Do that again, I didn't record. You always talk. You make me get a sign. All right, we're gonna call the meeting to order. All right, roll call. Mr. Ennis. Present. Mr. Brooks. Mr. Muzingo. Here. Mr. Caputo. Here. Mr. Boswell. Yeah. Mr. Steele. That's my best. All right. Flourge-o. Okay, Derek sent a copy of the agenda out there everybody last week and We also have a copy on front of us Get a motion to approve the agenda Moved the agenda be approved All in favor There's also a copy of the minutes Here for everybody take a look at from May 21st. If you haven't taken a look at it, please do so. Let me know if you have any changes to make. Move the minutes to be approved. Second. All in favor? Right. Okay. They be approved. Sorry, I can. Paul, in favor? No. Yeah. Okay. They're approved. The next item on the agenda, is the new business task force update? Derek, are you going to give that? Or? Yeah, I can certainly, I can give that update. Question before I dive into this, is there anything up on the screen or you guys just looking at your hand out? They're looking at handouts. Okay all right not a problem. You don't have a plan or do you? Go ahead. You don't have your laser pointer do you? No, I don't. I've got a pointer up in my office. John is here so I'm going to turn the meeting over to John. I'm going to do on the past or something day. Oh cool. Good afternoon everybody. Hello. All right, Derek. Okay. So, looking at the updates, you can see there's several, but I'm going to start off with just a update on our grant process that we're in the middle of right now. And I feel like I've been working on this forever, but it's one of those processes that just takes a lot. But working with the Virginia tobacco commission grant, if you look at your fourth slide, we have successfully submitted that grant to the tobacco commission, totaling $20,000. We are expecting them to make a decision on that award at their October meeting. So we should know and mid-October, as to whether we receive that or not feel very confident that we will receive it. That being said, we're also, I've completed the application for the BDAX grant, the ASEC grant, totaling $20,000. That would be leveraged against the tobacco commission grant. I'm still waiting on a couple letters of support. Anticipated award once we submit that would be about eight weeks after submission should be turned around fairly quickly. And again, the fund would be used for the economic development strategic plan that spoke is primarily on agriculture. So before I move on to giving you some details or the relate to what that strategic plan will potentially look like, are there any questions related to the grant? I know that just curiously, I know that so the county's going to demonstrate the funds from the grant. Because I know that before that are you all where the administrator of our funds, so that would be the way that that would be handled. Yes, the county is the applicant. These are not matching. They are matching funds. They have both of those are 50 50 matches but we would leverage one against the other so that there would be no out-of-pocket county funds used for. Any other questions? No, sorry. All right. Moving on to the next slide. I wanted to provide the group with a high level overview of what to propose economic development strategic plan would look like. And you can see that there's three areas of focus. And we had to tailor this to the grant language itself so that it would be competitive and also provide us with deliverables that we are looking for at the group. And this can change, but this is what it's looking like right now. It's the task force provides feedback that we are not on the right track, and we can certainly tweak it a little bit, but I just want to go ahead and present kind of a high level over real where we are now. There's three areas of focus. Number one would be the agriculturally focused economic development. They are, who, consultants that would be selected would look at logistics, transportation, processing, and identifying gas to service, and would evaluate those opportunities for new business. Number two would be the local food economy. They would evaluate existing growers and producers for diversity, how value could be added, proximity to markets, and look to identify opportunities for existing businesses. And then the third area of focus would include food access and security. This would tie into our grocery store recruitment efforts as well as identifying potential alternative models for addressing food access. We're actually going to touch on that a little bit later as it relates to alternative model including farmer's markets. If you go to slide number six, provided to you a visual of illness of a food system, now I'm not going to die as too much into that, but the plan would review prejudice and case studies across the Commonwealth of Virginia and nationally and see what plans that were ag-focused, that were like, congrolence in terms of population, transportation that works, things of that nature, and then apply that for applicability to come along. You know, Fidsmark, the county, and see what other localities have done to address their economic development needs actually culturally. They also review our current policies and practices, whether it's planning and zoning, primarily focus on planning and zoning, and think of that nature and their impact to the local economy, and how we can make the environment, the governmental environment more friendly and accessible to businesses, but also provides economic research data collection. engagement related to the process. We would have a development advisory committee, and that's to be determined. We can talk about that at a future meeting, but we would have an advisory committee. Could be a mixture of the new business task force. We also had an agricultural focus group that participated in the comprehensive plan process. There could be a mix of those two groups together. Just a thought off the top of my head. Also there'd be data collection mapping, economic research. I put the information to the right as a day range. It's not really, I don't have anything nailed down from a timing standpoint. It's a today's, for sure, to playholder how much time to meet. We would conduct teams and phone call interviews with our advisory committee, conduct a workshop with a SWOT analysis, draft playing goals. Goals can be realized by prior to our strategy. And of course our strategies can be, well, we'll include specific actions next step policy, initials, et cetera. From that, we could create goals, objectives, and strategies for our document. Using feedback from the advisor committee and then take it to the new business task force for review. And then if you go to the next slide, you can see the ongoing public engagement. We would actually have public workshops, a public health where we would share the draft plan and then we would go back and revise the plan as needed and then we would engage the board and the passports