The special meeting of the Halifax Broadband Committee meeting was called to order at 6:35pm Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at the Halifax Town Office. Present were committee members Earl Holtz, Curtis Carroll, Gretchen Becker and Jessica Bruno.

New Business
The meeting was called in order to discuss the call for Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) projects as a result of the Selectboard approving the addition of economic development implementation to the Committees mission.

The Committee reviewed documentation from SeVEDS regarding the CEDS projects. The group discussed possible projects in the following areas that were outlined as common opportunity areas:

Farmers Markets
Green Building Materials
Local Value Added Agriculture
Renewable Energy
Forest Resources

The group agreed that a Farmers Market would be a project that we could facilitate implementation for, however, upon review of the requirements for the CEDS proposal, it was agreed that we would not have enough time to meet the criteria of the application due August 9th. Specifically, in two weeks we would not be able to demonstrate that we had the authority and capacity to implement the project. However, we will work on preparing a project for inclusion next year.

The group will review the town plan and discuss the following at the next meeting:

1-      What does economic development mean for Halifax?
2-      Does the town want economic development?

The group discussed the town website.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Jessica Bruno