So you think you can budget? Click on the revenue or expense arrows, then on the bottom line and get a sorta spreadsheet that lets you play with detailed views of the T's budget.
Via Nathan Spencer.
The Relay for Life will be held on the Franklin High School track (Oak Street) beginning Friday evening, June 12th and running through Saturday, June 13th.
Additional info on the relay can be found on the event website hereThe 600 residents who got socked with late fees and interest penalties for not paying excise bills they never received do not have to pay those extra costs, Assistant Treasurer/Collector Sandra Fanning said yesterday.
The tax collector will send refunds to those who have already paid the erroneous extra charges, said Fanning.
"We're trying to be as fair as we can," Fanning said.
Those who were billed incorrectly do not need to do anything, she said.
read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Possibly facing a loss of $900,000 in state aid under the Senate budget, Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting said he is going to make every attempt to keep his promise to unions that volunteered to freeze their wages for year.
"No matter what happens, my goal is not to have those layoffs," Nutting said.
Earlier in the budget season, the Franklin Police Association and Local 1298, which consists of the police and fire dispatchers unions, custodians union, administrative union (clerical), Department of Public Works union, and facilities (tradesmen) union, all voted to take a one-year deferral on their negotiated wage increases to save their colleagues' jobs and help out the town.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Pooja Agaraal
Collin Berg
Erin Lee
Kasey Lynch
Emma Campbell
Dayna Comeau
Branna Metras
Kristen Dumas – final selection
Laura Chiaravalloti, RMS Teacher
Tim LaRowe
Marcus Giese
Jake Garrity
Claudia Beck
Markus Bohmiller
Brian Morin
Tracy Pisani
Julianne Pisani
Abby Normandin
Justin Means
Angie Canesi
Elisabeth Salamy
Pooja Agarwal
Amanda Lin
Tim Stevens
Carolyn Foley
Jenna Gleason
David Sanches
Christine Harvey
Dan Pisani
Erin Harrington
Christina Mouradian
Erika Kucks
The recession is pinching sponsorships and donations for some local Fourth of July and summer celebrations, forcing organizers to scrounge up support elsewhere or trim fireworks and other entertainment.
Still, while budget pressures have caused cancellations elsewhere, the show will go on in most MetroWest and Milford-area towns and cities that host annual Independence Day festivities and summer festivals.
"We're doing the best we can with what we have," said Warren Revell, secretary for Franklin's Fourth of July Committee.
Read the full article on the local Fourth of July fund raising efforts in the Milford Daily News here.
The construction at the Four Corners building is underway. Eventually, a Walgreens will operate from this location.
I'll try to report key milestones here from time to time as the work progresses.
Embedded in the state Senate's budget, an insurance proposal is presenting a not-so-veiled ultimatum to municipalities: Curb your health care costs or else.
Essentially, the provision would force municipalities to reduce their health care costs to meet a state standard, lest they face an outside arbitrator coming in and settling matters with unions - to say nothing of the possible gouges to local aid.
The proposal is in Senate conference committee right now and could be tweaked, rejected, or given the go-ahead within the next month.
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"We're very worried," said Jeff Nutting, Franklin Town Administrator and president of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "It's a huge step backward in the worst economy of our life."Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Last month, a breached beaver dam flooded Bob Szymanski's property in Milford. Several months before, it was a very intact one in Holliston that swelled the Hopping Brook so it nearly washed over a small bridge.
Beaver habitats routinely clash with those of humans in metro Boston. Other recent reports come from Westborough, Concord, Bolton and Andover, where a hasty dam breaching flooded a charity golf event.
The issue of beaver management isn't purely academic. Untimely dams can flood houses, or muck up sewer systems and roads - costly problems to repair. In Westborough, the town set aside $5,000 in this year's budget just to deal with beavers.
Beavers' ecological benefits are also substantial, as beavers, North America's largest native rodents, create wetlands that nurture other wildlife, control flooding and purify water.
Read the full article on the beaver dams in the Milford Daily News here
This is news of interest to Franklin. The condition of the dams on the DelCarte land was the subject of some discussion during the May 6th Town Council meeting. The 8-1 vote approved spending some money to get engineering estimates on how to correct the dams. A breech in one of the dams could result in down stream flooding. The estimates of damage were hard to quantify.
