FRTC - Scholarship Award

Once again the Franklin Republican Town Committee has taken the lead in providing opportunity for Franklin students. The FRTC is pleased to announce that they have offered a $500 scholarship for their annual Scholarship contest. The winner of the scholarship will be announced at the FHS Awards Night. The applicants submitted 500 word essays specific to the following quote:

“The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” Patrick Henry

The quote is attributed to Patrick Henry, one of the most respected patriots in United States history. Mr. Henry is not only one of our most admired founding fathers but was also an influential champion of Republicanism.

In the News: ZBA approves apartments, high tech lab at high school

The Zoning Board of Appeals has approved a building permit for a sprawling apartment complex on West Central Street. 

The proposed development, Weston Woods, would include three apartment buildings — comprised of mostly one-bedroom units — and a clubhouse at 1330-1342 West Central St. Developer Acme Jazz LLC will offer 70 of the 280 apartments as affordable housing. 

The decision on the project came late last month, during an untelevised meeting.Acme Jazz has now filed its plans with Conservation Commission seeking to move forward with construction.

Continue reading the article
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150520/NEWS/150529715/1994/NEWS

Related posts on the proposed development
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/03/zoning-board-of-appeals-march-19-agenda.html
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/04/280-unit-apartment-building-at-1330.html

high tech labs

The science laboratories at Franklin High School rival those at any top research university — and students have a local biotech corporation to thank for that. 

Inside each lab, the microplate readers, digital dry baths and bacterial transformation kits, among other pieces of equipment, were donated to the newly-opened high school through a partnership with ZeptoMetrix Corporation, located at Kenwood Circle. 

The company visited the school Monday with local officials to recognize the district’s STEM program and shine a light on the town’s goal of attracting similar companies.

Continue reading the article
http://www.milforddailynews.com/article/20150519/NEWS/150516594/1994/NEWS

Updated: Franklin 2015 Memorial Day Paarade Route and Schedule

You may recall that the release of changes to the Memorial Day parade route and schedule earlier this month created several conversations. The Franklin Rotary Club have provided updated information to help clarify the changes and schedule. Thanks to Councilor Matt Kelly for providing the updates to share.

Memorial Cemetary Visits before the Parade

Memorial Day 2015 - Schedule

Parade Route:

The 2015 Memorial Day Parade route will begin at the Franklin Fire Station and proceed up Main St to Church St. The parade will no longer go down School St, Union St, or Beaver St. The parade will not stop at Union St or St Mary's Cemetery's (Ceremonies at both locations are scheduled to occur before the parade itself.)

Please see the update Parade Route.

Memorial Day 2015 - Parade Route

Parade Information:

Date: Monday, May 25, 2015

Muster: 10am -10:15am 
- Group leaders must check in at the Franklin Historical Museum "Hats Off to Franklin" statue

Parade: 10:45 am

Ceremony: 12noon at the Franklin Town Common


You can download and print this one page schedule and map




https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0wjbnXDBhczZzd0dWQycWtoejhTbWhpRDdTcm53aC12QTI0/view?usp=sharing


Information on the 2015 parade was posted here on May 6th
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/05/2015-memorial-day-parade-information.html

honor guard from 2014 Memorial Day Parade

Thanks to Councilor Matt Kelly and the Franklin Rotary Club for coordinating this event with the American LEgion, the VFW, Dean College, Franklin Police and numerous others.

Community Garden: Official Opening & Plant Sale - May 23rd & 24th

Hello Gardeners!

The 2015 growing season is well under way, and many of the plots in the garden are already taking shape so great work! Even if you're a little behind there is plenty of time to catch up, and if you need a little help...

Event: King St. Memorial Garden Official Opening & Plant Sale - Saturday/Sunday May 23rd & 24th - 9AM to Noon 

We will be celebrating the official opening of the gardening season on May 23rd and 24th in the community garden from 9am to Noon. We will have organic seedlings available for sale, and will have committee members on hand to answer any questions you may have. If you have any specific requests let us know and we'll see if we can get them there. Please join us!

Open Plots

We still have a few open plots, so if you know anyone that is interested please direct them to the recreation department. They can sign-up, pay, and be assigned a bed immediately.

Shed Keys

Over the years we've lost a large number of shed keys to gardeners who have left and not returned them.  One of the solutions we're considering is switching the lock to a combination lock, as this would be far less expensive them duplicating additional keys and easier to distribute changes to.  If you have any concerns please let us know, if we do make the switch I will be e-mailing out the combination to all current gardeners.

Where and When for Pests & Diseases

This winter was longer and stronger than anything I've experienced in New England and it has also shifted the arrival times of some of the pests I would have expected to see already. If you spot anything in the garden please let me know so I can inform you of organic ways to deal with the pests.

Watering

One of the advantages of the deep raised beds in the community garden is they help reduce the number of times a week you need to water your bed. Once your plants are established a single deep watering each week with about an inch of water should keep your bed in great shape. At the beginning, however, and especially when the weather is very hot young seedlings need to be looked after daily until their roots establish. If you have any specific watering questions let us know!

