Town of Newtown, CT 3 Primrose Street, Newtown, CT
February 21, 2012
The Economic Development Commission held a regular meeting on Tuesday, February 21, 2012, in meeting room 3 of the Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street, Newtown, CT 06470.
The meeting was called to order by Co - Chair Margaret Oliger at 7:03 pm.
Present: Co – Chair, Margaret Oliger, Co – Chair Donald Sharpe, Vice – Chair, Walter Motyka, Elana Bertram, Martin Gersten, Jean Leonard
Absent: Tom Murtha, Secretary - Joe Humeston, Joe Tarshis
Also Present: Elizabeth Stocker, Director of Economic and Community Development, Andy Sachs
Acceptance of Minutes:
Mr. Gersten made a motion to accept the minutes of the January 17, 2012 meeting as submitted. Mr. Sharpe seconded the motion, which carried unanimously.
Public Participation and Invited Guests:
Andy Sachs spoke to the commission about his new venture: Deals Around Town. Mr. Sachs is a local Realtor with Coldwell Banker. Deals Around Town involves his Around Town Team that promotes and supports businesses for free. He currently is supporting 19 businesses through Facebook, Twitter, The Newtown Patch, and The Newtown Bee. He promotes these businesses through featuring video blogs of the owners on his website as well as requiring the business owners to offer a small discount through his website. Mr. Sachs wants to bring back the small town feel to local businesses where everyone knows your name.
Ms. Oliger asked Mr. Sach’s what he gets out of his venture and he said he is using this to eventually build his real estate business and also help small, local business owners.
Deals Around Town is being featured in an article in The Newtown Bee and there will be fliers at participating businesses. In order to get businesses to join he has been knocking on doors and personally signing up the owners. He is looking to possibly expanding the business into neighboring towns in the future as his business grows.
Ms. Sachs puts out a newsletter to his email list as well as all businesses with Deals Around Town. He is willing to advertise the Best of Newtown Day both in his newsletter and on his website as well as putting a link to the EDC website on his site. Mr. Sachs stressed that he is only featuring small businesses, not businesses with corporate offices. Ms. Stocker and Mr. Sachs are planning to connect about linking the EDC website with the Deals Around Town website.
Reports:
Director of Economic & Community Development – Report and Budget Update
Ms. Stocker informed the commission that a Spring Preview is being published in the NEREJ in March and will feature the EDC in a 700 word article along with a half - page advertisement. Ms. Stocker asked the commission what they thought should be featured with the possibilities being offered of the Tech Park or Fairfield Hills. The consensus was to featuring Fairfield Hills.
Ms. Stocker spoke about Newtown Ambulance Corps plans to build on the Fairfield Hills campusThe land would be offered for lease for $1 to the Corps.
Woodbury Hall and Newtown Hall have been designated for redevelopment . There are plans to tear down Woodbury Hall and build a new building with an appropiate design. The Fairfield Hills Authority is expecting a letter of interest this week.
Ms. Stocker met with Ms. Oliger to discuss activities about new business -related programs and agreed that a new e – newsletter will be sent soon. It was noted the previous newsletters are kept on the EDC website in an archives section.
Ms. Stocker said the 2011/12 Grand List has been published and that town had very good interviews with a bond listing agency and received an excellent rating. Ms. Stocker informed the commission she had published an update about the interviews and the rating agency’s endorsement.
Ms. Stocker cited new and strong community development activity. A lease for the former Shell Station on Church Hill Road has been signed and there is hearing before the ZBA March 7 about permitting setbacks closer to the property lines to allow the future realignment of Edmond Road with Commerce Road.
Ms. Stocker presented an updated mid – year budget to the commission for review.
Ms. Stocker received a invoice for advertising in the Newtown Phone Book and there was some discussion among commission members about how useful the phone book advertisement is. Mr. Motyka suggested recommitting the funds for other activities. Ms. Stocker said she received a few calls from the phone book ad. The current advertisement is on the front page with smaller ads spread out through the book if there is room. They current allocation is for the front page advertisement. Mr. Sharpe asked Ms. Stocker to request alternative possibilities from the phone book representative for new advertisement designs, placements, and pricing.
Ms. Oliger presented a request from Mr. Tarshis to the commission to have it fund advertising for the Best of Newtown event. After significant discussion (see section below) commission cannot commit advertisement funds to the event because, they cannot sponsor or finance a third - party event. The commission is, however, willing to support the event by possibly purchasing an advertisement in an event booklet or some similar involvement plus contributing assistance by its volunteers.
Ms. Stocker estimates that there is about $10,000 currently uncommitted in current EDC budget and she suggested using those funds for a staff member or consultant to work on the Strategic Plan of the commission. Ms. Stocker and Ms. Oliger worked to create a job description and deliverables for the possible position
Ms. Stocker stated that the new budget request is going to the Finance Board and Legislative Council for action soon. Mr. Sharpe indicated that there may be no questions about the request for an additional $10,000 but that the commission is able to justify its reasoning and believes the request will be approved.
