that's to ask and um so I think we have five subcategories you have you seen our budget.

Yeah, I have it right here. So, we have the clerk salary in there, which is very important. Yes. Yes. Yes. We got to make sure. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, we'll make sure that's covered. So, there um So, there's the clerk. There's a clerk, there's supplies, there's postage, there's contracted services, and um other Yeah. So, you just have to make the things fit into those categories. and contractor services that would include the website. We also pay a chamber of commerce. Um uh it probably be smart to include you this year as a transition in the review so we don't make it any

and you have to provide a very detailed like here's here are the elements here's why and that should be in the old in your EDC email something I sent out from there probably I think we I think we can do that we can we can have the support and backup for that. Yeah. And when is it due? You said December 11th. Yeah, but it's an iterative. Yes, that word. It is an iterative iterative process. Gina, I misspoke. It's December 15th. Okay, we have to turn the forms in.

We have to go before the board of finance formally around March. Great. And you'll go before the board of selectman. and the board of finance sits in on this in early January sometime. Great. So, what are you hoping for? Are you hoping for a motion at this time that we approve you to design a budget up to $10,000? I think so. Yeah. Because we we won't we will not convene before the budget is due. So we need some kind of guidance from the committee not to submit a budget

a certain amount and obviously we'll submit it to the com committee members before we you know to make sure you see what we're spending. So, but a word of clarity. We are a commission. Commission, excuse me. A commission. Committee is a different Yes, you're right. I'm one of each. So, so I'll make a motion to um to our chairs that they create a budget not to exceed $10,000. um that we will review at our next meeting. Maybe not.

Um we have to submit it by the 15th. I think you have to give us approval to submit it. We we need So that would be an email meeting. 15th of December. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, we just got I just got the I mean, literally no, we got the meeting. We got it last Tuesday. So, yeah. So, so that's that's the issue. We have to submit it. We have to if we don't submit it, we get a zero.

So, the motion is the motion on the floor is for us to review it at our next meeting. So, we're giving you permission to submit this by the 15th and you'll review it with us at the next meeting. That's the motion that you made, right? And if uh if we don't um agree with it, we can ask that it Yeah. you know, come down some, but it's not to exceed $10,000 because they need to submit something by the 15th. Yeah, I think that's good. And then you'll just review it with us at the next meeting. Yes. Yes. Or you can send it to us in email too before

we can do both. We can send it as a draft before the meeting and we can re formally review it at the January meeting. Do you want us to review it before December 15th? Call. Sure.

Sure. I don't see a problem. So, I will make a motion that the EDC chairs create a fiscal year 2627 budget to submit to the board of selectmen not to exceed $10,000 with the understanding that the EDC will review the proposed budget for final approval. I'll second the motion. Okay. Any discussion?

All in favor? I Okay, motion carries. Thank you. I appreciate that. And our next item is adjournment. So, I have one more. So um for the next meeting, do we want to reorganize our agenda around our strategic initiatives? I think so. And then you could have a you know special things in there like budget you know like kind of administrative management kind of issues. Yeah. I I would think after public comment we go right into our strategic plan update starting next meeting.

Yeah. Great. That's all Joe. So, next item is adjournment. Anybody move to adjourn? I would move. Jeff Seconds. All any discussion? All in favor? I. We are. Thank you very much everyone for weathering