Beautify Londonderry from 9-15-26

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

All right, we're in order. There's nobody here from the public, so we'll skip that. And maybe before I'm totally alive, go right to Community Connections. That's the third thing on the agenda.
Just to catch everybody up, Deb Paul hosted a meeting maybe two weeks ago for something that she titled Community Connections. And at that meeting were representatives from about five or six different town organizations, actually town and town adjacent organizations.
So there was somebody there from the green team, there was somebody there from the school committee, from the historical society, from trailways, the rail trail people, myself, and I'm sure I'm skipping a couple of organizations.
But she did a presentation and basically she wanted to form a outside of town government association called Community Connections with, you know, she started out in my mind with something that might be good for us.
And that she was talking about increasing community participation, volunteerism, community spirit, all that really good stuff, and maybe getting more people to turn out for committees like ours and, you know, positive stuff.
And then she had an agenda that listed a number of projects on it, and she was, she tried to be all inclusive, so she had, you know, a little something for everybody on the agenda that they could get by becoming part of this organization.
Yeah, and then that was maybe the first 15 minutes of the meeting, the remaining part of the meeting was a little bit more focused on the projects, and there was some feedback from the people in the audience, the rail trails people, she had some things in there about building more trails in town itself between some of the different organizations, different locations.
And the woman who's the lead on the rail trail put her hand up and said, no, we're not, we're not going to do that, okay.
But we will be happy to participate in other ways, but, you know, we have, there are so many issues when you go to build trails, you know, with neighborhoods and all this kind of stuff, so that we don't want to make that part of that.
And then there were a couple of other discussions, and then the last half of the meeting, approximately, was devoted to two projects of Debs, frankly.
One was, she wants to do a farmer's market thing, okay, and that would be on Friday nights is the way she's envisioning this thing.
And she would do it in, the way she presented it was, she would do it in conjunction with something she called Fabulous Fridays.
And the concept on that is that the farmer's market would go from, I think she said three to eight.
And this thing, the Fabulous Fridays thing would be like six to eight or six to nine, something like that.
It would be an event on the town common across the street from the, I think the farmer's market is, would be at the Morrison house, the old lion's hall.
And the Fabulous Friday thing would be across the way in the town common, and it would be sponsored, each of, she envisioned this being a 13-week program from June till mid-end of September.
And every Friday, a different organization would host the Fabulous Friday thing, and they would be responsible for whatever the event was.
So it could be a musical event, it could be something else.
And they would have to bring that to Community Connections.
Can I ask you a question?
Yes, sir.
I don't mean to interrupt.
No.
I had talked to her about the whole idea.
I thought it was maybe interesting.
Has she checked with, like, Sunnycrest and Max to see what they think about having a farmer's market?
Yes.
She said, she spoke to them.
They wouldn't participate in terms of having a display, but they would donate some goods to be sold.
That's what she said.
I didn't know if that would be upsetting to them.
I didn't get the impression from her that she thought that they've got feedback that it wouldn't be upset.
I'm glad that she checked because that was the concern.
She checked.
She brought it up.
I didn't.
That was a concern.
And she would be looking for small farmers from, not only from London, but from the surrounding area.
And she would also have non, you know, artisans, people that make stuff.
Sort of like my wife went to the, was it the Apple Fair or something that just took place?
Yeah, yeah.
Principal Church.
Yeah, yeah.
So those kind of vendors, she would, because this would be the first year, she would charge
a low rate to them to participate.
But the farmer's market would be like the one in Dairy.
Yes.
Yeah.
Because she talked about maybe having a fish guy there and have a meat guy and have a farmer guy and all that kind of stuff.
Get free meat, you know, cheap meat from China or wherever that's coming from.
Whatever.
Okay.
Yeah.
They probably should have a bank guy there and finance the meat.
Okay.
Yeah.
Right.
So, so what's in it for beautified London area?
One was, she said, we could, we could have a booth there every Friday night and, you know, to show our program to everybody that came to the farmer's market.
And, and we could help out, I guess, with the farmer's market and maybe help coordinate the fabulous Fridays thing.
Okay.
Across the way.
And, and hopefully get more community spirit and who knows more volunteers and who knows what would happen out of the whole thing.
So.
This, this event thing, that's the thing I don't know.
That's a whole lot of work.
I'm sorry.
I'm already saying, nope, not interested in that play.
I don't have time.
Yeah.
We can't even do, we're, now we're competing with the art committee.
And there, concentrate on the commons.
Yes.
I'm, I'm not for it.
Well.
I think it's a lovely grand theory.
She, she, I think, is going to move forward.
My, I haven't written anything to her yet in response to this meeting we had a couple of weeks ago because I wanted to get the sentiment of the committee.
I, I also feel, first of all, with all due respect to volunteers and everything else, I'm not spending 13 weeks in a row sitting at a booth.
At a booth that no one wants to, nobody cares about.
Yeah, yeah, we're, you know, that, I'm sure, I'm sure there would be something there, but not for me.
The second thing is, this, the, the, I thought that, in my opinion, the meeting devolved a little bit from the initial, we're looking to increase volunteerism and get more folks involved in the community spirit to a, here's my two projects.
