May 11th
Absentee ballots for the special election May 11th are available at the Town Clerk's office. This election will determine fulfill the seat left vacant by Scott Brown's election to the US Senate.
Only precincts 2, 3 and 4 are eligible to vote in this special election May 11th
June 8th
The override special election will take place on June 8th. Ballots have not yet been printed and absentee ballots are not yet available for that election.
Stay tuned!
Franklin, MA
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Networking Lunch - today
Looking for someone to lunch with today?
Try the Downtown Partnership Networking Lunch at Dean College!
FDP Networking Luncheon
Wednesday, May 5th at noon
Dean College - Golder Room
Campus Center
Lunch is $5.00
Franklin, MA
Try the Downtown Partnership Networking Lunch at Dean College!
FDP Networking Luncheon
Wednesday, May 5th at noon
Dean College - Golder Room
Campus Center
Lunch is $5.00
Franklin, MA
Tough choices
Water, the essence of life versus Downtown, where some go to live it up
1 - On May 12 you get to make a choice.
a - The EPA is holding a public information session at Tri-County to help businesses understand the new proposed requirements for treating storm water. Franklin, Bellingham and Milford are part of a pilot process that is estimated to cost $70 million dollars. The amount would be shared by businesses large and small, as well as the town governments.
b - Also that night, the plans for the Downtown Revitalization Project will be presented and open for discussion at the Franklin Municipal Bldg.
2 - On May 24th you get to make another choice between water and money
a - Monday night, the open forum on the Franklin override vote for $3 million dollars will be held at the Horace Mann/Thomas Mercer Auditorium at 7:00 PM. Members of Town Council, School Committee amongst others will be available for questions and discussion on the budget details.
b - Also that same night at the same time in the Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of the Municipal Bldg, the Charles River Watershed Association will make a presentation on a storm water management plan to reduce phosphorus from the Spruce Pond Brook sub-basin.
It is a fact that you can live longer without food than you can without water.
Clean water requires money.
In this tough economy, forcing businesses in Franklin (Bellingham, Milford) to compete at a disadvantage against the communities in the rest of the state just doesn't seem fair.
Yet the money discussion on the override is important.
Where should our priorities be?
Couldn't the calendar have been better managed to avoid a conflict?
Franklin, MA
1 - On May 12 you get to make a choice.
a - The EPA is holding a public information session at Tri-County to help businesses understand the new proposed requirements for treating storm water. Franklin, Bellingham and Milford are part of a pilot process that is estimated to cost $70 million dollars. The amount would be shared by businesses large and small, as well as the town governments.
b - Also that night, the plans for the Downtown Revitalization Project will be presented and open for discussion at the Franklin Municipal Bldg.
2 - On May 24th you get to make another choice between water and money
a - Monday night, the open forum on the Franklin override vote for $3 million dollars will be held at the Horace Mann/Thomas Mercer Auditorium at 7:00 PM. Members of Town Council, School Committee amongst others will be available for questions and discussion on the budget details.
b - Also that same night at the same time in the Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of the Municipal Bldg, the Charles River Watershed Association will make a presentation on a storm water management plan to reduce phosphorus from the Spruce Pond Brook sub-basin.
It is a fact that you can live longer without food than you can without water.
Clean water requires money.
In this tough economy, forcing businesses in Franklin (Bellingham, Milford) to compete at a disadvantage against the communities in the rest of the state just doesn't seem fair.
Yet the money discussion on the override is important.
Where should our priorities be?
Couldn't the calendar have been better managed to avoid a conflict?
Franklin, MA
Finance Committee 05/04/10
The second in a series of budget hearings for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget took place Tuesday evening, May 4th. The collection of live reporting from that meeting can be found here:
Franklin, MA
- Live reporting - Facilities
- Live reporting - Technology
- Live reporting - School Committee budget
- Live reporting - Planning and Community Developmen...