throughout this so there wouldn't be a holdoff to the end of the process for that engagement so they could change significantly at that point. But then toward the end, very similar to when we developed the conference plan, the consultant would present the draft plan to the board of supervisors at a future date. This process probably would take, I would say at a minimum eight months to complete. And I think you can get it done in eight months, but it's going to have to stay on and stay moving with it. But I think eight months to a year is a reasonable time frame. Moving on to the next slide. Is the living room of the point? Yes. When would the consultant be engaged? Okay, that's a great question. So, I engaged maybe five consultants already through RFP that was presented by the CRC, Comloop Regional Council. They have on-call engineers and consultants and planners that provide these types of services. So what I did was I called several of those proposals and then based our application based upon let's feedback they gave us. So it's a long-winded answer to your question, but to your point, once we have the grant awards and we have the funds in hand, we can utilize that CRC contract and we can select whatever consultant we want. But if we can get the cost. What that CRC has over the cost or is that a cost to the county? CRC, there is no cost. They have an RFP for all of called contractors for consulting purposes. So it doesn't cost, we already have it in place. It's an element of procurement that they already had in place for us to select someone. So we would use the $40,000 to utilize those funds from the grants to pay for those. So with the idea of being to go through this process and select the areas where the consultant should be engaged was I'm looking at and then proposed economic development strategic plan slide where it says review presidents and case studies across the Commonwealth for applicability to Converland and that seems to me to be something that we somewhat labor intensive time consuming. It would need a little bit of expertise probably was that something you would anticipate using a consultant for? Yes and I actually pulled it from their language and I actually I don't have it on here but I've got a pricing sheet where all of these different components of the development of the plan are priced with an hour or a week and they stay at up to forty40,000. Okay. Very good. That's all that's what I was looking for. Thank you very much. Okay. Yep. No problem. So, to each task and proponent has been priced out. Okay. Thank you. Yep. If you look at slide number nine, deliverables, goals, strategies, and implementation efforts compatible to develop, to learn the rural landscape while increasing that knowledge of opportunity for employment, business expansion, and food at the, that would be, that's what we're looking for. And then furthermore, a road map to the Fort Cumberland Agricultural League, and the Agricultural Rebase of Tinying and Local Food at Stas. So our goal would be to be driven and informed by consultant research and knowledge. So you can see those are the two primaries from a deliverable standpoint. That's all I have on the economic development strategic plan at a high level. I'll be glad to take any additional questions at this time. Any questions? No? No. All right. Next item up for bid. If you get a fly number 10, I'd get to give you an update on our tourism initiative. I have included the work plan. This probably looks familiar to everybody with the work plan. Break down of who was doing what in the days and times frames. I do need to update this, especially after tonight's meeting, after we get some feedback. But just to give everyone a heads up, I have got with the angel, Riggleman, our IT Director, and he has reached out to the close. We are doing a website refresh and are my full list to meet with our account representative within the next week or so to lay out a timeframe and a process for updating our entire website. But as part of that, we would include an economic development and tourism-based page. We have a tourism page already. It needs to be built out. Going to the next slide, you can see all of the other elements, while the research that was done and completed, everybody, great job with that. When you go to slides slide 12, we've got some next steps that are related to tourism. So if you go to slide 12 and you look to the right, that is a draft for as of kind of handout. Slide 12, sure, that we have developed very, very similar to what I believe I shared with some of you, my minutes in the last meeting, the handouts that Susanna has developed are their tourism initiatives. This would be one side of that. Definitely need some additional work, but I just wanted to share with you group what we have and draft formats of feedback. But some tourism next steps, we still need to complete the development of the amenity map that goes back to Mr. Newman's road biking map and things of that nature. I'm actually working with Buddy Amandu, the road rod, and he's going to GPS everything and get us a nice map produced for that effort. Also want to look at other amenity types of mass, whether it's historically focused or basically mapping that is focused on interest. And a touch base on the complete development of the tourism and ED website. Also, I'm looking to implement a proposed alternative printing schedule for our community resource guide. What I would like to do is do one annual tourism guide and then do a community resource guide twice a year. And I believe that would make it eligible for tourism commission grants to offset production. If we approach it this way, it would save money, it would save time. and just a recommendation from me to actually the board ends of the New Business Task Force in the EDA. But I'm gonna stop there and just get your thoughts and feedback as a relate to the tour at the MAPIS. The one thing that I had top of mind was that did and I guess working with the State Park are they receptive? Yes. Okay. That's very much stuff. Yeah, that would be the biggest out-of-thing. Part of. Yeah, we've got great work in relationship with them, but I don't see them having any heartburn or reservations about working with us. So, Derek, as far as pushing this out to the public, is it website, social media and brochures? I mean, yeah. And how do we get people to look at that stuff? Is the New Business Task Force thought about that? That was, we talked before about doing, I don't know if we'd like, discover, come to a Facebook page or something like that that some other places have. I remember saying that at one time, and you could pay to boost the post, and create an ad campaign through that and do a schedule to where it would boost the post and do it like that. We just have to have the media to put in that to do it and recite. To me, that's kind of key. It's figuring out how you get the word out, effectively, how you can target it. So we'd have to have a part of that page and development for the