Voices of Franklin: Powderly -> Appoint the Treasurer/Collector Position

Friends and Colleagues

Tomorrow is election day, and I respectfully ask you to VOTE YES on Question 1 to make the Treasurer/Collector position in Franklin an appointed position, not an elected position as it currently stands.

Moving the position to an appointed position does not indicate a loss of faith or trust in the voters.  The move recognizes that Franklin has grown to a $100 million+ business, with complex debt management and cash flows, and that an election does not necessarily allow one to properly vet candidates for such a critical position.  The process for hiring our next Treasurer/Collector should include interviews, references, requirements for certifications, prior experience, assessment of ability to work with other Franklin departments, at a minimum.  Indeed, the likes of General Motors or IBM or Pepsi do not choose their CFO based on a poll of their staff because although their staff may be well-informed and well-intentioned, the dynamics of an election do not automatically mean that a rigorous full review of the candidates takes place.

Please note that our current Treasurer/Collector, Jim Dacey, has lobbied for a change to an Appointed position for years.  He has done a phenomenal job for the Town and is the one most qualified to comment on the rigors of the position.  Please read his editorial below for his reasoning, and note that last week Milford approved by Town Meeting this same change.

http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinions/letters_to_the_editor/x915438136/Dacey-Make-Franklin-post-appointed

Please support the Treasurer/Collector position as Appointed for the long-term financial health and stability of Franklin.

Thank you.

Tina Powderly

Conversation with Brett Feldman - Town Council Candidate

Brett Feldman is attempting to step up to the Town Council after 8 years with the Finance Committee. Brett will be one of 10 candidates for 9 positions on the Town Council. Aside from the existing Councilors, his experience on the Finance Committee has probably best prepared him for what will be needed to serve on the Town Council.

By the time, Brett and I got together earlier this month, he has already met with Town Administrator Jeff Nutting to review the listing of the topics Jeff had prepared for the candidates to be aware of. There were no surprises on the list. Brett was already familiar with the issues around the funding for the roads, the schedule for the downtown project, and Davis Thayer’s status, to mention just a few.

Brett’s eight years on the Finance Committee has provided him a good knowledge of the overall business of Franklin. He understands the budget process. He has worked with the various department managers and other committees.

Brett is an energy professional with experience working for energy companies. He lives in Franklin with his wife and two children. The oldest of his two children is in elementary school and youngest is about to enter. He is a civic minded volunteer looking to be ‘part of the solution’ for Franklin.



You can also find Brett’s input during the Candidate Forum on Oct 23rd here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/10/live-reporting-candidates-forum-town.html

Election sign collection - 2013

The photos of the election signs that I found around Franklin can be found here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_sherlock/sets/72157637276276744/


If you find a sign for a candidate that I missed please send it to me so I can add it to the collection.

Thanks

"We are hoping that it will be good"

The Milford Daily News writes about the local Franklin election happening on Tuesday, Nov 5th

The ballot includes races for Planning Board, Board of Assessors, constable and Town Council. 

Voters are to decide whether to make the treasure/collector position appointed through an amendment to the town’s charter. And they will see a non-biding referendum asking if the town should adopt a mayoral form of government. 

Ten candidates, six incumbents and four hopefuls, are vying for the nine available council seats.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x825427347/Election-day-is-Tuesday-in-Franklin#ixzz2jfnSzSy1


The candidate profiles are posted to the Wicked Local Franklin page and summarized here:
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/11/candidates-for-town-council-part-2.html

and here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/11/candidates-for-town-council.html


The Franklin Matters election collection can be found here:
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/10/franklin-election-2013.html

Candidates for Town Council (part 2)

The Milford Daily News is posting their candidate profiles to the Wicked Local webpage.

Judith Pond Pfeffer
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/topstories/x915439608/Judith-Pond-Pfeffer-Candidate-for-Town-Council

Andrew Bissanti
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x915439617/Andrew-Bissanti-Candidate-for-Town-Council?rssfeed=true

Glenn Jones
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x915439619/Glenn-Jones-Candidate-for-Town-Council

Matt Kelly
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x915439623/Matthew-Kelly-Candidate-for-Town-Council?rssfeed=true

Peter Padula
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x915439625/Peter-Padula-Candidate-for-Town-Council?rssfeed=true

Stephen Williams
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x915439629/Stephen-Williams-Candidate-for-Town-Council?rssfeed=true

Conversation with Andrew Bissanti - Town Council Candidate

Andrew Bissanti is up for his second term on the Town Council. His first two years went by quickly. Andy spent the time doing a lot of learning. He expects that he will be more active in this next Council assuming he is re-elected. We sat down recently to discuss the top questions facing Franklin.

