Franklin Matters

Friday, January 8, 2010

Franklin Citizens Rail Trail Committee Meeting

FRANKLIN CITIZENS RAIL TRAIL COMMITTEE MEETING

Agenda for January 14, 2010

I. Call to Order / Introductions of New Attendees
A. Introduction of new attendees
B. Volunteer to write minutes of the meeting
C. Motion to accept previous meeting minutes

II. Report from our representative from DCR
A. Gates at Spring St
B. Leveling of the Trail
C. Walking Trails

III. Membership Committee Report (Denison, McKeown, Sawyer)
A. Committee to report on membership activity

IV. Report from Finance Committee (Rossetti)
A. Report from Treasurer

VII. Report of Fund Raising Committee (Sawyer)
A. Report on fund raising activities
B. Bike Donation from Southbridge Bicycle. Need Volunteer to print raffle tickets & need sub committee
C. Spring fundraiser road race. Do we have a hosting facility? Can we pull a sub-committee together? Can we set the date?

VII. Unfinished Business:
A. Questions from members / attendees

VIII. New Business:
A.

Set Date for Next Meeting and Adjourn

The next meeting of the FCRTC will be held at the Franklin YMCA, Forge Hill Rd. Franklin. The meeting on January 14th will commence at 7:30 PM and conclude NLT 9:30 PM

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Town Council Mtg Smry 01/06/10

The collection of live reported posts from the Town Council meeting of Jan 6, 2010 can be found here:

Franklin, MA: Public School Inclement Weather Notice

The standard policy for the Franklin Public Schools during inclement weather (i.e. snow storms at this time of year).

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Note: subscribers via email will need to click through to the Franklin Matters website to review the document.

Franklin Downtown Partnership looking for help

The text of an email from Lisa Piana is found here:

Happy New Year!

We are currently planning our events for 2010. In order to continue with our full schedule of festivals and special events this year we need to fill some key volunteer positions.

Please take a look at the following list and e-mail me by January 12th if you are interested in taking a more active roll in the Franklin Downtown Partnership. Thank you to all of you who have volunteered in past years!

Harvest Festival Co-Chair -> Responsible for helping plan and run the event

Strawberry Festival-Co-Chair -> Responsible for planning event

Third Thursday-Co-Chair -> Responsible for planning events

Holiday Stroll-Co-Chairs -> Responsible for planning event

Website Coordinator -> Responsible for keeping website up to date

We really need some new members to step forward and take a more active role this year. Some of our current members have been running the events for over 5 years and need a break.

Please call or e-mail me with any questions you might have.
Lisa Piana
Franklin Downtown Partnership
(774)571-3109

MBTA going 'real-time"?

Yes, hard to believe but it just might work.

Apparently, the trains will be equipped with GPS devices and the status will be provided via a 'count-down' timer as the train approaches the station. Coming to the Franklin line sometime in February according to the write up here:

MBTA: Commuter Rail "Real-Time Arrival" Countdown

from Commonwealth Conversations: Transportation by Klark Jessen

Will this replace the Clever Commute service that can be the T's own alerts?

Stay tuned!

Note: This was also posted to Steve's 2 Cents.

In the News - snow removal from sidewalks

The snow discussion from Wednesday's Town Council meeting as captured by the Milford Daily News

Franklin sidewalk plowing debated

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

MBCR: For the safety and convenience of our employees

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

MBCR: For the safety and convenience of our employees

via Universal Hub by roadman on 1/6/10

Got this e-mail from MBCR regarding a change in policy about exiting trains.
Customer Service Notice
Control Coach Changes
Monday, January 11, 2010!
Effective January 11, 2010, except in the case of emergency, customers will no longer be allowed to enter or exit from the "operating end" of the control coach. The engineer operates the train from this location on inbound trips. Upon arrival into Boston, there are mandatory safety duties for engineers to perform which do not allow for foot traffic through the operating end of these coaches.
Signs will be placed on the coach door on that end of all control cars to remind customers of this rule.
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