website. You know, whatever went exactly we branded as somebody would have to administrative a Facebook page and as well as an Instagram or something like that where you can do that I would think. Is there, what are the regular rules and you know, the guidelines for that within the county, you know, governmental organizations there? That's a great question. It's actually, I'm in the process of finalizing a communications policy for the county that actually govern social media. So this would be under that umbrella. Okay. So what I can do, I can copy and paste that, send it out to the group for reference. I couldn't tell y'all to talk to my head, but it does give us the ability to post and regulate feedback and comments. What you don't want to do is put something out there, trying to spur a visitation and tourism. You have somebody come on their bastion, and your comments, section, things of that nature. So the policy of the ability to come far. I know this is aspirational, but most effective sales organizations have somebody outselling. I know we don't have the money to hire somebody, but I wonder if there's some way to contract with people that do that kind of stuff. I imagine you could sublet it, you know, like, I mean, like we're gonna have wedding venues, you know, or somebody worked with wedding planners to publicize the community account is a wedding venue. Yeah. There's PSAs can be used to the three major news channels and which is all out of PSAs segment, what's happening and so we just need to build a good case to them, I think. And once one latches on the other two will do it. Is there like a Virginia like trade organization conference or something like that? There's a Virginia's for Webbers has a huge program. Yeah, that you could tag into. Virginia tourism corporation has been here and we've talked to them and they also have a website That they could just Really nothing out there for Cumberland now. Yeah, but think we could establish that and a lot of the same I think you could go out there. I guess running before we walk can we make an email like a four this so it had like that would that would be where all that would stem from Originally like a county email that would you know somebody that I whoever would deem access you would be able to start with that because you got to have that to start all those pages and everything like that and you wouldn't want to you have anybody you would want to have ideally I guess whoever I don't know we'd have to decide would have that administrative power on that and you kind of want to have that at one point Service, you know, you want to want people with access to it You can like you said you're talking about comments you can turn all those off on most of them To if you wanted to or you could have or you first and yeah, that get that sometimes comments and discourse brings views as well I don't know. But an email. That's a. By an email box, are you saying? No, like do we have an email address for the new business task force or the economic development specifically? Like a group. They do for economic development in mine. All right. So can we, I guess in action item, we would, I mean, like an easy one. Canalius. So can we, I guess so in action item we would, I mean like an easy one. Nailious. We need like, you know, we can decide tonight. Blah at Karma County, whatever, and make an email address. And that would be the, the emotion, the emotion, I per se, to start that stuff. It could be an email account with multiple access. Yeah, that's somebody good. That way it's not tied to, you know, to one. And if you could probably put a forward around that to where we go, we do not have the tourist information center. So I mean, it would be like new business. Not office. You know, in BTF, at Carman County, whatever, you know, Carmel CUCBS.gov.gov.edu.k12US.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov.gov. tourism at Carmel and County that. Right. That's. So to speak. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not going to speak for Daniel, but I'm positive we could probably put up an email with tourism at Carmel and County that Virginia.gov and had it forwarded to three people. And then that way can go there. Yeah, and then all those accounts can be based off that. And he would have ultimate Daniel, your IT admin, would have ultimate executive power. I say if it got hacked and he needed to shut everything down, he can get them there and do that and wouldn't be based out of. It would be more secure that way. So, one of the things I'd like to offer is but So maybe Robin and I can Partner and we'll come up with an outline for the rollout plan that can include all these various sources And then we That's this is easy The key is the brochure the web page and email then you Social media accounts and then just send that to you. Everything faces off that. It's just really matter of documenting what's there, what's available. That's an easy part, but that's the corner's found thing because all that stuff stems. Like when we were talking about the, maybe clicked with me when we were talking about the logo. We don't have a logo, then you don't have brand-aid you don't have one and because we can see silly but like it. Well we'll look at the critical path of what has to be done first and then you can do it. It's just a marketing plan. Awesome. I like that. Yeah. One thing I would recommend for your rollout plan I would engage Virginia for lovers, Virginia tourism commission and then also the Farmville Chamber of Commerce. I would recommend for your rollout plan. I would engage Virginia Prolovers, Virginia Tourism Commission, and then also the Farmville Chamber of Commerce. I think those would be three great places. Sorry. Just to make sure I got that right. When you say Virginia Tourism, you're talking about VTC. VTC? Yes. Tourism Corporation, I know it's an agency, but VTC. Yeah, sir. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Thoughts. Okay. Next item is related to the county shell building. Yay! Yay! All right. So, apparently we are evaluating multiple options for site. I'm looking for some feedback from the New Business Task Force on this. We've four projects by a couple of companies? It's interested in potentially leasing the space for storage, a farm equipment, and other ag-bocus, potentially ag-bocus properties. I'm sorry, purposes. The idea has been kicked around about potential equestrian uses. We've also been approached by Dominion Energy and I've re-ignited that conversation with them about potentially using the April's year round building as an alternative energy IE solar as an option for the entire site. And you all probably wonder what that would look like. But essentially that Dominion would enter into or seek to enter into an agreement with the county and they would pay the county to hold the land over a period of approximately five years When they would do a side analysis and study for suitability and Then come back to the county potentially at a future date with a site