Thursday, January 21, 2010

Governor promises no cuts to local aid or school funding



Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:







via The Milford Daily News News RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc. on 1/21/10

Gov. Deval Patrick tonight will promise to maintain current levels of local aid and Chapter 70 pubic school funding in his State of the Commonwealth address, to air at 7:30 p.m. on Boston TV stations.
A summary of Patrick's planned speech, released by the governor's office just after 5 today, said Patrick will:
- highlight job creation, economic development, education and health care "as the key drivers to building a better future" for the state;
- will announce that "despite the tough budget situation, there will be no cuts to local aid and Chapter 70 public school funding";
- will address the impact of the global economic crisis is having on people in the state and "let them know in very direct ways that we are here to help";
and  will touch on what state government and the citizens of Massachusetts have accomplished.
In addition, the governor "will admit that there have been bumps in the road, some of our own making and that he is learning from our mistakes as well as our triumphs," the statement from Patrick's office said.
The speech airs at 7:30 Thursday night on WCVB, WHDH, and NECN.



Things you can do from here:



New trash recycle containers

These are representative of the new containers that the town would provide for each household. The containers would be green, one with a green cover for trash and one with a yellow cover for recycled items.





More on the discussion on the new trash collection system on the Town Council meeting can be found here:
 This was the first reading of the proposed rate change. The second reading will likely be on the next Town Council meeting (Feb 3, 2010).

The rate change is a decrease from $244 per year to $220.



Town Council Mtg Smry 01/20/2010

The collection of posts live reported from the Town Council meeting Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010 can be found here:

The Downtown Project presentation document can be found here


In the News - trash collection

Cantoreggi said the current annual collection fee is $244, and it would go down to $220 with the automated system.

He said the town saves money by reducing collection costs and increasing recycling rates so there's less trash to burn - which costs $70 per ton.

Read more in the article here

Revamped trash collection proposed for Franklin

from The Milford Daily News News RSS





Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Live reporting - closing items

Administrator report

Met with GATRA to see if there are ways to improve service
Need to look at ways to increase ridership
Still at about half the ridership that they had forecasted and were expecting

Snow report (will post later)
Will come forward to overspend the snow account

Cost per road mile compared to 10 or so other communities, we are at the bottom in comparison

Old Business
Fiscal policies, are they posted?
Globe had article on biotechnology, thanks to Bryan for his work

New business
none around

Councilor Comments
Powderly - be aware of scams regarding Haiti fundraising
Kindergarten registration coning up in Feb
Thanks to D Pellgri for running with her staff the special election in a great manner

Zollo - commend the citizens for getting out to vote
commend Downtown Partnership for collaboration on the downtown project
the project will be instrumental to the success of downtown

McGann - Congratulations to our new Senator, Scott Brown

Pfeffer - thanks to the Council on Aging for providing dinner for the Council
Type II Diabetes veterans of WWII may qualify for a disability pension

Kelly - thanks to the voters for doing their civic duty

Jones - thanks to 68% for coming out to vote, compared to the 16% that came out for our election

Mason - they always make us feel so welcome when we go to the Senior Center

Budget workshop with Finance, School Committee, discussion on common knowledge base, not budget itself  Monday in the 3rd Floor training room at 6:30 PM

motion to adjourn, passed



Live reporting - Solid Waste Q&A

Separate carts for waste and recylcing

no longer need to purchase the other barrels households use
RFID reader embedded in the handle to track, to improve tracking on pickups and customer service

estimate savings at 11-20% in recycling
municipal buildings est savings at 42%
school buildings est savings at 55%

reduces water weight of trash

curbside collection fee currently $244 being reduced to $220 with this process


Q - Can seniors bring the barrels to the front in a snow storm
A - These should be easier to move around than their regular barrells

Once you get through the initial hump and get going, it is a great system. I believe we'll be here next year to reduce the rates again.

Barrells should last ten-fifteen years with normal use

Q - If an owner takes them away, what would happen with the new owner
A - With the tracking system, we'll know where they are. We will replace the units and go after the prior owner.

Q - How quickly can we implement this?
A - We have a tentative agreement to begin July 1. We will need to come back with an 800,000 bond request to fund the initial carts to be financed over five years.

