JAY – On Wednesday, Oct. 19, selectmen from the towns of Farmington, Jay, Livermore Falls, and Wilton will hold a joint meeting to meet with representatives from the Buxton Group, a retail recruitment company 6:30 p.m. at the Jay-Niles Memorial Library.
The public is invited and encouraged to attend the meeting, which will be held upstairs in the library, located at 983 Main Street in North Jay.
The four towns have been working together for the past year to explore a potential joint strategy for recruitment of retail businesses to the area. The town representatives have included town managers and selectmen. They have met with two separate retail recruitment companies and have expressed interest in learning more from Buxton.
The cost to hire the company is typically $50,000 per year for a three-year contract. If all four towns decide to move forward, this cost would be split among the participating towns at $12,500 each per year. The purpose of the meeting is to provide the information to the full boards and to the public so it can be determined if this is something the towns want to move forward with.
Some of the towns may have tax increment financing funds available to support their endeavor but in Jay it is something that would need to be included in the annual town meeting budget, said Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere.
“Being very aware of the financial/budget challenges that each of our communities face, this is an “outside-the-box” idea related to economic development that is being explored to see if it would be a good fit here and if the money required to make it happen would be worthwhile,” she said.
Following the meeting, town officials from each town will determine if they are interested in pursuing the project and how the project would be funded.
Doesn’t this kind of effort fall under the charter of the Greater Franklin Development Council? This is a quote from their web page: “we have moved forward in an innovative and sustainable direction by supporting economic growth through the region’s businesses and entrepreneurs.” Frankly I am a little confused. Their web page calls the organization both a council and a corporation. If, “explore a potential joint strategy for recruitment of retail businesses to the area” isn’t within their charter what is?
Agreed, Dave. This seems like a new project that we Jay tax payers can ill-afford.
Where do I find online information about the Buxton Group so that I can be informed about tonight’s meeting?
Do they have a website?
What we need in this area is manufacturing businesses, this area can not survive on retail alone!
Retail stores will follow the population that can support them. This happens automatically. It doesn’t have anything to do with research and special enticements by self-appointed experts.
James, agreed. What about using the $150,000.00 cost to establish micro loans for local citizens to start local businesses? Just a thought …
Lu, you can Google the company yourself. It’s easy. I attended the meeting and researched the company beforehand. Retail stores, restaurants and service companies do not simply “follow the population that can support them.” There’s a whole lot more to it. They conduct extensive, exhaustive market and consumer research in order to locate to new markets — even rural markets like ours. These business decisions do not happen automatically or on a whim. And these decisions have everything to do with research conducted by experts.