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 *
Update:Google is having a problem with the poll question, when it gets resolved, the question will return.
Based upon the discussion around the article in the Milford Daily News on Tuesday, a new poll question has been added to the center column.
The question asks if the override question had been phrased differently would the results have been different. In particular the question is:
If the override was split into 2 separate questions, would you have approved the school override? Q1 - $2.1 million for schools Q2 - $900K for roads/the town
Yes
No
The article and full comment stream can be found here:
Chestnut street from East Central Street (RT 140) to Chestnut Ridge Drive will be under construction starting June 21, 2010 for about four weeks.
Chestnut Street from East Central Street (RT 140) to Jordan Road will be closed to through traffic during normal working hours, starting June 28, 2010 for about five days. One lane is open to through traffic during the remainder of the construction.
Two meetings organized by the Environmental Protection Agency regarding designated discharge sites will be held in Franklin. Storm water discharges from these sites need to be controlled according to the Clean Water Act. The practical implication of this determination is that the owners of designated discharge sites will be required to obtain permits under federal law, and will be required to undertake actions to control the discharge of storm water from their properties.
On June 22, the first meeting will be held at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical School in Franklin from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., the EPA will briefly summarize the actions that it proposes.
Also on June 22, the second meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. The EPA will conduct a public hearing at which interested persons may make formal statements that will be entered into the legal record on the permit action.
A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – June 2, 2020 Regular and Executive Session
B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS
D. CITIZEN COMMENTS
E. APPOINTMENTS - Annual Committee Re-Appointments
F. HEARINGS
G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS
H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS – Update of the New Open Meeting Law – Mark Cerel
I. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
1. Resolution 10-32: Ad Hoc Recycling Committee
2. Resolution 10-33: Acceptance of Gift Franklin Library
3. Resolution 10-34: Acceptance of Gift – Maintenance of Brick School
4. Resolution: 10-35: Appropriation – Unemployment Trust Fund
5. Resolution 10-36: Consolidation of School Maintenance Function With Town
6. Bylaw Amendment 10-646: Request for Sewer Map Amendment: Seven Lot Subdivision Off Beech Street at #23 – 2nd Reading
7. Bylaw Amendment 10-647:Request for Water Map Amendment: Seven Lot Subdivision Off Beech Street at #23 – 2nd Reading
K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
L. OLD BUSINESS
M. NEW BUSINESS
N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
O. EXECUTIVE SESSION – Negotiations, Litigation, Real Property, as May Be Required
Due to a comment that was making the rounds before the override that "everyone in DPW got a new vehicle", I asked for and received the following listing of vehicles from Jeff Nutting, Town Administrator.
The listing excludes the police fleet and the most of the DPW vehicles as those don't have a single user.
The Town positions which have a car, for overnight use or day use are listed with age and mileage.
Town positions without a vehicle but who do use their personal vehicle for Franklin business and thereby get an expense reimbursement are also listed.
Updated:
If a municipal vehicle is taken home the employee is charged income at the IRS rate of $3 per day and must pay income tax on the benefit. Public Safety vehicles are exempt under the IRS code. There is no charge from the town to take the vehicle home. However employees are expected to responded in a timely manner to emergencies unless they are on vacation, etc. Accordingly each public safety department (except the building commission) has at least two employees that can respond asap. So if one is not available there is a backup. The DPW has more since they have more exposure - water, sewer breaks, failed pumps, alarms at stations, snow, storms, heavy rain, trees down, structural failure of things like culverts, roads, etc.
As far as personal use, the following quote is from a portion of the policy ' the vehicle is not to be used for personal purposes, other than commuting and de minimis personal use' An example of de minimis use would be stopping to buy a coffee, lunch etc.
Updated 6/16/10
Jeff Nutting has an annual vehicle allowance of $6,000 as part of his employment contract. He does not have a Franklin vehicle.
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This post has been refreshed. It was initially published on November 29,2009 in preparation for the Town Council meeting where the annual tax classification hearing would be held. As the tax rate and split tax is continuing to be an ongoing discussion, I want to bring this forward for the new readers and those who may have missed it the first time around.
This internet radio show or podcast is number 50 in the series for Franklin Matters. In this session, you give me about ten minutes and I'll fill you in on what matters in Franklin. In particular, we'll prepare for the Town Council meeting Wednesday (Dec 9, 2009) where the big item on the agenda will be the annual tax classification hearing
This internet radio show or podcast is number 50 in the series for Franklin Matters.
In this session, you give me about ten minutes and I'll fill you in on what matters in Franklin.
In particular, we'll prepare for the Town Council meeting this Wednesday where the big item on the agenda will be the annual tax classification hearing beginning at 7:10 PM.
This is the time and place where the Town Council determines to keep a single tax rate or decides to implement a split tax rate.
I have reviewed the data provided by the Board of Assessors for this hearing. I have also spent some time on the Dept of Revenue website obtaining some historical data on Franklin's budget, tax rate, etc.
I have prepared a few slides to share some information that I think can help understand the overall situation to get ready for the meeting Wednesday.