Here's my idea, and everybody support me.
So I, I, I, I was proud of that, but I, I, I want to respond, I want to, I'm going to suggest to you, depending on how everybody feels, and I want to hear from everybody, by the way, I, I would like to write her something, thank you for inviting us to the meeting, offering to help where we could, but letting her know that, that we probably would not be participating.
Thank you for participating in, and for the discussions, okay.
Um, how does everybody feel?
Yeah, I, I know my, my situation, I've got to, I've got to find a way to cut back.
I can't do anything more.
And at my age, it's taken its toll.
Got it.
Yeah.
Anybody else?
No, I'm tapped.
I'm tapped out.
You're up.
You must have come to the ears.
I'm tapped out, yep, yep.
All right, so where did you call it?
I mean, the other thing I'm going to suggest to her is I think it's too much,
and I really think she should.
The Fabulous Friday idea might be a good idea, the event thing,
but put that on the shelf for a while and focus on getting your farmer's market going
and do that and then shelve the rest.
And that wouldn't be until next year, although there's some interest.
She's already done some steps.
She's gotten some permits, and she's spoken to the town manager.
Sounds like the cart before the horse, but okay.
She's a whirlwind.
She really is.
Yeah, whirlwind, but I don't want to be a sale on that.
Okay, so, but, you know, that would be my recommendation to her.
And then I don't think I've seen community groups represented at the dairy farmer's market.
I don't think so.
So maybe there's some graphs out there.
I mean, frankly, I had, admittedly, it was a short experience.
I sat at a booth at the arts festival for one night and got absolutely zero interest.
I don't think that's our interest.
Yeah, no, I think you're right.
I don't think it fits.
I don't think it fits with what.
The farmer's market, the farmer's market idea, I liked.
I do, too.
The other stuff.
And I would go, absolutely.
I would go as a patron.
Yeah, me, too.
But, yeah.
It's so much closer.
I mean, not that dairy's all that far, but I don't think, oh, wait, the farmer's market's over in dairy.
I think, oh, I need some tomatoes.
I'll go to Mac's.
I go buy stuff there.
I don't, I guess I have to start making the sunny press.
I'm fine.
Okay.
All right.
So I think, I think I get a sense for the group.
I don't think there's a vote needed here.
I'll respond, but I will copy you guys.
Okay.
I'll respond to that.
Okay.
Yeah.
The last meeting I have minutes on, Joy, is June.
Is that our last meeting?
I was not at July.
I don't think we have.
That's July.
There was that one.
There was that door out of town and sick?
No, that was August.
August, I was out of town, and then I was sick.
And that was the one where you went and you were by yourself.
And I don't have minutes from July.
I don't think we met.
So I'm going to just throw around a copy, because I figured it was so old at this point, before we approve.
These are June minutes.
I think, Joy, you had said something, it was a text or something, or response, probably back from July.
Because I had sent something for her to put in, like, thanking our people, our sponsors for sponsor road cleanup, listed a bunch of events and stuff, and you said, nice article or something.
I had emailed it to her.
I never heard a word back.
So I didn't even know whether it was perceived, whether it was a good format.
And I said, you know, you have the right to reformat this a little bit for her newspaper to go in the Londonderry Times.
Okay.
And I never saw the article.
I never got a word back.
So I'm like, you know.
Okay.
As far as I know, it never went in.
Okay.
And I was looking for it.
Yeah.
But I probably missed it.
Yeah.
And I thought, she, any time I send a letter in, I don't hear back.
Well, that's okay.
But she does post, you know.
Yeah.
She usually posts that.
Yeah, so.
But I figured, you know, they would have formatted it because they're doing the paper.
Right.
That's their value.
You know, that's their skill set, not mine.
Yeah.
I can make it look good in word for you.
Right.
Right.
You know.
Right.
But I was just curious if that's what you were talking about or.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm blanking.
But in any case, take a look at the June minutes if we can have no issues, if I can get a motion on those.
I mean, this is kind of ancient.
Yeah.
Maybe I missed this one.
And I don't know if we, maybe I just don't remember it.
You know, attempt to sell hats, you'll be out of town.
But to donate hats for use at concert on the Commons raffles versus manning a table, how many, did we talk about how many hats were you donating?
Because I still have most of them at my house.
Yeah.
And I only, there were.
25.
There were eight or ten.
I think I donated ten hats.
One for each concert.
Oh.
One for each concert.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Okay.
I just couldn't remember the details of that.
Yeah, that's what that was.
Okay.
And I still, I think there was 20 in a bag.
Does that sound right?
25, because there was four sleeves, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
So I have, I have those left.
Okay.
I didn't sell any of them, so I did leave.
I think it was eight or something.
Something like that.
No.
No.
What do you mean?
Oh, sorry.
Yes, here.
Right now, something like that, yeah.
Take mine.
Take mine.
Yeah.
Anything else, guys?
I don't think so.
The library's open now?
Library just opened the last few days.
I'm going to talk.
All the lights on.
Yeah, I'm going to talk about the library in a second.
