Another in a series of podcasts on what matters in Franklin, MA. This one reviews the four key items from the Town Council Meeting of 8/20/08 and the lack of a quorum for the Financial Planning Committee on 8/21/08.
Time: 18 minutes, 20 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes:
Music intro
My intro
From the Town Council meeting this past Wednesday, there are four things I think you should be aware of. However, the most important item from the week is the lack of a quorum at the Financial Planning Committee meeting on the 21st.
From the Town Council meeting of 8/20/08
1 - Bylaw Amendment 08-627: Chapter 4, Public Notice and Advertising of Public Hearings – 2nd Reading
As discussed in the 7/23/08 meeting, the Council moved to adjust the notifications. Jeff Nutting references 2 of the three questions from that meeting. The third question, to provide examples of such that would be covered by this, if it was answered, it does not appear during the discussion nor in the council meeting package.
The Town Council meeting package for 8/20/08 can be found here: http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_CouncilAgendas/2008tc/082008agenda.pdf
listen here
2 - Resolution 05-55 – Transfer of Care, Custody, Management and Control of Red Brick School From Franklin School Committee to Franklin Town Council
The Benjamin Franklin Charter School inquiry is discussed but the inquiry by the Franklin School for Modern Art is not referenced although the Milford Daily News and the Boston Globe cover both this interests.
Milford Daily News:
http://www.milforddailynews.com/homepage/x169545726/Brick-School-issues-still-need-resolution
Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/24/potential_tenants_study_franklins_historic_brick_school/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Globe+West
listen here
3 - Zoning Bylaw Amendment 08-625: Chapter 185-5, Town Code: Zoning Map – Business to Commercial II – 7:10 PM - covers the land of the Knights of Columbus, and along that row of Tedeschi’s, Dunkin Donuts. The hearing was closed and this item was moved to first reading
4 - Town Administrator, Jeff Nutting presented on an update on the Town's efforts to reduce auto fuel used. A "No idling" policy was issued, Jeff will come back to Council with a request to balance the fuel budget. With increase in gas prices, they are projecting they will be about $100,000 short. Jeff talked of coming back in a future meeting with some actions to handle this. Apparently there was a change in our revenue forecast due to the MBTA and GATRA assessments. This change will result in an increase in revenues of about 160,000. Stay tuned to see what happens on this front.
5 - The most important thing this week, I think was the lack of a quorum at the Financial Planning Committee meeting on 8/21/08.
The group is chartered with defining our future financial needs and then coming up with a plan to get the town to agree to. One, their own internal communications appear to be lacking. Of the nine official members, two were present, only one other was acknowledged having a prior notification of absence. What happened to the other 6?
If they can’t communicate within the group, will they be able to communicate out to us?
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This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock
For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music
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