Q - Now that the Master Plan has been approved, what do you think will happen to it?
The previous Master Plan sat on a shelf and was referenced from time to time but that was about it. There was a good team that worked on this plan. The skills and abilities in the room were impressive. I am all for this plan, it needs to work for us..The Master Plan was well presented by the team and should be good to work with.

Q - Do you think the Treasurer/Collector should be appointed or elected?
I think it should be appointed. Franklin is a $100 million dollar business. We need the expertise to manage the money properly. There should be a search committee. I expect that there will be some good candidates. If the individual is a Franklin resident, all the better. That should be our #1 option.

Q - What do you think of the non-binding question for mayor? Should we have one?
The first question is what kind of mayor? There are different kinds. We pretty much have the structure today, just change the name from Town Administrator to Mayor and that is one of the possibilities. We need to look at what we want. Where are the strengths, where are the weaknesses?

From this point the conversation turned to related matters. Andy feels there should be a joint session with the Planning Board and Town Council. There needs to be a better understanding of the “Special Permit” criteria. A lot of what has been set up was done years ago. Franklin needs to grow again. How do we do that? We should look at ‘net equity yield’. Andy says he hears of folks saying we can’t have more kids here. Look around you. We have good schools, look at all the youth programs, there are lots of families here. I don’t think it has to be growth without kids. We are a top community to raise a family. We can continue to be that and grow.


Related Links
The 2013 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/10/franklin-election-2013.html

The 2011 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/08/election-2011-summary.html

The 2009 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2009/10/2009-election-collection.html

Conversation with Judy Pfeffer - Candidate for Town Council

When Judy Pfeffer and I sat down recently to talk about the election Nov 5th, we realized that the last time we had got together was prior to the election in 2009. My how time does fly? Without letting too much more time go by, we got into a series of questions which Judy answered.

Q - Now that the Master Plan has been approved, what do you think will happen to it?
A - The Master Plan needs an implementation committee to do the work. It took a whole lot of good work by a lot of people to put the Master Plan together. It will take some work to put into action.

Q - Do you think the Treasurer/Collector should be appointed or elected?
A - I had been on the side to have the position appointed. I have changed my mind and it should remain elected. It is the only way to keep the position with a Franklin resident. And with the size of the budget, it really should be managed by someone local. I have long advocated for Franklin residents to be first inline for town positions. Keeping the position elected will do that.

Q - What do you think of the non-binding question for mayor? Should we have one?
A - How will the mayor be set up? It depends. I don’t want to be mayor. Some others might but not me. people need to know that this won’t happen anytime soon. It will take another charter commission to study, make a proposal, go through the approvals and require another vote before we see it.

After these questions, our conversation vered to cover other Franklin topics. Judy thinks the Citizens Committee is shaking things up a bit. Attention needs to be paid to some things where it hasn’t been. The downtown train station got fixed up recently due to their efforts. What will we do with the old municipal building? It needs repair because nobody was paying attention to the building. That should not happen. Judy would like to return to the Town Council to help address these things.


Related Links
The 2013 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/10/franklin-election-2013.html

The 2011 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/08/election-2011-summary.html

The 2009 election collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2009/10/2009-election-collection.html

Franklin, MA: School Committee - Agenda - Nov 6, 2013

WEDNESDAY - November 6, 2013
Municipal Building – Training Room - 7:30 P.M.
This meeting will not be televised

Vision Statement

The Franklin Public Schools will foster within its students the knowledge and skills to find and achieve satisfaction in life as productive global citizens.

AGENDA

"The listing of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law."

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

1. Action Items:
a. I recommend acceptance of two checks totaling $1190.00 from the Oak Street PCC for field trips.
b. I recommend acceptance of a check for $472.00 from All American Publishing for FHS.
c. I recommend acceptance of a check for $800.00 from the Parmenter PCC for field trips.
d. I recommend acceptance of $10.00 from MIT for in house enrichment.

2. Adjourn

Candidates for Town Council

Milford Daily News is starting to post profiles for the Town Council candidates

Charles DelFino
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/newsnow/x915439602/Charles-DelFino-Jr-Candidate-for-Town-Council

Brett Feldman
http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/newsnow/x915439604/Brett-S-Feldman-Candidate-for-Town-Council

"tax-free online purchases are unfair for local business"

When you purchase something from Amazon beginning Nov 1, you'll notice that you will have to pay a MA sales tax when you checkout.