But can I get a motion on this?
Make a motion to accept the means as written.
Second.
Okay, second.
All right, good.
All in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Chair votes approved.
Okay, good.
Can I just ask a question?
Yeah.
This has nothing to do with this.
Yeah.
I mean, this is approved.
Yeah.
Does Karen Bottenhorn, what's this?
She dropped out.
Okay.
Did you hear from her?
No.
No.
I wrote her twice, and I left a voicemail, and didn't hear from her.
Can I make a comment?
I know a person we talked about.
Remember I talked to you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
I called and left a message.
It was Labor Day weekend.
I got the phone number from the internet, I assume it was correct, and told when our meetings
are, and when, you know, our pickup days are, and I told them that we meet here, and he's
not here.
Crickets.
So, I don't know.
I left my phone number, and I didn't hear a response, and I don't know if the telephone
number was incorrect, because I'll talk to you personally about it, if anybody has that
number.
Yeah.
I just don't want to.
Was this Gary?
I don't want to.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
An update to everybody on the Welcome to Londonderry signs.
Our four signs are up.
They're all installed.
If you've had an opportunity to look at them, they look great.
Yeah, they do.
Okay.
They really came out nice.
We, the final expenditure, and the bills are all paid, by the way, was $8,979.40.
It's less than we thought, wasn't it?
It is.
It is less.
But we only did, ended up doing four signs.
And that $979 extra was, they ended up, there was a mistake.
And rather than the DPW taking the hardware and giving it to me to hand paint, they sent
it to the guy up north.
So he painted those.
I said, go ahead, paint them.
And there was another expenditure.
Oh, we needed one replacement post.
Oh, yeah.
Painted and all that stuff.
But DPW did a great job.
They were wonderful.
They were great.
And the sign that we couldn't repair last time I looked is leaning against the DPW garage over
on the other side of the town.
They will do something with it at some point in time.
So it won't totally go to...
I saw Dave at the American Legion.
He was there the night...
I don't know if it was his mother or father died.
Oh, God, yeah.
I know you lost somebody.
I can't remember now.
And I just went over and said, I'm so sorry.
But I thanked him.
I said, you guys were so helpful to us.
And I don't know how to thank you.
It was just so great.
And he'd be, so...
Okay.
So part of the job is done, okay?
We have a couple of, I think, short-term things to work on and maybe one longer-term thing.
I did go around in the last week, and I pulled the old sponsor signs off, okay?
There are two sizes right now.
This seems to be the size that's used for the sponsors themselves.
And then the top of each...
And there's about a five-foot, five-and-a-half-foot fence post, four-by-four fence post that these go on.
The top has got something that says,
Maintained by whoever the...
This happens to be the guy that was at Wendy's, so he won't be in the game anymore.
So this one is probably the one that's in the best shape.
Most of these are, frankly, B-TECH at this point in time.
So we're going to have to look at replacing them.
I haven't got pricing on these yet.
I will.
But I wanted to discuss a couple of things.
One was yellow and blue.
I don't know how folks feel about that.
I don't like it at all.
But, well, I mean, it's...
We have the option.
It's the same as the signs themselves, right?
There are blue signs with the gold.
That's true.
So I think that does, you know, they tie together.
If you change much other color, it's going to look hodgepodge.
It will look hodgepodge, yeah.
I like that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Does that, is that, are those letters reflective?
That would be nice if they were.
You know what I mean?
Like if it's just yellow, golden, blue, and it's dark, you don't see it, then that doesn't,
you know, I'm just wondering if the paint, the lettering could be reflective so that when
somebody's driving by it, it would stand out.
Yeah.
Okay.
Just a question.
I think it's a good question.
Okay.
Do we have just two contributors right now to that?
We have your organization, which was American Legion, and we have the police organization, so we
have those two.
But what about, who's the, who's the nursery there that maintains some of the science?
Shady Hill.
Shady Hill.
I was thinking Spring Hill, and I'm like, no, that's not it.
Shady Hill.
He, he, now he's not a financial sponsor.
He'll get it maintained by.
Right, right.
So he, they will get one.
Oh, yeah, they, they.
They don't have one now.
They, they did.
Theirs, one of theirs was destroyed, but the other one was.
How did they get destroyed?
Well, the one on Rockingham Road, it looks like somebody rode a car into it.
Okay.
And, and the fence, the, the, and this is a four by four post.
Yeah.
Snapped right in half.
Wow.
Wow.
So that one is shot.
I have the fence, the post from, I believe it was the South Mammoth Road is in my garage because
it was laying on the ground over there.
I left the one up on North Rockingham Road and I think I left the one up out on 102 West.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So those four posts are up there.
Uh, unfortunately when they did the, uh, the Wendy's thing and they took down the stuff over there, that post got lost in the mix.
So where, where did that sign go?
That was the, Wendy's.
That's the one that's at the DPW now.
Oh, that's the one.
Actually, actually that's not true.
What happened there.
I thought the one was, the one that was shot.
The one that was, the one, no, the one on the North side of town.
Yes.
Was the one that was, it couldn't be fixed.
