Economic Development Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes
Recorded by Sharon Rossi
June 17, 2013
Members present: PRenaud, JFletcher, JMoran, NNickerson, RCilley
7:02 p.m. Meeting opened with PRenaud stating that the new alternate members, AWood and CMorocco, will be joining the EDAC on July 11th. The appointment meeting on June 13 was postponed by the Select Board.
Meeting Minutes - PRenaud advised the committee that to save time at each meeting, the previous month’s minutes, which will have been sent via e-mail to all members for review and corrections, will be amended at that time. After a short discussion, members agreed to his suggestion.PRenaud moved to accept May 20, 2013 meeting minutes as written. NNickerson seconded. Vote unanimous in favor.
7:07 p.m. SWOT Presentation A SWOT analysis was presented by JMoran The slide show offered an assessment of the current economic development environment for the town.
He said the criteria boxes explain/list what information is put into each area. This is a format that appears to be easily workable and members can make any changes at any time. This will be an ongoing document. PRenaud asked if this would be a monthly item to be addressed. JMoran said, not really. However, we should set the month of October aside to use the document as a presentation to the public. He also commented, “This is a good item to show John Manley when he comes to speak to us next month.” “This is very encompassing,” commented NNickerson. “A lot of this stuff we take for granted, yet when looking at it on paper, we have a lot of things here in a very small area.” We are lacking lodging and restaurants. We have only one restaurant
which will be under new management soon. JFletcher asked if any had heard about a noise complaint about the previous restaurant in town. No one had. JMoran asked what the noise decibels ranges are according to the ZBA or Planning Board ordinances. PRenaud said, “Different decibel levels for different districts.” NNickerson said the new owners/management have to fit the restaurant to the community. RCilley said all should help support the restaurant to make it work within the community.
NNickerson asked, “Should it be on EDAC’s agenda to support the new business as they come into town?” JMoran commented there isn’t a welcoming committee for town, but we need to get the word out that this board is willing to render assistance.
Strengths: Added to the list were the GIVERS and the Greenfield Trails Association. Other town strengths discussed were lumber, aquifers, Contoocook River, North Pack hiking trail with the National Wildlife Refuge, Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center and the Wapack trail.
An ‘Ironman Event’ was discussed as a possible idea to partner with the Greenfield Trails Association. PRenaud will try to contact Arline Guinn, leader of the Greenfield Trails Association, and ask her to come in and talk with us. NNickerson stated that he is currently repairing her car; he could speak to her when she comes to the garage.
PRenaud asked, “When we present this in October to the Select Board, do we want to take each point and suggest approaches to maximize strengths and defend against the weaknesses?” JFletcher said focus on what we have that is different from other towns and not on what your competition has. We need to go beyond this to show what is different here from surrounding towns. NNickerson said we need to present why we are distinctive from all others. JMoran said the town website should have one page explaining the benefits of living in Greenfield and why we are different from all others.
Weaknesses: PRenaud cited lack of widespread community involvement. The same groups of people tend to do the volunteering and getting new people in town to join in is very difficult. He mentioned Bob Marshall’s concerted effort in getting new people involved with the Neighborhood Heritage District Committee.
NNickerson said, “We need to convey to the Select Board that other boards, committees, and community members have good ideas, and that we need to have them look at our ideas a little more to see the benefits.”
PRenaud noted many people just don’t have the time to volunteer. JFletcher said, “Focus should be on inclusion.” RCilley said, “One-on-one conversation with neighbors and friends can be done to get them interested in the town.” JFletcher commented, “We are a bedroom community.” JMoran asked “If we brought more business into the town and added revenue to the Town’s coffers, would that change us from a bedroom community to a business town?” NNickerson noted, “The bottom line is that Greenfield is moving forward and growing as a town and the costs associated with growing will be beneficial to all. Hopefully we come out on top as the town is becoming stagnant and we need to change that.”
JMoran commented, “What about seed capital from the town, and then private capital from investors, would this help?” PRenaud said seed capital from the town will not happen any time soon. RCilley said the town has to invest in itself. For a major key item, the roads, it is very shortsighted to be doing minimum repairs; we need a bond to correct all the roads. The major focal point in town is the Town Meetinghouse; it is being patched now, but a substantial do-over is necessary. However, if there was a capital gain fund for just that building, it would be a good focus point to help bring in a number of new people to town.” PRenaud said he is working with APatt to include the Meetinghouse in this year’s CIP. JMoran offered perhaps a non-profit should be formed to
allow contributors a tax deduction toward the restoration of the Meetinghouse. NNickerson said, “We will have involve the Select Board and with their approval, we, as a committee, could run with the project. PRenaud offered, “Perhaps the restoration of the Meetinghouse would be a good place for the Neighborhood Heritage Committee to start with.”
PRenaud said there is no real communication or interaction between the Town Boards and Committees.
RCilley advised the committee that he went to a Select Board’s meeting regarding town forest harvesting. There is a 24 acre parcel on Slip Road and a 34 acre parcel on Cavender Road property that the town is possibly harvesting for timber. He said it seemed so disorganized as how it was being handled. He realizes the goal of the Select Board was to get revenue to cover the shortfall from the State’s denial of the block grant. He wrote a letter to Select Board, copying the Planning Board and Conservation Commission, advising the Select Board that the timber harvesting seems like a bad idea and to ask Select Board to involve these other groups in the process and get input from interested residents. With these lands being logged, the property is not as valuable. Also he asked, “Was the logging and the landings monitored?” There is a property that was logged on the South Francestown Road, and the landing is an eyesore. This is totally unfair to abutting property owners to have
to look at that. You are not going to attract people to the community who are driving down a bumpy road and see landings in need of clean up. Monitoring needs to be stricter. There are state funds available for reseeding and cleaning up of the landings.
