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Providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin, MA since 2007. * Working in collaboration with Franklin TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019 *
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Franklin Public Schools: Summer Update
Stop & Shop A+ update
The timeline sent to me that I shared earlier this week was a little misleading. The SCHOOLS can register as of August 1. We can register as of September 1.
For the post earlier this week, check here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/07/stop-shop-bonusbucks-rewards-franklin.html
Stop & Shop screenshot grabbed as of 8/2/13 |
For the post earlier this week, check here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/07/stop-shop-bonusbucks-rewards-franklin.html
In the News: couple sentenced, hospital association
Couple sentenced in doughnut shop robberies
A husband and wife accused of robbing doughnut shops with what they said was an HIV-infected syringe were sentenced following a change of plea hearing in Norfolk Superior Court on Friday.
Hospitals form regional affiliation
MetroWest Medical Center is teaming up with hospitals in Boston and Worcester to form a new affiliation aimed at improving cardiovascular care in their regions.
Friday, August 2, 2013
The Pan Mass Challenge rides through Franklin
The PanMass Challenge will ride through Franklin Saturday morning. Back in January, I received this email from Martin Middelman, a regular reader of Franklin Matters. Hundreds of riders have been training for months for this weekend fund raising effort. Martin will be joined in this ride by Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, State Representative Jeff Roy and several other Franklin riders.
In a time when the TV shows negative news, it is heartening to see so many folks taking action for a worthy cause. Cancer touches all of us, directly or indirectly. Is there a person who hasn't lost a family member to this? Or doesn't know someone struggling with it?
Get up early Saturday morning and head to the Remington Jefferson School to see the riders come in. The school grounds serve as a water and rest stop on the ride.
Cheer them on!
Be encouraged by so many taking action!
Contribute to the cause.
"There is a lot riding on this!"
In a time when the TV shows negative news, it is heartening to see so many folks taking action for a worthy cause. Cancer touches all of us, directly or indirectly. Is there a person who hasn't lost a family member to this? Or doesn't know someone struggling with it?
Get up early Saturday morning and head to the Remington Jefferson School to see the riders come in. The school grounds serve as a water and rest stop on the ride.
Cheer them on!
Be encouraged by so many taking action!
Contribute to the cause.
"There is a lot riding on this!"
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A place at the table
Myth: SNAP recipients are inner-city minorities.
Fact: Food insecurity is neither an urban issue nor an ethnic issue. Nearly one in six people faces food insecurity, and they live in every county in the nation. In addition, 76 percent of SNAP households include a child, an elderly person or a disabled person.Read more in this op-ed by Trish Henley
For more about the film, A Place at the Table you can visit the webpage
http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Neighbor Brigade Run
Hello:
This is not just an ordinary fundraiser but, more importantly a mission I support and take part in my Franklin community to help our neighbors in times of immediate crisis. I know through all the ways I have helped, it has changed the way I see and experience my own personal day to day challenges. I am thankful for a group of 80 volunteers and I hope you can help in supporting the continued growth of Neighbor Brigade in Mass. and beyond.
I have a Franklin page for you to look at and if you'd like to take part in the team, please sign up! It will be a great opportunity to share what Neighbor Brigade is doing and learn about its future growth. Thank you for anything you can offer in the way of a donation or perhaps a sponsor!
Go to:
http://www.crowdrise.com/franklinneighborbrig
Thanks and I hope to see you at the walk/run!
Linda
Linda Gagnon
Neighbor Brigade Inc.
617-335-5452/ FranklinMA@neighborbrigade.orgwww.neighborbrigade.orgLike Us On Facebook!
Representative Roy's August Office Hours
Boston, MA -- State Representative Jeffrey Roy (D-Franklin) announced today that constituent office hours will be held in Franklin for the Month of August on the following day:
Franklin – August 10th, 9:00-10:00AM, Franklin Public Library – 18 Main Street Franklin, MA
Christopher Yancich, his legislative aide, will be accompanying him.
Representative Roy stated that all office hours are open to any residents of Franklin and Medway who may have questions or concerns that they wish to bring to his attention. Walk-ins are welcome; no appointment necessary. He looks forward to hearing from you.
He also invites all constituents to call him at his State House office at (617) 722-2400, stop by Room 134 in the State House, or email him at Jeffrey.Roy@MAhouse.gov.
Bike Tour of the SNETT - Aug 17
The Franklin and Bellingham Rail Trail Committee (FBRTC) will host a Guided Bike Tour of the Southern New England Trunkline Trail (SNETT) on Saturday, August 17, 2013 from 8:30 to noon.
