In the News: HMMS goes to Future City

Middle-schoolers from Framingham, Natick and Franklin are among the New England regional finalists in the 22nd annual Future City Competition. 

Teams from The Learning Center for the Deaf-Walden School in Framingham, Natick Public School and the Horace Mann Middle School in Franklin are headed to the regional competition, scheduled for Jan. 24 at Northeastern University in Boston. 

The Future City Competition challenges kids to develop solutions to problems currently facing society. This year's challenge, titled Feeding Future Cities, had students exploring urban agriculture, from aeroponic systems for rooftop farms to recycled gray water to the farm-to-table movement. Led by an educator and adult volunteer, students designed a futuristic urban farm capable of growing enough of one vegetable crop and one protein crop to feed the citizens of their communities.

Continue reading the article at the Milford Daily News: http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20141231/NEWS/141239363/1994/NEWS#sthash.qUPID4qq.dpuf

screen grab of Future City webpage

For more about the Future City Competition, you can follow this link http://futurecity.org/

Happy New Year!

Good bye 2014!  

In the middle of Fiscal Year 2015, we get to turn the calendar to January 1 and the new year - 2015.

May the new year bring goodness to all!

happy new year!

PS - -> If you really need to find something to read today, feel free to spend time in the archives. You can scroll through the Meeting Notes (live reporting on meetings going back to 2008) or pick a day (any day back to November 2007) then turn back the clock to find out what was posted on that day.

MBTA: Commuter Rail Schedule for New Year's Day

Please be advised that on Thursday, January 1, 2015, all trains on all lines will operate on a Sunday schedule. Affected routes: Newburyport/Rockport Line Haverhill Line Lowell Line Fitchburg/South Acton Line Framingham/Worcester Line Needham Line Franklin Line Fairmount Line Providence/Stoughton Line Middleborough/Lakeville Line Kingston/Plymouth Line Greenbush Line New Year's Eve Schedule info Last updated: Dec 31 2014 08:58 AM Click here for more information: http://www.mbta.com/events/ Sent by the MBTA.

Franklin Annual Report 2014: Fire Department

Continuing our read through the Annual Report we turn to the Fire Dept.

The Department

The Franklin Fire Department is divided into two divisions: Operations and Maintenance, which is the largest and responsible for dispatch, emergency medical services, fire suppression and hazardous materials response. Administration and Support Services is responsible for personnel, budget and finance, training, code compliance and coordinating the Town's emergency preparedness.

Our Mission

The mission of the Franklin Fire Department is to:

• Have a positive impact in the lives of citizens and visitors of Franklin in their time of crisis by providing compassionate, contemporary, community driven services.
• Safeguard human life from the perils of fire, sudden illness, injury or other emergency medical condition, natural and man-made disasters as well as preserve the environment and property from ensuing destruction.
• Be responsible for a safe, productive and pleasant work environment for our employees, and provide them opportunities to gain new skills and advance their personal career goals.

Tower One - fully extended during the Harvest Festival 2014

Operational Objectives

• Initiating advanced life support to patients within 8 minutes of receiving the telephone call at our communications center.
• To access, extricate, treat and transport and transport trauma patients to a level one trauma medical facility within one hour of the occurrence of the injury.
• Interrupt the progression of fires in structures within 8 minutes of open flame ignition.
• To insure response readiness remains greater than 70%.
• Provide safety and survival skills for all school students in grade K through 5 consistent with the Student Awareness Fire Education (SAFE} initiative of the Commonwealth.
• Provide educational opportunities for department members to insure optimal performance and safety.
• To develop and maintain "best practice" to insure personnel and citizen safety.
• Insure fire safety through timely, consistent code compliance services to all external customers.
• Provide all department services in a manner that satisfies the needs of our customers.

Message from the Fire Chief

Similar to Fiscal Year 2103, Fiscal Year 2014 continued to be challenging for the members of the department to meet the high level of emergency services we strive to maintain for the citizens of Franklin . Unlike our report last year, Fiscal Year 2014 proved to have reason for hope, with the department receiving a Federal Staffing for Adequate Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant in the amount of $ 741,000. This grant allows the department to replace four firefighter - paramedics positions lost to budget constraints in Fiscal Year 2009 and will pay the salaries and benefits for these positions for the next two years. The last of the four personnel new completed the Academy in the end of May. The department also saw the return to work of two members on long term injury leave, which also aided in daily operations, leaving three employees on long term injury from 2013. These additions greatly improved day to day operations, substantially reducing the department's reliance on overtime.

