Town of East Hampton
Economic Development Commission
Special Meeting
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Middle School Commons
6:30 p.m.
MINUTES
Present: ~Richard Leone, John Hesen, Cindy Rooth, David Shulman, and Alan Pawlak
Also Present: ~Chris Edge, Connected to Connecticut; Bob Kilpatrick, West Point Road; and Lori Lanzi, Recording Secretary
Absent: ~Bryan Jackowitz and Kimberley Fontaine
Call to Order
Chair Leone called this special meeting to order at 6:34 p.m.
Approval of Minutes
Cindy Rooth made a motion to table approval of the September 16, 2008 minutes as EDC members have not had a chance to review them, seconded by David Shulman, vote unanimous in favor, motion passed. ~
Announcements
New EDC member, Alan Pawlak, was welcomed. Alan works at Aetna and brings a lot of experience from the professional world to us.
Town Manager’s/Town Council Liaison Report
No report as the Town Council is holding a special meeting tonight and Town Manager Jeffery J. O'Keefe and Town Chairperson Melissa H. Engel are in attendance.
Public Comments
Bob Kilpatrick, West Point Road, stated that Streetscape work started on Route 66 today. Immediately, curbing was put in front of the package store. The man who rents the building expressed his concern to Bob about business he lost today and will loose tomorrow. Not one car pulled into his package store from the time they put the curb in to the end of his business day. The white striping in front of the building needs to be changed as people cannot figure out where to go. The lines need to be blacked out and the orientation needs to be changed 90 degrees, and possibly a sign that directs people into the driveway and/or a sign that says the store is open.
Suggestions:
Spraying the lines with black spray paint was one idea, but consensus was it would not cover the lines on the tar.
Ace Hardware may have material that can black out white lines for a temporary fix.
Paint a white arrow directing traffic.
Speak to DOT staff regarding this. They are located at the end of the Subway plaza.
Bob Kilpatrick will call the Town Manager tomorrow and stop in the DOT office. Chris Edge asked that Bob call him with what response he gets from DOT and the Town Manager.
Cindy Rooth will speak to one of the DOT men if she encounters them tomorrow outside of her office on Route 66 and Main Street. .
It was noted that Center Cut, located downtown, has closed their store.
Downtown business owners feel there is no traffic coming through Main Street due to the bridge closesure. They are concerned this is causing them to lose business. Another concern is there are not adequate detour signs located in the area to detour traffic through town.
It was questioned when the bridgework will be completed. There where issues with the original plan, a sewer line problem, and the completion date has been delayed.
Craig Stevenson has been working with General Equities on an indemnity agreement to allow Bob Kilpatrick to have access through their property to the package store. Chris Edge will call General Equities to see if they have drawn up an agreement and try to get it faxed to him to move this process along.
Presentations
Connected to Connecticut activities report: A report was distributed and reviewed by Chris Edge. This report is for October 2008 and gives an update on meetings, visitations made by Chris, project updates, and events town wide.
The Village area has a handful of businesses coordinating a holiday event for December 7, 2008. The Goff House is offering pictures with Santa, free cocoa, and babysitting.
The Red Door Boutique is trying to come up with an event for the 7th. A copy of the boutique’s idea was given to Rich Leone and he will forward it committee members.
Designing Kids opened and a grand opening was held on Sunday, October 5, 2008. EDC Chair Rich Leone, Vice Chair Jack Hesen, and Town Council Vice Chair Thomas Cordeiro attended.
A new business is opening in November in Theatre Square and a grand opening is planned for some time in November. Chris Edge is working with Wayne Rand on this event.
Stainless steel shovels have been purchased for the ground breaking of Dr. Mantikas’ new office building. At this time, it has been delayed.
OPM has not reviewed applications for STEAP. There have been no bond commission meetings set and none is likely until after the new year.
EDC Liaison Reports
Town Council – No liaison report.
It was noted that a lot of discussion at the last meeting revolved around the skate park.
The town council liaison has not attended EDC meetings in the past year. Connected to Connecticut attends Town Council meeting at the councils request. Chris Edge sends reports to the town council and town manager’s office.
Planning and Zoning, ZBA – No liaison yet.
The EDC is not receiving copies of blueprints and applications from ZBA. As of the last meeting, the Town Manager was going to talk to Jim Carey about this. Chris Edge will follow up with Jim Carey on this.
WPCA – John Hesen reported the water treatment plant is 90% completed and the sewer relocation was completed today.
Chamber of Commerce – Richard Leone attended the last meeting, which was held at Angelico's Lake House Restaurant, North Main Street. It was the best-attended local chamber meeting yet. It helped attract people into town who normally would not have been exposed to us.
Most chamber meetings are held at the Riverdale Motel. This location is good as it is located right between East Hampton and Portland. It was suggested that the Governor’s Tavern might want to look into hosting a chamber meeting.
8. ~Old Business
East Hampton Holiday Event updates 12/7/08
The EDC has three busy weeks ahead of them in preparation of the 8 page 4 color insert for the Holidays. The insert will focus on town history, advertisements from local businesses, and a listing of holiday events in East Hampton. The insert will be put in the River East, local businesses in town so people can just pick up the insert, and can be found at the Governor’s residence. This insert will be ready for the paper that goes out the Friday after Thanksgiving.
