corn stalk on Forest St |
another view
another view - corn stalk on Forest St |
Providing accurate and timely information about what matters in Franklin, MA since 2007. * Working in collaboration with Franklin TV and Radio (wfpr.fm) since October 2019 *
Do Not Disturb |
paving smooths the approach to the bridge |
bridge |
head wall where bath house use to be at pool |
long walk along the inside |
into the corner, trees added too |
the turn around point in the far corner |
approaching the stream entrance |
smooth approach over the dam |
final walk to complete the route back to the bridge |
State Senator Karen Spilka (D-Ashland), State Representative Jeff Roy (D-Franklin) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren toured the EMC Corporation manufacturing plant in Franklin this afternoon. The legislators met with executives to discuss EMC’s latest innovations in data storage and security, followed by a tour of the plant. Senator Warren then addressed employees in a town hall style discussion.
“EMC showcases the leadership, innovation and success of Massachusetts manufacturing and technology,” said Senator Spilka. “I am thrilled that we were able to tour the plant with Senator Warren today. This visit really underscores the importance of continued public support for research and development, manufacturing and workforce development initiatives – here in the Commonwealth and nationally.”
The legislators had the opportunity to view EMC Corporation’s data storage products in various stages of the manufacturing and quality-testing process and to discuss the company’s workforce development, education and community involvement priorities.
“EMC consistently shows a strong commitment to workforce training and educational partnerships. These manufacturing and technology jobs are the kinds of jobs that we, as legislators, should be creating and supporting. I am so pleased we were able to have this meeting and see some important examples of innovative Massachusetts manufacturing firsthand,” Spilka said.
In her first visit to the Milford area since her campaign, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, got a firsthand look at the state’s innovation economy at work, touring the EMC Corp. facility here.
Local businesses and homeowners along the Boston Marathon route, and area residents, are invited to take part in "Marathon Daffodils,'' a project designed to help preserve the "Boston Strong'' theme next spring.
Franklin's Municipal Building - 355 West Central St |
Brett S. Feldman |
Glenn F. Jones |
Thomas D. Mercer |
Andrew M. Bissanti |
Judith Pond Pfeffer |
Matthew T. Kelly |
Stephen T. Williams |
Peter E. Padula |
Robert R. Vallee |
Charles F. Delfino, Jr. |
John S. Jewell PhD |
Cynthia J.Douglas |
Roberta D. Trahan |
Paula T. Mullen |
Susan T. Rohrbach |
Kevin P. O'Malley |
Trevor A. Clement |
Christopher K. Feeley |
Daniel B. Ballinger |
John H. Neas |
Bruce J. Hunchard |
Rancourt LaRosa |
Daniel S. McCahill |
Joseph F. Halligan |
Anthony D. Padula |
Navdeep S. Arora |
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fox 4, 159 Milford St., will donate $5 from every admission fee to the Franklin Food Pantry. Paintballers that day are also encouraged to bring non-perishable items and dry goods, along with their rifles and extra layers of clothing.
"It’s a unique opportunity to raise awareness and necessary funds for the pantry," said organizer Glenn Jones, who started paintballing at 17.
Jones acknowledged that a place where people run and barrel roll through the woods, while avoiding being hit by tiny paint-filled orbs, is an unusual venue for a benefit event.
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I thought you might be interested in including a piece in Franklin Matters about the new bench in front of Franklin Federated Church. There is an interesting story behind it.
Franklin Federated Church - Sidney Maxwell bench
Early in the year, the church lost a beloved member Sidney Maxwell. Sidney was very wll known in the church for his calling to care for the environment, and after his death, The Rev. Charley Eastman challenged each member of the congregation to find "one substantive way to give health to the Earth in Sidney's honor."
A member of the church, Deb Colella, took him up on that and decided to sign the church up for the Trex Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge.The goal was for the church to collect more than 30,000 plastic bags for recycling in a six-month period from Feb. 15 to Aug. 15. This included grocery bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, packaging film,, etc. The idea was not to encourage church members to use plastic, but rather to show how much of it comes through our lives and how important it is to recycle it.
Church members and friends brought the bags to worship each week, and delivered them to Colella, who with the help of family and friends counted and then recycle them all. The Sunday School children got involved counting them (and sometimes popping bubble wrap, much to their delight).The church beat its goal by one month, collecting over 30,000 bags by mid-July.