So the Wendy's one actually ended up.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
So Wendy's is just too hard to see.
So why waste that real estate?
I've gone by it for years and that was all right.
Right.
Until someone mentioned that it was there.
Great.
So, um, what I'm going to do is, unless there's a objection, I'll get some pricing on staying with this basic format.
I'll inquire as to reflective signage because I think that would be nice if that could happen.
And, um, get some pricing on, on, uh, these signs and we'll need new hardware.
Cause the hardware that was on there, most of it, when I use the ratchet to take these things off, they were lag bolts on there.
Um, most of them were so rusted through, they didn't use stainless steel hardware.
So most of them had rusted through and snapped when I took them off.
Well, you're lucky you even got them off.
Yeah.
So is Shady Hill still involved or not?
Shady Hill is.
They do the North Lendonderry one and I, they do one or two West, right?
Yeah.
They do those two and groundhog technically does the other two.
I have to talk to them a little bit because we also were supposed to have the young, what was his team?
What was supposed to happen?
He, so I did, um, I did reach out to Katie.
Um, I don't, it was probably like two months ago, a month and a half ago.
Um, and just, you know, let her know we weren't really seeing, I had, I had reached out to him that, um, the signs were delayed, hadn't heard back from him.
So I reached out to Katie, signs were delayed.
I said, we haven't heard from, I can't remember, Nate, Nathan.
Yeah.
Um, and, um, and then she said, you know, get back to her if we need help with him.
But, um, anyway, I, since we haven't, since we haven't met, I didn't really even think about it.
What was your plan for him?
Had you thought through what he was going to do?
No, I mean, I think we were going to talk about it after, you know, after the.
Okay.
So let, let me, uh, let me, uh, he plows my driveway.
So let me give you a call.
His dad actually, that's technically who I deal with.
But, um, uh, let me, uh, let me reach out to him and we'll, we'll talk to him and then I'll talk to Groundhog.
Lynn Wiles called me the other day and he gave, he told me to let me know that he got his, uh, weed whacker fixed
and he went over to Rockingham Road and took down all the, cause the Rockingham Road, the weeds were.
Okay.
You know, three foot high.
Yeah.
So is that something we're supposed to maintain or is that, you know, is that.
If we did.
Is that a committee responsibility?
As far as.
Maintaining.
Maintaining that.
Those signs like.
That land, you know, that.
The lands.
The weeds and stuff around here.
Well, the landscaper that agrees to do what he's supposed to do.
Okay.
So I, yeah, I, Lynn, you know what?
I never really asked Lynn cause he did it before he used to go over before.
Um, I don't, I think we're getting, uh, disproportionate participation.
I mean, the guys from Shady Hill do these beautiful displays.
Yes.
I, I don't think I'm seeing the same thing.
So I've actually got some notes to go see the groundhog guy.
Okay.
And I have to just talk to him and see where his head's at.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, and then we can talk.
Well, cause groundhog was halting.
They were, they were not going to do anything because Nathan was going to take control of these
Did you talk to them about them too?
Yes.
I did talk to him about them.
So maybe they, they stopped and Nathan didn't pick up.
So they weren't doing anything.
All right.
And were we paying Nathan anything?
No, no, no.
He was, his internship, like project school thing.
Okay.
Good.
I just.
And we were promoting his business.
I got it.
Yeah.
Let me, let me reach out to him and because I actually, the, the, uh, rotary on, uh, our street.
Okay.
Yeah.
I had him come in and do that and I did pay him for that.
Okay.
I said, go ahead and do it because I, I forget what I was doing that month or something and
I just couldn't get it done and it was, it was my turn.
So I said, just please go do it.
Send me a bill.
Okay.
Um, okay.
So, uh, welcome to London Resigns.
I spoke, uh, week, 10 days ago to the Rotary Club of London area.
I went over, they meet 730 every other Wednesday, I think at, at, uh, the, uh, the coach stop.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice people.
Um, and, uh, and, uh, Beth, just so you know, I did borrow a hat.
Oh, cool.
And wear a hat to the, the presentation.
Good thinking.
Good thinking.
And I brought their Rotary Club sign so they could see that, you know, they were a past participant.
They were.
Yeah.
So their executive committee is meeting tomorrow to decide, I, I don't think it's an if, to decide
how they're going to participate in our, with us on these signs.
Okay.
And it will either be a reasonably substantial, um, contribution, uh, to, uh, put their name
on sign on several signs, perhaps even all of them.
Okay.
Um, or it could be something more because during the course of this thing, I mentioned that we
had lost what the, the sign at Wendy's, but we didn't like the location anymore because of
some of the changes that had happened in the surrounding environment.
And, uh, and we were looking at a state thing and all this kind of stuff.
And the, uh, the president of the Rotary Club is an attorney by the name of, uh, uh, Jeremy
Miller.
And, uh, he grabbed me after the meeting and he said he really, really wants to do something
more substantial than just those signs.
So he was going to present to the executive committee, uh, uh, a larger donation to perhaps
sponsor the one or two replacement sign.
Okay.
Wow.
Um, so I sent him, he asked for some more details.