- Live reporting - Elections
- Live reporting - Town Clerk
- Live reporting - Board of Assessors
- Live reporting - Board of Health/Health Services
- Live reporting - debt stabilization
- Live reporting - Finance Committee
Franklin, MA
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Live reporting - Facilities
Mike D'Angelo
Jeff Nutting provides an overview
transfered all facilities from Schools to the Town to consolidate
3 person maintenance staff, outsource the rest of the major work
over a million square feet to maintain, contract out for specialties
covers all the phones, utilities for all the buildings
spread incredibly thin for the work required
energy improvements have been made for the last decade
6 million dollars for school building improvements, still another 5 million to go
most of the municipal buildings were already upgraded so they are in better shape
Police station 20 year old next year
Budget is level funded but that means less money is invested into the buildings
D'Angelo
price per therm of gas, enabled cut of the gas budget by $157,000 (15%)
helps to offset the prices of other things going up
major phone changes in the schools over the Christmas break, using the savings to pay for the Connect-CTY services
disconnected 159 lines through out the schools to save thousands of dollars a month
Quinn
Can you explain the going long on the gas
D"Angelo
Every 2-3 years we look to negotiate the contract, in cases where we did extend the contract we did make some significant savings
Nutting
We bought at the low price point of oil and gas for a long term contract
D'Angelo/Nutting
the brokers take a tenth or so of a percent, it is bundled into the overall price
the brokers buy the futures, it is a fixed cost to us
hedged our bet that it wouldn't increase
once in awhile we get it right
we do this through our purchasing director
D'Angelo
We work with the utilities to get whatever rebates we can get
National Grid kicked in to save about $1400 a year on one
If you are always doing this, you can keep your energy costs stable
Nutting
maybe we don't do our best advertising this because we believe we should do this
he controls the heat and colling from his laptop
Rivera
What is the increase for telephones?
D'Angelo
We had a grant for the Connect-CTY and Connect-ED but now the grant has expired and we need to start paying for our usage, I think is a 2 year contract and two year increments
Teixeira
Custodian contracts are a large amount, have your looked at the outsource vs insource
D'Angelo
Custodians do ore than custodial work, i.e. changing light bulbs, painting, etc.
Other school districts that have done that have seen increases due to still paying for the other work in addition to the cleaning. Town was outsourcing custodial and we have brought it in with part timers and do more work with less expense
The School cut 8 custodians several years ago, we'd like to get back to that at some point
Nutting
There is some interchange between the organizations giving that we are understaffed
D'Angelo
Town custodians are part-time, the School custodians are full-time labor union contract folks
Roche
could you do FTE for the custodians? so we could compare
D'Angelo
other buildings are the smaller town buildings; King St fields has a building, the gazebo (bandstand) on the Town Common, etc.
Roche
How much was turned back from this budget last fiscal year?
Gagner
About $50,000 - I don;t have the exact number but can get it for you for Thursday
There is another month of utilities encumbered but not in the year to date
There is also a lag on one bill that is paid by Solid Waste first then accounted for by us
motion to approve, passed 9-0
Monday - May 10th - 6:30 PM
Checking schedules, need two more
Thursday - May 6th - 6:30 PM
motion to adjourn, passed 9-0
Franklin, MA
Jeff Nutting provides an overview
transfered all facilities from Schools to the Town to consolidate
3 person maintenance staff, outsource the rest of the major work
over a million square feet to maintain, contract out for specialties
covers all the phones, utilities for all the buildings
spread incredibly thin for the work required
energy improvements have been made for the last decade
6 million dollars for school building improvements, still another 5 million to go
most of the municipal buildings were already upgraded so they are in better shape
Police station 20 year old next year
Budget is level funded but that means less money is invested into the buildings
D'Angelo
price per therm of gas, enabled cut of the gas budget by $157,000 (15%)
helps to offset the prices of other things going up
major phone changes in the schools over the Christmas break, using the savings to pay for the Connect-CTY services
disconnected 159 lines through out the schools to save thousands of dollars a month
Quinn
Can you explain the going long on the gas
D"Angelo
Every 2-3 years we look to negotiate the contract, in cases where we did extend the contract we did make some significant savings
Nutting
We bought at the low price point of oil and gas for a long term contract
D'Angelo/Nutting
the brokers take a tenth or so of a percent, it is bundled into the overall price
the brokers buy the futures, it is a fixed cost to us
hedged our bet that it wouldn't increase
once in awhile we get it right
we do this through our purchasing director
D'Angelo
We work with the utilities to get whatever rebates we can get
National Grid kicked in to save about $1400 a year on one
If you are always doing this, you can keep your energy costs stable
Nutting
maybe we don't do our best advertising this because we believe we should do this
he controls the heat and colling from his laptop
Rivera
What is the increase for telephones?
