Franklin - Fiscal Policy Draft Update

There is a fiscal policy that Franklin operates with. This year, the policy is being consider for revision and the revisions will include input from the Finance Committee, Town Council and School Committee.

The Finance Committee reviewed and discussed the update at their meeting on Tuesday. This was also mentioned during the Town Administrators update during the Council meeting on Weds. It is scheduled for further discussion within the budget subcommittee before the Council takes it up. It is also scheduled for review by the School Committee.

Franklin Library: All In - Dec 16th

There will be a discussion and activities around the book "Divergent" lead by Horace Mann Middle School reading specialist Ms O'Leary. The discussion will focus on chapters 11-25.

Additional info can be found in this posting by the Library:

Divergent - discussion and activities

This was originally posted to the Franklin Library webpage here
http://franklinpl.blogspot.com/2013/12/all-in.html

In the News: Dean Bank, license penalties

Bellingham Police look into Dean Bank robbery

Authorities are probing a Monday robbery at the Dean Bank on Pulaski Boulevard and say they believe the suspect is the same man who robbed that bank in October.

Franklin council to review penalties for liquor license violators

Town Councilors tonight will discuss new guidelines for penalizing businesses caught selling liquor to minors.

Note: This item was posted to the MDN website at 6:08 AM on Wednesday morning. The timing of the post by MND caused it to miss my posting yesterday. Since there is not yet a post on the meeting last night, i suspect something similar is happening. Whether this timing of the posts MDN makes is deliberate or accidental, doesn't matter to me. My radar should pick it up eventually.

Live reporting - Closing

K. TOWN ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT
thanks to the Downtown Partnership and Dean for a wonderful Holiday Stroll

package provided to the Council as reviewed with the FinCom on Tuesday

reminder on snow event forecasted for this weekend
secondary roads have secondary priority for salting

thanks to the assessors for the recap and while it looks seemless
it is thousands of hours of work and we'll start on next year's tomorrow

estimate approx $270 for the average residence assessed at $364,000
except for market conditions, housing values rarely decrease
of the $270, approx 50 is the new high school


L. OLD BUSINESS
Padula - thanks to Mark Cerel to go over some of the questions I had at the last meeting

M. NEW BUSINESS
Jones - propose that the draft of license penalties as discussed be put on the agenda for formal adoption

Bissanti - Citizens committee to appoint Judy Pfeffer, add to next agenda
re- the flag situation,
Nutting - it is all fixed, we will work it out, we will get another set of flags for the Elks
contractually some days the DPW needs to do the flags

N. COUNCIL COMMENTS
Williams - happy and safe holiday's hug your kids
Jones - thanks Mass Development for hosting the event last week
Pfeffer - thanks for the holiday covers on the parking meters
Happy Birthday, Victor Pisani

Mercer - thanks for the Holiday Stroll, wish weather was a little better
we are building tight and roof tight for the winter
looking forward to either Jan or Feb to bring the Council up to date

Padula - happy holidays to all

Feldman - thanks for the good time at the ribbon cutting at the Abbey solar farm

P. ADJOURN
motion to adjourn,  passed

Live reporting - License renewals, Legislation

H. PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS
Guidelines and Criteria for Penalizing Alcoholic Beverage License holder Violations

discussion on guidelines
there are two scenarios (1) police stings
ABC Board doesn't like these sting operations and doesn't feel that licensee should be penalized
(2) other operational violations - where an incident or accident occurs and underage drinking was found to have occurred. These are much more case by case. Could use compliance check and then at the mitigating factors to consider.

Williams - Nice work, I see nothing inconsistent with what we have done in prior Councils. Send them out to the renewals, then there is no excuse for someone saying I wasn't aware of that. Our hands aren't tied, these are the minimums and we can do more as required

Nutting - we could send them out with the renewals and then every year thereafter

Jones - I am happy to see that we have this in writing, it is good to have.

Bissanti - I want to applaud Mark Cerel for tackling this. I think the penalties are reasonable. I think attaching this to any license is a good idea.

