"it sounds like a very good program"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Nov 06, 2008 @ 12:27 AM

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FRANKLIN —

Town Council last night looked favorably upon a proposal from the Department of Public Works to start an automated trash collection program featuring single-stream recycling.

The new program would save residents the trouble of separating recyclables, theoretically increasing recycling rates, reduce waste tonnage, and would cost residents nothing or just a small increase in their trash fee, said officials last night.

With single-stream recycling, people can put all recyclables in one container, said DPW Director Brutus Cantoreggi.

"This is kind of like a no-brainer to us," said Cantoreggi.

The program would take effect when Franklin's current contract with Wheelabrator expires on June 30, 2010, said Cantoreggi.

The town would provide residents a container for trash, which would be maintained by the hauler, said Cantoreggi.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Read all that occurred during this Town Council meeting here.

Town Council Mtg Summary 11/05/08

The collection of posts from the Town Council meeting 11/5/08

• Live reporting - Councilor Comments
• Live reporting - Town Administrator's report
• live reporting - rezoning
• Live reporting - Brick lease
• Live reporting - DPW re-org
• Live reporting - DPW Solid Waste & Recycling
• Live reporting - Fire Station Bldg Committee disol...
• Recycling update
• Live reporting - Recycle committee report
• Live reporting - License transfer
• Live reporting - opening items
• Live reporting - Town Council Meeting

Phishing scams in plain english

In our continuing series on understanding Web 2.0, one of the drawbacks of free and easy email is found with multiple scams. The folks at Common Craft have come up with a video to explain phishing scams. Very well done. Be careful what you click on in email!





Note: For those subscribers to this blog, this is one link that you can trust.

Live reporting - Councilor Comments

Zollo:
Streamline recycling
property rezoning (increase tax base)
lease Brick School
consolidation of janitorial services

Town Council does look for efficiencies where possible

Pfeffer - congratulations to Maureen Sabolinski on her selection and to the School Committee for a good and timely choice

Live reporting - Town Administrator's report

Old Norfolk water issue resolved.
Story from September 2007 can be found here and here
Recent update on this - September meeting


Rock pile at Chestnut/RT 140 purchased by Sovereign Bank, Town inquiring to see what the bank plans to do with it.


Dedication of Museum and new sculpture November 19th, 9:00AM.


Some capital planning coming in future meeting, also with "free cash" being certified soon, he'll being some proposals to look at adding some funds to the Stabilization Fund.

live reporting - rezoning

Zoning Bylaw Amendment 08-625: Chapter 185-5, Town Code: Zoning Map – Business to Commercial II – 2nd Reading (Tabled on 10/15/08)

Approved 7-1 (Doak no, Vallee absent)

Live reporting - Brick lease

The lease was signed with the Charter School for the Brick facility for $1 per year with the knowledge that these donations were available to offset the facility costs.

Resolution 08-72: Acceptance of Gifts for the Red Brick School

Approved 8-0

Live reporting - DPW re-org

Proposal to create a "grounds" division within the DPW.

Feeley - no vote on it tonight, open for questions

Would cost about $20,000: $10,000 to the General Fund and another $10,000 to the Water/Sewer revolving account.

The proposal adds a "real" deputy to the Director of Operations.

More efficient operations. Need to start succession planning, capturing the extensive knowledge that they have built over the years to handle things as well as they do. Uses existing folks. Eliminates assistant positions.

Live reporting - DPW Solid Waste & Recycling

Image via WikipediaRobert Cantoreggi and Denise Zambrowski presenting

Approx 1 ton of trash per household in Franklin per year.

Under the single stream proposal:
Residents would be provided a "toter", it would be maintained by the hauler. This would reduce the amount of trash imported to Franklin. Overflow options: an additional toter for a fee or purchase 33 gallon overflow bags.

Current program of one bulk burnable item with trash per week would be replaced by a small fee and a sticker with a scheduled pick up. This would avoid the importing of trash from other areas into Franklin to be disposed of here for "free".

Single Stream recycling - no limit on recyclables

Nutting - Looking to see if there is general consensus amongst the Council to move ahead with RFP for the single stream processing.

Nutting requested to handle the following resolution out of order:


Resolution 08-71: Authorization for Intermunicipal Agreement – Town of Blackstone

Approved 8-0

Live reporting - Fire Station Bldg Committee disolved

Resolution 08-59: Dissolution of Fire Station Building Committee (Tabled on 10/15/08)

Approved 8-0

Ken Norman representative of the committee this evening along with Fire Chief McCarraher.

Recycling update

The Recycling Committee provides an update to the Town Council

Mobile post sent by shersteve using Utterli. Replies.

Live reporting - Recycle committee report

Image by shersteve via FlickrImprovements in recycling town wide. Increased from 21% to 25% for the past quarter compared to last year.

Discussion on recycling at the high school. The Green Team is the largest group at the high school. They are active. The grade of C is meant to reflect the overall town effort/performance against the overall town recycling goals. We need to encourage their effort.

There are no recycling bins at Beaver Street. There should be waste and recycle receptacles to separate the trash and recyclables.

Town needs to set an example and model the good recycling behavior.

Proposal to audit trash and leave a door hanger notice on the results. This as a follow up to an announcement letter to everyone letting the know what the opportunities are.

