SNETT tunnel closed July 1-July 2

"Trail Closure Alert!

The trail between Spring St (Franklin) and Lake St (Bellingham) will be closed on Thursday (and possibly Friday) for drainage repair at the tunnel. No thru traffic. 

Please plan accordingly. Thank you!

#SNETT #railtrail #FBRTC #FranklinMA #BellinghamMA"

Shared from Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/185258844899495/posts/4128023973956276/

SNETT tunnel closed July 1-July 2

Franklin, MA: Finance Committee - Agenda - Jan 13, 2021

Finance Committee meeting - Jan 13, 2021 - 5:00 PM

Agenda

1. Call to Order

2. Public Comments

3. Approval of Minutes

a. December 15, 2020

4. Stormwater Presentation

a. Stormwater Management Plan

b. Stormwater Brochures

5. COVID-19 Update

a. Vaccination Schedule

6. Future Agenda Items

7. Adjourn

Please find the agenda and links for the upcoming Finance Committee Meeting posted here https://t.co/dW6mG0DmbO  

Shared from Twitter: https://t.co/UIdhW47lPI

rain garden at Parmenter, one of many examples of stormwater mitigation that can be found around Franklin

Franklin residents: Time to Order Your Rain Barrel!

Time to Order Your Rain Barrel!

Interested in installing a rain barrel at your home? The Great American Rain Barrel Company is offering Franklin residents discounted barrels for just $69. 

Residents may then apply for a $50 water conservation rebate from the DPW for a total cost of only $19 (rebates are limited to two per household)! 

Order before midnight, Thursday, April 30 and pick up at the DPW Admin Office (257 Fisher St, Franklin) on Wednesday, May 6, from 4-6 PM.


Click here for more information or to order. 
https://www.greatamericanrainbarrel.com/community/

Apply for a water conservation rebate here
https://www.franklinma.gov/public-works/news/water-conservation-rebates-now-available

Franklin residents: Time to Order Your Rain Barrel!

This was shared from the Town of Franklin page
https://www.franklinma.gov/home/news/time-order-your-rain-barrel-0

Franklin is in good company

How does Franklin fit in this listing of major US cities?

• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Shoreline, Washington
• Long Island City, New York
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Los Angeles, California
• Omaha, Nebraska
• Houston, Texas
• Franklin, Massachusetts

The EPA recently published "Green Infrastructure in Parks: A Guide to Collaboration, Funding, and Community Engagement" Each of the communities listed were a case study to demonstrate how to implement green infrastructure in parks.

Case Study: Starting with a Small-Scale Project at Fletcher Field 

Franklin, Massachusetts 

In the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, a rain garden was installed at Fletcher Field, a multi-use park that includes a playground, a baseball field, and basketball court, and picnic area. Installation of this rain garden with native shrubs and plants provided aesthetic improvements while simultaneously capturing runoff from the parking lot. This project was constructed in 2010 at a cost of $16,000. The town was able to maximize resources by having Department of Public Works crews install the soils, mulches, signs, and plants. This project highlights multiple benefits of implementing green infrastructure: the opportunity for site-specific stormwater management, improvement of green space for the community to enjoy, and public education.

You can review the full publication here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2017/06/green-infrastructure-in-parks-guide-to.html

rain garden at Fletcher Field, Wachusett St side of park

Watery rain gardens

Yes, the rain gardens did catch some water.



The Parmenter School had some rain gardens installed as part of the effort to remove phosphorus from the Charles River. By catching the water and filtering it through some natural materials, the intent is to remove the phosphorous before it gets into the tributaries and into the Charles River. Additional rain gardens can be seen along the edge of the parking lot on Wachusett St for the ball fields at Fletcher Field.



Additional photos showing the construction of the rain gardens can be found here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_sherlock/4935285138/in/photostream/

and here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_sherlock/4934685201/in/photostream/

Time to clear the drains!

Time to clear the drains.
Time to clear the drains.

This is a mantra that could be done as a parody of the old Dunkin Dounts commercial.

The wet weather is knocking down the leaves and clogging the storm water drains.

Yes, this is an "after" picture. I had already used my wet running shoes to clear this drain.

Putting the storm water presentation to use

Remembering the storm water presentation from a recent Town Council meeting, I took notice of a couple of storm water grates on a recent walk up Union St. The photos don't show it very well but one of these has some water about 4-6 feet below the surface (apparently the way it should be) and one of these has a dark pile of refuse about 4 inches below the surface (probably not the way it should be).

