Franklin Matters

Thursday, January 20, 2011

"town leaders need to look at ways to reduce expenses"

Nutting suggested a $20 per sport fee per person added to the normal registration costs, although the amount could change and the fee could be structured differently. He said many local towns charge for field use.

Nutting estimated that the town could gain $100,000 per year to repair fields if the estimated 5,000 people who participate in sports paid a $20 fee.

Town Councilor Stephen Whalen said charging a fee for field maintenance would be a fair balance since the entire town paid for the construction of the fields.

"I think we should do it," Whalen said, adding "in our situation, I think we have to look at things like this."

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Participate in the budget priority survey here

Franklin, MA

No books, please

Friends not accepting book donations

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Hopefully, this is just a temporary situation. It was raised earlier this week according to the discussion at the Town Council meeting Wednesday evening and Jeff Nutting is working to find some space for this effort.

Yes, there is some irony involved. Here is the Library stopping their volunteer group from working to prepare their major fund raiser which provides financial aid to the Library.

Franklin, MA

Vallee holds office hours

Rep. Vallee holds office hours Friday

by Staff reports

Vallee, or a member of his staff, will be at the Medway Town Administrator’s office, 155 Village St., from 9-10 a.m. and at Vallee’s Franklin office, 4 West St., from 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Franklin, MA

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Creative thinking

This video clip from TEDx shows Charles Lamb sharing some interesting research that he is doing on the brain. By analyzing the brain activity when performing music, he is attempting to answer some significant questions on creativity.

Watch here:

For me, the initial take away was this quote:

But we have this combination of an area that's thought to be involved in self-monitoring, turning off, and this area that's thought to be autobiographical, or self-expressive, turning on.

In order to be creative, the brain needs to shut some aspects off and turn others on. There is a reason for having brain storming sessions. They may not have worked so well due to how they were set up but maybe with this new research they can find the way to set a good stage for being creative.