Saturday, April 25, 2009

Charles River Cleanup Heros!

This group of four came back to refresh their supplies to clean up the Charles River Watershed during the special clean up today.

In green t-shirts left to right (If I have the order correctly) Michelle, Shawn, Alex, and Melisa. David Dobrzynski wore the yellow t-shirt and was coordinating the activities at the Whole Foods in Bellingham.

Thanks for the work you did today!

PS - If I have the order incorrect, please let me know and I can make the change.



Updated to properly identify Shawn and Alex.

"They're anxious and waiting"

Milford Daily News
Posted Apr 24, 2009 @ 11:50 PM

FRANKLIN —

After making the wage and health care concessions, Franklin's public employees are still on edge, some waiting for the dreaded pink slip.

Hearing Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting's projection of another major deficit next year - up to $6 million - rekindled fear among police, said Police union Vice President Robert Burchill.

Morale at the station is "OK at the moment," he said, but officers are concerned about what's going to happen next year.

"Next year's budget is way out of whack again. We already made concessions for the town to save jobs, figuring that was the end-all, figuring things can't get worse. I guess they can get worse," Burchill said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

Come to the Town Forum on Monday, April 27th, 7:00 PM to discuss the Financial Planning Committee's report.


Financial Planning Report - available

Click through to the Franklin Town website to view and download the draft report of the Financial Planning Committee here

The summary of the FPC meetings this year as well as the Focus Group's feedback can be found here:


This report will be the subject of the open forum meeting Monday at 7:00 PM at the Horace Mann/Mercer Auditorium.

HMEA's 8th Annual Independence 5K Walk/Run


HMEA's 8th Annual Independence 5K Walk/Run in the Park will be held on Sunday, May 17, 2009. Our friends at EMC2 Corporation, 50 Constitution Boulevard, Franklin, MA have again allowed us to hold this premier fundraising event on their grounds. Gail Huff from WCVB-TV Channel 5 News will once again be our host.

To register to walk please visit firstgiving.com/hmea. Here you can also set-up your own personal fundraising page that can be e-mailed to all your family, friends and co-workers asking them to support your efforts to raise funds for HMEA.

If you want to participate in the road race please register at active.com/hmea. OR, if you prefer you can complete your registration form online, print it and mail directly to HMEA along with your registration fee(s). You could also e-mail it back to hmea@hmea.org. Click here for the registration form.

Interested in becoming a sponsor of this fun-filled family day event? To learn what sponsorships are available click here for the Sponsorship Opportunities flyer.

More information will be available shortly. In the meantime if have any questions please call Linda Conley at 508.298.1107 or Doug MacPherson at 508.298.1105.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Franklin Downtown Partnership invites crafters to Strawberry Festival



 
 

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

 
 

via Wicked Local Franklin News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc. on 4/24/09

The Franklin Downtown Partnership is planning its June 19 Strawberry Festival, and is inviting crafters to send in their registration by May 1.

The festival will take place 1 to 6 p.m. at the West Central Street parking lot, next to Rick's restaurant. Booth fees are $50 for non-food vendors. After May 1, booth fees are $75. Space is limited.
 
Vendors should contact festival chairman Mary Graff at 773-5504 or mgraff@berryinsurance.com.
 
Anyone interested in joining the Partnership or sponsoring this event should contact the Franklin Downtown Partnership Executive Director at downtown.franklin@yahoo.com or 774-571-3109.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Columbine lessons still resonate

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

via Franklin School Committee by Jeffrey Roy on 4/24/09
My vacation week read this year was Dave Cullen's excellent work entitled Columbine. It's an indelible portrait of the killers, the victims, and the community that suffered one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. This book was released nearly 10 years after the event, and is a riveting page turner which [...]

Things you can do from here:

"the problem is real, it's growing, and it's perpetual"

Milford Daily News
Posted Apr 23, 2009 @ 11:49 PM

FRANKLIN —

At its last meeting before presenting its report to the public, the long-range financial planning committee's top concern was making sure they can draw a large crowd.

In an effort to ensure people attend the forum at Horace Mann Middle School on Monday at 7 p.m., committee members debated using the townwide calling system to invite residents to come.

Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting argued that the system must only be used for emergencies. If it is used for announcements, nobody will listen when a "real emergency comes," Nutting said.

Councilor Stephen Whalen emphatically insisted that there is no more important issue in town than its recurring deficit and the damaging impact it can and has wrought.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here.


Financial Plng Comm 04/23/09

The live reporting from the Financial Planning Committee meeting of 4/23/09 can be found here


Thursday, April 23, 2009

Live reporting - FPC

Clarification on average annual debt versus actual.

Page 5 of the executive summary, remove the reference to "outsource", it hasn't really been done to amount to much. There has mostly been elimination not outsourcing.

Need to adjust the deficit to ensure the forecast agrees with FY 10. Jeff and Doug to finalize the numbers as close as they can. The numbers may still change but we want to be to in the ball park and not an order of magnitude off.

Medical trends go at double digit growth so we still need to forecast accordingly.

The one-time savings are primarily associated with what was forecasted versus what can get into the budget.

Should we address the teacher retirement as it is not funded by the town? Yes, need to find a place appropriately.

Need to assign responsibilities for computer, screen projection (Jeff)
Microphone one at stage, one each aisle (Jeff)

Go through the executive summary

Discussion on using the connect-cty to notify the town of the meeting Monday night. School system will likely be used to notify the school community.

Discussion on confirmation of broadcasting via cable. Not confirmed yet.

Whole object here is that the problem is real, it is growing, it is systemic.

Use a dashboard on the web to show what the numbers are, they may change over time. It needs to be reflected as what changed and why, not that they "found money".

Live reporting - Financial Plng - 4/23/09

Attending: Roche, Bartlett, Hardesty, Nutting, Cameron, Trahan, Whalen, Wilschek
Absent: Kelly, Ogden, Zollo

Approved minutes of 4/2/09, 4/9/09 meeting

Review of new numbers to show decline in town employees since 1999 versus population increase since that same time.

Discussion on new slide which tries to get at the projected deficit for this year. Too much is still in float, leave out the revenue numbers. Focus on the one-time adjustments because that puts us in the hole to start out in FY 2011.

Discussion on freeze versus deferral. Deferral is more accurate.