CNN and Sesame Street are coming together for a town hall on Saturday, Dec. 19 at 10 a.m. ET to help children and parents understand the latest issues surrounding coronavirus, the vaccine, and celebrating holidays safely.Shared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1336747511575433218?s=03
What questions do your kids have? https://t.co/iwYaLtD9gB
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| CNN and Sesame Street coming together for a Town Hall on the pandemic |
From CommonWealth Magazine we share an article of interest for Franklin:
"FOLLOWING SIX DAYS of surging COVID-19 case numbers, Gov. Charlie Baker said on Tuesday that Massachusetts is taking a step backward in its reopening plan.
“We cannot simply wait for the vaccine to get here,” Baker said at a State House press conference. “The rate Massachusetts residents are getting infected and the rate at which they are needing medical care, if all continues to move at this pace, is simply not sustainable over time, and our health care system will be put at risk.”
The governor’s decision means the state as a whole will move on Sunday from Step 2 to Step 1 in Phase 3, a retrenchment that previously had been reserved for communities deemed high risk for COVID-19 three weeks in a row or those that made the decision on their own. Boston and Somerville rank among the latter, while Lawrence, Holyoke, and many other communities fall in the former category."
Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday announced a series of incremental steps to curb the surge of COVID-19 infections, issuing new restrictions on a range of business activities as part of an effort to “build ourselves a bridge to the vaccine,” but stopping short of more forceful mandates.The frightening trends in the march of the virus — underscored by the 3,627 new cases and 40 additional deaths that were announced Tuesday — mean the state cannot “simply wait for the vaccine to get here,” Baker said. “We have to do more.”
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| Franklin's COVID-19 information page |
Residents and civic groups (Scouts, local youth groups, Franklin High School teams, etc.) can "adopt" a hydrant or hydrants.
This is intended to be a commitment for the 2020/2021 snow season and can be applied towards student community service hours.
Visit our website https://www.franklinma.gov/water.../pages/adopt-hydrant to Adopt-A-Hydrant today!
Passengers Can Book Same Day Trips Through Smartphone App
The Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Agency (GATRA) is excited to announce the launch of GATRA GO United a flexible and dynamic on-demand microtransit service to operate within the towns of Foxborough, Franklin, Norfolk and Wrentham.
Similar to ride-hailing services, GATRA GO United uses a smartphone app for riders to schedule customized curb-to-curb microtransit trips. A vehicle will pick up riders and drop them off wherever they wish to travel within the service boundaries. Along the way the shuttle may pick up other passengers who also request a ride (With COVID-19 social distancing protocols in place). This service is wheelchair accessible and all drivers are trained and certified using state and federal guidelines.
This pilot program will operate within the towns of Foxborough, Franklin, Norfolk and Wrentham as well as portions of the towns of Bellingham and Plainville connecting employment locations, medical facilities and recreational locales.
The service will start on December 15, 2020 and will be operated on a pilot basis. It will be free through the month of January. The service area map can be found on the GATRA GO United app or on our website, www.gatra.org/gatra-go
GATRA is partnering with National Express, one of the largest private transportation contractors in the United States and the current operator of GATRA's services in the Franklin and Norfolk Areas. The new service is powered by Next Connect, a new mobility platform developed by National Express in cooperation with Spare, a leading on-demand Transit software provider.
The new on-demand microtransit service will replace the fixed route bus service in these four towns with a solution that will enhance transportation options for all. To use the new ride share program passengers first need to download the free GATRA GO United app on their smart phone and then request a ride.
Following a GATRA GO request, the microtransit app will provide passengers with an estimated pick up time, track the bus in real time and alert the person when their ride is about to arrive. GATRA GO United customers do not have to download the app, same day rides can also be requested by calling 800-698-7676.
Wait time for service pick up will be subject to vehicle availability. GATRA realizes the importance of greater accessibility and mobility in this region and strives to work with their communities to fill public transportation gaps.
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| https://www.gatra.org/gatra-go-united/ starts Dec 15, 2020 |
Franklin Families! Take tomorrow (12/09/20) night off from cooking and order out from Chipotle in Franklin Village to support FHS Varsity Swim! From 5-9pm, show this flyer or tell them you’re supporting the team and 33% will go to FHS swim. Thank you!