Williams - as a rule, there is a notice out to the establishments that a sting is forthcoming.
Cerel - there is a set of guidelines on how to conduct

this will come up for a resolution and or as a bylaw for January meeting

Motion to approve the license renewals
seconded, approved 7-0-1 (abstain - Padula)

Padula - will abstain for the whole vote to avoid conflict of interest



I. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS


J. LEGISLATION FOR ACTION
1. Resolution 13-85: Classification Tax Allocation – Residential Factor
residential factor set as 1
motion to approve, 8-0

2. Resolution 13-86: Classification Tax Allocation – Open Space Exemption
There will not be an exemption for open space
motion to approve, 8-0

by not having these exemptions, everyone is treated the same

3. Resolution 13-87: Classification Tax Allocation – Small Business Exemption
There will not be an exemption for small business
motion to approve, 8-0

4. Resolution 13-88: Classification Tax Allocation – Residential Property Exemption
There will not be an exemption for residential property
motion to approve, 8-0

5. Resolution 13-89: 2014 Schedule of Town Council Meetings
motion, seconded, approved 8-0

6. Resolution 13-90: Legal Notices
designated the Milford Daily News as the legal source
motion, seconded, approved 8-0

7. Zoning Bylaw Amendment 13-726: Amendment to Chapter 185, Attachment 9, Schedule of Lot, Area,
Frontage Yard and Height Requirements – Referral to Planning Board

Mercer, Bissanti, Padula  recused themselves from this discussion

Motion to refer to Planning Board, seconded

impervious coverage chart wasn't adjusted for the unit density calculations
looking to get the impervious change for Zone 7, not in any other zone
looking only to affect multi-family in Zone 7

Passed 5-0

live reporting - Tax Classification Hearing

F. HEARINGS
Tax Classification Hearing – 7:10 PM

The documents associated with the tax rate hearing can be found here

http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_CouncilAgendas/2013/1231113.pdf

reference to the booklet shown by Ken Norman, the documents contained in the booklet are found in the link above.

Kevin Doyle, Director of Assessors

Ken Norman, Chairman - Board of Directors

Chris Feeley, John Neas

discussion on single vs. split tax rate, most communities inside the 128 beltway

the single rate is the fairest given the disproportionate groups residential vs. commercial industrial

Bissanti - a dual tax rate is burdensome upon the businesses, businesses have left communities for that

the high school building raised the taxes about $48 dollars on the average

My personal notes: this simpler quicker presentation was not very informative. If folks have seen this before, it is a minor rate change. If people have not seen this before, then they don't get much info in this forum.

Live reporting: Town Council - Dec 11, 2013

Present: Feldman, Padula, Mercer, Vallee, Pfeffer, Jones, Bissanti, Williams
Absent: Kelly


A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

B. ANNOUNCEMENTS
This meeting is being recorded by Franklin TV and shown on Comcast channel 11 and Verizon channel 29. This meeting may also be recorded by Franklin Matters.

No meeting Dec 18th, next meeting Jan 15th


C. PROCLAMATIONS/RECOGNITIONS
none

D. CITIZEN COMMENTS
Mark Ellis - Franklin Elks
regarding flags on Main St for veterans funerals
offering to keep tradition of putting the flags up
will take down and store, coordinate with the funeral homes


E. APPOINTMENTS
none

(three minute recess)

Senior Center: parking lot expansion making progress

The plans for expanding the Senior Center by finishing the second floor are underway. There is money being set aside in a Senior Center Stabilization Fund to help with the cost of the completion. The additional space would bring more people so the parking at the Senior Center would need to expand. Franklin jumped on the chance to purchase the property next door to provide space to do so.

The property purchase was authorized earlier this year and the house was just recently demolished. The before and after photos are below.

From October - the 'before' picture

Beaver St house purchased by Franklin

From this past weekend - the 'after' picture

Now an empty lot on Beaver St

Some time in the future, the Town Council will need to approve the plans and funds for the parking lot expansion work.

For Lifelong Learning Spring is coming soon

An update from Lifelong Learning:

Lifelong Learning constantly works in the future, as well as the present. By that I mean that we are always working on learning initiatives for the upcoming semester and year, as we implement other programs/courses on a daily basis. 

Yesterday we finished editing the Adult Education and Community Learning spring brochure. The brochure will be mailed to residents of Franklin, Bellingham and Wrentham. It includes a number of traditional offerings: Volleyball, Basketball, Yoga, Zumba, Language, Photography, Writing, Dance and more. Additionally, it features new courses offered in collaboration with businesses from Franklin and the surrounding communities: Kettlebells for Women with f.i.t. of Bellingham, Wine and Chocolate Tasting with Franklin Liquors and Green Mountain Chocolates, IPAs -- Hoppy Ales with Pour Richards, and Ladies Snowshoe/Trek and Ladies Light Hike with Nanci Cahalane and held in Foxboro.

