Regency Transportation to move "The Wall That Heals"

Franklin trucking company Regency Transportation was selected for involvement with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in transporting “The Wall That Heals,” a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

The memorial, unveiled in 1996, was designed to travel, and has visited more than 400 cities and towns in the U.S. 

Regency Transportation driver Gordon Rogers, a Marine Corp veteran, will move the memorial from Fuller Elementary School in Gloucester, where it is currently on display, to Staunton, Virginia. 

For more information, visit vvmf.org/twth.

http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150713/NEWS/150718959/1994/NEWS

"The Wall That Heals"

Rail Good Coffee - open from 5:00 to 11:00 AM Monday through Friday

An update to my post from June 26th, the hours that Rail Good Coffee operate were posted to the window when I went by on Monday morning.

Rail Good Coffee hours Mon - Fri

When getting ready to catch the inbound train Thursday morning, I noticed that the doors to the building were open. This had been closed up for a bit after The Cake Bar and Cafe Dolce both gave it a good try. 

They were indeed open. It had just opened earlier that morning. Newspapers had not yet started delivery but were scheduled. Train tickets can be purchased. The menu board had a listing of prices for coffee, etc. 

Stop in to talk with Randy. Buy a coffee before your ride into Boston the next time you go.

menu board at Rail Good Coffee

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/06/rail-good-coffee-now-open-at.html

Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew"

The best way to experience Shakespeare is to see a performance in person. To see an outdoor performance is an opportunity that is just around the corner for folks here in Franklin.

The Star Players of MA is collaborating with Dean College to perform "The Taming of the Shrew" in the open on the Dean quad.

This free performance is scheduled for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before the Franklin Cultural Festival kicks off.

• Friday, July 24 - 7:00 PM 
• Saturday, July 25 - 7:00 PM 
• Sunday, July 26 - 2:00 PM

Star Players and Dean College perform Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew"

In case of the rain, the performance will move inside to the Chapel in Dean Hall.

For a quick recap of "The Taming of the Shrew" check the wikipedia entry here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew

Parmenter Bird House (photo essay)

Saturday's walk gave me a great chance to capture some photos of the new bird house  put in at the entrance to the Parmenter Nature Walk.

One weekend in June, I happened upon a group of parents and 5th graders working to clean up the trail and to prepare for the installation of the bird house.

entrance to Parmenter Nature Trail (bird house now in its own circle of stones to the left of the trail)

The bird house was supposed to be installed that Monday but the weather (rain) prevented that, time went by, it did get installed (sometime) and I finally did get to take some photos (on Saturday).

The group posed for a photo after their trail clean up work (thanks to Mary Jo Peterson for sharing)

The group posed for a photo (thanks to Mary Jo Peterson for sharing)

The bird feeder

front view

memorial plaque

one side view

other side view

full size  view

Photos of the Story Walk from October 2010 can be found here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_sherlock/sets/72157625155278049/

Note: The "Story Walk" is no longer but the trail is what was recently cleaned up

Photos of the Nature Trail from 2008 can be found here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_sherlock/sets/72157606926154439/

MA Ranked 48 of 50 on Fiscal Condition

Given the agreement between the MA House and Senate on the state budget which is now in the Governor's hand to review and vote on, it would be interesting to know how MA finances compare overall with the other states.

Does your state have its fiscal affairs in order? It’s not an easy question to answer, in part because the question can mean so many different things, including:

• Can the state pay its current bills? (cash solvency)

• Will annual revenues be sufficient to cover budgeted expenditures? (budget solvency)

• Are the state’s long-term liabilities—think bonds and loans—sustainable? (long-run solvency)

• How much room is there to raise additional revenue should the need arise? (service-level solvency)

• Can the state meet its pension and health care obligations? (trust fund solvency)

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has compiled this information in an interactive manner so you can check on the state by state comparison.

Long-run solvency. Can a state meet its long-term spending commitments? Will there be enough money to cushion it from economic shocks or other long-term fiscal risks?

MA does not do well. We are ranked 48 of the 50. Yes, well down the bottom.

