Agricultural Commission, January 23, 2018

Meeting date: 
Tuesday, January 23, 2018

AGRICULTURAL COMMISSION MEETING
MINUTES

January 23, 2018

 

Attendance:       Steve D’Aquila, Jim Dunn, Maleah Gustafson, Chris Hugo,

Eileen Charbonneau (@7:40 PM)

Absent:                                Tim Ethier

Others Present:                Ryan MacKay, Amy Parker, Amanda Morse

 

The meeting was called to order @7:29 PM

 

On a motion by Steve, seconded by Maleah, the minutes of the October 2017 meeting were unanimously approved (Chris abstained).

 

On a motion by Jim, seconded by Chris, the minutes of the unofficial November 2017 meeting were approved (Steve abstained).

 

Ryan Mackay (Lilac Hedge Farm) attended the meeting and expressed interest in becoming a member of the Ag Comm.  He will first change his official residence to Holden and then fill out a ‘Do Something’ questionnaire.

 

Rachel Ross’ talk is set for Jan 31, 2018 at the Gale Library.  Maleah will do a press release for the Landmark.  Chris will post the details on the Red Barn and Garden Club web sites.  The electronic sign was up, but has been taken down early due to too many people having registered already (35 with 4 wait-listed).  The committee will encourage Rachel to set up a repeat event, perhaps in March, to reach more people.  Rachel will work out all the details herself now that Ag Comm has helped get the first event started.

 

For the next candidate in our educational series, Steve has talked to Kathryn Sullivan from USDA about giving an “Invasive Species’ presentation, perhaps in partnership with Central Mass Grown.  The Senior Center would seem a good venue.  Jim will check on availability.  Lisa Prozzo might be able to give a talk about Alpacas.  The ‘chicken lady’ has a talk about horses.

 

Regarding the Holden Farmer’s Market, that group plans to have their own meeting in Feb.  They seem to be willing to meet with us in March.  Perhaps a member of the HFM could come to our Feb meeting and we would talk about the concept of the broader meeting.

 

Jim reported that the last time he talked to the BOS, they asked about progress on prioritization of the Town’s Chapter 61 properties.  Jim will put a package together for the next meeting to kick this effort off again.

 

Central Mass Grown has their membership renewal program available until Feb 1, 2018.  The Worcester Best Chef event will be January 28.  The CMG annual meeting is tentatively set for April 9. 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 PM.

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Respectfully submitted;

 

James Dunn

Acting Secretary