Public Transit Funding in Serious Peril

I received the following press release from GATRA this afternoon:

Taunton –

The proposed fiscal year 2010 budget released by Governor Deval Patrick has severely cut back on the Administration’s commitment to provide for local public transportation services. This proposed budget only provides for 49 million dollars of the 64 million dollars needed to fund the 15 regional transit authorities operating regular bus and demand response service throughout the Commonwealth. The Regional Transit Authorities are the only remaining reimbursable line item left in the state budget and this proposed budget is actually paying for services that are operating now. “Due to the fact that we are already eight months into our fiscal year drastic cuts in service will need to be made in order to make up for this reduction in funding,” noted GATRA Administrator Francis Gay.

GATRA’s Advisory Board will be meeting in late February to discuss the current budget implications and to devise a plan moving forward. In the meantime the GATRA Administrator is asking residents throughout the GATRA region to contact their local Representatives and Senators to ask them to adequately fund public transportation services in the region when devising the House and Senate versions of the budget. If the proposed budget number stays anywhere near what the Governor has recommended there will be significant deficits for all the Regional Transit Authorities statewide.

GATRA is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of 15 Regional Transit Authorities in the state with an operating budget of more than $22 million. GATRA’s management companies operate more than 90 vehicles providing over 775,000 customer rides in 26 communities.

You can chose to do one of two things:

1 - Stay tuned to find out what this means to the Franklin routes.

or

2 - Take action and contact your local Representatives and Senators to ask them to adequately fund public transportation services for Franklin

Your choice.

Live reporting - Financial Plng - continued

There are elements within each department where no matter how well we do planning, the factors are beyond our control.

The schools are data rich. The key measures are MCAS scores, per pupil expense, comparisons on administration, teacher salaries, and class size.

The issue with the schools is the decrease in local support of the budget, i.e. the state is paying more and more as a percent of the total school expense. We will soon get to a point where we hit the minimum level for the town to support the school. When we hit that, by law, the town side of the budget will definitely take a hit as the schools will take the money.

Compelling story behind accreditation that we are missing out on except for the high school, and even there, we are in tough shape with a "warning" status now and unless something happens with the facility to help the science labs and technology

Graduation Rate at Franklin High School

• 92% 2006
• 94% 2007
• 96% 2008

We have increased the graduation rate despite the losses of teachers. What that means is that there are 14-16 more students who walked out the door with a diploma in their hand than did in 2006.

March 5th is the planning point for trail review with the focus group. Maybe we should wait to set the forum date until we have the deliverable?

We need to have something when the numbers for the 2010 budget come out.

Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee - 2/5/09

Attending: Roche, Bartlett, Cameron, Hardesty, Nutting, Wilschek, Kelly, Ogden, Trahan,
Absent: Whalen, Zollo

Zollo sending info to Hardesty
Whalen acquiring data, Jeff to help with Town figures

The more data that is easily available, the better story we should be able to tell

Assumptions - these are the types that we would have. We already have the beginning of a model with assumptions already built into it. In some cases (i.e. the big ones only), we may pick a point to do a range, and explain the range, why, wherefores, etc. This range also allows a sensitivity analysis to be done on the numbers.

After 5-6 on the expense side and another 5-6 on the revenue side, there really isn't something that significant.

Kelly provided the Frequently Asked Questions. Many of which have been or at least can easily be answered, some will be addressed by the report. If any are left, they still should be answered via hand-out or other publication (i.e. I have offered to post the FAQ's with answers here).

The Governors proposal would increase a maximum of 2% in the hotel and the meals tax.

Franklin would stand to gain a total of about $1 million from the combined taxes.

Nutting: "I can't think of a year when the town did not have revenue growth. Even when they cut lottery, the school population growth was still generating Chapter 70 increases for Franklin."

We are almost ready to start the financial model. Year 1 in the model needs to be fiscal 2010.

HR Matters - provided previously, should be all set on this now. Did send this to Hardesty in softcopy.