As outlined in previous reports, in November of 2012, reduction in overall staffing levels forced the department to reduce minimum daily staffing to 9 personnel. The effect on service level has been negative, with a decrease in response time in the King Street District by 5%, increase in on-scene times by over 50% and an increase in overall time of incident, department-wide by 9%. While these conditions continue we are hopeful to increase minimum daily staffing back to 10 on-duty personnel in the beginning of Fiscal Year 15, with the return to duty or retirement of last 3 individuals on long term injury leave.

As indicated above, the department hired four new members to the department - 3 residents of the Town. We welcome William Blanchard, Jamie Murphy, Christopher Schmall and Joseph Padykula to the fire department. All have a varied range of experience in the fields of emergency medical and fire services and are a great addition to our organization. Additionally at the end of this year Robert Donovan stepped down as the Department's SAFE Officer. As SAFE Officer, Bob was responsible for providing and organizing public education for our department that focused on our school aged children and elderly populations. Bob lead this effort with distinction for years - we are grateful for his service and dedication in this position. This year the department responded to more than 3,400 emergency responses an overall increase of less than 1% from last year. This modest increase reflected no major increase in any call type category from Fiscal Year 2012.

In addition to emergency response, the department also continued to try to expand its fire prevention education activities, providing safety and survival education to the most vulnerable population to fire - our children and seniors. Through the dedicated efforts of SAFE Officer Robert Donovan, the department continued to educate over 100 children per month as well as attend various activities at the Senior Center. Lieutenant Tom Carlucci with Firefighter Keith Darling and Doug Perro provide dedicated assistance in completing this important service to our citizens.

Franklin Fire Dept

Our employees continue to be the chief reason for maintaining our current the level of success and level of services we provide our citizens. They continue to work tirelessly to protect life and property within Franklin. In addition to their on-duty responses, our employees commit countless hours in continuing education and training targeted to maintain and improved upon their emergency skills. Additionally, they continue to press forward in attempt to provide the highest level of service to the community based upon advancement in the fire-rescue field and advancements in technology. These efforts have yielded significant and broad insight into the requirements necessary to maintain and improve upon the services we provide to the citizens of Franklin.

Respectfully Submitted,
Gary B. McCarraher, Fire Chief


You can find out more about the Fire Dept on their informative town webpage
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_Fire/index

They publish their response performance statistics quarterly
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_Fire/Quarterly%20Performance%20Scorecard

Details on the two fire stations and the various types of equipment that the Fire Dept has available can be found here http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_Fire/stations

------

The section on the Fire Dept also included some charts and information that was not as easy to share as the text. You can find the Fire Dept section on page 115

The full annual report can be obtained from the Town Clerk's office (hard copy) or viewed and/or downloaded from the Franklin website here
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/annual/2014report.pdf

Annual reports of prior years can also be found online at
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_Clerk/annual/

“This is a deep league…every night is a game”

Josh Perry, Managing Editor at Hockomock Sports writes:

There was the possibility that Franklin would look at the scouting report and play with zero energy or maybe the Panthers would fall into the trap of looking ahead to Friday night’s showdown with two-time defending league champions North Attleboro. 

That was what New Bedford was hoping for, but instead Franklin dominated from the opening tip, gave up only six points in the first half, allowed the Whalers to make only five shots from the floor, and cruised to a 71-17 victory on Tuesday night in the new gym. 

“At halftime that was one of the things that the team talked about was let’s not play to anyone else’s level, let’s play our game and let’s focus on getting better,” said Franklin coach John Leighton. “I think our kids did a good job defensively…make them work for every shot.”

Franklin's Lexi Martin #22 - Hockomock Sports photo

Continue reading the article on Hockomock Sports here
http://www.hockomocksports.com/blog/panthers-defense-and-depth-highlighted-in-blowout

"you have to look at the positives"

Milford Daily News gets to write about the new tot lot at Fletcher Field.

"At every school in town there are playgrounds age appropriate for 5- to 12- year-olds, but there is only one in town - on Mason Street - that’s for 2- to 5-year-olds," he said. "This was a great addition for the town." 

A baseball theme was chosen for the tot lot, Jette said, because Fletcher Field is the "mecca of town baseball."

