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Providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin, MA since 2007. * Working in collaboration with Franklin TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019 *
By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
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Franklin School Committee Meeting
March 11, 2008
Municipal Building – Council Chambers
6:30 P.M. Executive Session
7:00 P.M.
AGENDA
Call to order Mr. Roy
Pledge of Allegiance
Moment of Silence
1. Business Administrator Candidates
7:00 pm Patricia Lange
7:40 pm Ann Giombetti
8:20 pm David Proule
9:00 pm Miriam Goodman
2. Payroll Ms. Armenio
3. Correspondence:
Budget to Actual
Invitation to 14th Annual Boisi Lecture in Education and Public Policy
4. New Business:
To discuss future business that may be brought before the School Committee.
5. Executive Session
To discuss interview candidates
6. Adjourn
Debbie Drew was loading groceries into her car at Stop & Shop when she noticed a big white vehicle advertising itself as the Franklin Area Bus. She rushed over to get the skinny on what appeared to be the first public bus in town.
"Is this like a new service? Do we have a bus now?" she excitedly asked the driver. "Excellent!"
The Franklin Area Bus yesterday drove its first 13 passengers around town. It will run Monday through Saturday year-round with a regular fare of $1, 50 cents for the elderly, students and the disabled, and free for children under 6.
Read the remainder of the article here.
Mastering the perfect spiral and finding the balance to glide on one ice skate requires discipline, patience and grace.
But imagine pulling off all those tricks in concert with a group of other ice skaters.
That's precisely what the 11 Chickenellas, Franklin's Symmetric Ice Crystals synchronized skating team, have challenged themselves to do.
Synchronized skating beats singles because everyone supports one another, said Caleigh Smith, 11, who prides herself on her back-lunges.
"You have to help each other. It's harder because if somebody next to you falls down, you have to help pick them up or else you fall down. You have to support each other," said Smith.
Read the remainder of the article here
Responding to the recent announcement that the School Department will lay off 45 teachers next year, parent groups have been letting school officials know they are "very curious" what the impact will be on their children, said Superintendent Wayne Ogden.
And newer teachers are starting to panic, Ogden said.
"Many of our younger, less experienced staff are all very nervous about it because seniority plays into it, and they are the most vulnerable," said Ogden.
The School Committee received its budget two weeks ago, and the group is deliberating on it, Ogden said.
School Committee members will meet with parent communication groups in the coming weeks as follows:
April 4, at 9 a.m., at Davis Thayer;
April 11, at 8:45 a.m. at Jefferson;
March 14, at 9 a.m., at Kennedy;
March 19, at 9 a.m., Sullivan Middle School;
April 8, at 9 a.m., at Horace Mann;
March 12 at 7 p.m. at Remington; and
May 7 at 7 p.m. at Franklin High School.
By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staffGHSPosted Mar 07, 2008 @ 12:01 AM
FRANKLIN —Where can you find a Rabbit Elevator, two versions of a humane mouse trap, a Pet-o-matic, and the Trash Carrier 2008?
The fifth-grade Invention Convention at the Davis Thayer School lays exclusive claim to these ingenious contraptions, along with 44 other inventions, dreamed up by fifth-graders over the last several weeks.
Fifth-grade teachers Jennifer Alger and Caitlin Colahan instructed students to invent a product using three of a number of simple machines which would solve one of life's daily problems, including a lever, pulley, hinge and inclined planes.
FRANKLIN, Mass., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Many of the newer model beds and stretchers emerging onto the healthcare market utilize components such as frames and drive mechanisms that are within just a few inches of the floor. This means traditional mobile patient lifts can be difficult to use because their legs normally are too high to extend under these beds and stretchers. Liko's newly introduced Golvo LowBase(TM) model circumvents this problem with a lower total leg height, including wheels, of only 2 1/3 inches.
Liko's Golvo is unique among mobile lifts due to its flexible lift strap, vertical lifting motion, and parallel widening base legs. Originally introduced in 1986, Golvo represented a breakthrough in mobile lift design because its unique telescoping mast and lifting strap enabled patients to be lifted vertically, similar to an overhead ceiling mounted lifting system.
The new Golvo 7007 LowBase(TM) model is an ideal solution for applications such as lifting or transferring patients to or from low profile beds or stretchers. In addition to its low bed compatibility, the Golvo 7007 LowBase(TM) is ideal for lifts to/from the floor, horizontal lifts, and ambulation assistance for patients weighing up to 440 lbs.
About Liko North America
Liko North America is one of the world's leading suppliers of patient lifts, including mobile, overhead rail, sit-to-stand, and bariatric lifts, as well as a selection of more than 250 slings and accessories. The company is also the exclusive sponsor of the pro bono "Safe Lifting Environment" campaign designed to help prevent caregiver injuries (visit http://www.safeliftingportal.com/ for more details). For more information on Liko's complete line of patient lifts, contact Liko North America, 122 Grove Street, Franklin, MA 02038. Telephone (888) 545-6671 or (508) 553-3993; fax (508) 528-6642, or visit the Liko website at http://www.liko.com/.
Franklin does have a varied industrial base, for previous posts on industry located here, follow this link.
