[0:01] Uh, Alex Hastings, Commissioner
[0:05] Bill Keep, Commissioner Jake Dunigan,
[0:07] Commissioner, uh, Joe Dela Cruz, chair.
[0:12] Uh, need approval of the minutes. Does
[0:14] anyone make a motion in April 2nd? Has
[0:17] already been approved. We're just doing
[0:18] May. Anyone make a motion to approve the
[0:20] minutes for May?
[0:21] >> So moved.
[0:22] >> Second.
[0:23] >> You got it. All right. Uh, all in favor?
[0:28] >> I. unanimous. We're getting off to a
[0:30] great start. Uh old business.
[0:35] >> Yeah. Nothing. All right. Welcome back,
[0:38] everyone. By the way, that's our old
[0:39] business. It's been a few month, couple
[0:41] months. Uh new business uh year-to- date
[0:45] reflection.
[0:47] >> Yeah. So,
[0:49] we have them as separate items. they
[0:51] will flow into one another. But with us
[0:55] just coming back from a break and
[0:58] approaching the year, the end of the
[0:59] year, we figured we'd take some time to
[1:01] kind of just reflect on 2026 and the
[1:03] goals that we set for this year and then
[1:07] start kind of looking ahead for 2027.
[1:11] So, I'll kind of just walk us through a
[1:13] little simple presentation. It's mostly
[1:15] it's a visual. It's, you know, just to
[1:17] have it. And if you remember, we did
[1:19] this last year where everyone we kind of
[1:21] went over where we are from the previous
[1:23] year or your goals, what we're at, and
[1:26] then what you'd like to see for the the
[1:28] next year and then we would draft what
[1:31] we hear tonight and you would approve
[1:33] those next uh next meeting in November
[1:35] the following year.
[1:38] >> So just the purpose of the EDC advocate
[1:41] for the needs of graten businesses and
[1:43] entrepreneurs to support their
[1:44] retention, growth and sustainability.
[1:48] And I kind of just took the goals. Okay,
[1:51] that worked. Um, I went through the 2026
[1:54] goals and just kind of looked at how we
[1:55] did so far. Um,
[1:59] for improving outreach strategy and
[2:01] execution garnered connection with an
[2:03] understanding of our businesses. We set
[2:05] a few action items holding one to two
[2:08] EDC um, and staff outreach events. We
[2:13] did that one in April. gather 100
[2:16] business owners emails and contact info
[2:18] for the newsletter. We fell short of
[2:21] that one. I put less than 40. That one
[2:23] was being generous. Most of those came
[2:24] from other lists that we had, but
[2:27] >> um and then host one to two events to
[2:31] connect with business owners. We did
[2:32] have our business appreciation breakfast
[2:34] in April. And I'll mention we as staff
[2:39] weren't really able to dedicate the time
[2:41] to putting together the event plan that
[2:43] we hope to do this month. Now it's
[2:45] October. Um so we won't be planning
[2:50] that.
[2:52] The second goal, launch a new
[2:54] communications tool to make the EDC more
[2:56] consistently accessible.
[2:59] We came up with the newsletter and Alex
[3:02] helped me get that one out. So that was
[3:04] a check. We did that right around the um
[3:06] business appreciation breakfast.
[3:08] Um
[3:11] if you notice in some of the other ones,
[3:13] it was like one to two, one to two. We
[3:15] did one, I counted it. We also wanted to
[3:17] do two newsletters. So, you know, room
[3:19] to grow in that area too. Goal three was
[3:23] engaging with existing resources to
[3:25] support and showcase the town's
[3:26] businesses. So, we have been working on
[3:29] and are continuing to work on explore
[3:30] more graten. One of the actions was to
[3:33] promote that. Put a little question
[3:35] mark.
[3:36] You know, use your your discretion how
[3:38] you answer that one. Um, the website is
[3:41] coming along and I think that we have
[3:43] updates in our staff report, but we did
[3:47] publish the live version, the the most
[3:50] recent updates.
[3:52] Pages are continuing to be updated, but
[3:54] check it out. It's looking nice. It's
[3:57] coming along. Um, the reader's choice
[3:59] awards not the fault of anyone in this
[4:02] room. I had reached out to the day and I
[4:04] went back and checked my timeline
[4:05] earlier and they didn't get back to me
[4:08] until they were closer to the end of the
[4:11] process. So, next year
[4:13] potentially if y'all want to explore
[4:15] that one again. And then the third
[4:17] action was attend one business community
[4:19] or economic development event that was
[4:21] outside of something that we were doing.
[4:23] So, I'm not sure what you guys were or
[4:26] weren't able to get to.
[4:28] And the last one was really going to
[4:32] other town meetings, RTM meetings or
[4:35] council meetings and uh speaking out on
[4:38] behalf of whatever may be that supports
[4:40] economic development and the other was
[4:43] collaborating with commissions. If you
[4:46] remember last year in 2025, there was a
[4:49] joint uh planning and zoning commission
[4:51] meeting and that was largely around the
[4:52] PCD, but the EC the EDC had the biggest
[4:56] show in there and I think that was just
[4:59] something that we wanted to continue to
[5:01] carry over. So that was just to run
[5:04] through,
[5:06] you know, what the plans were for last
[5:08] year and remind the remind us of the
[5:11] purpose of the EDC. So, I just wanted to
[5:13] kind of pose the question like, do you
[5:15] feel like you're meeting your purpose
[5:16] after kind of checking in with the
[5:18] goals? How are you feeling? And really,
[5:20] like, what resources or supports or
[5:22] tools
[5:24] do you need or would you like to push
[5:27] the needle a little bit further?
[5:30] >> I have to come to a meeting and you have
[5:32] to say, "Jake, you didn't do your job."
[5:34] In order for me to be scared enough to
[5:36] do my job by the time I come back,
[5:39] you you got to tell me, "Hey, you didn't
[5:40] do it this week. You didn't do this
[5:41] month." They're like, "Hey, I didn't
[5:42] hear from you." Because um that'll be
[5:45] the best way to motivate me to do it.
[5:47] >> So for you, it's about accountability.
[5:49] >> Yeah, I need I need accountability for
[5:50] sure
[5:52] >> because I don't have an issue doing any
[5:53] of this stuff and sometimes it's about
[5:55] >> Jake, how would we um I think we've
[5:58] tried to do that a lot like creating the
[6:00] shared document and please enter each
[6:02] month what you've done or those kinds of
[6:03] things like what next level of
[6:05] accountability would work? Um, off mic.
[6:09] Think of whatever creative name you'd
[6:11] like to call me about how I'm not being
[6:14] functional in my role.
[6:17] >> Yeah. Can we do that?
[6:18] >> Yeah, absolutely. Fellow commissioners,
[6:20] for sure. No. Um, it's
[6:22] >> shouts across the
[6:23] >> Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you want to
[6:24] put Jake's scoreboard up every every
[6:26] month with how many businesses he's
[6:28] contacted and I have to look at it, it
[6:30] says zero, that next month it'll be two,
[6:33] right? I don't know that it's going to
[6:34] get too much more than that, but you
[6:36] know, at least it'll be something. It
[6:37] could literally be
[6:40] um you know, chairs outreach.
[6:43] >> We could create like a board game and
[6:45] you guys each have your own figure and
[6:46] it moves along and you're racing.
