South Windsor EDC reviews pilot business-registration form, seeks better data sharing with Chamber

The South Windsor Economic Development Commission on May 27 heard a demonstration of a new business-registration form that routes submissions to multiple town departments and could feed a public-facing business directory aimed at keeping customers and emergency responders informed.

Chief Building Official Mark Lanson showed the commission how the form, hosted in the town’s OpenGov permitting system, collects basic business and emergency-contact details and then automatically notifies relevant departments. “As soon as you submit it, it automatically alerts them that they have something to look at,” Lanson said, describing automated notifications to the assessor, police dispatcher and fire department.

The demonstration addressed two principal goals: improving public information so residents can find local services, and making sure emergency responders have up-to-date contact and alarm details. Commissioners discussed which fields should be public (business name, address, phone, website) and which should remain internal (personal email addresses and other private contact data). Lanson said the permitting software can restrict which fields are visible to the public and which are available only to authenticated town accounts.

Commissioners also raised data-quality and duplication concerns. The EDC already maintains a spreadsheet and the Chamber maintains a separate database; assessor records were described as out of date. “Some of these businesses that are listed here may not be part of that list,” one commissioner said, noting entries showing businesses that have closed or are registered under different names. Lanson said OpenGov can export reports as spreadsheets but cannot import third-party databases in a way that assigns records to the actual business owner without that owner having an account.

To resolve those issues the commission agreed on immediate outreach steps: EDC volunteers will each pick two or three businesses from the shared list to contact for verification, and staff will provide an export or printed copies to facilitate outreach. The subcommittee has been piloting the registration and reports about seven initial registrations; entries are color-coded in the subcommittee’s workflow (yellow = unverified contact, green = verified, red = out of business).

Commissioners and staff discussed whether the program should remain voluntary or become mandatory. Lanson said the pilot is voluntary for now and no fee is being charged; he noted that if the system proves effective staff may later propose an ordinance to require registration for public-safety reasons. “If this starts working out to what we need, we're gonna try to push an ordinance in the town to sit down and say, hey, you have to register your business,” he said.

The commission asked the town manager or a designated liaison to provide clearer development-status updates at the next meeting, noting some items in the manager’s memo (addresses and project statuses) appeared incorrect or incomplete. The EDC scheduled follow-up work: staff to provide an export of the OpenGov records or copies of the directory, volunteers to perform verification calls or visits, and a request that the town grant EDC access to run reports so the group can identify South Windsor businesses in existing datasets.

The commission thanked Lanson for the demonstration and agreed to revisit the issue at its next meeting on June 24, when members expect a revised town-manager memo and further updates on directory sharing and outreach.