In the News - Third Thursday, public hearing

Franklin prepares for final Third Thursday

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

Franklin to hold public hearing on putting utilities underground

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
Construction on Wachusetts St to start soon, will be completed next year

L. OLD BUSINESS
Pfeffer - program for road repair?

Nutting - I am ready to meet when you are

M. NEW BUSINESS

Zollo - status of work on Main St

Nutting - work has not yet been completed, the service needs to be cut to each property

the plates need to be held open until testing etc is done

I have to say at least another month

Will the road be repaved complete?

In 2012 when the full project is done

the plates will be done before the winter

McGann - requesting Brutus for a presentation on Water Treatment

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
Vallee - congratulations to School For Performing Arts

Pfeffer - Chilson Beach closing this week

only beech around that doesn't have the tall lifeguard chairs

can we get Tri-County to collaborate with us to get them before next summer season

Mason - Jeff could you address the citizens comment?

Nutting - given personnel issues and threatened legal action I have no comment

McGann - based upon what I have heard tonight, there is no reason for this gentleman to be harrassed.

Vallee - motion to adjourn

Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Action items

I. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS - none

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION –
1. Resolution 10-46: Appropriation – Repaving a Portion of Washington Street
McGann recused himself from this vote
Developer put the funds aside for this, this is moving the funds from one account to another to actually do the paving.
motion to approve, passed 5-0 (McGann recused)

2. Resolution 10-47: Appropriation – Spring Street Culvert

Nutting - during the spring rains, the culvert collapsed, by the time the bids came in, we still need to get it done before the winter

Pfeffer - where about is the culvert?
Nutting - description to be added

Motion to approve, passed via roll call 6-0


Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Underground utilities

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS – Underground Utilities



From Alpine Pl to the railroad bridge, estimated at $1 million
Ranges from 65 to 120 (more than the 65-75 I quoted earlier)


Complications on the utilities coordinating their activities
Nationalgrid could do the work within a year, Verizon and Comcast would take more than a year


Zollo - strategic and long term issue for downtown development, need to have more than a one year outlook, reinvestment is needed. I would support to put the utilities underground, it is the most cost effective to do it now. I understand the issues with the current economy. I would support a public hearing on this.


McGann - I second Shannon's issue with this not being the time to do so but let's get the public hearing to have the citizens and businesses express their thoughts on the matter.


Pfeffer - Why the financing up front? I don't understand that part of it.
Nutting - we would front the costs and have the utilities pay us back over the term of their collections


If you have a Verizon land line user you get assessed, but not on internet
If you have Comcast cable, you get assessed if phone no


Jones - I would approve getting a public hearing on this. I walked this stretch and see only a dozen or so poles. I agree that it would be the time now to do so although not the best time in the economy to do so.


There is a separate issue with how the electric utility would be delivered. The utility will deliver the service two feet inside the property line but where the service entrance is in relation to that is not known. 


Vallee - I have always been concerned with downtown as we are behind the scenes where other towns have gone. On Emmons St, from Main to W Central has any one approached Dean if they want to do that?
Nutting - no

Mason - I have a bunch of questions about this. I feel there are a lot of people out there who won't see the the value of this investment. This is not the time to do so. I don't this would be the Council's place to do this without business owner input, and from the citizens to express their thoughts on this. They may feel there is long range benefits to this.

McGann - Some of the dwellings are rental units, so if the landlord does it, the rents will need to go up.

Mason - I thought this was a larger area, from Emmons to Alpine.
Nutting - When we priced that section, the Emmons and W Central streets, the price is astronomical; 4-5 million. Maybe we made a false assumption assuming that that would be off the table. It would be nice to do them but it is a lot of money.


Franklin, MA

live reporting: Town Council

Present: Jones, Vallee, Mason, Pfeffer, McGann, Zollo
Absent: Kelly, Whalen, Powderly

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – July 21, 2010
motion to approve, passed 6-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Meetings of the Town Council are Recorded
Steve Sherlock is also recording the meeting for Franklin Matters
Third Thursday

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS - none

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS
Tim Conlin - Licensed for work, yet problems with Franklin DPW
needed to get a water/sewer permit signed
Problem with Mr Yadisernia, unresolved, undetermined
A long history of providing service to Franklin yet problems with Yadisernia

E. APPOINTMENTS
Public Land Use Committee - Timothy O'Toole
Motion to approve, passed 6-0

F. HEARINGS - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS - none


Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: utility wires to go underground - clarifications

Based upon feedback and questions from readers here and on our Facebook page let me add:

A couple of things to be clear about:

1 - SOME of the utilities are going underground per the project funding anyway. That is shown in the green area on the map. The question is do we, Franklin, choose to pay for the 'red' section to also go underground at the same time (to save money as it would be cheaper with the road work already underway) or not.
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/08/franklin-ma-underground-utilities.html

2 - The issue of one way versus two way traffic is open and separate from the utilities. I'll be doing another survey on that aspect once this one finishes.

