Saturday, August 2, 2008

"We don't want anything sneaky going on"

GHS
Posted Aug 01, 2008 @ 11:29 PM

FRANKLIN —

Leaders of the citizens' group, "It Does Not Fit, Do Not Permit" say they will remain vigilant in opposing "irresponsible development" and keeping a watchful eye on developers.

About 50 members of the group descended upon the Zoning Board of Appeals July 24, to fight a commercial development plan Councilor Joseph McGann and former police chief Lawrence Benedetto proposed in January for 704 Washington St. The members expressed frustration that the two sought a second continuance and did not appear.

Following the meeting, McGann said, in a phone interview, that a sale of the property was in progress, and attorneys were ironing out a few formalities. McGann declined to name the prospective buyer or how they intend to use the property and said he and Benedetto would not provide any more details about the project. Benedetto has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached for comment.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Previous postings here include:

Friday, August 1, 2008

In the News - vandal, car thiefs, DCU

Cops say kids trespassing at site

By Michelle Laczkoski/Daily News staff

Police arrested two teenage boys Wednesday night after a passerby saw them trespassing on a construction site on Summer Street.

The boys, ages 16 and 14, were arrested just before 9 p.m. Both face charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, Deputy Chief Stephan Semerjian said.

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Rash of car break-ins prompts warning

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

Responding to several dozen reported car break-ins recently, including 11 Wednesday night, Deputy Police Chief Stephan H. Semerjian is warning residents to lock their cars and secure valuables like GPS devices and laptop computers.

Downtown residents have been reporting the break-ins for the past five weeks, Semerjian said.


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DCU expands

By Aaron Wasserman/Daily News staff

Digital Federal Credit Union expects to open in Franklin later this month, its first branch in the Milford area and Norfolk County.

Tim Garner, the credit union's vice president of marketing and strategic planning, said this week the company has been scouting several locations along Interstate 495 for new branches and this is the first to materialize. It has been working on the project for nearly two years.

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Thursday, July 31, 2008

"it's an investment in our town"

GHS
Posted Jul 30, 2008 @ 11:10 PM

FRANKLIN —

Property owners could be charged an annual fee of about $40 under a stormwater management plan proposed by the Department of Public Works.

DPW Director Brutus Cantoreggi said the fee would raise about $500,000, which could be used to pay for infrastructure repairs and retrofits, additional catch-basin cleaning, street sweeping and maintenance of stormwater facilities to comply with federal mandates.

Establishing a stormwater utility would provide a stable source of dedicated funding, assist with making long-term improvements, and give a more equitable apportionment from different land uses than the tax base does, he said.

Another goal in the stormwater management plan is to keep water in Franklin, rather than letting it flow into the Charles River, Cantoreggi said.

However, there is a hitch to the proposed plan: It may not be legal.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Listen to my recap of the 3 things you should know from the Town Council meeting 7/23/08

Beaver St: Construction and detour

GHS
Posted Jul 30, 2008 @ 10:00 AM

FRANKLIN —

The town will temporarily close a section of Beaver Street starting Aug. 25 in order to replace Mine Brook's deteriorating twin culverts, said Town Engineer William Yadisernia.

"It's a big deal," though a relatively inexpensive job, Yadisernia said, noting that diverting the water is no easy task.

Beaver Pond will stay open while the contractor, Aldore Tetreault & Sons Inc., of Medway reconstructs the culverts, he said.

Beaver Street will be closed from West Central Street to Grove Street during that period, but the pond, recreational facilities, and Beaver Street Recycling Center can be accessed through Grove Street, Yadisernia said.

Drivers can access Master Drive from West Central Street, he said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.

Listen to the full DPW update from the 7/23/08 Town Council meeting here.


Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Center Commons makes progress

Center Commons makes progress

In case you haven't peaked through to see what is going on with the Center Commons development behind E Central St, these pix from Saturday shows significant progress from last time I peaked.

"The building showcases Franklin artifacts"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
GHS
Posted Jul 29, 2008 @ 10:00 AM
FRANKLIN —

Renovations should begin in late summer on the new home of the Horace Mann Museum, but will not be completed until next spring, officials say. The museum has been housed in a Washington Street church donated to the town in 1972 by Franklin Federated Church and is being relocated to the old senior center which will be revamped.

