Providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin, MA since 2007. * Working in collaboration with Franklin TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019 *
Friday, March 20, 2009
School Activities - Friday Night
Parmenter School - Auction Friday night 3/20/09 at 7:00 PM
Davis Thayer - Talent Show at Horace Mann Auditorium, 3/20/09 at 7:00 PM
Are there other school activities I may have missed?
Add a comment or send me an email and I can update this listing!
Franklin: FHS Bottle & Can Drive 3/21/09
According to this sandwich board sign on the corner of King and Forest Streets, there will be a bottle and can drive at Franklin High School this Saturday the 21st.
Worthy of note, signs like these are not permitted currently nor would they be under the revisions of the sign bylaw underway. There was a presentation at the Downtown Partnership meeting on 3/19/09. There will be additional publi hearings as the revision comes before the Town Council and the Planning Board.
If you are interested in using signs like this or any other signs to help advertise a special event, I recommend you watch carefully to find out when the public hearings will be held. I will post the information to Franklin Matters as I find out.
“Second graders only get one chance at second grade"
As part of his Massachusetts Recovery Plan to secure the state’s economic future, Governor Deval Patrick today announced he will commit $168 million in federal education recovery funds to ensure every district in the Commonwealth reaches so-called foundation spending levels next school year. For Franklin, that means that an additional $448,381 in the school budget. This will reduce our anticipated deficit for FY10 to approximately $2.5 million.Read the full article on the Franklin School Committee blog here
"We were a total team effort"
Read the full article about the Trivia Bee in the Milford Daily News herePlacing Martha Stewart's quote, "It's a good thing," was easy enough for Town Treasurer/Collector James Dacey in last night's annual Trivia Bee.
But Dacey's team, the "Franklin Munibees," comprised of Dacey, Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting and Fire Chief Gary McCarraher, were lost when it came to identifying the HBO series, "Big Love."
Thus, they could not hold onto their "world championship title," as Nutting called it, from last year's Bee, which is put together by the Franklin Education Foundation to fund classroom grants.
Everyone knew the television character who once said, "We lost a daughter, Edith, but we gained a meathead," Archie Bunker and the puppeteer who told TV Guide she loved to shock waiters by ordering lamb Shari Lewis. (She rode to fame on a puppet named Lamb Chop.)
Letter to the Editor
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You look at yourself in the mirror and say “I need a haircut”. Or your wife/significant other drops a similar hint. So you make a mental note to stop by the barber shop or call for an appointment.
The designated day arrives, you get your hair cut and have a wide ranging conversation with the barber or stylist. While you are sitting there, he or she is clipping and or cutting away, and you solve half the world's problems
Amongst the topics is usually sometime spent discussing the economy and how dismal prospects seem to be at the moment. So and so was let go from Fidelity. So and so was let go from another place. If you listen to the headlines, the economy is in the tank for sure. No one seems to be doing good. Even the banks and automotive companies getting bailouts are coming back for more.
So you change the topic to something brighter. You talk about your days in school, long ago now. How the teachers were good, or tough, or easy. How so and so messed with the chalkboard and got in trouble for it. What is he doing these days? Oh, he is teaching English the next town over. Wow, that is good.
Even if the conversation switched to whatever sport was in season and how the local team was doing, the fact of the matter is the conversation could not have happened without education.
Yes, let's list out how education touched each aspect of this simple event; getting your hair cut.
The barber or hairstylist received their training at an accredited institution
The teachers at that institution were similarly trained at an accredited institution
The licensing board personnel were hired because they had a minimum of a high school education, more likely the requirement was a college degree.
The salesperson who stops by the barbershop or beauty salon to sell the shampoo, gel, and other items necessary to operate likely required training from the company on their products
The conversation itself could take place because both of you were able to speak. You listened, understood what the other was saying and continued that train of thought, or changed it along the way.
I think you get the point.
Everyone around the activity of getting your hair cut or styled was touched by education. The more successful their educational background, it is likely that the more successful they would be in operating the business. Yes, reading, writing and arithmetic are required outside of school.
You can also consider what would happen if educational priorities were changed. If students were not challenged by their teachers, would they be successful barbers and stylists? Would they gain their certification or license to operate in the State? Would the State have sufficient qualified personnel to manage the licensing and auditing process? Would the hair product companies have new products being developed by researchers to meet the needs of the market place? Would they have capable sales personnel?
Would you get a good hair cut or hair style?
Considering the impact of education on such a simple transaction, shouldn't it be a priority to provide the best education possible for our children?
Steve Sherlock
Franklin
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Slide show: Bandstand in the rain
It was typical New England mixed precipitation day, a mix of snow and rain, which worked nicely to highlight the problems with the roof being shorter than the base. In the slide show here, you'll see that the rain drops from the edge of the roof form good sized puddles around the inside of the railings.
The railings along one side are badly peeled. Sections of the interior roof are rotten and need replacement. Sections of the exterior tile are broken and missing.
Fortunately, the Town Council approved the capital expense of about $50,000 which would cover the lowest of multiple bids for the repair work. The initial estimate of $100,000 was likely a good guess. We are fortunate that the actual bids came in significantly less. The high bid was around $88,000 and the low bid at $48,000.
The bandstand is a center piece of the town and should be fixed.
Note that this repair will use capital dollars which can not be used for operational expenses, i.e. supplies or personnel salaries. I know there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about the difference between capital dollars and operational dollars. I will be working on a slide show to try and explain the difference. If you have some suggestions, please let me know. Usually for a problem of this type, putting more heads to it will bring better results.
"If you really want us, you gotta ride us"
Franklin may lose its bus service if more people don't start riding the bus, officials warned in a roundtable discussion with the public at the Senior Center yesterday.
"It's been tough. I don't want to say it's going to end, but I do want to say there's some urgency," said George Colajezzi, a marketing consultant for the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority.
GATRA, which provides bus service via the Franklin Area Bus, just finished its 52nd week of service and has fallen short of projected ridership, Colajezzi said.
An average of 149 people ride the bus every week, he said, which is about 100 fewer than what GATRA wants.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here