LIVERMORE — Selectpersons on Tuesday night agreed by consensus to have Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller check the cost of hiring a professional to help with economic development.
Miller said he discussed with Selectperson Brett Deyling the the importance of economic development and pitched the idea.
“There haven’t been that many site plan review applications submitted for any major new business developments in town that we would consider a big win in the last few years,” Deyling said. “It seems people are bypassing Livermore for towns that are either better marketed or more well known. No one even knows Livermore exists; it is just on the way to somewhere else.
“Someone who is able to market our town,” Deyling said. “None of us have the free time to go out and try to do that. It is not something I am going to do. I don’t know how to do that but there are people who do.”
He suggested Miller get prices and perhaps use some of the town’s allotment from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“See if we can engage somebody for a year, see if it produces results,” Deyling said. “If we get a couple of decent developments out of it or even one, it could offset their costs.”
Selectperson Randy Ouellette asked what kind of development should be considered.
“It would be business development,” Deyling said. “I don’t think many of these people look for residential, that is not where your money is coming from. I don’t know if our ordinances support large residential developments, housing complexes.”
Deyling suggested a pharmacy, or a machine shop that doesn’t necessarily have a storefront but is making money. There’s not much traffic or noise associated with it. It could employ people and bring in more taxes than a vacant lot, he said. “We certainly have a lot of vacant lots along our business corridor,” he added.
“If you are making efforts to show that you want to encourage economic development along the business corridor, if people know you have somebody actually working, you may get people who say “maybe I am interested,” Miller said. “You have got to start somewhere.”
“That is a good place to start,” Ouellette said.
“It would give us a little more information to work” with, Deyling said. “We do have to consider what type of business is coming into town, too.”
“People want to see business come to town,” Miller said.
There would be a fairly large hit to the community if the mill in Jay shuts down, Deyling noted. It may not be viable long term, there could be a huge glut of properties on the market, he said.
“We need to look at what we can do as a town if something does happen to the mill,” he added.
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