We are in the process of receiving course proposals for the Summer Programs. Faculty and staff are proposing courses for students from kindergarten through grade 12. Their creativity and dedication make the Summer Program an enriching experience for all involved. Watch the Franklin Public Schools website in mid-January for registration information. 

Lifelong Learning is a department within the Franklin Public Schools. The leadership provided by the Superintendent of Schools, Ms. Sabolinski, is critical to the success of this department. Her leadership reinforces and supports the mission and purpose of Lifelong Learning.

As always, please contact us with any questions: lifelong@franklin.k12.ma.us.

This was posted to the Lifelong Learning website here
http://lifelonglearningfps.blogspot.com/2013/12/tuesday-december-10-2013.html

Voices of Franklin: NDAA - What Would Nelson Mandela Do?

Rich Aucoin included me on this email:

Question: Are your elected officials doing what Nelson Mandela would do on NDAA's indefinite detentions? 

Are they honoring their constitutional Oaths of Office by standing up for equal justice and due process under the law? Or are they violating the sacred trust we placed in them to protect our most basic civil rights? 

Please take two minutes to read PANDA Massachusetts' latest news letter below.

Share Tweet Forward to Friend NDAA: What Would Nelson Mandela Do? Courage is not the absence of fear; it is inspiring others to move beyond it. -- Dr. Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela's bold political activism changed the world. His willingness to challenge the unjust policies of his national government reminds us of the bravery and personal sacrifice that gave rise to our own nation. By standing up against unequal justice in South Africa, Mandela set a timeless example for all of modern humanity. But let us remember that the very ideas and actions that made Nelson Mandela a human rights icon also once resulted in the U.S. branding him a terrorist. That's right, prominent political figures in the United States branded peace negotiator Mandela a "terrorist" for his justice activism. And yet now we are expected to believe that the U.S. government is somehow infallible when it does such branding today. Under the 2012 NDAA, anyone branded a terrorist, including American citizens, can be presumed guilty and imprisoned for life based on accusation alone, deprived even of the kind of sham trial that Mandela was given in Apartheid South Africa. So it is ironic that over the next week we will be hearing American politicians of every political stripe gushing with pride and praise for Dr. Mandela's resistance to tyranny. It begs the question: how many of these politicians would have defended Mandela's belligerent acts against the state when he was actually committing them? How many would have locked him up and thrown away the key without due process, NDAA-style? What Would Mandela Do? Based on what we know of Nelson Mandela's political activism and the terrible price he paid for it, it is easy to know which side he would take on this question of defending equal due process rights vs. allowing indefinite detentions. Our peaceful grassroots movement to lawfully block NDAA detentions thus provides a useful litmus test for determining who in Massachusetts politics truly possesses Mandela's moral convictions  - and who doesn't. From his career after prison, we know that politician Mandela would not agree with public officials who sit by idly and accept NDAA's injustices; those who claim it is someone else's job to stand up for basic rights, not mine. So let us see who in Massachusetts politics has taken a stand against NDAA. Congressman Jim McGovern has been the strongest leader so far. Besides working tirelessly in Congress to end NDAA's indefinite detention provisions, he has also written in support of PANDA's civil rights advocacy to restore due process at the local level. And to their credit, every other member of the Massachusetts delegation has at least voted to repeal NDAA's unconstitutional sections. At the state level, Representative Ryan Fattman is another elected official standing up for the right of trial by jury. He supports PANDA's pending State House legislation blocking NDAA detentions in the Commonwealth and has urged town leaders in his district to pass local anti-NDAA resolutions. At the local level, the people of Webster and Oxford have successfully blocked NDAA, blazing the trail for civil rights leaders in other Bay State communities. Dr. Jill Stein of the Green-Rainbow Party has spoken out against the NDAA, as have numerous organizations, such as the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Worcester Tea Party together with Occupy Worcester, the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts (LAMA), the Massachusetts chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP), the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and others. It is time for Massachusetts legislators and local officials to do what Nelson Mandela would do. Contact your local and state officials. Tell them to join the people of Massachusetts in restoring the Right of due process. Share Tweet Forward to Friend Please forward this newsletter to friends and family.  Get involved! Click here to sign up for PANDA Newsletters www.pandaunite.org www.ndaa2012.us www.fb.com/pandaMA1776 MA@pandaunite.org Copyright © 2013 PANDA Massachusetts, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are a member of the PANDA Massachusetts State Team. Our mailing address is: PANDA Massachusetts Northfields Neighborhood Salem, MA 01970 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Local Musicians Give Back