This is where we have been, this where we are, this is where we are going. These are the three chapters of the story we need to tell.

Road discussion, even with our plan we are falling behind. We are using state money or water money to work the roads. If the water main work gets done, we do the road. If the water main doesn't need work, it won't get done. The Town hasn't budgeted for road repair since 2002 or 2003.

The underfunded liability for GASB 45 needs to be outlined.

"It's a good, positive program"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

Posted Feb 05, 2009 @ 01:09 AM

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FRANKLIN —

At the recommendation of Police Chief Stephen T. Williams, Town Council unanimously voted to suspend the liquor licenses of two establishments for serving teenagers working in a sting.

At hearings last night, the owners of Pepper Terrace Restaurant at 400 Village Drive and Cottage Street Pub & Grill at 158 Cottage St. said they did not dispute the facts in the police findings. They apologized for the offenses and promised to ensure their employees complied with serving laws.

Police conducted three types of compliance checks - underage stings, checking hot spots for parties with underage drinking and "shoulder taps," where undercover operatives hang out at a liquor store and ask someone to buy them alcohol - on Jan. 17, Williams said.

Read the full article on this item from Wednesday's town council meeting in the Milford Daily News here.

Why not have a Middle and High school mentor program?

Every one should have a mentor. Our youth would benefit greatly from a mentor relationship. At least one high school has a "Dream Mentor Program". It would be worth looking at to try and do something similar for our middle and high school students.

What is the Purpose of the Dream Mentor Program?

The word “Dreams” provides a sense of comfort and confidentiality that is required when one is confiding trust and passion to another in hope reality can be achieved. The aim of the program will be to:

1. Fostering academic (thinking) development
2. Preparing students to be informed, caring, and productive citizens of society
3. Preparing students for higher education
4. Preparing students for the world of work.

Read more about the Dream Mentor Program here

Town Council Mtg Smry - 02/04/09

This is the collection of postings from the Town Council Meeting 2/4/09

• Town Council - Agenda - 2/4/09
• Live reporting - Administrator update/Council Comm...
• Live reporting - ABC hearings
• Live reporting - Charles River Pollution Control
• Live reporting - Action items
• Live reporting - Town Council - 2/4/09

Live reporting - Administrator update/Council Comments

Administrator updates:

Nutting
Community builders working by the ice rink should have construction complete by the end of the year.

No immediate need to take action on the $300,000 cut by the state, this will be absorbed.

FY 2010 will be short about $5.2 million, there will be layoffs to account for that deficit. Early in March will be looking for the council to set direction on priorities.

Also provided an update on the hotel/meal tax which could account for approx. $850,000 for Franklin.

Whalen - Are we getting a report from Mike on the New Year's incident?
Nutting - pulling together the insurance numbers now, we can come back early in March with the full package.

Zollo - perhaps Nutting should make a presentation on where the numbers are coming from for the budget to help ensure accurate information.
Nutting - should be able to do so for the March 4th meeting

McGann - Veterans monument ordered and possible for arrival by Memorial Day

Doak - capital subcommittee report, I want to thank Brutus (DPW Director) for creative thinking to arrange for additional savings for the replacement of two pieces of equipment.

Mason - thank the various department heads for putting together reasonable requests. Thanks to Brutus and the DPW for a fine job keeping the roads clean. It has been a tough season but they have done well.

Live reporting - ABC hearings

Capt Steve Williams
Lt Lynch

• Have a grant to conduct a periodic "sting" - visit establishment and see if you can get served without getting ID checked
  
• Monitor hot spots and parties
• "Shoulder tap" - position an underage person outside liquor store to see if they could get someone to buy liquor for them.

Did the sting on all 31 establishments, 29 passed, 2 failed.

Cottage St Pub
operative was presented a beer, money was placed on the table

Owner admits they failed, won't contradict the police report

Recommendation, 3 day suspension with 2 days held in abeyance

There is money left in the grant, more stings will be conducted in coming months

Discussion on time period for abeyance, 2 years or 1 year to be held.

