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Town Of Willington
Economic Development Commission Meeting
October 26, 2015
*Minutes are not official until approved at the next regular meeting
Attendees: Tom Buccino Tom Treiber, Vice Chair and Secretary
Kim Kowalyshyn Jason Bracich
Jackie Silverstein, Chair
J Silverstein opened the meeting at 6:32 PM.
Public Comment
- John Zevetchin, owner of Z’s Antiques, 161 Tolland Stage Road in Tolland (phone - 860.872.7735/860.871.8842; email – Zs@Zsantiques.com. John, who is the WPCA Chair in Tolland, is interested in buying a vacant commercial site (10,638 sq. ft.) formerly occupied by a steel company located at 672 River Road. This site would enable him to consolidate warehousing for his antique business. John indicated that he has been at his current location in Tolland for 20 years and that his business is conducted principally on the internet. He works with
designers and his customer base includes large stores in NYC. Retail sales are limited to one day a week (Saturdays). John said that he is not quite ready to start the permit process, but will let us know when he is. We told him that we would like to see his business in town and offered to support him through the permit process. John said that his plans would include giving the site curb appeal.
- Peter Fairweather re the Market Study
Approval of Minutes
- On motions by Kim seconded by Jason, the minutes of July 27, 2015, September 9, 2015 and October 5, 2015 were approved.
New Business
- Correspondence/Email – Jason went over emails received by EDC. The only one, we decided that required any further follow-up was the one reporting a poor experience at the Rodeway Inn. The Commission sent a reply to the complainant and alerted Town officals and Jodi Schmidt of the Eastern Highlands Health District (EHHD). Jason will forward a copy of the complainant’s email to Rodeway Inn, the Rodeway Inn Headquarters, and Jodi Schmidt EHHD in the event that she wants to follow-up with the complainant and/or take further action.
Old Business
- Economic Development – Tabled
- Open EDC Activities
- Business Directory – K Kowalyshyn stuffed the letter soliciting ads to town businesses and Jackie’s daughter was kind enough to attach the address labels during the meeting. Those wanting to place ads or blurbs will have until December 18, 2015 to get back to us.
- Business Profile for the Website - Tabled
- Market Study – Peter Fairweather provided copies of the draft study presented at the public meeting held on September 23, 2015. He went over the recommendations in detail and agreed to give as much specificity as possible when he presents his final reports in about 30 days. Peter agreed to present the final report in person. Kim suggested that the best forum would be a Selectmen’s Meeting. We will get back to Peter on this issue.
Peter suggested that we attend trade shows to attract target businesses to Willington. We would need to prepare promotional materials touting Willington’s low costs, low taxes and ease of access (article in Connecticut Magazine). He also indicated that we need paid staff to implement recommendations. He said unpaid interns or possible delegation of some work to our local Chamber of Commerce might provide short-term help, but would not be a real solution. We will ask BOF to put us on the agenda for the next meeting to get feedback on how best to approach the issue of staffing.
Re increasing the certainty of regulations, Peter said that if we can’t change regulations, we ought to articulate design guidelines to make it easier for developers to know precisely what we want and not have to guess. Connecticut Planning Association might have useful information.
Peter also mentioned tax incentives and use of Tax Increment Financing to pay for infrastructure improvements like water, sewer and broadband access. He will provide more detail on exactly how to go about obtaining and paying for infrastructure improvements like broadband access in his final report.
- Facebook – J Silverstein reported the weekly “Business of the Week” continues to post and said there has been an increase in hits.
- J Silverstein will get a detailed breakdown of our budget for the next meeting including all expense payments.
- There is one alternate seat open on the commission. J Silverstein prepared an eBlast for distribution that has been sent advertising the vacancy and soliciting candidates.
Meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM.
The next meeting of the EDC will be on Monday, November 23, 2015 at 6:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Tom Treiber
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