"Did you know that 1 in 3 people lives in China or India?
Learn more about how we can live longer and healthier: https://t.co/8OCeNeovTy "
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| World Economic Forum: "We're living longer - but how can we ensure we stay healthy, too?" |
by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 07/11/2019
This year our Annual Open Board Meeting will be conducted as a neighborhood block party at our 23 Hutchinson St. studios.
It’s open to all Franklin businesses and residents. We’ll meet-and-greet and enjoy refreshments starting at 3:00 PM. Come hungry and enjoy some great barbeque. You can also tour our studios, and learn about Franklin●TV and wfpr●fm. We’ll also review our progress during the past year and discuss plans for the future. At our meeting you may cast a vote for new and/or renewing board positions. This year we will vote to extend Jay Horrigan’s board position for an additional three years.
Excerpt from FCCA bylaws: (Available on our website http://franklin.tv/ftv_v12_010.htm)
Section 15. Election of Director by the Membership (a) Members shall be notified by the Clerk of the election of a director by the Membership at the Annual Meeting. Said notice shall be in accordance with the notice provisions of Section 4 of this Article IV. (b) Any eligible voting Member may be nominated for election to the position of Director by:
(i) Written notification to the Clerk no later than seven (7) days prior to Annual Meeting; or (ii) By nomination from the floor of the Annual Meeting made and seconded by no less than three (3) eligible voting members.
Our facility enables us to provide full production support for Franklin residents and groups who wish to create TV and radio programs. Thanks to our board members who contribute their time and energy to help make Franklin●TV all that a public access studio can be.
If you would like to become involved either as a volunteer or produce your own TV or radio programs at Franklin●TV and wfpr●fm, just send an email to: info@franklin.tv with your contact information. You can also call us to discuss and explore your ideas. 508-541-4118.
Please join us at our Franklin●TV event. Again, it’s Saturday, August 28th starting at 3:00pm. We’ll have tours of our facility, some good eats, and you can meet our board and staff. Our brief open meeting begins at 4:00pm. Come meet, greet, and learn all about local TV and radio in Franklin.
See you then.
And – as always –
Thank you for listening to wfpr●fm.
And, thank you for watching.
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| Franklin TV studio on Hutchinson St |
Invisible Stories is a mini-doc series that goes beyond the rhetoric, statistics, political debates, and limitations of social services to examine poverty in America via a medium that audiences of all ages understand and can't ignore.
Link to the first of the series: https://youtu.be/RWVt_arzYoA
Link to the series: https://t.co/Y0NRNIujar
Shared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/hardlynormal/status/1414284287034155020 |
| Invisible Stories - #1 - "We Can't Let Homeless People Die: USC Street Medicine on Skid Row" |
Not so long ago, Ndoumbe Ndoye would never have imagined herself getting up in front of a crowd to talk about issues of social justice and racism, and to share her own personal encounters.Now she can't imagine NOT talking about these things — ever since she steeled herself to get up in front of a crowd on the Franklin town common last year as people rallied following the death of George Floyd.There, she gave an emotional speech that brought tears to her own and others' eyes. And since then she has been actively working to promote racial understanding and justice.
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| Franklin Senior Ndoumbe Ndoye is a determined and passionate youth activist. Photo used with permission from Ndoumbe Ndoye (Pantherbook image from Jason Beckett ) |
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| Norfolk Registry of Deeds Chief Information Officer (CIO) |
"If you order an Uber, you’ll ride in someone else’s car, and if you book an Airbnb, you’ll sleep in someone else’s home. Now, with an app called Swimply, you can stay cool in other people’s pools.Erin Moriarty, a teacher who lives in Waltham, heard about the swimming pool app when a friend asked her to download it so he could rent her backyard oasis for his wife’s upcoming birthday party. Moriarty decided to give it a try, but she didn’t expect the flood of interest in her backyard that followed.“I listed my pool on a Saturday, and when I woke up the next day, I had 10 bookings,” she said. “I’m surprised how many people know about the app.”
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| Greg and Kelly Daniell posed by their backyard pool. This summer, the Chelmsford couple have started using the app Swimply to rent out their pool by the hour.ERIN CLARK/GLOBE STAFF |
"OVER THE PAST YEAR, schools, workplaces, health care providers, and other basic services have moved online. In doing so, the centrality of the internet to modern life became crystal clear to everyone in the country. But for people and families without broadband access, the pandemic has only exposed and exacerbated the digital divide—putting resources like telework, virtual learning, and telehealth out of reach for millions of people.
Even before the pandemic, many people lacked access to high-speed broadband across Massachusetts. According to the ACLU of Massachusetts Data for Justice project, Census estimates show that more than 1 million Massachusetts residents—about 15 percent of the state’s population—do not have a fixed broadband internet connection. Our Census analysis also shows that internet and computer access correlate with income, such that lower income communities are disproportionately left unconnected."
"MASSACHUSETTS ARTS appear to be big beneficiaries of $16 billion in federal relief aid that is finally starting to be released after a delayed start and an arduous review process.According to federal data on the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, 123 Massachusetts arts organizations have received more than $100 million so far, the seventh-highest amount of any state in the country."
"The School Committee will not be meeting on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. They will have a regular business meeting on July 27, 2021. Agenda will be posted closer to the meeting date."
