Franklin Matters

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Live reporting - Town Council

Attending: Whalen, Mason, Bartlett, Feeley, Pfeffer, Doak, McGann, Zollo
Missing: Vallee (arrived at 7:20 PM)

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
– October 7, 2009, Regular & Executive Session
Motion to approve - passed 8-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Bryce Kuchs will not be able to fulfill the responsibilities of the Town Council position due to a change in his work. He will not be campaigning for election.

Rose Turco read the Vietnam War Fallen Heroes Signs Dedication invitation to the Town Council and to the Franklin public.

A close up of the six Franklin Vietnam War Heroes to be recognized.

Sunday November 8th, 2009 2:00 PM
Town Common War Memorial Plaza

If raining, this will be held at the same time in the Senior Center.

The full invitation can be seen here:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS

Candidate Forum at Senior Center in jeopardy

There is a Candidate Forum at the Senior Center on Wednesday, October 28th at 9:00 AM.

If you would like to attend please call the Senior Center to register (508-520-4945).

If there are not enough people attending, they may cancel the Forum. Decision for the cancellation would be made on Friday, October 23.

Note: The Town Council Candidates Debate is still scheduled for Monday, October 26th at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of the Municipal Bldg. This will also be broadcast via the cable channels as well as the Internet webcast.

Police to hold Halloween Festival

Franklin Police will hold its annual Halloween Festival Sunday, October 25h from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Franklin High School fieldhouse.

Additional details in the flyer originally posted on the Franklin Police website:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

This event is targeted for kids in Grade 5 and younger!

Traffic Alert: MassPike Overnight Tunnel Closures

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Traffic Alert: MassPike Overnight Tunnel Closures

via Commonwealth Conversations: Transportation by Klark Jessen on 10/20/09

To allow for tunnel construction and inspection work in the Prudential Tunnel, I-90 (MassPike) East between Exit #22 (Prudential Center/Copley Square) and South Boston will be closed at night intermittently throughout October and November beginning tonight Tuesday, October 20, 2009 and tomorrow night Wednesday, October 21, 2009 from 11:30 PM to 5:00 AM the following morning. Direct access to the Ted Williams Tunnel from Frontage Road, and South Boston will remain open.

All traffic will be directed off the Turnpike at Copley Square onto Stuart Street. Drivers should follow the posted detour route on Stuart Street, Arlington Street, and Herald Street and continue following the posted detour signs to their destinations, as indicated below:

To South Station, Downtown and I-93 North: From Herald Street, turn right onto Albany Street. From Albany Street, take left onto Broadway Connector and follow the existing signs. Alternate route would be to exit Masspike at Allston/Brighton Tolls and travel east on Storrow Drive.

To Massachusetts Avenue: Turn right onto Albany Street. Continue south on Albany Street to Massachusetts Avenue.

To I-93 South: From Herald Street, at the Albany Street intersection, take first left onto the I-93 South on-ramp.

To I-90 East/South Boston/Airport: Turn right onto Albany Street. Continue south on Albany Street and use the Ramp to I-90 East from the Albany Street Connector.
In addition, drivers should be aware that the Massachusetts Highway Department will continue to have lane closures on I-93 bridge deck repairs south of the city near Neponset Circle for its interstate maintenance project. Bridge deck repairs and conduit work for highway lighting replacement will continue on I-93 north of the city near the Mystic River crossing.
Check all MassPike traffic advisories here.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Commonwealth Conversations: Transportation using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Senior Center - Men's Group

Men's Group - Senior Center at Franklin, originally uploaded by shersteve.

What is social media all about?

That was the basic question. These gentlemen now know a little bit more about being social in the Internet world. It is not much different from meeting at the Post Office or barbershop and chatting with your neighbors. The biggest difference is you don't have to walk (or drive) to either the Post Office or the barbershop when it is open for business, you can go to the Internet, go to Facebook at any time during the day.

The notes I prepared for them to take away are as follows:

The two best books to start with

The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger
Trust Agents by Chris Brogan, Julien Smith

Tools to start with
1 - A Google account
provides email, RSS reader, alerts, photo place (Picassa), video place (YouTube), blogs (Blogger)

2 - Facebook http://www.facebook.com/
3 - Twitter http://twitter.com/
4 - LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/

Blogs to read

Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
Mark Hurst: http://goodexperience.com/
Tom Peters: http://www.tompeters.com/

Steve Sherlock: http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/ and http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

The three step process for social media

Listen
Learn
Leverage

My thanks to Ken Norman for arranging this. My thanks to my current boss for allowing me to keep this prior commitment.

"The average person knows very little"

With only seven candidates for seven open positions on the School Committee, there is no competition. And yet, the School Committee controls half the Franklin town budget. They are responsible for the education of over 6,000 students and are the largest Town employer.

Aside from the National School Board Association's plugs for what the organization does, the brief video does make some excellent points on what the School Committee members should consider.