Four firms have responded to the town's Request for Proposals to make improvements to the future history museum at 80 West Central Street (Rte. 140), Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting said.

Franklin has $400,000 budgeted for the improvements, most of which will
be interior, he said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Sunrise 7/29/08

utterz-image
sunrise franklin station 7/29/08

Mobile post sent by shersteve using Utterzreply-count Replies.

"The price was really wrong"

GHS
Posted Jul 28, 2008 @ 10:00 AM

FRANKLIN —

America's first public library is getting a makeover.

At its July 9 meeting, Town Council authorized the borrowing of $350,000 to remodel and make "extraordinary repairs" to the leaking library, located at 118 Main St.

The renovations will include landscaping, paving and other site improvements, which should be completed by year's end, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting.

"I'm hopeful we can finish during this construction season," he said.

The town received seven bids, with $292,000 as the low bid and $700,000 as the highest bid, he said. The $350,000 bond assumes the town will proceed with the low bidder while leaving funds available for unexpected issues that may arise during the project, Nutting said.

Franklin has the option of paying for the repairs with money from the sale of the former Four Corners School, he said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.

FM #7 - 3 Things Town Council Mtg 7/23/08

Another in a series of podcasts on what matters in Franklin, MA. This one focuses on the 3 things you should know about from the Town Council Meeting July 23, 2008.

Time: 19 minutes, 0 seconds



MP3 File

Session Notes:

Music intro

My intro

Three things today: What you need to know from the Town Council meeting on 7/23/08
  1. bylaw amendment to adjust notifications
  2. DPW update on projects around town
  3. Storm water presentation/fee or tax
1 – I have recorded the full discussion on the bylaw amendment to adjust the notifications. The discussion includes the Q&A following with Councilors Bartlett and Doak raising questions; Administrator Jeff NUtting and Attorney Mark Cerel providing answers (approx 7:00 minutes)

I want to see the answers to the questions Bartlett and Doak asked.
How much will we save?
What notices does this affect?

Tombstone ads can go away, but with new web site still under transition, I would not bank on that


2 - While waiting for the presentation to be setup, DPW director Robert A. (Brutus) Cantoreggi provides an update (approx 5 ½ minutes)

I hope the insights on the various projects underway and upcoming was beneficial


3 – The presentation on Storm Water provided plenty of good information, too much to include in this podcast. What will come out of this is further discussion on a Storm water fee – tax or good idea?

I sent a question to the DPW to confirm that this is projected to be an annual cost. At $500,000, that is a lot of money. We aren’t spending anything now so going from zero to 500K might be a bit much. Can we do it for less?

PS – It did not make it into the recording but Brutus Cantoreggi did confirm that the 40 dollars and $500,000 are projected to be annual amounts.

---- ---- ----

This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock

For additional textual information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music

Monday, July 28, 2008

FM #6 - 5 Things: SchCom 7/15/08

Another in a series of podcast on what matters in Franklin, MA. This one focuses on the 5 things you should know from the School Committee meeting 7/15/08.

TIme: 26 minutes, 9 seconds



MP3 File

Music intro

My intro

Five things today: What you need to know from the school committee meeting on 7/15/08
  1. Citizens comment
  2. Final budget for FY09
  3. Budget for year end FY08
  4. Fiscal audit status
  5. Late bus returns
1 - My intro what you’ll hear
• Citizen comment from Herbert Hunter, 432 Oakland Parkway; Brick School Assoc
• Questioning agenda items, Asst Supt. Maureen Sabolinski updates the agenda immediately after

Final status on the Brick Classroom remains outstanding

2 - Intro on FY09
• Miriam Goodman updates on the final budget for FY 09 with all adjustments (override, facility transfer, etc.)
• Final budget number for FY09 - $49,940,242

I understand that the School Committee has been over this a number of times before but this is “show time” and a little more information around what the budget means would have been good.

