Friday, December 18, 2009

Express LIne #4

The latest Express Line is available.


Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

You can subscribe to this newsletter and other email notifications on the Franklin Town website here

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Town Council Mtg Smry 12/16/09

The live reported posts from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Dec 16 can be found here:




In the News - affordable housing, Abbey wind power

A good use for the money that has accumulated in the Housing Trust Fund. This creates affordable housing for folks wanting to live in Franklin by using houses already on the market rather than creating new housing.


Franklin to offer grants to first-time homebuyers

from The Milford Daily News News RSS





Abbey has wind turbine installed

from The Milford Daily News Homepage RSS







Wednesday, December 16, 2009

live reporting - closing items

K.  TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
Express Line #4 published
Maxine did good work on this

recycle holiday wrappings, etc
Tree pick up Jan 9th

H1N1 Flu clinic
last week and today, thanks for all helping
well attended moving smoothly
a huge success


10-12 year history on snow budget

highlight in Express Line
in 1998 vs 2009 police statistics
more calls with less folks
thanks to the employees for doing this

Fire Dept calls are up, DPW road miles have grown

DPW is down 6 positions so handling the snow will be a little be slower this time around
trying not to fill jobs until the budget picture clarifies in a couple of months

belt tightening across many departments
some positions are critical and can't go unfilled but for others we are waiting to see what the numbers from the State will be

Community Development
application scoring increased from 83 to 89 (need to check the numbers)
this helps with grant applications


L.  OLD BUSINESS - none

M. NEW BUSINESS
Powderly - request to examine tax waiver and see if this can be increased from $20K to 40K

N.  COUNCIL COMMENTS
Powderly - tour of the schools today, very amazing and eye opening
Zollo - thanks to Rep Vallee for the visit to the State for insight into State finances
Pfeffer - holiday wishes to all
Jones - thanks to Rep Vallee for lunch and the info yesterday, thanks to Roy and Sabolinski for the world wind tour of the schools today
Vallee - Merry Christmas to all
Mason - Senior Center first councilors forum, was a great event. Will be back. This Senior Center is so well liked, it draws seniors from other towns. We will be back in February

O.  EXECUTIVE SESSION – Negotiations, Litigation, Real Property, as May Be Required

P.  ADJOURN
motion to adjourn, passed 8-0

Live reporting - Legislation

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS  - Municipal Housing Trust
funding to create at least six low income housing units from existing housing not to be used for new housing

I.  SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS - none

J.  LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
1. Resolution 09-82: Legal Notices
motion to approve - passed 8-0

2. Resolution 09-83: 2010 Town Council Meeting Schedule
motion to approve - passed 8-0

Whalen - question on the April schedule
Nutting - this was done to avoid the school vacation schedule, it can be changed

Mason - there are no special meetings scheduled
Nutting - we can schedule them as needed, rather than schedule them and cancel them if we don't need them

3. Resolution 09-84: Endorsement of Fiscal Policies
motion to approve - passed 8-0

4. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 09-637: Amendment to Chapter 185-3. Definitions – 2nd  Reading
motion to approve - passed 8-0 (via roll call vote, all yes)

Beth Dahlstrom, Nick Alfieri attending to answer questions


vote re-done to clarify the motion
 
5. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 09-638: Amendment to Chapter 185-39. Uses Accessory to Dwelling – 2nd  Reading

motion to approve - passed 8-0



Live reporting - Town Council

Attending: Kelly, Jones, Vallee, Whalen, Mason, Pfeffer, Zollo, Powderly
Missing: McGann

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – November 18, 2009
motion to approve, passed 7-0

B.  ANNOUNCEMENTS  - none

C.  PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS - none

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none

E. APPOINTMENTS - none

F. HEARINGS - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS – Change of Manager – Shaw’s
motion to approve - passed 8-0 (Vallee arrived)



K12 Online Conference

There is a great conference om K12 education occurring using the Internet this week. Three good links for presentations that occurred yesterday can be found here. Each link will take you to the individual page where you can see the video or listen to the audio of the presentation along with additional reference links.

1 -

Parallel Play or Collaboration–Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work

from K12 Online Conference 2008


Thriving in a Collaborative Web 2.0 Classroom: The “Great Debate” and “Student News Action Network”

from K12 Online Conference 2008


Engaging Our Youngest Minds

from K12 Online Conference 2008