In either case, the material on the grate should be removed to keep the grate clear to handle the next rainfall.

live reporting - Stormwater

Robert Cantoreggi provided an update on various projects going on around town and coming up.

Stormwater: another unfunded mandate for the Town to handle

Franklin's water is all from ground water, new construction is required to handle 100% recharge within the development

Storm drains simply capture the water and route it without treatment to the nearest water source; i.e. stream or pond. Hence, whatever is captured in the storm drain can flow into the water supply.

Items for homeowners to take action on.

An Eagle Scout project placed the storm drain markers pictured earlier.

Storm water management by-law #153

Recommendation to establish a fee-based household stormwater utility.
Received $15,000 grant to examine the feasibility of a stormwater utility.

Approx. 15,800 single family units would calculate out to about $40 per single family household.

looking at next steps

• continue public information process
• refine program costs and budgets
• review options for fee abatements
• define process for billing and collection

Discussion - Q&A

Per Nutting, if you did not do a fee, you could do a dedicated override

Vallee - strongly for it
Bartlett - what does the yard clean up do to help this?
Denise Zambrowski - reduces the amount of yard waste that would flow to the storm drains and catch basins

DPW website can be found here

Everyone thinks the basins in the roads go to sewers.

There are three sets of pipes in the roads; water, sewer, and storm drains.

Doak - Federal and state regulations? really two or just one?
Zambrowski - yes, really one.

Doak - How do we know we're done? What are the metrics?
Zambrowski - we have to come up with how to comply with the requirement but it has to pass the "straight face" test at Beacon Hill.

Doak - are new projects sufficiently implemented with appropriate controls.

Cantoreggi - yes, all new ones are covered by the guidelines at this time.

Doak - how is a mandatory fee not a tax?
Nutting - there is an abatement process so it is not mandatory
consultant - needs to be applied broadly, needs to provide credits for proper handling, needs to provide abatement
Nutting - Town of Reading has a procedure in process that has not been resolved. No one has challenged the Newton one.

Doak - some of the commercial sites seem to have a good onsite system even though they have the most impervious area
Zambowski - yes, we have a listing and an inventory

Doak - we are doing a lot of good things to achieve compliance, do we really need another $500,000 to do so.
Zambrowski - yes, we don't have the funding to do the other things that are needed.

Pfeffer - concern about calculation, more than the $500,000 mentioned
Consultant - yes, it adds up to 640,000 but by the time to provide the abatements, you would end up with the $500,000 projected.

Vallee - still strongly for it, especially since our water supply is from ground water

Whalen - Vallee's comments are a good segway to what he is about to say. This is less a tax and more an investment in our town.

Sergey Yurgenson - it is a tax, a hidden tax. Residents just shut down the recent Prop 2 1/2 increase. Residents don't want a new tax. Would the town pay it's share? What about the roads? That creates impervious surface.

In the news - how to handle stormwater

The Boston Globe Globe West section features an article today on how local towns are handling storm water. Franklin is amongst those mentioned. The new technology for handling this run off will get more discussion as the downtown redevelopment plans move forward.

"Before, the thinking was just to get the water off the road for safety reasons, and there wasn't much thought given to pollution," said Denise Zambrowski, storm-water manager for the town of Franklin. "But we have 48 miles of streams and 266 acres of ponds, and 95 percent of our watershed ends up in the Charles River. We are now giving storm water a serious look."

Zambrowski said the town recently received a $131,000 federal matching grant to pay for several projects, including installing a man-made wetland area or other technology to capture runoff from a large condominium development near Route 140. Storm water from the complex, which has approximately 200 units, flows through overflow pipes directly into Mine Brook, a tributary of the Charles.

Franklin, like a number of other area communities, is also considering redeveloping its town center to make it more pedestrian and retail-friendly, and officials are considering measures such as storm-water planters as part of the redesign, she said.

Read the full article here.

Where are the drains?

Where are the drains?, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Union Street was newly rebuilt this year. Nice sidewalks. Curbed road. New storm drains.

Oh, where are they?

Yes, they are there. Covered under the snow. The plows just did not get that last foot or so on each side of the road to reveal the drains.

In the entire rebuilt section from the Common to Cottage, I found only one visible drain cover. (Yes, the rebuilt section extends up passed Cottage to Washington Street, but we didn't walk that way this morning.)