Thursday, October 2, 2008

"From a fiscal standpoint, it's a small action"

GHS
Posted Oct 01, 2008 @ 10:45 PM

FRANKLIN —

Town Council last night voted to fund the late bus service to the town's three middle schools at a reduced price of $10,000.

Only Councilor Judith Pond Pfeffer objected to the funding. Holmes Bus Service offered to provide the service, which normally costs about $40,000 annually, for $10,000 this year after school administrators announced the district could not afford it.

The town will pay for the service out of an old account, Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting said.

The money comes from funds "donated" to the town in 2001, he said. In 2000, he explained, the Zoning Board of Appeals rejected an affordable housing application for Franklin Commons at 575 East Central St. by The Gatehouse Cos. The town lost an appeal and negotiated a settlement that reduced the number of units and gave Franklin $40,000 to be used for extending the bus service to the development or for other public purposes, he said. Since the GATRA, or Greater Attleborough Transit Regional Authority, bus passes by the development, the town no longer needs to fund extending bus service there, Nutting said.

Chairman Christopher Feeley thanked the owner of Holmes Bus Co. for his generosity, noting that he is "not even a Franklin resident."

"For the amount of money it's going to cost us, for the service we're going to get - we'd be foolish not to do this," Feeley said.

Read the remainder of the article in the Milford Daily News here


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