D'Angelo
We had a grant for the Connect-CTY and Connect-ED but now the grant has expired and we need to start paying for our usage, I think is a 2 year contract and two year increments
Teixeira
Custodian contracts are a large amount, have your looked at the outsource vs insource
D'Angelo
Custodians do ore than custodial work, i.e. changing light bulbs, painting, etc.
Other school districts that have done that have seen increases due to still paying for the other work in addition to the cleaning. Town was outsourcing custodial and we have brought it in with part timers and do more work with less expense
The School cut 8 custodians several years ago, we'd like to get back to that at some point
Nutting
There is some interchange between the organizations giving that we are understaffed
D'Angelo
Town custodians are part-time, the School custodians are full-time labor union contract folks
Roche
could you do FTE for the custodians? so we could compare
D'Angelo
other buildings are the smaller town buildings; King St fields has a building, the gazebo (bandstand) on the Town Common, etc.
Roche
How much was turned back from this budget last fiscal year?
Gagner
About $50,000 - I don;t have the exact number but can get it for you for Thursday
There is another month of utilities encumbered but not in the year to date
There is also a lag on one bill that is paid by Solid Waste first then accounted for by us
motion to approve, passed 9-0
Monday - May 10th - 6:30 PM
Checking schedules, need two more
Thursday - May 6th - 6:30 PM
motion to adjourn, passed 9-0
Franklin, MA
Live reporting - Technology
Tim Raposa
Jeff Nutting provides an overview
most of his salary is in the School Budget, most of the Town side of the budget is license fees
It has been the same number for the past several years
consulting services for technical support outside of our expertise, primarily for internet security
Question
Where does the actual network cost sit?
Nutting
In the facilities budget, coming up next
Question
When does the savings from the phones come in?
Raposa
Sometime during the next fiscal year, we are looking for cooperation from the utilities vendors and if all goes well, it will be complete during 2010
Once the fiber network is in place we can start killing off the T1 lines to save the money
Raposa
We don't pay maintenance on computers or servers, we have the warranty only
Raposa
Contractor has done 14 fiber installs in the past year, they know their stuff, we are confident that they know their stuff
Roche
Meetings and conferences seems to fluctuate
Raposa
training and personal development, the previous DBA required some training but that training has been completed
Motion to approve, passed 9-0
Franklin, MA
Jeff Nutting provides an overview
most of his salary is in the School Budget, most of the Town side of the budget is license fees
It has been the same number for the past several years
consulting services for technical support outside of our expertise, primarily for internet security
Question
Where does the actual network cost sit?
Nutting
In the facilities budget, coming up next
Question
When does the savings from the phones come in?
Raposa
Sometime during the next fiscal year, we are looking for cooperation from the utilities vendors and if all goes well, it will be complete during 2010
Once the fiber network is in place we can start killing off the T1 lines to save the money
Raposa
We don't pay maintenance on computers or servers, we have the warranty only
Raposa
Contractor has done 14 fiber installs in the past year, they know their stuff, we are confident that they know their stuff
Roche
Meetings and conferences seems to fluctuate
Raposa
training and personal development, the previous DBA required some training but that training has been completed
Motion to approve, passed 9-0
Franklin, MA
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