plan and a potential application for solar and as well as a Siding agreement and a leadback agreement to the county. So you're more or less double dipping on the solar piece. But this is what we're looking at right now. I know it's always a conversation and a question that's being asked with the status of the Shell building, but this is kind of where we are right now without water and sewer and a floor and other components of a finished building or we're looking at what we're looking at. So I wanted to get feedback from the task force questions etc. about this as a possibility. Have you done any sort of financial analysis of what these options might mean. Well, your lead back, I can't imagine that you would get much more than $1,000 a month for a lease. We haven't got any specific offers. It's really it's really up to the individuals that are looking at space for potential leaf opportunity and then meeting with us to Negotiate terms, but right now I haven't gotten any any Having got a term sheet from anyone other than Dominion from the Yand surrounding the door and that's basically not it sounds like an option Yes, so the Dominion Negotiations like I said it would include if they would pay us the whole site. And I'd have to go back and look at the revenue numbers. But it wasn't a whole lot, but something better than nothing. And to hold it for five years and then to come back to the county with a potential plan with the sitey agreement. So you would get your capital upfront money from the citing agreements, but you'd also, and your revenue share from the panels, but you would also get the land lease back from Dominion as well, the land lease fund. So you're double-definished so to speak with a property. What about selling it? Well, the waitman just to spec up a little bit. I think what Derek's talking about primarily is the land for Dominion, but not necessarily the building, correct? Yes. That is correct. So we're still, the building is still separate. So there's about in addition to the building, the land directly around the building is about another 50 plus acres in that area. What's it costing us to own this building? Pardon? What's it costing us to own the building in terms of maintenance? So on the building side, I can share with you a little bit that I know and these are loose figures at best. But the building doesn't have a floor in it. It doesn't have gravel in it. The vapor barrier that's there is torn. So by the time you put gravel in the building with the vapor barrier, parking around it, a driveway up to it. I mean you're talking north of $200,000, probably closer to $250. So, and so here's my right hand guy on this. Power to the building is single phase. So to put single phase into it, you're probably talking $34,000, $5,000. Just to run the line to the building, basic lights and fans, so again, you're probably talking 10 to 25 thousand dollars in addition to whatever your Virginia power is going to charge you. Now you're up to about, roughly about 300 thousand. So then if you want to put a concrete floor in it, I mean you're talking that could be anywhere from it's definitely north of $400,000 so it would be four to $500,000 to put a floor in the building. Yeah, but I'm not advocating for selling up. It sounds like that might be a better option. So and here's here's an interesting aspect on this as long we own it, and as long as there's a loan with a tobacco commission on it, we are required, whatever we do to it, to do it under the documented requirements of their grant that came with us. So I have never seen that, but obviously it's kind of have something to do with Ag, I would think, and other type, ag type industries, but I have not seen it, so I don't know. But so in other words, could you turn it into an ice hockey wreck? I don't know that that would meet the Tobacco Commission requirements. I know the cost benefit wouldn't work on that. Yeah. So I'm kind of being flippin' here because we don't know what those requirements are, but regardless, we're locked into those. And even if we sell the building, I mean, you're basically selling it for scrap, unless you're trying to sell it with the lot. And whatever you get out of it, you'd have to repay the tobacco commission. And that is roughly about $1.1, $1.2 million there. $1.28. Okay, almost $1.3. So is there a point at which we don't have to repay the tobacco commission? Well, right now, if you do nothing, you don't have to repay and guess. So what do you think the minimum acres that Dominion would consider for solar? My guess is we're probably pretty close to that. I'd say in the 35 to 50. So what if I know that like thinking of where that goes if you did that, if you had the plans for say the front half of it as that would Dominion run power to the solar panels? Oh, well you're still on the same. I'm just kidding. So one of the things that happens with solar, particularly a larger solar side and that not a smaller one, you're going to put the power back onto the distribution circuits. Okay distribution circuits. Okay, distribution circuits are just the wires that run up and down the street. Generally speaking, they want those that has to be three phase. So that implies that Virginia power would have to run three phase to this area for this building in an area that there is no three-phase one. That's what we want. So if you could say like a six-building industrial park map with 20 acres hypothetically you could have 40 acres of solar behind it. Yeah. Yeah so I'm gonna bring it. I've had this discussion with Duceland and they have kind of a remote industrial area. They didn't think about power when they, when they put it in, they just had the land and this is now our industrial area. And they have the same situation where we can't get three phase in without costing millions of dollars. My solution to them was even to take a portion of that land, we'll see if there's a neighboring farmer that wants to expand into solar on that land. And when they do that, they have to bring three-phase power. So what's interesting about anything electric, nuclear plant, gas plants, even a solar plant, I know that you have to have electricity to make electricity. So in the case of a solar plant, something's going to run the actuators, all that stuff has to have power come in for. And to get the power out, they need three phase. So you will see in places where you see a solar installation, you'll see a double stack power with three lines on the top, another three lines on the bottom, and that's power coming in one way and going out the other way. So hypothetically you could make them work for you on that. That's correct. You can get the longest story short as if you play it right, you might be able to get three phase one within a couple hundred yards of the building for it. And you could look at expand, like if you could do your acreages right, you could like use that as the first entrance to, like just feature growth. And how about tapers, are they going to want in order to get to that