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| Meals on Wheels screen grab |
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| Ben Franklin reading outside the Franklin Public Library |
State Rep. Shawn Dooley, R-Norfolk, Sen. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, and Rep. Jeff Roy, D-Franklin, will host a community meeting to discuss the Franklin Line of the MBTA commuter rail.
Last year’s harsh winter saw multiple cancellations, which affected the area significantly. Many residents travel to and from Boston every day for work, so a lack of public transportation can cause lasting damage to people’s individual finances as well as the Massachusetts economy as a whole. The commuter rail has experienced delays this year and the Franklin line is only running on schedule 86 percent of the time.
In addition to the more than $12,000 raised to support a local family displaced by a house fire last week, area residents have donated almost $4,000 in aid to another of the building's residents.
A GoFundMe online donation page has been set up to help Molly Corrigan, who also lived in the 11 Church St. building that was gutted by a three-alarm fire on Jan. 26.
Corrigan grew up in town, and said she had lived in her apartment for the past year and a half. She said she was at work - at Milford's KinderCare Learning Center - when she heard about the fire.
"The Franklin Public Schools are pleased to announce they have hired Eian Bain as FHS Head Football Coach. Coach Bain has coached at the collegiate level for three years, most recently as the Quarterback Coach for Framingham State University. He has also coached for a total of five years at both Foxboro and Ashland High Schools. As a collegiate football player, he started four years as a quarterback at Framingham State.
The Franklin Public Schools would like to thank both the Screening and Finalist Committees for their efforts in the process. These committees were made up of fourteen stakeholders in the football program, including members of the alumni, Pop Warner, Gridiron Club, varsity coaches of other sports, returning players and school administrators."
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| Franklin High School in the rain |
“We’re going to establish a set of core values. I’m going to ask and expect the student-athletes to buy in, we have to buy in to be on the same page. We’re not going to talk about how many games we need to win,” Bain said. “Our goals are going to be about doing things the right way. It’s about discipline, accountability, and giving a relentless effort in everything we do. We want to establish a process and focus on the little things day by day. From day one we need to focus on process and take care of us and what we can control.”
"Before these proposed new schedules go into effect on May 23, 2016, we’d like to get your feedback. Please take a moment to review the proposed schedule changes below and complete our Commuter Rail Customer Comment Form.
We also invite you to attend a public meeting (complete public meeting schedule) to participate in a discussion of the Commuter Rail schedule changes. You can also provide us your comments by mail to: MBTA, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116, Attention: Commute Rail Schedule Committee; by phone at (617) 222-3200 or TTY (617) 222.5146 or email at crschedules@mbta.com.
The deadline for public comments is Friday, February 12, 2016.
We value your input and thank you for your participation!"
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| image of Franklin/Dean and Franklin/Forge Park schedule changes |
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| Franklin outbound headed to Franklin/Forge Park |
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The Franklin Art Association will meet on Wednesday, Feb.3, from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm at the Franklin Senior Center, 10 Daniel McCahill Street.
Refreshments and socialization will begin at 6:30.
The program will feature a demo, from guest artist Elizabeth Ricketson. Elizabeth will do a colorful abstract.
Meetings are free and opened to the public.
For more information please visit our web site at www.franklinart.org or www.facebook.com/FranklinArtAssoc
Lots going on as we move into our pre-spring activities! I like just saying the word “spring”, even if it is a ways off!
As you know there are 4 positions open on the Board next year. Paul Guarino and Peg Munson made a very informative presentation recently to FAA members who have shown some interest in learning more about how our organization is run. Their presentation is attached to this newsletter. We are hopeful that some of you will consider taking on a more active role within the FAA by agreeing to become an officer. Please give this serious thought, and if you are interested, let either Paul or Peg know.
The FAA spring show will be at the Black Box again this year on April 30 - May 1st. Rebecca Skinner will chair the show! There will be sign up sheets available at the next meeting so that you can pick what you would like to volunteer for. It’s sure to be a fabulous event at an exciting venue.
The Franklin Cultural Festival committee has started to meet to prepare for the 2nd annual Franklin Cultural Festival to be held on July 27th through July 30th. Last year the members of the art association made bowls for the Food Pantry fund raiser, painted a mural for an interactive painting event on the Common, helped kids make costumes from newspaper, facilitated watercolor painting, and exhibited paintings and photographs throughout the downtown area. So, the question is, what do we want to do this year? At a minimum, we should exhibit our beautiful artwork! Please let me know if you would like to be on the FAA committee that decides what our involvement will be this year!
Warm regards,
Continue reading the Newsletter hereSue Sheridan
"An online fundraiser aimed at helping a local family displaced by a house fire last week has already garnered more than $10,000.
A GoFundMe page was set up last week to benefit the DeLucia family, whose Church Street residence was destroyed in a three-alarm fire Tuesday. The page shows a contribution tally of $12,415 as of Saturday."
"With the rise of the Internet, many predicted the end of libraries - that a local institution predicated on the printed word would soon be as outdated as a telegraph office.