[6:50] >> Ladders.
[6:53] >> Okay.
[6:54] >> I for me it would be u more specific
[6:57] upfront. In other words, you know, going
[6:59] to different events, me to agree to go
[7:02] to a chamber event or something, knowing
[7:04] it in advance, not, you know, are you
[7:06] guys going to go to something, but
[7:08] literally as we plan, it's like, will
[7:11] you commit to going to a chamber event
[7:13] or will you commit to, you know, doing
[7:16] something? And so, we will commit as
[7:18] individuals up
[7:20] and so then
[7:22] >> that's really
[7:22] >> that would be helpful. And I know in
[7:24] previous years it may may have been
[7:26] before you were on, but um Lauren will
[7:28] send out, you know, hey everyone, you
[7:29] know, this is being hosted or that would
[7:31] you like to participate? A lot of times
[7:32] George will do that. Um would it help if
[7:36] it's kind of on a monthto-month basis
[7:39] like hey we know the chamber is hosting
[7:43] this networking event or do you mean
[7:46] kind of in the beginning of the year you
[7:47] would say I commit to two this year for
[7:49] the chamber?
[7:50] >> Wow. Um well I I think that either could
[7:54] work. Um I mean I'm I get the chamber
[7:57] announcements in in my email. Um and if
[8:01] I had in beforehand and I I'm just this
[8:04] is just an example. Other people may
[8:05] want to be go to the chamber in which
[8:07] case I could go to an R RTM meeting or
[8:09] something like that. But whatever we
[8:11] would agree to do then we would do I
[8:13] mean we know when the RTM meetings are
[8:15] we know we get notices from when the
[8:17] chamber is and I don't know about what
[8:19] other kinds of organizations would be
[8:21] helpful you probably know them better
[8:22] than me but yeah having an up front and
[8:26] I think um the idea with other uh
[8:30] commissions such as RTM or town councils
[8:33] uh usually around you know if we have a
[8:35] project coming up that has residential
[8:37] showing like we'd like to tie it to
[8:39] something specific so you're not going
[8:40] just to go so sometimes those aren't
[8:42] there or sometimes they are, but we
[8:44] could kind of also have a placeholder of
[8:46] you know when these types of things come
[8:48] up or you know new businesses that you
[8:50] want to support like you could go talk
[8:51] about those specific things.
[8:53] >> Yep. And when you when they may be
[8:55] something we would know about you would
[8:56] know about first something come out of
[8:58] the agenda.
[8:59] >> Yeah.
[8:59] >> Um and then we can try it to go.
[9:03] >> Okay.
[9:09] Let's see. And I know over the last two
[9:13] years the feedback's been um it's a lot
[9:16] easier to go do outreach if you have
[9:18] something specific. So we did the pivot
[9:20] grant handouts and you helped us get
[9:22] those funds solely expended. Clayton did
[9:24] a lot of door to door on that too. Um
[9:26] and then another thing last year that we
[9:29] found that you guys really liked was
[9:30] having the flyer of something cool to
[9:32] invite them to which was hey we're
[9:34] having this networking breakfast. Did
[9:35] you like that this year as well or is
[9:37] there anything else you have in mind
[9:39] that you're like, I wish I could give
[9:40] them this um when I'm doing outreach.
[9:44] >> I think the breakfast is really good.
[9:46] >> That went well and people were really
[9:49] receptive to it. You know, even if it
[9:51] was just I'll give it to my boss or
[9:52] whatever. People were very receptive to
[9:54] it. for me.
[9:57] defense
[9:58] >> and there were people that were invited
[9:59] that they were going to come and didn't
[10:01] and I don't know if that was because
[10:04] um I think they think they maybe getting
[10:06] sales pitch somehow like there was a
[10:09] language barrier with a couple of them
[10:10] and they're like oh I'm not sure like I
[10:12] they were afraid what they were going to
[10:14] walk into
[10:15] >> when I think um and I'm not sure how we
[10:17] could make it any more clear that it was
[10:18] just
[10:19] >> breakfast yeah and maybe um I don't know
[10:23] maybe
[10:24] a little earlier they would have known
[10:26] they but I don't think that matters. I
[10:28] think they get busy and
[10:31] >> it wouldn't matter how much time they had that we just have to figure if
[10:34] we invited 30 and 30 said yes then 20
[10:37] are coming.
[10:37] >> Mhm.
[10:38] >> Probably about the right is that the ban
[10:40] average
[10:40] >> probably about 15 is 15 50%. Okay.
[10:46] to that point, if we hosted it at a at a
[10:48] town, you know, even if it wasn't here,
[10:52] um it might take some of that like maybe
[10:54] I'm getting sold because like it's not
[10:57] often that you're not going to go to a
[10:58] town building and get a sales pitch for
[11:01] the most part. Like
[11:02] >> Yeah,
[11:03] >> because I'm also super wary of somebody
[11:05] trying to give me something for free.
[11:06] So, I get that.
[11:08] >> Yeah. Maybe we could could we add like
[11:11] something of like how the the EDC
[11:14] specifically can like help the
[11:16] businesses like because like I feel like
[11:18] sometimes like you go and they're just
[11:20] like I I haven't heard you. I don't know
[11:22] what you do.
[11:23] >> I don't know what this is. I don't
[11:24] really know if I want to go. So it's
[11:26] like
[11:27] >> Yes. And that I think is what we tried
[11:29] to tie to pivot grant in particular.
[11:32] Like there is a grant you can apply for
[11:34] >> I think if you're just like hey you can
[11:35] apply for free money basically.
[11:37] >> Yeah. and they're just like, "Oh, well,
[11:38] this is great." Like
[11:41] >> and um and we don't So, we're hoping at
[11:44] some point maybe we can get an
[11:45] additional allocation from from council
[11:49] nudge um to to add to um pivot grant to
[11:53] kind of launch a second round because it
[11:55] was so successful. But in the meantime,
[11:57] we don't have something that we're
[11:58] hosting other than the economic
[12:00] assistance fund necessarily. And that
[12:02] one's so specific to, you know,
[12:05] infrastructure and things. it's not
[12:07] really as applicable to the smaller
[12:09] businesses. So, we don't have a program
[12:11] right now,
[12:13] >> but we do with our website revamp that
[12:15] Clayton was talking about,
[12:16] >> we have an incentives page that we're
[12:18] updating that will just connect them to
[12:21] everything under the sun, not just ours,
[12:23] but if you're a small business owner and
[12:24] you want to a free leazison, you can go
[12:26] to this site, the state provides XYZ.
[12:29] But I think in general, the feedback has
[12:32] usually been it's then that's too back
[12:34] to it's too generic, you know. So, I
[12:37] think that's what we're trying to get at
[12:38] with the newsletter and folks getting to
[12:40] know you that as problems come up, they
[12:43] know they have somebody to go to and
[12:44] say, "This is a barrier to my business.
