"The Town Clerks office is seeking election workers for the upcoming elections. If you are interested, please send an email to: smerullo@franklinma.gov
You will be sent a questionnaire and HR packet.Thank you!
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| The Franklin Town Clerks office is seeking election workers |
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| Franklin Senior Center: Connection Newsletter for October 2020 |
"THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Tuesday went all-in on its community-by-community approach to COVID-19, allowing lower-risk municipalities to move forward with reopening plans while putting cities and towns considered high risk on hold.
Since community-by-community COVID-19 data were broken out in August, the Baker administration has used the information to target testing and other resources where they are needed most. Now the governor is giving communities considered lower risk the green light to reopen businesses more quickly than communities considered high risk.
The shift in approach was accompanied by a change in nomenclature. The governor initially broke communities down based on their positive cases per 100,000 people over the previous two weeks. Those communities with more than 8 cases per 100,000 were considered high-risk, those with between 4 and 8 cases moderate risk, and those lower than 4 cases per 100,000 or fewer than 5 cases overall were considered low-risk. On a color-coded map, the four groupings were red for high risk, yellow for moderate risk, and green and gray for low risk.
On Tuesday, the governor and his top aides lumped all the yellow, green, and gray communities in the same low-risk category. "
"GOV. CHARLIE BAKER will allow more indoor performance and entertainment spaces to open on Monday, but only in communities deemed low-risk for transmission of COVID-19. His decision to continue with the state’s phased reopening comes as some epidemiologists are worried about signs of a potential new coronavirus spike.
Baker, at a State House press conference on Tuesday, said he believes the biggest risk comes from people gathering informally. With cooler weather coming, his goal is to allow people to gather indoors in as low-risk way as possible. “The unsupervised, the unorganized, the familiar being familiar is really where the greatest risk is,” Baker said. “If people are going to go inside, I’d much rather they go inside in an organized, supervised way with rules than in an unorganized, unsupervised ways with no rules.”
The new rules, which go into effect Monday, will let indoor performance venues open at 50 percent of capacity, with a maximum of 250 people, excluding performers. Large venues such as arenas, stadiums, and exhibition halls are not covered by the new rules; they will not be allowed to reopen until the final phase of the state’s reopening plan, which is predicated on having a vaccine or effective treatment for COVID-19.
Outdoor performance venues will be allowed to increase to 50 percent of capacity, also with a maximum of 250 people, up from 25 percent and 50 people now."
Gov Baker's press conf: https://youtu.be/dB_IobtBGO8
"In this pandemic year, reimagining theatrical performance means exploring not just the digital space but that infinitely roomy analog space known as the outdoors.
In any year, heightening theater’s relevance and immediacy means grappling with urgent social issues such as the kind of entrenched racial injustice that has spawned massive nationwide protests in 2020.
New Repertory Theatre tackles both the performative and thematic sides of that equation with its premiere of “The Charles W. Lenox Experience,” copresented with the Watertown Free Public Library and the Historical Society of Watertown. Scripted by local dramatist Ken Green and directed by Michael Ofori, it’s a solo play set in the 19th century that has the ongoing struggles of the 21st century very much on its mind.
The estimable Kadahj Bennett plays Lenox, a Black barber in Watertown who served in the Civil War with the storied 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, rising to the rank of sergeant. As Bennett leads patrons on a one-hour stroll to notable sites in and around Watertown Square, Lenox’s first-person narrative outwardly resembles one of those tourist-friendly guided expeditions.
But this is no anodyne history tour. Embedded throughout “The Charles W. Lenox Experience” are pointed reminders of how little the nation had done to deserve the service of Black soldiers — and how little it appreciated their sacrifice once they had helped to save it."
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/I3I4CV7QB5F7TLAYLSETKVCB2I.jpg "Kadahj Bennett portrays Charles Lenox, a Watertown barber who enlisted in the Union army, in \"The Charles W. Lenox Experience.\"New Repertory Theatre") |
From the Milford Daily News, an article of interest for Franklin:
"New aromas are wafting from the re-done kitchen of a familiar spot on Union Street these days, where the culinary traditions of Mexico have replaced those of Italy.
Acapulcos Mexican Family Restaurant & Cantina is now welcoming diners to its new location in the building formerly occupied by the Union Street Grill, after a move from its previous location one mile away in the heart of downtown Franklin.
The restaurant opened quietly over the summer at 371 Union St. after months of renovation work inside that conveys the atmosphere of a warm and welcoming Mexican hacienda with its saltillo tiled floors, colorfully tiled walls and archways, and displays of Mexican terracotta cooking vessels.
Jesus Ruelas, who operates the restaurant with his wife, Yahilda, said not everyone got the message that the popular eatery moved, and is not a victim of the pandemic, though they have also been glad to see many new faces drop by."
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| Acapulcos Mexican Family Restaurant & Cantina |
Massachusetts students should expect to take their MCAS exams next spring, Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley said Tuesday.
This past spring, after schools were abruptly forced to transition to remote learning as COVID-19 cases mounted, state officials suspended the MCAS testing requirement for 2020. A federal decision allowing states to cancel tests if they filed waiver requests facilitated that move.
Addressing the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Tuesday, Riley said the federal government has signaled that similar action will not be coming in 2021.
“We have told superintendents very clearly that we do anticipate administering the MCAS this spring,” Riley said.
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