(editorial note - I should talk with them about my idea of using the folks walking around town to bend and stretch to pick up recycling. The picture included here is from one of my weekend morning walks. I posted about this back in February 2008)

Single stream possible for the future. What is it? Put everything in one container and the waste handler with updated technology can do the separation at their end.

Current trash contract good through 2010. Single Stream and other enhancements could be incorporated as part of the new contract.

Franklin's Earth Day should be the Saturday closest to the official Earth Day which is always April 22. 300 volunteers picked up 6000 pounds of recyclables on that one day.

DPW did a great job helping with Earth Day. Especially on a Saturday!

Two major issues;

• Receptacles are not readily available.
• The consciousness (about recycling) it not present in the community.

Build a sense of community pride!

Councilor Pfeffer wants to deputize folks to start issuing the $50 fines to folks littering at the fields.

Franklin is recycling at 25% and most of our neighbor towns are at 50%.

The Recycling Committee web page on the new Town site can be found here.

Live reporting - License transfer

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS –
Teppanyaki Restaurant – Change of Manager

issue with new manager has not completed the bartender training as required

motion amended to make the transfer contingent upon receipt of the training completion (scheduled for Monday 11/10/08).

approved 8-0

Live reporting - opening items

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – October 1, 2008, October 15, 2008
approved 8-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS

(will update later from recording)

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS

(none)

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS

Ken Norman raised an objection to the music being played in the background on Channel 11. He finds it difficult to try and follow what is going on with the music distracting and objectionable. Can the administrator find another alternative?

E. APPOINTMENTS
Design Review Commission
Council on Aging

(will add names from recording later)

Live reporting - Town Council Meeting

Added to agenda: motion made and approved to organize the Council for the next year.

Feeley - Chair
Bartlett - Vice-Chair
Pfeffer - Clerk

all motions made and voted 8-0 (Vallee not attending)

GATRA "free ride" coupons

Yes, it is true, there is a "free ride" coupon coming for the GATRA Franklin bus.

Where do you get a coupon?

This Friday’s (November 7, 2008) edition of The Country Gazette will have a 2” x 2” orange coupon also known as an “Ad Note” affixed to the front page of 10,000 copies of the paper. The “Ad Note” is a “peel off” good for a FREE RIDE. The “coupon” is good immediately up to and including Saturday, December 20, 2008.

If your neighbor doesn't want to use it, ask them for it?

If you can't use it, give it to some one who will use it!

That's helping someone get at least one ride free.

In the News - 2010 Budget planing starting

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Nov 05, 2008 @ 01:35 AM

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FRANKLIN —

Thanks to the sour economy, Franklin is looking at a possible shortfall of several million dollars for fiscal 2010, and a subsequent "major reduction in force ... townwide," Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting told the Finance Committee last night.

It is still too early to estimate how much the shortfall will be, said Nutting.

That figure, he said, depends on the result of Question 1 (to repeal the state income tax), and assuming there aren't any changes in revenue projections. According to last night's numbers, Massachusetts voters shot down the effort to repeal the income tax.

Nutting's projection was not discussed at length, as it was not an issue on last night's meeting agenda, but he mentioned it when he told the board he will ask department heads to submit budgets in early December.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Fall Into Art - November 8 & 9

Read more about this event put on by the Franklin Art Association here.

"the school system is going to need it"

Michael Doherty, a member of the board of directors of the Franklin Education Foundation, said he is worried about the economy's effect on the foundation. "Local businesses have been feeling the pinch for well over a year and it is harder for them to be as generous to us as they have in the past,'' he said. "We still get a lot of support but some of the small businesses have really suffered.''

The Franklin Educational Foundation will hold its third annual casino night on Nov. 21, but on a smaller scale than in the past, Doherty said. He said he thinks people are waiting until later to purchase tickets for the event.

"We hope to get a large turnout for it, the event was well supported in the last two years,'' he said. "People who are not gamblers come out and understand its just a fun event and everyone knows what they spend will benefit a great cause.''

Doherty said another casualty of the economy is that people have less and less time to volunteer for the foundation. "People are working more, but we are always accepting new members and donations for the cause,'' he said. And with state budget cuts and less revenue from other sources, the school system is going to need it, Doherty said.

"We cannot make up the entire gap but we hope to provide whatever assistance we can,'' he said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

"They're both really smart,"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GateHouse News Service

Posted Nov 03, 2008 @ 10:37 PM

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FRANKLIN —

If the voting pattern of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Horace Mann Middle School is any reflection of the way the rest of the country will vote today, Barack Obama will win by a landslide.

The final tally: Barack Obama, 329; John McCain, 181; Ralph Nader, 17.

'Our motto today is: `As Horace Mann goes, so goes the nation,''' said sixth-grade math teacher Patricia Metrick, who helped organize the mock election.

"Twenty, 30 years from now, this election's going to be in our textbooks. Their children will be learning about it. It gives (today's students) a chance to participate, even though they're only young adults,'' said Metrick.

Although the school has held mock elections in the past, this was "by far the snazziest, most authentic one,'' said sixth-grade English/social studies teacher Joseph Corey, who directed the video news team yesterday with sixth-grade math and science teacher Noreen Langmeyer.

"They're very excited, they're waiting for their turn to vote,'' Langmeyer said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here