Business Newsletter - February 2020
Below is the monthly Business Newsletter for February 2020. The stories below detail important business news that the town wants to share with business leaders this month. If there is a topic you'd like to learn more about, or if there is a story that you'd like us to cover in a future edition, please contact us by clicking here.
Economic Development Forum - 13 February 2019
The Town of Sturbridge is hosting an Economic Development Forum on Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 6 pm. The forum is open to all members of the public and local business leaders.
Last year, Sturbridge launched an initiative to develop a coherent and consistent economic development strategy. The Town secured funding for the project through a $24,850 grant under the Commonwealth Community Compact and was then able to hire Boston based McCabe Enterprises to develop the strategy. This project includes surveys of residents and Sturbridge businesses on economic development issues; benchmarking of Sturbridge in relationship to other comparative communities; and an assessment of Sturbridge’s needs, strengths and challenges for its businesses and economic development.
At the Forum on February 13th, the consultant will share their preliminary findings from the local surveys and economic development assessment. It will also be an opportunity for the public, both businesspeople and residents, to ask questions and comment upon future economic development needs and priorities in Sturbridge.
The Economic Development Forum will be held at Veterans Memorial Hall in the Sturbridge Town Hall at 308 Main Street on Thursday, February 13th at 6 pm. For further information, contact Mr. Kevin Filchak, Economic Development and Tourism Coordinator for the Town of Sturbridge at 508 347-2500, extension 1411 or email kfilchak@town.sturbridge.ma.us.
Consumer Survey - Business Support Needed
As part of our ongoing efforts to market and promote Sturbridge to visitors, the Sturbridge Tourist Association (STA) is implementing a number of measurement tools in order to ensure that the Town is tracking the returns on its investments and responding to consumer needs.
To that end the STA, through its branding/marketing consultant, has created a visitor survey to be sent to consumers asking:
- Why they visited Sturbridge
- When they came to Sturbridge
- What they did in Sturbridge
- Where they are from
- How they heard about Sturbridge
The STA intends to use the results from this year's survey as a baseline and then repeat this annually. The results of these annual surveys will be used to modify programs as needed and track changes in our visitors.
The STA would like to ask businesses to share this survey with any customer databases that it may have, and encourage its completion within the next few months. Hearing from our collective customer base will help the STA better promote Sturbridge to wider audiences. To access and share the survey please go to the following link: www.surveymonkey.com/r/VRC6Q35.
Any questions, comments or concerns about this consumer survey can be directed to the Economic Development Coordinator at kfilchak@town.sturbridge.ma.us.
Business Breakfast - 3 March 2020
The Town of Sturbridge will be holding its next Business Breakfast at our local Cornerstone Bank branch on 3 March starting at 8am. As per usual, the breakfast is an opportunity to network with other business leaders in Town as well as local officials. The main topic for this meeting will be cyber security and emergency preparedness for small business. The speaker for the breakfast is Dave Demings, a cyber security consultant and local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Leader. He will discuss best practices and will highlight common errors seen with cyber security. With the increasing dangers of cyber threats to all sectors, this is a timely and important topics for small businesses today.
In addition, this breakfast will feature an update from Town Staff and will highlight some of the major projects that are currently underway. Finally, as always there will be ample time at the end of the meeting for business leaders to ask questions of Town Officials.
Please click here to register for the breakfast on 3 March. Any questions, comments or concerns can be directed to the Economic Development Coordinator by clicking here or calling (508) 347-2500 ext. 1411.
Chokesaver Class - 18 February
The Sturbridge Fire Department, Board of Health and Economic Development and Tourism Coordinator are teaming up to provide all businesses in town with the opportunity to receive Chokesaver training.
According to Massachusetts General Law, while food is being served all restaurants with the capacity for 25 or more persons shall have at least one employee trained to perform the Heimlich Maneuver in the event one of their patrons is choking or has an obstructed airway. A Chokesaver certification is good for a period of two years. To make the process easier for our business community the Fire Department and Board of Health are organizing this Chokesaver class and offering it to businesses for free.
The Fire Department will be teaching this class on 18 February 2020 and will offer the class twice, once in the morning at 9:00am (**class full**) and then again in the evening at 5pm. The class will take approximately one hour. The classes will take place at the Sturbridge Public Safety Complex, 346 Main Street in the training room. To register for this class, please click here to complete the registration form.
Thank you for taking the time to become Chokesaver certified. If you want more information on the Chokesaver program, please go to www.chokesaver.com or call the Sturbridge Board of Health at (508) 347-2504.
Special Town Meeting Results
On 27 January the Town held a Special Town Meeting at Tantasqua High School. To view the Warrant for the Special Town Meeting please click here. The Town Clerk will post the official results in the near term on the Town website.
Town Meetings
Please click here to view the Town's Board and Committee meetings in February. Please note that these meetings are subject to change as per Massachusetts General Law.