LAME-Aid

Milford, MA – There's a handful of local musicians who are looking to make a difference in the local area and they call themselves LAME.  But that's a good thing… you see, LAME stands for for Local Area Music Ensemble.  LAME was conceived after local musicians Lou Miano, Tim Galvin, Eric Milot and Ligor helped Ray Auger and his acoustic partner Justin Redden record their original song Bucket of Beer.  "We decided that this kind of collaboration might be a fun thing to do on a regular basis so we started working on songs that, individually, we never had a chance to finish writing or recording on our own", says Auger.  "It's two fold… making great music with a great group of local musicians while enjoying some social time with friends during the process."

LAME has recently expanded its membership to 15 while recording a special song for the holiday season.  Do They Know It's Christmas, was a charitable effort recorded in 1984 by Band-Aid to help to raise money for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia.  The song featured a who's who of the music community at the time and can still be heard on the radio during the holidays.  "We thought that this would be a great song to recreate to help draw awareness to folks in need in our local area", explains Jim Ligor.  So LAME's friends were recruited and over the course of 2 months a local version of the song was recorded.  It was decided to sell the single for $5 with all proceeds benefiting the Daily Bread Food Pantry in Milford with services Milford, Hopedale and Medway and over 900 people.  "Music brings people together and opens hearts and ears.  We are hoping that we can do a lot of good with this effort", says Auger. 

Do They Know It's Christmas? by LAME-Aid can be purchased online on WMRC's Steals and Deals Marketplace at www.wmrcdailynews.com, at the WMRC Studios, Rubber Chicken Comics in Bellingham and other local businesses.  For more details about CD locations, LAME, LAME-Aid and Do They Know It's Christmas visit LAME's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/milfordlame.

Tax rate hearing set for Town Council meeting

The Milford Daily News reports on the tax rate hearing scheduled for the Town Council meeting Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM.

Councilors must decide whether to keep a single tax rate, adopt a split rate or shift a portion of the tax levy from residential to commercial, among other things. As of now, residential properties share about 79 percent of the levy, leaving commercial and industrial properties with 20 percent, according to a memo sent to the council from the Board of Assessors. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor council chambers at the Municipal Building, 355 East Central St. Before the council votes, director of assessing Kevin Doyle is expected to brief councilors on the status of residential and commercial values. 

The single tax rate for fiscal year 2013 was $14.34, up from $13.73 in fiscal year 2012. The increase reflected a slight drop in the average value of residential properties, as well as passage of a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion tax override to help fund the new Franklin High School, expected to open in the fall of 2014.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x915451414/Franklin-Town-Council-to-set-fiscal-year-2014-tax-rates-Wednesday#ixzz2nA6ZomVk

You can find the full package of documents released for the meeting here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/12/franklin-ma-town-council-agenda-dec-11.html

Live reporting: Finance Committee - Dec 10, 2103

Present:  Quinn, Dowd, Fleming, Smith, Dufour, Huempfner
Absent:  Dewsnap, (TBD)

Jeff Nutting, Susan Gagner, Jim Dacey

(Sheet to be added later)
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/12/franklin-fiscal-policy-draft-update.html

Discussion of proposed update to Fiscal Policies
initially reviewed at join budget subcommittee, recommendation for each group to review make their suggestions and then bring them together for a final review and approval by all groups (Town Council, School Committee and Finance Committee)

review of water sewer fees and infrastructure upgrades regularly, should be able to maintain a minimum rate increase at current levels to maintain upgrades. Would need an increase to cover the Charles River sewer plant upgrade, that started as an estimate of $20M and is closer to $30M

juggling the finances to keep within the rate set and still funding the infrastructure upgrades; assuming current plans, we would only need a rate increase possibly in 4-5 years

Tie water and sewer mains with street reconstruction to maximize dollars; other alternative would be find $1.5M to fund the street repairs needed each and every year

trash is $70 less than several years ago, due to the introduction of the bins (totters) and increase in recycle over trash.

snow and ice built up to a 5 year rolling average, currently at $900,000.

