Franklin Matters

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Vera Meyer returns to the Historical Museum

The Franklin Historic Commission will celebrate Benjamin Franklin’s Birthday by welcoming back Vera Meyer and her Glass Harmonica to the Franklin Historical Museum on Sunday January ~~22nd.~~ 29th

updated 1/18/2012 - with the realization that the Patriots playoff game would be a conflict with this event, it was postponed one week to Sunday, Jan 29th.

The public is invited to the Museum to enjoy the sounds of this unique instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. It is based on the idea of simply rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a glass. Vera Meyer plays a variety of compositions on this beautiful glass instrument, some specifically written for it, including works by Mozart and Beethoven.

Ethereal, haunting, mystical and ghostly are just some of the words used to describe the sounds of this rare instrument. Come and hear it for yourself Sunday January 22 during regular museum hours 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Light refreshments will be served in celebration of our town’s namesake’s 306th birthday. The Franklin Historical Museum is located at 80 West Central Street, Franklin.

Jan 24, 2011

The Franklin Historical Museum celebrated Benjamin Franklin's birthday with a musical performance by Vera Meyer on the glass harmonica (invented by Ben in 1761. I'll have a more complete write up on the afternoon during ...

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

Franklin Matters: FM #84 - Week Ending Jan 30, 2011

Jan 30, 2011

Those who came by were able to learn from Vera Meyer about the glass harmonica that Ben invented while listening to her play. I hope she is able to come back to the museum in the future. The instrument is special and her ...

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

For this one, you can skip ahead to about 9:00 minutes to hear Vera play the glass harmonica

Wadsworth Diary - Jan 5, 1892

Very pleasant & cool, AM. A little better. Done the chores & c. Went up to Herman’s, & see Geo. He is about sick.

In the 1850s, on a busy working farm in the southern part of Franklin, a man named George Wadsworth started writing in a journal about everyday events. When he filled that journal, he bought another, and filled that up too. Two dozen journals, and 27 years later, he had written about almost everything that can happen in a small New England town. His words were lost to history until 1986, when town resident Gail Lembo came across some of the journals at a yard sale.

From the Franklin Historical Museum website
http://www.franklinhistoricalmuseum.com/p/wadsworth-diaries_30.html

"a significant state reimbursement"

“It’s very exciting,” Mercer said. “Certainly we weren’t expecting the increase. We thought we were set at 57.94 (percent).”

As of yesterday morning, the state has locked in its reimbursement rate at 59.52 percent.
This means that, should voters approve a debt exclusion override tentatively set for March, local taxpayers would pay about $45.5 million for an estimated $104.5 million school.

The School Building Committee began the process of getting a new high school through the state’s model school program after scrapping the idea of renovations last July. Renovations alone would have been too costly with too little reward, committee members said at the time.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x987654169/State-to-pay-more-for-new-Franklin-High#ixzz1iZzBFVcm

Related posts on the proposed new high school can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/12/collection-high-school-building-project.html

"heating assistance programs began chaotically last fall"

The state Department of Housing and Community Development raised the maximum benefit for the poorest heating oil customers from $675 to $1,025, a 52-percent increase.

People who receive fuel assistance funding for natural gas or electric heat will see the maximum benefit nearly double, from $275 to $525. Benefits vary depending on a client’s income.

State housing officials said two shots of federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program made the increase possible.

But advocates warn that even after these increases, the state still has less money available for fuel programs than last year, when heating costs were lower.

2011 sales tax holiday saved consumers estimated $20.98M

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

2011 sales tax holiday saved consumers estimated $20.98M

via Commonwealth Conversations: Revenue by Robert Bliss on 1/4/12

DOR has released its final report on the 2011 sales tax holiday weekend that occurred on August 13-14, estimating that the amount of sales tax revenue foregone was approximately $20.98 million, exceeding the estimate of $19.9 million from the 2010 sales tax holiday weekend.

Last summer, just prior to the holiday, DOR issued a preliminary estimate of $20.5 million in potential savings to consumers from the holiday weekend.

The most commonly asked question about this report is why can't DOR say precisely how much sales tax revenue was foregone to the Commonwealth and saved by taxpayers.

Sales tax is reported to the Commonwealth no later than the 20th of the month following. For example, information on December sales tax collections will not be reported until January 20th.
Retailers do not list individual transactions by date when they report that data, but simply lump together the entire amount of taxable retail sales for the month, and then apply the 6.25 percent sales tax and forward that amount to the Commonwealth.

As a result, DOR receives no reporting on the volume of taxable or untaxable sales on any given day or days. Individual retailers undoubtedly have some information on this, but they are not required to share it with DOR.

So in the absence of hard data, DOR estimates using the methodology outlined in the report.

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Wadsworth Diary: Jan 4, 1892

Very pleasant and cool. Have done but little, besides the chores, am about the same. E. Simonds here, gave me grapefruit.

New MassBudget Report: The State of Working Massachusetts

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The State of Working Massachusetts 2011

For workers across the country, 2011 was yet another year of economic struggle. MassBudget's end-of-year assessment, "The State of Working Massachusetts 2011," shows that while Massachusetts has shared in this hardship, it also differs in some significant ways.

Our economy is performing better than the rest of the country. In 2011, Massachusetts workers earned higher wages and Massachusetts families experienced less poverty than their peers in other states.
We have the best-educated workforce in the U.S. Over the past thirty years, the percentage of our workers with a four-year college degree has more than doubled. And those gains in education have helped make us one of the highest-income states in the nation.

Unfortunately, there is one area where Massachusetts looks very much like the nation as a whole: inequality. Using the very latest data, we show that in Massachusetts, as elsewhere, the gap between the highest-earners and everyone else has been increasing over time.

Read The State of Working Massachusetts 2011

View the State of Working Massachusetts Slideshow

MassBudget provides independent research and analysis of state budget and tax policies--with particular attention to the effects on low- and moderate-income people.