The tour will start at the Grove Street trailhead in Franklin, and travel west 7.5 miles to Blackstone to learn about the work being done on the trail. In Blackstone, you will have a chance to see the bridge rehab construction taking place, including a temporary ramp from Church St down to the RR grade, which will give you an idea of the Purchase Street ramp. The tour will be led by Mr. Bill DeSantis, Corporate Director Bicycle Pedestrian Transportation of Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. (VHB Engineering).
This event is free, but we ask that you register in advance. Also, parking is available across the street from the trailhead at Grove St
Register for this event now: www.franklinbellinghamrailtrail.org/calendar/aug-bike-tou
In the News: sales tax, juvenile court
State Senate OKs tax holiday for Aug. 10-11
The state Senate voted today to authorize a sales tax holiday for Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 10 and 11.The sale tax holiday is estimated to cost the government $20 million. So while the savings may get distributed to anyone who buys a key item this weekend, those same folks shouldn't complain if one of their pet projects doesn't get funded.
Senate agrees to increase age of juvenile court jurisdiction
The Massachusetts Senate Tuesday passed legislation that increased the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 17 years old to 18 years old, according to a press release from state Sen. Karen Spilka’s office.
Both of these measure require Gov Patrick's approval
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Live reporting - Town Council - special meeting
Intent of this is to do a workshop for a discussion on what changes, if any, would be desired for zoning.
A sign in sheet is being passed around. Maxine Kinhart taking the official meeting notes
Jeff Nutting provided an overview of the handout
Q - question on density consideration based upon upland acre vs. total acre
Ultimately, this is more than a quibble point for the Cooks Farm proposal as a starting point for discussion
Q - would the town consider some incentives for extra open space?
the current as right use is less dense than the proposal for Cooks Farm
Halligan - I thought we would be discussing Cooks Farm and nothing else. What I am hearing is this is bigger than that.
Cerel - you can zone for a specific proposal, you can zone for all. You can't do spot zoning.
Benedetto - Whatever you adopt the Town needs some flexibility.
Nutting - the Council is not the permitting authority, the Planning Board
Kelly - question on when developments referenced were done and what they were developed as some number of years ago
Taberner - zoning residential district 6 was created in the 1980's
Padula - subdivision regulations came out to control growth in the town. A lot of land existed then. We needed housing in and around the center. Since then, we have tried to control growth. I don't know how many houses we could put in this with zoning as I haven't seen the proposal. How are you going to handle sewerage for this project? Are we attempting to change the zoning for this one project? There are a number of unbuilt propety that can accommodate cluster or apartment zoning. Once you open this up, you are opening this to a number of homes in this town.
Pfeffer - what would be the spot zoning rule?
Cerel - it may not be a single property, the courts will look at this in the totality
Pfeffer - I thought we had a charge to go make this work? Am I hearing this is a proposal to not make it work?
Nutting - I disagree
Pfeffer - How would you make this work?
Nutting - You have to make this a zoning bylaw.
Pfeffer - Have you drafted the bylaw?
Nutting - No, once we have this agreed upon, when we have consensus, we can go and write it.
Cornetta - we have a proposal with a specific project, there are examples of bylaws on the state site, or elsewhere that I think we can all work with. it is not good for the town to create high density all over, but maybe an overlay district for specific areas, like the Cooks Farm proposal
Developer - It is a very popular proposal. I have nine residents interested in this if we build it. We have lots with the building lots identical. A density in Medfield over 6 units to an acre. About 2 if you do it on total acreage. The road widths don't work, that is pedestrian scale. It is 20 foot roadways and 18 foot back alleys. I didn't invent this, it is elsewhere, in Celebration. I haven't met the fire chief. He'd be able to fight a fire in this. These are condominium in that the land is owned in common but they are single family homes
Halligan - I am little thrown off guard here. I would be in favor the way it was proposed.
Nutting - I am hearing about the differences in the density calculation, I am hearing about the street width difference.
Halligan - I would like to see this go forward and see what this brings to the town. It is calculated to only bring in 2 kids.
Cerel - As I indicated at the Council meeting, when you get into land use planning there is a lot of overlapping rulings. Where are you starting from? A proposal from a particular developer and a charge to the staff to make it work. There are a lot of other things being through around and confusing the issues. This type of development is good for a downtown where you want to get traffic out and bring in pedestrian traffic. Mefield cobbled together several properties to make his space work. That is not what you have here. This plot is outside the town, not downtown.