Q - Will the colors be like this?
A - They'll be green. If you pay your fee, we'll pick up. They read the chip each pickup, so even if yours ends up at a neighbors we'll know.

In Mansfield, for 6400 customers, 100 take a larger size.
We also have the Beaver St recycling facility to handle excess.

Monitoring things from a computer will be easier, in the long run should get less calls and complaints and more efficiencies. Once we get past the initial rollout this summer, we should be fine.

Motion to move to second reading - passed 8-0

Live reporting - Solid Waste

Note - Kelly arrives

   3.  Bylaw Amendment 10-641: Chapter 82; Appendix A:  List of Service Fee Rates, Solid Waste and Recycling Fees - 1st Reading

Chris White, Cathy Merza



Picture of what the new trash/recycle containers would look like can be found here
These were the units brought to the Town Council meeting as as example.


Live reporting - Legislation for action

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
   1.  Zoning Bylaw Amendment 10-639: Amendment to Chapter 185-5 Zoning Map: Biotechnology Uses- Referral to Planning Board  motion to refer, passed 7-0

   2.  Zoning Bylaw Amendment 10-640: Amendment to Chapter 185-42: Biotechnology Uses- Referral to Planning Board   motion to refer, passed 7-0

3 minute recess





Live reporting - Downtown Project update

Eugene Bolinger, vice president, Weston & Sampson


The presentation document can be found here

Update on Downtown Project - Weston and Sampson

Conversations began in 2002 (or perhaps earlier)
public workshops involved during 2002-2007
grant applications prepared during 2004, 2005

High Priority Project - $5 million
PWED grant - $1 million

public participation process, workshops, presentation, Q&A, input
to work with all entities within the community
Downtown Partnership meeting Thursday morning

The PWED project will be more under the Town control, they will be issuing the contracts vs. the fuller project will have more MA government agency involvement and a longer review period
.
Applied for the 10 million grant, received 5 million, actually getting one million per year and it is all in our account now.
The PWED grant was applied for multiple times and ultimately awarded recently.

All the work, except for the water main is covered by Federal and State grants. The water main was part of our cycle and timed to occur now.

If the utilities were to move underground, that would be funded separately.


Live reporting - Charter Revision Updates

Steve Whalen, Shannon Zollo

categorize at a high level some substantive changes
redline copy of charter provided to Council for review

Charter is the Town's governing document
4-5 major recommendations
Citizens committee had made recommendations, those were considered in this review

1 - appointed Treasurer (elected today)
allow the Administrator to appoint, for efficiency and skills

2 - appoint Constable, Board of Health, Board of Assessor positions (elected today)
there are likely highly qualified individuals who could serve but do not want to run an election campaign in order to serve in these roles.

Q - Mason - Would you include the Town Clerk in the appointed slots or maintain it as an elected position?
A - Zollo - We will make no recommendation on this position, there was discussion but no consensus so with no recommendation for change, it would remain an elected position.
A - Whalen - I approached this by not considering the current people in any position, I would make this an appointed position

3 - We chose not to recommend staggered terms, if the Town is willing to go through the hassle of setting it up, there are benefits to go forward that way. Both Zollo and Whalen feel the same on this item. There is no compelling reason for recommending this.

Clarification - Mason - purpose of this evening is to hear the report recommendation. There will be a public workshop and public hearing on these so all will have a chance to get their say on these matters.

4 - Administrative changes - clean up for more efficiency
allow new Council to have a week between the election and their first meeting
Council should have an ability to re-organize with a term if it had the 2/3 votes to do so
Administrator is currently not allowed to chair subcommittees, should be allowed to do so if appropriate
add recommendation of a temporary Town Administrator to cover for an unexpected absence or to find an appropriate replacement

5 - language to be removed from Charter covering the removal of employees. these items are already superseded by existing bargaining agreements or employee policies

Q - Pfeffer - Were any considerations from the prior report not addressed in this set of recommendations?

Q - Pfeffer - What of the recommendation to change the number of meetings per month?
A - This is a recommendation to meet a minimum of once vs. the requirement today of being required to meet twice.

