Monday Update

Monday update: Charleston crew is unexpectedly back for the whole week!!!
Roger Brawn went to Sam Brown's and got more flooring to finish up the floor upstairs, and I am heading down to meet with Supervisor Neal Pinkerton to measure for studding up the wall between the Conference Room area and the Office area. YIPEEE

I just ground another pound of coffee for the crew, they like their coffee!!! 
If anyone wants to bake something for the guys this week, feel free! They really love their treats and I love to keep 'em happy and working :)

Anyone have any extra 2x4's and/or boarding for walls? We were thinking even barn boards would look good. But rough cut would be great too!

The upstairs work IE... floor and interior walls is being paid for by DRDC and funds are running low.
Thanks

Dover-Foxcroft-High Tunnel Workshop

The Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District will be holding a High Tunnel Workshop Saturday, April 14^th from 10am until noon, at the Thompson Free Library, 186 East Main St., Dover-Foxcroft.

Jerry Doxtader, a farmer from Dexter who practices organic farming methods, will make a presentation on seasonal high tunnels and how they can extend your growing season and help manage garden pests. There will be a small high tunnel on the premises to view. 

To preregister and find out more information, please call Shelia or Lynn at 564-2321, ext. 3 or come in to our office in the Pine Crest Business Park, at 42 Engdahl Drive, Dover-Foxcroft from 8am -4:30pm or contact us at info@piscataquisswcd.org.

FREE workshop

On Saturday, March 31 from 9:30 to 11:30am the Abbott Memorial Library and the Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT) will sponsor another free food preservation workshop: Root Cellars.  

Lisa Laser of Dover-Foxcroft will share her knowledge of and experiences with root cellars.  Joining Lisa for a question and answer session will be several other local root cellar users.

   Topics to be covered include: humidity, temperature, ventilation, storage containers, and types of food to store.  Since each home site has different requirements, root cellar construction will be touched upon, but not emphasized.

   The workshop will be held in the meeting room of the library at 1 Church St., Dexter.  Pre-registration is suggested:  dexterareatransition@gmail.com  or    924-3836 (evenings).

DRDC; agenda for tonight

DRDC President Roger Brawn Opens meeting

Secretary Report:  Sandy

Treasurer Report:  Dave

President updates Roger Brawn

Dexter Community Project Building Updates:  (Roger & Judy)

Ø  2^nd floor update; working with Charleston Correctional Crew

Ø  Leaky wall:  met with contractors & had site evaluation;  site inspection of Dexter Café’s leak; DRDC Board met to decide how to move forward; talk with CDBG Terry Ann Stevens on how to proceed;  met with Engineers on site; hired Engineer firm

Ø  Interview by Jeff Nichols of ME Rural Partners for their InspireME program (available online)

Ø  New blueprints printed at Central Maine Drafting & they scanned so that future prints for General Contractors who will bid in the near future.

Ø  Talked with DDATT to parallel our efforts in the community

Ø  Called Tri-County Tech Center for design, green technology, art department etc. to collaborate with students

Ø  Created new Newsletter format using MailChimp, updated website, blog, photo album & Facebook for seamless information and linked all to one another for easy access.

DCFP NEW BUSINESS, Ideas  and To Do List:

Ø  Chair lift donated by Frank Spizuoco of Maine Military Supply
         - we will need to pay for installation cost

Ø  Create a “New” farmer survey to distribute again.  The last was 2 ½ years ago and distribute via online, newspapers, local businesses.

Ø  Identify farms who want to participate at opening

Ø  Creating a Bulk Distribution List for wholesale sales ie: schools, restaurants, institutions 

Ø  Sebasticook Valley Chamber of Commerce Biz Show in May 5th (do we want to have a table?)... if so, volunteers?

Ø  Work bee office area cleaning & setting up (Thursday is supposed to be warm)

Ø  Source Wood for wall dividing office & conference room area

Ø  Lights & ideas:  Work Bee making lights (have examples)

Ø  Investigate licensing & permits needed for opening

Ø  Find funding for startup costs:  goods, personnel, etc.

General Discussion  /  Q & A

ADD ONS....