Motion to accept either the 7th, 14th, or 21st as the day to observe the suspension
Owner has 48 hours to confirm which date with the Town Administrator.

Motion passed by 7-0 vote

Pepper Terrace

operative was asked age, did not verify license

Owner admits that the facts are as stated

Recommendation: This is a second offense, the prior 2 days have been held in abeyance. The 1st violation was 2007. This time should have a full 7 day suspension observed on consecutive days.

Motion for suspension to be imposed from the 7th to the 13th of February.

Motion passed by 7-0 vote

Live reporting - Charles River Pollution Control

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS

• Charles River Pollution Control District

Per Jeff, won't be a rate increase for Franklin based upon what we have already planned for

The presentation: (thanks to Elaine Sistare for sending it)

Charles River Pollution Control District - Presentation 2/5/09

View more presentations from Steve Sherlock. (tags: sewer pollution)

Presenting:
Doug Downing
Al Wallace, Franklin representative
Elaine Sistaire

Also present:
Pat Hughes
Bob McRae
Paul Disimone (?), Medway rep

Significant budget increases due to

• Capital
• Salary and benefits
• Chemical costs
• Maintenance Costs

$490,000 over the Prop 2 1/2 increase

Franklin's portion of the operation is
68.2% - Operations & Maintenance wastewater assessment
67% - capital wastewater assessment

Nutting - the Council did vote for this in 1989, a couple of conflicts in advice have come in today so we are double checking with DOR. It may be back before you for a vote.

Actual plant capacity - 5.7 Million gallons per day

Franklin as part owner has excess capacity, we may be able to sell our excess capacity to generate additional revenue

The cost increase for Franklin's share would be a 20% increase over what we have as an assessment today. We do have time to plan for it per Jeff as this would only kick in for 2015 and beyond.

If we did not get into compliance, there would be a daily fine, approx $25,000 per day. Therefore it would not be an option to not be in compliance.

Live reporting - Action items

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION

• Resolution 09-04: Onset Circle, A Private Way: Acceptance of Covenant with Developer

Approved 7-0

Live reporting - Town Council - 2/4/09

Attending: Whalen, Mason, Feeley, Pfeffer, Doak, McGann, Zollo
Missing: Vallee, Bartlett

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES none

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS - none

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS - none

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none

E. APPOINTMENTS - none

new Real Estate blog

I am beginning to find new blogs on Franklin popping up. Kathy Stankard, a realtor and part of the ReMax network, has a new blog here.

In addition to providing information on the homes for sale, the blog provides insights on what is happening in the market. The two most recent posts are:

Why should I list now?

Okay, maybe the daffodils are not in bloom and there is another snowstorm in the forecast but a seller can truly capitalize on the buyers that have begun to get back out. There are six main advantages for a seller to list now (in the winter) instead of waiting until spring:

They're Baack!

Well, it seems as if many buyers just woke up from a long winter nap. Open houses lately bring in 6 or more people and the phone has been ringing--alot. This is great news since last year's real estate market was rather quiet overall. The low interest rates and low home prices seem to be prompting buyers to get out and purchase rather than the watch and wait approach of 2008.

I'll create a "Franklin blogs" section to pull together those I have already found and posted about earlier, I'll add the new ones that come along.

If you find a blog about Franklin that is not listed, please let me know. Bloggers love to get links!

"It felt like you left the United States"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Feb 04, 2009 @ 12:05 AM

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FRANKLIN —

Amanda Cawley vividly remembers the first time she saw New Orleans in January 2007: The eeriness, the houses with giant "Xs" splashed across them, the boats in the middle the road.

"There were houses that slid off their foundation, but were still standing. We saw a lot of toys on the road, lots of piles of trash everywhere you could see. All the grass was dead. There weren't birds or anything like that around," recalled Cawley, a Wheelock College junior who recently returned from her fourth trip to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Before that initial trip, Cawley, and the small group of Wheelock students who accompanied her to rebuild homes with Habitat for Humanity, had the impression life had resumed with some semblance of normalcy, because the mass media wasn't covering the situation anymore, she said.