[12:47] The town should know about this." Um, so
[12:49] I guess it's always kind of in the
[12:51] middle. If we have something specific
[12:52] like the breakfast, we'll send you out
[12:54] with that. We can also always link to
[12:57] and there's all of these programs, you
[12:59] know, not just that the town or town
[13:01] has, but the state has that you could
[13:03] access. And it's kind of just at that
[13:05] point generic again though. So I guess
[13:06] it's kind of
[13:07] >> between know you categorize a lot of the
[13:09] businesses on that map. Is there a way
[13:12] that maybe if we do like targeted
[13:13] outreach to like a specific type of like
[13:15] say like a restaurant and then or say
[13:18] like hey if you look on the state your
[13:21] incentives or these are your grants
[13:23] specific only to restaurants like you
[13:25] can't
[13:26] >> like if you're an auto like auto body
[13:27] shop you can't get these.
[13:28] >> Right. But that that way it like
[13:31] >> because like you said if it's too
[13:33] generic like I feel like they're going
[13:34] to go on the website and be like there's
[13:35] a thousand links which is like really
[13:37] helpful but they're going to be like
[13:39] for me
[13:40] >> you gave me work to do
[13:42] >> no thanks like if you go to like one of
[13:45] the restaurants be like hey like maybe
[13:47] you're decorating your out like outdoors
[13:49] and they have like a grant for that like
[13:51] oh great that's the first one that pops
[13:52] up right
[13:53] >> and what we could do um I think one of
[13:57] the best resources too is that there's
[13:58] actually free advisors out there that
[14:00] people don't necessarily know about and
[14:02] that could apply to anyone,
[14:03] >> especially to our smaller ones that that
[14:05] are struggling with like how do I even
[14:07] set up a POS system or those kinds of
[14:09] things. Um,
[14:10] >> so maybe the focus is like you said kind
[14:13] of I don't know if we'd want to
[14:15] necessarily try to break it down because
[14:17] it would just make outreach a lot very
[14:19] complicated, but we could do flyers
[14:22] based on on that. Go ahead.
[14:24] >> Yeah. Um I think that in with respect to
[14:28] incentive opportunities there are ways
[14:30] that we're thinking about breaking it up
[14:32] especially as things like you know we
[14:34] try to redo our website and everything
[14:35] because it is
[14:36] >> like I mean Karen just described it it's
[14:38] complicated and a lot of existing
[14:40] incentive programs are already going to filter businesses
[14:46] out pretty quickly. Um,
[14:49] >> something that was coming to mind as I
[14:51] was listening is, yeah, we tend to have
[14:54] better interactions when we have
[14:56] something to give them, when we're not
[14:58] making an ask. Um, but I think the but
[15:03] we also see even when we're doing that,
[15:05] there's some hesitency hesitancy,
[15:07] there's some reluctance, there's who are
[15:08] you? And I think that reminds me of just
[15:12] the importance of being a liaison and
[15:15] doing regular outreach. And maybe in
[15:19] thinking about next year's goals, we
[15:21] think about like quality over quantity.
[15:23] Um, if you go into the same business
[15:26] three times and it's just to say, "Hey,
[15:29] my name is Alex. I'm here from the EDC.
[15:31] Just want to let you know, you know, I'm
[15:33] here to help. Here's a few things that
[15:34] we can offer. Next time you come back
[15:36] in, they don't really remember you, but
[15:38] then Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. You
[15:40] came back in and now I'm inviting you to
[15:41] the business appreciation breakfast. And
[15:43] yeah,
[15:43] >> maybe they don't come. But the third
[15:45] time they they remember you.
[15:47] >> They come to the breakfast maybe or they
[15:49] actually say, "What was that incentive
[15:50] that you were talking about?" And we're
[15:52] fostering more of a relationship. Um,
[15:55] maybe that's more worthwhile than
[15:57] >> That sounds, you know,
[15:58] >> that sounds better because like
[16:01] I I like we said it before, like I feel
[16:03] like if you're gonna get anything in the
[16:04] mail, like my wife's getting tickets or
[16:07] we're getting taxes. Like those are the
[16:09] only two things. Those are the only two
[16:10] like town officials that like come to my
[16:12] house or to like if I own a business,
[16:14] those only town officials come to my
[16:15] business. So, it's like it having a
[16:18] repeated exposure to someone that's just
[16:20] like, "No, I'm just trying to help
[16:21] whatever needs
[16:22] >> like reach out." I think that's that's a
[16:24] good thing.
[16:25] >> And in thinking about sectors too, if
[16:27] you
[16:28] make a relationship with somebody who
[16:30] owns a hair salon, maybe you don't have
[16:32] the trust of everybody in the hair salon
[16:33] community, but you build a relationship
[16:35] with one good person and they are able
[16:37] to say, "Oh, you know what? Alex from
[16:38] the town was actually pretty helpful and
[16:40] two or three more hairdressers are open
[16:42] to hearing from Alex, hearing from the
[16:44] EDC." Okay.
[16:45] >> And for the incentive page um for our
[16:48] update, we'll it'll have information
[16:51] like you were just mentioning where
[16:52] right now there's just kind of like this
[16:53] crazy list that you'd have, like you
[16:55] said, you'd have to do work to sort
[16:56] through to be like, does this apply? So,
[16:58] we'll be sectioning them by who it's
[17:00] for. Is it local business? Is it big? Is
[17:02] it big industry? You know, an estate
[17:03] incentive, those kinds of things. And
[17:05] each one has a blurb when it drops down
[17:07] so you have an idea before you're even
[17:09] going maybe to, you know, to sector's
[17:11] page or the states page. So that will be
[17:15] a resource too that people can send them
[17:17] to and then it's already divided up so
[17:19] it's not just like oh gosh there's 60
[17:21] things here I don't know what's for me
[17:22] it'll be like small businesses that kind
[17:24] of thing so that should help a few
[17:27] comments. First of all if we're going to
[17:28] people are going to get to know us that
[17:30] means we're going to the same places
[17:31] again when are going to be you know we
[17:34] would obligate ourselves to the same
[17:37] geographic area the same jumping around.
[17:41] >> Um so The second thing is I actually
[17:44] don't think that they should contact me
[17:46] and say, "Hey, about I mean they can
[17:48] contact me. I'm not the expert on that
[17:51] grant or the you guys are
[17:54] >> and and and so all I'm going to do is
[17:56] go, "Oh, well, I can check into it for
[17:58] you." And then so it's more efficient if
[18:01] in fact they
[18:04] we think they're close to the to the fit
[18:07] >> that they contact you guys
[18:10] >> and just say hey Bill told Bill told me
[18:11] I should contact you about this possible
[18:14] grant because otherwise I'm in the
[18:15] middle and I'm not an expert on the
[18:17] grant.
[18:17] >> Yeah. No, you're you're spot on. The
[18:19] whole idea is the liaison
[18:22] maximizes staff capacity, you know, so
[18:25] that when you do reach folks, you're not
[18:27] expected to know every answer. You're
[18:29] the person that then says, "Hey, Kern
[18:31] and Clayton, we heard this. Can you
[18:34] start working with business?" Yeah.
[18:35] >> Right. Couple other things is um I don't
[18:38] know if Chamber does this or not because
[18:40] I haven't really followed them very
[18:41] much. Um but sometimes people just like
[18:45] to know information like what was uh
[18:49] what was the um economic what are the
[18:53] economic drivers of Brten over the last
[18:58] calendar year right
[19:00] >> um everything from tourism to
[19:03] um fires or whatever
[19:07] >> you know like graphs just short graphs
[19:09] that we show people that go there and
[19:11] look at I don't know who puts those
[19:13] together. The state probably follows a
[19:14] lot of that or the county or whatever.
