"Heroin in the Heartland" (video)

Rep Jeff Roy sent this out to the S.A.F.E. Coalition mailing list:

"Sunday night 60 Minutes ran a compelling story on Heroin in the Heartland. The stories from Ohio were so familiar to what we are experiencing here. With that in mind, I thought I would pass it along and urge you to watch it. Simply click on the image below to view the story. 

It's only 15 minutes long, and is well worth the look. In the meantime, please continue to spread the word about S.A.F.E., encourage your friends to sign up for this newsletter by clicking here, and please do not hesitate to reach out if you or someone you know is in need. We'll do our best to get you on the right path."

View More: Health & Science News|60 Minutes News|Live News|More News Videos

SAFE Coalition

Franklin Art Association: Fall Art Show - Nov 7 and Nov 8

The Franklin Art Association is proud to present their Fall Art Show at the 

Fall Art Show - Nov 7 and Nov 8

Tri- County High School 
147 Pond Street, 
Franklin 

Saturday, Nov. 7th from 12:00 - 8:00 pm 
Sunday, Nov. 8th from 12:00 - 3:00 pm 


Exhibit and sale of fine art paintings and photography 
small works table, greeting cards, prints, 
small paintings and photography 



Scholarship Raffle

Complementary food and beverage 

Free admission and parking 

Opened to the public 


Franklin Art Association since 1971
for further information
www.franklinart.org and www.facebook.com/FranklinArtAssoc

Election Collection - Nov 3, 2015

This is the one place where all the relevant posts for the Franklin Election on Nov 3, 2015 will be collected.

Election Day - Nov 3, 6:00 AM - 8:00 PM at Franklin High School

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Note - The most recent items will be found on top and those before will be below so you will be able to find things in a chronological order.

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Franklin Town Common

Election Results -2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-election-results-nov-3-2015.html


Contested Election results with per cents
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/election-results-contested-races.html




Voter Quick Reference Card
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-voter-quick-reference-card-for.html

Voter Turn out from 2003 - 2014
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-voters-turn-out-for-money-will.html

Editorial on "dirty trick ad"
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/editorial-dirty-politics-in-franklin-is.html


Sample Ballot for Nov 3
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-voters-sample-ballot-for-nov-3.html

Candidate Interviews

School Committee - John Jewell
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-candidate-for-school-committee_2.html

School Committee - Trevor Clement
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-candidate-for-school-committee.html


School Committee - Denise Schultz
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-candidate-for-school-committee_1.html


Board of Health - Gail Chirdon
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/11/franklin-candidate-for-board-of-health.html


School Committee - Anne Bergen
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-school-committee_31.html

Town Council - Robert Dellorco
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_58.html

Town Council - Sean Slater
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_30.html

Town Council - Matt Kelly
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_29.html

Town Council - Jim Gianotti
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council-jim_29.html

School Committee - Kevin O'Malley
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-school-committee_27.html

Town Clerk - Paul Cheli
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-clerk-paul.html

Town Clerk - Diane Padula-O'Neill

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-clerk-diane.html

Town Council - Andrew Bissanti

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_22.html

Town Council - Debbie Pellegri
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_21.html

Town Council - Jim Schultz

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council-jim.html

Town Council - Brett Feldman
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_18.html

Town Council - Rick Power
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council.html

Town Council - Glenn Jones

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-council_16.html

Board of Health - Tara Gurge
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-board-of-health.html

Town Clerk - Beth Simon
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-town-clerk-beth.html

School Committee - Vanessa Bilello
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/franklin-candidate-for-school-committee.html

Milford Daily News candidate profiles

Scofield, Padula, Bergen
Schultz, Padula-O'Neill, Jewell
Vallee, Kelly, Cheli
Douglas (School Committee), Powers (Town Council), Ranieri (Board of Health)
Burr, Simon for Town Clerk
Deborah Pellegri for Town Council
Andrew Bissanti for Town Council
Jones for Town Council
Mercer for Town Council
Sean Slater for Town Council
Pfeffer, Clement, O'Malley
Bob Dellorco for Town Council
Vanessa Bilello for School Committee
Brett Feldman for Town Council

Town Clerk, Board of Health Candidates

Candidates Night - Oct 6 (Audio files available)
The audio files from the Candidates Night were split into sections for easier listening.

