"this gets people thinking"

The Holiday Stroll, hosted by the Franklin Downtown Partnership, is meant to draw people through downtown and reacquaint residents with the businesses there on a more personal level. 

"It gives people a chance to talk to local store owners and business owners," said Lisa Piana, executive director of the partnership. "A lot of times people find out about new businesses downtown because they're taking the time to stroll downtown, instead of doing their errands." 

The stroll began with a ceremonial lighting of a large tree on the Dean College campus. Businesses nearby set up indoor and outdoor craft stations for children. They could, for example, decorate gingerbread cookies outside Dean Bank or make snowman ornaments in the Franklin Art Center.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/features/x46240893/Families-flock-to-downtown-stroll-in-Franklin#ixzz1fNBhacda

In the News - veterans benefits, adult education

Returning Mass. soldiers may receive more benefits

by Staff reports

Franklin Adult Education offering new classes

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

"Your local tax dollar is spent in your town"

The tax rate was raised from $12.95 per $1,000 of property value to $13.73 per $1,000, in part because of dropping home values. Towns often respond to declining property values by raising rates to at least maintain revenue totals. 

"Rates go up when the value of the town goes down because the value of the town needs to stay the same," said Councilor Glenn Jones, admitting that the explanation is basic and simplistic.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/business/x46240157/Residential-commercial-taxes-rising-in-Franklin#ixzz1fHHdtjPM


The live reporting from the Town Council meeting Weds, Nov 30 can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/12/town-council-113011.html


Additional information on the tax rate can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/11/fm-101-tax-rate-info.html

Taking a LEAP! (video)

I met Steve Farber earlier this year and received an advance copy of this book. I don't have it anymore as it went to someone who really wanted to read it. Now with the official version available, I can get a new copy for myself. And help him with this new out reach effort!




"Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do" - Steve Farber

3 more Franklin Area Blogs

Three more items from the Franklin Area Blogs to highlight today.

Realtor Kathy Stankard writes about the Downtown Partnership's Holiday Stroll taking place today:

Upcoming Franklin, MA Holiday Events Worth Checking Out

from Franklin Massachusetts Homes Blog

The Downtown Partnership published a map of the Holiday Stroll events and business taking part:

Holiday Stroll Map

from Franklin Downtown Partnership 

Kennedy School teacher Mrs Williams writes regularly about activities in her 4th grade classroom

Food Pantry Visit

from The Shiny Red Apple 

Breakfast with Santa - Franklin British Beer Company

What: Breakfast with Santa

Where: British Beer Company in Franklin

When: Saturday December 10th, 8:30am and 10am

Why: To benefit the Santa Foundation

Santa's coming to town!  Gather up the kiddies and let 'em know they better be good, for goodness sake, 'cause Santa will be hosting breakfast at the British Beer Company in Franklin.  Old Saint Nick will be flying in from the North Pole on December 10^th for this special morning.  There will be two seatings: 8:30am and 10am, tickets are only $10 and $5 for kids under 12. The breakfast, and a raffle, will be helping us to raise funds for the Santa Foundation, who provides gifts for families in need during Christmas.  The foundation was able to help 700 families last Christmas…that's a lot of shiny happy local children!  The BBC is inviting the whole Franklin community down for some eggs and pancakes…all for a good cause.  Children should come with their Christmas wish list ready to go for good ole Chris Kringle.

British Beer Company

280 Franklin Village Drive - Franklin, MA

http://www.britishbeer.com/local/franklin/

Town Council - 11/30/11

The collection of posts that were reported live during the Town Council meeting on Weds, Nov 30 can be found here

• Live reporting - closing
• Live reporting - legislation for action
• Live reporting - Tax hearing
• Live reporting - Citizens comments
• Live reporting - Town Council

Live reporting - closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT 
commenting on the citizens comments, it was not $350,000 spent, it was $100,000
it was not a court proceeding, it was an arbitration issue and not a public record
the legal bills are a public record and were part of the school committees warrant

L. OLD BUSINESS

none

M. NEW BUSINESS

none

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
Powderly - Councilors breakfast at Senior Center
I am meeting with Karen tomorrow, we are trying to figure out the best use of that committee, once we resolved the tax abatements, we did not meet much. I appreciate your input, it hasn't been officially disbanded, it is looking for new direction

Pfeffer -
Kennedy School Playground committee most active I have seen, they are around
Can we get an updated listing of the councilors?
Nutting - it will be in the package for next meeting

Kelly -
thanks to the Concerts ont he Common and the DPW for the work on the holiday decorations
Santa came on Sunday and it was a good time


O. EXECUTIVE SESSION – Negotiations, Litigation, Real Property, as May Be Required
motion approved, via roll call 8-0

Live reporting - legislation for action

J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
1. Resolution 11-65:Classification Tax Allocation– Residential Factor
motion to approve - passed 8-0

2. Resolution 11-66:Classification Tax Allocation – Open Space Exemption
motion to approve - passed 8-0


3. Resolution 11-67:Classification Tax Allocation – Small Businesses Exemption
motion to approve - passed 8-0


4. Resolution 11-68: Classification Tax Allocation – Residential Property Exemption
motion to approve - passed 8-0

Live reporting - Tax hearing

E. APPOINTMENTS 

G. LICENSE TRANSACTIONS


2 minute break to get to 7:10 for the scheduled hearing start


F. HEARINGS - Annual Tax Classification Hearing – 7:10 PM


Ken Norman, Chair Board of Assessors
Kevin Doyle, Director of Assessors
Chris Feeley, Vincent DeBaggis - board members


Jeff Nutting, what you see tonight in 15 minutes is the result of over 2,000 hours of work
the State has already provided a preliminary assessment in approval of the process
Thanks for all the work done


Kevin Doyle - 
providing an overview of the package
page 2 a summary of the status change in valuations
Pages 6 - 10 a listing of the commercial and industrial properties
page 11 - shows the calculation for the residential vs commercial industrial class


Page 12 - shows the calculation to get to the tax base valuation - new growth valuation


personal property - one time growth, not expected to repeat
a large account that was unanticipated


What is personal property?
personal property- business assets that are taxable locally (furnishings, computers, etc.)