"It's something we needed in Massachusetts because our Main Street businesses and local businesses have been at a disadvantage," said state Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin. 

Roy said tax-free online purchases are unfair for local business that must pay the state sales tax. 

"If somebody goes into a local store, they can effectively use it as a showroom, look at the items, talk to store owners, learn about the qualities of the merchandise, and then they can leave the store and order it online, and they will save 6.25 percent," he said. "I am glad to see it has finally been fixed."

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x825427174/Local-reps-applaud-sales-tax-collection-from-Amazon#ixzz2jU9crwmX

Franklin Youth Soccer Assoc: Keep that playoff energy going!!

From: FYSA - Keep that playoff energy going!!

FHS Soccer The Sox won!  Now let's keep that playoff energy going! Come out an support the FHS soccer teams as they start their playoff runs this weekend! A great crowd is an awesome home field advantage!  Please stop by if you can! Sat, Nov 2:  FHS Varsity Boys (#5 seed) vs Taunton (#12 seed)  4:00pm  - FHS turf field Sun, Nov 3:  FHS Varsity Girls (#1 seed) vs winner of N. Quincy(16)/Milford(17) 4:00pm  -  FHS turf field And if that's not enough playoff fever for you... get out on Saturday night to cheer on the Revs!! Sat, Nov 2:  New England Revolution vs Sporting KC 8:00pm  - Gillette Stadium, Foxboro   Franklin Youth Soccer Association,  256 Cottage Street Franklin, MA, 02038 http://franklinyouthsoccer.org, info@franklinyouthsoccer.org, (508) 520-4070

"to help handle the ripple effects"

Franklin has sent a letter to the casino developers for the Milford project asking to be considered a "surrounding community."

"We continue to have concerns about the impact of the casino on the town’s housing stock, negative impacts on local retail, including loss of meals and hotel tax revenues, impact on the education system and the demand for increased public safety response to Interstate 495 as a result of the dramatic increase of traffic to and from the casino," Nutting wrote. 

Nutting penned a similar letter in June asking for a meeting with Foxwoods officials, but he did not hear back. 

According to the gaming commission, the 2011 Expanded Gaming Act aims to protect not just the town or city where a casino might be built, but also those municipalities nearby.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x825427163/Franklin-rolls-dice-on-Foxwoods-compensation#ixzz2jU82WneP

Dean College Hosts Early Childhood Education Training on Nutrition

The Dean College School of Continuing Studies will be hosting a free training for early childhood educators on the topic of nutrition. The event will be held on Wednesday November 20, 2013 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM and participants will earn two hours of nutrition training from the Department of Early Education and Care.  Seating is limited. 

Highlighting the schedule is a presentation from Pam Mele, titled "Growing up Healthy: A nutrition seminar for early childhood education providers", Pam is an adjunct faculty member and expert in the field of Early Education with over 30 years experience working with young children and educators. 

"On behalf of Dean College's School of Continuing Studies, I am pleased we are able to support the professional development of early childhood educators in our community on such a critical topic as childhood nutrition," says Veatrice Carabine, Dean of the School of Continuing Studies at Dean College. 

The training will take place in the Golder Room, located in the Dean College Campus Center. Attendees are asked to park in the Campus Center parking lot, at 109 West Central Street/Route 140. 

To register for the event, please call 508-541-1629 or email vcarabine@dean.edu. For more information, please visit www.dean.edu   

Nov 2: Due to the Rolling Rally, Commuter Rail's Saturday schedule has been modified

