JAY – The Selectboard decided against hiring a retail recruitment company in a proposed deal to share the costs of the service with three other towns.
Jay, along with town officials from Farmington, Livermore Falls and Wilton have been discussing the idea for the past year, which would involve contracting with the company at a total cost of $50,000 per year for three years.
Buxton collects data on communities, particularly how residents and visitors spend money then works to match retail businesses with promising locations. The company’s database, which is accessed by clients via an application called Scout, may also provide support for existing businesses by identifying what goods or services may be lacking in the area. Buxton said it partners with 3,000 retailers and has evaluated 80,000 sites in the past year.
After a presentation by a Buxton representative in October, Alison Hagerstrom of the Greater Franklin Development Council who is helping to coordinate the arrangement, asked select board members from each town to make a “tentative” decision about whether they wanted to pursue the shared contract idea, based on the involvement of a minimum number of towns.
If all four towns would have supported the proposal, the annual cost to each town would have been $12,500 for three years. If three towns did the cost would be $16,667 for three years. The towns of Farmington, Livermore Falls and Wilton could have used tax increment financing funds to pay the fee. Jay’s share would have gone to voters at the annual town meeting to decide as part of the budget.
The Livermore Falls board decided not to participate and the Farmington board voted to support it contingent on at least three of the four towns agreeing to do so. Wilton has yet to decide the issue.
At their meeting on Monday night, the Jay Selectboard voted 3-2 to not pursue the Buxton proposal. Board members Terry Bergeron, Judy Diaz and Tom Goding voted against it while Tim DeMillo and Keith Cornelio supported it.
According to Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere, Bergeron said he felt the timing was not good because of everything going on with the Verso Mill and the budget constraints that the town is going to be facing. Bergeron was referring to Verso mill’s drop in tax valuation over the last years and pending layoff of about 190 employees expected next month.
Diaz said she felt that the low paying jobs that typically come with retail are not necessarily what the town should be pursuing. She felt manufacturing or industrial would be better.
However, Cornelio said that any new business, even if it is retail, would bring new construction and new taxable buildings to Jay.
“Overall the vote against pursuing it seemed to be due to timing and the challenges that Jay is facing right now,” LaFreniere said.
The Jay board’s decision to not contract with Buxton presumably means that Farmington will also be bowing out, if that board’s earlier contingency plan is followed.
Thank you. I am pleased that the Jay select board has made this rational decision. I did not want my tax dollars spent on this.
I am very happy that the Jay board did not vote to support this project. We tax payers are seeing an increase every year in our taxes and this just seemed like a waste of money. Nothing guaranteed that the new business would be in our town but perhaps in Farmington where it would not do us any good.
Thanks for attempting to ” get something going ” but just not the time to fund another program.
Why don’t these towns who want more businesses to start up in their town put out a request to their citizens for suggestions? I’ll bet there are lots of ideas that would come out of it. I can think of two that are lacking right now.
Thank you Jay and Livermore for making up Farmington’s mind.
What kind of fool uses taxpayer money to bring in stores from away that will put local stores out of business?
I think Jay made a good decision. Spending money on consultants most of the time is the same as throwing your money away. They come up with a “solution” or “ideas” that you pay thousands of dollars for and it really has no eye-opening or revealing new ideas. The ideas they present are generally nothing more that regurgitated ideas that they took from a brain storming session with you. It is US, the people of Franklin County that must do the work to create and build a stronger economy for our area. We already know how to do it. We really are already doing it! If you knew how many small businesses there are in Franklin County, you would be astounded. Let’s focus our efforts on building what we already have, maybe even using some of the resources (money), instead of paying a consulting firm that chances are, isn’t going to create or give any new amazing ideas, to create programs with low or no interest rate loans. We know what we need to do. Talk to the small business owners.
Not surprising Farmington wanted to spend tax dollars that we don’t need to…
Thank you to both Jay and Livermore Falls for saying no to this. We pay taxes to both towns and are proud to see this logical decision. We do not need a company from Texas, who does not understand the dynamics of this area to tell us, for a high price, what we need in retail. If we do not have industry jobs, we have no money for retail. If they want retail ideas, well approach JoAnn Fabrics for the space next to Hannaford in Farmington. There is no need to waste money on these services. Our taxes went up $1200.00 p/yr with the situation with the mill and other mitigating factors.
Good news. I hope Wilton makes the same, rational decision.
It seems to me that paying for demographic research that companies normally do in the hopes of luring more low wage big box TIF funded jobs to the area is the height of desperation. If our local government is just going to give away money to these companies, why not have the selectboards fund more local startups instead? Properly vetted of course.
Keep it up Terry, for Jay’s sake and Farmington’s this time which , as others have alluded to likes to spend, spend,spend….especially other peoples money. Between the school and the county, it seems there is a movement to keep our taxes going up, up and up. Someone’s got to rein in this ” runaway team.” People are becoming more and more aware of this and there are movements afoot to control it. Thanks and a Merry Christmas to you all.
I think this is a wise choice, no towns in this area need more minimum wage paying jobs. Lord knows most of cannot afford our ever increasing property taxes either.
Happy to see all the ‘common sense’ responses! Having a Texas company tell us what we need for retail is about as smart as a Connecticut company doing the revaluation of our property. Hope you are listening Wilton!
Finally, a town with some common sense! I hope the others take note and follow suit!
Now where is the company from that does Farmington’s revolution ? I had 2 kids come by the house with badges on and they told me that they where doing the new revaluation on our property, that their company has a contract with the town.
We do need new businesses in the area, this we can all agree. Spending tax payer dollars at this point in time for a consultant is crazy. I am glad three select-people had sense to vote against this and very disappointed that two thought it was okay.
Thank you Jay & Livermore Falls for this decision. Lets hope the Farmington & Wilton do the same.
Good decision.
Now if the town of jay could reign in their health insurance costs we could really save some money. The town of Farmington pays 80% of a single and then 55% of dependents. The town of Jay has a Cadillac plan and basically pays close to the full boat