Nutting - If you'd like to get this on the November ballot, we'd need to move this along.
Mason - let's set the workshop for February, the public hearing in March

Nutting - the home rule charter changes would be submitted to the legislature, they would act upon it and either send it back for revision or approval. The piece that is not included in this document yet is a transition plan, for example, moving to an appointed Treasurer when would the appointment take effect and the election process stop. Hoe rule petitions are pretty routine.



Live reporting - Town Council - Jan 20, 2010

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

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - DECEMBER 16, 2009
motion to aprove, passed 7-0

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS - none

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS
Citizenship Awards for Boy Scouts
(List to be added later)

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS - none

E. APPOINTMENTS

  • Public Land Use Committee  (Jeff Livingstone)  motion to approve appointment, passed 7-0
  • Finance Committee  (Christopher Quinn)  motion to approve appointment, passed 7-0
F. HEARINGS - none

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS - none



Election Notes

in Franklin, 13,418 of 19,700 registered voters voted, or 68 percent
 http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x485625319/Area-voters-went-for-Brown

"It has not stopped all day,” said Franklin Town Clerk Deborah Pellegri, who is overseeing all precincts voting at the high school’s gym. Totals so far are “more than our town election and the primary.”

The town reached 5,696 votes as of 1 p.m.  Franklin totaled 3,950 votes in the December Primary Election.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x745466847/Local-polls-see-high-volume-today

http://www.wickedlocal.com/franklin/news/x745467697/Behind-the-scenes-with-Brown

Franklin
Scott Brown (R) - 8,828
Martha Coakley (D) - 4,470
Joseph Kennedy (I) - 110
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x201791284/Town-by-town-U-S-Senate-election-results

Franklin, MA: Kindergarten registration

Hold the dates to register for kindergarten:


February 1st, 3rd, and 7th
4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
Horace Mann Middle School – Cafeteria
224 Oak Street, Franklin, MA


All the details on the forms required and how to obtain them to have them filled out before arriving at registration can be found in the flyer here:

Franklin, MA - Kindergarten Registration

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the document.


Franklin, MA

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Remember to Vote!

Today is the special election to fill the US Senate seat formerly held by Sen Ted Kennedy.

If your household is anything like mine, you have been inundated with mailings and phone calls from both parties. You'll probably be glad the election is over.

So do us all a favor and get out and vote!

Don't pay attention to the polls, the only poll that counts is the one at Franklin High School when you mark your ballot and turn it it to be counted. Your vote does count.

Franklin Town Clerk Deborah Pellegri said throughout the day Friday, people stood in line at her office for absentee ballots.

"We are very very busy," said Pellegri. "I think turnout will be very good, it's an important position. There's been a lot of publicity and that will draw people in. There's an interest."
 Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here


If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call the Town Clerk's office 508-520-4900
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_News/I0151975B

http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/index



SlideShare presentations

Many of the presentations from either the Town Council or School Committee meetings, I post to SlideShare.net in order to help share them with you here on Franklin Matters. I received an email from SlideShare looking back on the account activity I had during 2009.

It is always exciting to bring in a new year. Taking a look back, here's a quick summary of your year on SlideShare, in 2009.

In 2009, you uploaded 29 presentations and got:
  • 9197 views
  • 317.14 average views per presentation
  • 1 favorite
  • 1 follower 
    Your most popular presentation was:
Life Long Learning - made by Pandora Carlucci at the School Committee meeting on January 27, 2009. You can view that presentation on SlideShare here:
http://www.slideshare.net/shersteve/franklin-ma-life-long-learning-program-presentation

Other presentations on SlideShare in the order of popularity can be found here
http://www.slideshare.net/shersteve/presentations?order=popular

Thanks to all the presenter for creating and sharing these presentations. I can only take a little bit of credit for posting them here to increase the sharing.


Photos Added

Three photos were added to the 'live reported' posts for the School Committee meeting Tuesday Jan 12th. The photos are also collected here to save you having to go back to see each one separately.

1 - A view of some of the crowd that filled the Council Chambers Tuesday evening:



Live reporting - School Committee Mtg

Those recognized for participating in the war memorial find raising effort:








3 - Sue Streeter and Mark Berthiume presented the grants to the Franklin High School and Annie Sullivan Middle School Best Buddy chapters:



http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/live-reporting-best-buddies.html

Monday, January 18, 2010

FM #54 - Week ending 1/17/10

This is session #54 in the series for Franklin Matters. Let's take about 10 minutes to keep current with what happened during the week ending Jan 17th 2010.