3 - Yes, the Federal and State grants ultimately came from our pockets. The difference is the money is already here in our Franklin account, collecting interest until spent on this project. The question being resolved by the planning process is to determine exactly how this money is to be spent downtown.

Does that help? If not, please let me know.

Third Thursday - August 19th

A diverse mix of art appreciation, networking and shopping rounds out the upcoming Franklin Downtown Partnership’s Third Thursday event on August 19 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Jane’s Frames, 11 East Central Street, is hosting an Artist Opening Reception, presenting Oils and Acrylics by Robin Wessman. Kia Olsson will perform live music and refreshments will be served.

Around town that evening several shops will offer specials:

• Downtown Consignment on Main Street shoppers can save 50 percent at the Summer Clearance Sale and enjoy refreshments
• A Cut Above Salon, 56 East Central Street, will offer free hair cuts with another service, as well as coupons and free hair products
• Sarapaan Beads & Jewelry, 21 East Central Street, will demonstrate bracelet making
• The Rome Restaurant, 4 East Central Street, will offer dinner for two for $20

As it is every Thursday, the Franklin Historical Museum on West Central Street will be open for tours from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Berry Insurance, 9 Main Street, will host the United Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professionals Organization, a group of people in their 20s and 30s who have an interest in networking, community involvement and professional development. All are welcome to attend the event and can purchase tickets for the First Annual Chowder and Chili Championship in September.

The Franklin Downtown Partnership is a group of community leaders, business owners and residents whose mission is the economic revival of Franklin’s downtown.

The Partnership’s next general meeting is Thursday, September 16, at 8:30 a.m., and its next scheduled event is the Harvest Festival on September 26. All interested vendors should contact Mary Graff at mgraff@berryinsurance.com.

For membership or sponsorship information please contact Executive Director Lisa Piana at (774)571-3109 or downtown.franklin@yahoo.com.



Updated 5/17/11 - sometime in the past couple of months, Downtown Consignment moved to an unknown location in Plainville. The Franklin Art Association now has a gallery in this location.




Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: Town Council - Agenda - 8/18/10

The Town Council is scheduled to meet this evening at 7:00 PM.

The agenda is not yet available on the Franklin, MA website.

Under the new Open Meeting rules, it is likely posted on a window at the Municipal Bldg.

Updated: 8/18/10 the agenda was added to the website sometime today, hurrah!

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – July 21, 2010

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS -Meetings of the Town Council are Recorded

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS

E. APPOINTMENTS
Public Land Use Committee - Timothy O'Toole

F. HEARINGS

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS – Underground Utilities

I. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION –
1. Resolution 10-46: Appropriation – Repaving a Portion of Washington Street
2. Resolution 10-47: Appropriation – Spring Street Culvert

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

P. ADJOURN

Want to help with the Long Range Financial Planning?

The Long Range Financial Planning Committee is considering expansion of the Committee by two members. The Committee meets approximately 8-10 times per year and is tasked with looking at the 3-5 year financial picture of the Town. 


Anyone interested in being considered for the Committee may email a letter of interest to the Town Administrator at jnutting@franklin.ma.us or fax a copy to 508-520-4903. 


Letters of interest will be  accepted until August 30th. 

This was posted to the Franklin website here:
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_News/015DAF2B-000F8513




The committee is currently composed of three Town Council, and two each from the School Committee, Finance Committee and general public. By adding two more citizens, this should help broaden the representation for the citizens.


Current members


Town Council: Scott Mason, Shannon Zollo, Steve Whalen
School Committee: Susan Rohrbach, Roberta Trahan
Finance Committee: Jim Roche (Vice-Chair), Rebecca Cameron
Citizens: Doug Hardesty (Chair), Deb Bartlett


Franklin, MA

"a natural stormwater-filtration system"

He said the town is indirectly contributing $98,000 to the project - which comes from in-house labor from the engineering and highway departments.

He said town laborers can't devote all their time to the projects, so they'll take longer to complete.

"The whole idea of the grant was not to spend town money," he said. "That's the whole idea: to use as much in-house resources as possible."

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here:

Franklin adding to detention pond

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley, Daily News staff



Franklin, MA

Dean College: President's Cup Golf Tournament

The 14th annual Dean College President’s Cup Golf Tournament is scheduled for Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at the New England Country Club, Bellingham, MA.

Check-in, registration and breakfast begins at 8 a.m. The tournament begins with a shotgun start and scramble format at 9 a.m., and concludes with a luncheon and awards at 2 p.m.

For more information or to register, please contact the Dean College Office of alumni relations at 1-888-711-3326, or go online to https://www.dean.edu/forms/golfregistration.aspx


Franklin, MA

FYI - Boston Subway users

In order to collect data on the behavior of airborne contaminants, the study involves releasing non-toxic, inert, odorless gas and particle tracers into the subway system. Particle and gas concentrations will be sampled in more than 20 stations and in subway cars across the MBTA subway system.  The deliberate release of chemical or biological agents is of primary concern, but the study also helps researchers understand airflow for smoke or unintentional spills of chemicals or fuels.  This research can be used by the MBTA in developing evacuation, ventilation, and other incident response plans. 

