Business Newsletter - July 2019
Here are all of the important stories for Sturbridge business owners to know this July. For more information on any of the articles listed below, or if there are any questions or comments, please contact the Economic Development and Tourism Coordinator by clicking here or calling (508) 347-2500 ext.1411.
Results - Annual Town Meeting
On 3 June the Town held its Annual Town Meeting at which time the town budget for fiscal year 2020 was approved, capital items were purchased, and zoning was discussed. To see the items that were discussed that evening and to review the outcomes, please click here to view the minutes from the meeting.
Sturbridge Visitor Guide & Trail Guides
The Sturbridge Tourist Association (STA) has just released the 2019 - 2020 Visitor Guides for Sturbridge. These guides are free and can be provided to any business that requests them. You and your patrons may also view a digital copy of the guide by clicking here or by going to visitsturbridge.org.
Additionally, the hugely popular Sturbridge Trail Guides are going to print in the near term. Those guides will also be available within the next few months for your patrons.
If you would like copies of either the Visitor Guide or the Trail Guides please contact the Economic Development and Tourism Coordinator at (508) 347-2500 ext. 1411 or by email at kfilchak@town.sturbridge.ma.us.
Commonwealth's Economic Development Engagement Sessions
On Thursday, 30 May the town joined dozens of members of the public, private and nonprofit sectors at Clark University for Lt. Governor Polito's Economic Development Engagement Session. This event was one of about a dozen that took place between May and June of this year across the Commonwealth; it brought members of the Baker/Polito Administration to our local regions to hear our successes, challenges, ideas and suggestions. The Administration is doing this for their economic development planning process which every administration develops at the beginning of their term to identify economic development priorities for the next four years. At this session in Worcester, town representatives spoke on behalf of and advocated for Sturbridge businesses to the administration.
We encourage all businesses to take the opportunity to provide their own feedback to the administration via the online comment portal for the economic development planning process. That portal can be accessed by clicking here.
Baker / Polito Legislation, An Act to Promote Housing Choice
On 30 May town staff were invited to join the Baker/Polito Administration for a presentation on its proposed legislation, An Act to Promote Housing Choice (click here to view bill). This bill was submitted to the legislature in February and, in brief*, it proposes updates to zoning in the Commonwealth to make it easier for communities to build housing in all forms. This bill is designed to help communities increase their housing stock that is affordable for families, students, seniors and employees here in the Commonwealth. Both Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito spoke in favor of this legislation and provided comments to the Joint Committee on Housing in May (click here to view those comments). Business owners are encouraged to read and review the proposed legislation as it may increase your employee's housing options in Massachusetts in the coming years.
Paid Family Medical Leave - FAQs
In 2018 the legislature enacted, under Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 121, a statue that provides Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) to all employees in the Commonwealth. The implementation of this bill, originally scheduled for 1 July 2019, has been delayed until 1 October 2019. As this is a new law and employers may have questions regarding how the law will be implemented, we have provided you with a link to the frequently asked questions page for the PFML (click here).
Advertising
A quick reminder that if your business/organization has an event that they would like help promoting, please contact the Economic Development and Tourism Coordinator so that the town can help promote the event in our newsletters and on social media.
Furthermore, if your business/organization has an event that you would like to promote regionally, you are encouraged to outreach to our partners at Discover Central Massachusetts (DCM) and post your event on their event calendar (if you are not a DCM member, please click here for instructions for uploading events to the event calendar).
Monthly Town Meetings
To view the July committee meetings, please click here. Please note that (A) these meetings are subject to change as per Massachusett's Open Meeting Laws, and (B) some committees meet less frequently in the summer so please check the schedule.
*There are various aspects to the proposed law and to summarize it in one to two sentences is difficult. Therefore readers are encouraged to view the whole text of House Bill 3507 by following the links in the text above.