Franklin Matters

Friday, May 31, 2013

United Regional Chamber of Commerce: Early Bird Golf Rate Ends June 3

The United Regional

Chamber of Commerce

Annual Golf Tournament

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June 17 - Franklin Country Club

672 E. Central St., Franklin

What's Included:

18-holes of Golf, Cart, Lunch, Dinner, and More

Important Times:

11 a.m. Registration

11:30 a.m. Putting Contest &

Rules & Cart Pick-Up

Noon Shotgun Start

5 p.m. Awards Dinner

Cost:

$185, or $210 with player passport before June 3

Register by Calling: 508-222-0801, 508-528-2800 or 508-695-6011

Thank You to These Generous Sponsors:

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Even If You're Not a Golfer,

You Can Still Promote Your Business

by donating items for the "golfers bags" that will be given to every golfer. What you donate is up to you! Possibilities include lip balm, sunscreen, snack bags, or whatever you might like that can display your business name. Call the Chamber at 508-222-0801 to let us know what you'd like to contribute.

Forward email

The United Regional Chamber of Commerce | 42 Union Street | Attleboro | MA | 02703

"It’s almost as moving as the real thing"

The half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is in Medway through Sunday.

"It’s tough, but it’s satisfying," said Souza, who helped put up panel 30 West of the Wall, which includes the name of his childhood friend, Richie.

Volunteers, including Leigh’s nephew George Grant of Medway, spent most of Thursday putting up the wall, which is managed by a Michigan-based nonprofit organization and includes more than 58,000 names.

After the presentation of colors by the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines out of Devens, the ceremony was lead by Marines Staff Sgt. Robert Saleski of Medway, a Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

Among the speakers was state Rep. Jeff Roy, D-Franklin, who said the monument is one of the "most powerful and moving tributes to personal sacrifice and national loss," including more than 1,000 soldiers from Massachusetts.

"The names pay silent tribute to men and women from communities like this one," said Roy, who recalled being 7 when his neighbor was killed in Vietnam. "I can remember the sorrow at the dinner table, and the emptiness of my neighbors’ house."

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Age appropriate there and here

Bernie DeKoven, the Chief Deep Funster, writes;

John Taylor Gatto’s article, The Curriculum of Play, is visionary in its scope, and deeply validating for anyone who believes in the kind of education that takes place when children are free and at play. Perhaps I am so drawn to it because I’ve spent so much of my life, since 1971 and the publication of my Interplay Games Curriculum, and the years of teaching and training that led up to it. Nevertheless, dear Deep Funster, I decided to assume that at least some of Gatto’s article would be as affirming to your beliefs as it was to mine. I am not in total agreement. But if I were, it probably wouldn’t be as much fun to read.

He also includes this video about "Schools of Trust"

So coming off the post and video, I find out that at least Franklin teachers will be doing a 45 writing prompt for K-2 to prepare something for the teachers in September to use. Students in 3-5th grade will get 2 forty-five minute periods for this writing exercise. This is not part of the Writers Workshop curriculum that is used by the district. So excuse me! 45 minutes for a K student without assistance? And Franklin touts their age appropriate educational experience? You gotta be kidding?

You can read Bernie's full posting here
http://www.deepfun.com/fun/2013/05/the-curriculum-of-play/

I would be curious to find out how widespread this writing prompt exercise is. Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend many School Committee meetings due to my work with the Food Pantry. If you hear of this in your school, please share.

Spring photo mini-sessions - family photos!

Aubrey B Greene Photography

This Spring, mini-sessions will be held on June 15, 2013, from 9am - 4:30pm, with slots every half hour. Sessions will be 20 minutes long and can include any number of people. My selection of the best images will be edited and posted online for ordering prints, canvases & gifts.

Sessions cost $100 each, and will be held outdoors on the Dean College campus in Franklin, MA.

If you would like to sign up, please e-mail AUBREY@AUBREYGREENE.COM to reserve your time slot!

You can view Aubrey's work on her website
http://www.aubreybgreeneblog.com/index.php/post/view/spring_mini_sessions

View the event on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/500862403315043/

Gun Safety Forum - 7:00 PM - Dean College

Hosted by Rep Jeffrey Roy, the forum will feature a panel with

Stephan Semerjian, Franklin Police Chief
Representative David P. Linsky, Leader on public safety legislation
Representative Harold P. Naughton, Chair, Joint Committee on Public Safety & Homeland Security
Jim Wallace, President, Gun Owners Action League (GOAL)
Andrea Leverentz, Associate Professor of Sociology, UMass Boston

"a record of perfect attendance since kindergarten"

One tried, one let it happen. Both students ended up with perfect attendance records as they graduate from Franklin High School.

