Franklin Community Garden: Maintenance Day - June 28

MAINTENANCE DAY! Sunday, June 28 from 9-12

The plan is to: Paint the shed (thinking the same color that the wood guardrail at King Street is painted), paint the picnic benches with clear polyurethane, grass will need to be mowed again, and Bed 53 will need to be filled with soil.

That will be it for Maintenance Day/Build Days until the fall! So, please turn up!

REMINDERS:

1. Please drain hoses when done watering your garden bed. When draining, fill the water can that is at that spigot. This way the water is not wasted.
2. Throw away all veggie id tags in the garbage and not on the ground.
3. Please help in filling bed 53 with soil.
4. Please help in spreading the soil next to bed 52 where the demo bed was.
5. If anyone hasn't planted in their bed and have decided not to use the bed this year, kindly contact the Rec Department.

my garden bed is growing nicely this year

In the News: “This report lays out in heartbreaking detail the terrible failures that unfolded"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"The leadership of a home for aging veterans in Massachusetts where nearly 80 residents sickened with the coronavirus have died made “substantial errors and failures” as the disease began to spread, likely contributing to the high death toll, according to an independent investigation released Wednesday.

The superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home was not qualified to manage a long-term care facility and he and his leadership team made decisions that were “utterly baffling from an infection-control perspective,” the report said. Among them was a decision to move veterans from one dementia unit into another, both of which housed veterans who already had the virus.

“Rather than isolating those with the disease from those who were asymptomatic — a basic tenet of infection control — the consolidation of these two units resulted in more than 40 veterans crowded into a space designed to hold 25. This overcrowding was the opposite of infection control; instead, it put those who were asymptomatic at even greater risk of contracting COVID-19,” the report said."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200624/report-leadership-failed-to-control-outbreak-at-vets-home

Press release on report  = https://www.mass.gov/news/independent-investigation-examining-the-tragedy-at-the-holyoke-soldiers-home-released

Report itself = https://www.mass.gov/doc/report-to-governor-baker-re-holyoke-soldiers-home/download

Video update = https://youtu.be/zYcmyapiQjU

Franklin's own Carly Alston participates in this video

"Members of the New England Revolution's Special Olympics Unified Team congratulate veteran defender and longtime SOMA partner Andrew Farrell on signing a new contract with the Revs."

Franklin's own Carly Alston participates in this video

MBTA: Commuter Rail notice for schedule on July 3

On Friday, July 3rd the Commuter Rail will run on a regular Saturday schedule in observance of the July 4th Independence Day holiday.

For more information please visit https://www.mbta.com/holidays.

Last Updated: Jun 24 2020 05:01 PM

Franklin's Forge Park Station platform

Franklin Downtown Partnership: Update Your Business Info

The Franklin Downtown Partnership (FDP) is publicizing changes to Franklin business during the pandemic. 

If you have an update your business would like to share with the community, please complete this online form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiqm09_ToizP-tpx80CUZ2pJWrl2LaTzm8IRZzzWroquyKfg/viewform). 

If you have already completed the form once, remember to update the submission as needed.

View the updates on the FDP website!

Find other updates from the Downtown Partnership in their newsletter
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/FDP-Newsletter--What-s-Happening-Late-June-2020.html?soid=1120641810412&aid=56B_KrP-bpA

https://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/

In the News: "Union says 2,000 educators received layoff notices at the end of this school year"

From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:

"In 47 school districts where staff are represented by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, layoff and non-renewal notices were sent recently to more than 2,000 teachers and education support professionals, the union announced Tuesday.

The list of 2,030 notices only includes districts where local union officials reported that 10 or more educators received notices that haven’t been rescinded. The union said some notices are issued annually due to enrollment and program changes, but there’s a “spike” this year due to government funding issues.

State officials, in the face of historic revenue declines associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, are continuing fiscal 2020 local aid levels through July and August but have not made decisions about full fiscal 2021 local aid levels, which supplement property taxes to form the basis of K-12 education budgets."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200624/union-says-2000-educators-received-layoff-notices-at-end-of-this-school-year

While Franklin did give notices to over 100, approx 54 have not yet been returned to work status. The School Committee just voted on Tuesday to approve the budget acknowledging 19.5 cuts so the situation is still fluid.

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/06/school-committee-relutantly-approves.html

In the News: "Union says 2,000 educators received layoff notices at the end of this school year"

"Yes, kids should be going back to school in the fall"

When Dr Erin Bromage says that he had wished he had written an article like this, it is share worthy. The one aspect author Joseph G. Allen doesn't cover in this opinion piece is the impact/risk for the school personnel (teachers, administrators, etc.) who are more at risk than the children.

"I’ve spent more than 10 years as a forensic investigator of “sick buildings.” The stakes were often extraordinarily high: a hospital where four people had died and hundreds were at risk; a factory where workers were at risk of getting an irreversible respiratory disease called “Popcorn Lung”; a military base where housing was suspected in the deaths of 11 infants.

In all of these investigations, I was asked, “Is it safe to go back in the building?” If, after the appropriate controls were in place, my answer was “yes,” I always paused for one final gut-check question: Would my answer be any different if my family was involved?

When people ask me whether schools are safe during the coronavirus pandemic, I ask the same question: Would I let my kids go back to school in the fall? The answer is yes.

Let’s first acknowledge a hard truth: Widespread school closures come with devastating costs."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/24/yes-kids-should-be-going-back-school-fall/

Dr Bromage's tweet: https://twitter.com/ErinBromage/status/1275953245555433472?s=09

An empty playground outside the Achievement First charter school in Providence, R.I., on March 7. (David Goldman/AP)