Live Reporting: Closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT	nothing tonight
L. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS	Jones - private wells are part of the water ban Pfeffer - joint meeting of Planning Board and Council, should we get one again Vallee - should put the train station on the
M. COUNCIL COMMENTS	Pellegri - my comment would have been on Officer Marguerite but that was covered Jones - excited to see the new technology stuff on the agenda Bissanti - I want to announce my acting debut I will be playing an adult in Humbug! Pfeffer - I can't think of a better honor to have my name in every bar and restaurant

meeting adjourns

Live reporting: to closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
thanks to the police and fire for the action yesterday on the School St issue

looking to get three fire fighters to replace 2 and anticipate a retirement

now have a Facebook page for the Town
will hook up

Oak St is only temporarily paved

looking to move the Rec Dept by the end of next week
web and phones down for move

Nutting - in order to meet his request, would have to declare surplus and abandoning a portion of a pubic way, doesn't meet the intent of public property. Sets a bad precedent from a public policy perspective

L. OLD BUSINESS
water did seep into the structure, does require maintenance on a regular basis
may need to cover it up would keep kids off during the winter

it took an awful long time to get them to repair, the kids are out there constantly
would need to provide notice if it is covered


M. NEW BUSINESS
you heard Jeff's comments

he would need a variance and the recommendation was to make an inlaw housing rather than dual property

would need to do title search, would need to draw plans, would have to incur those costs

Kelly - sometimes we need to sit down with the home owner and the building commissioner

Cerel - you don't know what kind of pandora's box you are opening here, my legal advice would be this is a slippery slope

Bissanti - we can't talk about Pandora's box every time

can't apply for a duplex or inlaw, would not get approved for it
town took it in 1940, I am looking to take it back
my brother needs the help

Pfeffer - I think it is a bad use of the public property

The neighbor doesn't want the improvement because it would raise their taxes

Padula - there may be other avenues for this,

There are other options that are available

Refer to new business is only thing that can be done to resolve this

Vallee - proposing to get Partners HealthCare to get an urgent care facility for the town
Carewell is part of the site plan being presented on Sep 14
Medico is going in next to Starbucks

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
Pfeffer - sidewalk and utility poles
Nutting - we do have a commitment

Pfeffer - work on Wachusett St for the parking lot
property at 48 Arlington, doing work spruced up and it looks great

solar panels at Parmenter are not working
cellar leak at Parmenter


O. EXECUTIVE SESSION

P. ADJOURN
motion to adjourn

Friendly reminder - Comment policy

The comment policy was established in Dec of 2007 and it's time for a friendly reminder.

I welcome your comments here at Franklin Matters. To maintain a respectful dialogue, I've posted the guidelines of the comment policy below.

• Stay focused. All viewpoints are welcome, but comments should remain on the topic set by the original blog post, discussion question or other type of initial entry.
• Be respectful. Ad hominem or personal attacks, profanity, and aggressive behavior are prohibited. Instigating arguments in a disrespectful way is also prohibited.
• Tell the truth. Spreading misleading or false information is prohibited.
• No spam. Repeated posting of identical or very similar content in a counter-productive manner is prohibited – this includes posts aggressively promoting services or products.

I retain the discretion to determine which comments violate this comment policy.

I reserve the right to remove violations.

I expect all contributors to be respectful.

This comment policy is valid for all discussions hosted on this Franklin Matters website and/or the Facebook Franklin Matters page.

Thank you for taking the time to review our comment policy. I encourage your participation in a healthy and respectful discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.




The comment policy is also located here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2007/12/comment-policy.html

MDN anonymous comment policy change

The Milford Daily News FINALLY got around to addressing their anonymous comment issue.

For some time, we’ve received complaints that the anonymous commenting system we’ve hosted on our online stories does little to enhance the conversation within our community. The criticism has been that some of the comments are hateful and sometimes, downright objectionable. We heard you and we agree.

It was about time. I find it quite interesting that the comments on the Milford Daily News articles have dropped considerably. It is still early as the policy just went into effect on Thursday. It was not uncommon to see posts with dozens of comments.  As a good example, the editorial announcing the change received 50 comments (as of this morning 06/29/13 7:20 AM). And yet the new "Most Commented" section shows posts with a top comment total of 1!

Milford Daily News comment screen shot 6/29/13 7:20 AM

Read the full editorial about the comment change here: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/editorials/x853676846/Editorial-Commenting-with-honesty-and-civility#ixzz2XbQyWS67


What is the comment policy for Franklin Matters?
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2007/12/comment-policy.html

In the News: election turnout, stormy weather, new comment system

Senate race: Fair turnout as area goes for Gomez 

Turnout was higher than expected Tuesday as Milford-area residents cast their ballots, mostly for Republican Gabriel Gomez, in the U.S. Senate special election.

Stormy weather tonight and for the rest of the week 

The National Weather Service in Taunton has issued a special weather statement for possible strong thunderstorms for the Southern New England area, including Middlesex County.

New, improved Milford Daily News commenting system aims to build, improve conversations on our website 

On Thursday, Milford Daily News will launch a new set of social and interactive features underneath online articles. Our goal is to enhance the experience by giving readers new ways to interact with each other, share opinions and engage with the news.

