Town Administrator's Report on the Migrant Housing Status - 09/20/23 (audio)

FM #1065 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 1065 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the Town Administrator’s Report segment from the Town Council Meeting of Sep 20, 2023. Town Administrator Jamie Hellen provides an update on the Migrant Housing status.  

The report segment runs about 27 minutes. Let’s listen to this segment of the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1065-tc-segment-town-admin-report-09-20-23

Video link timed to start of Town Administrator's Report ->   https://www.youtube.com/live/bF13Dgn_6qs?si=P49HB-MYPrGfpeym&t=5122

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Town Administrator page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/administrator

Town Council agenda doc ->  

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/town_council_agenda_-_sept_20_2023.pdf 

Update from Sep 6 meeting ->

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/09/town-administrators-report-on-migrant.html 

Notification on migrant temporary housing

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/08/ma-notifies-franklin-of-plans-to-house.html

Franklin TV video of 09/20/23 meeting -> https://www.youtube.com/live/bF13Dgn_6qs?si=UQh6elNMORZvbLln

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

Town Administrator's Report on the Migrant Housing Status - 09/20/23 (audio)

MIAA Executive Director's Report - May 25, 2023

Want an idea on what is going on within high school interscholastic sports? Check out this new edition of The MIAA Executive Director's Report. 

https://t.co/tvW9qZyOZh

Shared from -> https://twitter.com/MIAA033/status/1661800528429342720

MIAA Executive Director's Report - May 25, 2023

Franklin Police: Weekly Recap from May 7 - May 13

Franklin Police (@franklinpolice) tweeted  on Mon, May 15, 2023:

WEEKLY RECAP

The attached google drive link has the Weekly Recap from May 7 - May 13, 

This recap provides some greater detail about the calls we responded to: https://t.co/TqgexwYwJm

 Shared from Twitter ->  https://twitter.com/franklinpolice/status/1658273388907880449

Franklin Police: Weekly Recap from May 7 - May 13

CommonWealth Magazine: "New study calls WooSox stadium a bad deal for Worcester"

"The WooSox may have hit a home run with huge attendance numbers at their new home in Worcester, but a study says the city has whiffed when it comes to shelling out public dollars to fund the team’s new stadium. 

The Red Sox Triple-A farm team moved from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to Worcester in 2021, setting up shop in Polar Park, a new $160 million stadium owned and largely paid for by the city of Worcester. 

Last season, the team’s second year in Worcester, the Worcester Red Sox drew more than 500,000 fans, second among all 120 minor league teams in the country. And the WooSox arrival has unquestionably contributed to the upbeat buzz about the state’s second-largest city. 

But Robert Baumann, an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross, says the stadium still adds up to be a loser for the city’s finances. In a new paper, Baumann and co-author J.C. Bradbury, an economist at Kennesaw State University, conclude that Polar Park will cost the city $40 to $60 million over 30 years."

Continue reading the article at CommonWealth Magazine

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/new-study-calls-woosox-stadium-a-bad-deal-for-worcester-2/ 

Direct link to report ->  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4443118

Open PDF in your browser window ->   https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID4443118_code1813071.pdf?abstractid=4443118&mirid=1&type=2

CommonWealth Magazine: "New study calls WooSox stadium a bad deal for Worcester"

Franklin Police publish their weekly report for activity through April 29, 2023

Franklin Police (@franklinpolice) tweeted on Mon, May 01, 2023:

"WEEKLY RECAP

The attached google drive link has the Weekly Recap from April 23- April 29. 

This recap provides some greater detail about the calls we responded to: https://t.co/WmBxsHpe8g"

Shared from -> https://twitter.com/franklinpolice/status/1653032602700267522

Franklin Police - weekly report through April 29, 2023

Rausch Report: Earth Month Recap (April 2023)

This newsletter was shortened for publication here. To view the full set of content please visit ->   https://mailchi.mp/masenate/monthlynewsletter-17043865

Your monthly Beacon Hill update from Senator Becca Rausch. 