Time: 14 minutes, 0 seconds



MP3 File

Session notes:

Take about ten minutes to keep current with what matters in Franklin, MA as the week ends January 17, 2010

In this session I’ll cover the School Committee meeting of Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Several items come from this meeting. It attracted the largest attendance to a school committee meeting in a long time. The Council Chambers were standing room only. Better yet, this attendance was not due to some protest or uproar. It was due to the recognition being provided to a number of school groups. The major theme covering these activities I think can be summarized in how pervasive the schools are within the overall Franklin community.

First was recognition of the various student and school personnel who participated in the fund raising for the war memorial dedicated on the Town Common on Memorial Day, 2009.

I won't repeat the names of the individuals here. It is quite a list covering all the schools in town. You can see the school committee meeting notes on Franklin Matters for the details.


Second the presentation of grants to the Best Buddy chapters at Franklin High and Annie Sullivan Middle School. More than $6,000 in grants were awarded to enable these student operated chapters to continue their efforts in the Best Buddies program. If you are not familiar with Best Buddies you can find out more information at the link provided  http://www.bestbuddiesmassachusetts.org/

From the School Committee meeting notes:
 
 
Third was a presentation by the local chapter of teen angels.

 
Lead by Linda Keohane, the local chapter is currently made up of 17 students in 7th and 8th grade. They are going through some training and working on projects under the auspices of the national wired safety .org

They presented a pledge to raise awareness of cyberbullying. They have also developed a survey to capture data on cyberbullying. The survey will be released to the Franklin middle schools, then to the high school and ultimately made available to other school districts across MA.

Technology advances have been occurring so rapidly, that the proper behavior and etiquette has generally been developed after the fact, that the device or service has become heavily used. This student lead initiative will help to address the cyberbullying practices from a student perspective.

Frm the School Committee meeting notes:

Fourth was a presentation on the World Challenge. This would be a trip for about 15-20 FHS students to Peru. The students would start planning and fund raising now. Preparing for about 17 months for the trip to last a month. It would bring them to Peru for service, educational and recreational opportunities that should last a life time. A video overview of the organization and the trips they conduct from both the teacher and student points of view are available on Franklin Matters. The School Committee did approve that the planning for this trip can continue.

World Challenge:

On the regular school committee meeting topic list, a couple of items rose.

The MA assoc of school committees sent some information on developing regulations about vehicles idling on school property. After some discussion, the SC recommended reaching out to the Police Dept for advice on how enforceable this would be before proceeding.

The State and Federal Race to the Top program was discussed. There is potential for a small gain for large pain is the short way to say this. The program would provide some stimulus funds for education but is targeted to poorly performing districts and we are a high performing district. Even if we did spend the time and effort to try and implement, the return would not cover the effort involved. I like the fact that the return on investment (ROI) was considered in this case.

The School Committee provided some guidance to Superintendent Maureen Sabolinski, Asst. Superintendent Sally Winslow and Director of Finance, Miriam Goodman on what the SC would like to see in the 2011 school budget package. The first presentation on the budget is scheduled to occur at the next meeting, Jan 26th.

The School Dept received a visit from the DESE in December. The visit included a fiscal review (not an audit) that was praising the operations of the Business Office.

It was not too long ago, it seemed like every time you turned around, something or someone was chipping away at the block of trust that citizens had in Franklin's government. The low point probably occurred just before Thanksgiving 2007. The School Committee released information that irregularities in the School budget had been discovered by the Town Comptroller. This appeared to be a "classic release bad news before the holiday move". However, this was not a story to be buried. This was the most serious of several incidents that had residents of Franklin questioning who they could trust. The January 9 2008 Town Council meeting was actually a joint one as the Town Council sat along with the School Committee to hear the auditors present the details of their findings.

Sorry to have brought the bad news back up but I want to put this real good news in the proper perspective. The Town (including the Schools) budget has been audited since then by the Town's regular auditors and the results have come up clean. Policy and procedures have been revised and implemented to improve the financial operations with appropriate checks and balances. The "trust" issue from a budget perspective should have been put to rest.