So I sent him a description of where we were thinking about putting the sign and a cost estimate,
which the cost estimate on that would be about $12,000.
Oh my God.
Uh, unless we have to move it further back from the road.
And the next size up on that sign would be about $13,000, $13,500.
Wow.
Okay.
Um, and that's for the new style of sign.
If we stayed with these wooden signs, you could add another $1,000 to $1,500 to the proposition.
Now, I wouldn't be too frightened of that number because, uh, frankly, uh, we would have to put
that out to bid and find other guys.
And I think there are other companies that maybe not, don't make the wood signs, but make
that newer.
It's, it's some sort of a Eurofane based sign that supposedly going to last better, be longer
and all this other stuff.
Um, so, um, what I did was I said, I wanted to give this fellow something to talk to his
executive care.
So I went to, uh, AI and I looked at our sign and I said, create a sign, uh, that shows
a substantial donation from the Rotary Club and how the sign might look.
And this is what it came up with.
Oh.
Well, I think if they, they want to foot the bill, they get it.
That's what I said.
Yeah.
I was very proud of him.
This was an AI inspired, uh, deal and might not, and at the end of the day, but what I have
to tell you was I had sort of a cockeyed half-assed picture of, of our sign.
Okay.
Yeah.
It did all the stuff, including plugging in the, the logo.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
Isn't it?
And it took, I don't know, two minutes.
Oh my boy.
Okay.
I said, wow.
So I sent him this and he immediately fired me back a thing saying, thanks a lot.
You gave me a lot of stuff to go in.
So I don't want to overstate.
That's a gorgeous sign.
I'm sorry.
That's gorgeous.
I don't want to overstate.
Okay.
Um, I, I, I, I had two people come up to me after the presentation and say, hey, we'd
like to put our, our name on the signs on either end of Mammoth Road.
And, uh, and I, and we talked about it, maybe a, uh, you know, a thousand dollars for
each sign or something like that.
Okay.
So I think that's the range.
Yeah.
You know, we'll see where, somewhere in there, I think is where they'll end up.
That's wonderful.
So we'll see.
Um, now that, that's, that one there that, by the AI thing, that, uh, sponsor is much larger
than the other ones, right?
Well, yeah, but I think that's that.
I think they're in that rich way.
That's that.
They can have it.
Yeah.
Is that what we're going to look at?
Well, if somebody wants to pay the whole bill, absolutely.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We have a big sign.
John, I'll put my wife next to them as their wife.
I don't know if you do that.
Being taped.
Being taped.
The more they get, the bigger the other side.
Public.
We're better now.
Let's see.
Okay.
Um, but anyways, so we'll, we'll see where that goes and everything, but I think they,
uh, they, they seem very interested in, and, uh, it is a very altruistic organization and
they seem very interested in, in coming and, and helping us.
That's exciting.
They saw the worth of that.
So we'll see.
Um, the other thing I noticed is when I took all these signs down, there are a couple of
businesses for Ronnie is one and, uh, Apple business, I'm going to mess up the name of the
company, Apple business systems.
Are they still on your system?
They actually are.
I Googled them and they are.
They seem to specialize in doing accounting and other bookkeeping functions for, it looks
like for medium, small businesses, including they, they listed on their webpage, landscapers
and things like that.
So maybe that's how they got involved.
I don't know, but I looked them up.
I have the name of the owner, so I will go carry a sign in and see.
If you want, I remember I've tried several times with Berkshire Hathaway.
And she was out of country.
I could try again saying that we're all those previous sponsor signs are down because we've
got new signs and see if she would want to continue.
No reason not to try.
Okay.
Well, because I don't know if it was explicit when they were talking about it, but I don't
feel like when you sponsor, it's not an unended.
It should be a year.
No.
Like you have to put annual renewal to keep your sign up there.
I think that's great.
But the other thing, I'm not, I think that that's a tougher sell.
That is a tough sell.
Or maybe it's a two year.
You get a two year sign for $1,000 and then after two years, I don't know.
I don't know.
Most of these organizations, businesses are different, but like something like the Rotary
Club, that would have to come up for reconsideration every year.
They probably wouldn't do a long term.
Oh, no, no, no.
I would think that with the amount that they're putting out, they could handle it for 12 years.
And they did not commit to that.
No, but if they did, if they did, say it's a $13,000 sign, then for 13 years they get that
sign now.
Well, we could also, I could also, I just want to throw into, I could also see something
maybe mid range on that.
So they might come back and say $5,000 or something like that.
So we don't know.
They haven't, I don't know what their financial situation is.
I don't know what they, he seemed not bothered by the numbers.
So we'll see.
Could, I want, if I do attempt to do that again, I wonder if I could get like a copy of the AI
so I could show her, this is what we can do.
Um, I, I don't think we want to do this.
No, I don't mean that one, the other one.
The second one, but it would have to be a smaller sign because if you go to.
Oh, of this.
Lecture.
Um, I could probably do something.
Because, so she would say, this is what we're thinking of.
This is how your participation would be shown.
Right.
It comes down with all the signs under his arm.
