Saturday, April 21, 2012

Earth Day at the Community Garden Saturday instead of Sunday!


Hello to our Gardeners, Supporters, and Friends!

This weekend is Earth Day and the Town of Franklin is encouraging everyone to pitch in around town on Sunday 4/22 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. 

We hope that you will help us out at the Community Garden location at King Street Memorial Park!

The forecast is for Rain on Sunday, 70% probability in the morning.  Good for the planet, Bad for our workday.

So, we are moving our particular community garden Earth Day event up a day---It will be held on Saturday instead from 9-12 a.m. 

We have a big pile of fresh wood chips to spread, weeds to pull (yes, already!), rocks to pile, compost to turn, pollinator garden beds to dig (flowers!), and more.

Please come lend a hand!  Community Service Certificates will be available for those who need them.

While we have a few gloves, shovels and rakes here at the garden, there might not be enough to go around.  
Please bring your own labeled tools and heavy duty gloves if you can.

If you have extra garden tools or equipment that you would like to donate to the Garden, we'd LOVE to have them!

Thanks to our great new shed---built for us by the awesome Tri-County RVTHS students & paid for with a Franklin Rotary grant!---we now have a place to safely store them.

The water at the garden is not on yet, that will happen some time in mid-May. We will have ice water there to drink for our volunteers this Saturday morning.
How about packing a picnic? 

Thanks for your continued support & we hope to see you at the Garden on Saturday!

Need a map to find us?  The Google map link is below:


Thank you for helping out!

The Franklin Community Garden Green Team


"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." -Native American Proverb
Visit us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!

In the News - bath salts, water ban



Franklin man charged with using bath salts

New Health Care Report and Updated Budget Browser



Having trouble viewing this email? Click here
MASSBudget Facebook
twitter
Health Care Report & Updated Budget Browser 
As part of our ongoing analysis of last week's House Ways and Means Budget proposal, MassBudget has produced a new health care report and updated our online budget browser.*
READ THE HEALTH CARE REPORT

EXPLORE THE BUDGET BROWSER

* The report is the second in a series of budget briefs published by the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI) and produced by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center in partnership with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
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 |  
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center | 15 Court Square | Suite 700 | Boston | MA | 02108

Friday, April 20, 2012

Franklin, MA: FY 2013 budget documents

When you start a budget, you need to know what revenues you expect to have. For your household, the revenue number would be your expected annual salary (i.e. take home pay). This document walks through the sources of Franklin's expected revenue for FY 2013.

Recall that FY 2013 will begin on July 1 and run through Jun 30, 2013. We are currently operating in FY 2012 which began on July 1, 2011 and will complete on Jun 30, 2012.

The Franklin, MA expected revenue for FY 2013:

Franklin Budget Revenues FY2013


With the revenue number to work with for FY 2013, each department goes through their budget to determine what they will need to operate with for the coming year. The capital requirements are separated and were recently approved by the Town Council. This is the operational budget at a summary level for each line of the budget.

The Finance Committee will review the budget at a detail level with each department manager. This detail review occurs over the course of several meetings. The department manager makes their recommendation, the Town Administrator makes his recommendation (which may differ) and the Finance Committee approves of their version (which may be the same as the Town Administrators or differ in some aspects).

This set of recommendations is what the Town Council will review in their two budget hearings currently scheduled for May 23 and 24. The budget total is voted on and becomes effective July 1, 2012.

The Franklin, MA proposed FY 2013 budget:

Franklin Budget Voting FY2013

Note that at the time the Franklin budget was put together, the School Dept had not yet submitted their budget. The place holder that was included 52,710,000 fortunately comes out to be exactly the number the School Dept appears to be bringing forward. I say appears to be as this document is up for discussion by the School Committee and they may make some changes before it goes to the Finance Committee and Town Council.

The School Dept budget as proposed for review by the School Committee:

FPS_FY2013_ExecSummary


You can also view or download these docs from the Franklin Matters Google doc folder
FY 2013 Expected Revenues
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0wjbnXDBhczQnc2a19DSk12cmM

Franklin Budget
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0wjbnXDBhczMmdIMjB1NENGOEk

School Budget
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0wjbnXDBhczY0JaRnlQalRkVXM

Franklin, MA: Earth Day

Prepare today for Earth Day Sunday. Very little is mentioned on the Franklin website other than the one notice about registration for Earth Day. When you follow the link you find:
Thank you for your interest in the Franklin Earth Day event on April 22nd, 2012! For over 10 years, the Town of Franklin has conducted this event in an effort to educate the public on recycling, beautification, and general clean up of the town. This year, we are taking online registration for those folks looking to lock in a location in Town that they are interested in cleaning. Please select the area in town you are interested in cleaning and let us know specifics about your planned clean up. Gloves and trash bags can be picked up ahead of time at the Recreation Dept (150 Emmons St).




In the News - men in court



Suspect in Franklin home invasion goes to court

Thursday, April 19, 2012

"re-bury a pair of time capsules beneath the Town Common"

The Milford Daily News reported on the Town Council meeting in part by writing:
Councilors voted on a number of bylaws, deleting a few from the town charter because they are redundant — such as a tobacco law that simply mimics a state law — and adding to others. 
Two were added to in a substantial way. Councilors approved harsher punishments for parking in a fire lane, upping to fine from $15 to $50, and allowed town departments to make people put the number of their home’s address on their residences. 
In the latter, Nutting said the town deals with a couple of people each year who are opposed to putting the number of their address on their home, which Nutting said is a public safety problem. 
Near the beginning of the meeting Jack Lank, president of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce, congratulated Franklin on its recent economic summit, and applauded the town for its willingness to help businesses hoping to settle and grow in the town.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x101301796/Franklin-time-capsules-uncovered-a-little-early#ixzz1sTdDzwro

My set of notes from the Town Council meeting can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/04/town-council-apr-18-2012.html