But now, years after web access became mainstream, municipalities in MetroWest and the Milford areas (among them Franklin, Marlborough, Upton, Hopkinton and Mendon) are not looking to shutter their libraries but expand, renovate and even replace them.
Those who run, study and design libraries said the buildings have kept their relevance by being places for people to meet, take part in programs and learn how to use the electronic devices that access the Internet.
And, yes, old fashioned books still account for the bulk of materials checked out."
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| rendering of planned Library renovation |
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| happy new year sign at the Recreation Dept earlier in January |
Ian Carla - Drums - All State Jazz Band
Cameron Crawley - Tuba - All State BandMatt Dao - Trumpet - All State Band
Chris Cheri - viola - All State OrchestraKatelyn Davenport - viola - All State OrchestraAbigail Gleason - viola - All State OrchestraDominic Narducci - cello - All State Orchestra
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| Franklin School Committee |
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| FHS Panthers |
"For the second straight year, North Attleboro picked up a dominating win at the Hockomock League Championships, topping the tournament with an impressive 254 points.
Oliver Ames finished second with 183, Franklin was third with 171, Sharon had 161 to finish fourth and Foxboro rounded out the top five with 155 points."......
"Franklin finished third overall, sent four wrestlers to the finals and had two overall champions. Jordan Carlucci started things off with a second period pin at 106 for the Panthers and John Miller had a 3-2 win at 220. Mike Racca finished second at 113 and Nick Narducci was runner up at 126. The Panthers were helped along by their depth as well with TJ Remillard (120) and Evan Hernandez (195) getting third place finishes and Ed Cropper (160) finishing fourth at 160."
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| Hockomock Sports photo |
– Nick Jasinski made 15 saves for the Panthers and Justin Slocum made 25 saves for the Bulldogs.
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| Franklin goalie Nick Jasinski (31) denies Canton forward Matt Lazaro (9) in the second period on Saturday. (Josh Perry/HockomockSports.com) |
The top two teams in the Hockomock have been struggling to score goals consistently this season and on Saturday afternoon at Pirelli Veterans Memorial Rink Canton and Franklin continued to find offense hard to come by in a scoreless tie that provided plenty of excitement despite the puck never finding the back of the net.
“I joked with Coach Spillane in the line, if that doesn’t sum up both of our seasons right there then I don’t know what does,” said Canton coach Brian Shuman. “We’re both struggling to put the puck in the net.”
“Ironically that was one of the most wide open Franklin-Canton games. We both had plenty of chances.”
Franklin coach Chris Spillane agreed with those sentiments. All season he has talked about the need for players to step up on the offensive side and that continued against the Bulldogs.
“Canton has the same disease as Franklin, can’t put the puck in the net,” he laughed. “Both teams had really good opportunities and maybe credit the goaltenders, they stepped up and made stops when they had to but yeah it was a game with very few quality, wow that should’ve been a goal.”
Two local schools are testing out a system that will allow officials more control over who is allowed in the buildings and to keep track of visitors once they're inside.
The system - currently being tested at Franklin High School and Gerald E. Parmenter Elementary School - has been in place since October.
Once visitors are buzzed into the school, they're greeted by a school employee who asks them about their reason for entering and scans their license.
"We make sure the license matches, put where they're going into the computer and it prints out a badge," said Erica Demers, who mans the desk at Parmenter. "We put a sticker on the badge, and it fades after a while, so people can't reuse them."
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| Parmenter School sign announcing PCC meeting on Feb 5 |
Looking for a safe place to meet someone after arranging to buy an item online but you don't want to get ripped off, robbed or worse? Area police departments are now offering a safe location for those transactions.
The locations are called Internet Purchase Exchange Locations (IPEL) or Safe Trade Stations and are an easy spot to meet after making a deal on local “yard sale” groups on Facebook, local buying and selling apps such as “Close5” and “OfferUp,” or the ever-popular “Craigslist.”
Rather than meet up with a worst-case scenario such as Philip Markoff, “The Craigslist Killer” who, in 2009, was charged with robbing and killing Boston-area victims he met on Craigslist, buyers and sellers can meet in a well-lit, video-recorded spot.
– Tim Prunier hit two free throws down the stretch to stretch the Panthers’ lead to three as Franklin outlasted North Attleboro. The Rocketeers trailed by nine at halftime but rallied to get a 45-44 lead heading into the final period. Prunier finished with a team-best 18 points while freshman Jay Dieterle added 13 points and sophomore Connor Peterson had 11 points. North junior Brent Doherty also had 18 points, Kyle McCarthy scored a career-high 13 points in his first start and Mario Bresko added 11 points.
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| FHS Panthers |
– Franklin broke open a three-point game at the half with a 20-5 run in the third quarter. Carli Koffinke was the top scorer for the Panthers with 13, while Aubrie Kutil added a double-double with 11 points. Lauren Rudolph for Franklin and Olivia Adiletto eight. Emily Peters scored 20 points for the Rocketeers in a losing effort.
