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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 *
Friday, November 21, 2014
MassBudget: The Governor's 9C Cuts and Context
Circle of Friends Coffeehouse: The Stray Birds
The next show
Saturday, November 22
8:00 PM (doors open at 7:30)
The Stray Birds
with Jordie Lane $20
Reverb Nation photo of The Stray Birds |
The Circle of Friends Coffeehouse is located at the First Universalist Society of Franklin on 262 Chestnut St. The intimate setting (up to 300 capacity) is acoustically great.
Circle of Friends Coffeehouse calendar for 2014-2015 season |
- Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) is scheduled for Jan 24, 2015.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit their webpage here
Find them on Facebook here
Thursday, November 20, 2014
The Town Council reorganizes, sort of
Reorg - sort of
The first order of business at the Town Council was to re-organize or elect their officers for the new year. The process is for opening nominations, closing nominations, and then voting on the nomination for each position. The Council successfully did that for the Vice Chair and Clerk but only opened and closed the nominations for Chair. They never officially voted for their Chair to remain Bob Vallee. There was no change in Vice Chair as Matt Kelly retained that position. Judith Pond Pfeffer retains the Clerk position.
This action was not intentional. It happened when the nominations for Chair closed with a vote, Padula nominated Pfeffer for Clerk which was not in the pre-determined order of events. They put that aside, took the nominations for Vice Chair and voted properly but 'forgot' to actually vote on the nomination of Vallee for Chair. It is likely the Council will need to re-do this at their December meeting. I don't believe it made a material difference to any of the proceedings.
FHS - grass to turf field
The School Building Committee represented by Chairman Tom Mercer provided some key updates at the meeting. Among them:
- the building has a punch listing of items being worked by the contractor in off school hours
- the new Panther Way connector should open on Monday (Nov 24)
- site and ball fields will be worked to a sub-grade condition before the deep frost hits
New FHS layout, green section in front left position along Oak St is where the practice fields would be that are now going to be a turf field that will be regulation sized and available for games |
The Committee has the authority to do so but due to the nature and discussion around the change wanted to bring it forward to gain some feedback before proceeding.
Note: If they really wanted to gain some public input on this item, they could have brought it out more fully. Clearly they had enough time to do so as representatives from the High School sports, Recreation dept and many of the major youth leagues were present at the meeting.
Tax rate set
The tax classification hearing was the shortest and briefest in my time reporting on Town Council meetings. The Council respectfully has an opportunity for preparing for the hearing and apparently prepared very well as there were very few questions. The opportunity to walk through the process to share how the calculation is made was 'lost'.Effectively, the rate increases 39 cents from $14.45 to $14.84. Of note, if the bond increases for the new high school had not been coming online, the tax rate would actually have decreased. One of the key bright spots among the wealth of data shared was that residential property values have increased. Commercial /Industrial valuations are still lagging behind.
My full set of notes from the meeting can be found here
- Live reporting: Closing
- Live reporting: Legislation for action
- Live reporting: Tax Classification Hearing
- Live reporting; Town Council - Nov 19, 2014
MassBudget: Understanding the Actual Cost of MassHealth to the State
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Blackstone River Theatre - Veterans issues event 11-20/Chanterelle Saturday!
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Franklin Library: LEGO Club - today at 4:00 PM
Lego Club today at the Franklin Library at 4:00 PM. This activity is good for children with ages from 3 - 12 years old.
This was re-shared from the Franklin Library page here
http://franklinpl.blogspot.com/2014/11/lego-club.html
LEGO Club |
This was re-shared from the Franklin Library page here
http://franklinpl.blogspot.com/2014/11/lego-club.html
In the News; commuter rail performance, change from grass to turf field
For those riding the Franklin commuter rail line:
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20141119/NEWS/141116006/1994/NEWS
From the Town Council meeting Wednesday, part of the discussion was with the School Building Committee getting a 'sense of the Council" in regards to a slight change in the FHS plans for fields. I say 'slight' and that is an interpretation of what I heard.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20141120/NEWS/141129667/1994/NEWS
The field had be slated for use as a practice field and due to the angle of planned grading could not be used as a 'game' field. By changing the field from grass to artificial turf, the field can be used year round, and will be regulation sized for competition.
Fifty new double decker coaches are in service, and 25 coaches are in the testing and inspection phase, according to the MBTA.Continue reading the full article in the Milford Daily News (subscription maybe required)
By early next year, all 75 new coaches, which were built by Hyundai Rotem, will be in service. State transportation officials have previously criticized Hyundai Rotem, accusing the company of falling behind schedule in delivering trains, which also required fixing once they reached Massachusetts.
Year-to-date, on-time performance on the commuter rail is at 89 percent, according to the presentation. July's on-time performance rate stood at 87 percent, August 90 percent, and September 92 percent, which dropped to 85 percent in October.
"There's a lot of room for improvement but at the same time . . . we are four months into this," MBTA general manager Beverly Scott told reporters.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20141119/NEWS/141116006/1994/NEWS
From the Town Council meeting Wednesday, part of the discussion was with the School Building Committee getting a 'sense of the Council" in regards to a slight change in the FHS plans for fields. I say 'slight' and that is an interpretation of what I heard.
The chairman of the committee, Tom Mercer, informed the town council of the decision on Wednesday and sought their approval to move ahead with the multi-use field in the form of an informal vote.Continue reading the full article in the Milford Daily News (subscription maybe required)
During a straw poll, each councilor voiced support of a turf field.
Mercer, himself a councilor, noted that the building committee did not require the council’s OK to build the field, but agreed “that it’s an important enough decision” to bring before the governing body.
Installation of the turf is to begin in the spring.
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20141120/NEWS/141129667/1994/NEWS
The field had be slated for use as a practice field and due to the angle of planned grading could not be used as a 'game' field. By changing the field from grass to artificial turf, the field can be used year round, and will be regulation sized for competition.
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