"When I was up late doing homework or something, I always wanted to take a day off," Lauren said of making it through high school without a sick day. "A lot of my friends would do that. But my mom pushed me to keep up with it: ‘You made it this far,’ she said, ‘just keep going.’"

Combined, the teenagers completed more than 4,000 school days. After middle school, honored by teachers and administrators, they realized just how far they’d gone without missing any classes.

For Lauren, the award compelled her to keep the record going through high school: "It was a motivator for me."

Tom, however, was indifferent. "I wasn’t trying for a record," he said. "I just went whenever I could, and it happened to be every day."

Pour Richard's One Fund Fundraiser

Announcing Pour Richard's First Pennywise Party*

*and One Fund Boston Benefit

Save the Date! Sunday, June 9th we will host our first Pennywise Party. Are you stocking up for a vacation home, a boat, or just a bunch of great summer entertaining? Don't waste precious time stopping for provisions. Instead, you can have your own little stash of great wine, AND know that you got a great bargain. We have asked our distributors to bring great wines that they can offer at a 20-70% discount. We'll have 40+ wines for you to try, you buy what you like, and your order will be available for pickup in a couple of days.

Our first Pennywise Party will also be a benefit for One Fund Boston. There will be awesome wine and wine-related raffles, and we'll be donating a percentage of profits. We literally can't believe some of the wines we've received for this event: Wattle Creek GSM at 75% off, Guenoc single vineyard Petite Sirah at66% off, Andeluna Chardonnay at more than 60% off. Hope to see you there!

For more about Pour Richard's visit their website http://pourrichardswine.com/

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Relay for Life - Franklin

The next Relay for Life is scheduled for Jun 14 - 15 at Tri-County Regional Voc Tech here in Franklin.

One of the featured events during the Relay will be a Pantene hair stylist Saturday morning from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM

For the full schedule of events visit the Franklin Relay for Life webpage

Crescent St Construction

One of the streets being rebuilt this year on the DPW schedule is Crescent St. I caught this photo as I passed by on the way to the parade Monday.

Crescent St construction

If you missed the Town Council meeting in April with the presentation on all the DPW projects you can check this link http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/04/franklin-public-works-upcoming-projects.html

Emeritus Senior Living

The construction is making progress, earlier photos that I took as I passed by were all of the site prep.

Emeritus at Franklin

This week there is steel rising above ground and a stairwell or elevator shaft being put together.

construction framing

For more about Emeritus Senior Living visit their webpage
http://www.emeritus.com/massachusetts/franklin/emeritus-franklin

In the News: tornado relief

Franklin police and fire collecting donations for tornado victims

The Franklin Police and Fire departments have teamed up with Tony Gallo of Gallo Moving to collect much needed relief supplies for the tornado victims of Moore, Okla.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Memorial Day Parade - photos

A photo slideshow of the Memorial Day parade

Where would the anaerobic digester be located?

ZONING BY-LAW AMENDMENT 13-714

Changes to §185-3. Definitions

A ZONING BY-LAW TO AMEND THE FRANKLIN TOWN CODE AT

CHAPTER 185, SECTION 3.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE FRANKLIN TOWN COUNCIL THAT:

Chapter 185 of the Code of the Town of Franklin is hereby amended by the following
addition, added into §185-3 Definitions in alphabetical order:

ANAEROBIC DIGESTER - A structure or series of structures where a biological
process, anaerobic digestion, breaks down or “digests” organic waste materials in the
absence of oxygen, and through utilization of separators, biogas recovery systems and
other processes, produces digestate and biogas, which are further processed for
production of soil amendment, fertilizer, electric energy, pipeline quality natural gas, and
similar commercial products.

The foregoing Zoning By-law amendment shall take effect in accordance with the
Franklin Home Rule Charter and Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40A, Section 5.

The public hearing and presentation will take place before the Planning Board, Monday, June 3.

Pond St entrance to former sewer facility

Proposed location is on Pond St (next to KinderCare) at the site of the former Franklin sewer facility.