By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting announced that he is finishing next year's town budget proposal and will have it ready next Friday. "Obviously, budget requests (from department heads) and funds available - there's a big gap between them," said Nutting, encouraging anyone with questions to call his office. He also noted that "Old Man Winter came again" and put more stress on the town's snow and ice spending, which was $340,000 over budget prior to last week's snowstorm. Also at last night's meeting, Town Clerk Deborah L. Pellegri invited all the town's citizens to stop by Town Hall today for a piece of birthday cake to celebrate Franklin's 230th birthday. |
At our March 6 meeting, we will host town officials to discuss school budget issues and answer questions. We have invited Ed Cafasso, a Franklin School Committee member, and a Franklin Town Council representative as our guests. So please join us for a budget discussion.
MASSACHUSETTS MAKEOVER | GLOBE EDITORIAL At home in downtown FranklinMarch 3, 2008 Fifth in a series FOR MOST of its existence, Franklin looked like a New England town straight out of Currier & Ives. And in some ways, it still does. While the town center languished as the region's mills declined, it still boasts a compact business district surrounded by historic homes and the leafy campus of Dean College. During the tech boom of the 1990s, Franklin, 25 miles from Boston, turned into something else: the quintessential Interstate 495 exurb. Flex-space buildings and shopping centers clustered along the highway, and new subdivisions sprawled across what had been open space. But that rapid development has slowed, and in recent years Franklin began confronting the problems that past growth had left behind. Among other things, that meant knitting Franklin back together by revitalizing the town center. "We had a traditional dying downtown," says Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting. Yet with an MBTA commuter rail station in the heart of town, Franklin was primed to capitalize on a movement toward transit-oriented growth. So businesses and civic groups formed the Franklin Downtown Partnership to push for beautification and economic development. In 2001, Franklin rezoned roughly 40 acres in the town center to allow for mixed-use development; the old zoning forbade new housing in commercial zones. Because it's hard to get around without a car, Franklin joined the Greater Attleborough Taunton Regional Transit Authority and will inaugurate a bus line in March. Franklin is now using a $5 million federal grant to improve traffic flow and make other streetscape improvements downtown. The goal, as the partnership puts it, is to make Franklin "the 'up and coming' downtown of the western suburbs." These efforts are starting to bear fruit. Since last summer, developer John Marini of Canton has completed two mixed-use buildings that are part of the $35 million Franklin Center Commons project. A third is underway, and a fourth is also planned. Even so, this model of redevelopment remains an experiment, in Franklin and elsewhere. It gained currency during a period of economic prosperity. And to the extent that its power depends on the popularity of cute shops and upscale condos, its prospects are less certain now, as the economy falters. Unsustainable development As part of a project known as MetroFuture, an effort to promote sustainable development in Eastern Massachusetts, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission studied how towns might evolve in the future. Had Franklin continued to sprawl as it did in the '90s, it would be on track to lose 2,600 acres of open space to development by 2030. In contrast, by steering development to existing population centers, areas near public transit routes, and previously developed land, the town can accommodate almost as much population growth - but would lose fewer than 1,000 acres of undeveloped land. Ironically, the consequences of past sprawl may be helping downtown revival efforts. "The reason downtown fell into problems," says Bryan Taberner, Franklin's new planning director, "is that there was a lot of land available" elsewhere in the town. Now, he says, undeveloped land has become scarcer and more expensive, so downtown redevelopment looks more attractive than it used to. And while the construction of retail shops alone can be cost-prohibitive because of land prices, mixed-use developers can generate more revenue on the same parcel by adding one or more floors of offices and apartments above stores. The Franklin Center Commons project suggests that the market has caught on to the advantages of such development. While the town used a grant to demolish a piano factory that once stood on part of the project site, Marini has otherwise relied on private money. Cautionary notes While Franklin has been adding fewer than 100 single-family homes a year throughout this decade, about 350 such homes were built in each of the two peak years of the '90s construction boom. By comparison, the Franklin Center Commons project plan calls for only 77 condos. And even that number isn't firm; Marini says he may seek to replace condo units in one proposed building with office space, because of a weak housing market. Moreover, while Marini thinks his new retail space will rent for a premium - about $20 to $24 per square foot, he says, compared with $12 or so in older buildings - he has yet to find tenants for much of it. Amid all of Franklin's exertions and aspirations, the laws of retail physics still apply: The town isn't just competing with other downtowns for upscale shoppers; it's also competing with nearby Wrentham Village - an outlet mall so popular that it shows up in Japanese travel books. Of course, there's more to downtown redevelopment than just luring retail stores. "That's the easiest thing," says Marc Draisen, chairman of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. He stresses the benefits of luring corporate employers to downtowns instead of to anonymous office parks. Then again, Nutting says, the amount of vacant office space elsewhere in the region may make Franklin's downtown a tough sell. Even so, he figures Franklin is keeping pace with other downtowns with similar aspirations. "It's not like we've done one thing and said, 'That's it,' " Nutting says. "This is in perpetuity." Downtown Franklin frayed over the course of decades. Efforts to revive it won't succeed overnight. |