JMoran asked, “What would the incentive be for a landowner to have logging done if the town were to arrange it? What would be the incentive to the landowner if the town were to receive the revenue from the logging?” RCilley said we need to educate landowners on good forestry practices. JMoran asked how do we select certified loggers. RCilley said a list is available from the state.
JMoran offered two items as possible draws to the town. “What would be an incentive that would draw a gun manufacturing company to the town? Several members commented that at one time a resident wanted a firing range, and it was quickly vetoed by the Town. Another idea - a large draw to towns are religious festivals. We have a church that owns land; could that site be used for a revival? By using that land it would allow the church and perhaps the town to receive revenue.” NNickerson said this type of draw would allow re-investing in the town.
RCilley said getting other boards involved is absolutely the way to go to address problems and get ideas to bring revenue to our town. NNickerson commented networking is the best approach to involve all the boards.
JMoran said, “I took an action to promote our committee. There is a new magazine/media outlet starting in the Monadnock Region, they had a short duration for articles, and I took the opportunity and submitted an article.”
Getting seed money for an item is a good idea. JMoran saw a way another community used seed money. The town invested the money and lit some trails. They absorbed the cost of the lighting, but then other committees took over and charged a small fee to use the trail which returned small revenue back to the town. Having public organizations working with towns creates a good rapport amongst the committees and town government.
RCilley said there are many small parcels around town and if these parcels were given to the abutters, it would at least create a small increase in taxes. At this time the town owns 34 acres, and he would suggest to the Select Board to sell these parcels to help cover the shortfall.
JFletcher said one of the items we are charged with is to make the town attractive to encourage business to come into the community.
NNickerson commented, “Listening to all these ideas such as lodging, trails, etc. What do we do first? Ski trails, or lodging? What will bring people to our Town to get the biggest bang for our buck? Advertising on our website would be the first step for bringing revenue to the town.”
PRenaud said I would like to spend more time on the SWOT analysis at a later date. Please keep working on the SWOT and at the September meeting, we will list all that we can do. JMoran commented, “Before we start solidifying that list, we should have one more real solid attempt at ‘Blue Sky’ for items with a focused brainstorming session that we can play to our advantage. Use one meeting to list our ideas and then prioritize.”
Re-ZoningPRenaud - Items to overcome:The village district doesn’t allow new business. Currently there are 2 lots for sale that are in the village, 14 acres & 13 acres, owned by someone in Concord, MA. Those are the only lots for sale.Industrial re-zoning wordage needs to be done before presentation to the Planning Board. PRenaud has been scouting out possible acreage that could be zoned industrial. NNickerson said, “There is not a lot of land that could be rezoned to industrial after looking at the Zoning Map of Greenfield.” PRenaud said he is looking at every area possible to allow rezoning to industrial and we are very limited. PRenaud pointed out on the Zoning Map some areas which may be considered for rezoning. All lots were located in the Sawmill Rd., Crotched Mountain
Road, Russell Station Rd. or New Boston Rd. areas.
PRenaud said we can propose to re-zone some of the areas, but the changes will have to be passed through Town Meeting. JFletcher said, “The more we put in industrial, there is more chance of it being turned down.” PRenaud said we can work on this a little more. PRenaud said he will outline the new areas to be re-zoned when presenting to the Select Board in October. This will have to be finalized in August or September.
PRenaud thought subcommittees might be needed to address the broadband issue and other items. A Broadband notice will go into the Spirit either July or September. This Committee will receive a broadband map of the town this month. We have to verify the map for accuracy. The map was forwarded to us by the SWRPC and is part of the New Hampshire Broadband Mapping and Planning Program being done by the UNH Cooperative Extension. JMoran advised that Home Fusion by Verizon and with what FairPoint offers, we might be covered. PRenaud said it is doubtful we will attract industry to town with this level of broadband, which is minimal. He feels that security and scalability issues for most businesses using broadband make fixed-point wireless inadequate for industry.
Other Matters
- Non-profit study update. PRenaud has talked with APatt who is in the process of gathering information. APatt feels that Greenfield is the town with the largest percentage of land in non-profit status. He is doing basic study and data input now. NNickerson said we might want to nudge him to talk to the State to get us relief. Also the more eyes that look at this, the more info will come out from the town. CMRC is the biggest employer in town. They have trails, swimming pool and offer many things to the townsfolk.
- PRenaud informed the Committee that the next meeting of the Southwest Region EDAC has not been formally scheduled yet. He will periodically check their website and update the Committee when that meeting date is known. He thinks it will be in late July or early August.
- PRenaud will write a short broadband speed test notice for the Greenfield Spirit to be submitted by the July 1st deadline.
All agreed that the town’s website is the way to advertise our Town.
Our next meeting is July 15 with Jon Manley, State Rep. JMoran will add tonight’s comments to SWOT and PRenaud will make sure that it is printed for JManley. This meeting will be an interchange of what he may be able to help us with and how he can help us with the Legislature. PRenaud will be meeting with the Select Board re: AWood and CMorocco. Perhaps he could bring up website info about the EDAC. NNickerson asked if they could see that our committee be included on the website and have info on what we are trying to accomplish. Items for July 15, 2013 agenda: JManley, SWOT, and broadband map. (Also, the possible formation of a broadband subcommittee). 9:30 p.m. Meeting adjourned.
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