Live reporting - Sidewalk Snow Removal Presentation

2. Guests/Presentations
a. Snow Removal / Sidewalks – Robert A (Brutus) Cantoreggi


The presentation is similar to what was shown to the Town Council reviewed earlier this month. You can view that presentation here


Roy - How are the decisions reached on school cancellations?
Sabolinski - Process starts in October, meeting with DPW to plan for the process, notifications, etc. Decisions on school closings rely on the safety officials (Police, Fire). Timeline is an issue. High school and middle school staff report at 6:45, need to make decision before 5:30 AM to alleviate unnecessary travel. Responsibilities further refined between Facilities and custodians based upon experience. In a town this size, we heard from about 10 people, considering our size, that is good.

Cantoreggi - The Facilities transfer was a good thing, we have learned along the way. The Police call us when the road conditions turn bad. We are prepared and on standby until we get the call. At night we can be ore efficient as no one is on the road, once the day starts, it gets more difficult as our trucks are in with the traffic.

Sabolinski - inclement weather notice sent out, posted on Schools website (PDF) There is a regular practice for the buses to pick up students walking along the road.

Glynn - How do you determne when to stop?
Cantoreggi - After the snow has stopped and after we have cleared the roads, we'll also do the push back to clear the road to the gutters. If another storm came along, the gutters would be blocked, we could get drainage problems. Can't have that so we clear it to the gutter.

Rohrbach - could you go into the process on the sidewalk routes?
Cantoreggi - I did not bring the map, it is on the DPW website, as is this presentation. (Note: The presentations can also be found here)

Rohrbach - You mentioned that you have vacancies, does that mean you use more contractors?
Cantoreggi - We have folks out that we have not backfilled. We do have some Franklin equipment that sits idle during a storm as we don't have manpower to run it. We do use contractors more, it is a more expensive option.

Live reporting - School Committee

Attending: Douglas, Cafasso, Rohrbach, Mullen, Roy, Trahan,  Glynn

Vision Statement
The Franklin Public Schools will foster within its students the knowledge and skills to find and achieve satisfaction in life as productive global citizens.

Mission Statement
The Franklin Public Schools, in collaboration with the community, will cultivate each student's intellectual, social, emotional and physical potential through rigorous academic inquiry and informed problem solving skills within a safe, nurturing and respectful environment.

1. Routine Business
• Citizen’s Comments - none

• Review of Agenda - add FHS London Trip to agenda

• Minutes: I recommend approval of the Open Session and Executive Session minutes from the January 12, 2010 School Committee Meeting.
correction on meeting date should be Feb 5th not 4th

page 4 - FY 2011 budget, add a sentence referencing a one page summary
page 6 - should say "fiscal review" instead of "financial audit"

motion to approve, excluding the minutes from the Executive Session, passed 7-0

• Payment of Bills - Mr. Glynn  motion to approve, passed 7-0

• Payroll - Mrs. Douglas

• FHS Student Representatives

• Correspondence:  none

Franklin, MA: Kindergarten registration

For students entering Kindergarten in September 2010, registration will occur on 

• February 2
• February 4
• February 8
  

For more information, please visit the Franklin Public School kindergarten registration page here:
http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/schools/FPS/KInfo/default.htm

In the News - financial discussion

A brief write-up for the budget workshop held on Monday for Town Council, Finance and School Committee members appears in the Milford Daily News

Franklin finances look grim

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

Additional info from the workshop can be found here and here


The workshop provided extensive details on the finances and budget process. The information gathered will be shared overtime to help us all prepare for Fiscal Year 2011. We are currently operating within Fiscal Year 2010 which ends June 30th.

Live reporting - budget workshop continued

Part 1 for this meeting can be found here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-special-meeting-budget.html


Jim Dacey covered the debt and interest explanations. Susan and Jeff combined to discuss the stabilization fund, the calculation of "free cash" and its use for capital expenses (one time, not recurring).

The group took a break and then resumed to pick up with the School budget.

Maureen Sabolinski and Miriam Goodman presented the initial overview on the budget and Federal/State mandates.

Sally Winslow and Beth Fitzmaurice are now covering Special Education and its requirements.
I am taking good notes but will spend some time to write them up before sharing them here.