[19:17] But you know the kind of thing that the
[19:18] small business administration sometimes
[19:20] has done. I don't know if you guys have.
[19:23] So the small business administration
[19:25] funds um offices usually the head office
[19:28] is associated with a college or
[19:30] university. Sometimes it's with
[19:32] community college. When I was the dean
[19:35] down in Jersey it was our we had a
[19:38] branch of that. the head the SBA main
[19:42] office was at Ruters and then there were
[19:45] like four or five of us around the state
[19:47] but we're not geographically near Ruters
[19:49] and we had one person office and they
[19:51] were and they would offer everything
[19:53] like how to do the website how to get
[19:54] the most out of social media they'd
[19:56] offer these really short free programs
[19:58] for people did we do that around
[20:02] >> what what we or what I'm hearing is you
[20:04] know people are interested in different
[20:06] topics like what are the economic
[20:08] drivers or you know how many new trade
[20:10] names are in town. Just like kind of
[20:13] capturing a snapshot of how Grton's
[20:15] doing.
[20:15] >> Yeah.
[20:16] >> Um Okay. And then
[20:18] we could we could do something like that
[20:20] and then also have that be the focus of
[20:23] the business breakfast because that's
[20:25] something that's interesting that they'd
[20:26] all love to learn, you know? So, it's
[20:28] like we can kind of do those snapshots.
[20:30] You can have that as a resource to hand
[20:32] out, but we can also make that like half
[20:34] the point of the the breakfast.
[20:36] >> That's right. If I have a restaurant, my
[20:37] sales are down this year. Is it?
[20:39] >> And I see a graph that shows that
[20:40] Graten's um economy grew by 3% or
[20:45] population. I'm thinking, what am I
[20:47] doing wrong?
[20:48] >> Food's bad, Bill.
[20:50] >> Yeah, that's right. Because I was in the
[20:51] kitchen,
[20:52] >> but you know what I'm saying,
[20:54] >> right? But the but the converse is that
[20:56] if it if it isn't right, if everybody's
[20:58] suffering, then okay, it's not my
[21:00] business practice. It's it's the alone.
[21:02] >> Yeah. I I was at this is oh this year
[21:05] last year I went to Liz's you know Liz's
[21:08] around the corner of the
[21:09] >> Le
[21:10] >> no Liz's on uh what's that uh it's on
[21:14] Stonington side but anyhow it's a
[21:16] >> from bakery
[21:18] >> yeah yeah yeah
[21:19] >> yeah Liz's yeah
[21:21] >> it's Le
[21:24] right
[21:26] >> no
[21:26] >> it's le okay yeah anyhow
[21:31] >> I To be fair, I don't know how
[21:34] any I asked the owner. I said, "How was
[21:36] it?" She goes, "Oh, I just had my best
[21:38] day ever."
[21:39] >> Thanks.
[21:40] >> Right. And so, I think they want to
[21:42] know, people want to know that
[21:44] information about what's happening.
[21:46] >> Um, and I don't know, somebody must be
[21:50] collecting this.
[21:51] >> We have, we have that data to different
[21:53] levels and like you said, the the SPDC
[21:57] um sector has some of this stuff. Um
[22:01] yeah, there's different groups who have le this
[22:05] information at varying levels. Um
[22:09] >> the only thing I'm thinking of right now
[22:10] is it would probably
[22:13] >> be more of like a quarterly update like
[22:16] it could be like monthly.
[22:17] >> Well, no even even semianual or
[22:19] annually. The state of the economy is
[22:22] broadening. Yeah. From from last year.
[22:24] The last comment is that um and I don't
[22:27] know chamber may do this but um
[22:30] sometimes you will find people who are
[22:32] offering how to get into government
[22:35] contracts.
[22:37] >> Oh, it's funny you mentioned that. We
[22:39] were just chatting. We were at an event
[22:41] um where EB's consultant was summarizing
[22:45] their last, you know, year or so effort
[22:47] of community engagement and different
[22:48] things. And one of the things um I was
[22:50] just talking with their new community
[22:52] engagement person about is they have an
[22:55] entire um process now that you can
[22:58] partner with a small business that
[23:00] doesn't have to be a government
[23:01] contractor because that takes like three
[23:02] years. And I said,
[23:04] >> "How does somebody learn how to do
[23:05] that?" And they don't have like a a
[23:08] how-to yet, but that's something that
[23:10] we're hoping to either get or we have
[23:12] enough information that we make our own
[23:14] and say contact this person because
[23:16] you're spot on. they're they're thinking
[23:19] about it and doing the work, especially
[23:20] with the new location at the Crystal
[23:22] Mall. Like, how can we have those folks
[23:25] contracting with local businesses? So,
[23:27] we could we could focus on maybe a tool
[23:30] um to help inform our businesses that
[23:32] they could partner in that way without
[23:34] having to go through the the cumbersome
[23:36] government contract. And then to your
[23:37] other point about tutorials, we could
[23:40] find tutorials from other resources such
[23:42] as like you said, how do you maximize
[23:45] your social media as a small business or
[23:46] whatever and maybe include those in our
[23:48] in the newsletter. And that's one of the
[23:50] features of, you know,
[23:52] >> um just different things that we know
[23:53] they're interested in that you
[23:54] constantly hear they have questions on.
[23:56] Um so we could do those two things and I
[23:58] think the connection to the
[23:59] non-government contract is spot on. We
[24:02] were just just talking about that. Well,
[24:04] >> if you talk to them again, my neighbors
[24:05] Carol
[24:07] H A U G E T O I
[24:10] >> Okay.
[24:10] >> And he's like just one level down from
[24:13] vice president to EB.
[24:15] >> Okay.
[24:16] >> Um and in fact, I think he's expecting
[24:18] to get promoted at some point. So I
[24:20] don't know if he would be, you know, if
[24:24] it needed someone to be helpful. He's a
[24:26] really nice guy and we just had our
[24:28] picnic or our neighborhood. Um
[24:32] and maybe he's more on the opport side.
[24:33] I don't know.
[24:35] I worked for him for two years.
[24:36] >> You work for Aaron?
[24:37] >> Yeah, he's a good guy. Yeah,
[24:38] >> he's a good guy, right?
[24:39] >> Yeah, he's great.
[24:40] >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[24:41] >> Okay.
[24:41] >> Um and so anyhow, you know, it's easy
[24:45] for me to to talk with him, right?
[24:47] >> Great. And that that's a nice timely
[24:50] goal for the next year because that is
[24:53] what EB's working on right now. And they
[24:55] will be I don't think they have a very
[24:58] big plan as far as like communication
[25:01] side of all the work they just did. I
[25:03] think they're just starting to dive into
[25:04] that. Um, so we can also kind of create
[25:06] our own with what we know and have from
[25:08] them um, for our own businesses. So I
[25:10] think that'd be great.
[25:11] >> So does that move us into the goals a
[25:13] little bit or have we been talking?
[25:15] >> I think we're we're in new business
[25:16] still, right? Or the
[25:18] >> um, I'm ready to move into Yeah. into
[25:21] the seven goals. Yeah.
[25:22] >> Okay.
[25:23] >> That's the next question.
[25:26] >> To to uh, Bill's point, can we just get
[25:29] an EB liazison? somebody comes in and
[25:32] says, "Here's what EB's trying to do."
