Wednesday, December 22, 2010

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, December 21, 2010

Traffic Sample on RT 140 (video)

While running Tuesday morning (12/21/10), I stopped to record with my Android phone this video segment of traffic on RT 140 in front of the former KofC building.

Not a great time to sample the traffic as neither the Taco Bell nor Wendy's would be open at this time (about 8:30 AM). A better time would be around lunch or in the evening rush hour.

The traffic was also somewhat slower today due to the snowy road conditions. It would be quicker if the roads were dry.

Would MA Highway consider lowering the speed limit from 40 to 30? I figure that would help. Most folks tend to go over the speed posted limit anyway so if it is posted at 40 folks will go 45-50. If posted at 30, folks will go 35-40. Getting the traffic to go slower would allow more time for a decision on when to safely turn.



What do you think?



Franklin, MA

In the News - traffic study, safety grant, blue Christmas


Franklin board calls for review of traffic study




Franklin gets fire safety grant to teach students




Franklin church holds 'Blue Christmas' service




Franklin, MA

Monday, December 20, 2010

Inside the chicken and egg story

Christopher L. Foote, a senior economist and policy advisor in the research department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, currently serves as advisor to the Center for Behavioral Economics and Decisionmaking. Chris covers the "Great Recession" in a series of segments from one talk for the Boston Fed with good insights specifically for MA and New England.


The first of the series is available at this link. The remainder in the series can be found within the video player on the Boston Fed Reserve website. The player allows for linking but not embedding.

http://www.bos.frb.org/videos/index.htm?bcpid=645289453001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAGFYn89E~,aFDfVsMsQ7Xbd2TWIkONvAkTltKaGd6w&bclid=701977326001&bctid=704600475001




Franklin, MA

"heroes need to be honored and remembered"

The signs, expected to cost $1,800, will be placed on Franklin streets where the soldiers were born or lived. The town's Rotary Club has pledged $1,000 toward the project and former Town Councilor Chris Feeley has offered to cover the remainder of the cost, said Town Councilor Tina Powderly.
"What this really allowed us to do is focus on the lives and legacy of these men rather than raising funds," Powderly said, adding she and lifelong Franklin resident Rose Turco have spent several months examining scrapbooks and newspaper clippings that reference the soldiers. "This community very, very much supports its veterans and that says a lot about the character of the residents."


Franklin WWII heroes sign project gets a big boost

from The Milford Daily News News RSS 



Franklin, MA

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Franklin, MA: Planning Board - 12/20/10 - Agenda

The agenda for the Planning Board meeting on Dec 20, 2010 is attached below. The hearing for the proposal to redo the Knights of Columbus property is scheduled to be continued.


Planning Board Agenda 12-20-10



Franklin, MA

In the News - road reparis

Joan Hallett, 69, who has lived in Franklin for 47 years, said she'd like to see smoother roads, but realizes the town also needs to fund emergency services and schools.
"There's not much you can do if you don't have the money," she said.
Read the full article here:


Franklin struggling to keep up with road repairs





Franklin, MA

Saturday, December 18, 2010

College information proposal

A lot of high school seniors are working on college applications. Many spent some time traveling this summer to make college campus visits. The college selection process can be challenging. All the schools tout their information in the best way they can. How do you make sense of it all? Dr. Bridget Terry Long, Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has an idea on how to make more information available and more easily understood.


As an initial step, the federal government should continue as well as expand its activities to produce the types of information needed to help individuals with their college decisions. There should be information on cost and affordability. In addition to the total cost and net price estimates currently produced, potential students would be given information on aid for low-income students, the debt levels, and loan default rates of previous students. To reflect on the college experience, institutions would continue to report information on expenditures so that current and future students would know where their college is putting their money. Additionally, colleges would be required to give more detailed information on retention and graduation rates, which would then be listed relative to similar peer institutions.
Finally, and perhaps most important, information must be collected on the potential benefits and returns of an institution. Data should be collected on employment rates, salary information, and in acknowledgment that income is not a complete measure of a school’s return, alumni satisfaction rates. Figure 1 summarizes the key pieces of information that would make up a college’s scorecard.
Once the key facts have been collected, this information would then be packaged for families in more usable ways than current efforts. In this paper, I propose three main ways of presenting the college data, each increasing in the level of details given.
You can read the remainder of the article here


Download the introduction and summary (pdf)
Download this report (pdf)



Franklin, MA

In the New - Senior Center, handbell concert, Library, drug bust, baseball

Franklin students help put on Senior Center party

from The Milford Daily News News RSS 


Franklin Federated Church to host handbell concert


Franklin, MA

Friday, December 17, 2010

DOR will save the Commonwealth more than $120,000

A couple of updates on the tax filing changes coming in 2011:
The growth of electronic tax filing has prompted DOR to make changes in the booklet of forms and schedules that are mailed to taxpayers. A minority of taxpayers, less than 300,000 out of 3.4 million tax filers, submitted state income tax returns on paper last year using the form DOR sent to them in the mail.
Those same taxpayers will receive a paper booklet in January, 2011, but it will be a slimmer version than in years past because it will not have printed instructions or duplicate copies of tax forms and related schedules
......
It's worth noting that the federal Internal Revenue Service announced in October that it will no longer mail paper income tax packages to either businesses or individuals. In its press release, the IRS said it "was taking this step because of the continued growth in electronic filing and the availability of free options to taxpayers, as well as to help reduce costs."



Related post on tax filing dates for April 2011
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/11/mark-your-calendars-for-two-tax-filing.html


Franklin, MA

In the News - library fire, rewrite book




Small fire forces evacuation of Franklin Library



Franklin students rewrite Harry Potter book



Franklin, MA


Thursday, December 16, 2010

Chapter 70 Funding (video)

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center published a fact sheet on Chapter 70 funding earlier this year and has now provided a video summary of the formula:





BTW - did you catch the Globe editorial on the regionalization opportunity in Franklin County?



Franklin, MA


Town Council - 12/15/10

The collection of posts from the Town Council meeting on Weds, Dec 15th can be found here





Franklin, MA

In the News - zoning plan, student honored, office hours

Downtown Franklin zoning plan to be studied by subcommittee

from The Milford Daily News News RSS 



Franklin students White, Nulton honored




Franklin, MA


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Live reporting - Closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
vacancy at TriCounty, send an application to the Administrator

L. OLD BUSINESS
none

M. NEW BUSINESS
Whalen - ask for a committee of some downtown business owners to work with Brian
Nutting - we have an economic subcommittee already in place and use them, add the business owners
yes, we can set it up for after the holidays

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
Powderly - nominal wage increases for three years for the cafeteria workers, I appreciate their efforts.
A rash of highly vulgar and offensive comments from anonymous, I will not respond to those comments.

McGann - my son is going to

Pfeffer - received an email from P Cheli thanking the Police for delivering the dinner to the home of his mother who had fallen

McGann - thank you to the Police, merry Christmas to all

Pfeffer-  Thanks to the Administrator for turning the trees back on down on the triangle
I heard we had a broken pipe at the Senior Center, shouldn't we have an alarm on that

Kelly- happy holidays

Jones - thanks to the Police Association for the lunch at the Senior Center
students from Davis Thayer were invited to do some caroling there

there are devices that can hep protect the systems,

Nutting - something can be an alarm and break at the same time

Whalen - happy holidays

Mason - I had a conversation with the editor last week as well as the level of negativism, to allow these comments to be published. It falls on the shoulders of the readers to report abuse. I feel it is the paper to police these comments. It is my hope that they will clean it up.

P. ADJOURN
motion to adjourn, passed



Franklin, MA