3 - Intro on FY 08
• Miriam updates on the FY 08 budget finish, approx $200K unencumbered, likely to end up about 100K left over

4 - Intro on Audit
• Miriam continues and updates on the Audit report and action items

Again some closing comments to help the viewers would be good to frame the discussion and prevent unanswered questions

5 - Intro on late bus, Supt Ogden provides overview on the four options for the late bus
• Due to increased ridership, above the budgeted amount, the late bus can stay with support from the extra funding from pay-to-ride, Ed Cafasso comments, 41mins

Did you follow that? The budget started with a decline in ridership with the increase in fees. Now that the ridership is higher, the increase in fees will raise more revenue than they had projected. This increase in revenue is enough at this point to allow for covering the late bus. They will continue to monitor the situation closely. We get another update in one of the August meetings (Aug 12th or 26th)

-------------------

This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock

For additional textual information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly sending by an email to shersteve @ gmail dot com or by commenting on the Franklin Matters blog

The musical intro and closing is from the Podsafe Music Network
Jon Schmidt - Powerful Exhilarating Piano Music

Sunday, July 27, 2008

"We can speak our minds"

GHS
Posted Jul 26, 2008 @ 10:00 AM

FRANKLIN —

A local property owner has donated office space to the Downtown Partnership, and several companies have supplied furniture, technology and equipment, to help the group continue its work to revitalize downtown.

"It's exciting we now have a downtown office," said Jane Curran, secretary of the Partnership and owner of Jane's Frames, 11 East Central St. Her landlords, Diane and Michael Glass, gave the partnership some office space at 9 East Central St.

The Partnership is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making downtown Franklin "an exciting place to live, work, shop and learn," and is comprised of residents, merchants, community leaders and town officials.

Dean Bank donated a computer, printer, desk and chair for the office, and Joel Carrara of Printsmart Office Products at 109 Marvin St., gave office supplies, said Curran, who donated framed art and Web access through her shop.

"We're excited to be downtown, and it's really exciting to have an office downtown and continue to work closely with Brian (Taberner, Planning Department director) and (Town Administrator) Jeff Nutting," said Lisa Piana, executive director of the Downtown Partnership and former downtown manager.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Just words

Wordle, a cool tool that uses submitted text or in this case, the entire Franklin Matters website, to generate this image:



These are just the words here.

Deval Patrick made an important speech during his campaign for Governor where he repeated the phrase "just words".

Franklin Matters because there are more than just words here!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Sponsor the Harvest Festival

GateHouse News Service
Posted Jul 25, 2008 @ 07:30 PM

FRANKLIN —

The Franklin Downtown Partnership, a non-profit organization, is seeking sponsors for its annual Harvest Festival on Sunday. Sept. 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. The festival will take place in downtown Franklin center, on Main and East Central streets. The rain date will be Sunday, Sept. 28.
For more information on how to sponsor this event, click through here


704 Washington St

If you are coming here to look for where 704 Washington St is located, here is what the Town Planning Board map site shows:

Click on the image to go directly to the map site, type in "704 Washington" and you should get this as the result. I selected to show the zoning for this image which added the yellowish color to the map. The entry in the zone code box on the scroll for information is actually blank.

If you go to Google Maps, this is the satellite view for 704 Washington St.


View Larger Map

"We're selling it"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
GHS
Posted Jul 25, 2008 @ 12:48 AM
FRANKLIN —
About 50 people showed up in vain to a Zoning Board of Appeals meeting last night to protest a prospective development at 704 Washington St. "I know you're going to be disappointed," Zoning Board Chairman Bruce Hunchard said, addressing the crowd and explaining the applicants, Town Councilor Joseph McGann and former Police Chief Lawrence Benedetto, had requested a continuance for a hearing on a request for a zoning variance.
McGann and Benedetto proposed demolishing a 1,400-square-foot
single-family home and adjacent barn at 704 Washington St., and replacing it
with a 20,000-square-foot retail building and a parking lot that would accommodate at least 112 parking spaces.
Members of the group, "It Does Not Fit, Do Not Permit," groaned and yelled out, "Ohhhh," and "Oh God, this is nonsense ... this is ridiculous."
Hunchard told the group continuances are "not uncommon," and that he did not know why the applicants had requested one.
The hearing will be continued to Aug. 21.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here