[25:35] >> I think we could and maybe
[25:38] >> not every meeting. Okay.
[25:39] >> No, no, no. I don't I'm not I'm not but
[25:41] you know twice a year maybe.
[25:43] >> Wait, what we could do is reach out and
[25:45] um invite their new communications
[25:47] director to do that or you know if he
[25:50] can't somebody else.
[25:51] >> Yeah. um and maybe a summary of the
[25:53] report and the work that they just did.
[25:56] And then um you know that I think like
[26:00] maybe once or twice a year for sure. I
[26:01] wouldn't say every meeting, but maybe
[26:02] it's something at least to update us on
[26:05] >> what they just accomplished with 10
[26:08] minute video and you put it on the
[26:09] website
[26:11] >> that would be directed at a person small
[26:13] business. You want to do a small
[26:14] business, want to work with EB, here's
[26:16] five steps you have to do.
[26:17] >> Yeah. Well, I could not agree more. And
[26:21] one of the the things that we saw with
[26:24] their presentation there, it doesn't at
[26:26] least seem yet that there's a very very
[26:30] big there's not a plan yet to turn all
[26:33] of the feedback and all those goals into
[26:35] a bite-sized tangible thing for
[26:37] everybody to see.
[26:39] >> And I think maybe that's something we
[26:41] could help encourage them to do because
[26:43] they've done the work. Like they're out there. are trying to to
[26:46] figure out how to connect these gaps and
[26:48] so we can help encourage like now what's
[26:50] the communication piece for commissions
[26:52] like ours for our residents for our
[26:54] businesses to understand what happens
[26:56] next so I
[26:57] >> I think the problem with DB2 is is it's
[26:59] not it's more than a process it's like a
[27:02] level of N security that you have to pay
[27:04] for buy install be trained on that's why
[27:08] I that's why I retired from Hillary
[27:10] because I didn't want to go through the
[27:11] next steps but I'm kidding but it's that and and and it it sounds like
[27:17] it is lucrative and I think a lot of
[27:19] people want to be involved in it. It
[27:21] almost if somebody knew a secondary that
[27:23] wanted to open a business to guide
[27:25] people through because I don't think
[27:26] it's a I don't know that there's going
[27:28] to be a step-by-step thing that people
[27:29] be able to follow like a like a chart.
[27:31] >> I thought you were describing
[27:34] doing business with small business but
[27:36] not government contracts.
[27:37] >> Oh, not government on that one. Yeah.
[27:39] >> Yeah. They have a separate like need
[27:42] catering for an event. You don't have to
[27:44] come go through through your process
[27:46] through your contractor. Okay. Partner
[27:48] with the local business. Yeah.
[27:50] >> I'm sure it's probably still cumbersome,
[27:51] but it's supposed to be a lot.
[27:54] >> And I I don't know if we have to list
[27:55] this as a goal because I think the
[27:57] breakfast already works.
[27:59] >> I think that would be something that for this year
[28:01] >> to keep that. But then I think a lot of
[28:04] our businesses close on Monday and maybe
[28:08] we do the breakfast in April and maybe
[28:10] before that a few months before we do
[28:13] see how nighttime works like a not night
[28:16] but it could be after like a after hours
[28:17] thing
[28:18] >> and then and then then have other
[28:20] businesses come in and say this is we
[28:23] were up we were down and then having
[28:25] that like a open discussion like really
[28:28] kind of because we're everything else we
[28:29] would be guessing at like unless unless
[28:31] you heard it from the person that owned
[28:33] the business that said we had a great
[28:34] year or hey we really could use help. Um
[28:37] and then and then having the
[28:39] conversation amongst each other and
[28:40] maybe that might even make it better for
[28:42] the the appreciation breakfast because
[28:44] the people that come to that say hey oh
[28:46] by the way you know we have this thing
[28:48] in April and then and then we can talk
[28:50] about everything we discussed at that
[28:51] meeting and see if anything worked
[28:53] >> and the amount of businesses that are
[28:54] closed on Monday it it may be and and
[28:58] then the other point is some people say
[28:59] well that's the day I have off I'm not
[29:00] coming
[29:01] >> but but it's also maybe they don't go to
[29:04] it because they have to get something
[29:07] and go to the bank before they go to
[29:08] work that day before. So it could be
[29:10] something that they enjoy and they and
[29:12] then that could be like at a senior
[29:14] center
[29:15] >> where where that is set up and then we
[29:17] you know work with business something
[29:19] like that and there's two events
[29:20] >> and sorry do you mean like a best
[29:23] practices panel almost like a few
[29:24] businesses are saying here's what was
[29:26] tough this year here's what we did that
[29:28] kind of thing that folks are are
[29:29] learning from and then there's a
[29:30] discussion people can ask question
[29:32] >> like even like a pulse of the town
[29:34] discussion like
[29:36] >> different businesses coming in and just
[29:38] talking about
[29:38] >> yeah what work for them. Um, and then other businesses talking to
[29:43] each other like some
[29:44] >> and then there's like a Q&A
[29:45] >> the restaurants. We could both own
[29:47] restaurants and not know each other
[29:48] >> and come in and you're like, man, I'm
[29:50] looking for something to do in my
[29:50] Christmas party this year and all of a
[29:52] sudden we're we're doing each other's
[29:54] Christmas party. Like the little just
[29:56] those little things and connections that
[29:58] >> that might be neat. It's it'll be fun.
[30:00] >> Yeah. So, it's a learning opportunity
[30:02] with also the engagement part after
[30:03] where they can continue to meet folks
[30:05] and network.
[30:06] >> Yeah. cuz I think then on a on a meeting
[30:08] like that you guys could take 15 minutes
[30:10] to say these grants are available if
[30:12] >> if the council so chooses. Do do we have
[30:15] a balance? Well, we don't.
[30:16] >> Oh, for pivot specifically, no, we
[30:18] expended everything. Um, but we may be
[30:20] making requests in future budget to to
[30:23] add some funds to that to re to do like
[30:25] a part two.
[30:26] >> That's we get one and a half%. That's a
[30:28] lot of money.
[30:29] >> Yeah. And but one and one of the uh one
[30:32] of the parts of that night on the Monday
[30:35] night could be the person that got the
[30:37] grant the year before.
[30:38] >> Yeah.
[30:38] >> And they talk about
[30:39] >> Yeah.
[30:40] >> Just say, "Hey, this is what we did
[30:41] where they worked for me." And I mean, I
[30:42] think that builds excitement like come
[30:44] listen to another business owner talk
[30:46] about what they did with the grant from
[30:47] the town.
[30:48] >> Yeah. We had Raj's Cash and Carrie do
[30:50] that and they set up and they um who was
[30:53] our other one? The golf course.
[30:54] >> Yeah. When we did it at par four, par
[30:56] four also.
[30:57] >> Yeah. They switched. That was great
[30:58] because it was like this actually works.
[31:00] It's not a scam. Yeah, we did something.
[31:04] >> Not a scam. We get But you get t-shirts
[31:06] made. Not a scam.
[31:08] >> Um and so what were you what Sorry, I
[31:10] wasn't following the that breakfast
[31:12] event versus the one you were saying
[31:14] that would be previous.
[31:15] >> No, I say it could be both and it's not
[31:18] so much versus, but I think the
[31:19] appreciation breakfast is exactly
[31:21] >> gotcha.