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| FHS swim fundraiser today at Chipotle |
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| DESE publishes "Local Contribution Study" |
Hi I am the Nursing Home Administrator at Cedarwood Gardens the former Franklin Nursing and Rehab. As we all know the holiday season can be a tough time for many. If anyone in the community would like to send a holiday card to a resident please address the envelope to
From the Pew Research Center comes a study on measuring news consumption:
"Given the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of this news landscape and concerns around overreporting of news consumption, Pew Research Center wanted to explore how best to measure news consumption: Where do currently used survey practices still work and where might changes be in order?
This report is the culmination of this effort and is organized into three sections: Chapter 1 looks at the U.S. public’s familiarity with newer concepts related to news; Chapter 2 examines possible ways to improve survey-based measures of news consumption; and Chapter 3 compares survey results to the use of passive data that comes straight from tracking software news consumers downloaded to their digital devices.
Americans are largely familiar with new technologies but often don’t think of them as news sources."
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| "Survey-based measurement of news consumption is not without its own problems" (Pew Research photo) |
FM #408 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 408 in the series.
This session of the radio show shares my "Talk Franklin" conversation with Town Administrator Jamie Hellen and Marketing and Communications Specialist Anne Marie Tracey. We had our conversation via conference bridge to adhere to the ‘social distancing’ requirements of this pandemic period.
We talk about:
We’ll record a session of Talk Franklin each week leading to Christmas and take the holiday week off to begin again in 2021
Links to the key topics covered here are included in the show notes. The recording runs about 45 minutes, so let’s listen to my conversation with Jamie and Anne Marie.
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| Town Administrator Jamie Hellen updates the Town Council during the 12/02/20 meeting |
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UNIQUE EMERGENCY PLANS FOR 2020-2021
"For the 2020-2021 school year, Franklin Public Schools plans to implement remote learning instead of snow days during the winter of 2020-2021. Having opened school remotely positions us well to pivot to a remote learning day in the event of inclement weather. Instruction on these days will be structured. The Department of Elementary and Secondary education is allowing districts to do so this school year only, without having to make up the days at the end of the year. In the event of inclement weather, educators and students/families should be planning for remote learning days to be held using the remote learning schedules previously communicated at the beginning of the school year. Schools will send additional information about daily schedules. Should inclement weather bring widespread power outages, the district may need to close one, multiple, or all schools for the day, and the day will need to be made up at the end of the year. Asynchronous learning will be provided in the event that sporadic power outages are experienced for individual students to be able to be “virtually present” for the day. The district will continue to use delayed starts to the school day if morning weather conditions make travel difficult but the forecast calls for improvement of conditions throughout the day."
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| Updated Inclement Weather Plans for 2020-2021 School Year |
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| 67 Degrees Brewing HOME DELIVERY (weekly) IS ON!! |
The Franklin Police Department has become aware of Residential B&E's that have occurred in several other cities and towns over the last month. These breaks all appear to have targeted the Asian and Indian communities.
In 2019 the town of Franklin experienced several Residential B&E's where the Indian community was also targeted.
With the holidays upon us The Franklin Police Department would like to remind all of our residents to remain vigilant. Please don't hesitate to contact this department in regards to any suspicious persons, vehicles or activity. Please be ready to describe in as much detail as possible any suspicious persons or vehicles you see when you call. This will help us identify them if they are still in the area when officers respond.
The Franklin Police Department wants all of our residents to have a happy and safe holiday.
Shared from https://www.franklinma.gov/police-department/news/recent-home-breaks-area-communities
Download a copy of the press release https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/news/psabes.pdf
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| Franklin Police: Recent home breaks in area communities |
From CommonWealth Magazine we share two articles of interest for Franklin:
"AS THE SURGE of COVID-19 cases continues statewide, Gov. Charlie Baker announced new measures to expand testing and keep hospital beds open.
Baker was visibly angry as he discussed the need to increase testing and stem the virus’s spread, saying that the state’s positive test rate “took off like a rocket,” because some people ignored public health recommendations and gathered with others outside of their households indoors and without masks over Thanksgiving.
“We’ve been saying for months this is one of the primary ways the virus spreads, and we talked a lot about why Thanksgiving was particularly worrisome,” Baker said at a Monday briefing. He said he had a weekend call with mayors, some of whom shared frustration at seeing neighbors hold indoor gatherings without mask wearing.