Franklin belongs to two collaboratives to provide enhanced purchasing options to provide special education requirements at a reasonable expense.

Live reporting: Special Meeting - budget workshop

Town Council:
Scott Mason, Tina Powderly, Glenn Jones

School Committee:
Bill Glynn, Cindy Douglas, Sue Rohrbach

Finance Committee:
Jim Roche, Linda Huempfner, Pat Goldsmith, Phyllis Meserve, Jaun Rivera, Mark Cataldo, Rebecca Cameron, Craig Maire, Robert Texiera


Town administration
Jeff Nutting, Susan Gagner, Jim Dacey

School Administration
Maureen Sabolinski, Miriam Goodman, Sally Winslow, Beth Fitzmaurice


There is good information in this session. We are hearing from Susan Gagner, Town Comptroller. She is covering the town financial history from 2005 through FY 2010.

• revenue components
• property tax
• state aid
• local estimated receipts
• other available funds

Shifting to Jim Dacey, Treasurer/Collector to explain our debt and interest.

Part 2 for this meeting continues here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-budget-workshop.html

FM #55 - Week ending 1/24/10

This is #55 in the series on what matters in Frankin, MA. In this session, I cover the Town Council meeting of 1/20/10 and take a look ahead at the FY 2011 budget preparations.

Time: 8 minutes, 20 seconds


MP3 File

Session notes:

This internet radio show or podcast is number 55 in the series for Franklin Matters.

Take about ten minutes to keep current with what matters in Franklin, MA as the week ends January 24, 2010

In this session I’ll cover the Town Council meeting of Wednesday, January 20, 2010

1. proposed Charter revision
2. Downtown improvement project
3. New trash/recycle bins to lower cost of solid waste by $24

1 – The proposed charter revisions were brought back before this Council by Councilors Whalen and Zollo, no additional changes were made to the discussions held last Sep.
There will be open forum and public hearings to solicit input from the citizens before the final package is assembled for Legislative review. Assuming the changes proposed are accepted, then they would still come back to be voted on by the Franklin voters before being effective.

2 – The latest update on the Downtown Improvement project was presented to the Town Council on Weds and to the Downtown Partnership on Thursday morning. Additional sessions will be scheduled to allow for input from Franklin residents.

A copy of the presentation is available on Franklin MAtters

3 – The DPW presented a proposed rate change, actually a reduction from 244 per year to 220 per year. The change is dependent upon approval of a new contract to implement a “single stream” collection system. Single stream is still a misnomer in that there would be separate trash and recycle bins. The recycled items can all be mingled in the one barrel. We'd no longer need to separate the cardboard from the cans, bottles, etc.

A picture of the new bins is available on Franklin MAtters

Looking ahead to this week, there are two meetings of note:

1 - This Monday evening is a special meeting of the Town Council. The purpose of the meeting will be a  budget workshop to review terminology and process steps for the 2011 budget. The workshop is intended to bring the new members of  the Town Council, Finance Committee, and School Committee up to speed.  It is also open to the public and this will be a great time to get in on the ground floor of the budget discussion.

Note the actual 2011 budget is not scheduled for discussion. Gov Patrick is scheduled to release his budget later this week. The House and Senate will release theirs some time and then all three will be reconciled or negotiated to produce one budget sometime before June 30th. That budget is key to what Franklin does. Currently 30% of our revenue comes from State Aid. Separately the Franklin departments will be coming up with their budget, review it with Jeff Nutting who makes his recommendation and brings both to the Finance Committee for review and approval be for the Town Council gets their final review and approval.

2 - The School committee starts their budget process on Tuesday the 26th. We'll get the first look at what a level service and level funded budget for 2011 could look like with options on what programs would be on the table for discussion. The teacher contract is up for renewal this year (as are all the other Franklin municipal employee contracts) what those will look like when an agreement is reached is open for speculation at this time.

In summary, the next several months can be very interactive. Franklin citizens can provide their input to the charter, the downtown project, and ultimately the Franklin budget. If you were waiting for a good time to get involved, the time is now.

As I close this session this week, let me remind you that

• If you like what I am doing, please tell your neighbors
• If you don’t like something, please tell me

Thank you for listening.

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 music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission
I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.