[31:22] >> Works the way it does. And then maybe
[31:24] recognizing the person could be twice.
[31:26] could they could get the pivot grant and
[31:28] then win it and then you bring them in
[31:30] on for the Monday night and they talk
[31:31] about it
[31:32] >> and then maybe an update on the like
[31:34] later on of you know how it worked out
[31:36] for him.
[31:37] >> Okay, awesome. Thank you.
[31:40] >> Oh, George has joined us and his hand is
[31:42] raised.
[31:44] >> Thank you,
[31:48] » George. I think I have to let you in as
[31:49] a um as a moderator. Give me one second.
[31:56] Okay, I think you're good to go if you
[31:58] unmute.
[32:05] » Can you see me?
[32:07] >> There we go. We can hear you now.
[32:09] >> But can you see me?
[32:12] >> No,
[32:15] >> we can hear you.
[32:16] >> We see your name.
[32:18] >> Oh, that's not good enough. I'm sorry. I
[32:19] don't know what happened. Uh
[32:23] nevertheless, uh
[32:25] I appreciate the conversations that all
[32:27] of you are having. Um I wanted to come
[32:30] back to Eric's point. Um, part of the
[32:33] dilemma that we have
[32:35] with EB is uh as what
[32:39] Joe alluded to is something called CMMC
[32:43] which is a security classification
[32:46] and most of the supply chain vendors
[32:50] which are in this day and time are
[32:53] non-traditional
[32:55] suppliers to General Dynamics and EB.
[33:00] So it's rather confusing and quite uh a
[33:04] huge heavy lift even for a small
[33:07] business either Connecticut or domestic
[33:10] US or even non US.
[33:13] So that's a challenge that EB
[33:17] has still a long way to go on trying
[33:20] resolving it because it has to tethe it
[33:23] with the Department of Homeland Security
[33:25] and whatnot. And it's it's it's been
[33:29] ongoing since 2001
[33:32] 2021 sorry. So aside from that all the
[33:36] other kind of
[33:39] nonsecurity
[33:41] related
[33:43] roles and whatnot is simpler but I don't
[33:46] think there is a billboard out there at
[33:50] EB that shows what they want. So I it's
[33:55] kind of a difficult for suppliers to
[33:58] identify whether they could provide that
[34:00] service as well.
[34:03] >> So that's number one. Um
[34:08] I would like ideally um on on the new
[34:12] website more information on score and
[34:16] SBDC with the contact names there
[34:21] instead of just a web link. so that we
[34:24] can have them within our website to
[34:27] read, digest and at some point later
[34:31] click the link and reach out to the
[34:33] contact person.
[34:35] For a long long time, we had SBDC at
[34:38] Avery Point and then they we got them
[34:42] set up at uh at uh uh uh at the EN
[34:48] Chamber office, the old office.
[34:51] Uh I believe they have nothing here now
[34:53] in Eastern Connecticut unless sector is
[34:55] hosting them.
[34:57] But it will be a good avenue to reach
[35:00] out to
[35:01] because all these uh small businesses
[35:05] that we are talking about retail rather
[35:08] consumer businesses
[35:10] >> Mhm.
[35:11] uh may not be using an SBDC but the
[35:16] potential supply chain companies and to
[35:19] EB or anywhere else uh it behooves them
[35:23] to reach out to SBDC to help them with
[35:28] the development and prototyping and all
[35:32] those kind of things.
[35:34] So that's one thing I would like to
[35:36] encourage for greater graten
[35:39] uh entrepreneurs to have access to that they could speak with
[35:44] on the retail side. I think we all have
[35:47] heard of SCORE. It'll be good to have
[35:51] the same kind of a model of what SCORE
[35:54] does and that typically goes to
[35:56] restaurant owners, hair stylists and
[35:58] whatnot who are looking to start a
[36:01] business. That's what they are for and
[36:03] they are underutilized. SBDC is equally
[36:07] underutilized in the state. So it is
[36:10] worthwhile
[36:12] trying to get them to to collaborate
[36:15] with us.
[36:17] And the third thing I like on our
[36:19] website is a regular update on a
[36:24] bimonthly basis of the grants that are
[36:27] posted by the SBA.
[36:30] They have variety of grants and
[36:34] you can reach out to your local SBA
[36:37] Connecticut office and got get them to
[36:40] help you establish some kind of a
[36:44] updated website. I doubt it's dynamic,
[36:47] but at least if it's updated every other
[36:49] month with whatever the new grants that
[36:52] are coming along the federal pipeline,
[36:56] so they can get a better visual and
[36:58] eyeballs. So those are the three things
[37:01] I'd like to this new website to to
[37:05] expand on.
[37:07] Um
[37:10] in terms of uh
[37:12] getting more engagement,
[37:15] it would be wonderful
[37:18] that we could have a either quarterly or
[37:22] bimonthly joint affair with the Mystic
[37:27] Chamber
[37:29] because that's where the bunch of uh uh
[37:33] small business owners and retailers and
[37:35] consumer businesses are in and long time
[37:39] ago they used to be called downtown
[37:42] business mer downtown
[37:44] mystic merchants association
[37:47] and I used to attend most of those and
[37:51] uh most of them thought we are political
[37:54] and I had to uh time after time on my
[37:57] trips there was to say that we are
[37:59] apolitical
[38:01] commission so it is a good analysis they
[38:04] are merged with DM DM and is now merged
[38:08] with Mystic Chamber.
[38:11] It is more worthwhile for us to show up
[38:14] at our regular events
[38:16] so at least the commission is seen and and able to hear the conversations
[38:24] and all those kind of stuff. The Eastern
[38:26] Chamber
[38:28] uh maybe every quarter or half a year is
[38:32] worthwhile. they do run these uh
[38:36] breakfast sessions
[38:38] um and EB uses them for their uh
[38:43] outreach in terms of what they want to
[38:46] do and this and that and is generally
[38:48] hosted together with uh representative
[38:50] Courtney oftent times. So that is
[38:53] another good engagement for the ch our
[38:56] commission to participate and block at a
[38:59] table or something like that. We pay
[39:02] them membership dues and
[39:06] it's worthwhile for us to since we're
[39:09] paying for these things as well as the
[39:10] mystic chamber, might as well take
[39:14] advantage of it by participating in in
[39:17] the chamber uh Eastern Chambers event.
[39:19] Not all of them are worth our time in my
[39:22] opinion. Uh unless some of you like to
[39:25] play golf and whatnot.
[39:27] Uh but then the business meetings that
[39:30] they have are good and they also have
[39:32] the young entrepreneurs uh uh session as
[39:36] well. Uh I don't know whether they would
[39:38] want us oldies showing up for that kind
[39:41] of thing but
[39:42] >> speak for yourself George.
[39:44] >> I'm very young.
[39:46] >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Future senator. Um so but
[39:51] nonetheless that is worth exploring. And
[39:54] finally, I would like uh from the staff
[39:59] a monthly update on business queries if
[40:03] just shared with the commission alone,
[40:06] not for public note. I am keen to know
[40:11] not so much of the retail business but
[40:13] the small businesses that are reaching
[40:15] out here or redevelopers that are
[40:17] reaching out here
[40:19] to greater ground
[40:22] and to see how they are progressing and
[40:25] if they are advancing with us and if
[40:27] they are not advancing with us I would
[40:29] like to know why
[40:31] they are not looking to set up shop here
[40:34] or satellite here.
[40:36] So if you could kindly furnish us with
[40:39] that uh just to the commission alone
[40:42] with
[40:44] the caveat that it is confidential.
[40:48] >> That's it.
[40:49] >> Thank you.
[40:50] so much, George. And um to
[40:53] your point about the the chambers, I
[40:56] know you've attended those on behalf of
[40:58] the EDC before. Thank you. And I think
[41:00] kind of to Bill's point earlier, maybe
[41:02] it's something that we we dive in a
[41:04] little bit deeper and actually assign
[41:05] like these months, these are going to be
[41:07] the networking events, you know, Jake's
[41:09] going to this one or whatever, so that
[41:10] we're they don't go by as easily without
[41:13] us us um taking those opportunities. And
[41:17] then um when you mentioned a monthly
[41:19] update for queries, Clayton sends out
[41:22] trade name certificates, how many new
[41:23] businesses, things like that. Is that
[41:25] what you mean? Or do you mean something
[41:27] additional like if somebody's reaching
[41:29] out and asking about setting up a
[41:30] business because um some of those don't
[41:32] always come through to us a lot of you
[41:35] know what what do you mean in a little
[41:37] bit more detail about that?
[41:39] So this was not uh it was something that
[41:44] was institutionalized long ago
[41:47] uh when Paige came on board Paige Brown
[41:50] that is uh part of the effort was a
[41:54] joint effort of the commission together
[41:56] with the uh uh the staff to try and help
[42:00] advocate
[42:02] those uh uh interested parties that may
[42:05] be looking or more more serious
[42:08] interested parties that were looking to
[42:10] set up shopping ground that you get some
[42:12] kind of engagement from a member or two
[42:15] from the commission
[42:18] if they are uh keen on. And in the old
[42:23] days, I used to uh you might say
[42:27] evangelize
[42:28] to those interested uh uh entities that
[42:32] are looking to set up shop in Grton to
[42:35] try and uh
[42:38] you know get them to set up shop here or
[42:41] do something here instead of the next
[42:43] town. And that was uh so it was not so
[42:48] much relying on the staff alone to that
[42:51] but it is more of a advocacy kind of
[42:53] thing and you know uh for me because I
[42:58] was also involved in the state and and in the country and elsewhere. So I
[43:03] was able to provide a more nuance
[43:06] guidance for uh businesses not not
[43:09] retail unfortunately or neither consumer
[43:12] but more for uh corporate kind of stuff.
[43:17] >> Okay, great. Thank you.
[43:19] >> Just to put some boundaries here. We're
[43:21] not anticipating voting on these goals
[43:23] tonight. Right.
[43:24] >> Correct. It's more a brainstorm. We'll
[43:26] summarize what we feel like we heard,
[43:28] bring it back to you, and you can say
[43:30] yes, this is spot on, or you forgot
[43:31] this, and then you vote on them in
[43:33] November.
[43:33] >> Great. Um,
[43:36] could
[43:36] >> we make some sort of requirement that we
[43:39] have to attend other town council
[43:40] meetings or other town meetings that
[43:43] like it doesn't have to be a lot of
[43:44] them, but like EDC has to represent
[43:49] in like two to four meetings over the
[43:52] year or something just so that way like
[43:54] we have a presence and because I haven't
[43:56] been to another town meeting so Okay.
[43:58] >> I think it'd be useful just to like see
[44:01] what other thoughts.
[44:03] >> Excellent. Thank you.
[44:04] >> Okay.
[44:08] » All right. Is that good for 2027 goals?
[44:10] We'll move on to the chair report and uh
[44:13] just only a couple things I think is
[44:15] impasto opened up. I don't know if
[44:17] everyone got a chance to go there.
[44:18] Another new Very very good. Yeah. Very
[44:21] good. Um, and then I wanted to let
[44:23] everyone know they're invited October
[44:25] 9th at 2:00 p.m. Uh, they're going to
[44:30] they've broken ground currently for the
[44:32] submarine sale. It's been literally like
[44:34] a 15-year project. And, uh, you know, we
[44:37] talk about the businesses all the time
[44:39] that happen in our town and and and they
[44:41] do make a lot move, but the volunteers
[44:43] do, too. and the the actual collection
[44:47] of people that have volunteered to do
[44:48] that it's astounding. Mayor, former
[44:52] mayor Galbreth and former town manager
[44:55] um or Jim Strereer. I mean, if I don't
[44:59] want I don't want to start naming names
[45:00] because I'll forget half the people. Um
[45:02] there's a lot of them and and uh if you
[45:05] can go as if you're a town member or if
[45:07] you guys want to go um it's going to be
[45:09] I I think it's going to be a great great
[45:11] park. It'd be good to see a lot of towns
[45:13] folks come out and if they're listening
[45:15] at home or if they can see this anywhere
[45:17] to come on out. It's gonna be
[45:19] >> a flyer or post or anything because we
[45:20] can also share that.
[45:21] >> I'll share it with you. It's been
[45:22] emailed to me. I don't know that they
[45:24] made actual a paper poster, but we could
[45:26] um email it to each other.
[45:28] >> Digital's better.
[45:28] >> Yeah. And you do have to RSVP by October
[45:31] 5th. I should let you know that.
[45:32] >> Okay.
[45:33] >> And October 9th at 2 p.m.
[45:35] >> Yep.
[45:36] >> Okay. Just a heads up.
[45:37] >> Yep.
[45:38] >> Um that's a that's a Friday, right?
[45:41] Yeah.
[45:41] >> So staff, a lot of staff will be at
[45:45] Sneepa that day. Okay. So
[45:47] >> if it's looking thin from this area,
[45:49] that's probably why.
[45:50] >> So for the staff that got left out, they
[45:53] have something to do
[45:54] >> over there.
[45:57] >> All right. Uh staff report.
[45:59] >> Oh, yeah. I can
[46:03] >> All right. So um we just have a couple
[46:06] items. Our uh resilience improvement
[46:08] district was the first one or a RID RI.
[46:12] Essentially in 2025, the state passed
[46:14] legislation allowing municipalities to
[46:16] establish resilency improvement
[46:18] districts. And these are areas that
[46:21] experience are likely to experience
[46:22] adverse impacts from hazards or climate
[46:24] change such as sea level rise, rising
[46:27] groundwater, etc. a lot of things that
[46:28] we deal with in Grten and our town staff
[46:32] um from economic development, from our
[46:34] sustainability department as well as our
[46:36] planning department have um been working
[46:38] with the resilient cities catalyst or
[46:39] RCC in California forward as part of a
[46:42] small nationwide cohort that's exploring
[46:45] the possibilities of it. Um just to be
[46:47] clear, it is not required. No decisions
[46:50] have been made about it. We're just
[46:51] doing the due diligence to see how do
[46:53] these work, how are they financed, how
[46:55] can how do you even decide where one
[46:57] goes. Um, so getting through a lot of
[46:59] those exercises to see if it could be a
[47:01] good fit for Grten. Um, Clayton already
[47:04] mentioned this, but we have been working
[47:06] the last year on updating our Explore
[47:09] More website. We've launched the new
[47:11] design, but it still has a lot of
[47:12] content we have to backfill. um we're
[47:14] going through all the pages and finding,
[47:16] you know, maybe old links or there's too
[47:18] much information here and that will take
[47:20] another year. There's a lot of
[47:22] information um
[47:23] >> hopefully not yet but
[47:24] >> not earlier but um but we are really
[47:28] doing so with a focus on currently it
[47:31] really appeals to developers or to you
[47:34] know companies that may want to come
[47:35] larger scale which we're keeping but we
[47:37] also want it to really be a resource for
[47:40] residents visitors uh local businesses
[47:42] or smaller business owners um as well.
