"bring back some life to the downtown area"

The Milford Daily News reported on the public hearing held Thursday evening writing in part:

Final designs will be revealed in January, with construction slated to begin in the summer. With work on the new high school also planned for 2013, the town will be facing two huge construction projects in the same year. 

Construction on the downtown project will mark the start of phase two of the more than $7 million effort. The work is the culmination of almost 10 years of planning, including numerous public hearings and constant dialogue among the town, its engineers and MassDOT. 

Funded through the Public Works Economic Development Program (PWED), the first part of the project, completed last year, entailed improvements around Dean Avenue and cost $1 million. 

Phase two construction, paid for with a $5 million federal grant as well as roughly $1 million in state and local money, consists largely of revamping the roadway and sidewalks and improving lighting (replacing the current cobra-head fixtures with period style lighting).

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x345284912/Latest-designs-for-Franklin-downtown-project-revealed#ixzz1zAsB8WhL

The full set of notes taken live during the meeting can be found here:
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/06/live-reporting-public-hearing-downtown.html