Trex awarded the church the composite bench (made partially from recycled plastic) which was recently installed on the lawn in front of the church.
I'm attaching a photo of the bench, although you may want to take a better one yourself when you are out and about.
Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer stopped at the Big Y Wednesday in Franklin to promote his organic coffee bean company called Rockin' & Roastin'.
In an effort to keep open the Milford branch, state Sen. Richard Moore and state Rep. John Fernandes met with the head of the Registry of Motor Vehicles last week to raise their concerns about the potential closure.
A woman reported seeing a mountain lion on the median of I-495 in Milford just north of Exit 20 today a little after 1 p.m.
Franklin Food Pantry
43 West Central Street
P.O. Box 116
Franklin, MA 02038-0116
Telephone: 508-528-3115
We are creating a new Franklin Telephone Directory and Resource Guide that will be published in Spring 2014 and mailed out to all town homes and businesses. As an extra incentive to our clients to help give back to their community and as a great benefit to your organization we are also donating 5% of all net ad sales to the Franklin Food Pantry. Seems timely as I've just read your article on the Franklin Matters website that the Food Pantry could use more assistance. For your reference I have attached a PDF with an overview of our new project that we will be sending out to potential advertisers.
19 Dean Avenue
Franklin,ma 02038
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Franklin, Norfolk, Plainville and Wrentham leaders will meet next month to establish a governing board for the Metacomet Emergency Communications Center, also known as the towns’ regional dispatch operation.
The four communities will share ownership of the center, housed in the Wrentham Public Safety Building. They have already penned an inter-municipal agreement.
Named after King Phillip, war chief of the Wampanoag Native American tribe, the center will occupy its own district and have its own employees thanks to recently passed legislation.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has isolated mosquitoes in central Franklin that have tested positive for the West Nile Virus.
To date, there has been one human case of West Nile Virus and one case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis in Norfolk County.
All individuals are strongly advised to take personal precautions to avoid mosquito bites until the first hard frost of the season.
Apply Insect Repellent When Outdoors: Use a repellent with DEET, Permethrin, picardin or oil of lemon eucalyptus according to the instructions on the product labels. Remember not to use products with DEET on infants under two months of age. DEET products in concentrations above 30% should not be used on older children. Oil of eucalyptus should not be used on children under three years of age.
Be Aware of Peak Mosquito Hours: Mosquitos are most active between the hours from dusk to dawn. Limit your exposure out of doors during this peak biting time if possible. If you must be outside, wearing long-sleeves, long pants and socks will help keep mosquitos away from your skin.
Drain Standing Water on Your Property: Mosquitos lay their eggs in standing or stagnant water. Drain birdbaths, flower pots, buckets and children’s wading pools frequently.
Additional public health advisories/alerts regarding WNV and EEE will be provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Franklin Health Department as the situation warrants.
More information on mosquito-borne viruses can be found at the MADPH Arbovirus Surveillance Information web page at www.mass.gov/dph/mosquito.
Hi Steve,
I am in the (current) president of the Friends of Franklin Library, and was the recipient of the letter you posted regarding the fall book sale. (The letter on the library's web site is different.)
Obviously, the Friends were not happy with the Board of Directors' decision, but I have been working with the Library Director and a member of the Library Board (with the assistance of Jeff Nutting) to reverse that and hold the October sale as planned. I hope to have a spot on the Library Board's agenda next Monday to talk about the fall book sale, and to ask them to reconsider their decision and hold another vote.
The Friends are hopeful that the Library Board will reverse their earlier decision - the fall book sale is a profitable tradition enjoyed by many - but pending our appeal, had decided to delay notifying members and the public of the situation until our appeal was heard. I guess that now falls under the heading of "good intentions."
Feel free to post this message and assure the community that the FoFL is working hard to (and is prepared to) run the October book sale as planned. I will follow up with an update after we meet with the Library Board of Directors at their next meeting on September 23 at 7PM; it is a public meeting, so anyone interested may attend.
In the meantime, donations of books are always appreciated.
Thanks and regards,
Maria Lucier
President, Friends of Franklin Library
All That’s Familiar:How to Remain in Your Home and Age in Place is a resource book for anyone intending to age with dignity and independence in the familiar comfort of their home. Drawn from my thirty years of experience as owner/director of Ideal Home Care Service, I have written an easy to read, practical guide complete with examples and descriptions of care, frequently asked questions, as well as a check list for putting together a home care plan.