View Larger Map

For more on the public hearing
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/05/anaerobic-digester-presentation-town-of.html

"Getting an unaccepted road on a town’s books can be a complicated process"

A Massachusetts Department of Transportation inventory found more than 3,200 miles of so-called unaccepted roads in the state last year, though the state may undercount the true number, according to Turner and several municipal highway officials.

"It really is a bill that’s time has come," Turner said recently. "It’s really necessary."

Such streets pepper the eastern Massachusetts landscape, often in subdivisions where builders skipped town, went bankrupt or died before a municipality reviewed and formally accepted the development’s roads as public ways.

This often causes headaches, with no developer to plow, repair or pave such roads and towns under no obligation and without any state road funding to do any major maintenance of improvements to such streets.

...

Some towns have taken different approaches to unaccepted roads. Franklin adopted a streamlined process to accept roads and has been actively doing so, said Brutus Cantoreggi, the town’s public works director. The town can then count those roads in the formula used to determine how much state Chapter 90 highway maintenance money it receives, he said.

"If it was initially going to be a publicly accepted roadway, that’s where it has to go," Cantoreggi said.

Read more: State bill aims to resolve confusion over unaccepted roads - Franklin, MA - Wicked Local Franklin http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x83400805/State-bill-aims-to-resolve-confusion-over-unaccepted-roads#ixzz2UZx2EMTe

Related posts:

The annual Report section on the DPW's Highway Division
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/01/annual-report-2012-dpw-highway-and.html

The DPW presentation to the Town Council in April, 2013 on the various projects being worked this year
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/04/franklin-public-works-upcoming-projects.html

The current road condition report
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/01/franklin-road-conditions-from-worst-to.html

Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day Parade

The parade is scheduled to start at 10:30 AM. The parade forms at the Historical Museum and will walk up Main St to the Town Common. The parade will make stops at Dean College and the monuments on the Town Common for brief ceremonies.

From last years parade, the Horace Mann Middle School Band:

Horace Mann Middle School Band

"the day we remember what it means to be a hero"

An essay by Vanessa Desiato, an intern with the MA Dept of Veterans Services:

So what does Memorial Day mean to me, now that I'm older, more experienced, and a little bit taller? It means we should stop and think about the sacrifices men and women have given to make this world a safer place for someone else, not just on Memorial Day, but every day. As an intern at the Department of Veterans’ Services, serving Massachusetts' veterans, every day is a Memorial Day/Veteran’s Day hybrid. These soldiers are stronger and braver than I could ever imagine myself being. They are heroes. They are people like my brother, who heard the call to serve, and couldn’t be persuaded to do anything else. Someone I grew up with making snowballs, blowing up hotdogs, and climbing on, was a hero-in-the-making, and I had no idea.

Read the full essay here

"Massachusetts has raised tobacco taxes in 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2008"

This may also happen this year as the Governor, House and Senate all include a dollar a pack increase in their respective budgets for FY 2014.

Cigarette tax revenues, along with the settlement money, brought in about $815 million last year, according to the Department of Revenue. That figure would rise another estimated $165 million - for a total of $980 million - under a proposed dollar-per-pack increase supported by the governor, House and Senate.

All of the increase would go to fix the state's aging transportation infrastructure. Nearly all the other tobacco tax revenue now goes into the general fund. Only $4.2 million went to anti-smoking programs this year.

Marc Hymovitz, director of advocacy and Massachusetts state government relations for the American Cancer Society, said the use of tobacco tax revenue to fund anti-smoking programs in earlier years was superseded by the state's economic crises of the past decade.

Moving Wall in Medway May 30 - June 2

Do not miss this opportunity to visit the half-size replica, which will be located at the Medway VFW on Holliston Street.

An opening ceremony will be held Thursday, May 30, at 6 p.m., and a closing ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, June 2, at 5 p.m. The exhibit will be open 24 hours a day until Monday morning, June 3, and will be staffed by volunteers for your inquiries or individual needs.

Materials will be available to do rubbings of names, should you desire to do so, in remembrance of a friend or loved one killed in action in the Vietnam War.

Moving Wall

Read more: Downing: Vietnam Wall in Medway - Franklin, MA - Wicked Local Franklin http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x776195863/Downing-Vietnam-Wall-in-Medway#ixzz2UUeMJNtP