Restating: This handout would apply to the 22 acre to apply to two properties to avoid the charge of spot zoning
Nutting - i don't think there is a big disparity about what we are discussing.
The bylaw was in place and the zoning was changes because it was not yet on the map
Powderly - what about Res 6 that does not permit this project?
Nutting - it is not relevant in this day and age, no proposal is going to come forward with 25% affordable
Powderly - is it fair to say that Res 6 is outdated?
Dahlstrom - there are more differences than just the affordable
Developer - Res 7, would apply to only 2 properties at this time. I would like to work with the Fire Chief to see how the streets would work for him
Padula - with a conventional subdivision how many would you get?
about 7
Halligan - this would have to be done with a special permit, otherwise it could be sold out and have 32 log cabins down there
Nutting - you are free to talk to the Fire Chief when he gets back from vacation.
Benedetto - what about control with a 40B?
Cerel - The state agency has guidelines for that and it is more than 12 units dense
Developer - I am not concerned about a special permit
Jones - How many of these type projects were on the outside of town? What would be the sustainability of the high value?
Developer - I am very good at establishing property that high value. We have a country club right next door. there is demand for this. There is an aging population and they want this.
Powderly - I don't think anyone has argued that this isn't a quality project, we need to do this when there is not a quality project before us. I want to make sure we are reversing a path the restriction on no new development, then we do it right so we don't end up with developing elsewhere in the wrong places. I found the Mashpee Commons very nice.
Developer - you have all that here already, you don't need to create Mashpee Commons here. You already have the town center. You need infield projects to help fill the void. They should help promote each other. That is why this project is going to be good. You will want to see this elsewhere once this is built.
Cheli - speaking to stopping development, we were concerned with school age development and 40b's. I don't think there was a mandate when I was on the council. I think we needed to be proactive to get the 40b 10% level.
Nutting - we did the permit change to allow the 55+ to avoid the children issue. We extended the moratorium to 2009 but then the market kind of took over and did it for us.
Cheli - mechanism were put in place to get sustainable development.
Developer - there is 17 M coming into this project with very little going out. The roads are owned by the residents.
Nutting -
Pfeffer - if we do this by special permit, do we still need to change the zoning?
Nutting - yes
Nutting - I think we can have this in the council in the first week of Sep
Roy - I actually came tonight to get some input from this for the Master Plan. I am hearing we can do this in the 2 parcels and not all around the town. I was trying to see how this fits in with the Master Plan.
Cerel - you can have special permits by zone, you don't need to have an overlay
Padula - how much did you say were the starting price?
Developer - 2 bedrooms, about $500,000
Nutting - we'll schedule a meeting with the Fire Chief and work on the draft revisions as discussed here. We should have something ready for the first Council meeting in Sep. It will get referred to the Planning Board, and when they act on it, it would come back to the Council for two readings before being voted on.
motion to adjourn, passed
Stop & Shop A+ BonusBucks rewards Franklin schools
Last year about at this time, I reported on the Stop & Shop A+ program and how much money had been earned by Franklin residents for their schools. I went to the A+ website to find the totals for the school year that just completed and the totals had already been removed in preparation for the new year. I opened a request for the information and received the detail via email.
Annie Sullivan and Oak St are two schools that lead the pack in raising money via this channel.
All the schools need to be re-registered for the coming school year. Anyone shopping at Stop & Shop will also need to sign up again to chose which schools their purchases will contribute for. In prior years, you were able to enroll for multiple schools. I expect it will be the same process for this year.
Good Afternoon,
With the program gearing up for another year, the website has currently removed last year's info. Starting August 1, schools will be able to go online to re-register for the upcoming year. Below are the Franklin, MA area schools with their totals.
$740.90
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JOHN F KENNEDY SCHOOL
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551 POND STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$536.48
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GERALD M PARMENTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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235 WACHUSETT STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$427.79
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HELLEN KELLER ELEMENTARY
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500 LINCOLN STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$570.69
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HORACE MANN MIDDLE SCHOOL
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224 OAK STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$444.13
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DAVIS THAYER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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137 WEST CENTRAL STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$218.58
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REMINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
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628 WASHINGTON STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$564.64
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TRI-COUNTY REG VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL HS
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147 POND ST
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038-3810
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$839.11
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FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL
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218 OAK STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$818.93
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JEFFERSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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628 WASHINGTON STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$1,097.52
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OAK STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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224 OAK STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$1,925.16
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ANNIE SULLIVAN MIDDLE SCHOOL
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500 LINCOLN STREET
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FRANKLIN
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MA
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02038
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$882.87
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Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter School
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201 Main Street
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Franklin
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MA
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02038
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Thank you!