OPEB will take about later as there is an OPEB report in the package

Discussion on putting some into a swing fund to help cover for the snow/ice requirements rather than taking from the free cash

Storm water - EPA has not put out the regulations yet, several year overdue currently. Will have financial implications for us when it does happen

Consider a Building Repair and Maintenance account to replace the Senior Center Stabilization account when they meets its needs. Things do break and will need to be repaired. Jefferson carpet replaced recently through the capital budget.

The house was just demolished to provide the additional space for parking at the Senior Center

Roll over the Fire Truck and Turf Fields funds when they fulfill their initial purpose
make interest on them currently and avoid paying interest on a bond, also looks

Public works account being built up to hold for repair of Lincoln St bridge, coordinate with Medway

This is not just for the staff, FinCom and others, this is also for the citizens to see that our house is in order, how we do our business without always pulling out our credit card

Road funding is a state wide problem, most communities get funding from Chapter 90 which is the gas tax funds. The Legislature authorized and the Governor released less. So there is no real dependable source. Not many other communities grew as fast as we did in the recent years (80s-90s) so they have been able to budget over time

crack seal, chip seal, overlap and then finally rebuild the road is part of the maintenance plan

Per Jeff the only real option is a dedicated override but no one wants to hear that. The dedicated override couldn't be re-directed. This would provide a stable source to really get to the water/sewer and roads all together

After Weds with a new tax rate we can figure out the cost implications of the $1M or $1.5M

table of calculation on the % of debt of the general fund revenues
also sheet on "Projected Debt service Schedule"
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/12/franklin-debt-service.html

interesting sheet on school building capacity
elementary ok, losing students, able to remove modulars, high school will be at capacity when the new school opens
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/12/franklin-schools-capacity-summary.html

Norfolk County Retirement System
Sheet with calculations for the communities that are part of this including Franklin
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/12/franklins-portion-of-norfolk-county.html

5 year forecast
same story as before the town does not have sufficient tax revenues to support the needs
20% decrease in staff, years with pay increases frozen, excess reserves used up, dramatic changes in health insurance plans, along with one override to get to where we are


conservative in revenue estimates, always have a balanced budget, it is the law

"levers pulled in the past will be fewer in the future"

in 1990 Franklin taxpayers paid 70% of the school budget, today they pay 50%
Chapter 70 has picked up the remainder but that calculation has been changing

this is in draft, to be finalized in January

State aid tends to be a little better in election years than non election years

expenses won't drive the budget, they don't go up too much in the grand scheme of things; we are a personnel driven budget, employees and benefits

only two budgets with heavy expenses; facilities and DPW

the grant for the fire fighters goes through Nov 2014 so an addition of 8 months for the 4 folks is added here


OPEB Report came in three days ago
sense that we need to create a trust fund, what does it mean to us and funding
started working on a trust document which the Council would need to approve
we are $2M short of funding OPEB every year. Now since we need that money for our operations, you can see why we have an OPEB problem

add a $100,000 every year, what would that look like
it is too easy for public employees to get retiree health insurance
there will need to be some legislation to address that but it has been the way for many years
it is not sustainable

the health care carriers want the whole pool, if you split the pool, the rates go up
funding the enterprise accounts obligations is easy, it comes from those accounts, getting coverage for the others is the issue

his estimates on health insurance, he thinks it will trend down
our workforce tends to be older, and therefore be more expensive

future retirees instead of paying 68/32 split what would it look like for a 50/50 split

average pension was $22,000 across the Norfolk County or $29,000 for a disability
not a lot of money to live on, not a staggering amount of money

average community pays 75/25, we are paying less at 68/32

Wellesley has their obligation covered by a dedicated override, Arlington has been saving for awhile, so there are a few like that but most of the communities are like we are, in a sinking ship

CT doesn't fund this for their employees, for example


Old business
none

New Business
Police, Fire, DPW, Schools, Facilities, Town Technology, and Library have submitted their capital wish lists
the meetings will take place in late Jan, early Feb to start the capital process


motion to adjourn, passed

Franklin, MA: School Committee - Agenda - December 10, 2013

The meeting is scheduled to be conducted in the Municipal Building, 3rd floor Training Room at 7:00 P.M.
This meeting will not be televised.

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.

