Monday, March 12, 2012

Tidbits



  • During the Councilor Comments section of the last week's Town Council meeting, some folks were wishing a speedy recovery to Bob Dean. He has been heavily involved with the broadcast and video operations for Franklin meetings. I wonder if that is why all of a sudden meetings since Feb 15th have not been posted to the video archive section?



  • The Planning Board is scheduled for a meeting on Monday night. There may be a meeting agenda posted on the window at the Town Clerk's office but there is nothing on the Franklin website (yet).






  • There won't be a weekly summary this week. Two family funerals over the last three weeks has taken the 'free time on the weekend' away I would have had to prepare such. The family is doing well through this period. The support has been great. Time is reinforced as all that more precious.



Ensuring Food Stamp Integrity

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

via USDA Blog by Kevin Concannon, Undersecretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, USDA on 3/8/12

Cross posted from Politico:
As agriculture undersecretary and a former director of state Health and Human Services departments in Maine, Oregon and Iowa, I know the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. In today's difficult economic times, this vital program helps families across the nation put food on the table.

Despite a rash of recent stories about food stamp fraud, the facts are that the Agriculture Department has a zero tolerance policy on this. We aggressively pursue those trying to take advantage of America's compassion for people in need.

First-quarter results of our anti-fraud efforts demonstrate this commitment. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011, we penalized — with fines or temporary disqualifications — more than 225 stores that violated program rules and permanently disqualified more than 350 stores caught trafficking food stamp benefits.

We're now stepping up our efforts. I announced in December new anti-fraud initiatives. We awarded a 10-year contract to SRA International to develop the next generation of fraud-detection systems.

We plan even stronger penalties for retailers that misuse the program. We recently updated our policies to clarify that advertising the sale of benefits through social media is a violation and can result in disqualification from the food stamp program.

In addition, we're finalizing rules to deter the practice of buying and discarding food to get money-back deposits; or reselling and exchanging products bought with food stamp benefits to obtain cash or other noneligible items.

The Agriculture Department's efforts to combat SNAP trafficking have been particularly successful. Trafficking — the sale or purchase of benefits for cash — is an illegal activity punishable by criminal prosecution. Over the past 15 years, department and state agencies administering the program have sharply reduced such trafficking — from 4 percent to 1 percent.

But we cannot be content with that success — the people taking unfair advantage constantly change their tactics. We remain vigilant, working to stay ahead of these new forms of program abuse. We have stepped up documentation requirements and background checks on retailers who participate, or seek to participate, in food stamps. Stores that falsify information will be denied or disqualified and may face a $10,000 fine or imprisonment for as long as five years, or both.

The Agriculture Department recently launched a website (www.fns.usda.gov/fightingsnapfraud) to get the word out about our efforts to deter fraudulent food stamp activity and enlist the public's help in fighting it. We will continue to use all tools available, including the latest technology, to combat fraud.

Some perspective on this is crucial. There are 46 million eligible Americans who depend on food stamps, largely because of income, age, disability or job circumstances. Nearly half are children, 8 percent are elderly and 20 percent of food stamp households include a person who is disabled. The great majority abide by program rules.

The fact is fraud is a limited problem in SNAP — though no amount is acceptable. Stores violating the program represent less than one-half of 1 percent of the more than 230,000 food stores authorized to redeem benefits. And the recent fraud stories indicate enforcement efforts are working — as those who would abuse the program are being caught and prosecuted.

This is good news for all U.S. taxpayers and good news for those who use the program — including millions of children and older Americans — who depend on food stamps. Which, in turn, is why the Agriculture Department is committed to assuring the integrity of this vital program.

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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Franklin, MA: School Committee - Agenda - 3/13/12

Vision Statement
The Franklin Public Schools will foster within its students the knowledge and skills to find and achieve satisfaction in life as productive global citizens.

Mission Statement
The Franklin Public Schools, in collaboration with the community, will cultivate each student's intellectual, social, emotional and physical potential through rigorous academic inquiry and informed problem solving skills within a safe, nurturing and respectful environment.

"The listing of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law."

