Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
"Once your vision is lost, it's gone for good,"
Losing one's sight, which sometimes happens with age, is a frightening experience, and people usually don't know what help is available to them, Andrea Schein told a captive audience at the Senior Center Tuesday afternoon.
Those who are blind or suffer vision loss often have to deal with the public's misconceptions and fear as well, said Schein, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind.
"If you tell someone you have a loss of vision, the tendency is (to yell), 'HELLO, HOW ARE YOU TODAY?"' Schein said loudly, prompting a few seniors to laugh so hard they started tearing up.
"Attitudes about blindness are terrible, just terrible. The only things scarier to the public are cancer and AIDS - things you die from," Schein said.
Baffled at this, the audience blurted out, "Why? Why?"
People just don't know how to communicate, she told the seniors, who comprise the newly formed Low Vision Group.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.
"dead crows and blue jays"
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News hereThe Massachusetts Department of Public Health has issued a warning: Mosquitoes in Franklin have tested positive for West Nile virus.
"We continue to urge residents to take personal precautions such as using repellent. It's not too late in the season for us to see human cases of West Nile virus or EEE (eastern equine encephalitis)," DPH State Epidemiologist Dr. Al DeMaria said in a press release.
DeMaria advised residents to protect themselves from getting West Nile virus from mosquitoes by:
- Being aware of mosquitoes' active hours. The hours from dusk to dawn are peak biting times for mosquitoes, he cautioned, so avoid early morning and evening activities outdoors
- Wearing long sleeves, long pants and socks to protect skin from mosquito bites
- Applying insect repellent containing DEET (but not on infants under 2 months of age and in concentrations of 30 percent or less on older children), permethrin, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus (but don't use lemon eucalyptus on children under age 3)
- Draining still water to mosquito-proof a home. This includes rain gutters and drains, because mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water, and install or repair screens to keep the pests outside.
"We would be bankrupt,"
Town Council last night postponed a decision on whether to rezone a portion of Rte. 140, demanding more specific information about potential development.
"If they want us to pass that bylaw, give us information," said Councilor Robert Vallee.
Town planners proposed the idea to expand business opportunities, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting.
Town Planner Beth Dahlstrom and Town Engineer William Yadisernia are hoping the zoning change will bolster development by allowing a wider variety of projects near the Knights of Columbus property, which is on the northerly side of Rte. 140, they have said.
The plan would switch a portion of West Central Street (Rte. 140) from Business/Single Family III to Commercial II.
The Knights of Columbus is selling its property, town planners want to increase the redevelopment potential of the lots in that area, and the Knights property is in need of substantial redevelopment, Yadisernia has said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Live reporting - Town Council meeting
absent: Whalen, Mason
A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - none
B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
reminder on upcoming Harvest Fair, Library Book Sale
C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS - none
D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none
E. APPOINTMENTS - Design Review Commission, appoint approved
motion to amend the agenda to add the School Building Committee to the agenda
motion seconded and passed
first meeting, 5:00 PM October 1st
The members of this committee are as follows:
Town Officials
- Chris Feeley, Town Council
- Scott Mason, Town Council
- Ed Cafasso, School Committee
- Paula Mullen, School Committee
- Maureen Sabolinski, Ass't Supt of Schools
- Pamela Gould, High School Principal
- Michael D'Angelo, Town/School Facilities Director
- Jeff Nutting, Town Administrator
- Lou Allevato
- Thomas Cameron
- William Goode
- Rob Halter
- Michael LeBlanc
- Thomas Mercer
- Scott Nathan
live reporting - Administrator report
- thanks for the website conversions
- Beaver St to be open on Thursday. There is still some paving to do possibly next week but the road is passable now.
- Question 1 is on the November ballot would remove the income tax and remove about 12 billion dollars from the State budget. This money provides about 35% of our annual budget. I hope folks think long and hard before voting on that question.
- Offer for special meeting on commercial property tax evaluation, will be scheduled
Nuttling - Verizon is going to fix, patch, repair, etc. Call Verizon 24x7
Old business - none
New business -
Vallee - if the zoning bylaw is going to be brought here again, let's get the information we asked for. If it had come for a vote tonight, it would have failed. It requires a two-thirds vote to pass.