Multi-family yard sale
Saturday, June 6th - 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Lawrence Dr and Susan's Way
Giving the 2009 graduating class a glimpse into the distant future, the Franklin High School Class of 1959 reunited at a reception at Horace Mann Middle School yesterday. The tradition, which was started by former Principal Jack Lucas, dates back to 1998. However, this was only the second year that a reception was held for the alumni to gather and catch up on the 50th anniversary of their graduation.
Organized by the Franklin High School Alumni Association and the Franklin Lifelong Learning Institute, the event gathered 23 members of the 95-member 1959 class. It was a strong turnout, according to Lifelong Learning Executive Director Pandora Carlucci.
"Every graduate means a lot to us, no matter how long you've been out of school," Carlucci, the first of a handful of speakers, said to the lively crowd of alumni.
Read the full article about the FHS Class of 1959 in the Milford Daily News here
In his last speech to the Class of 2009, Superintendent Wayne Ogden urged the 370 graduating seniors, "Educate your soul, and your spirit."
"I'm pretty darn sure the world has enough smart people - it (needs) people with compassion and integrity," Ogden said.
A "good, successful human being" is balanced, he said.
He told students now that they are graduating, they "can start the process of learning."
It may seem a strange bit of advice from a school superintendent, but he explained that for too many young people, the pursuit of a credential is substituted for the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
"Seek knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. An associate's or bachelor's degree will fall into place," Ogden said.
To those who are not planning to go college, Ogden said, "you can learn a tremendous amount without going to school."
Read the full article on the FHS Graduation in the Milford Daily News here
The list of graduates can be found in the Milford Daily News here
The town treasurer mailed excise bills in February, but about 600 residents never received them, and now they've gotten hit with late fees and interest penalties, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting.
Nutting attributes the problem to a mailing error on the part of the U.S. Postal Service.
"When one person says they didn't get their bill, that's one thing, but when hundreds of people are coming in and telling the same story, you have to believe it's true," said Nutting.
"They've been coming in and saying, 'Why do I have to pay this? I never got an original bill,"' he said.
Read the full article about the missing excise tax bills in the Milford Daily News here
The town sold the former Four Corners School to Arista Development LLC and got the check for $2.5 million Tuesday, said Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting.
Norwood-based Arista is replacing the building at the intersection of Rte. 140 and King Street with a Walgreens pharmacy.
About $1 million of the money will be used to pay the existing debt on the property, which the town bought for $1.32 million, Nutting said.
Town Council voted Wednesday to put the $1 million in an escrow account for that purpose.
The remainder of the funds can be used for any bondable expense, or capital project, such as building repairs, but cannot legally be used for operational costs, such as salaries or schools, and cannot be put into free cash, Nutting said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
The teachers union is slated to vote on a new proposal for wage concessions in the coming weeks, according to School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy.
The School Committee is asking the union to defer its negotiated 2.5 percent wage increase for one year, at which point the union will receive both a 2.5 percent raise, plus any new negotiated pay increase, Roy said.
The union has offered to take the wage freeze, as well as to forgo course reimbursements for one year, but demanded three permanent contractual changes in exchange.
The School Committee rejected that offer, and the union rejected a counter-proposal by the School Committee.
On June 15, the teachers union will meet to take a ratification vote on a proposal that strikes contractual language requiring teachers to give a reason for personal days, and eliminates one of the additional after-school meetings, in exchange for a 2.5 percent wage increase deferment, according to a copy of the proposal.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Since Bob McLaughlin was unavailable for comment to create this article, the quotations from him were taken from his posting to the teacher's website on Memorial Day, May 25th. Read his full posting here.
Slowly but surely, the plan to renovate or build a new Franklin High School is moving ahead, with a favorable vote from the Massachusetts School Building Authority allowing the town to conduct a feasibility study, according to School Committee Chairman Jeffrey Roy.
Yesterday, the authority's board of directors voted to invite the town to conduct the study to assess the needs of Franklin High School, said state building authority press secretary Carrie Sullivan.
The "invitation to collaborate" on a feasibility study does not mean the the organization has approved the project, Sullivan said.
"It is strictly an invitation to the Franklin school district to work with the (authority) to explore potential solutions to the problems that have been identified," she said.
Roy called the authority's decision "very significant, because we're now more in the pipeline."
Read the full article on this latest development in the FHS renovation process in the Milford Daily News