1. Routine Business
Citizen’s Comments
Review of Agenda
Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the February 28, 2012 School Committee Meeting.
Payment of Bills Mrs. McIntyre
Payroll Mrs. Douglas
FHS Student Representatives
Correspondence: Budget to Actual

2. Guests/Presentations
a. Parmenter Update
b. Health / PE Update
c. Senior Project

3. Discussion Only Items
Policy – First Reading
JJ – Co-Curricular and Extracurricular Activities

4. Action Items
a. I recommend acceptance of a check for $500.00 from the Parmenter PCC for field trips.
b. I recommend approval of the Field Trip request of the FHS Classics Club to attend the MA Junior Classics League State Convention in Hyannis from April 27 to 29, 2012 as detailed.
c. I recommend acceptance of the donation of a digital piano from Doug Newton for the Annie Sullivan Middle School.
d. I recommend approval of the Field Trip request of the FHS Drama Club to see Godspell in New York City on March 24, 2012 as detailed.
e. I recommend acceptance of a check for $239.45 from Super Valu, Inc. (Shaw’s) for the Franklin Public Schools.

5. Information Matters
Superintendent’s Report
School Committee Sub-Committee Reports
School Committee Liaison Reports

6. New Business
To discuss future business that may be brought before the School Committee.

7. Adjourn

Senior Project and Health/PE Updates

These two presentation documents are scheduled for the School Committee meeting on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2012

The Senior Project update

FPS_SeniorProject_20120313

The Health/PE update

FPS_Health-PE_20120313


The full agenda for the School Committee meeting can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/03/franklin-ma-school-committee-agenda.html

Grease is the word!


FHS production of Grease. March 23 & 24, 2012 at the Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin starting at 7pm. Tickets are $10 at the door.



Saturday, March 10, 2012

New High School Project: Frequently Asked Questions

You can find these on the newfhs.com/ website

Frequently Asked Questions:

In the news - assault, auction, high school



Teen charged with assaulting Franklin cop

Tax Expenditure Budget Commission data on line

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

via Commonwealth Conversations: Revenue by Robert Bliss on 3/9/12

The 11-member Tax Expenditure Commission has posted a wide array of materials on DOR's website in an effort to make its work as transparent and accessible as possible.
What are tax expenditures? The introduction to the FY13 Tax Expenditure Budget  puts it this way:
"In its simplest form, a tax is an across-the-board levy on a base, such as income, to which a specific rate applies and for which no modifications exist. Taxes are rarely levied in this manner, however. Instead, most state tax codes incorporate a number of exemptions, deductions, credits, and deferrals designed to encourage certain taxpayer activities or to limit the tax burden on certain types of individuals or endeavors. Known as 'tax expenditures', these provisions can have a significant impact on state tax revenues."
The FY13 Tax Expenditure Budget (TEB) is more than $26 billion, roughly $4 billion larger than projected FY13 revenues of nearly $22 billion. The Commonwealth collects less in revenue than it has chosen to forego.
The Commission is scheduled to issue a report by April 30. Agendas and minutes from Commission meetings are included on the web page, as are historic looks at TEBs from previous years and TEB's from other states.
The Commission unanimously approved a Statement of Principles (found on the agendas and minutes page) on Feb. 6 which makes it clear that the Commission believes tax expenditures merit regular scrutiny and should be subject to periodic cost-benefit analysis and review by the Executive and Legislative branches.
The eleven members of the commission are its chair, Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez, Auditor Suzanne Bump, Treasurer Steven Grossman, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Brian Dempsey, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Stephen Brewer, House Revenue Committee Chair Jay Kaufman, Senate Revenue Committee Chair Katherine Clark, Rep. Steven Levy (designee of House Minority Leader Brad Jones), Sen. Michael Knapik (designee of Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr), Alan Clayton-Matthews (member of the Governor's Council of Economic Advisers), and James Stock (also a member of the Governor's Council of Economic advisers).

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Friday, March 9, 2012

“Everyone should do this”


During the tour, town officials answered residents’ questions, the most common of which concerned the field house. The new school would not have a field house because the state does not pay for such buildings, and putting up a new field house would be a multi-million dollar project entirely paid for by taxpayers, officials explained. 
The current field house is structurally damaged. 
Some residents complained about poor maintenance, but officials countered that, saying a substantial part of the state funding for the proposed new school comes from noted good maintenance. 
“We got a bonus from the (state building authority) for good maintenance,” Nutting said. “This has been maintained, but it’s worn out.”

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x127283799/Franklin-residents-tour-old-high-school-weigh-paying-for-new-one#ixzz1oby7uIu3

Additional information on the new high school project can be found in the collection here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/12/collection-high-school-building-project.html

In the News - high school, wine, state police


Hardesty: Compelling case for new Franklin High




Franklin Agents and Brokers: Real estate brokers support new high school




St. Patrick’s Day wine tasting event planned in Franklin




Area residents become State Police troopers tomorrow

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Live reporting - architectural details


The presentation document used tonight will be added here later. In the meantime, the document used at the School Committee meeting last week, is reported to be close to that shown tonight.