Read more here
http://transportation.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2010/08/scientists-study-mbta-subway-airflow.html


Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: Underground Utilities - survey

The facts:

1. The Downtown Revitalization Project is funded by state and federal grants. It is not funded by local taxpayer money.  The grant funds are restricted to use in the Downtown District.
2. Electric wiring near the bridge and that related to street lights along Main St will be going underground regardless as part of the streetscape work in the Downtown District.
3. The additional stretch of utility wiring that is being considered for putting the utility wires underground is outside the Downtown District according to the grant funding. This area is from the bridge along East Central to approximately Simons Furniture store. This stretch is proposed to be paid for by surcharge fees from the utility companies and paid by their customers (ultimately those of us in Franklin).
4. The ESTIMATED fees for the average residential customer would be a total surcharge of approximately $65-75. Because multiple companies are involved (electric, and two cable), the specific details on the timing of the surcharge remain to be worked out. The companies would spread the surcharge amount out over time to minimize the effect on an individual utility bill. We would see the minor increase in both the electric and cable bills. The surcharges are finite and will end after being paid in full.  
5. Putting the utilities underground now is drastically cheaper than normal due to the proposed road construction.  If the utilities aren’t put underground now, it likely will not be considered until the next major road repair of the area (ideally decades from now).

The area already covered by the grant money is shown on the map in the light green. The area in question is shown in pink.

Additional information on the project can be found here:
http://www.milforddailynews.com/topstories/x1452735553/Franklin-council-to-discuss-placing-utility-lines-underground

The Downtown Improvement Project review meeting held on May 12 was broadcast and recorded for review here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/05/downtown-improvement-project-live.html


The poll question can be found in the center column on the top of the Franklin Matters web page. The question asks "Would you pay approx. $70 to put the utilities underground?" and takes a Yes or No answer.

Feel free to leave a comment here or send me an email.  The Town Council email addresses can be found on the Franklin web page here:
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Council/index

My thanks to Tina Powderly for help in crafting this posting.


Updated 8/29/10
The survey results were Yes - 22, No - 44.

"should be done to benefit the aesthetics of downtown"

... the recession creates obstacles, Nutting said.

"In the present, we're in a different situation. We have to look at it differently," he said. "We want to make sure we do our due diligence and give citizens and business owners the opportunity to come in and ask questions and have their voices be heard before we make any kind of decision."

But the decision has to be made relatively soon, as downtown construction to widen sidewalks, raise crosswalks, reroute traffic and other improvements are planned to begin next year.

"We have a bylaw in town that says when we re-pave a road, we can't reopen it for five years," Mason said. "We either do it during reconstruction or forget about it."

Franklin council to discuss placing utility lines underground

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley, Daily News staff

Franklin, MA

In the News - accident, Chronicle, Chilson Beach

DA identifies woman who died on I-495

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley, Daily News staff

WCVB's 'Chronicle' coming to Franklin on Wednesday

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley, Daily News staff

Victor Pisini, owner of Pisini Shoe Store at 22 Main St., is looking forward to the publicity.

"We're always excited if they're going to promote downtown," Pisini said.

Piana said camera crew will be in town from 11 a.m. to about 4 p.m. During that time, she plans on telling them all about the partnership.

"We have over 130 members now and we've increased out membership quite a bit since last year. It's interesting how our membership has grown so much in the last two years - we've doubled it," she said. "I think it speaks toward how we're a community and how the businesses support each other and work together through tough economic times. The focus is on mom-and-pop-owned (shops), and we have a lot of them."

Chilson Beach will close in Franklin Friday

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: Trash/Recycle Survey Results

As promised, the full set of results from the recent Trash and Recycle survey are contained within the links here. I have provided three reports to access the data.

1. The full and complete set containing the Ref#, the Overall answer (Yes or No), and the comments for both questions. Note: if the comment field is blank, there was nothing submitted. Both comment sections were optional. The Yes/No question was mandatory.
2. The set of answers for the question: "What DO you like about the process?"
3. The set of answers for the question: "What DON'T you like about the process?"

You can access these files directly here:

1. The full and complete set
2. The DO answers
3. The DON'T answers

You can also read them on the web via Scribd here:

1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/35952136/FM-Trash-Recycle-Survey-Results-Full-100816
2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/35952138/FM-Trash-Recycle-Survey-Result-Do-100816
3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/35952137/FM-Trash-Recycle-Survey-Results-Dont-100816

And finally to make it easy to read, the document with the full results is here:

FM Trash/Recycle Survey Results Full 100816

In case you missed it, the quick summary was posted here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/08/trashrecycle-survey-results.html


Note: email subscribers will need to click through to view the document on Franklin Matters.

Franklin, MA: high school field advertising

One source of additional revenue for school athletics that has been approved is advertising in the high school field house. The program was successfully piloted and expanded to include similar banners for the outside athletic field. These banners are posted along the fence on the "home" side of the stands.

Go Franklin!



Franklin, MA

In the News - Latin options

Franklin schools look to modern Latin method

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley, Daily News staff



Franklin, MA