Friday, December 9, 2011

Mill Progress

We're still trying to move forward with the plan for a fiber mill.  This seems like it has taken an exceptionally long time, mostly because I think we don't really fit into any neat category for the township- are we light manufacturing?  Agricultural business?  Textile production?  They don't know.  Things that can't be filed nicely always seem to gum up the works a bit.  Also, my application kept disappearing en route to the township office.  BUT we hand-delivered it last week, which means that last night Adam and I were scheduled to go before the Planning Board.

It went better than expected.  I don't think I was expecting pitchforks and flaming torches, but I always like to be prepared for the worst.  I could tell when we started talking that pretty much only one person had any idea of what in the world we might be talking about, but they seemed to get on board pretty quickly.  I think it helps that although the board is mostly men, and there is sadly far too few male knitters in the world, I have a feeling that most of them probably have a wife or mother or aunt or somebody that knits.  So once we started talking about yarn and such, they could kind of see where we were going with things.  It also helps that we're the kind of business the township likes- local jobs that help small, local farmers.  So next Saturday the planning board will be out at the farm to check out the building for the mill.  After that, they submit their findings to the township supervisors and we have to schedule a date for a meeting and the neighbors have to be notified so that they have the ability to make their opinions known.  I'm not expecting a lot of neighborly resistance, but then again, you never know. 

Keep your fingers crossed for us as we slowly plod ahead- but any progress is still progress.  And at least we have a week to get the garage cleaned out- we'll need it!

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