You can find the rankings here
http://mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings

The MA summary is here
http://mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings/massachusetts

A video explanation of the process can be found here

Wedding Gown Exhibit

June (10.8%) may be the most popular month for weddings with August (10.2%) a close second but May (9.8%) and July (9.7%) come right behind along with September (9.4%) and October (9.2%).

So this is still prime wedding season and the Historical Museum can provide a comfortable setting to view some gowns and stories from Franklin weddings.

The Franklin Historical Museum's summer Wedding Gown Exhibit is presently on display at the museum. 11 gowns ranging from 1890 to the 1960s are on display along with photos and stories of the brides who wore them. 

Featured this year is the gown worn by beloved Franklin teacher, Palma Johnson, whose Kennedy school class had legislation passed to have the Lady Bug named as Massachusetts official state bug! 

The parachute gown is one again on display as well as many mother/daughter displays of gowns from both generations. 

The museum is located at 80 West Central Street in the old Town Hall, is handicap accessible and is open

• Saturdays 10:00am-1:00pm,
• Sundays 1:00pm-4:00pm
• Thursday evenings 5:00pm-8:00pm.

wedding gown on display at the Franklin Historical Museum

wedding gown on display at the Franklin Historical Museum

For additional information on the Historical Museum visit their webpage
http://franklinhistoricalmuseum.org/

or on Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/FHM02038


Note the wedding statistics came from this page
http://www.soundvision.com/article/wedding-statistics-in-the-united-states

MassBudget: Analyzing the Legislature's Budget for FY 2016

MassBudget    Information.    Participation.  Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center    Democracy. Analyzing the Legislature's Budget for FY 2016 The Legislature's Fiscal Year 2016 (FY 2016) budget, approved by the House and Senate on Wednesday, makes few major changes in overall funding provided to educate our children, keep our communities safe, protect our most vulnerable, keep our air and water clean, strengthen our economy and improve the quality of life in our communities. Click HERE for our full analysis.  The Governor now has ten days from the enactment of the budget to sign it and veto any outside sections, line items, or portions of line items. The budget then returns to the Legislature, which can either let vetoes stand or override them with a two thirds vote of the House and Senate.   The budget does include several significant new initiatives, including: Increasing the value of the state earned income tax credit from 15% of the federal credit to 23%. This will provide additional income to over 400,000 lower wage workers and their families (click HERE for town-by-town detail). Besides improving lives now by helping parents to pay for necessities like food and clothing for their children, this additional support is also likely to expand opportunity for these children over the long run: there is growing evidence that when the income of a lower income family increases, the children often do better in school and earn more as adults. Providing significant new tools for the administration to improve management at the MBTA. The budget creates a new MBTA Control Board and authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to appoint the Director of the MBTA. The budget also suspends for three years the Taxpayer Protection Act (commonly called the Pacheco Law) that regulates privatization. The law requires that privatization efforts achieve savings by efficiency improvements rather than by reducing pay and benefits for workers (click HERE for more detail). Addressing substance abuse with targeted investments throughout MassHealth, public health and mental health. In particular, new initiatives support first responders and others in the community struggling to address the challenge of opioid addiction. The Legislature's final budget, like the budget proposed by the governor back in March, relies heavily on temporary strategies to balance the budget. It spends $300 million in capital gains tax revenue that would have gone into the Rainy Day Fund under current law. It also counts on $100 million from a tax amnesty and $116 million from putting off paying some of our FY 2016 MassHealth bills into FY 2017. As has been the case for many years, state budget choices are being shaped by fiscal challenges that date back to the late 1990s: after cutting the income tax by over $3 billion dollars between 1998 and 2002 our state has had to make deep cuts in areas like higher education, local aid, and public health. Meanwhile, the highest income residents in the Commonwealth are paying a substantially smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than do the other 99%. If our tax system were reformed so that the highest income 1% of taxpayers paid roughly the same share of their income in taxes as everyone else, that would raise about $2 billion that could be invested in things like making college affordable, improving our transportation systems, and providing all children with the supports they need to thrive. Please click HERE for our full analysis.    The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. MASSACHUSETTS BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER 15 COURT SQUARE, SUITE 700 BOSTON, MA 02108

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center | 15 Court Square | Suite 700 | Boston | MA | 02108