"One of the things we learned about New Orleans, the more you read about it and find out about it, it really surprised us how much still needed to be done. That really pulled us to go," Cawley said.

read the full article about the students efforts to rebuild New Orleans in the Milford Daily News here

"How do we do it cheaper, better, quicker?"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Feb 04, 2009 @ 12:03 AM

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FRANKLIN —

Franklin is looking at a $5 to $5.2 million budget shortfall next fiscal year, right in line with the gap most Massachusetts communities will contend with, Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting told the Finance Committee last night.

Nutting is still waiting for a few numbers, on health insurance and the debt, to further pinpoint the shortfall, he said.

The town does have one glimmer of hope to offset the damage, Nutting noted: Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed hotel and meals tax proposal.

The hotel tax would net Franklin about $150,000, and meals tax, $850,000, Nutting said.

"It hasn't become law, but it would take a million-dollar bite out of the apple," Nutting said.

Read the full article on the FINCOM meeting from 2/3/09 in the Milford Daily News here

Franklin History

Did you know that there was a typewriter called "The Franklin"?

The Franklin is a downstroke-from-the-front machine with a curved keyboard. At least three British typewriters, the Salter, English and Imperial, have similar designs. This configuration offered visible writing (at least to a typist who craned her neck forward). Many nineteenth-century typewriter designers viewed the curved keyboard as ergonomically superior to the straight.

For more on "The Franklin", you have my permission to click on through to view the site with photos here.

Just don't forget to stop back here sometime for what matters in Franklin, MA! :-)

FACT: Green Fair 2/5/09

This Thursday come to a Green Fair to meet local green businesses and learn about how to fight global warming. We will have live music and interesting information.

Check out the details at our new website http://www.franklinareaclimateteam.blogspot.com/ , and follow the link to an article in the Milford Daily news.

Check www.fusf.org for directions.

FINCOM - quick notes from 2/3/09

The Finance Committee wrapped up the capital discussions this evening and voted 9-1 to approve the Administration recommendations on $1.3M for capital to come from "free cash".

Presentations this evening covered the
School Dept - replace two vans (hopefully starts a regular replace of the school vehicles)
School Dept - text books (replacement of US History text that are 10 years old was one example)
School Dept - technology (desktop/notebook system replacements - all slated for replacement are more than 6 years old)

Town - Facilities (replacement of gazebo roof)

Town Administrator Jeff Nutting also provided an update on the current reduction of $300,000 from this years (FY 2009) budget. He is having his department heads look into how they can absorb this amount. He is not overly concerned about this year. (I agree given we come up with about $1 million in "free cash", that is money in the budget that is not used each year, coming up with $300,000 should be "easy".)

Jeff provided an outlook into FY 2010 budget. Given the numbers prepared by the various town and school departments thus far, he is forecasting a shortfall of about $5.2 million. (Note: it was reported last week that this number would be in the $4.5 to 5.5 million range.)

Jeff is hopeful that the state legislature will take action to enable some local taxes (i.e. the meals tax could be kept in Franklin and is estimated at about $800,000). Taxing the phone companies would generate about $150,000. So while together this would be about $1 million, it would help but not be anything near a silver bullet.

Of more concern to Jeff is the fact that the Town is on the path of getting to the minimum level of funding for the schools. It could be that in 2011, the state minimum would kick in and the town would be forced to make further cuts on the municipal side (or pass another override) to make the ends meet.

With the budget season now beginning in earnest, I encourage you to tune into the meetings. Better yet, make the effort to get to the Council Chambers for the key FINCOM, School Committee and Town Council meetings.

With you participation, then at least you can be assured of a good discussion and decision. You will have done what you could.

If you sit back and let someone else take action, you may not like the results but you'll need to live with them.

After school activities canceled today

The automated phone call just arrived with Superintendent Wayne Ogden announcing that all after school activities will be canceled due to inclement weather.

All schools will dismiss on their normal schedule. No late bus runs will be made today.