AGENDA

"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
Review of Agenda
Minutes: I recommend approval of the minutes from the November 19, 2013 School Committee Meeting.
Payment of Bills Mr. Clement
Payroll Mrs. Douglas

2. Action Items
a. I recommend approval of the budget transfers as detailed.
b. I recommend acceptance of a check for $86.38 from Ohiopyle Prints, Inc. for in-house enrichment at FHS.
c. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1800.00 from the Franklin Music Boosters for in-house enrichment at FHS.
d. I recommend acceptance of a Sony Xperia Tablet that was won in a contest for Horace Mann Middle School.
e. I recommend approval of the request of Brad Sidwell for the Wrestling Team to travel to New Fairfield, CT from Jan. 31, 2014 through Feb. 1, 2014 for a competition.
f. I recommend approval of the request of Brad Sidwell for the Wrestling Team to travel to Johnston, RI on January 18, 2014 for a competition.
g. I recommend approval of the request of Brad Sidwell for the Wrestling Team to travel to Bennington, VT from Jan. 10 through Jan. 11, 2014 for a competition.
h. I recommend acceptance of a check for $1181.20 from Parmenter PCC for enrichment and field trips.

3. School Committee Training
a. Roles / Responsibilities of School Committee Members – Attorneys Michelle McNulty and Paige Tobin
b. Subcommittee Goal Setting

4. Adjourn

Food Elves closing out the "Twelve Days of Giving" this week

The Franklin Food Elves is partnering once again with the Franklin Downtown Partnership to support the Franklin Food Pantry.  Please stop by one of the participating businesses with your donations and help the Food Elves reach their goal.  You can also drop off checks to the pantry by December 14th.

Erin Lynch, in Santa hat, with Franklin Food Elves

The enterprising and energetic Franklin Food Elves have been busy canvassing neighborhoods all around Franklin collecting goods during the “12 Days of Donating” campaign to benefit the Franklin Food Pantry. From December 1 to December 12, citizens can donate items in their own neighborhoods or at local participating businesses to help neighbors in need.

The Food Elves is a charitable community service group made up of more than 60 students ranging from elementary through high school. For the past two years they have joined forces with the Franklin Downtown Partnership to operate the “12 Days of Donating” campaign with great success. This year the Food Elves aim to beat last year’s record-breaking collection drive by raising more than $5,700 and 4,200 pounds of goods.

“The people who live and work in Franklin have been so generous that our ’12 Days of Donating’ campaign helped the Food Pantry give out about 17,000 meals to families last winter,” says Cameron Piana, Food Elves co-founder. “This town’s support has been awesome and we hope we can do more this year.”

According to the Food Pantry, about 600 households are registered to use Pantry services. This year’s need will be even greater due to a decrease in SNAP benefits in November. Health and hygiene items are not covered by those benefits and are a particular need

“The Food Elves truly bring out the magic of the holidays,” says Erin Lynch, Food Pantry director of development. “These amazing kids organize and implement one of the biggest drives of the entire year for the pantry. Their ’12 Days of Donating’ campaign provides thousands of pounds of food for those who need it. At the same time it fuels this community with what we all need: inspiration, hope and a shining example of the impact young people can make when they work together.”

Since early December, Food Elves have been notifying their neighbors about the collection campaign, including what items can be collected and the collection dates. Residents simply place bags of goods at their mailboxes on the designated pickup day and the Elves will do the rest. One collection date remains: Saturday, December 14.

In case there’s no Elf in your neighborhood, it is still easy to donate. The Elves have placed bright red collection bins at participating Downtown Partnership member businesses. If the Elves meet their goal of collecting more than 1,200 pounds of goods, each business has pledged to donate $200. You can drop off donations at the Food Pantry, 43 West Central St., and designate them for the “12 Days of Donating” drive.

Bins can be found at these participating locations:

• Dean Bank, 21 Main St.
• DCU, 500 West Central St
• Dean College, Campus Center
• Emma’s Quilt Cupboard, 12 Main St.
• Franklin Downtown Partnership Office, 9 East Central St.
• Jane’s Frames, 11 East Central St.
• Murphy Business, 15 East Central St.
• Pour Richard’s Wine & Spirits, 14 Grove St.
  
  
  
  

This was updated from the posting originally at the Franklin Downtown Partnership website
http://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2013/12/12-days-of-donating-going-on-now.html