I have, I have one picture of a former, of, uh, of us, of one of our signs that, where they're, you can see the sponsor sign adjacent to the sign.
The one they had before was small.
It was only about like that.
It was very small.
That's what they were, that's what, that's what those are.
I know, but the one that you show with the AI looks bigger to me.
That is, this is, this is.
That's for a major, like for.
This is a brand new sign.
It might be bigger than the sign that we currently have.
And this is a totally different situation.
Right.
That was a one-off big thing.
This is just if they want to come in heavy on this one donation.
Otherwise, we'll be going with these signs.
Okay.
So what, what, what is, what is your definition of heavy?
Pay for a good chunk of it.
Okay.
Half or more.
Half or more.
Maybe.
We'll see.
Okay.
I mean, we'll see what they said.
That sign is proportionate to dollars.
I don't know.
You're making me sound like a mercenary now, which is what I'm saying.
No, I think it's, you know, you've got to set realistic expectations.
Well, yeah.
Cut up or shut up.
All right.
I'm sorry.
Everybody.
We'll take a breath.
We are all going to get in trouble on this tape.
Okay.
I am going to be sleeping on the couch and you're going to jail.
Perfect.
Love it.
Okay.
I am going to set aside the fundraising letter discussion, unless there's an objection, because
I'm just not prepared to do it.
Fall cleanup.
We have our, October 3rd is our fall cleanup.
A couple things I can contribute to this.
I did do an inventory of what we have on hand, and I think we're okay.
What I do intend to do, because somebody mentioned the library, is I'm going to collect our materials
from the library, because they've been out there, and some of them have been in the field
a few times, and I'm going to clean them.
And I'm going to switch out.
They have the heavy vests and the bags in the library.
I'm going to switch those out and put some of those new mesh vests in there, because they'll be a little bit more compact
in the bags.
And I'm going to shut down the town hall program the week before our cleanup and capture and use
all that material, and then store that here.
So, I did meet with Kyle over at Max, and he is going to give us apples, 100 apples for our cleanup,
so that we'll be able to give all the participants apples, which is good.
I sent letters to all the principals of the schools asking them to put our thing on their signs,
their marquees.
Yeah, that's good.
Okay, Al Tron.
I also sent a letter to Elisa Muse, and asked her to, I sent her a slide with an announcement
of our thing, and she's sent that out.
They'll be on the Facebook, the school's Facebook thing, and all that kind of stuff.
So, we'll get some stuff that way.
I sent a notice to the Dairy News and to the Lendary Times, the Lendary Times for that
around town section, and the Dairy News has, they call it something else, and I sent them
that.
Dairy News, the Lendary Times one is free, but the Dairy News one, the basic one is free.
And you can spend $15 or $20, and you get a flashier thing on their deal.
So, we hadn't met, so I just didn't want to spend any money on it right now, but that
might be a thought for the future.
So, I think, and I requested, I think, three tables and some chairs and things, so Matthew
Thornton is all set for us when we go.
And that's 9 to 12?
That'll be 9 to 12 on the 3rd, and the rain date is two weeks later.
No, it's not the 10th, it's the 17th.
Oh, two weeks?
Two weeks later.
Because we had talked, you said the following week.
That was a mistake.
So, it's the 17th.
So, and that's Saturday.
Who can make it?
October the 3rd.
That's one, that's two.
I'll try.
Maybe three.
I could probably come for a little bit in the morning.
Yeah.
Okay.
And if it's too much, don't worry about it.
No, it's just that that's my planned shopping day with Kara for her birthday.
Oh.
You know what?
But we're not going at 9 in the morning.
Yeah.
Stores are not open yet.
You bring, bring for her with, and that way you'll be inspired by, it's always the first
half hour that's the busiest.
Right.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I can do that part, because we're going down to Burlington, to the Burlington
Mall.
Oh, good.
Oh, she'll love that mall.
Oh, we did it last year.
Yeah.
Cha-ching.
The girl's got class.
The only thing, I know I can't do the 17th.
That's okay.
Because I already talked to Betsy, and I said, if we're sure we get rained out or something,
she'll jump in.
That's great.
I got a question on this inventory.
I thought we bought a number of those green shirts last year.
We used them.
They're gone.
There was a scout troop that, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There was like three groups of kids, so, yeah.
Okay.
Well, we have a lot.
We don't have very many.
Well, there's not very many, but we do have the mesh vests in a small, medium size.
So, what I'm thinking is when we have folks come for the kids, we'll give them the small,
medium mesh.
Yeah.
And I think that'll get us by.
And then coming out of that, we'll decide, because I don't know if we're going to do more
t-shirts or more vests or whatever, because I think the mesh vests, you did that, John,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those are, I like those.
Okay.
Yeah.
They're easy.
They're certainly easier for me to deal with from a laundry point of view, so.
Oh, good.
And because this is now October, it can be chilly, so you're not going to give a kid a t-shirt
necessarily.
And using the vest is actually better, yeah.
And we will have, we have quite a few of the, well, not quite a few, we have some of
the adult ones so that if we get somebody that comes through that wants a night shirt, because
that's what the, these are all medium to large size, you know, you have a night shirt, we
could give somebody or, you know, we can make that work.