Anne Rachin - author of All That's Familiar |
Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting last week asked to meet with the Citizens Committee to discuss the idea. Nutting praised the committee’s work in pushing the MBTA to complete the recent improvements and said the station looks "100 percent better."
At this point, though, he does not know how the town might benefit from buying the station.
"There’s a lot of homework that we need to do on what would be the upside for the town," he said. "My position is the T needs to maintain the station; they’ve done a great job to date."
And, he said, pursuing the purchase could cause problems for the town.
"There’s liability issues," he said. "And one of the issues if we own it is we have to lease it. There are (Americans with Disabilities Act) issues. You’d have to sit down and go through all of these."
As you know, the Town of Franklin has recently drafted a Master Plan for the entire town. In conjunction with the Master Plan, the Franklin Library Board of Directors is in the process of developing its own strategic plan, which will reflect the Town's plan. During this process, we must consider all sources of revenue, including fundraising. Our Library Director has conducted community surveys and focus group interviews since January 2013, beginning with the Friends of the Franklin Library. The Board wanted as much information about community needs and desires as possible before developing the strategic plan.
Some of the initial improvements included: changing the regularly-scheduled morning programs; beginning new afternoon programs for school-age, children, tweens, and teens; updating the children's audio-visual collection; sprucing up the children's room; and instituting an "ongoing "book sale on the second floor of the library. We are also working with an architect to review both the building needs and space requirements for the next generation of patrons.
The popularity of the "ongoing" book sale has led us to expand it to the first floor near the circulation desk. Accordingly, we do not believe we need a fall 2013 book sale at the DPW. We will continue to monitor this new approach at the Library prior to making a decision about the 2014 spring book sale.
We recognize the community nature of the book sales as well as the tremendous effort by the Friends and volunteers to support and to staff the book sale. We hope that the "ongoing" book sale will free your members to consider other events and ideas for fundraising in support of the Library.
The Franklin Library board deeply appreciates all the past and present efforts of the Friends to support the patrons of the Library We welcome your suggestions and ideas and look forward to an ongoing dialogue with the Friends on our continued efforts to provide the citizens of Franklin the best possible Library in the region.
Please feel free to contact me with ideas and proposals.
Warmest regards,
Cynthia S. DobrzynskiChairpersonFranklin Library Board of Directors
Development Director Erin Lynch and Food Pantry Treasurer Jim Roche |
Whole Foods Bellingham |
Painted Lady Flowers |
wine tasting choices offered by John Gedgaudas of Trio Wine |
selection of reds and whites for the tasting |
the wine racks to showcase the selections |
Prospective candidates for the Nov. 5 election have until 4 p.m. today to pick up nomination papers, with Wednesday being the last day to return them signed.
The packed ballot includes all of the seats on the School Committee and Town Council, as well as two referendums, one of which is nonbinding.
Residents will vote on whether to make the treasure/collector position appointed through an amendment to the town’s charter. And the non-biding question asks whether they would support the town adopting a mayoral form of government.
The YMCA has earned a reputation for programs that focus on youth development: from childcare to camp and t-ball to teen leaders clubs. Now, young adults ready for increased responsibility and earned income also have the chance to improve their babysitting skills at the Y. Dawn DaCosta, Teen Director at the Hockomock Area YMCA’s North Attleboro Branch, is offering a Saturday American Safety and Health Institute Babysitting Course.
The class will be offered Saturday, September 21st at the Y located at 300 Elmwood Street in North Attleboro. It is a great opportunity for youth ages 11-15 interested in sitting for siblings or working outside the home to gain critical skills. Also, to gain the confidence needed to care for children – from infancy and beyond. Upon completion of the class, participants will be given a student handbook and certification card.
Class time is from 10:00am – 4:00pm and costs $60 for members of the Y, $90 for nonmembers. Registration is available by calling the Y at 508.695.7001. For convenience, members may register online at hockymca.org (category Teens). Questions should be directed to Dawn at 508.643.5270 or dawnd@hockymca.org.
Nurture their potential |
The ballroom dance studio at 475 Franklin Village Drive opened last week and already has built up a long list of clients.For more about the Fred Astaire Dance Studio, visit their website
It is that time of year when the nights turn cool and the apples are ready for picking at the local Big Apple fruit and vegetable farm in Wrentham, MA!
Washington St at Union St |
Union St at Washington St |
Union St at Cottage St |