FM #15 - The 5 Things you need to Know this Week

The 15th podcast on what matters in Franklin, MA. This podcast sumarizes the five things you should know about what happened in Franklin this week.

1. The School Building Committee was appointed.
2. The bylaw to rezone parcels on RT 140 was moved to another meeting.
3. The Finance Planning Committee really got working this week.
4. The teacher layoffs were confirmed, doubter anonymous should rest easier now.
5. The imminent danger of Question 1 for Franklin's budget.
   
   Time: 11 minutes, 37 seconds

MP3 File

Session Notes:

Music intro
My intro FM #15

This podcast for Franklin Matters will focus on the 5 things you need to know about what happened this week.

First, the Town Council appointed the new School Building Committee. This is the one that will work on the high school but because there will be other school buildings that will need work on them before the high school is completed, the committee is not called the High School Building Committee. The State Dept of Education has guidelines that determine the make of the committee so the Town Council was expressly careful to follow the guidelines in making their appointments.

In this clip from the Town Council meeting on 9/17/08, we hear Chair Chris Feeley read the appointments

- insert clip from Town Council/Chris Feeley with the announcement -

Town Officials

• Chris Feeley, Town Council
• Scott Mason, Town Council
• Ed Cafasso, School Committee
• Paula Mullen, School Committee
• Maureen Sabolinski, Ass't Supt of Schools
• Pamela Gould, High School Principal
• Michael D'Angelo, Town/School Facilities Director
• Jeff Nutting, Town Administrator
  

Citizens

• Lou Allevato
• Thomas Cameron
• William Goode
• Rob Halter
• Michael LeBlanc
• Thomas Mercer
• Scott Nathan
  

Second, the bylaw to rezone some parcels along RT 140 near the Knights of Columbus and Dunkin Donuts ends up being rescheduled for another meeting as it was evident that the matter was not going to gain enough votes. Two councilors were absent with a two thirds majority required to pass. One factor for the lack of cohesion on the decision was the Department of Planning and Community Development had not provided the additional information required by a couple of members of the council.

In this segment from the Town Council Meeting of 9/17/08, you’ll hear the request and the response from Brian Taberner.

- insert clip from B Taberner with Vallee saying he wasn’t aware of the outstanding request -


Third, the working sessions for the Finance Planning Committee (FPC) started in earnest this past Thursday night. Fire Chief McCarraher spent about 45 minutes reviewing his operation followed by Police Chief Williams. These two discussions were the most informative of all the meetings I have attended in the past 18 months. The information generated from this session will be very helpful in the telling the story as the FPC goes forward.

You should recall that the FPC is charted with developing a long term plan for the Town, assuming there is an override next year (very likely) what is the long term outlook, how many will there need to be, or is something like the Arlington plan going to work in Franklin.

Fourth, doubting anonymous should be satisfied now. As reported in the Franklin Gazette delivered on Friday, and in the Milford Daily News on Sunday, Supt Wayne Ogden confirmed that yes, there really were 44 teachers laid off and not replaced. Debbie Pellegri and the Brick School Association filed a FOI request and obtained the information on the teachers let go. Now that you have the info, you have the proof that the teachers were indeed let go. Let it go. Let’s get on with business. Let’s work together to avoid another layoff.

http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1603414373/Superintendent-Franklin-teacher-layoffs-did-happen

Fifth, I think Question One is the most imminent danger that Franklin faces. Question One is on the ballot in November.

The State Income Tax Repeal is also known as Massachusetts Question 1. It is an initiated state statute that will appear on the November 4, 2008 ballot in Massachusetts.[1] If the measure passes, it will end the state's current 5.3% income tax on wages, interest, dividends and capital gains.

You can find objective information at this link:
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Massachusetts_State_Income_Tax_Repeal_%282008%29

You can find the Yes position here: http://www.smallgovernmentact.org/

You can find the No position here: http://votenoquestion1.com/?adtrack=education&gclid=CO2I-trz65UCFQpwGgodmkJeew

Where would you cut $11 million from the Town Budget?
Public safety is about 9 M, Central Gov’t Services is about 9 M. Public Works is about 6 M. If 2.8 million cost the town 44 teachers, what would loosing $11 million dollars cost the town?

The idea of the commonwealth is for all of us together to work and pay for the community services we need. If you think taking $11 million dollars out of the Franklin budget would bring you the community you want, I’d like to know what it would look like.

These are the five things that matter to Franklin this week:

1. School building committee
2. bylaw rezoning
3. FPC working sessions
4. teacher layoffs confirmed
5. the imminent danger of Question 1

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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