If someone was still looking for another source to confirm the Town auditor's findings, I think we have one. The School Department was recently the subject of a "fiscal review" by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and received praise for their operations.
The Franklin Public School has done well in maintaining a comprehensive system of written internal policies and procedures relative to its operations of the School Business office. Implementation of a comprehensive system of internal controls ensures that funds are expended in compliance with state and federal regulations and are used for the intended purposes of the grant.

 
Franklin Public Schools has a number of best practices being performed. Management and other department personnel should be commended for not holding credit cards in the name of Franklin Public Schools.

 
Additionally, the school district does not have an administrative petty cash fund, while most districts find this a necessity; Franklin Public Schools has done well in eliminating this potentially risky practice.

The credit for this commendation goes to the work of Miriam Goodman who came into this role specifically to address the problems and create good practices. Kudos to the School Committee for the hiring process that resulted in approval of Miriam for Business Administrator.

Miriam has done great work, she shows integrity in her work and the Town is better off for it.

The full text of the DESE letter can be found on Franklin Matters. Along with the long term financial planning committees' work, this goes a long way to helping to restore trust in our local government.

DESE Letter:
 

Looking ahead this week, the Town Council meets on Wednesday, Jan 20th.

The agenda includes a presentation from the architects of the plan to re-do downtown and a report from the subcommittee on the Charter revision.

Both of these topics are critical to Franklin's future. The Charter determines how we govern ourselves to conduct our town business. The Downtown presentation will determine what the downtown will look like.

As a frequent commuter train rider, I am interested in finding out how they will handle traffic coming out of the downtown parking lot when a train arrives especially if there is two way traffic on Main St. It already takes several minutes to get out with one way traffic. Allow a left turn between Dean Bank and Acapulco's Restaurant and I wonder what the effect will be?

There will also be a presentation and vote on a change to the solid waste and recycling rates. You should pay attention to this for a number of reasons;
  1. it affects what you put on the curb
  2. it will potentially effect your pocketbook or wallet
  3. it can position the town better off for being green and environmentally conscious

To recap, the School Committee had some good recognitions, and good educational opportunities to highlight.

The Town Council meeting Weds can help determine our future in real ways.

I strongly suggest that you take an active role and come down to the Council Chamber to observe and take the opportunity to speak up if necessary.


As I close this session this week, let me remind you that
  • If you like what I am doing, please tell your neighbors
  • If you don’t like something, please tell me
Thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission
I hope you enjoy!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to listen to the audio version.

"I have a dream..."

Martin Luther King's birthday and a national holiday. Time to watch once again "I have a dream".



Vote January 19th!

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view the video.

Town Council - Agenda - 1/20/10

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - DECEMBER 16, 2009

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS

E. APPOINTMENTS
  • Public Land Use Committee  (Jeff Livingstone)
  • Finance Committee  (Christopher Quinn)
F. HEARINGS

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
  • Report on Charter Revisions
  • Update on Downtown Project - Weston and Sampson

I. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
   1.  Zoning Bylaw Amendment 10-639: Amendment to Chapter 185-5 Zoning Map: Biotechnology Uses- Referral to Planning Board
   2.  Zoning Bylaw Amendment 10-640: Amendment to Chapter 185-42: Biotechnology Uses- Referral to Planning Board
   3.  Bylaw Amendment 10-621: Chapter 82; Appendix A:  List of Service Fee Rates, Solid Waste and Recycling Fees - 1st Reading

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT

L. OLD BUSINESS

M. NEW BUSINESS

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS

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

P. ADJOURN

Note: the quick look agenda does not include the two presentations (Charter revisions and Downtown Project) that are included in the full agenda and accompanying documents (PDF) on the Town Council. I am assuming that the full package is correct and that the quick look agenda will get updated before the meeting.


Franklin, MA: Municipal Housing Trust Announcement

The Franklin Municipal Housing Trust Announces

HOME OWNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM

DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE GRANTS


The Franklin Municipal Affordable Housing Trust is making available $480,000 to be paid in grants to income and asset qualified 1st time home buyers. 

Click on the link below for information on this new affordable housing program.
Sponsored by the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust

Trustees:
MaryAnn Bertone
Robert Gagnon
Maxine Kinhart
Jeff Nutting
Judith Pond Pfeffer
Susan Speers
Christopher Vericker