"found no major discrepancies during his annual independent audit"

The council must still approve a bylaw change before the poles, located between East Central and Depot streets, can be removed, Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting said. 

Nutting told the council the project would cost utility company National Grid about $100,000, resulting in a $1 one-time cost to residential electric customers. Business and industrial customers would pay more money, Nutting said. 

"We thought the aesthetics of Main Street would be improved," he said. 

The town is planning to improve sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting and other elements of downtown in the coming years thanks to $5 million in federal funding. But that money cannot be used for putting utility wires underground, Nutting said. 

Last year, the council decided not to pursue a $1 million project to remove utility poles along East Central Street because that would cost cable and electric customers $65-120. The Main Street work would only impact electric customers, as there's no cable line there.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/archive/x1664570521/Franklin-hopes-to-put-some-downtown-wires-underground#ixzz1GqhWMwz0

The full set of notes reporting on the Town Council meeting of Wednesday, Mar 16, 2011 can be found here:
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2011/03/town-council-meeting-031611.html


Franklin, MA

In the News - saved life, hockey tickets

Franklin man among those honored for saving a life

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Tickets for Franklin hockey championship on sale tomorrow

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Franklin, MA

One Book One Community 2011

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

One Book One Community 2011

via Franklin Public Library by Franklin Public Library on 3/16/11

"If you leave Opi, you'll die with strangers," Irma Vitale's mother always warned. But Irma is too poor and too plain to marry and can't find honest work in her tiny mountain village in Southern Italy. Barely twenty, she must leave home bearing only native wit and astonishing skill with a needle. Risking rough passage across the Atlantic, a single woman in a strange land, Irma seeks a new life sewing dresses for gentlewomen. Swept up in the crowded streets of nineteenth-century America, Irma finds workshop servitude and miserable wages, but also seeds of friendship in the raw immigrant quarters. When her determination leads at last to Chicago, Irma blossoms under the hand of an austere Alsatian dressmaker, sewing fabrics and patterns more beautiful than she'd ever imagined. Then this tenuous peace is shattered. From the rubble, confronting human cruelty and kindness, suffering and hope, a new Irma emerges, nurturing a talent she'd never imagined and an unlikely family, patched together by the common threads that unite us all.

When we were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt is the selection for our 2011 One Book, One Community program.  Copies are now available for checkout. 

For more information about the author and the novel, please visit Pamela Schoenewaldt's blog: http://pamelaschoenewaldt.com/. 

Program schedule coming soon!

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Franklin Public Library using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Live reporting - Closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT 
parking lot at Depot St will be closed for about 6-7 months due to construction

looking at options to relocate the 27 spots elsewhere for the commuters

looking at a regionalization with 4 towns for dispatch services

Pleasant St house, old DelCarte house was demolition last week

Community Gardens coming to King St fields

Budget still not finalized at State

PEG agreement being worked

Met with the Big Y, expect to put a shovel in the ground in July

L. OLD BUSINESS 
Vallee - when construction will begin for Main St project?

Nutting - likely 2012 at earliest, looking at perhaps a one lane cover if we have the money

M. NEW BUSINESS 

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS 
McGann - any news on the bell?

Nutting - no

Vallee - it seems to me that these costs on the Town side are excessive

Nutting - we leave public safety decisions to our key personnel

Vallee - I think these costs are excessive

Nutting - I think 60% of the costs are related to the fireworks

Whalen - what is the timing on the remaining budget items

Nutting - health care costs we'll have next Tuesday, they have been dragging out, they'll we'll present options to the employees and to the unions. I can put a budget together with worse case numbers but I don't think we have numbers from the State until we get the House numbers in April. Our employees and the unions have been very open to changes, we are hoping that continues this year.

Whalen - when will we get numbers worst case?

Nutting - May, I think I am going to have to do the budget before that and have everybody be flexible

Mason - thanks to the Scouts for attending this evening

congratulations to the FHS Hockey team for making the state finals on Sunday

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

P. ADJOURN




Franklin, MA

Live reporting - poles on Main St

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION: 
1. Resolution 11-08: Report of Franklin Town Council, Re: Advisability of Requiring Removal of Poles and Overhead Structures Along Main Street From its Intersection with East Central Street to Its Intersection with Depot Street

estimate of $1 per rate payer for this, one time charge only for electric, no cable involved
the $1 is the estimate for average residential use, the company/businesses would pay a higher rate

the one building involved could get service and would require an internal update

either way, the building owner has internal issues

motion to approve, passed 7-0


Franklin, MA

Live reporting - Audit report

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS – Auditor’s Report
Scott McIntyre, Vice President - Melanson

Audit document
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Admin/Audits/Franklin%20Final%20FS10.pdf


audit was good, no material disagreements on transaction applications

Page 12 - long term prospective balence
Net OPEB Obligation
year two of accounting standard, to be fully funded over 30 years
over $15 M, increased
dropped from $8 to $1.5 M as unrestricted assets

page 14 - short term
500,000 draw on operating balance, not unusual for these economic conditions
$5.2 M down about 700,000 (used for capital expenditures)
8% of general appropriation, about where it is supposed to be

revenues came in about 700,000 above forecast, good but in narrow range
expenses under budget, so this creates a positive balance
use of existing cash reserves is not a good thing

Management Letter
close inactive project funds, not fully completed as end of fiscal year but has been fully closed now

Management letter document
http://franklinma.virtualtownhall.net/Pages/FranklinMA_Admin/Audits/FY10%20Franklin%20Management%20Letter%202.pdf

develop a more formal risk assessment process, mentioned before
identify risk areas and respond, formal policies and procedures should be applied
possible areas of risk supplied to Comptroller

outstanding bonds not reconciled to ledger at end of fiscal year, this has been done subsequently

GASB 54 prepare for new standard, mostly terminology
account for raining day funds to be reported in the general financial statements (i.e. stabilization fund)
funds combined only in the audit report, other regulations take precedent to keep them separate

Nutting - can you reconcile the diff between the $15M and the $79M obligation

McIntyre - estimated to be your fully funded liabilities earned by retirees
Accounting standards don't require this to be recognized at once, can take 30 years to fully fund
this liability is not in the general fund, no obligation to actually fund it

$80 M is without a trust fund, if there was a trust fund to be used, the liability would be cut in half

There is a substantial amount of town audits where there are no material disagreements
turn the clock back ten years ago, and I could not have said them same thing
accounting systems and general ledgers have improved

McGann - what condition would you find Franklin in compared to other towns of similar size?

McIntyre - considering debt service and fund balance, those two attributes put you in good company, they like to see between 5 - 10 percent, you are at the upper end. For the debt service, (page 39) it shows how quickly you pay off your long term debt, how much of your debt are you paying off in ten years. you pay off 70% of your debt in 10 years, that is very good, for the enterprise accounts, approx 70% within ten year period, also a very favorable result.

The report will be posted to the website in a couple of days.


Franklin, MA

live reporting - License transactions

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS 
Longhorn Steakhouse – Alteration of Premises

motion to approve, passed 7-0

Joe’s American Bar & Grill – Transfer of License
motion to approve, passed 7-0





Franklin, MA