Ms. Stocker stated she met with possible buyers for a brownfields site, Sandy Hook Auto and Marine, and that this site is a good candidate for assessment for Phase 2 of a possible grant. She intends to ask the owner for access to the site for an environmental review.
Mr. Sharpe questioned the line items about the allocations for miscellaneous web design and marketing and website search engine optimization. Ms. Stocker explained that she doesn’t expect to use those full amounts. Mr. Sharpe said he wasn’t impressed with SandorMax but he does believe the website needs to be further developed. He suggested getting some ideas or proposals from other firms who may have different ideas for the website. Ms. Stocker agreed with Ms. Sharpe.
Ms. Oliger recommended that any remaining uncommitted funds go towards an additional resource to support the Strategic Plan as well as funding some assessments.
Roundtable Discussion – Ongoing Activities
Ms. Oliger asked commission members to discuss the status of ongoing activities.
EDC Road Map
Mr. Motyka updated the commission about the EDC Road Map he is working on. He stated that he is finding out what other groups have been including on their road maps and is working on adding that to his chart. Ms. Oliger asked Mr. Motyka about when he expects to finish this project and he expects completion by the end of 2012. Ms. Bertram offered to assist Mr. Motyka with going to different boards and commissions and asking about any problems they frequently encounter with first time applicants.
FFH/SHOP
Mr. Humeston was not present to speak about this topic.
Newtown Day
The EDC discussed the progress commission members are seeing in the planning of the Best of Newtown Day. The commission members are concerned about how much work still needs to be done with the June event. Mr. Motyka stated that his committee for the event has numerous unanswered questions and is having a hard time moving forward with their task without those answers. Ms. Leonard also expressed similar concerns about the disorganization she is seeing. Mr. Sharpe suggested the idea of getting a big name sponsor for the event who could pay for the advertising and have some staff dedicated to the project as well. Ms. Oliger suggested to Mr. Motyka and Ms. Bertram that they sit down with Mr. Tarshis and the new Rotary Club chair to hammer out event details. She stated she was willing to help develop an event plan.
Small Business Workshops and Business Incubator
Ms. Oliger requested approval for a series of Small Business Workshops to cost $1,000 for four workshops that would focus entrepreneurship and small businesses. The meetings would be run by speakers from Central Connecticut State University’s small business development center. The event would be free to attendees and would provide refreshments. The events would be held in Newtown but open to residents of other towns as well. Mr. Gersten added that it would be beneficial to have a panel discussion with small business owners and entrepreneurs around town to offer first - hand experience to newcomers to owning a business. Ms. Oliger also indicated that she would like to look into offering classes in other areas such as marketing and social media in the future.
Mr. Sharpe made a motion to approve up to $1,500 for the Small Business Workshops as proposed by Ms. Oliger. Ms. Bertram seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Ms. Oliger also spoke about a Small Business Incubator proposal that MBA students at Sacred Heart University will be working on as part of their Capstone project from April to June. She asked the students to focus on deliverables, including target businesses, whether the structure would be brick and mortar or virtual, SWOT analyses, the form, and the funding. Ms. Oliger shared her vision of having office spaces such as conference rooms and services available home – based businesses in town for rent for as much service as they require.
Mr. Sharpe made a motion to endorse the acceptance of the Sacred Heart University’s students’ analysis of a business incubator as proposed by Ms. Oliger. Mr. Motyka seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
Brownfield updates
Ms. Bertram passed around a fact sheet she created about the advantages and disadvantages of creating a town - owned limited liability company to handle brownfields remediation projects. Ms. Bertram looked at other states and municipalities and how they handle brownfields and foreclosures. The LLC would be owned by Newtown but the EDC would have a mandate to manage, clean up the property, and sell it. The trend both locally and nationally is to form a LLC to deal with these properties, Ms. Bertram said. Mr. Gersten suggested talking to the first selection about such an approach and Mr. Motyka suggested first writing a position paper about the topic.
Mr. Sharpe made a motion to evaluate the formulation of an entity to obtain properties through foreclosure. Mr. Motyka seconded the motion which passed unanimously.
Ms. Stocker also updated the commission on the status of some brownfields / foreclosure sites in Newtown
New:
Mr. Sharpe said that one of the EDC’s goals is to raise public awareness and he asked for ideas how this could be done and if the EDC needs a point person to explain the EDC’s mission and goals and help build support. Mr. Motyka suggested this topic would be better discussed at the next meeting where more members would be present to brainstorm this topic.
Adjournment:
Mr. Sharpe made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:36 pm. The motion was seconded by Ms. Bertram. The motion was carried unanimously.
The next regular meeting will occur on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Newtown Municipal Center.
Submitted, Jessica Smith, clerk.
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