The A+ School Rewards Team
If you require further assistance, please contact us at 1-877-275-2758. Have a Wonderful Day!!
After August September 1, you can register your Stop & Shop card for this program and one or more of the Franklin schools. You can use my step by step instructions http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/09/stop-shop-can-help-your-franklin-school.html
Concerts on the Common: 6:00 PM
This Wednesday, Concerts on the Common will present Frank Padula.
The children's program will begin at 6:00 and feature DJ Mike Rutkowski.
There will be two more concerts in Aug (7th and 14th). The performers are listed here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/07/concerts-on-common-600-pm.html
The children's program will begin at 6:00 and feature DJ Mike Rutkowski.
Concerts on the Common |
There will be two more concerts in Aug (7th and 14th). The performers are listed here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/07/concerts-on-common-600-pm.html
"did raise questions and concerns"
The Milford Daily News reports on the Planning Board approval of a new downtown parking bylaw.
Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1580234251/New-parking-bylaw-moves-forward-in-Franklin#ixzz2ac8yvstd
With the Town Council in a special workshop/meeting Wednesday night on zoning bylaws, this is likely to be one of the topics of discussion. The meeting is scheduled for 7:00 PM in the 3rd Floor Training Room at the Municipal Bldg. This location is not enabled for broadcast unless special arrangements are made so if you do want to participate, it would be necessary to be there in person.
Most parking problems stem from people parking illegally in the Depot Street commuter rail lot and failing to put money in the parking meters.
Primary parking structures may help alleviate the burden on business owners to provide parking for their customers. And, they may bring more customers into the downtown area.
The next step in the bylaw’s approval process is for the Town Council to schedule two public readings of the bylaw. At these, the public will be allowed to comment on the proposed bylaw.
Once both readings are complete, the council will close the public readings and take a vote.
Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1580234251/New-parking-bylaw-moves-forward-in-Franklin#ixzz2ac8yvstd
With the Town Council in a special workshop/meeting Wednesday night on zoning bylaws, this is likely to be one of the topics of discussion. The meeting is scheduled for 7:00 PM in the 3rd Floor Training Room at the Municipal Bldg. This location is not enabled for broadcast unless special arrangements are made so if you do want to participate, it would be necessary to be there in person.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Special Town Council meeting
There is a special Town Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July 31, 2013. It will be held in the Municipal Bldg but in the 3rd Fl Training Room. Scheduled to start at 7:00 PM, I anticipate it could run at least until 8:30.
The meeting was mentioned as needed during the discussion on the proposal for Cook's Farm. In the closing of the Town Council meeting on Jul 17, Jeff Nutting confirmed that this would be used for the workshop on zoning bylaws.
Note: Unless special arrangements are made this location means that the meeting will not be available via the normal broadcast channels.
The meeting was mentioned as needed during the discussion on the proposal for Cook's Farm. In the closing of the Town Council meeting on Jul 17, Jeff Nutting confirmed that this would be used for the workshop on zoning bylaws.
Note: Unless special arrangements are made this location means that the meeting will not be available via the normal broadcast channels.
Curbside Chronicle
The July - September Curbside Chronicle was just posted to the Franklin website. You can read a copy here.
The original posting of this to the Franklin webpage can be found here
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_News/01B5EF7A-000F8513
The original posting of this to the Franklin webpage can be found here
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_News/01B5EF7A-000F8513
Monday, July 29, 2013
Community Gardens - (photo essay)
The Franklin Community Gardens are located at the King St Memorial Park off King St in Franklin. I stopped by 2 weeks ago to take some photos to share. Yes, the 2 weeks has just flown on by.
Abiding by the guidelines of the garden, I visited and left with photos and memories
I found zucchini
I found summer squash
Some garden beds were chock full of green growing plants!
I found acorn squash
I wasn't able to identify this one but with the dew on it, the photo was too cool to pass up. Can someone help me identify what this is?
and green beans
It was a bee-utiful visit to the gardens. How is your garden growing?
Franklin Community Gardens |
Abiding by the guidelines of the garden, I visited and left with photos and memories
zucchini |
summer squash |
a full garden bed |
acorn squash (if I recall correctly) |
not sure what this is? |
green beans |
bee-utiful |
This Week at Pour Richard's
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