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| Franklin MA School Committee page |
Good Morning
I am fully aware that you are experiencing some service issues in Town recently, which is probably making both your jobs much more difficult, and I do apologize for any inconvenience. I know we have spoken about this before but I wanted to reach out to you personally again to further explain our position.
Like most, our industry is experiencing a severe labor shortage. Which in turn is impacting curbside services as well as other facets of our service portfolio such as, response time, call center wait times, inventory, container repair, roll off services etc.
Because of this, I think it is prudent for you to know what we as an organization are facing at this time
This shortfall is certainly not for lack of effort. We continue to face CDL driver shortages prevalent across the county. As I am sure you are aware by listening to the national news, one of the most severe shortages in labor has to do with CDL licensed truck drivers, and we are not exempt from that. This deficit, coupled with an increase in waste due to people working from home, has recently caused us to occasionally get behind on pickups and/or caused us a delayed response time.
It is worth noting, and illustrated below that In Franklin we have seen a significant increase in curbside trash and recycling volume 15.5% pre vs post pandemic curbside tons. We have also seen a 23% increase in bulk and white goods appointments. Your town is not alone in this influx, we are seeing these types of increases all across the country
- Pre Pandemic May 2019- April 2020 – 10,141 curbside trash and recycle tons – 145 White Goods and 1194 Bulk Items
- Post Pandemic May 2020 – April 2021 – 11,717 curbside trash and recycle tons – 179 White Goods and 1471 Bulk items
As an organization, we are making every effort to actively recruit, hire and train. we have hosted multiple job fairs, offered incentives such as signing bonuses and referral incentives, competitive wages and offered additional benefits in attempt to retain and hire staff to fill the gap.
The Norton operating district recently had 11 Open CDL driver positions of which 6 have been filled and these new hires are still in the infancy stages of their training. We do have a CSR (customer service representative) new hire class that begins training on 7/12 and these new agents will enter production mid- August which will help mitigate some of the call center delays.
Month to date the call center is trending 20% OVER their residential call forecast. This is primarily due to the operational delays we are experiencing for trash, recycle, bulk and yard waste coupled with requests for bulk and white good collection. New England Market Area has been sharing residential calls with our Capitol market area since last May so we do have resources to lean on. However, many market areas including theirs are experiencing the same driver shortages resulting in the operational delays. Therefore we are over call forecast in most areas and due to the high wait times in the residential call queues, customers are using email and chat to communicate with us which in turn is placing us further behind in responding to those inquires.
The problems created by this labor shortage and increase collection times are exacerbated by the current shortage in truck parts, which makes it difficult for us to keep our trucks on the road. The Covid-19 pandemic has completely disrupted the parts supply chain as shipments are delayed, re-routed and quarantined. These delays can sideline vehicles for several weeks at a time. Since the onset of the supply chain crunch, we have had a significantly larger percentage of available trucks sidelined for maintenance and repair. When major repairs are needed on trucks, they can be out of service for more than a month while we wait. Furthermore, when we cannot get parts to service our newer fleet because the parts are on backorder, therefore we must utilize older spare trucks which have less capacity and as a result takes us longer to pick up your trash and recycling and also requires more trips to your designated disposal facilities causing us further delay.
I expect we will experience more service blips as we head into July. While we will continue our efforts to resolve these issues internally to allow us to provide your citizens the superior service you expect, We ask the Town and its citizens to please be patient during this difficult time.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may be causing you and your staff. Please feel free to reach out to myself or Brian Burke if you have any additional questions or concerns on this matter
Sincerely,Heather LouroPublic Sector Solutions Representative
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| DPW and Waste management status update - July 9 |
"WE'RE BACK!
Please join us this fall for our 2021 ride (in person)!!! It will be held on Sunday, September 19th at Jefferson Elementary School! We would love to have you ride with us! Registration is now open. Get a team together and sign up today!!"
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| PMC Kids Ride returns in September 2021 |
"Great for our MetroWest communities-Included in our budget —CPA funds can now be used to purchase Rail Trails!!MetroWest rail trails bring us together and encourage environmentally sustainable transportation. With the Fiscal Year 2022 budget enacted today, Community Preservation Act (CPA) communities will be able to purchase rail property in order to expand existing rail trails and create new ones."
That's right folks! The Open Track meets at FHS are back this summer and we're looking for athletes and volunteers. DM if you want more info https://t.co/bSvoiVxPuVShared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/FranklinHSXC/status/1413641964986191882
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| Open Track meets return to FHS this summer |
Shared from the Town of Franklin page -> https://www.franklinma.gov/home/news/2021-biennial-town-election-information
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| Franklin Residents: 2021 Biennial Town Election Information |
"Over the past couple of months our Peer to Peer Group created, filmed and edited a Mini Video Series about the 7 Types of Abuse as a way to raise awareness about Intimate Partner Violence.
⬇️ Check out Episode 1 below!
🎯 Tune in each week for a new episode!"
"Vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside school buildings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines.The changes come amid a national vaccination campaign in which children as young as 12 are eligible to get shots, as well as a general decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.“We’re at a new point in the pandemic that we’re all really excited about,” and so it’s time to update the guidance, said Erin Sauber-Schatz, who leads the CDC task force that prepares recommendations designed to keep Americans safe from COVID-19."
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| https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/index.html |