View this email in your browser Dear Franklin, Happy Spring! April has been an exciting month, with Earth Day, holidays, committee hearings, Town Meeting season, and so much more. Whatever you celebrated this month, I hope it was joyous and meaningful. Personally, I was thrilled to celebrate Passover with friends and family, cheer on runners at the Boston Marathon, join the Town of Sherborn for the launch of Town Meetings, help clean up our district with hundreds of fellow Earth Day volunteers in Milford, Bellingham, and Franklin (check out some of our climate policy work here!) and chair the first two hearings of the Environmental Committee.  My team and I are deep into legislative work, with committee hearings on water policy, crumbling concrete, and local matters already completed, and the Senate budget debates forthcoming in May. (The House completed its budget debates earlier this week. You can view the House base budget, all 1,566 amendments, and the final House Budget as soon as all the adopted amendments are incorporated.) Over the next few weeks, I'll file numerous amendments to the Senate Budget; youth mental health, housing, education, environmental protection and preservation, local transportation, and small business supports are among the investments I'll work to advance. Also, as a board member for the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, I'm collaborating with colleagues to advance our shared priorities through meetings with legislative leadership and Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll.  Rausch Report This month's Rausch Report includes legislative updates, district visits, Earth Day highlights, town election information, an important heads up for MassHealth members, youth engagement opportunities, and details on upcoming office hours.   For real-time updates, please follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you are a constituent and need assistance, please don't hesitate to call me and my team at (617) 722-1555, email me at becca.rausch@masenate.gov, or attend upcoming office hours. We are here to help.    Yours in service,     Senator Becca Rausch

office hours Sign up for a 15-minute appointment here

Our mailing address is: The Office of Senator Becca Rausch Massachusetts State House, Room 218 24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02133

Board of Health efficiently conducts meeting, includes reports in Agenda doc (audio)

FM #968 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 968 in the series. 

This session of the radio show shares the Town of Franklin Board of Health Meeting held on Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Two board members participated, 1 in room (Cochrane), 1 remote (Sweet); hence roll call votes, with 1 absent (Harris). Health Dept staff present were in the 3rd floor training room. 

Quick Recap:

• With a short Board present, shifted the tobacco regulations to the next session

• Inspector’s report, Nurse’s report, Epidemiologist report all touting volume and some issues but nothing major, copies of their report pages are now included in the meeting packet

• Question on new inspection alignment; not implemented yet, still using same process as before

• Question on when the Health Fair is scheduled? May 24 at the Franklin Library from 3 to 6 PM

The meeting runs about 15 minutes. Let’s listen to the Board of Health meeting Apr 5, 2023. Audio file -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-968-tof-board-of-health-mtg-04-05-23

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The Board of Health agenda can be found ->

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/agendas/04.05.23_agenda_and_packet.pdf 

My notes collected in a Twitter thread PDF ->

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVJozV_zimvunaFHBADhoj2LJypzaDr3/view?usp=share_link 

--------------

We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

------------------

You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

Health Dept home page provides active links to other health resources

Franklin (MA) Police - Weekly recap for 3/12 - 3/18/23

WEEKLY RECAP

The attached google drive link has the Weekly Recap from March 12- March 18. 

This recap provides some greater detail about the calls we respond to: https://t.co/asbEgTchOi  or   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ec9bXQyyrSSqrmVoloONQCPjXV1nln_y/view

Shared from Twitter -> https://twitter.com/franklinpolice/status/1637825071220760581

Franklin Police - Weekly recap for 3/12 - 3/18/23

UN Report: "Our world is in a state of fracture – the social contract is broken"

Local Return (@LocalReturnRI) tweeted Thu, Jan 26, 2023:

"There is perhaps no stronger evidence of the pressing need to redesign our global system than the fact that a global health crisis doubled the wealth of the 10 richest men in the world while sending upwards of 120 million people into extreme poverty."

Shared from Twitter -> https://twitter.com/LocalReturnRI/status/1618665173698629632

Direct link to the full or overview of the report ->

https://www.unrisd.org/en/library/publications/crises-of-inequality

UN Report: "Our world is in a state of fracture – the social contract is broken"

  

Franklin Police begin publishing a "weekly recap" for more details than the daily information logs provide

Starting this week, we will be posting a “Weekly Recap” which details our weekly calls for service in more depth than our traditional public information daily logs.  

The attached google drive link has the Weekly Recap from January 1st – January 7th: https://drive.google.com/.../1p3JQP9gqB4j1jHahKLH.../view...

Not all calls for service are documented in this recap. A full list of our calls can be found at: https://www.franklinma.gov/.../public-information-logs...

Shared from Facebook -> 

https://www.facebook.com/100064353536794/posts/pfbid037t2JN4sxUbGJ3ENw6xsM47khKSagbW6tc53ATsXRdRoZUcDPUfDst6i3PNXvPr8Dl/

Franklin Police begin publishing a "weekly recap" for more details than the daily information logs provide

"the combined pressure of drought and overconsumption is proving to be more than it can bear"

"Without dramatic cuts to water consumption, Utah’s Great Salt Lake is on track to disappear within five years, a dire new report warns, imperiling ecosystems and exposing millions of people to toxic dust from the drying lake bed.

The report, led by researchers at Brigham Young University and published this week, found that unsustainable water use has shrunk the lake to just 37 percent of its former volume. The West’s ongoing megadrought — a crisis made worse by climate change — has accelerated its decline to rates far faster than scientists had predicted.