A rate card and letter has been sent to 500 businesses in town and follow up visits are being made. To measure the rate of success from this insert it is being suggested that local business offer coupons or a gift to help track if the insert helped bring business in. John Hesen would like Chris Edge to send committee members a copy of the list he worked from.
It was suggested to see what it would cost to put this insert in other local towns. As of now, the cost is about $2,000.00, which mostly will be covered by advertising. This project is self-sufficient and no funds are coming from the EDC.
The opportunity may be there to do a spring, back to school, and holiday insert in the future. We need to see where this one goes first.
As the insert is called Bell Ringer, we should try to include the Bell Ringer group from the Congregational Church. Chris Edge will follow up on this.
The committee agreed that the insert in the River East should be called East Hampton Bell Ringer.
Revised blight ordinance action plan – Town Manager Jeffery J. O'Keefe and Town Chairperson Melissa H. Engel have concerns with the revised blight ordinance EDC submitted to them. Melissa Engel was going to join us tonight to go over these concerns, but the town council held a special meeting tonight. At this time, we need direction from the town council and Rich Leone will ask what their concerns are specifically and email the blight ordinance along with the town councils concerns to committee members.
After the EDC has time to read and review, we will be better prepared to talk about this at the next meeting. It was noted the town has a residential blight ordinate in place.
Angelico’s meetings – Rich Leone and David Shulman met individually at different times with Paul Angelico and offered any assistance he may need from the EDC to promote his business. Angelico's Lake House Restaurant has great banquet facilities and we can steer people his way.
Tracking CTC hours/assistance –Chris Edge is our liaison and does quite a bit of work for us. The EDC committee is very please with him.
Business assistance update due to impact of Streetscape project on Rte. 66 – Bob Kilpatrick covered this early in the meeting. Chris Edge tried to contact Subway and Classic Auto and did not receive a call back. It was noted more signs are needed on Route 66 to direct traffic and let people know businesses are open.
East Hampton Business Association – The EDC would like to get local business to come together. The purpose would be to get local merchants together to discuss challenges they face, community events, speakers, and just be a networking opportunity. We tried in the pass to sponsor this, but if we try again and sponsor it at local restaurants as a business after hours event on a regular basis maybe we would have more success. If the EDC could sponsor a couple of meetings and reassess how they are going, we could then decide if we should continue.
It was questioned if we should try to create a new association or see if we can be an affiliate of the Chamber of Commerce. It was noted that for small businesses, it is expensive to join the chamber.
We need to sponsor this so there is little or no cost, an agenda, speakers, attractions, something interesting to attract people. Evening events may have a better response (happy hour, dinner, speaker on a monthly basis). Also, hold a couple of “strictly” social events twice a year (i.e. Holiday). These can be held in our local restaurants.
Maybe the Chamber will help support this effort. David Shulman will contact the chamber regarding finding rates, benefits, and about affiliate membership from the chamber.
The Colchester Business Association is very successful and Chris Edge will contact them to get ideas.
It was suggested that Kimberley Fontaine look into available grant money that may be available for this.
Other
The Town of East Hampton year-to-date Budget Report was distributed to committee members present.
David Shulman suggested that we stop putting the committee’s time into things they cannot do anything about. John Hesen gave an example of how the EDC had an impact on the building of CVS and the value of knowing what is gong on at other meetings. Cindy Rooth felt we made headway with the CVS projects and a few others in town. It was suggested we do away with EDC liaisons as we can make better use of our time and resources by volunteering to work projects EDC has.
Suggestions on how to keep abreast of what other boards/commission are doing:
Obtain copies of the meeting minutes for review. This way we can determine what information we need from the minutes and obtain it. The EDC needs to be aware of what is coming down the pipe and what is happening. Some of these projects may need the support of EDC.
Have the Town Manager give us updates on other committees and bring items to us that are concerns of EDC.
Cindy Rooth said the EDC needs to revisit the home base business regulations, as the town needs guidelines/regulations. People are looking to run business out of their homes and the building department has said the town has no regulations that they can go by. You cannot expect people to buy a home in town and put a business in if they do not know if they can do so legally.
9. ~New Business
Open discussion
Connecticut Main Street membership is up for renewal at $750.00. The group discussed this and decided that the information they receive does not apply to East Hampton. Rich Leone will send them a letter that we are not renewing our membership.
David Shulman made a motion to discontinue membership with Connecticut Main Street, seconded by Cindy Rooth, vote unanimous in favor, motion passed. ~
Chris Edge was approached by Attorney Ken Barber about the possibility of a zone change (or modification) on Main Street from Century 21 to the village center. Attorney Barber believes there would be a potential for business growth in this area. The board thought looking into a Professional Office/Residential zone change that would include Main Street between Route 16 and Route 66 would be a good idea.
10. ~Public Comments – none
11. ~Adjournment
Richard Leone moved to adjourn this special meeting at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lori Lanzi
Recording Clerk
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