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| Franklin Historical Museum |
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| 4th of July Parade in Franklin in the 1900's |
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| the house as it was |
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| The house is gone |
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| some fill will be required |
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| at the edge of the property |
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| photographer's back to Beaver St, looking to the Senior Center |
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped on June 5, 2002 and reunited with her family on March 12, 2003. In more than 75% of all abductions, children are killed within three hours.
Elizabeth survived 6,720 hours.
What makes her story so compelling is not that she survived against all odds, but what she’s done since hour 6,721. She is working to make our communities safer for children. Through the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, she strives to empower children, parents, and educators to protect children and stand up to abusers.
The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council, a consortium of 43 communities, is one of only 19 certified Child Abduction Response Teams in the United States. The Hockomock Area YMCA is pleased that the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council has chosen to support this event.
MetroLEC
Strengthening families and preventing child abuse requires a shared commitment of individuals and organizations in every community. In response, the Hockomock Area YMCA developed a community-wide child abuse protection initiative in 2011.
Tickets for this event are for sale at the Hockomock Area YMCA’s branches in Foxboro, Franklin, and North Attleboro for $20 each. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Marge Kraskouskas at 508-643-5239 or margek@hockymca.org.
Hockomock YMCA
Town Council's Broken Oath to Constitutions Betrays our Military Veterans, Endangers Public SafetyThe ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.-- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963I, _________, promise to uphold and defend Constitutional governance.-- Oath made by every Franklin Town Councilor, November 13, 2013 (officially broken March 18, 2014)
Why Are Local Officials Required to Swear an Oath to Uphold and Defend Constitutional Governance?
A vital part of the Oath sworn by local officials here in the U.S. is their pledge to uphold and defend our Constitutions. The Founders mandated that the Constitutional Oath be administered even to local office holders because they knew that federal and state legislators were only human and would sometimes make laws that violate our most basic, inalienable rights. In such cases, local officials would be duty-bound to step up and restore the nullified rights within their jurisdictional authority. This bottom-up system of Constitution enforcement is what made America different and special in the world; it ensured that we the people would always retain the power.A Cradle of Liberty
Massachusetts has a proud history of enforcing basic rights. Five years after the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act requiring states to kidnap and ship escaped slaves back to their "rightful owners," Beacon Hill passed the Personal Liberty Act, making it a crime to kidnap slaves in Massachusetts. Even a subsequent Supreme Court ruling upholding the federal law was ignored by our state legislature and kidnapping remained illegal here.Modern-day kidnapping in the name of 'fighting terrorism'
Today's equivalent of the Fugitive Slave Act is the dangerously vague 2012 NDAA, which authorizes kidnappings of anyone merely suspected of terrorism, including U.S. citizens. No right to counsel. No right to face her accuser. No trial by jury. Just prison.Fortunately, a national movement of concerned citizens is banning NDAA kidnappings at the state, county and local levels. Successes are piling up, including in the nearby towns of Webster and Oxford, while the City of Albany has become the nation's first Capital City to ban NDAA indefinite detentions.Franklin Town Council: Cradle of Cowardice
But sadly, despite their public promise last November to stand up for our Constitutions, the Franklin Town Council is choosing to stand down. On March 18th a proposed resolution to ban NDAA kidnappings in the Town of Franklin was blocked by Chairman Bob Vallee. According to Council rules, a majority of members can override the chair to uphold the rights of the people, but to date no council member has been willing.Returning Veterans Most at Risk
In 2011 the Department of Homeland Security listed returning veterans a domestic terror threat. And with a second Fort Hood tragedy now haunting the nation, the Franklin Town Council and other NDAA followers will more easily be able to justify their targeting of our returning veterans.
To those who will say NDAA kidnappings could never happen here, tell that to the people of Watertown, MA, who, one year ago would never have imagined full-on martial law descending on their city, complete with a paramilitary lockdown and Iraq-style house-to-house warrantless searches featuring entire families rousted out of their homes at gunpoint. The sobering reality is that the expanding post-9/11 militarized police state has put us all one incident away from legal chaos, where our Constitutions and Bill of Rights will no longer protect us, unless our local officials keep their promise to serve as our last line of legal defense.
Benjamin Franklin's famous counsel against trading essential liberty for false security has played a key role in passing every successful anti-NDAA resolution in the U.S. Yet, here in the town that so proudly bears his name, Franklin's wisdom is shamefully discarded, hidden away like some cheap pair of shoes beneath a council chair and eight broken promises.
Glenn Jones: (508) 520-0069Tom Mercer: (508) 528-9084Peter Padula: (508) 528-9744
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| Franklin Municipal Building |
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| future home of Franklin TV |
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| yes, there is a foundation! |
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| side view of foundation |
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| foundation and positioning to original building |
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| redoing the exterior (entrance to front left, foundation in rear) |
"When we think of cities, we think of buildings and skyscrapers and stray cats. For Amanda Burden, who spent 12 years as New York City’s director of urban planning, they’re primarily about people. They’re about where people go and where they meet – that’s the core of how cities work. And for the people, even more important than the buildings are the public spaces in between them. Those, to Burden, are what makes the cities come alive.
The central question she asks is, “What makes a public space work? What is it about unsuccessful places that keeps people away?” Burden, it turns out, was trained as an animal behaviorist, but she uses those skills to study how people interact with their spaces."From the TED blog
Now, open spaces in cities are opportunities. Yes, they are opportunities for commercial investment, but they are also opportunities for the common good of the city, and those two goals are often not aligned with one another, and therein lies the conflict.
So how was I going to get this done? By listening. So I began listening, in fact, thousands of hours of listening just to establish trust. You know, communities can tell whether or not you understand their neighborhoods. It's not something you can just fake. And so I began walking. I can't tell you how many blocks I walked, in sweltering summers, in freezing winters, year after year, just so I could get to understand the DNA of each neighborhood and know what each street felt like. I became an incredibly geeky zoning expert, finding ways that zoning could address communities' concerns.
So what's the trick? How do you turn a park into a place that people want to be? Well, it's up to you, not as a city planner but as a human being. You don't tap into your design expertise. You tap into your humanity. I mean, would you want to go there? Would you want to stay there? Can you see into it and out of it? Are there other people there? Does it seem green and friendly? Can you find your very own seat?
DIRECTION FOR ISSUANCE OF REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF
INTEREST FOR TOWN PROPERTY AT 150 EMMONS STREET
WHEREAS, the Town owns improved property at 150 Emmons Street which
previously housed the municipal administrative offices (hereinafter “Property”), and
WHEREAS, the Franklin Town Council, by Resolution 04-75, previously declared
Property to be surplus and available for disposition, and
WHEREAS, Town, pursuant to said resolution, issued a Request for Proposals
with a minimum bid price, but failed to receive any responsive proposals, and
WHEREAS, the Town Council is cognizant of public interest in and concern for
reuse and/or redevelopment of Property as a “Gateway” to and integral part of the
Downtown, and has held public hearings to solicit public comments, and
WHEREAS, Town Council remains desirous of disposing of Property and seeks
additional input as to potential reuse and/or redevelopment to provide it with guidance in
the preparation of a new Request for Proposals,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Town of Franklin acting by and
through its Town Council:
1. Directs the Town Administrator to cause a Request for Expressions of
Interest be prepared and issued for Property with responses due no
later than July 31, 2014.
2. Directs the Economic Development Committee to review and evaluateThis resolution is on the agenda for the Town Council meeting Wednesday, Apr 16
all responses and to provide the Town Council with a written report of
its evaluation at the Council’s first meeting this coming September.
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| Emmons St building |
