make a donation to the Franklin Food Pantry

FRANKLIN -

The Franklin Food Pantry is asking residents of the community to open their hearts and to help the less fortunate people who have difficulties feeding their families. In a country as rich as ours, no one should worry about keeping food on their tables. Hunger hurts physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

This year, the food pantry has seen a dramatic increase in people needing to access resources to help them live with dignity. The recession has made "financially stressed" a common household word.

We have 2,182 registered clients, which represents 927 households. In this number are 312 seniors who are living on the edge.

The pantry accepts all donations, both perishable and non-perishable. Our grants do not allow us to purchase non-food items. We have a need for toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, shampoo, toothpaste, soap and diapers.

To make a donation to the Franklin Food Pantry through the Country Gazette’s Gifts of Hope drive, make a check payable to Franklin Food Pantry Inc. and send c/o The Country Gazette to 159 South Main St., Milford, MA, 01757. Monetary donations can also be made to Franklin Food Pantry Inc., 80 West Central St., Franklin, MA 02038.

For more information about the pantry, call 508-528-3115. Ask for Linda or Michelle.

This was originally posted in the Franklin Gazette here

FM #27 - Solar Energy - Part 2

This podcast for Franklin Matters is Part 2 of the information session on solar and renewable energy sponsored by The Franklin Area Climate Team and held at the Franklin Public Library Wednesday evening, Dec 10, 2008.

In this second part, we will listen to Matt Arner, President of SolarFlair Energy, Inc. which is based nearby in Hopkinton. Matt gets into greater detail about the solar analysis, the process of obtaining permits, of applying for the rebates and actually getting an installation of solar electricity or solar heating for your residence or business.

Time: 44 minutes, 37 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

This podcast for Franklin Matters is Part 2 of the information session on solar and renewable energy sponsored by The Franklin Area Climate Team and held at the Franklin Public Library Wednesday evening, Dec 10, 2008.

The recording of this evening is split into two parts. In the first part, we listened to Tyler Leeds, Project Manager from the Mass Renewable Energy Trust as he provided an overview on the grants and rebates available to MA residences and commercial or industrial operations.

In this second part, we will listen to Matt Arner, President of SolarFlair Energy, Inc. which is based nearby in Hopkinton. Matt gets into greater detail about the solar analysis, the process of obtaining permits, of applying for the rebates and actually getting an installation of solar electricity or solar heating for your residence or business. There is a great opportunity to tap into solar.

Listen, learn, and enjoy!

- insert clip -

Part 1 can be found here

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This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music

FM #26 - Solar Energy - Part 1

This podcast for Franklin Matters captures the information session on solar and renewable energy sponsored by The Franklin Area Climate Team and held at the Franklin Public Library on Wednesday evening, Dec 10, 2008. This evening at the library is one of the Energy $ense series put together by FACT, with the help of Fred Schlicher, Program Manager from the Mass Climate Action Network, and by the Friends of the Library.

Part 1 of 2

Time: 48 minutes, 59 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

This podcast for Franklin Matters captures the information session on solar and renewable energy sponsored by The Franklin Area Climate Team and held at the Franklin Public Library on Wednesday evening, Dec 10, 2008.

This evening at the library is one of the Energy $ense series put together by FACT, with the help of Fred Schlicher, Program Manager from the Mass Climate Action Network, and by the Friends of the Library. One more evening in January is scheduled. Details on that session can be found on Franklin Matters or the town website.

The recording of the talk this evening will be split into two parts. In the first part, we will listen as Ted McIntyre introduces Fred who in turn introduces Tyler Leeds, Project Manager from the Mass Renewable Energy Trust.

The segment we are about to begin runs about 45 minutes. This is longer than I would normally make available but there is not a natural break until Tyler finishes. You can of course, listen to as much as you can, mark your spot and return. As you listen, you’ll recognize that the presentation by Tyler is well done, the questions are generally distinctly heard and the overall conversation is very informative.

Listen, learn and enjoy!

- insert clip -

In the second part, we will listen to Matt Arner, President of SolarFlair Energy based in Hopkinton. Matt will get into more details about the analysis and process of obtaining permits, applying for the rebates and actually getting an installation of solar electricity or solar heating for your residence or business. There is a great opportunity to tap into solar.

----- -----

This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow citizens of Franklin, MA

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music

"We've gotten our money's worth"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Dec 10, 2008 @ 10:46 PM

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FRANKLIN —

The School Committee is recommending the town's school building committee remove all modular classrooms at Davis Thayer Elementary School and Franklin High School as soon as school ends next summer.

"The modulars throughout the system are reaching the end of their usable life, and those are the oldest in town," said Chairman Jeffrey Roy.

Davis Thayer's two modular classrooms at the corner of Union and West Central streets are probably the least popular because they are ugly, Roy said.

"They're an eyesore in the middle of town. I know a lot of people wanted them down from the standpoint of beautification, but we had to get as much life out of them as possible," said Roy.

When the district laid off teachers at Davis Thayer, two classrooms were left vacant, so it is now possible to dismantle the schools' modular classrooms, Roy said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.