[47:45] Um, one key feature I'm really excited
[47:47] about that Clayton put together with
[47:49] Lauren um is a kind of a a day in Grten.
[47:53] Hey, it's it's a rainy day. Where should
[47:55] we go? If you have kids, where should we
[47:56] go? And it it ties into our local
[47:58] businesses, our parks. It's it's
[48:00] phenomenal. So, I'll let Clayton present
[48:02] that to you once we actually have it
[48:04] live. Um, another thing we're excited
[48:06] about with that that we're working on,
[48:08] not launched yet, but is um meet your
[48:10] neighbors feature that will be in the
[48:12] front. So, we'll be working with local
[48:13] businesses, but also hopefully residents
[48:16] um as just an opportunity for folks to
[48:18] get to meet people in Graten because I
[48:21] think, you know, a lot of our bureaus
[48:22] may think kind of that's the
[48:24] neighborhood and that's it. They're not
[48:25] a bigger part of Graten or different
[48:27] things. So, we want to get folks
[48:28] comfortable with all the different types
[48:31] of folks that live here, all the types
[48:32] of businesses they might not know about.
[48:34] Um so, yeah, we're calling that meet
[48:36] your neighbors and that will be on the
[48:37] homepage as well. Um so, some cool stuff
[48:39] coming there. It's crazy how much work
[48:42] it is. Once you start digging in, you're
[48:43] like, "Oh, well, this links here and
[48:45] this is old or this
[48:46] >> physical event."
[48:47] >> Uh, no, no, those will just be online.
[48:49] And um we actually two um networking
[48:54] businesses, excuse me, events ago, um
[48:57] breakfast events ago, we asked if folks
[49:00] wanted to participate. So, we've been
[49:01] collecting different businesses and we have a FEMA line that will just
[49:04] launch as our first one. But kind of to
[49:07] your point about what can you offer to
[49:09] businesses, we can also once that's
[49:11] ready, you know, can just be like, "Hey,
[49:13] do you want to be on our website?" And
[49:14] we'll also archive them. They they'll be
[49:16] featured for say, you know, a quarter
[49:19] >> or two quarters. Um but they don't go
[49:21] away once they're not in the homepage.
[49:22] They'll just go and eventually we'll
[49:24] just have this really nice, you know,
[49:26] long glossery of different um features
[49:28] you can see.
[49:30] And then um for our Graten Heights and
[49:33] Pleasant Valley properties, uh those are
[49:35] moving along. Pleasant Valley um as you
[49:38] know is going to be a 300 unit
[49:39] multifamily community um with a suburban
[49:43] um walkable suburban village field and a
[49:46] publicly accessible park. Our the town
[49:49] signed our purchase and sale agreement
[49:51] um in November and now they're in their
[49:53] technical due diligence phase which
[49:54] takes a while to you know get the site
[49:56] planning done etc. Um we anticipate we
[50:00] will have a community engagement um
[50:02] meeting coming up at the end of this
[50:03] month. We're going to we're finalizing
[50:05] those details now. They'll go out next
[50:07] week. Um because as part of that um they
[50:10] agreed to do a community engagement
[50:12] session to help inform what that public
[50:13] park looks like as far as the amenities
[50:16] um and hearing from the community what
[50:17] they'd like those to be before they
[50:18] finalized design. And so that's coming
[50:21] soon. And the Graten Heights property is
[50:24] at an earlier stage. But also moving
[50:26] along um the town selected Eastern
[50:29] Connecticut Housing Opportunities or
[50:31] Echo. They'll be preserving the 1912
[50:34] building and adaptively reusing it as 17
[50:37] units of affordable housing. And um we
[50:40] are currently just finalizing that
[50:41] purchased sale agreement with them now.
[50:43] So um that's about it. Oh, we also have
[50:46] upcoming meetings. Oh, that was just an
[50:49] update. That's actually older. And oh,
[50:52] Clayton, did you want to chat about the
[50:54] new businesses?
[50:56] >> I've just been keeping tally on the new
[50:57] businesses. Uh this list is available in
[51:01] the economic development drive on on
[51:04] Google. Um I don't have September's
[51:07] numbers because it's October 1st. Um but
[51:10] there was a downtick over the summer.
[51:13] July's numbers are low, August almost
[51:15] the lowest yet. And
[51:18] the trends really that I remember coming
[51:20] out of um like May and June was a lot
[51:23] more home services, lawn care services,
[51:27] contractors in that regard who you know
[51:30] starting businesses over the summer. I
[51:32] imagine you know jobs start ticking up
[51:33] and in the spring folks probably say you
[51:35] know let me uh start my LLC and do their
[51:39] thing. Um but other than that
[51:43] it's primar you know the each month it's
[51:46] generally
[51:48] business services, personal care
[51:50] services and uh contractors
[51:54] whichever is top just kind of rotates.
[51:58] >> So they they have data for businesses
[52:00] started. Do they have data that
[52:02] businesses that are like closed?
[52:04] >> No, that is there's no reporting
[52:06] requirement.
[52:06] >> Exactly. Right.
[52:07] >> Yeah. your business does and
[52:10] >> I don't know feel like it would be nice
[52:12] if there was like I'm just letting you
[52:13] know don't tax me you want to come out
[52:16] >> we really we try to
[52:20] keep an eye on things honestly it's
[52:22] really like you know folks who live in
[52:23] town as we're driving as people are just
[52:25] driving around town or somebody wants to
[52:27] go get something from Lee's and finds
[52:30] out Liz's is gone
[52:33] yeah so if you do see stuff like oh this
[52:35] place open but I see it's closed like
[52:37] you can let me know. That is helpful.
[52:39] >> Yeah.
[52:41] Yeah. You get scissors and a
[52:42] ribbon when you open.
[52:44] >> When you close it's no one's there.
[52:46] >> No, no one no one comes to
[52:49] you and another.
[52:51] >> All right. Uh staff reports good
[52:53] liaison. We have counselor uh aino here
[52:57] tonight.
[52:58] >> No. Yeah. I I was gonna say got a guy,
[53:00] but that that's not really professional
[53:02] of me.
[53:05] I I don't have anything to to pass from
[53:08] the council.
[53:09] Just uh Great. I'm here to pass stuff to
[53:13] the council.
[53:14] >> Excellent.
[53:14] >> So, just listening
[53:17] for the most part.
[53:18] >> All right. Other business.
[53:22] >> Right. I just need a motion to adjurnn
[53:24] then.
[53:26] >> Take a second. Motion for a second. All
[53:28] in favor?
[53:29] >> I
[53:31] >> Excellent. Very efficient first meeting.
[53:33] Thank you. George, have a good night.
[53:35] >> Good night, George.
[53:37] >> Good night.