Franklin Matters: Town Council Recap

Friday, February 3, 2017

Town Council Recap - Feb 1, 2017

The Town Council moved to approve the change in manager for Joe's American Bar and Grill, held a public hearing on the zoning for recreational marijuana and approved a land swap with the State to help resolve the outstanding issue with the Recycling Center.

How serious are liquor license violations taken?
At least by the Joe's American Bar and Grill, the actions taken since their violation serving an uderage drinker as part of the annual Franklin Police operation in 2016, they are serious. The restaurant boosted their training requirements for the wait and bar staff. The restaurant is now using a private sting service where monthly the company conducts a sting operation. The first four the restaurant has passed. There also is a new manager who was approved as part of the normal license change process.

Marijuana zoning
The public hearing on marijuana zoning drew no community comments and very little discussion from the Council. The set of 5 amendments align the recreational marijuana with the zoning for medical marijuana (in the industrial park areas of Franklin). In the combination, the terminology is also removing the medical or recreational distinction and just calling it 'marijuana' zoning. The five amendments were moved to a second reading after the public hearing. The measures will be scheduled for a future Council meeting for final approval.

Public access on private property
The issue raised last year where it was revealed that one of Franklin's drainage pump stations had been placed on private property and Franklin had no access agreement with the residences, was finally resolved.

Police Dept promotions
The domino effect of replacing Chief Semerjian with Chief Lynch continued with the recognition of five promotions. Officers Smith, Guarino, Bussey, Grover, and West were introduced for the public pinning ceremony. The details of the introductory remarks were published separately and can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2017/02/franklin-police-department-promotions.html

post bage and pinning L to R: Bussey, Smith, Grover, West, Guarino

29.3 acres for 4.71
The amount of land Franklin is swapping with the State to resolve the issue with the recycling Center on Beaver St. Apparently, years ago when it was used as a land fill, Franklin had used more of the land they they technically owned. When the landfill closed, due to the ownership issues, the closing of the fill area was not completed properly and has been sitting unresolved until now. The land swap deal needs to be authorized y the Legislature but then when Franklin owns the land, additional work will need to be done to properly cap the fill.

Per Jeff Nutting at the meeting in his update to the Council, it would be approximately 2-3 years before they would come back with the plan and request for some number of millions of dollars to cap the landfill and complete the recycling center.

My notes reported live from the meeting can be found here