741 Colonel Ledyard Highway

Ledyard, Connecticut 06339

TOWN OF LEDYARD

Economic Development Commission

Meeting Minutes - Final

Chairman

John Vincent

Regular Meeting

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

6:00 PM

Town Hall Annex - Hybrid Format

CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Vincent called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Town

Hall Annex Building. Chairman Vincent welcomed all to the Hybrid Meeting.

II.

ROLL CALL

Commissioner Carol Ann Schneider

Town Council Liaison Michael Dreimiller

Chairman John Vincent

Present

Vice Chair Peter Hary

Commissioner Richard Tashea

Commissioner Michael Cherry

In addition, the following were present:

Present were Liz Burdick (Director of Planning & Development), Mayor Allyn, Jessica Buhle

(Town Council EDC Liaison - via Zoom)

III.

IV.

RESIDENTS & PROPERTY OWNERS COMMENTS

Carmen N. Garcia-Irizarry, Naomi Rodriguez. No comments.

PRESENTATIONS / INFORMATIONAL ITEMS

None.

REPORTS

Mayor’s Report

Will be discussed in Section VII., D, “CT Main Street town visit”.

Planner’s Report

A decision on the GFI application is due next week.

Sal Monarca submitted a site-plan application to convert the back of the former Ledyard Center

School to twelve 55 & older age-restricted housing units - nine one-bedroom and three

two-bedroom units. It will be received at the Feb. 13th meeting of the Planning & Zoning

Commission. Cherry noted that this will be the last new development in Ledyard Center using

Ledyard water that can be done before a change must be made to the service areas of SCWA &

WPCA.

VI.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

MOTION to approve EDC Regular Meeting Minutes of January 7, 2025

MOTION to approve the Regular EDC Meeting Minutes of January 7, 2025. Motion Passed by

the following vote.

APPROVED AND SO DECLARED

Michael Cherry

RESULT:

MOVER:

Richard Tashea

SECONDER:

Schneider Dreimiller Vincent Hary Tashea Cherry

AYE

VII. OLD BUSINESS

Corridor Study Update

Justin LaFountain from Goman & York provided an update via Zoom. A geofencing analysis of

the Rt. 12 corridor. Hourly visits pick up around 6:00-7:00am and peek between

10:00am-4:00pm. Daily visits shows smaller than expected Friday/Saturday weekend spikes

suggesting there might be room for improvement. Visit duration shows that the plurality of visits

is 5 minutes or less. This could be impacted by cars sitting at the traffic lights.

Leakages/Surpluses shows things that there aren’t enough of that people are leaving the

community to find elsewhere, and things that there is potentially too much of. The numbers

range from -1% to 4% vs usual 20% to 80%. So these small numbers don’t really tell us much.

An analysis of the commercial real estate inventory (excluding properties zoned for single family

or duplex) in the Rt. 12 corridor found 69 properties. The average year built for all of those

properties is 1964. The five properties identified as Specialty have an average year built of 1939,

and the three multi-family properties have an average year built of 1955. This shows that there

hasn’t been much new construction or new development in that area. The area could use some

revitalization and some added amenities. They are currently working on who is living in the area

and who is coming to the area. They are also looking for opportunities in the zoning regulations.

Cherry asked if would help to slow people down and have better signage. LaFountain said that

they are still in the early stages of working with Solli Engineering who they hired to look at

things like that as well as placemaking. Public engagement session will probably be held in

March. Full update by our next meeting. He will share his slides with Burdick who will get them

to everyone. Burdick asked whether the EDC could have a special meeting/public workshop to

get the public engagement. LaFountain agreed and will discuss this further with Burdick.

Business Directory Update

Vincent provided a list of businesses that need to be removed from the Business Directory.

Sweet Hill Farms

Bro’s Barbershop

Gales Ferry Animal Hospital

Blueprint Thrift

Sew Mindful

O’Connor’s Wine Cellar

My Pet’s World

Edwards Martial Arts Academy

Human Performance

Dreimiller will remove them from the online Business Directory and Hary will update the PDF

version.

Vincent noted that the link on the Business Directory page on the town’s website titled "Submit

a Request to Add Your Business" is broken. Dreimiller will email MIS Director Justin Dube.

Vincent stated that Twisted Sugar Bakery is having a ribbon cutting on Feb. 14th at 3:00pm. It’s

sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.

Burdick said that there may be someone moving in to the former Lou’s Garage. Ryan’s Reliable

Services is apparently leasing it but is interested in buying both the garage and the house behind

it. She working with them to get the proper permits submitted.

Business Directional Signage

Burdick contacted Griswold regarding their signage program. It is an Dept. of Public Works

project that was started 8 years ago. Superintendent Todd Babbit will follow up with some

details. Cherry mentioned that all our signs would have to be located on State property which

could be a problem. Burdick will talk to someone at DOT.

Cherry noted that the existing business sign at the corner of Rt. 117 and Col. Ledyard Hwy

should be updated. It has an “Barber” arrow pointing down Col. Ledyard Hwy where Shears and

Gears Barbershop and Shave is located. It needs to be updated so that it also points towards the

old Ledyard Center School building where Frye’s Barbershop is located. Burdick will pass that

along to Public Works.

CT Main Street town visit

Mayor Allyn provided a review of the recent visit by CT Main Street. On Dec. 16th Town

Council Chairman Rodriguez, EDC Chairman Vincent, Town Planner Burdick, and the Mayor

took a driving tour of Ledyard Center and Gales Ferry with representatives from CT Main Street

group. Vincent had asked about an update on the results of that tour. Mayor Allyn received an

email from Carl Rosa CT Main Street Field Services Director. They are currently about halfway

through the process of conducting the readiness assessments for all of their member towns in the

Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce coverage area. Their intent is that when that

process is complete they will next steps will be to issue a comprehensive report to Angela

Adams at GNACC as well as individual reports for each of the towns.

EDC Bylaws Update

Staff stated that a PDF of the new bylaws will be posted on the EDC’s webpage.

MOTION to approve the updated EDC Bylaws. Motion Passed by the following vote.

APPROVED AND SO DECLARED

Michael Cherry

RESULT:

MOVER:

Peter Hary

SECONDER:

Schneider Dreimiller Vincent Hary Tashea Cherry

AYE

VIII. NEW BUSINESS

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Presentation

Hary and Dreimiller are working on a draft of the Transparency & Governance presentation. It

will be ready for discussion at our March meeting. The due date is June 30th.

Visit from seCTer

Hary said that Paul Whitescaver, Executive Director of seCTer, had asked him to find out if the

EDC was interested in having him speak to discuss how seCTer could help the EDC and

business owners in town. Everyone thought that was a good idea. Hary will get back to him to

invite him to our next meeting.

IX.

ADJOURNMENT

Our next meeting will be on March 4th at 6:00pm in the Town Hall Annex.

A motion was made by Commissioner Dreimiller, seconded by Commissioner Schneider, to

adjourn at 6:43pm. The motion carried by the following vote:

RESULT:

MOVER:

APPROVED AND SO DECLARED

Dreimiller

SECONDER: Hary

AYE:

6 Cherry, Dreimiller, Hary, Schneider, Tashea, and Vincent

Respectively Submitted,

_______________________________

Chairman John Vincent

Economic Development Commission

DISCLAIMER: Although we try to be timely and accurate these are not official records of the

Town.