Franklin, MA: History on display

After some expense by the Town, much effort from volunteers and significant donations from the community, the Historical Museum is now open in downtown Franklin. The building was built in 1842 as the Town Hall, repaired and restored in 1916, and given new life in 2010. It also served time as the Senior center. Today, it is a building worthy of displaying the rich and varied history of Franklin.

As you come in the front entrance, art work on the floor comes close to replicating the Town Seal. Ben Franklin's phrase "Industry need not wish" is one I have written about before.

Along both sides of the main hall, wooden base units support the glass display cases. The wooden bases were all crafted by Tri-County Regional Vocation Technical High School students. Students also built the shelving in the "library room" of the museum (not pictured here). As part of the volunteer move from the Washington Street location to downtown, many were quite pleased how ell the tops and cases fit together. They were finely crafted. In this photo Ben looks over the display cases mentioned.

When the TJ Maxx store closed in Franklin, the museum gained with the donation of several jewelry display cases. These cases are quite good for the display of many of the historical artifacts. One set of four cases forms a nice center piece display upon which a bust of Ben watches over all.

The museum is scheduled to be open on

• Saturday's from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
• Sundays' from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
• Thursday's from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

The museum is staffed by volunteers who are all interested in preserving and sharing the unique pieces of Franklin's history. The museum is also available for special functions. It can seat about 30-40. Inquiries should be made to the Historical Commission or to one of the volunteers during the time the museum is open.

Come on down to re-discover the history of Franklin!

My thanks to Del Arnold for confirming the background information provided here.

Franklin, MA

Tooting the horn for books, a family day in Franklin

The combination of the Library Book Sale and the DPW Open House drew quite a crowd on Saturday.

The Friends of the Library paid for the overtime of the DPW workers. The food and drink provided at the DPW Open House was donated by Weston & Sampson.

The bucket truck authorized for purchase as part of the capital plan in 2009 was on display looking brand new. It is over ten years old. The new look comes from the paint job that was part of the purchase price. DPW Director, Robert (Brutus) Cantoreggi is walking towards us in the photo.

The DPW garage had four mechanics. One just retired this year and due to the budget cuts, the position won't be filled leaving three mechanics to take care of more than 300 pieces of equipment. Which of these two units looks like it is three years old? and which looks like it is sixteen years old? (Answer at the end of this post.)

Most of the equipment that I saw on display had a sign telling the year and use for the unit. The purpose for some was easy to recognize, some were not. This batwing mower is over 10 years old and still doing duty cutting the grass on our athletic fields.

The weather cooperated for this nice family event. If your son or daughter was one of the horn tooters, they probably walked away with a smile. Your smile came from the fact that they at least stopped blowing the horn!

Iqbal Ismail is show below taking pictures of his daughter Zeba and son Faraz in the front seat of the truck.

Note: In answer to the question above: the unit on the left in the picture is 3 yrs old; the unit on the right is 16.
My thanks to Brutus Cantoreggi and Dave Allard for providing the information to share here.

Franklin, MA

Summer programs - Art Institute

Registration is open for the Art Institute to be held at the high school July 19- 30.

Additional information about the summer programs can be found on the Lifelong Learning webpage:
http://cfweb.smartedu.net/lll/aboutus.cfm?category=1ABOUT5


Franklin, MA

Franklin, MA: Plenty to do today

Museum opens from 10:00 to 1:00 PM today

Bottle/Can drive options

• Franklin High School 9:00 - 2:00 PM at high school parking lot
• JF Kennedy School 9:00 - 12:00 

Library Book Sale 9:00 - 4:00 PM at DPW Yard off Hayward St

DPW Open House 10:00 - 1:00 PM

In the News - sharing stories, Pulaski construction

Sharing stories in Franklin

from Wicked Local Franklin News RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

24-hour constrution to begin Monday in Bellingham

by Joe O'Connell/Daily News staff


Franklin, MA

Storm water mandates

Under the proposed mandate from the EPA, which would only apply to Milford, Franklin and Bellingham, properties with two acres or more will have to manage their stormwater runoff.

Wednesday night's public information session included a presentation from the EPA about the regulations as well as time for public comment.

Rick Kaplan, owner of Kaplan Commercial Properties, recently purchased the Bellingham Plaza on Rte. 126, which has 8 acres. Kaplan, who lives in Medway, is not only concerned with the price tag of the mandate, but the fact that the actual cost is still undecided.

"It's an unknown amount of money," Kaplan said. "It's scary to me. It's not fair."

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Stormwater mandate concerns businesses

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Melanie Graham/Daily News staff

This article helps to clarify one of the questions asked during Wednesday night's meeting on the Downtown Improvement Project. If the new mandates apply to properties in excess of 2 acres, there doesn't appear to be much of an impact for the downtown project.

If you missed the Downtown Project meeting Wednesday, you can view the video here
Downtown Improvement Project - live broadcast

The EPA meeting was also broadcast but the video has not yet been posted to the Franklin website. As soon as I see the link, I share it here.

Franklin, MA

HMEA 5K Race/Walk - May 23rd

The Horace Mann Education Associates - HMEA, Inc. is located here in Franklin, MA but their effective service delivery is to over 100 communities in MA.

The annual fund raiser for HMEA is the 5K Race/Walk and Family Fun Day scheduled for May 23, 2010.

HMEA's 9th Annual Independence 5K Walk/Run in the Park - MARK YOUR CALENDARS and grab your sneakers to participate in this "Fun-filled Family Day fundraising event...

This event, which is hosted by our good friends at EMC2 Corporation in Franklin, MA gathers 2,000 or more people to help HMEA continue its mission to make a difference in people's lives. AND, all the money raised is returned to the many programs at HMEA, which supports 2,400 children and adults with intellectual challenges and developmental disabilities.

In addition to working the road race registration table (and providing splits at the 2 mile mark), I have decided to help HMEA do some fund raising this year.

I love the quote from Horace Mann that they use on their History page:

"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity"

You can help the HMEA make a difference with a donation. I have a widget in the center column of this and my other blogs, should you choose to donate an amount within your means.

I will appreciate it.
The HMEA clients you help will too!

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If you would like to register for the race you can do so here
http://www.hmea.org/events.html

If you'd like you can contribute in one of several options directly through the HMEA website here
http://www.hmea.org/donations.html