Page 2 shows a table showing the residential vs. commercial/industrial property mix since 1999. It has varied a little each year but generally around 80% residential and 20% commercial/industrial. The high point for residential was 82.12 in 1988 and the low point was 77.04 in 1993.
Page 3 shows the same numbers in a chart format. As there is so little variance, I think this is more clear and understandable than the table of numbers.
Page 4 shows the tax rate as it has varied throughout the years from 1988 to 2009. I really shouldn't use a line to depict the point in time number for each year, but it is much easier to view the data this way. The tax rate high point was in 1997 when it was 14.21% and the low point (in the period shown) was 8.86% in 2007. I find it interesting that the tax rate has dropped for nine of the last twelve years and yet all you hear about is our tax problem?
Well, Page 5 more clearly shows what our tax problem is. The numbers on this chart depict the average tax bill for the period 1988 through 2009. As you can see from the reddish bars, in no year did the average tax bill decrease. The tax rate line from Page 4 is also shown here. Clearly, the tax rate whether it goes up or down seems to have little effect on the tax bill. It is always going up.
There are many reasons for the increases shown. I don't have all the information to explain nor do I have the time this week to do so. What I can show on Page 6 is how the assessed value effects the tax rate. The reddish bars in this case depict the NET change in assessed total value of all the properties in Franklin. Since 2006 the commercial industrial (CI) assessed values have been in a decline. In 2006 and 2007, the new grown for CI covered the decline in valuation so there was a net grown for CI. But for 2008, 2009 and for FY 2010, the new growth has not been able to cover the decline in valuation. More importantly, on the residential side, the decline in valuation has far exceeded the new growth. Hence the overall decline in total assessed values has dropped from 4.9 billion in 2007 to 4.3 billion for FY 2010. With less tax base upon which to levy the same amount of tax revenue, guess what, the tax rate will increase. The decline in overall assessed values has driven the increase for 2008, 2009 and will do so again in 2010.
Yes, I can hear some folks now saying “let's go with a split tax rate”. With kind of property mix we have, a split tax does not solve our problem. See, the split tax does not increase overall tax revenues, it only shifts the proportion of the pie that each party pays as shown on Page 7. For a single dollar decrease in residential property tax, the CI increase would need to be $4. We don't need to shift the tax burden from one to another. We need to grow the overall tax base. We need a bigger pie.
The best opportunities for grow come from the underutilized CI space we have. You should be aware of the efforts of Bryan Taberner and others in the Department of Planning and Community Development. They are busy working to market the attractiveness of Franklin for CI uses. This is where we need to develop. We don't need additional residential properties which would further burden the school system. We need healthy growth in CI properties to provide tax revenues and maybe even provide some jobs for local residents.
Page 8 and 9 provide information on the sources of the data that I used to prepare this. As well as contact information if you have any questions or would like to review this further.
One page in the appendix that charts the “free cash” to “free cash as a percent of the overall Town budget. At the end of the last council meeting, Judy Pfeffer asked Jeff Nutting for some information on the history behind “free cash”. I expect Jeff to come back with his answer but while I was putting together my analysis, I found these numbers at the MA DOR website that may help answer part of Judy's question. I think the current administration has done very well in reducing the fluctuations that can be seen over the years. The big spike in FY 2001 I believe is likely related to the settlement that the Town won. It ended up in “free cash” before the Town Council moved it to the Stabilization Fund. (Note: It is my mistake that this paragraph of text did not get recorded. It does go along with the one page that did make it to the appendix.)
For the week ahead:
Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday
Town Council meeting Wednesday
Holiday Stroll on Thursday sponsored by the Downtown Partnership
I would encourage you to participate in these events.
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This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but I can't do it alone. I can use your help.
How can you help?
If you like this, please tell a neighbor. If you don't like this, please tell me.
If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com
The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and East of Shirley. The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with permission.
2 - The DPW sent out the information flyer on the new solid waste (trash and recycling) process that will begin July 1. The flyer can also be found on the DPW website here (PDF) or viewed below:
I have advertised myself as Community Information Director, maybe I should consider shifting to Chief Detail Officer? This is a volunteer position in either case, unfortunately Franklin's budget problems couldn't support the role.
What do you propose?
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On the food and nutrition front, remember the raised garden beds? Yes, they are still around and growing.
The pictures above and below are from the Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School. Look closely and observe that the plant sign is in French. They have worked the foreign language curriculum into the garden process.
I met with Deb Schwab and four students to discuss using a blog to post the journal of their gardening activities and observations. I set one up for them. They need to complete their account set up and hopefully we'll get to do that before school breaks for the summer.
And what is this item? A tool worthy of hoeing the garden with! Ken Norman proudly shared this with the group. It has about a three foot handle so this was the best I could do with my camera phone at the time.
One tip I took away from the recent raised garden group meeting was in regards to weeding. If the weed has seeds, pinch the seeds and take them out of the garden area. If the weed doesn't have seeds, just hoe it back into the ground. The greenery will return the nutrients to the earth naturally.
And for your viewing pleasure: Rachel Ray was recently on Capitol Hill to help work on this issue
Hi ho, hi ho, off to blog I go!
Prior articles on the raised garden beds can be found here