For all that occurred during the School Committee meeting on 12/9/08, click here.

single tax rate stays

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Dec 10, 2008 @ 10:47 PM

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FRANKLIN —

Town Council unanimously voted a slight increase in the tax rate for fiscal 2009, also keeping a single tax rate for residential and business properties last night.

As recommended by the Board of Assessors, the council approved raising the tax rate from $10.23 per $1,000 of property to $11.17 per $1,000.

Doing so will bump up the average residential bill by about 2.1 percent, or $88 for the average house, which is less than past annual increases, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.

The tax rate is somewhat misleading. It will fluctuate as the residential valuations go down (next year is likely to see a greater decrease) the rate will increase.

Bottom line, the overall tax revenues the town can receive are capped at less than 2.5% unless there is an override. The override in June failed so the increase is 2.1%.

Live reporting - Energy $ense - Part 2

Part 1 can be found here

The audio version of this section can be found here

brief interlude for the presentation switch

Fred introduces Matt

Matt Arner
SolarFlair Energy, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA

• Solar electricity
• solar hot water (mostly for domestic hot water use)

How does the system work?

1. The solar grid feeds the inverter (the brains of the system)
2. The inverter is tied to the breaker panel, just like another breaker with the exception that it provides power into the breaker panel (not drawing from like the normal breakers).
3. If you are generating more power than you need to use, you send the extra back out through the meter to the power company. Effectively turning back the meter.
4. Matt's home system is generating enough that it pays for 90% of the electricity they use.
   

How did Matt do it?

1. Bought and converted to energy efficiency appliances
2. converted more appliances
3. then installed hot water system
4. then installed solar system
5. almost 100% solar powered but over time, a five year plan

Matt's company uses local products (Marlboro and Lawrence)

How much does it cost?

• Payback: approx 7-8 years
• System life: 25 years

They partner with a local bank to provide no upfront cost (outside of the grants and tax credits).
So you could effectively pay the same amount for green solar as you would for your normal electrical monthly bill.

expecting to see an 8% increase in electric rates

For commercial installations

• Payback: 5 years
• Return on Investment: 14%

for solar electric you need a minimum of 4 hours of real direct sun daily
solar hot water becomes a good alternative if you don't have the south facing roof

They make the process easy. The permitting process can take up to 3 months, the actual installation takes 2-3 days.

For more information on SolarFlair Energy, Inc. please click through to their web site. It has additional information on the solar water heating, solar electricity and several photos of residential and commercial installations.

If you want to examine the potential for solar for your home, you can follow the steps to start here.

For commercial installations, you can follow the steps to start here.

Renewable Energy Installers

Solar Energy Business Association of New England (SEBANE) North East Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) Directory Information on Installers, Costs, and Locations Other Solar Resources

Disclaimer: The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) has not investigated, and expressly disclaims any duty to investigate, any company, product, service, process, procedure, design, or the like which may be presented on the aforementioned websites. The presentation of these website links does not constitute endorsement, warranty, or guaranty by MTC of any company, product, service, process, procedure, design, or the like. The entire risk of any information presented is assumed by the user.

Live reporting - Energy $ense

At the Franklin Library for the Energy $ense series presentation on Solar and Wind Installations. What grants and incentives are available?

Introduction by Ted McIntyre and Fred Schlicher

The audio version of this can be found here

Tyler's presentation:

Franklin Energy $ense Seminar

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: solar energy)

Tyler Leeds
Project Manager, Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust

Plug for energy efficiency
http://www.masssave.com/

Background
Commonwealth Solar
Micro Wind
Larger Wind
Q&A

Over 1000 active projects generating renewable energy in MA

Solar PV - photovoltaic

Map showing 50 communities within MA that are not eligible for grants

Key goals of Commonwealth Solar

• coordinate efforts with MA DOER
• target of 250 megawatts (NW) installed
• provide a streamlined rolling rebate process
• maintain a quality control function

MA is achieving 8 MW now, the goal of 27 MW is set for 2011

Rebates for residential up to 5 kilowatt systems (average home uses 4 kilowatts)
They would rebate 20 to 40 % of the installation

refer to website for details on the step by step process to install and apply

• www.masstech.org/solar/

Q - where do farms fall?
A - farms are non-residential

Initial installations of micro wind have not been yielding as much as had been expected.
Still a learning process, where does it make sense, where doesn't it?

The opportunity maybe in the neighborhood net metering process. A neighborhood would get together to install a larger turbine for the 8-10 neighbors to utilize instead of a single installation.

Some municipalities do have special permitting processes for turbines

Big Apple Farm is looking to install the same size turbine as the one announced for the Mount St Mary's Abbey.

Location is key for wind, solar actually provides a better ROI than wind.

Q - is there a website that would provide information on wind strength
A - yes, one of the first things they did was to develop wind maps. (link to be provided later).

Multiple questions, good discussion, hopefully the recording will catch these.

Data acquisition system can tie to a website to provide real time updates on energy generated.
(update later)

All the steps to the process of determining eligibility for a solar rebate through to the installation and successful operation can be found on the masstech.org/solar site here.

The second part of the evening covered a local installer whose service includes navigating the permitting and approval process for the home owner or commercial owner.