Page 14 - calculates the levy limit


Page 21-22 what if scenarios? answers the questions on shifts if a split tax rate was chosen


Page 23 - from the DOR website


Page 24 - shows the tax rate against an "average" value
Page 25 - shows the tax rate against the "median" value


Page 26 - the levy as applied against the different classes and percent change from last year


page 27 - a summary page showing the major classes over the years, depicting changes year to year


Roy - question on Franklin Village getting a mortgage of $44M with an assessed value of $46M?
Doyle - the deed sometimes provides detail and the mortgage can sometimes provides more detail. This is some speculation. What we did do, we engaged a consultant to assist in the valuation, gathered income and expense information for review by us and by the DOR to confirm if we were using appropriate schedules
Norman - it is a national company and they could be doing something with the property and taxes that we don't know


Nutting - can you explain the data used?
Doyle - We are using last year's data as this year is not yet complete.


Jones - 
Doyle - most property is owner occupied, communities that typically go with the residential exemption are larger cities or more seasonal resort type areas where the buildings are not generally owner occupied. What you have to understand, is that the residential exemption would be taken from the other residences. With a high level of owner occupied, a residential exemption would provide little offset practically


Norman - Your other question is basically with prop 2.5%
Doyle - the 2.5% is there pretty much automatically, my main goal day to day is to be fair and equitable. The adjustments need to be made in the same way.


Bissanti - congratulations on a good package, what do you see?
Doyle - We have looked ahead but those are part of the test group. The first six months of 2011 were similar to the market closing at the end of 2010. We don't predict future value


Feeley - our job is as historians, we are not here to predict the future


Powderly - we did not say what the new tax rate is yet, it would go from 12.79 to 13.73. Where do vacancies stand? mostly in the Commercial industrial piece


Doyle - we do have an allowance for vacancy and collection loss, historically if you look out over a 10 year period, some properties have never been vacant and others are frequently so. 


Powderly - it is obviously a lag


Doyle - we receive information confidentially so we can't share some specifics with others


Jones - how do you compare Franklin to surrounding towns?
Doyle - probably want to turn to the realtors for that, DOR would have that. 


Nutting - remind folks of the way the system works in the commonwealth, you need to compare the total year to total year, the first two bills are estimates


Powderly - with a single rate versus a split tax rate, if we were to go with a split rate, to take one dollar from the residents would raise the commercial rate by $4.


Hearing closed

Live reporting - Citizens comments

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS
Ken Norman
1 - recommending the continuation of a committee to help coordinate the efforts for the seniors

2 - recommendation on better visibility to law suits pending with the town particularly in getting exposure to the expense associated with such

Live reporting - Town Council

Present: Dellorco, Kelly, Powderly, Vallee, Pfeffer, Jones, Bisanti, Roy
Absent: Mercer

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- This meeting is being recorded by Verizon, Comcast, and Franklin Matters.

C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS
Haley Goulet - for leading the dog park effort




Budget workshop - Jan 11
Workshop on Dec 14th for Town Council, public invited

Franklin Area Blogs

One of the features here at Franklin Matters is to provide links to other blogs in the Franklin area. The listing can be found in far right column. Scroll down below my Flickr photos of Franklin, the logos for the United Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Franklin Downtown Partnership to find the listing of Franklin Area Blogs.


The listing is updated every time each site posts on their site. In this way, you can always see the most current item they have shared. You can click through to read that item and then linger on their site to explore what else they have shared.


There are three updates to make you aware of today:


Two on the Holiday Stroll from 02038 and Berry Ins:

Holiday Stroll this Thursday in Franklin, MA

by Warren Reynolds

3rd Annual Holiday Stroll in Franklin, Massachusetts

by berryinsurance

(Worthy of note, while the Food Pantry is holding an open house during the stroll and will accept donations, to help the food elves food donations should be made in one of the six Downtown Partnership collection points).

The third from the School Committee blog which has changed hands due to the results of the recent election and Sean Donahue will be providing updates there:

Franklin named to 2nd Annual AP District Honor Roll

by Sean Donahue

If you find other blogs regularly sharing info on Franklin that are not on this listing, please let me know.

"When the time comes, we'll be as generous as we can"

Both last night and next Tuesday's training are held in executive session, as the training process includes applying the negotiating style to real examples of issues within the community, Mullen said. 

"We will be talking about actual Franklin situations, so we can really practice going through the motions," Mullen said. 

Sabolinski added that, while decisions will not be made on contracts in the training, the topics the group will tackle in the upcoming project will be identified. 

Union president Chandler Creedon said he worries that a new negotiating process could be worthless without support from Town Council. 

"One of the things interest-based bargaining is based on is trust, and I'm not sure we have any trust in Franklin at this point because of what the Town Council did," Creedon said, referring to a late-October decision by the council to cut $350,000 from the School Department's budget.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/education/x2042556270/Franklin-school-officials-get-training-in-new-union-negotiations#ixzz1fBX5Sw81

In the News - Cub Scouts, flu shots, dog park

Cub Scout Pack 126 hosting pancake breakfast

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Flu shots available in Franklin

by GateHouse Media, Inc.

Dog park opens in Franklin

by Alison McCall/Daily News staff