“Thanksgiving, the ultimate informal gathering among people who are informal with each other, but who don’t necessarily live with each other here and in many other places, has been exactly the kind of event that people said it would be,” Baker said. He added that he hasn’t shared a meal with his own father since February. "
Gov Baker's press conference that lead to the article can be viewed here https://youtu.be/s04QGn97BG8
"As news of promising progress on coronavirus vaccines have filled the headlines in recent weeks, labor lawyers say employers have been pressing one question in particular: Once approved, can they require employees to take it?“Until maybe about a month ago, we hadn’t had many clients asking about it,” said Brett Coburn, a labor and employment partner with Alston & Bird. “We’re starting to see a lot more momentum.”The news that a coronavirus vaccine could start being distributed within the next few weeks has sent stocks soaring and government officials scrambling to develop plans for the herculean task of distributing it across the country.For employers, many of which have kept workers home for months, it has opened a complex set of legal and practical issues: Can they require employees to take a vaccine? Should they offer incentives instead to encourage compliance? And what should they do if employees resist?"
"MASSACHUSETTS FINDS ITSELF in the eye of a storm. As municipal leaders, we have grown increasingly concerned as we see COVID-19 cases spiking across the state. In some communities we are already seeing the rising prevalence of this virus cause week-long turnaround times for COVID tests as contact tracers are unable to keep up with the sheer volume of new cases.
We have been warned by medical and epidemiological experts for months that a winter surge is coming. Now our public health infrastructure is starting to show signs of strain and will be overwhelmed if we continue on the same trajectory. There is no mystery what follows these record case numbers: a severe rise in hospitalizations for people who require intensive care and a frightening number of lives lost.
There is expert consensus that we are entering the most dangerous phase of the pandemic. But why accept the worst–case scenario as inevitable? In March, faced with an existential test as a society, we banded together and rose to the occasion. We found that with collective sacrifice and government action led by Gov. Baker, we were able to avoid the worst of what the catastrophe might have been.
We face another defining moment today, and we know that we can once again rise to the occasion and do what is necessary to meet this extraordinary challenge. If we act now to reverse the trend of community transmission, we can minimize the toll of human suffering ahead of us. This will require targeted, temporary rollbacks of the state’s reopening plan, with a focus on reducing activities that are sources of transmission, especially those that allow for gatherings of people from outside our households. "
63 MBTA employees infected with COVID-19
"MBTA GENERAL MANAGER Steve Poftak said on Monday that 63 of the agency’s employees currently have COVID-19, up from 50 last Wednesday.
Poftak said for every worker with COVID-19 there are usually two others affected, mostly because they came in contact with the infected individual and have to quarantine while they await the results of a test. “This begins to have workforce impact,” he said.
Jeffrey Gonneville, the deputy general manager of the T, said the last time the T had 63 infections was during the first COVID-19 surge in April. The peak number then was about 108.
To deal with the vacancies caused by the disease, Gonneville said the agency is slightly adjusting travel times on the T’s subway lines to free up employees who can be used to substitute for workers out because of COVID-19."
The members of the EDC will host the third in a series of five Business Listening & Networking Sessions on sectors of the Town’s economy. Anyone is invited to attend and offer public comments.
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| listening session schedule adjusted to include the original #3 session with that of the Dec 9 agenda |
FM #405 = This is the Franklin Matters radio show, number 405 in the series.
This session shares the Franklin, MA Town Council meeting held on Wednesday, Dec 2, 2020.
The meeting was conducted in a hybrid format: members of the Town Council, selected guests, and Town Administration personnel were in the Council Chambers, the public was remote via Zoom conference bridge, all to adhere to the ‘social distancing’ requirements of this pandemic period.
I’ve split the full four hour plus meeting into three logical segments:
The show notes contain links to the meeting agenda including documents released for this agenda.
Let’s listen to this segment of the Town Council meeting of Dec 2, 2020. Audio file => https://player.captivate.fm/episode/a062ed2d-0e87-4576-8ed6-4d6252137436
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Agenda document (and released supporting materials in one PDF)
https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif591/f/agendas/12-02-2020_town_council_agenda.pdf
Agenda details with individual documents
https://www.franklinma.gov/town-council/agenda/december-2-town-council-meeting-tax-rate-hearing
Spear phishing update folder
https://franklinma.gov/administrator/pages/spear-phishing
My notes from the meeting
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/12/town-council-meeting-comcast-contract.html
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| Assessor Kevin Doyle addresses the meeting explaining the tax rate process |