Nov 2: Due to the Rolling Rally, Commuter Rail's Sat sched has been modified to provide special, pre-parade service w/ extra IB trains in the morning Capacity is being significantly increased along each line. Pleas expect variations in scheduled times due to increased ridership and allow extra time for your trip. The MBTA strongly urges parade-goers to take advantage of the earliest trains to avoid very heavy volume on subsequent trains. Please note: Commuter Rail service will not run on lines that do not normally run on Saturdays (Greenbush, Kingston, Needham, Fairmount, and Stoughton). Making stops on each line, the North Side train departure times will be: Trains departing Rockport at: 6:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., 8:45 a.m. Trains departing Newburyport at: 6:15 a.m., 7:15 a.m., 8:48 a.m. Trains departing Haverhill at: 6:00 a.m., 7:15 a.m., 8:15 a.m. Trains departing Lowell at: 6:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m. Train departing Wilmington at: 7:45 a.m., 9:20 a.m. Trains departing Fitchburg at: 6:00 a.m., 6:50 a.m., 7:40 a.m. Train departing South Acton at: 8:50 a.m. Making stops on each line, the South/West Side departure times will be: Trains departing Worcester at: 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m. Trains departing Franklin/Forge Park at: 6:35 a.m., 8:35 a.m. Trains departing Providence at: 6:35 a.m., 8:35 a.m. Trains departing Middleboro/Lakeville at: 6:50 a.m., 8:22 a.m. All Commuter Rail lines will return to their regular Saturday schedules at approximately 4:00 p.m. Additional outbound trains have also been added to the Fitchburg Line, leaving North Station at 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m., making stops at all stations. Commuter Rail customers can purchase a $10 roundtrip fare electronically via our mTicket mobile ticketing app at www.mbta.com/mticket beginning Friday, November 1 at 1:00 p.m. Last updated: Nov 1 2013 11:28 AM Click here for more information: http://www.mbta.com/events/ Sent by the MBTA. Manage subscriptions Help (or write support@govdelivery.com)

Food Pantry, Food Elves and Downtown Partnership

The Franklin Downtown Partnership is once again teaming up with the Franklin Foods Elves for the "12 Days of Donating" Campaign to support the Franklin Food Pantry.

The "Food Elves" which is a student run organization will collect food donations the first 12 days of December for the Food Pantry.  We are looking for 10 businesses that will agree to have a food donation bin placed at their business location for this time period for residents to drop by and donate food.  In addition,each business will agree to donate $200 to the Food Pantry for the campaign.

Last year the Food Elves collected 2 Tons of food! It was one

of the most successful food drives ever in Franklin!

Let us know if you would like to be one of the participating businesses so we can list your business in the press release and on the Holiday Stroll flyers. The deadline is next week so let us know soon.  The $200 is not collected until December 12th.

Thanks for your interest....

Lisa Piana

Executive Director

and The Franklin Food Elves

Candidates Forum replay schedule

The recent Candidates Forum is available for replay via your cable channel on these days and times. Franklin TV has confirmed that the schedule was adjusted to provide more views of the program before our election on Tuesday, Nov 5th.

Franklin Town Hall TV

The Candidates Forum will run this week:
Friday  2:00 PM and 7:00 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM

They will also schedule it heavily Mon/Tues next week.


Franklin.TV ... 23 Hutchinson St., Box 286 Franklin, MA 02038-0286 ... 508-541-4118

What are you going to do with all that Halloween candy?

Friendly reminder that the Franklin Lions will take it off your hands on Sunday

Candy, Candy, Candy, Candy, Candy, Candy!!

Donate Yours

To Our

Troops!!

Sunday November 3rd, 2013

VFW Hall

1034 Pond Street

Franklin, MA 02038

10am to 2pm

Every Child who donates is entered into a drawing various prizes!!!

Sponsored by the Franklin Lions

National Grid: High Wind Alert

To view this email as a web page, click here. A message from National Grid National Grid has been closely monitoring the heavy winds expected to hit our area over the next 36 hours. We are preparing our personnel and crew for potential outages and want to make sure that you are ready, too. If you have an elderly relative or neighbor, please ensure that they are aware of the situation and have considered their options. Please see below for a list of our safety tips and important contact information. Be prepared by creating an emergency kit: Water. The American Red Cross recommends one gallon of water per person per day Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food Charged cell phone Flashlight and extra batteries Battery-powered or hand-crank radio First aid kit We urge you to stay connected In addition to Outage Central, National Grid offers a number of ways for customers to report outages or learn about restoration efforts and important safety information.  Here's how: Outage reporting hotline - Call 1-800-465-1212 to report an outage. Text messages - Customers can receive text message alerts by texting the word STORM to NGRID (64743). Customers can opt out at any time by texting the word STOP to NGRID (64743). Find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Download our free mobile app (available in the Apple and GooglePlay stores) which will allow you to view outage maps, report your outage, check the status of your outage, and access important contact and safety information. Remember, if your power goes out, you can also access our mobile website by going to nationalgrid.com on your mobile phone. National Grid Here with you. Here for you. © 2013 National Grid USA Service Company, Inc. This email was sent by: National Grid 40 Sylvan Road, Waltham, MA 02451, U.S.A.