So if you, if you want some, we've got to do it now, if you don't, we're okay.
I'm going to suggest, well, I mean, subject to everybody else's feedback that we just hold.
Because funds right now aren't the best.
And I still have, we still have stickers, because I have the stickers, a bunch of stickers and
magnets at the house, so that's another, like, just small thing we can, we can give
to people if they want.
Okay.
Maybe the best thing, if we are, if we're thinking of t-shirts, thinking of the spring,
not the fall.
Right, that's what I'm saying, like, we only do t-shirts in the spring because it's
usually a little bit warmer.
If we want to do it.
Yeah.
Because people are more thinking about t-shirts in the spring than they would be in the fall.
Right, that's what I'm saying, the best, we'll go over somebody's sweatshirt or something
better.
Right.
Yeah.
Easier.
Am I forgetting anything for the fall cleanup?
Is there anything else that we should be thinking about doing?
I'll put some signs up on Mammoth Road, you know,
the last week.
I'm hoping some of these political signs get taken down.
They should be.
They're supposed to be down, I think, in two weeks.
You know what, I'm not sure.
I don't know if...
Well, I'm talking about the ones that lost.
Oh, sure.
I think most of those are down, but these other ones are still...
Well, the ones for the November election, they still have a right to be up, I think.
Right.
Yeah.
But, yeah.
I didn't see the results.
I'll have to Google it.
Yeah.
I'll have to look it up.
I just didn't see it.
I came in a go to it.
No, the signs that I put up, if anybody's lost, I take them down the next day.
Yeah.
I hate to see those out there forever and ever, and that's not right.
Well, no, you're right.
It's almost like, I don't know who puts those signs up, so...
Oh, there's all kinds of people.
Various people.
If they're on their committees or whatever.
They should be responsible for it.
Yes, they should be.
And there's enough space between the primary and the election that I would...
I'm sorry.
I'd like to see the winners take theirs down and then put them up a couple of weeks.
And put them back up.
Yeah, I know.
It would be nice.
I would think that some of them would be in the way for people to mow their lawns
or get those tree lawns mowed, so they should have to take them down.
That's just my thought.
I have to say, I went to the parade.
You know, it was there for the parade because La Crosse was marching.
And comments from the people in the crowd, it was most of the parade was all politics.
It was a little sad.
You know, like there was so much politics in it than, like, the legendary.
You know, it was great to see the bands.
And I love seeing the, I don't know what committees they're from.
The sports and the cheerleaders and...
Well, and even, like, the guys that do the reenactments and, like, people that come from
other towns to drum and bugle corps.
That was cool.
Yeah.
You know?
But then you have just all this politics.
And I was just like...
Well, when you have an election year, you're going to get that.
No, I know.
I'm just saying, like, you know.
So, I don't know if I got an answer.
For October 3, we're all set and, you know, we'll...
It sounds like you've done everything.
I think we're in good shape.
So, we'll get that done.
And I think you and I were talking, we've got the thing down to a little bit of a science
anyways in terms of doing the thing.
So, we'll see what happens.
I did meet with Jimmy Lozen, the football guy the other day.
Oh, yeah.
Great.
Yeah.
Because he did not...
He was in the hospital over the summer and he didn't do the spring.
So, he's going to look at it.
But I said to him, he said, not till October.
And I said, don't go too late until October.
I said, you know, whatever you...
We'll work it out.
I said, just as long as I get you back next year.
And he said, that would be fine.
In terms of the other guys, AdMix, which is October the 7th.
Wynn Waste will probably go on October the 3rd, but I haven't heard back from him yet.
They always seem to coordinate with our town when I came up.
Bosch is going to get back to me.
He hasn't got his date yet.
It'll be in October.
Trend Moving doesn't do a fall one, but they'll be replaced in the fall by Waste Management,
WM, who's now signed up.
They're new.
And they've paid and their sign is up.
Everything's been taken care of.
Okay.
And so they'll do theirs on October the 17th.
So I still have to get a schedule from Bosch and just firm up, win, waste,
and then we'll be all set with the sponsor of the guys.
What does Bosch do?
They make...
This one makes appliances.
They do make those appliances.
The high-end...
I was hoping that was...
I think that's like an office for them.
They don't...
I don't think...
There's not manufacturing there.
I think they manufacture in Germany or something like that.
Because I make Bosch wiper blades.
I'm a snob.
Well, and Bosch...
They also make boilers or oil burners or something like that.
They're big on there.
But they're very...
It's high-end.
Oh, yeah.
I'm okay with that.
Shee-shee.
You're bougie.
We have a dishwasher.
And I love it.
It's a Bosch?
It's amazing.
It works amazing.
Really?
And it's lasted.
Yeah.
My son, Ryan, has in the kitchen down in Massachusetts, has all Bosch stuff.
Okay?
And then the other day I was talking to him and he said, well, his wife is thinking about
remodeling the kitchen.
He's like, I just got your appliances.
I don't want to have your stuff.
You know, they'd say, what are you going to do?