New Franklin High School: Educational Design Features - Revised

Note: this is an update version of the presentation!

Live reporting: Public Presentation on new FHS project

Took the tour of some of FHS, K wing, boys locker room, through to the field house and back to the entrance. From there to the lecture hall where we are now for the presentation followed by Q&A.

Tom Mercer, School Building Committee Chair
Peter Light, FHS Principal
Maureen Sabolinski, School Superintendent
Jim Jordan, Ai3 principal and architect
Sean Fennell, Daedelus Owner Project Manager (OPM)

Overview of project starting back in 2005 with probation status from NAESC

Building committee put together three options for presentation to MSBA. The model school or fourth option became available when Franklin was invited into the model school program.

There are many advantages for the model school program including a high state reimbursement rate.

Ai3 was chosen as for it's model school used at Whitman Hanson and at least 6 others. Their model is the most flexible to meet Franklin's educational needs.

A comparison of the size for the existing building versus the new building is available
http://newfhs.com/facts.php#big

The building is being designed to support 1650 students.

Project contingency and owners contingency amount to a total of $4.5M. This money is already built into the total to cover for unexpected costs and avoid any other cost increases.

What is included in the "non-reimbursable" costs?
There is an allowance for site work and anything above that is non-reimbursable. The State wants to put their money into the building and let the local community choose to do the rest.

The cost to the taxpayer with an average home value of $352,000 can be found in this table
http://newfhs.com/facts.php#cost2

Jim Jordan takes the podium to review the design highlights




Real time: Town Council 3/7/12

Present: Mercer, Dellorco, Kelly, Powderly, Vallee, Pfeffer, Jones, Bissanti, Roy
Absent: none

Note: I was able to watch via the live internet feed but connected as the Public Hearings got underway.

Sign Bylaw
Bryan Taberner and Beth Dalhstrom presented on the sign bylaw changes. These have been before the Council, went to the Planning Board to be formally reviewed and approved there and are now back before the Council. This is the public hearing portion of the cycle and first reading. There will be a second reading before the Council gets to have their final vote on this matter.

Much of the discussion was around the political signs. Frank Falvey stepped up from the audience to speak for the overall intent but against some aspects that would effectively limit 'free speech'.

The Council ended up moving the items to a second reading and in the process did remove the requirement for the political signs to be taken down post election. While there is a current bylaw limiting posting signs before and after an election, this new bylaw effectively removes those restrictions.

There was also discussion about the 'banner' signs and whether the Town could still post their banner sign on the railroad bridge to announce special events. Government signs are exempt from the bylaw. The bylaw applies to all signs by businesses and citizens.

Annual Audit
The annual audit was reviewed with nothing of significance to note. Franklin is delinquent in putting together a more formal risk policy but from my point of view while this would be a good ting to do, it does require people to do this and Franklin is not about to add staff for this nicety when there are so many other pressing needs. Frank Falvey again stepped forward to speak on the amount of time the audit results are delayed. The books for the fiscal year effectively close on June 30 and we are hear 8 months later getting results of the audit.

If something did come up along the way of the audit, notification would be raised at the time. The books are only available to the auditors in Sep (and that is likely due to the already short staffing situation). If we wanted to do business differently, we would need to staff accordingly.

Remote Participation
This was approved as discussed for the Town Council and its subcommittees. Each other body (School Committee, etc.) could model their policy after this but this doc only relates to the Town Council operations.


J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
1. Resolution 12-14: Authorization to Borrow-repairs and remodeling to various school buildings, painting a tank, upgrades to the water plant, new water lines and engineering
motion to approve, passed 9-0

2. Resolution 12-15: Designation of “Special Municipal Employee” Under State Ethics Law
addition of the committee members from the Citizens Committee and Master Plan Committee under the indemnification protections of Franklin, as is done with other committee members.
motion to approve, passed 9-0


3. Resolution 12-16: Master Plan Committee – Amended
a technical adjustment as the original resolution did not include the number of committee members
motion to approve, passed 9-0


4. Resolution 12-17: Appropriation: Elections & Registrations
motion to approve, passed 9-0


5. Resolution 12-18: Appropriation: Veterans’ Benefits
motion to approve, passed 9-0


6. Resolution 12-19: Appropriation: Beaver Street Recycling Center
motion to approve, passed 9-0


7. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 12-669:Amendment to Chapter 185-45Administration and Enforcement – 1st Reading  motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0


8. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 12-670: Amendment to Chapter 185-3. Definitions – 1st Reading
motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0


9. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 12-671: Amendment to Chapter 185-4. Districts Enumerated – 1st Reading
motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0


10. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 12-672: Amendment to Chapter 185-20. Signs- 1st Reading
motion to amend removing the time restriction on political signs, passed 5-4
motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0


11. Bylaw Amendment 12-673: Amendment to Sewer System Map – 2nd Reading
motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0


12. Bylaw Amendment 12-679: Amendment to Chapter 82, Appendix A, List of Service Fee Rates – 2nd Reading  motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0

13. Bylaw Amendment 12-680:Amendment to Chapter 82, Appendix A, List of Service Fee Rates – 1st Reading  motion to move to second reading, passed 9-0

Franklin, MA: Presidential Primary election results

The results of the Presidential Primary election held in Franklin, MA on Tuesday, March 6, 2012.

Franklin, MA: Presidential Primary Results 3/6/12

This was originally posted to the Franklin website by the Franklin Town Clerk

Franklin Cub Scout Pack Visits State House

Senator Karen Spilka hosted members of Cub Scouts Pack 126 from Franklin today during their visit to the Massachusetts State House.

Upon arriving this afternoon, the Scouts were given an official tour of the State House. Following their tour, they met with Senator Spilka and Representative James Vallee at the Grand Staircase for a group photo.

The Cub Scouts and their chaperones then accompanied Senator Spilka and Representative Vallee to the Senator's office where they enjoyed snacks and a fun conversation with the Senator.

The visit was arranged by Senator Spilka's office with the Cub Scouts.

Cub Scout Roster - Pack 126 of Franklin
-Jamie Blanchard
-Matthew Walker
-Michael O'Brien
-Will Fallon
-Tommy Fallon
-Elijah Tucker
-David jones
-Kevin Armstrong
-Nolan Angliss
-Jeremy Schneider
-Will Henrichon

Den Leaders:
-Regina Armstrong
-John O'Brien
-John Walker
*plus additional family members and chaparones

"lower the trash fee by $16, from $220 to $204"


Under the state option, board members who intend to use remote participation must explain their absence under certain categories, such as military service, illness or geographic distance. 
The town will test remote participation first with speaker phone, instead of video conferencing, and restrict use to one member per meeting and only within the Council chambers, on the second floor of the municipal building. Members must notify the chairman of their committee at least four hours before the meeting, and subcommittees will not be allowed to use remote participation.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1014038517/Remote-meeting-attendance-approved-for-Franklin#ixzz1oWJr9Qgf


Update to MassBudget's Budget Browser - FY2012 Supplemental Budget




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Budget Browser Updated - New FY2012 Numbers 
Information from February's supplemental FY12 budget has been added to MassBudget's interactive Budget Browser. This includes:
  • $21.2 million to help low-income seniors and families with their home-heating bills (in line-item 7004-1000)    
  • An additional $35.0 million for adult day health services (4000-0600)   
  • A new $20.4 million Information Technology fund, to improve IT across a range of state agencies (1599-4380)
The budget browser allows you to see how funding has been allocated among the major budget categories (health care, education, environment, housing, and more)--and to track spending for any line-item or any group of line-items.

EXPLORE THE BUDGET BROWSER

You can also watch our tutorial video: HOW TO USE THE BUDGET BROWSER 

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


This email was sent to shersteve@gmail.com by nberger@massbudget.org |  

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Cowper: HS vote is a chance to invest in Franklin

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

via Wicked Local Franklin Opinions RSS by GateHouse Media, Inc. on 3/7/12

The recent boys basketball game between Franklin and Mansfield is a perfect example of why we will vote YES to build a new high school. The FHS field house was packed with folks of all ages from both towns. Like us, many of the adults who came to watch didn't have kids on the team or even at the high school any more. It was just a chance to cheer for a common goal and show the power of community spirit and pride. What other activities attract people of all ages in the same place for an entertainment event? The energy was exciting and unifying

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Grease is the word!


FHS production of Grease. March 23 & 24, 2012 at the Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin starting at 7pm. Tickets are $10 at the door.



Franklin takes down Boston Latin in mock trial competition

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

via The Milford Daily News News RSS by Alison McCall/Daily News staff on 3/6/12

phoMDmocktrial2_0306.jpg
After a bitter loss to Boston Latin School in last year's mock trial competition, Franklin High's team got the sweet taste of redemption yesterday, defeating Latin and advancing in the tournament

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