expense? Yeah. I think right now, the median, the proposal that Derek made was 50 acres is that right there? Yeah, I looked at it. That's correct. It would be a 50 acre project. But it does not include the 12 acres around the shell building. Is that correct? Correct. Okay, so there's additional 12 around the shell building. So, whomever, whatever we do with this building, what we're talking about is a 30,000 square foot building, 12 acres and right now it's truly a shell. It's a shell that now what do you do with it and the challenge is whomever we would lease this thing, anything I want to pay a lot because and maybe maybe it's $1,000 a month I was mentioned, but because you got to put $250,000 just to get, you know, a gravel floor and gravel driveway and things like that. It seemed like a time share. We need to. We need to waste like an inch. But they are, they are some uses for that. So anyone who wants to. There's are some uses for that. So anyone who wants, I was in the cell. So anyone who wants a very large storage facility, storage facility for industrial equipment, anyone who wants to put that, what I call a drop off site, this building will work well. It's going to take, now that we kind of know this, it's still going to take a while to market the building will work well. It's gonna take Now that we kind of know this It's still gonna take a while to market the building. You also have 10 acres there for the chairs off the shooting range as well So no that'll be That's not probably the common county industrial developments, but and could you do a Interim solution where you're renting it and wild dominion brings three phase and in three or four years down the road Do a more formal industrial park Again the shell building and the twelve acres is separate from the fifty acres of the main proposal So yeah, we can still market out there whatever we need to for the shell building. It's just it's this hurdle of The county probably is not in the economic position to pay that much for gravel and do the improvements to the shell building and not have Somebody that's interested in it and even if they were interested it's a significant capital outlay Probably for not a lot of Revenue as far as I'm sure I'm If you had three things there you can get a heavy dirt mover or somebody in there You know somebody that does that type of stuff, you know I mean That's one thing aesthetically So let's say you had a contractor who falls gravel and builds roads and has that kind of equipment He wants an inside he wants a shop shelter, stories equipment in the wintertime, the center, center where he wants to keep piles of gravel and has access to all that. This might be a somewhat of a solution to that kind of. Well I think we have to be open-minded as it pertains to potential tenants. I mean I'd be happy happy with anything at this point, but anytime we can leverage some components of finishing out this building with a potential tenant, I mean, that should be considered only look at leases and contracts as well. Yeah. So like a lot of things, I'm an opinion, one of my opinion here is one thing we need, probably something more definitive from the tobacco commission that says, based on where we are today with this building and what cost might be. What can we expand the uses for this building to be without having to, um, and cover the grant itself. So in other words, what, what do we allow to do with it, to attract it to come into this building? Yeah. I use the skating rake flippantly, but, you know, is it a question or incentive? They, just because that's Ag is, is that what their purpose was? Or is there purpose that was industrial? I don't know. It's, it's kind of up to the different. If I get anything in there. Yeah, when I saw on the agenda of the show building, I got really excited because for years, I thought that shouldn't be a priori. Just, I mean, even a financial aspect, we don't make any money. At least get someone in there for good publicity even. Yeah, but you'll create some jobs no matter what. Yes. Well, the first bullet that's here is the, at least in the space for storage. And if you expand upon farmer equipment some of the other things, it's any kind of industrial storage that is, you know is perfect for this building. So it does have three roll-up. One, two, three. Four roll-up bill. Yep. Four roll-up bay doors. Are they like 12, 16 foot doors? I'm sorry, three roll-up bay doors. So I think the height, not think all the doors match, correct? And then there are three entry doors, the sideings roll up. So the parish forward could put a park a bunch of cars in the air and the winter. Or forward, whatever. Yeah, you know what I mean? I mean, that's a, I'm not like said, that's, that's the time there. I mean, everything's having problems with space. It's just not, you know, you have to figure that out. Is he not me space? Yeah, he's out to them for space. I mean, they got to cover for salt, sand, all that stuff, you know. No, I do. But it is listed on the Virginia, on the commercial website for the state. So it's out there. I mean, somebody was looking for it. On VEDB. Yep, thank you. That was the acronym I was looking for. Hey, I'm at a V.com for it. I'm acronymed out. Mm-hmm. I'm speaking acronym right now. Good. Mm-hmm. down. I'm thinking acronym right now. Okay. Is it clean out? Very interesting. Okay. So that's what I have to do. The shell building the last thing I have to agree is the farmer's market concept. Just wanted to get a fly 14 in your packet. I wanted to share with the group a couple of things in the farmer's market. There's another gentleman in the discussion on establishing a farmer's market here in Cumberland. I actually spoke with some of you may have heard of her or know her, Lisa Deerden, who is like the, I call her the Godmother of Farmers Market in Central Virginia. She started the RGAG program and ran the actual mannequin market and then the courthouse market there in Guichlund and she's actually retiring and selling her business. And she's going to be consulting with Guitolene in Powhatan on establishing a regional effort as it relates to farmer's markets. And this could be a potential partnership. I'm just throwing this out there for some food for thought. But from a farmer's market perspective, you're going to need a location, vendors, marketing, establishment of a potential nonprofit, which would mean by laws, market rules, insurance, hiring a manager. And right now, Parks and Recreation does operate a market one Sunday per month. So, and I know I was talking to Sam, our Parks and Rec Director yesterday, and she's getting about six vendors every time she hosts one of these markets. So, she hosts those on Sunday, but I think that's something that the county could still assist with in establishing this as it was to come to fruition. Now, of course, you would need to identify potential sponsors, which could include the Farm Bureau, County, even the ADA. Other local growers and businesses, and then you'd have to establish