With 16 Acres in the Center, What Do We Do Now?

I joined a group of about 30 citizens to talk about a big issue in Deerfield tonight. On November 16, the town will own a 16-acre piece of land in the center that was once a pickle factory. Now they want to form a steering committee to find out what to do with it. The meeting was lead by planner John Mullen, who has done this many times before: gathered a diverse group of citizens, looked at all of the possibilities, and helped a committee put forth a well-considered roadmap on what to do next.

One person whose name came up more than once was local developer Steve Upton. He is clearly one person in town with a lot of development experience--and one finance committee member said that was needed for a group like this. Upton stopped speculation dead in its tracks when he announced that he wasn't going to try develop the land himself. So I guess that means he might want to be on the steering committee.

At the end Mullen went around to everyone at the meeting and asked them what they got out of the 90 minute session. People offered up some of their own highlights: "transparency." "think outside the box." "UMass is a great resource." "Work slowly, No rush."

My own personal favorite point was made early by Mullen. It was a thought he had as he sat waiting to begin speaking, and he just threw it out but I loved it. He suggested that the town could give a developer a 100-year lease and not have to sell the property at all. After I said that this was the idea I liked best, Finance Committee heavyweight Gordon Oakes echoed my sentiment. And then a third man agreed. The idea: Creative ways the project can unfold.

So Deerfield now has to decide what the mission should be, and then they will begin the process of forming a powerful steering committee to start the considering their many options.

Globe Comes West to Feature the GoNOMAD Cafe

WOW the Boston Globe included a half-page article about the cafe in their Sunday Travel section. Featured in the photo prominently is Elizabeth Bagley, our barista who just returned from Amsterdam, where she traveled to write a story for the website.

Diane Daniels had written about me before, during Kate's wedding in the Dominican Republic. She was in town last summer, so she wrote about us, and I must say she got it all right. Here's a snippet and the link to the piece.

Lhasa, Lisbon, latte at Deerfield stop

SOUTH DEERFIELD -- "This is a traveler s cafe, a little teeny travelers cafe," said Max Hartshorne, with a sweeping gesture toward his compact, map-filled GoNomad Cafe. "It's about computers, travel, and coffee. All the things I love.

Hartshorne has owned and edited gonomad.com since 2002, when he purchased the online travel magazine from founder Lauryn Axelrod of Pawlet, Vt. The popular site and international travel portal focuses on alternative and independent travel. Hartshorne, 48, and a staff of five work in an office in the back of the cafe.

"Now instead of saying come to my office, I say, come to my cafe. Every office should have a cafe," he said.

At the GoNomad Cafe, the menu is coffee, lattes, smoothies, breakfast sandwiches, and pastries. Time at the cafe's five computers is a minimum $6 per hour, and there is free wireless Internet.

"About once every other month I go somewhere overseas," said Hartshorne, who was planning then to head to Austria . "I love the ambience of computer cafes."

At GoNomad, Hartshorne has created a total travel-themed look and feel, from the map cutouts on the wall to the guide books available for reading, in the cafe and its restrooms.

While Internet cafes may be more common in urban areas (and nearly fixtures abroad) , Hartshorne said the town sees a steady stream of visitors, thanks in part to its proximity to Historic Deerfield and the Yankee Candle Co.

"You'd be surprised," he said. "People go through Deerfield all the time."