Continue reading the article in the Milford Daily News: http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20141231/NEWS/141239536/1994/NEWS#sthash.Vf1ORRsZ.dpuf

Fletcher Field tot lot

Addtional photos and video of the tot lot can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/12/fletcher-field-tot-lot-video.html

Blackstone Valley: January Things to Do

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Happy New Year! January Things to do  in the Blackstone River Valley  National Heritage Corridor For a complete, detailed listing of events, see the event calendar.  Coffee with Charlene Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Join Charlene Perkins Cutler for her monthly coffee hour.   4:00 PM to 5:00 PM This month's topic:  WATER POWERED! Location:  BirchTree Bread Company                   138 Green Street, Worcester, MA For more information, click here Grant writing workshop Wednesday, January 21, 2015 The Blackstone Heritage Corridor offers a variety of opportunities for funding assistance to our partners.  Join Executive Director Charlene Perkins Cutler as she provides guidance to developing successful grant applications. Time:        4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Location: Blackstone Heritage Corridor offices                  1 Depot Square, Woonsocket, RI 02895 For more information, click here Save the Dates! We are looking ahead to some great activities and opportunities.  Mark your calendars, and look for more information in upcoming newsletters. Late January (date TBD)  Celebration of the designation of                                            Blackstone River Valley                                            National Historical Park                                            with U.S. Senator Jack Reed February 17(Tuesday) -   Coffee with Charlene March 17     (Tuesday)  -  Coffee with Charlene  March 19     (Thursday) -  Blackstone Heritage Corridor                                             Annual Dinner  Find us Here! Are you planning to attend these events?  Look for us! March   7 (Saturday) - Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce                                        Home & Business Expo                                       Northbridge High School March 14 (Saturday) - Land & Water Conservation Summit                                       University of Rhode Island March 21 (Saturday) - Mass Land Conservation Conference                                       Worcester Technical High School  Partner Events in January January   1 - First Day Hike at                        Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park Visitors will enjoy a trek along the Lady Carrington Towpath. Hike highlights may include winter wildlife along the waterway, fields and forest while featuring the historic canal from farm to factory.   Meet at River Bend Farm Visitor Center, 287 Oak Street, Uxbridge, MA. For more information, go to the BRWA web page: http://www.thebrwa.org January 15 - You're the Expert at the EcoTarium (EcoTarium) You're the Expert is a live show, podcast, and new public radio program on WBUR that uses comedy to make academic research more accessible and exciting. Through games, sketches, and hilariously misguided guesses, a panel of hilarious comedians will try to get to the bottom of what a distinguished scientist does all day.  For more information, go to the EcoTarium web page: http://www.ecotarium.org/events-activities/youre-expert-ecotarium January 21 - BRWC/FOB Board Meeting Monthly Board meeting of the Blackstone River Watershed Council/Friends of the Blackstone. For more information, go to the BRWC/FOB web page: http://blackstoneriver.org/blackstone/?ai1ec_event=brwc-monthly-meeting&instance_id=3934 January 22 - BRWA Board Meeting Monthly Board meeting of the Blackstone River Watershed Association For more information, go to the BRWA web page: http://www.thebrwa.org/calendar.php January 24 - Superbowl of Birding Winter is a wonderful time to bird in northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire. In celebration of this season, the Joppa Flats is hosting the Superbowl of Birding XII (Snow date: Sunday, January 25). For more information, go to the Mass Audubon web page: http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/joppa-flats/news-events/superbowl-of-birding January 25 - Wingmasters Presents:  North American Birds of Prey Come see live birds of prey up close on Sunday, January 25 in this indoor presentation that will introduce you to different types of raptors including eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls. For more information, go to the Mass Audubon web page: http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/ipswich-river/news-events/wingmasters-presents-north-american-birds-of-prey January 25 - BRWA Annual Winter Hike Join the BRWA for their annual winter hike at Hassanamesit Woods, a property of the Grafton Land Trust. This 200-acre parcel has a history tied to the Nipmuc Indians, and archaeological studies are underway to uncover and preserve the land's rich cultural heritage. The ecology of the area is characterized by both upland and wetland areas, supporting a rich diversity of plants and animals. The land here drains to the nearby Quinsigamond River, shortly before emptying into the Blackstone River. Meet at the gated end of Salisbury Street, which is located off of Keith Hill Rd in Grafton, MA near Rt 122. For more information, go to the BRWA web page: http://www.thebrwa.org    Your event could be featured here! Include a description of the event, the event date/time, and other information shown on our event listing form.   Would you like to include a picture?  Be sure to send it along with the form! Call for Event Listings! Is your organization hosting fun, informative, adventurous, or educational activities?  We would love to help you get the word out! Click below for a copy of our submission form We will try to include all events and activities.  Simply start by providing some basic information about your event, and we will take it from there! The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is a unique cultural landscape of industrial history and immigration in the interconnected system of the Blackstone River watershed. An energetic nonprofit, the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, Inc. partners with organizations, local communities and businesses, and residents to insure the long term vitality of the Corridor. Water Powered!

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