hours of operation, vendor costs. There is a vendor software out there that Deirden was sharing with me that there would be a cost associated with that, but it would help the management of the market from a vendor standpoint, from a manager standpoint, which brings me to my next slide to go to slide 15. The VDAX is going to be opening a grant opportunity October 1st. And this window will run until November 15th. And it's an APN infrastructure grant of up to $50,000. It does require a $50,50 match. However, priority project and part of this grant include farmers markets and eligible purchases with these funds could be special equipment. The cost of government personnel, so if the county was involved in some way, you could leverage that as part of the 50-50 match salaries and weight of employees and construction and renovation of existing buildings. So if someone was willing to attempt the farmer's market, now is the opportunity to actually put together some type of business plan, identify needs and cost. And then go after this grant by November 15th because I have a feeling that we would be extremely competitive as it relates to this grant with the right plan in place. But I mean, if you need test tables, chairs, a PA equipment, you know, we'd make some paint that's doing a good thing building. This is your opportunity to do it and do it through VDAX. I would assume, because I haven't read through all the paperwork, but the fund, the EDA could actually apply for this. And the funds could be distributed with performance agreement through the EVA and distributed that way. So just some food for thought. I just wanted to get the past forces feedback on this. So there I have a question. So is there a way that we could use these resources to support our already existing farmers market that is not necessarily supported and already you know it's already existing like can we use this to support the one Sam already has? It's a possibility but I think if you were to and I've already had this discussion with Sam I think if we were to partner with more folks in the community, I think the farmers market would be able to really expand its scope and reach more folks. I think it's tough for her to do it on her own and doing it more than one Sunday of months is taxing. So to partner with a nonprofit or another organization, I think makes the most sense, but to answer your question, you're certainly good. But I don't know if that's the right thing to do with this point. And she was very much in agreement with that. She wears many hats, right? This is the one little Jesus the right to. But Farmer's Marker's one thing she has of many. So we go to the board for the matching funds? You could, but as depends on how you do it, as Derek said, anything that Kelly puts into it could be used as part of that matching funds and so then whatever's left over potentially. So yeah, so somebody's partial of somebody's salary could be an in-kind up against the 50,000 match. I do want to point out because there's a huge misconception in farmers markets that there's a big difference between a farmers market and a vegetable stand and a farmers market and a flea market. So I'm going to give you an example of how extreme these can be is this talk looks like a farm for us. They have a nice covered area, lots of vendors. Lots of flea market time crap. Yeah, and it's obviously sponsored by the town. So that's why they have all this stuff. And so they've got a very vibrant market. I'm going to pick on Goochland because I can. I drove on Goochland the other day. And Goochland has a wonderful one acre lot with a large oak tree in the middle and a picnic table and a sign that says Farmer's Market and that's all they have. So it's pretty diverse, first of all, and what a Farmer's Market is and how they're run. But when you talk about a Farmer's Market that can apply for these grants, that these are registered with VDAX, the Department of Agriculture. So each vendor is registered. And now I'll know how rigorous that is, but I think it's more just filling out a registration form and probably paying a sum of money. rigorous that that is but I think it's more just filling out a registration form and probably paying a sum of money but but it's much more controlled to find and these are definition of farm to tables what they're looking for and not somebody's selling teachers that kind of So anyway, when I go to events like the Strawberry Festival, that was down in the North only county, had hundreds and hundreds of vendors, and probably none of them qualified, as something you would have as a farmer's market, because that's not what they were doing. On the other hand, there was probably 10 that actually sold something that was far into the table and would meet that definition. So anyway, that's what they're looking for as a farmer's market. And it could be any of these extremes out there that any of that will do. So you can have something very basic and you can have something that's much more robust and attractive and designed to bring in people. But again, one has a backing of a complete town of farmhole behind it and they have the facility. The Owen didn't have anything, but they have a lot now with gravel on it. I would just like to see if we already got one some kind of support to make that one bigger, you know, you know, we've been going to beat the dead horse you know. I wouldn't get in this unless to your point that there's a plan on we want to grow this more we want more people to participate and we want people to join us and at some point grow beyond and go through their own farmers market maybe some place else but you want the vendors that you know are in it to be there for a long time and not just and not just have in here to solve vegetables for two months that I have vegetables and not going. I wanna be clear on something. This is not an effort or an idea to replace what the county is already doing. It's an effort to enhance what the county is already doing. We're not the planting, we're trying to grow. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's true. we're trying to grow. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's true. So that would have involved developing nonprofit. Potentially. Now, I mean, I think the main thing is the job, and this is the reason I brought this to the task force, is we have to have a business plan, we have to have a business plan of some kind so that we can move forward and lock stuff. This is something that I can meet with interested parties as well as get with Sam and come up with a strategy to move in the thread. It has to be pretty quick though. Is this something that you'd like to make? I can then. New business task force nonprofit or the Cumberland Commerce market it would be like an LLC Yeah, they've been nonprofit LLC Those are pretty easy to organize and yeah, so they're just thinking that and that would operate outside outside of the county. I'm not trying to know things. I don't speak for Derek, but I think what he's asking for is, do we want to do this? And so I think the next step is to give people a lot of interest in this and just put together a business plan and start the process of applying for funds and going. Because we got to do it by... 15th of November 15th. 15th of November 15th. Yeah. That's a fast move. That's pretty quick. So what we're talking about here is kind of a fast move. Yeah. So we need to make sure we got our... You know, if that's what we want to do does that mean we have to develop we just have to have a plan for an nonprofit at that time do we have to have an nonprofit you have to have like all that or just like can we apply for it based on the the the idea of it I'm it or what are they what are they expecting because obviously there's always with $50,000, they're looking for something out of that. I'm going to take a shot at it there and I think you just have to have the nonprofit applied for it. So no, again, setting up an LLC is pretty quick. And then you would have to create a board or manage your structure of that. Hold on one second. So the infrastructure grant is awarded to political subdivisions, local government. So we're talking about that. You're talking about the new business task force through Carmel and County getting the $50,000 to develop that. Correct. But when we apply for it, Arts and Rec already operate a farmer's market. So the application, I've got to figure out the best way to do this. And that's going to require a conversation with BDAC. Jenny Harris, who is the young lady that was on our tour, as to what I was talking to about, the two-foot one that's administering this. So I've got to get a feel from her on what the best avenue is. But I don't see this being a partnership between the county because the county program now, what the county, I would like for the county to be continually involved in this as a parks and rec program, but at the same time partnering with if it's a nonprofit great and partnering, you know, working through all of those details. But that's what I envisioned as being. I just just wanted to be clear clear on it. I just wanted to get the task forces back feedback on. So we would be we would be administrating the $50,000 to what we see fit after applying for it from the new business task force. So that does specifically this EDA apply for it or does just accounting apply for it? Well, that's going to be my question to Jenny when I talk to her is what's the best way to approach this? And what does she seen work in the past and what hasn't worked? But you can do either. But my preference is for the EDA for the funds to go to the EDA, the county can fly for one behalf of the EDA. That's not a problem. But I would like to see the funds be a pass-through from the EDA, usually a little bit more flexibility. I agree. I think this is a demonstration of our seriousness of moving quickly in this ag food economy, right? Because the bigger plan is going to take eight months to a year. This is what we can do now. And it shows our constituents as well as these groups that can help us that we're serious. A good point. Yeah. I can pull the big breath. Then when it gets here then you really gotta make sure it goes. I've been to 30 farmers markets throughout this region and I've looked at because that's what we sell we sell land right and we and It's it's a really necessary thing and Richman has some of the most supportive environments for farmer's markets. It's amazing how the organizations they have that help. Well, I know, just from my experience with the Food Bank and stuff, was out of Goodsland, you got local roots and Kasa and all that stuff and they've distributed everywhere for the, and it's for, there's businesses in Carmel and I'm sure that are local, but you know it could be something that would help you could even have, and I'm just spitballing, you know, it could be something that would help you could even have and just spitballing. You know, one of the things for that is like transportation. Right, so CSAs, distribution. The other thing is SNAP is really important in most of them take SNAP. You definitely want to get what you know, the Delmas on that because I know they have a lot of programs that already do like kind of donations from like Thornebrook and some of the Twine Oaks and some of the other meat distributors that sell and do that with those programs already so because they distribute that through one of those programs which I'm not privy to but I know like for example like at least have two in Carmelon that sell wholesale beef by the cut. And then it flows well as everything else in between. There's two, if I remember correctly, two slaughterhouses that are opening one in Guichlund and one in Farmbo. Say use opens October 1st. So I mean that's there might be a little bit of movement in that market if you have a pitability to distribute and I mean that's a whole another brand at whole and you have to find somebody to to champion it you know that's well that's the other thing is finding the right person to you know be the one. Do everything to be really into that. Because that's somebody that you got to find the right person. Because that can lead to bigger things. Okay. I think it's interesting that I just did my opinion. I think it's something a I just did my opinion. I think it's something that will pursue and see. So I'm not. You know, obviously something we're going to have to circle back pretty quick on if we got to get about November. Do you? Derek, if you can guide us through this, I would love to propose that we pursue this. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Here's here my thoughts. I can set up a call with VDAX. Also one of the benefits to being a member of the CRC is they can write this grant for us. They're working on our other 8-bit grant for the Estrachidic Plan. They do this kind of stuff all the time. I think that the real key is getting my arms around the county's ability to participate at what level, making sure that staff is comfortable with it. Like I said, I just speak with Sam about this. He's on board with the approach that I shared with you all. I just need to circle back around and make sure that I've got everything documented and that's what comfortable doing this. And then go from there and then have some action stuff. So I can certainly start on that. Everybody good? Yes sir. All right. That's all I've got. One second. Triple party. Oh, that's so cool. So the next step for grants, tax and consumable properties. We still need to work on creating a package and link for the new business and prospect. I'm starting to look for a grant opportunity for the small area plans that we talked about. But some of this stuff may have to get pushed out a little bit, and we work through some of the farmer's markets, stuff, the shell building, and some of the other tourism initiatives that we got going on. There's a lot of moving parts to what these stuff tonight. So I feel like we're moving in the right direction and starting to get some traction on