Councilor Comments
Zollo - the fields are a standard barer for the town
(will add comments for the school teachers putting in effort in trying times)
Vallee - The school department is going to have to look forward to less next year. The economy is going into the tank.
live reporting - legislation for action
- Resolution 08-48: Acceptance of Sewer Easement Off King Street
- Zoning Bylaw Amendment 08-625: Chapter 185-5:Zoning Map: Business to Commercial II- 2nd Reading
Taberner - I was unaware of an outstanding question from last time. I have not had any contact with any one of the principals.
Motion to table until Oct 1
Approved unanimously
live reporting - town website
Maxine provides a recap of the history and recognition of the town website.
Technical limitations forced a change. The application was outdated and becoming unsupported. Quicksite was a home grown application.
Virtual Townhall provides support directly to the users posting their information.
Cost of the prior services was approx. $22,000 per year (hosting and support). The new service is an annual cost of about $6,000.
Initial design and framework was by the team with a focus on ease of use to a website visitor. You can access information in multiple ways. Most information can be found on the page without scrolling up/down.
Designed to separate the town and community/business information.
Community/business links moved to American Towns at no cost.
Conversion sessions conducted. Several general done, individual departments also meet directly with Virtual Townhall. Next week follow up training is scheduled. Questions/concerns being collected to help Virtual Townhall prepare for the training session.
Doak - Question on conversion time, was content there? There seemed to be some confusion with what information would be there.
Raposa - There is a difference between the town and community site, only the Town site can have the official seal.
Bartlett - Is all the old Town information on the new site
Kinhart - No, there is 2-3 years there now. It is a project to continue to add to it.
demo of features -
department list, not complete but what is important to show without scrolling
Connect CTY
Fire Department - pictures of equipment and stations
Contact us - has form to request notice for posting to front page
Top navigation bar for Schools, Residents, Business, Home (return to front page)
Community - American Towns
Doak - question on URL and redirects
Raposa - temporary situation until the school website is moved to another server
FM #14 - Downtown Parking Study
Time: 29 minutes, 36 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes:
Music intro
My intro
FM #14
By way of catching up, I will do some shorter podcasts to provide the detailed discussions to you in their entirety. There is little I can add to the discussion itself so you might as well listen to it all and take from it what you will.
This is from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday 9/3/08 where Brian Taberner, the Downtown Planning and Community Development Director makes his presentation covering the downtown parking study. Beth Dalhstrom assists during the presentation. This portion of the meeting includes the Q&A and my own two cents input.
---- ---- ----
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock
For additional 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
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
FM #13 - Downtown Planning & Community Development
Time: 39 minutes, 27 seconds
MP3 File
Session Notes
Music intro
My intro
FM #13
By way of catching up, I will do some shorter podcasts to provide the detailed discussions to you in their entirety. There is little I can add to the discussion itself so you might as well listen to it all and take from it what you will.
This is from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday 9/3/08 where Brian Taberner, the Downtown Planning and Community Development Director makes his presentation covering the goals, objectives, and projects underway. Beth Dalhstrom assists during the presentation.
The notes taken from my live reporting during the Town Council meeting can be found here
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This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock
For additional 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
In the News - ice cream social, collecting books
Franklin Library to host ice cream social
| This Saturday, Sept. 20 at 3 p.m., the Friends of the Franklin Library will host an old-fashioned ice cream social featuring the award-winning barbershop quartet, Concord Express. |
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Friends of Franklin Public Library accepting book donations
| The Friends of the Franklin Public Library have announced they are accepting book donations for the Fall Book sale scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 18. Book sale donations may be dropped off at the Franklin Public Library during regular business hours lower level. |
Monday, September 15, 2008
Town Council Agenda - 9/17/08
September 17, 2008
7:00 PM
A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS
D. CITIZEN COMMENTS
E. APPOINTMENTS - Design Review Commission
F. HEARINGS
G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS
H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS – New Town Website
I. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
- Resolution 08-48: Acceptance of Sewer Easement Off King Street
- Zoning Bylaw Amendment 08-625: Chapter 185-5:Zoning Map: Business to Commercial II- 2nd Reading
K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
L. OLD BUSINESS
M. NEW BUSINESS
N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
O. EXECUTIVE SESSION – Negotiations, Litigation, Real Property, as May Be Required
P. ADJOURN
Sunday, September 14, 2008
FM #12 - Street Opening Bylaw
Time: 22 minutes, 18 seconds
MP3 File
Session notes:
Music intro
My intro
FM #12
By way of catching up, I will do some shorter podcasts to provide the detailed discussions to you in their entirety. There is little I can add to the discussion itself so you might as well listen to it all and take from it what you will.