Are you going to get new?
Oh, you'll be sorry.
It'll be broken.
You know.
But it's getting heavy-duty use.
They don't last.
We talked about potential new member.
Okay?
I did not get to...
I think I talked to somebody about throwing something up on Facebook and trying to
recruit our own members.
I haven't gotten to that.
Okay.
I'm going to do it because we don't seem to be able to get any new members.
So we'll figure that out.
Volunteerism is way down.
I don't care where you work because I've been involved in some other stuff, too.
Nobody wants to do it either.
They're too tied up.
The husband and wife are working.
And then they've got the sports situation and the school situation.
It's just too much.
Yeah.
It's hard.
It is.
We do have to talk about fundraising.
But, again, I haven't prepped anything for tonight.
I have your letter, Beth, that you wrote, right?
Didn't you do a fundraising?
Somebody did.
You did a fundraising letter.
I thought so.
I didn't write a letter.
No, you wrote that letter.
You did.
Oh, you had comments on it.
You put comments on it.
Yeah, that's what it was.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I just.
Oh, yeah, I just.
But I actually really liked it.
Thank you.
I liked, I thought it was, I loved the, you know, the chart, the visuals.
I would like to come back to that next meeting, and we'll make that the focus of the meeting
if we could.
So, I think, in terms of stuff I prepped, that's all I have.
So, I'll go to comment, you know, round table.
Anything on your plate here, John?
I don't think so.
I don't know.
So, are you satisfied with Max for, like, in the fall for apples and in the spring for ice cream,
or do you want to look at Sunnygrass again?
I haven't talked to them about it or anything.
I'm not picking one over the other, okay?
But Max certainly seems to be willing to.
They seem to be very open to it, and Sunnygrass, I mean, they did it the first time.
Right.
And we didn't thought that you went with Max the next year.
It's almost like, it seems like it's whoever gets to you, whoever gets to you first, or.
It's not any preference.
There's certainly not a preference, Max over Sunnygrass.
No, no.
The only thing that was nice, I thought, with Max was when he did the ice cream the one time,
he didn't charge us anything.
Right.
Okay, which was, that was definitely a plus.
And it's, frankly, it's a plus right now.
Well, Sunnygrass didn't need that.
Yeah.
Well, they charge us.
With half.
We paid half.
We paid half.
Oh, I thought we didn't pay anything.
No, we paid half.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I say we stay with Max.
So, when these companies go and do their roads or whatever, they're a sponsor, a road person.
They've made a donation, right?
Yes.
They paid 250 bucks.
Okay.
So, if there were leftover ice cream things, and that's seasonal, unfortunately, would we be able to, say, if there was 20 people with Bosch, are we able to use those tickets to help with them?
We would sponsor whatever we need them for.
We've absolutely done that.
Okay.
I was just curious.
The first time, Max Davis apples, he gave me a ridiculous number of apples, and I ended up with two boxes, and I gave one to the fire department and one to the police department.
Okay.
It was crazy.
I mean, it was way too many.
So, but yes, we can.
I was just curious if we had that ability to extend that thanks to these committees.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't think I've brought any to the sponsor or road, guys, but you, it's got a time out, right, too, because you don't want to.
Right, because it's like ice cream's going to be closed pretty soon.
Right.
You don't want to give out rotten apples.
Well, if they give you a bunch of apples, then let me know, and I'll make a whole bunch of apple crisp, and you can deliver that.
And Kyle's been great, so I got to talk to him a little bit about, he's got that farm-to-table restaurant thing he's trying to work.
How is it?
It's coming along.
It's coming along.
I think they got an okay to do some of the interior work.
I think it was the interior work that got okay, and to do some, like, painting, et cetera, on the outside of the building.
So is the idea to use local produce and local meat, too?
I would think so.
I don't know who around here does meat, except I know there's, when you're going up 102, near J&F Farms, there's a farm on, so if you're going east, there's a farm that says Our Own Beef, but I don't know anything more than that.
It's on the other side of, because I was like, hmm, I might want to go check that out, because.
I don't know, I, I'm sure he's doing something.
There is, Betsy and I, I thought up in Bedford, we went to a breakfast, lunch place that was a farm-to-table.
It was, it was like a small chain or something, I forget the number of it.
Yeah.
Not that first toast, or is it a smaller one, Tucker?
Or something toaster.
Friendly toaster.
Friendly toaster, like the name I'm thinking, not them, that seems more chain-y.
Yeah.
But, but it was nice, you know, it was more casual.
I think he's got something a little bit snappier.
Well, he's wanting to make it, yeah.
Yeah, but, but yeah, he seems to be coming along good.
But he's a nice guy, too, so.
Good for him.
I will frequent that.
Yeah, well, we could use it in the restaurant.
Joy, anything?
No.
No.
No?
No.
And nobody's got anything else?
Take a motion, then.
I make a motion that we adjourn.
Okay.
We have a second somewhere.
Second motion.
Second from Beth.
All in favor?
Aye.
Aye.
Aye, Cherie agrees.
Thank you very much, guys.
I appreciate everybody coming to mind.