But current conservation measures are critically insufficient to replace the roughly 40 billion gallons of water the lake has lost annually since 2020, the scientists said."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/06/great-salt-lake-utah-drying-up/

Access the report directly at -> https://pws.byu.edu/great-salt-lake   

or this PDF ->  https://pws.byu.edu/GSL%20report%202023

Figure 5. Great Salt Lake water budget, including a breakdown of consumptive water use. The reported numbers represent estimates from 2020-2022, the period of accelerated decline1,3,25,60,62,66,67. Because of inadequate monitoring and data availability, many of these estimates are uncertain.

Follow up on Supreme Court report "What Went Unsaid in the Chief Justice’s Report on the Judiciary"

 

“A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear,” Chief Justice Roberts added as he thanked Congress for passing a law last year to protect judges. The new law was named in honor of Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, who was murdered in 2020 in an assault meant for the judge at her home. The law screens from the public the personal information of federal judges and their families, including identifiers such as license plate numbers and addresses. Leaders like the chief justice deserve praise when they highlight the dangers all public officials now face.

Focusing on the Brown decision was nonetheless surprising. After all, the court appears poised to reverse a decision upholding affirmative action in school admissions, one of the very remedies that the Brown decision spawned, and which all nine members of the court stood squarely behind in 1954 and reaffirmed in a subsequent case in 1958.

In past years, the chief justice sometimes used his year-end report to describe substantive reforms in the federal courts, like the task force created in 2018 in response to allegations that federal judges had harassed their staffs sexually and in other ways. Not so in his latest report, which was four pages long with a five-page appendix. Chief Justice Roberts did not mention any of the many issues that made the news about the court last year — the lack of an effective recusal requirement for justices whose actions or those of family members raise questions about impartiality, the leak of a draft of the court’s decision overturning abortion rights, the insufficiency of financial disclosure and questions about fund-raising for the Supreme Court Historical Society."

Continue reading the article in the New York Times (subscription may be required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/opinion/supreme-court-chief-justice-report.html

The original article linking to the report itself ->

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/01/chief-justices-year-end-reports-on.html

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

"The commission’s report also highlighted the many challenges that stand in the way of decarbonization efforts"

"A COMMISSION that spent the last 11 months studying ways to help the state meet its emissions reduction requirements by shifting to cleaner buildings and addressing heating fuels that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions released its final recommendations Wednesday, but was not able to come to consensus around a timeline for phasing out new fossil fuel heating equipment.

The Commission on Clean Heat’s final report recommends that Massachusetts develop and implement a “clean heat standard” that could incentivize cleaner heating technology and promote the electrification of building stock, encourage joint natural gas and electric system planning, and reorganize existing energy efficiency and clean energy transition programs to be more user-friendly for residents, businesses, and contractors.

The commission’s report attached some urgency to the recommendations. The residential and commercial building sector-specific sublimits established in keeping with the state’s 2021 climate law require a 28 percent reduction in emissions by 2025 and a 47 percent reduction by 2030, all compared to the baseline of 1990 emissions. As of 2020, the commission said, emissions for the residential and commercial buildings sector were 18 percent below 1990 levels."

Continue reading the article online at CommonWealth Magazine ->

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/energy/no-consensus-on-moving-on-from-fossil-fuel-heat/ 

Download the full report to review at your leisure

https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-commission-on-clean-heat-final-report-november-30-2022/download

This was mentioned in our recent Making Sense of Climate episode #19. State Rep Jeff Roy was anxiously looking for the report as it was due during November and indeed released on the last day.  Listen to #19 here ->

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/11/hear-about-green-banking-and-more-in.html

A heating oil truck makes a delivery in downtown Boston with the old city hall in the background. (Photo by Andy Metzger)

A climate change report card for the world - not good

"Last year’s United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, had the same optimistic energy as the first day of a new school year. The United States — a truant since the nation withdrew from the Paris agreement under President Donald Trump — was back at the table. The cool kids (Leonardo DiCaprio, Prince William, Greta Thunberg) brushed shoulders with the nerds (everyone else). A parade of presidents and prime ministers pledged renewed climate efforts with all the fervor of students promising their parents that this semester would be different.

But that back-to-school energy never lasts. Some of the splashiest COP26 pledges have been derailed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and upheavals in the global economy. Catastrophic climate disasters hampered countries’ abilities to invest in renewable energy and resilient infrastructure, even as they exposed the urgency of preparing for a warmer world.

There are also some glimmers of hope on the horizon: The United States finally passed significant climate legislation to speed the transition away from fossil fuels. Global renewable energy investments are starting to outpace fossil fuel spending."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/11/07/cop27-climate-pledges-methane-deforestation/

A climate change report card for the world - not good