Editorial: Commenting, with honesty and civility

For some time, we’ve received complaints that the anonymous commenting system we’ve hosted on our online stories does little to enhance the conversation within our community. The criticism has been that some of the comments are hateful and sometimes, downright objectionable. We heard you and we agree.

Comments are back!

Updated - comments appear to be fixed now. The "fix" did result in loosing a couple of known ones. How many others there were, I don't know and couldn't tell.

My sincere apologies folks, I was not intentionally ignoring you. I wasn't aware that you made an effort to comment. The blog comment totals did not show any activity.

I'll leave the default Blogger comments enabled for the remainder of this week before implementing another comment service.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Steve

----------


I just discovered a few comments on some recent posts that I was not notified of.


My sincere apologies folks, I was not intentionally ignoring you. I wasn't aware that you made an effort to comment. The blog comment totals did not show any activity.


I need to research and fix the template to avoid this in the future.


In the meantime, if you would like to comment, please send me an email. I do get and respond to those.


I will let you know when the comments are "fixed"!


Thanks for your patience and understanding!

This needs a caption

are these

Secret burial pods?

What would you say?

This needs a caption: Secret burial pods? or?, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Live reporting - Councilor Comments

Zollo - publicly acknowledge the efforts of the teachers stepping up and going beyond under tough times. Secondly to acknowledge the quality of the recreation programs in town. Acknowledge the DPW and grounds maintenance crew have been doing a good job.

Doak - question 1 on the ballot, don't like taxes, but the fact of the matter is Franklin would be hurt significantly, I will be voting against it and would like folks to consider this.

Whalen - if question 1 passes, the loss to Franklin would be $11 million and that is the probably close to the cost of the Fire, Police, and DPW.

Vallee - will bring something to new business about doing something for the Police Dept.

Feeley - thanks to Mr Holmes for reducing the Late bus cost.

Move to go to executive session and not return
approved 7-0

About time....

By Staff reports

Milford Daily News

Posted Jun 11, 2008 @ 10:20 AM

---

You must now register to comment on our stories.

Readers have been able to comment on stories on our site since October of last year. That feature has sparked some lively debate and allowed greater interaction with our readers – and they with each other – that we welcomed. The feature has also generated some irrational and ugly nastiness. We let the conversations flow pretty freely for the most part – we allowed folks to post anonymously, we moderated with a light hand and left shutting off comments completely as a last resort.

As time has gone on, however, the need to more closely manage comments and commenters has grown. The new registration requirement is simple for users, but will give us more ability to manage comments and keep the conversation civil.

Read the full story here

Note: this applies to both the Franklin Gazette and Milford Daily News.

I took this step some time ago and have not regretted it. My email (shersteve at gmail dot com) is available for anyone who wants to have a civil conversation and does not have either a Blogger or OpenID.

Goodbye - Anonymous Comments

I have gone back and forth on this issue of anonymity a number of times in my own mind and after reading here, I have decided to remove anonymous comments from the various blogs I control. This change is effective 3/1/08.

This is not turning away conversation.

This is ensuring that the conversation is based in honesty and real identity.

It also helps that Google has enabled additional accounts to be used to comment.

If you have any issues with anonymity, you can email me (as you won't be able to comment) after March 1. Email to shersteve at gmail dot com

Note: as part of an overall comment policy, all comments must be phrased in respectful words. If they are not, they will be summarily deleted just like all s*p*a*m comments.

Right to speak at public meetings

Don't miss the detailed explanation on an individual's right to speak at a public meeting at the Franklin School Committee blog.

Closing Comments (audio)

The Town Council makes the round for Councilors to make closing comments. Whalen, Vallee, Zollo, McGann, Doak, and Feeley speak.

Time: 4 minutes, 35 seconds



MP3 File

Comment policy

I welcome your comments here at Franklin Matters. To maintain a respectful dialogue, I've posted the guidelines of the comment policy below.

• Stay focused. All viewpoints are welcome, but comments should remain on the topic set by the original blog post, discussion question or other type of initial entry.
• Be respectful. Ad hominem or personal attacks, profanity, and aggressive behavior are prohibited. Instigating arguments in a disrespectful way is also prohibited.
• Tell the truth. Spreading misleading or false information is prohibited.
• No spam. Repeated posting of identical or very similar content in a counter-productive manner is prohibited – this includes posts aggressively promoting services or products.

I retain the discretion to determine which comments violate this comment policy.
I reserve the right to remove violations.
I expect all contributors to be respectful.

This comment policy is valid for all discussions hosted on the Franklin Matters website and/or Facebook page.

Thank you for taking the time to review our comment policy. I encourage your participation in a healthy and respectful discussion and look forward to an active exchange of ideas.

This comment policy is valid for all discussions

This comment policy was modeled after that for Change.gov which can be found here
http://change.gov/page/content/commentpolicy


Franklin, MA

Councilors Closing Comments (audio)

Before the meeting moves into Executive Session, the Councilors get to add new business and make their closing comments.

Time: 8 minutes, 36 seconds



MP3 File