Safe Routes: Bike and Walk to School

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Safe Routes: Bike and Walk to School

via Commonwealth Conversations: Transportation by Klark Jessen on 3/17/11

The Massachusetts Safe Routes to School program has recognized five schools/communities for their achievements encouraging students to walk or bicycle to school. 

Award recipients include:
    Hockomock Area YMCA for Community Collaboration
    Town of Marblehead as Champion of the Year
    Marion E. Zeh Elementary School in Northborough for Safe Routes to School Innovation
    Newman Elementary School in Needham for Safe Routes to School Leadership
    Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in New Bedford for Rookie of the Year for outstanding initial efforts

Existing Safe Routes to School programs already reach 386 elementary and middle schools representing nearly 180,000 students in 120 municipalities statewide.  The program educates students, parents, and community members on the values of walking and bicycling to school.  Learn more about Safe Routes to School.



Safe Routes to School 2011 Forum winners and MassDOT celebrate their awards. From left above:
Christine D'Angelo, Zeh School in Northborough, Jim Cope, MassDOT, Susan Whitten, Zeh School in Northborough, Kate Reilly, Town of Marblehead, Kimberly Cohen, Caitlin Hurley, Lauren Marciszyn, and Barbara Zimmer, Hockomock Area YMCA, Tim Rumberger, Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in New Bedford, Anne Hayek, Newman Elementary in Needham, Ned Codd, MassDOT.

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Introducing "Voices of Franklin"

You have a story.

Perhaps you have lived in Franklin all your life, maybe you arrived in the 1980's or 1990's, or even more recently.

You would like to express your thoughts on what it is like to live in Franklin. Perhaps on the way things were, or the way things should be. There are any number of topics that matter to Franklin. You may not have the time to create your own blog. Now you won't need to.

Send your writing to "Voices of Franklin"

If you

• have time to write a couple of paragraphs
• access to email
• your voice can be published here in a new “Voices of Franklin” section. 

Your written submission will need to abide by the editorial guidelines found below. You'll also need to be aware that anything published on Franklin Matters is subject to the Creative Commons License 3.0 for USA. Specifically, what is published can be shared with attribution but not for profit.

More information about the editorial guidelines and creative commons license are found in the links below. If you would like to clarify something before sending your writing in, you can reach out to me (shersteve at gmail dot com).

Editorial/comment guidelines https://www.franklinmatters.org/2007/12/comment-policy.html

Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

The idea for "Voices of Franklin" was mentioned most recently in the weekly summary 


Franklin, MA

Town Council meeting 03/16/11

The collection of live reports from the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Mar 16, 2011 can be found here

• Live reporting - Closing
• Live reporting - poles on Main St
• Live reporting - Audit report
• live reporting - License transactions
• Live reporting - Town Council

Franklin, MA

Franklin Downtown Partnership Seeking Members, Sponsors

The Franklin Downtown Partnership has kicked off its annual membership and sponsorship drives for 2011 as it plans more events and involvement in Franklin this year.

The Partnership gained more than 50 new members in 2010 and hopes to increase its numbers again this year, according to Executive Director Lisa Piana. The 140-member strong organization brings together residents and businesses to improve the downtown, draw visitors and beautify the area.


“Being a member of the Franklin Downtown Partnership gives a business or resident a vehicle to be part of matters affecting our downtown’s future,” says Partnership President Nicole Fortier, branch officer at Dean Bank. “For an affordable price our members are involved in revitalization projects like the streetscape design work. We give them a voice in decisions that directly affect their businesses and their day-to-day lives.”


Membership also gives certain privileges at Franklin’s festivals and strolls, free links on the Partnership’s website, franklindowntownpartnership.org, communication updates on events and projects, and informational meetings and networking opportunities. Non-business memberships start as low as $15 for seniors and students and $25 for residents, and businesses’ dues are based on the number of employees. Dues are tax deductible.


As a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, the Partnership relies exclusively on membership dues and sponsorships for funding. Sponsorships make up the majority of funds for popular events like the annual Strawberry Stroll, the Harvest Festival, the Holiday Stroll, and spring and winter Beautification days. Each year attendance at those events has increased, according to Fortier.


On Saturday, May 21, the Partnership will join members of the Franklin Garden Club for the annual Beautification Day. Volunteers will plant more than 1,400 flowers throughout the downtown, including planters on the bridge and center island as well as on sidewalks in front of businesses. Sponsors’ names will be displayed prominently on signage in the center of town.


“All of those flowers are donated. We simply could not freshen up the downtown area with all of those gorgeous plantings if we didn’t have support from our sponsors and the countless volunteers who do all the hard work,” says Piana. “We are very proud of the impact those planters make every year, and we rely solely on outside support. We do a lot on a small budget and the impression on people coming to the downtown is positive and long lasting.”


New members are always welcome, and membership is open to all residents and businesses, regardless of whether they are located downtown. The Partnership is actively looking for businesses and individuals to sponsor all upcoming events. A full calendar of events, sponsorship opportunities, applications, deadlines, and contact information can be found on this website or by contacting Lisa Piana at (774)571-3109 or downtown.franklin@yahoo.com.



This was originally posted to the Downtown Partnership page here


Franklin, MA

"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!

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