Franklin Matters

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Franklin Historical Museum: All Aboard!

ALL ABOARD!

The Franklin Historical Museum will host a talk on the history of the Southern New England Trunkline Trail, SNETT.

Guest Speaker Ron Clough of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation will give a presentation and discuss the history of SNETT which was designated as part of the National Recreation Trail in 1994.

Franklin Station

Join us for an informative look at the Southern New England Railway and trains in Franklin’s history, and learn about the ‘Ghost Train’.

Sunday February 17 @ 1:00pm, 80 West Central Street, Franklin

The science of NFL Football

The Library at Dean College has started publishing a blog. Their most recent post shares a series of videos produced by NBC on the "Science of NFL Football". Just because the Super Bowl has officially ended the season doesn't mean there is no more football!

Queue the videos!

You can find the series of 10 short (about 3-4 minute) videos here:
http://www.nbclearn.com/nfl

They don't provide a way to embed the video so you will need to follow the link. For school teachers to leverage this for their classes, there is a way to login via Blackboard and download the videos for free.

Links:

The Dean College Library blog: http://deancultureconnect.wordpress.com/

The Dean College Library post on the football videos
http://deancultureconnect.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/the-science-of-nfl-football/

The Science of NFL Football series
http://www.nbclearn.com/nfl

These videos and more are also available at http://science360.gov/files/ (search for "football"). Note I did not have success in actually viewing the videos on this site. They seemed to take forever 'loading'.

Rep Jeffrey Roy - Office Hours

State Representative Jeffrey Roy (D-Franklin) announced today that constituent office hours will be held as follows:

Medway – Tuesday Feb 5th = 8:00 AM at the Medway Municipal Building, 155 Village Street, Sanford Hall, 2nd floor, Medway, MA

Franklin – Saturday 16th = 9:00 AM at the Cake Bar, 17 East Central Street, Franklin, MA (Parking on street & in the rear)

Medway – Wednesday 27th = 6:00 PM at Starbucks, 67 Main Street, Medway, MA 02053

Christopher Yancich, his legislative aide, will be accompanying him.

Representative Roy stated that all office hours are open to any residents of Franklin and Medway who may have questions or concerns that they wish to bring to his attention. Walk-ins are welcome, no appointment necessary. He looks forward to hearing from you.

He also invites all constituents to call him at his State House office at (617) 722-2425, stop by Room 437 in the State House, or email him at Jeffrey.Roy@MAhouse.gov.

House rejects governor's call for local aid cut

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

House rejects governor's call for local aid cut

via Wicked Local Franklin News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc. on 2/4/13

The House today rejected Gov. Deval Patrick's request for the power to make a 1 percent local aid cut and advanced legislation aimed at snapping this year's budget back into balance.

Things you can do from here:

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Registry of Motor Vehicles Unveils MassRMV.com

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Registry of Motor Vehicles Unveils MassRMV.com

via Commonwealth Conversations: Transportation by Klark Jessen on 2/4/13

MassDOT Registry of Motor Vehicles Division has transitioned to a new website making it the first motor vehicle administration in the nation poised to accept advertising in order to generate new revenue.

With more than 16 million website visits per year, the switch to www.massrmv.com offers limited advertising opportunities, and allows the RMV to develop clearer navigation to let customers perform their transactions with renewed confidence.

"This is a great example of MassDOT's continued emphasis on making our services more user-friendly," said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey. "MassRMV.com makes online transactions simpler for the customer and gives us additional revenue opportunities."

During 2012, Registry customers performed more than 3.4 million transactions online, up from 2.9 million transactions in 2011, ranging from license and registration renewals to citation payments to signing up to become organ donors. Advertisements will be limited to select informational pages and are not on customer transaction pages.

"MassRMV.com is now the official website of the Registry of Motor Vehicles where customers may perform 35 different transactions safely and securely," said Registrar of Motor Vehicles Rachel Kaprielian. "We work hard to drive customer traffic to the web, so we recognize our obligation to make this mode of service delivery as convenient as possible."

In September, MassDOT conducted usability testing on the new website design with customers at its Chinatown Branch. Based on customer reviews, navigation bars were redesigned, terminology was changed and special alerts affecting branch operations have been pushed to the forefront at MassRMV.com.

MassRMV.com customers will initially see promotional ads for MassDOT and RMV services while a contract with the advertising vendor, Municipal Media Solutions is finalized. In its first year of operation, the advertisements are expected to generate about $65,000 in new revenue.
Online advertising supplements current advertising partnerships, including those used in RMV mailers to defray mailing and productions costs. A closed-circuit RMV TV network, MVN, targets ads to those likely to be conducting business in Registry Branches and offers PSA time for relevant RMV news and updates.

Things you can do from here:

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Monday, February 4, 2013

Big fund raising day for Franklin non-profits!

This Saturday, Feb 9th, will see two major fund raisers for Franklin based non-profit organizations.

1 - The Random Smile Project holds their 6th Annual Gala from 6:00 PM to midnight at the RI Convention Center, Providence RI.

Random Smile 6th Annual Gala Event

Additional details and tickets can be purchased online http://www.randomsmile.org/events

2 - The Franklin Food Pantry will be conducting its 3rd Annual Phone-a-thon using the facilities at Dean College.