• Board of Health (approx 15 minutes)

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/candidates-night-board-of-health-audio.html

• Town Clerk (approx 20 minutes)

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/candidates-night-town-clerk-audio.html

• School Committee (approx 40 minutes)

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/candidates-night-school-committee-audio.html

• Town Council (approx 70 minutes)

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/candidates-night-town-council-audio.html


Announcement of meeting
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/theres-no-debate-questions-will-be.html

Candidate Meet and Greet

Sunday October 18 at 11:00 A.M. on the Town Common 

Tuesday October 20 at 10:00 A.M. at the Nason Street playground 

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/10/candidate-meet-and-greets-sunday-oct-18.html

Offer to candidates
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/offer-to-candidates-for-franklin.html

Political sign bylaw
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/09/political-signs-bylaw-restriction.html



Who are the candidates? (This listing will be updated about 2 times a week until the ballot is finalized.)

As of Sep 17, 2015 
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/09/current-listing-of-candidates-for.html

As of Sep 14, 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/09/updated-candidates-for-franklin.html

As of Sep 9, 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/09/update-candidates-for-franklin-election.html

As of Aug 31, 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/09/updated-who-are-candidates-for-nov-3.html

As of Aug 21, 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/who-are-candidates-for-nov-3.html

As of Aug 18 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/preliminary-listing-of-candidates-for_19.html

As of Aug 14, 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/preliminary-listing-of-candidates-for.html

As of Aug 11, 2015
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/franklin-election-who-are-candidates_11.html


What does the calendar for the run up to Nov 3 look like?
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/07/calendar-for-biennial-town-election.html

Franklin Voter Quick Reference Card for Nov 3rd

There are contested races for Town Council, School Committee, Board of Health, and Town Clerk. There are a lot of candidates to find out about to make a good decision on who to vote for on Tuesday.

There is also one ballot question

One Ballot Question

Do you approve of not imposing the excise tax established by G.L. Chapter 59, Section 8A on any person engaged principally in agriculture who owns farm machinery and equipment or farm animals?

The "not" is the key word here. Franklin has been neglecting to collect this excise tax for years.

Now that there are three operating farms (Akin-Bak, Hoffman Farms, and Grateful Farms), the State caught this error in the Board of Assessors process

• Vote “Yes – to approve of NOT collect this excise tax and help the local farmers
• Vote “No” – to collect the tax and the town is reported to need to spend more money collecting the tax than the revenue the actual tax would provide

The election collection has all the interviews published here on Franklin Matters (21). It has all the profiles published by the MIlford Daily News (25).

Download the quick reference sheet to make your notes:




Download a sample of the ballot to see all the positions being voted on (and not just the contested elections):

Franklin Town Common

The Election Collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/election-collection-nov-3-2015.html

Franklin voters turn out for the money, will they turn out on Tuesday?

When the Presidential elections roll around, and all the political campaign ads fill the spaces on TV and radio, Franklin voters turn out big time (80+ %).

When there is a MA State election, campaign dollars also drive the voters to the polls (60+ %) to elect our Governor and other state positions.

When there is an override election, or debt override to build a school, this affects the Franklin pocketbook and voters turn out (40+ %). Franklin voters will generally build a school and only once in at least 7 tries have they ever passed an operational override (2007). 

When there is a vote for the Town Council, School Committee, Town Clerk, and all the other important positions that run the community, only some Franklin voters come out to the polls (12-22%).

Maybe this time, with contested elections for Town Council, School Committee, Town Clerk and Board of Health, Franklin voters will show appropriate interest.

Will you be voting on Tuesday?