With the weather as hot and dry as it has been make sure when you water that it is saturating the layers underneath the first half inch. It is very easy this time of year to just wet the surface and then have most of it evaporate before penetrating to the layers below.

What's Landed in the Garden?

Toddler for Scale

With the help of the Franklin Charter School and gardeners we've kept the weeds in the garden under control for the most part, but we do still have a few trouble areas. I have some Solar Cones that I've used to warm up the soil in my own garden, but what I've found they're really great at is solarizing a section of the garden that I want to kill all the weeds in. I'm going to be placing the cones in some of the trouble spots and moving them around to hopefully clear them of weeds. As a fun experiment stick your hand down the top of one on a hot day just to see how much they concentrate heat! I'll be setting these up during the Opening this coming weekend.

As always if you have any questions let us know!

Sincerely,

Chris Clay & The Franklin Community Garden Committee

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http://franklincommunitygardens.com/

Visit us on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Franklin-Community-Gardens/152040424825578

Follow us on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/#!/FRKLNCommGarden

FHS tops KP in baseball and boys tennis, loses 1-0 in softball

It was Franklin vs. King Philip in spring sports on Monday. FHS baseball and boys tennis posted wins, while the softball team lost a tough 1-0 decision. Thanks to Hockomock Sports, we can share the results here.


Baseball
King Philip, 1 @ Franklin, 11 - Final 

- Franklin's offense came to life, putting up double-digit runs for the first time since mid-April. Nick Burgos went 2-2 with a pair of walks, three runs scored and an RBI, Nick Santucci went 2-4 with three RBI and a run scored, Ant Chaiton knocked in a run and scored twice, Kyle Skidmore went 1-2 with a pair of walks and two runs scored and Alex Bissanti went 1-3 with two runs scored. Zane Byrne picked up the win for the Panthers, tossing five innings with five strikeouts.

FHS Panthers

Softball
King Philip, 1 @ Franklin, 0 - Final 

- Kali Magane pitched a complete game shutout and knocked in the only run of the game to lift KP. Ashley Hession drew a one-out walk in the third and then had two-out single to score the run. Magane finished with seven strikeouts. Franklin stranded seven runners on base.

Boys Tennis
Franklin, 3 @ King Philip, 2 - Final 

- Franklin swept doubles play and picked up a win at second singles to get the win. Franklin's Kyle Pandiscio won 6-3, 6-1 at second doubles, the team of Sean Barker and James Johnston won 6-1, 6-0 at first doubles and Cam Piana and Jeremy Gan teamed up for a marathon 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win at second doubles. King Philip got wins from Michal Kozuchowski 6-3, 6-4 at first singles and Garrett Schneider 6-2, 6-2 at third singles.

Find the results for all the Hockomock League action on Monday 
http://www.hockomocksports.com/blog/hockomock-schedule-scoreboard-051815

Technology Gives, Technology Takes

For any one following Facebook updates, this is the season for college graduations and college visits for those high school juniors. High school seniors should have made their decision by now and are getting ready to graduate in a couple of weeks.

Where one goes to further their education is just one piece in the puzzle. What courses or line of study one choses helps to determine what they will be capable of doing.

NPR has published a set of four interactive graphs to show the changes in occupations over the past 150 years and in particular how those changes were due to machines.

For hundreds of years, people have been talking about machines taking jobs from people. Less often discussed: machines creating new jobs. 

In the first part of the 20th century, agricultural technology — the tractor, chemical fertilizers — meant a single farmer could suddenly grow much more food. So we didn't need as many farmers. Technology destroyed a huge number of farming jobs.

screen image of one of the interactive graphs

 Follow the link to read the full article and use the interactive graphs

Franklin Downtown Partnership forms Networking Committee, Schedules Luncheon

Dave Drucker of Dean College and Gary Donelan of Middlesex Savings Bank will be co-chairing the Downtown Partnership’s Networking Committee. The charge of this committee will revolve around networking opportunities along with speakers and presentations at Franklin Downtown Partnership meetings. 

networking name tag

Based upon feedback at previous meetings and the results of our recent survey, you have indicated that this would be beneficial for our members. We also know that there is wealth of knowledge and expertise among our members. 

We invite you to share your ideas on topics of interest and whether you would like to present on a specific area in an upcoming meeting. Speakers and topics will be selected with special emphasis given to member suggestions as our goal is to provide insight and tools to help your respective businesses grow. 

In addition, our next Networking Luncheon will be Friday, August 14th at 1:00 at Dean College's Smith Dining Center. This is a terrific opportunity to articulate the benefits of your business and engage in a lively dialogue with area business representatives. 

New committee members and ideas are always welcome, so if you are interested please feel free to contact either Dave, ddrucker@dean.edu, or Gary, GARY.DONELAN@middlesexbank.com.

The Committee looks forward to hearing from you in the near future regarding presentation topics and ideas.

This was shared from the Franklin Downtown Partnership page: http://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2015/05/networking-committee-created-luncheon.html#sthash.48IwFPqw.dpuf


Individuals can become members of the Downtown Partnership for only $25.
http://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2015/04/why-be-member-few-reasons.html