Meeting with the City and Neighbors 9-14-15

Today we had a meeting with the city and any of our neighbors that had any questions or problems with our exterior plans ie the silo, parking, hours, etc. One of the neighbors showed up because she was concerned about the location of our grain silo. I have to admit that I was a little nervous at first that we had a problem, but it became a complete non-issue when we told her it was going to be placed on the front of the warehouse and not on the side. She was satisfied that it would not be an issue and left the meeting. We got the city’s approval for our exterior plans! They seem very excited to have us move here. They want to do a ribbon cutting ceremony for us and many of the council members have voiced their excitement and want to be there for the opening!

I will be meeting our architect, Mark at the city offices on Wednesday to formally submit our plans and to cut the city a check for the permit. Hopefully we will get the permit in the minimum amount of time, one month.

Tomorrow we are expecting our new 30 bbl fermenters to arrive. We have our forklift fully charged and ready to operate. The large drive-in cooler should also be delivered this week so we need make sure to be available to unload that as well. We have a four-hour window to get everything unloaded so we don’t have to pay the penalties for delaying the driver.

At this point the old concrete is 99% busted up and ready for removal. All the walls for thetaproom have been demolished. Above where the suspended ceiling was looks cluttered and a mess with wires and pipes and ducting all tangled together. Our scissor lift has been a big help with the office demo.

Today I stepped on a nail sticking out of a piece of wood and went through the bottom of my foot and hit bone. Hurts like hell. Went straight to urgent care to get a tetanus shot since I haven’t had one in 15 or so years. I’m limping pretty bad, but I’ll live. Lesson learned, where your rugged work shoes when walking around a construction site, and don’t walk around looking through the lens of your camera phone, not paying attention to what you are stepping on. I feel like an idiot! I kept the piece of wood and nail as a safety reminder.I may frame it and put it in the brewery somewhere as a talking point for a brewery tour (or just areminder to myself not to be an idiot).

Word is definitely getting around that we are in town. How, I have no idea, but it is. Several of the bars and taprooms in town said they were well aware that Morgan Territory Brewing is coming and sounded excited to have us on draft.

I printed up a Morgan Territory shirt that I wore to a Blues and Brews Festival held here in Tracy this weekend. A lot of people were asking me about it. I got it last minute so it was pricy. It is by far the most expensive t-shirt I own, but I bit the bullet and got it to help spread the word that we are in town.

I’m going to create a Facebook page soon to give people updates and start interacting as Morgan Territory. Time to start getting serious on spreading the word out that there is a brewery in town. Nobody will visit if they don’t know we exist.

Craig and I have decided that we are going to tint most of the windows in the tap room. It should help to keep things cooler. Craig swears by it and has done it at every home he has ever owned. Once again the scissor lift is going to be invaluable in helping.