Franklin Voter Turnout from 2003 - 2014 compiled from Town Clerk records

The collection of all the information to prepare for the Nov 3rd election can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/election-collection-nov-3-2015.html

Franklin candidate for School Committee - John Jewell

John Jewell and I met recently at Panera to talk about his campaign for School Committee. This is the summary of our discussion.

FM - What is your Franklin story?

Jewell – My grandkids are keeping me busy. One of the things that makes me different is that I am involved with my 10 grandkids and they’re in schools all around, I get to see the good and the bad of the various school systems. I am not like most of the people who were born, raised, and never left Franklin. I can bring the best that I have observed tp Franklin. 

I retired from the Army in 1993 as a full Colonel. I am a PhD. organic chemist, a toxicologist by the Army training, and now I am an immunochemist because that is what is needed in New England. I ran the drug detection program for the Army and assisted President Reagan in implementing the civilian drug testing program. What I didn’t want to be was a commodity person and take another drug lab and run it. 

I found this company up here in New England that had a new instrument for doing medical lab testing and my people in the military lab at Walter Reed told me, this could be the best thing on the market if you could get this thing to continuously run. That was the kind of challenge I was looking for as I wanted to improve health care in America. So that is what brought me to New England. 

When it came to finding a place to live, Franklin was the community that I could afford, had a good school system (so my property values would not go down) and I would get more house for the value than most of the other communities. 

I negotiated the last teacher’s contract. I think that is important to have that carryover. It was a win-win contract for both the teachers and the town. We have to meet the teacher’s issues and most of their issues were not financial. It was a fair contract on all sides. 

To become part of the Franklin community I joined the 225th Anniversary Committee, which Debbie Pellegri headed and so I got involved with the history of the town. From there I just became involved in the Town activities. I was a co-chair. I ran for the School Committee and I won. This will be my third term, if elected.

FM - What do you see as a challenge for the position of School Committee?

Jewell – The challenges of the job will be to get into the nitty gritty of it. When they present to us as to what is going on, it is always good, it is a showcase. I need to know a little more behind the presentation. What are the problems? What are we doing about them? 

We need to have places where the parents can come in and talk with the teachers. We need to set the expectations of the parents as to what can be done at , how it is done at home to help. It is not as simple as some parents think it is to assist the teachers educate their children. Children today have to learn to reason at a very early age and not just memorize. 

Common core is causing the kids teach kids. I observed a teacher putting a math problem on the board and then the small groups of kids began working it out. That is a fantastic way to teach. If you want to argue about Federal Government interfering with local schools, that is a two edged sword. You can’t tell me that kids going to school in Western MA are going get the same education as those in Eastern MA. The Federal needs to stay out and the State needs to come in and say there is a minimum you need to do. With either standardized testing or with standardized teacher evaluations, you need to bring up all the schools. 

The schools are part of the town but the schools seem to be part of the town only for those who have kids in school.. I am disappointed that the schools don’t march in the 4th of July parade. Sure some folks will be away but those who are around should have an opportunity to march.

FM - What do you bring to the position that would set you apart from the other candidates?

Jewell – I have been in most of the large city's on the east coast. I have had my kids in other school systems and in international schools. And now my grandkids have been in different school systems. I have seen different ways of teaching. I also taught at West Point (USMA). I pretty much know what it takes to educate a student to be successful. 

I also believe in being a player in new systems. So when it came to vote for PARCC, I thought that if PARCC testing is the way to go, let’s try it. Let’s not sit back and then let someone else tell us what we’re going to get. People who are fighting this evaluation are fighting it for some reason, fear, or is it taking money from someone else, I haven’t been able to follow the money trail yet. I haven’t seen anyone really say the testing technology itself is wrong. The objections to PARCC seems to be political.

We’re spending less money and getting a better education in the Franklin School System, so I keep asking Maureen (Superintendent Sabolinkski) what are we doing that’s right? Maybe it’s the time we’re spending on training. Whatever it is, let’s start sharing what we’re doing with the other districts. 

