Chamber Job Fair 9/13-14

The United Regional Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce:

Job Search Sunday, September 13th 12:30pm – 5:00pm 
Career Fair Monday, September 14th 10am - 4pm

Where:
At Living Waters Church, 15 John L. Dietsche Blvd, North Attleboro MA.


Do you or someone you know need help finding a job?  Then you are welcome to these FREE EVENTS.

Job Search Sunday will offer career development courses like:

• Resume Writing
• Interviewing Skills 
• Using Social Media to Network (by Tricia White of the Mass Small Business Development Center at 1:30pm)

Career Fair Monday will include companies who are actively hiring and seminars on "Staying Motivated While Unemployed."

Keynote speakers Include:

• Ann Crawford , Life Coach 11:30am
• Bill Napolitano, Institute for Business Excellence 1:00pm

To register for this click here


For additional information contact

Jen Osojnicki at the United Chamber, 508.695.6011, jen@unitedregionalchamber.com

Where do you put open space on the budget priority listing?

Currently, the Department of Public Works is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all town parks, recreation areas and School grounds. The Recreation Department is responsible for scheduling the use of the Town of Franklin athletic fields and facilities. Recreation Department Director, Ryan Jette indicated that it is a difficult challenge to maintain all the open space and recreation areas in Town and there is not adequate staffing for the upkeep.

The Conservation Department maintains a list of open space and conservation sites in Franklin. The current level of staffing for the management and maintenance of open space is not satisfactory, there is insufficient staff and resources to complete routine property inspections and maintenance. Issues such as hiring a forester to oversee the cutting of the Town Forest have proven challenging for the Conservation Commission due to a lack of funding.

If the Town continues to obtain additional open space and recreation areas, there will likely be issues providing sufficient upkeep due to a lack of funds and staffing available to provide upkeep of the sites.

As the Town Council candidates declare themselves for election this November, this would be a good topic on which to find out where they stand.

While the Town has a number of budget needs (the school department is the single biggest item of our Town budget), where open space management sits amongst the priority list would be important to understand.

For additional information on the Open Space and Recreation Plan, read the full report on the Town web site here (PDF)

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Planning/2008plan

In the News - FHS GPA,

Franklin High School tosses old GPA system

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Angel Roy, Daily News staff

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The GPA changes covered in this article were discussed at length in the School Committee meeting on 7/21/09. You can review the live reporting from that meeting here.

Election "line up" card - updated

A phone call to the Town Clerk's office resulted in a number of updates as we head into this Labor Day weekend.

Prior updates can be found here and here

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Table below shows the positions available for election this November.

The Candidates column initially showed just the incumbents.
Those who have confirmed taking out papers are marked with a * and bold.
New candidates have their name in bold with -new.
The incumbents who have confirmed not to be running again have been marked in red text.
The existing position holders who have not yet taken out papers are listed for reference to keep track of the "line up card"

So what does this tell us?
We need more candidates! The only election competition is for the Board of Health position.

Name	# of Openings	Candidates	Term of Office
Board of Assessors	1 Position (For 4 years)	Robert Avakian*	2009 to 2013
Board of Health	1 Position (For 4 years)	Bruce Hunchard* Koren Kanadanian-new	2009 to 2013
Planning Board	2 Position (For 4 years)	Anthony Padula*	2009 to 2013
	* 1Vacant	Joseph Halligan-new	2009 to 2013
Planning Board (Associate)	* 1 vacant position (For 4 Years)		2009 to 2013
Town Council	9 Positions (For 2 Years)	Joseph McGann	2009 to 2011
		Deborah Bartlett - not running again
		R. Scott Mason*
		Christopher Feeley
		Judith Pond Pfeffer*
		Thomas Doak - not running again
		Shannon Zollo*
		Robert Vallee*
		Stephen Whalen
		Glenn Jones- new Daniel Ballinger-new Bryce Kuchs - new Robert Avakian - new Matthew Kelly (switch from School Committee)
School Committee	7 Positions (For 2 Years)	Cora Armenio	2009 to 2011
		Susan Rohrbach*
		Paula Mullen*
		Edward Cafasso*
		Roberta Trahan*
		Matthew Kelly - switch to Town Council
		Jeffrey Roy* William Glynn - new

Bang for your buck

The Boston Globe "G" section has an interesting table depicting the performance of school districts (according to MCAS scores of the 4th and 10th grades) compared to the assessed home value. Franklin is amongst the top.

No real surprises there. Steve Whalen had put together a similar table and now that table is part of the Financial Planning Committee's report.

If the tax rate was use instead of assessed home values, Franklin would rise higher on the chart.

View the full chart here in the Globe

View the Financial Planning Committee report here

In the News - online interaction, 'treeted' stormwater

Franklin may outlaw student-teacher interaction online

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Angel Roy/Daily News staff

For the live reporting notes of this discussion from the School Committee meeting on August 25th click here

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Tree to help eliminate pollution in Franklin

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Angel Roy/Daily News staff

Does age of the respondents determine survey answers?

Results of the Citizen Participation Questionnaire were very helpful in identifying what Franklin residents believe to be the Town’s biggest recreation and open space needs. When asked what recreation and open space facilities the Town needed most, Bike Trails, Conservation Areas, and Hiking Trails were the three most popular responses. The survey data shows there appears to be a desire for additional passive recreation facilities. Franklin residents’ desire for improvement and expansion of passive recreation activities and facilities is consistent with regional and national trends.

Analysis of survey data show that a respondent’s opinion of which facilities the Town needs may be directly related to the age of individuals in their households. For example, of the respondents that claim to have children in their household, 35.9% chose Youth Center as one of the Town’s more important facilities needed, compared to only 15.0 percent of households with individuals 60 years and over, and 28.2 percent of all respondents. Likewise 52.2 percent of respondents with children in their household chose Bike Trails as a needed facility, compared to 22.5 percent of households with individuals 60 years and over, and 41.9 percent of all respondents. The most popular response from respondents with individuals 60 years and over in their households was conservation areas, with hiking trails and dog park coming in close behind.

Each one of us has a point of view. It is good to acknowledge and respect that. It is also good to then find some common ground within those points of view. The common ground can bring diverse sections together to build a community effort.

Read more about the survey and the resulting Open Space and Recreation Plan on the Town web site here (PDF).

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Planning/2008plan