Bid Information (sent to Directors)

The bids have come in for an Engineer Firm to redesign the leaky wall and the only one that come for a walk thru was Plymouth Engineering.
Roger and I both like the guys when they came by on Wednesday for the "Look See".
I have talked with Terry Ann Stevens at the CDBG office and she has given the go ahead to contact them, which I did.
Keith Ewing is my contact there, and he is hoping they can start in 3 weeks or less, knowing we are in a time crunch with the opening & planting season.

I have attached the bid for the proposed redesign (which Terry Ann said was very reasonable).  I got one estimate that it would be $7000 at the very least.  wow!
The next steps are as follows: 

•     Receive their bid
•     Give to Jason to put in the Bid Package for finishing the building
•     Jason sends to Terry Ann for approval
•     Send out to papers
•     Walk through with bidders
•     Pick contractors
•     Start the building process....

......Potentially we can start by mid to late April if all goes right!!!!!!!!
So we are off an running!!!

Other updates

Today I got an email from Karen L. Walsh, Instructor of the Graphic Design & Communications at Tri-County Technical Center.  I am meeting her and some students at the store tomorrow for them to take measurements of the store windows and they are going to start “creating”.

Engineer has been chosen

The bids have come in for an Engineer Firm to redesign the leaky wall that adjoins the Dexter Cafe building (where the leaks originates) and the one winning the bid is Plymouth Engineering.
Roger and I both like the guys when they came by on Wednesday for the "Look See".
I have talked with Terry Ann Stevens at the CDBG office and she has given the go ahead to contact them, which I did.
Keith Ewing is my contact there, and he is hoping they can start in 3 weeks or less, knowing we are in a time crunch with the opening & planting season.

     The next steps are as follows: 

•     Receive their plans in the next few weeks
•     Give the plans to Jason Bird to put in the Bid Package for finishing the building
•     Jason sends to Terry Ann (CDBG office) for approval
•     Send RFPs out to the papers to advertise
•     Holding a "Walk through" with bidders
•     Pick contractors after bids have been submitted (about 3 weeks after advertised)
  
•     Start the building process....

......Potentially we can start by mid to late April if all goes right!!!!!!!!

So we are off an running!!!

InspireME article by Maine Rural Partners

  We are being Featured

Jeff Nichols of Maine Rural Partners, who I met at the Ag Trades Show last month,  contacted me recently and asked if he could do an Inspire Me case study on the Dexter Community Farm Project.
He said, "It really sounds like a great project. We feature innovative projects like yours in a section of our site called Inspire Me."
You can see previous case studies at  http://inspireme.mainerural.org/inspireme/. 
 Jeff is coming to do an interview, take some photos, and even shoot some video.  He said, "It will be no cost to you and it provides a chance to tell others in Maine interested in your kind of project and how you did it."


The case study that was completed today can be found by clicking here.
The video  features Farmer and DRDC Board member Ernest Rolling, Charleston Correction Crew supervisor Neal Pinkerton and 2 of the working crew from Charleston, and myself.


I hope it will give people a better insight in the project.

March Monthly Meeting

Monthly Meeting

The next DRDC & Dexter Community Farm Project meeting is March 6th at 7 PM.
Lauraine Piquette has graciously agreed to host the meeting at her lovely home "The Mansion" on 14 High Street in Dexter.  That is the 2nd house on the left) after turning off Main Street Hill to High Street.  Coffee will be served by Lauraine and we hope to have some snacks.  (bring something to share if you would like)... Parking in the back.

We will be going over all the latest that has happen at the Fossa Store; the progress of the 2nd floor with the Charleston Correctional Crew, the findings of the Engineer on our wall that has to be moved, lighting ideas, and other store related things.

I am hoping that more farmers will start coming again to give their ideas and what products they may provide for the year round store.  We have to start planning for the summer and what needs to be done to get open after construction is done.
We are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel...
Let hope for a Summer opening people.....

Looking forward to seeing you all again!  All are welcome... Please call or email judy@DexterFarmProject if you need more information, have questions or would like to RSVP.
Judy

Our Links:
Website:  www.DexterFarmProject.com
Blog:  http://dexterfarmproject.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152687234513/
Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/fossageneralstore
Email:  judy@DexterFarmProject.com