Saturday, August 9, 2014

Did you see Franklin's new website?

With little fanfare, Franklin has introduced a re-design of the town website.  http://town.franklin.ma.us/

re-designed Franklin website
re-designed Franklin website

The new layout is clean and better than before. Most of the common items are more visible and easier to get to. However, there is still room for improvement. The 'Town News' section is shorter and revealing less info than before.

The 'Contacts Directory' and the 'Hours of Operation' go to the same page. Considering that the 'Departments' tab on the top navigation bar also takes you to the same page, that is effectively a waste of prime real estate.

Contact Directory and Hours of Operation links go to the same place

The biggest drawback for me is that there still is no RSS feed. Yes, that maybe a little techie for some but it is a feature of most websites and enables an easy notification if something changes. Without such notification, if you want to find out when the agenda for a committee meeting is posted, you need to go to the site, click through to the page and view if there is an update or not. The website software could tell you via the RSS notification automatically.

Franklin just implemented Twitter to help with their notifications. Do you think the webpage has the info on how to follow Franklin on Twitter? It should but I couldn't find it. The page could also display the Twitter feed in a widget (tech term for a small window) to help showcase what is being sent out via Twitter.

BTW - if you do want to follow Franklin on Twitter you can find their profile page here  https://twitter.com/TOFranklinMA

Check out the new Franklin website here  http://town.franklin.ma.us/  or here http://franklin.ma.us/

What else would you like to see on the page?

Town Council meeting summary - Aug 6, 2014

So what happened at the Town Council meeting on Wednesday?

Announcements


  • The override of the $60K for school street crossing signs (similar to those for Parmenter school on King St) was announced.  http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/08/state-funding-for-traffic-signals-for.html
  • The ribbon cutting for the new Sculpture Park is scheduled for Weds Aug 27th at 5:00 PM
  • A friendly reminder of the Ladybug Spots appearing on the Town Common Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4:00 PM


License Transactions

There were two normal license transactions. Soco Rose changed its name and there was an personnel change in the interest of the 99 Restaurant. owner.

GBU - formerly called Soco Rose
GBU - formerly called Soco Rose

Presentations

1 - Gateway Committee
They made a brief presentation formally introducing their proposal already published here and presented to the Economic Development Committee. It seemed to be very successful as the proposal to reserve some space on the lot for the recognition of Horace Mann was referenced as well in the Economic development update.

The three letters that were the responses to the 'Request for Expression of Interest' can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/08/responses-for-emmons-st-building.html

2 - Collection containers
The containers for Salvation Army and other organizations are not covered by bylaws. The discussion was to introduce the concept, gather feedback and if desired, continue to work on the development of a bylaw. The consensus was this would be a good thing so work will proceed and we'll see a draft at a future meeting.

3 - Downtown parking
What should be done with the downtown parking? When Main St is under construction, the parking meters will be taken out. Do they go back, or is there another way to manage parking. The proposal reviewed was not put parking meters back in. There would be some sort of pole arrangement to still have the flags placed for holidays and veterans funerals. There would still be some monitoring of the parking and ticketing where necessary to enforce it. The proposal would also include a minor increase in the parking rates for the reserved spots. The timing of when the rates would be effective would be determined after the construction is complete.


Town Administrator Jeff Nutting presenting the parking proposal
Town Administrator Jeff Nutting presenting the parking proposal
Additional details on the meeting can be found in this collection of posts reported live during the Town Council meeting on Wednesday:


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Friday, August 8, 2014

Upcoming Events in Franklin, MA Area: FRI 8/8/14 - THU 8/14/14

FRI 8/8   10:30am   Clifford the Big Red Dog at Franklin Public Library 
FRI 8/8  12-6pm   Farmers Market at Franklin Common
FRI 8/8   5pm   Teen Movie Night: Hunger Games - Catching Fire at Franklin Public Library. Pizza, popcorn, drinks served. Teens only.
FRI 8/8   5pm   FSPA SummerStage presents Paralegal: The Musical at Medway High School
FRI 8/8   6:30pm   Art Night Uncorked at Franklin Art Center
FRI 8/8   7-10pm   Feast of St. Rocco - Franklin. All rides and food booths open, entertainment: The Reminisants.
FRI 8/8   7:30pm   FSPA SummerStage presents Legally Blond: The Musical at Medway High School

SAT 8/9   10am-10pm   Feast of St. Rocco - Franklin. All rides and food booths open, Chocolate Chip Cookie Contest, DJ Bobby Costello 12-6pm, Violet the Clown 3-5pm, Sea Breeze 6-10pm.
SAT 8/9   12-4pm   Ladybug Spots at Franklin Town Common

SUN 8/10   8am   Yoga on the beach - free event at Beaver Pond, Franklin
SUN 8/10   10:30am-9pm   Feast of St. Rocco - Franklin. Closing Mass of St. Rocco 10:30am in the church followed by procession with the statue to the festival grounds.12noon-9pm All rides and booths open. DJ Bobby Costello 12-4pm, 7-9pm Violet the Clown 3-5pm, Jerry Secco 4-7pm, Raffle drawing at 8:30pm.
SUN 8/10   12-4pm   Ladybug Spots at Franklin Town Common

MON 8/11   4-7pm   Farmer’s Market at Whole Foods Plaza in Bellingham
MON 8/11   6-8pm   Glow in the dark dance (Tap and Jazz) at Steps of Broadway in Bellingham. Community welcome. Sign up HERE.
MON 8/11   6:30pm   Family PJ Storytime at Franklin Public Library.

TUE 8/12   10am-2pm   FSPA Open House, 38 Main St., Franklin
TUE 8/12   2pm   Space Adventures for Toddlers/pre-K at Franklin Public Library
TUE 8/12   7:30pm   Franklin and Bellingham Rail Trail Committee Meeting at Whole Foods in Bellingham. Public welcome.

WED 8/13   3pm   Ed the Wizard: Reading is Magic at Franklin Public Library
WED 8/13   6pm   Concerts on the Common in Franklin: Lolly the Clown followed by The Leeds.

THU 8/14   3pm   Magic Carpet Book Club for grades 1 and up at Franklin Public Library.

For all the Town of Franklin Public Meetings click HERE.

For event details click HERE.

*If you have any suggestions or events for the calendar, please email Renata@BetterLivingRE.com

Fieldhouse is gone

It didn't take long to demolish the field house. Half was taken down on Wednesday and at the end of the day Thursday, there remained only piles.

The remaining wall is for the small gym. It shows the arc of where the field house was
The remaining wall is for the small gym. It shows the arc of where the field house was

from the parking lot, the arc remains visible and mimicked by the cloud pattern
from the parking lot, the arc remains visible and mimicked by the cloud pattern

closer to the piles that remain, the new school building becomes the dominant view
closer to the piles that remain, the new school building becomes the dominant view

Photos taken at the end of Wednesday can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/08/goodbye-fieldhouse.html