With the new year, there are some changes that are noteworthy.
1 - Citizen Comments
When the agenda was published it included the citizen comment policy. This Council Chair Matt Kelly also read out load as the meeting opened.
D. CITIZEN COMMENTS – Citizens are welcome to express their views for up to five minutes on a matter that is not on the Agenda. The Council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during Citizen Comments. The Town Council will give remarks appropriate consideration and may ask the Town Administrator to review the matter.This helps to better set the expectations of those who come and comment. Many were not aware of the process and clearly disturbed by needing to wait until the end of the meeting to get the matter addressed. That issue is not resolved. If the Council will not address the matter directly but will have the Town Administrator look into it, why wait? Be courteous and provide a more timely response.
2 - Anti-Spectra Pipeline presentation
The Anti-Spectra Pipeline presentation can be viewed here
Spectra will make an appearance at the Town Council meeting on Feb 24 to present their side of the story.
3 - Council Subcommittee reports
The one subcommittee report was from Councilor Bissanti who had just chaired the Economic Development Committee (EDC) meeting held also on Wednesday that ended just prior to the Council meeting. The notes from the EDC meeting can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2016/01/live-reporting-economic-development.html
4 - Legislation
The Council approved an increase in the tax exemption amount allowed for the senior work off program. In 2010, the Council increased from 500 to 700; this approval increased from 700 to $1000. Per Jeff Nutting about 30 residents meet the requirements.The key discussion was around how many seniors are taking advantage of this. While authorized for up to 100, Franklin has never approached the limit. 88 people took advantage of the program last year. While some councilors were advocating for more to take advantage of the program (a worthy goal), there is also an issue on the Town side of being able to handle an increase.
The work needs to be allocated by each department, some departments are more likely (Library, DPW, Senior Center, Schools, and Recreation) to have an appropriate kind of work for the people to do. Some qualifications are required. Some planning (including budgeting) within the departments are also required.
Karen Alves, Director of the Senior Center, is reported to be working on expanding the program capabilities. This is also something we can keep an eye on during the upcoming budget cycle.
The Council in a related item also increased the minimum wage for such work to the state minimum of $10/hour.
The Council also approved an easement for NationalGrid to extend the proper power connection to the newly renovated Recreation Building on Beaver St.
5- Fiscal Forecast
The annual update to the 5- year fiscal forecast was provided by Jeff Nutting. The doc is available in the agenda documents as released for the meeting and also published to the Town website as promised during the meeting. This will be referenced again during the upcoming budget cycle.5 year fiscal forecast (PDF)
Other notes from the meeting captured live during the meeting can be found in the links below:
The agenda for this meeting was published here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2016/01/franklin-ma-town-council-agenda-jan-6.html
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| the pole on the left in this photo appears to be the new on added as a result of the easement approved |
Of note: there was also a special publication called "Town Council Actions Taken January 6, 2016" made available on the Town webpage on Friday (after the meeting). The actions referred only to the specific legislated items but it is a good first start. Now if the Town can also enable real automated notifications for when something is updated on the webpage, we will really be making progress.
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