I have this experience of multiple states, some of my grandkids are in RI, some in Georgia, some in good schools, some in not so good schools. I see folks come into my company that can’t write well. I also see where we are not fully utilizing our Franklin summer program. We should double the size of kids attending. We are growing but we are not reaching all we can with continuing education. The program lets the kids and parents do something they don’t get a chance to do. 

The Worcester sheriff talked to our Republic Committee the other night. He gets his inmates out working. He is amazed at the number of them who have been in gangs, etc. and are feeling good about doing something productive. Here they are in jail and this is the first time that they have a job, they want to get up in the morning, and are feeling good with accomplishing something. We need political leaders that create jobs and we need to train our students for those jobs. They cannot be governmental created jobs that are gone with the next administration. 

The difference between public schools and charter schools (and I am a supporter of charter schools) is that the charter schools don't have any problem children. That is a big difference, but we need to equip ourselves to do whatever it takes to educate all the children with a total child education.

If you have any follow up questions for John, you can contact him via email at jewelljohn@msn.com



Noteworthy: This information is intended to help the Franklin voters when we all head to the ballot box on November 3rd. The interview candidates have had an opportunity to review the text before publishing to ensure the accuracy of our discussion. 


The collection of all the information to prepare for the Nov 3rd election can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/election-collection-nov-3-2015.html

Editorial: Dirty politics in Franklin? Is it possible?

With the appearance of the ad with no attribution in the Franklin Town News, this election could get really interesting. Dirty politics in a town election? In Franklin? Is it possible?

photo of the full page ad with typo on top

What do we know?

1. The photos were taken from the Town Council page on the official Town of Franklin website. 
2. Town Council Chair Robert Vallee has been touting his leadership of the Council and its accomplishments taking time to read from the listing during a Town Council meeting and at the Candidates Night. The text could have been rewritten from the broadcast.
3. The ad was submitted by the middle of October. I know as I had contributed to the paper when it first started and the cut off for the printing of the paper and set up for mailing to the individual Franklin households was usually the middle of the month.

Who would gain from such an ad?

Let’s attempt to “follow the money” and see. Maybe we’ll find out who paid for the ad. That can take time, so it is not likely to be resolved before the polls open on Tuesday.

What do you do in the meantime?

You, the Franklin voters have enough information to make your decisions based upon what has been shared about the individual candidates here and by the Milford Daily News.

With my three questions, I wanted to provide some depth to the candidate. Many of the issues are not easy yes/no answers. The issues are usually more nuanced. Hence I think we should know more about where the candidates are coming from rather than their answer on a specific issue. The answer on the issue today is not an indicator of their answer on a different issue tomorrow. Knowing more about the candidate as a person, their life here in Franklin, etc. I believe is important.

For example, that a Board of Health candidate actually has either a public health certification or nursing degree should provide some insights over someone who does not have that background.

That some candidates tout their openness and yet say definitively they’ll do something tells me that are not really that ‘open’ minded as they claim to be.
So in preparation for Tuesday, review the interviews that have been shared. 

Make up your mind, and get out to vote. All voters (no matter what precinct you are in) are served by the one location at Franklin High School.

You get to cast seven votes for the School Committee and nine votes for the Town Council. You have a small choice for School Committee (one is left standing in this round of musical chairs). You have a bigger choice for the Town Council where 5 are left standing.

I have heard many claim that they will only vote for 3 or 4 but given the information that has been shared you should be able to vote for a full slate for both the School Committee and Town Council. Doing anything less than casting your full set of votes will allow someone else to get in that you may come to regret.


Stephen Sherlock

Community Information Director (volunteer) for FranklinMAtters.org/ 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensherlock

The Election Collection can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/08/election-collection-nov-3-2015.html


You can also view the one page ad in the PDF online at Franklin Town News (page 34)
http://www.localtownpages.com/sites/default/files/newspaperpdf/2015_11_franklin.pdf

The link is broken, the Archives only cover the past 17 issues. not nearly enough to go back to 2015

https://www.franklintownnews.com/archives  (updated 10/05/21)