The first is from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday 9/3/08 where they discuss the proposed bylaw covering digging into a street in less than five years after it was re-done. The council completes the discussion and leaves the bylaw unchanged.
This will leave some residents with a situation that they are not happy with but it will leave the town overall with a better road infrastructure.
Choices, choices.
---- ---- ----
This podcast has been a public service provided to my fellow Franklin citizens and voters by Steve Sherlock
For additional 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
Windows and doors
The house at 188 King St now sports them:
The renovation/rebuilding of Honey Dew Donuts on East Central St now sports them as well. Looks like the coffee will be brewing soon!
How important are windows and doors?
Without them, all you have are four walls and no way to get in or out.
In the News: defibrillators, Pirelli Scholarship, Back to Business
Since Franklin, which has five AEDs, began sending them out in every car during a shift several years ago, they've become an important staple, said Chief Stephen Williams.
"We have had to use them, and we have had saves," he said. "If we're there a minute or two before emergency services, minutes count for a person having a heart attack."
Read the full article about local police departments and their defibrillator inventory in the Milford Daily News here
Staff Sgt. Pirelli, 29, was killed in a gun battle on Aug. 15, 2007 in Diyala Province while serving a tour in Iraq with the Army Special Forces. The Green Beret had been a goalie for the Franklin High School Panthers hockey team.Read the full article about the Pirelli Scholarship fundraiser in the Milford Daily News here.
"My main job for the rest of my life is to keep his name alive,'' Pirelli said.
One of the ways he will do that, with the help of family and friends, is through establishing a perpetual scholarship for Franklin High School graduates.
To raise money for the first set of scholarships, which the Pirellis plan to hand out in 2010, they are holding a comedy night (for ages 21+) on Sept. 27 at the Doubletree Hotel in Milford (formerly the Milford Sheraton), at 7 p.m.
"We're really putting on a Las Vegas-quality show in Milford. There are headliners, Johnny Pizzi, who is in Vegas right now, Paul Gilligan, Tony Vee, Paul D'Angelo,'' Alberts said.
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Read more about getting women Back to Business in the Milford Daily News here.
A "super mom'' was sitting with her, talking about how she had just sent her child to college and needed to find a job, but felt she had nothing to offer, Waters recalled.
"I thought she had it all together. She sat in front of me and started crying, and told me nobody would talk to her,'' Waters said.
The woman had spent a lot of time volunteering and was active in the community, but didn't think potential employers would value that experience, she explained.
So Waters used her corporate vocabulary and applied it to her resume, showing her she had many transferable skills.
"She started to sit up straight and became confident she was worth something out there,'' Waters said.
That woman, in turn, inspired Waters to start Back to Business, instead of one of the other dozen or so ideas she was kicking around, she said.
She spent the next year and a half researching, interviewing human resource managers, recruiters, and other hiring entities to learn what they wanted in employees.
"They're not against moms returning to the workforce, or people making a job transition. They just want to see transferable skills, computer skills, and they want the candidate to be clear about what they want,'' she said.
Waters realized she could bridge the gap and clear up misperceptions, she said.
Unable to find a good alternative to their situation, many women do nothing and simply continue feeling stuck, she said.
"We un-stick these fabulous women,'' Waters said.
"Confidence is the biggest thing missing,'' she said, adding that hiring managers do comment about applicants needing to have more of it.