some things. So I just want to say thank you to everybody for your feedback and support throughout this. Thank you to everybody for your feedback and support throughout this. Thank you, Derek. Thank you as well. Yeah, thank you very much. It's tough. All right. All right. All right. Oh, yeah. Cool. Thank you very much, Derek. And I guess we'll move on to the next section here for public comment. Public comment. And by the time of public comment, public comment. We've got some public comment, public comment, public comment. Anybody? Anybody at all? Just none. Great. All right. And I'm going to move on to a whole business. Do we have any old business? All right. Do I need a motion to carry that? Have just discussions. All right. Do I need a motion to carry that? No, just discussions. All right. New business. I do have one interesting thing that I personally wasn't talked to somebody about the other day is what's the interest on like an automotive event or something like that in number one? Anybody curious? That's kind of broad. So I have just a previous life, and I can give you some examples, but of drifting, automobracing. There's a big push in West Virginia right now. There's an organization about the backroads of Appalachia where they're doing economic development in cold country. And they're having these events come out and they're bringing a lot of folks into the county to spend money. It's raising a lot of money. They're doing everything from motorcycle rallies to that, but specifically that drift aside of it, I have to know the guy. I had a brief conversation with him. He said, you know, it doesn't hurt to ask, and he would be willing to come out and take a ride around, talk to some people. He has all the numbers, the economic influence, and to those organizations, it's a local group out of Richmond that does it and actually recognize they've been doing it for about 30 years now and it brings it a lot of folks that are, you know, for media and advertising and organizations and there's some local... Is it a rally? Essentially, so they go out and they basically shut it down for two hours and they drive fast on it. Okay. And they bring all that stuff in, they pay the local utility, you know, the rescue squad, the police department, they do all that stuff, you know, they put all the money together with the interfees and they have all these folks come out and they do a lot of PR and they bring people in to watch it and they have an event and they do the whole the whole kit and the bootle, they do like a, for example, they did it in Beckley, West Virginia, they did it downtown night, they parked all the cars on the street, and they had 10,000 people show up, and they ate at the restaurants, and took pictures, you know, of all these social media, and automotive writers, and all these different folks in there that publicize and do things, and what's going on? I really wanted to do that on Monday night. So yeah, you only able to open it. But it's something, you know, to wear that. There's a lot of rallies that do this. And they go to the tail of the dragon, North Carolina, because we've ridden it in some of these. And they bring in big money. So I would reach out to Brian when I know that I've dealt with him in the past. I used to help him do events with John, you're familiar with NAC NASA and Chris Cabello and that is the organization that they're parented from. So it's a legitimate organization. They're very professional. You know, they do with a lot of big. Now the other side of that is to the economic development side of it is that, you know, believe it or not, there is a lot of local automotive industries that are based in this area. For example, like Fortune Auto and Powhatan, so multinational coilover seller, which are springs and trucks, they make them in-house in Powhatan, sell them all over the world. Big, big outfit. You've got two large car distributors, you have a lot of different ones that you know are looking for that type of stuff. So, give your knife, you have space and things like that and you have that stuff going on, you tend to draw things. But it's just something that I was personally looking at. I'm personally curious and wanted to put it in front of everybody to you know if I shoot him a text and say hey you know would you mind showing up at a meeting and seeing what you do he also does like brand management for so just to pick his brand on certain things like he does he works for a organization that does like luxury car experiences where they go and if you're looking to buy a you know what do you got it he does that and that's what he does so it's he's a marketing that type of stuff yeah so I'll count if that's okay with with the permission of the board I'd like to act on that and see what sure is and he could you know speak or do it right around or come out one day and kind of do his thing and just something that I like to drive his pig out of you ever. Yeah I mean he he he he does like you know well it's does like he's got it does like it's like a million island like he has it if they they'll have you know they have an experience there for whatever they do that with Jaguar or you know for our interview. Like that group that he's with puts on that you know where you show up and you have champagne and snacks and you talk about this and you hear lead development and you know that type of stuff in this area. Because there's a lot of car car shows. Yeah well like example like if you could partner with the, like the Langhorne Car Show, I know they have a big car show over here, they have a lot of different ones like that. So you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be one type of car either, it's a really open group, you know, anybody can show up, you know, it could be something that that would be the interesting spectacle of it per se, the show, but you could have outlining events, hey, you know farmers market or vendors or whatever, what that you know that you can make it as bigger as little but yeah I'd like to do that with the blessing of the board. Yeah, that's fun. Okay, make it so? That's fun. Yeah, do we go in a circle track up in the car as well as they just paid it? Well, you know that's what you know it's funny to say that because that's like South Boston Speedway. That was one of the things that brought South Boston Speedway back. You know, I mean, and now it's kind of getting back around. And you know, since COVID, a lot of people get wild hairs. You know, I mean, it's one of those things like they have, there's a lot more recreational activities. But. Oh, that was up at Mojang's last week and they've got $1.9 million syrup one for their business. Yeah, it's beautiful Catcher store just a concessions We've the minute a land use permit for the circle with D dot we're gonna put his chicken in the middle of That would be great actually. I'm gonna need a bunch of the jar and I'll make about a jar of second. Ah! All in favor? Ah, hi. Hi. Thank you everybody. Next meeting is November 9th. Thank you.