Franklin Matters

Friday, October 9, 2009

Berry Ins collecting kids costumes for Halloween

Franklin: Berry Ins collecting kids costumes for Halloween, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Berry Insurance collecting new Halloween costumes for Children’s Hospital Boston
by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Berry Insurance drop-off locations include: 9 Main St., Franklin.

In the News - long term plan, state budget woes

Franklin planners: Override or cut services loom

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

Minor corrections to the article. The reports distribution will be to the committee for final review, then to the Town Council to prepare them for their meeting Oct 21. Once finalized, then the report will be available to the current Town Council candidates and to the general population.

The report currently on the Town website is the version reviewed at the open forum held April 27 and reported on here.

Bottom line, the report was brought up to date with the current numbers. When developed earlier this year all the numbers were projections for the FY 2010 budget. Now that the budget is finalized, those numbers were updated throughout the report.

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State budget gap could grow from bad to worse

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS by John Hilliard/Daily News staff

One of the reasons that the job of the Financial Planning Committee is challenging is that due to the overall economy, the State revenue projections and hence the State aid coming to Franklin are in flux. As much as the FY 2010 budget was 'finalized", the State aid counted on to operate this year may be reduced later this year.

Bottom line - stay tuned in to the developments on the budget from the State level to Franklin. Why are we so tied together? Over 30% of our revenue comes from the State.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee

Attending: Bartlett, Sabolinski, Roche, Kelly, Hardesty, Whalen, Nutting, Cameron,
Missing: Wilschek, Trahan, Zollo

Also present: Glenn Jones (Town Council candidate), Ashley Studley (Milford Daily News reporter)

Reviewing the updated slide deck, slides have the most recent numbers from the FY 2010 budget cycle.

A couple of numbers here and there require further checking.

The train left the station for the high school renovation project, the only question is how many folks jump on. In first or second quarter of 2011 we should have an opportunity to vote on the final number. The state would pay during the early construction period. We would only have to pay our portion in 2012 and after.

We have a good record in that we have built three schools for a total of about $200 per tax bill.

Discussion on how to estimate the high school cost. We will know sometime around next October what the number could be but we don't know now.

Should we include a slide on the roads? Many towns try to budget for road repaving, we don't budget anything. We use Chap 90 and Water funds when we can rebuild the road. We need to acknowledge that the State gives us a lot of money to fix our roads.

You can plan to put something aside for the roads in an up economy that you can't do in a down economy. We should start building a road fund similar to what we have done with the snow/ice.

Municipal per capita spending was added, to provide a comparison against the peers, neighbors and the state average.

The adjustments can be corrected this weekend. Get it to the councilors as soon as completed. They will have time to review it before the next council meeting. The last one before the election.

Hold the date - Nov 7th for LaidOff Camp

I am leading a team to bring the unconference peer-to-peer learning format to the unemployed. Hold the date, Saturday Nov 7th, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Who should attend?

Are you unemployed
Are you exploring entrepreneurial activities
Are you currently employed and willing to help

If you answered yes to any one of these, then the LaidOff Camp is for you.

The peer-to-peer learning format of the unconference will

facilitate sharing the tips and tricks we have all learned while looking for work
provide additional networking opportunities
empower the unemployed to take the next step in their job search with more knowledge and confidence

Additional details and the registration process will be available by the end of this week.

Veterans Day Breakfast - Senior Center

The Annual Veterans Day Breakfast to honor Franklin's veterans will be held at the Senior Center on Friday, November 6th at 9:00 AM.

Additional details including how to reserve a spot can be found in this flyer:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Town Council Mtg Smry 10/07/09

The collection of live reported posts from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday 10/7/09

T The posts are a little out of order as I arrived late to the meeting and the agenda was being juggled to fill in time before starting the brownfields public hearing at 7:10 PM. I picked up where they were and then proceeded to catch up with the other items.

In the News - teen sex, Town Council meeting

Coordinated by the Franklin Community Health Council, the first of a series of workshops to help parents talk with their teenagers about sex will be held tonight at Mercer Auditorium at the Horace Mann Middle School on Oak St.

Tonight will be the first of five free workshops Craver will lead throughout the school year. Parents are invited to the school's auditorium from 7 to 8:30 p.m. to ask questions and participate in a detailed discussion.

For additional information on the series read: