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 *
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified stakeholders in the Charles River watershed on Aug. 13 that the agency is evaluating whether to introduce a new permit regulating stormwater runoff from private parties into the watershed.
A letter from the EPA’s New England Region stated that the agency is considering whether “a new program is needed to control stormwater pollution from certain commercial, industrial and institutional sources in the Charles River watershed at sites that are not currently covered by any existing federal or state stormwater permit.”
With a new permit, the EPA would be operating under its “residual designation authority,” a provision under the Clean Water Act that allows the agency, under certain conditions, to require permits for stormwater discharges that are not otherwise regulated."
This year The Franklin Food Pantry is holding its 9th Annual Franklin Turkey Trot 5K as a virtual race. The turkey trot will still officially run on Thanksgiving morning, November 26th, but each runner can run or walk their own personal 5K when it is most convenient for them. Once runners have finished the race, they can post a picture on social media sharing that they completed their run and use the hashtag #turkeytrot2020. All proceeds from this event go directly to the Franklin Food Pantry to provide quality healthy food to hungry families in our local community. In 2019, the over 1000 entrants, donors and sponsors raised almost $21,000!
Funds received from sponsorships are used to purchase t-shirts for the first 100 registered race participants. Any additional money from sponsorships will go directly to support the Franklin Food Pantry. We are excited to offer different sponsorship levels to meet your needs. Please go to http://weblink.donorperfect.com/TurkeyTrotSponsorship2020 to sign up today. Please make checks out to Franklin Food Pantry.
The Franklin Cultural Council (FCC) has set a November 16th deadline for organizations, schools, and individuals to apply for grants that support cultural activities in the community. This funding encourages individuals, groups and not-for-profit organizations to bring to the community unique programming that centers around the arts, humanities, history or interpretive sciences for children, adults or intergenerational groups.
In 2019, the FCC gave out a record number of 38 grants. Previously funded projects include: programs/field trips for five of Franklin's schools (public and charter), Adaptive Dance for Adults with (dis) Abilities, LiveArts, Franklin Performing Arts Company Shakespeare on the Common, Southeastern MA Community Concert Band, and the Franklin Art Association, to name a few.
According to Kaye Kelly and Lillian Gould, FCC Co-chairs, these grants can support a variety of artistic projects and activities in Franklin or that benefit Franklin residents, including exhibits, festivals, field trips, short-term artist residencies or workshops, lectures, and performances in schools, the library, the senior center, or for the community at large.
While the focus of the proposals should remain similar to past years—community-oriented arts, humanities, and science programs—this year the FCC is encouraging new applicants to apply. All grant applications are due byMonday, November 16th. Proposals that are past the deadline will not be considered. Log on to https://www.mass-culture.org/Franklin for grant guidelines and to apply. The online application opens October 1.
The Franklin Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences and humanities every year. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.
October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month
The Franklin Police Department wants all survivors of domestic, and sexual violence to know that there are resources available to help. We made this short video to talk about it, and suggest the following links if you or someone you know needs assistance. New Hope, Inc. and the National Domestic Violence Hotline are valuable sources of information.
"The Town Clerks office is seeking election workers for the upcoming elections. If you are interested, please send an email to: smerullo@franklinma.gov
"THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Tuesday went all-in on its community-by-community approach to COVID-19, allowing lower-risk municipalities to move forward with reopening plans while putting cities and towns considered high risk on hold.
Since community-by-community COVID-19 data were broken out in August, the Baker administration has used the information to target testing and other resources where they are needed most. Now the governor is giving communities considered lower risk the green light to reopen businesses more quickly than communities considered high risk.
The shift in approach was accompanied by a change in nomenclature. The governor initially broke communities down based on their positive cases per 100,000 people over the previous two weeks. Those communities with more than 8 cases per 100,000 were considered high-risk, those with between 4 and 8 cases moderate risk, and those lower than 4 cases per 100,000 or fewer than 5 cases overall were considered low-risk. On a color-coded map, the four groupings were red for high risk, yellow for moderate risk, and green and gray for low risk.
On Tuesday, the governor and his top aides lumped all the yellow, green, and gray communities in the same low-risk category. "
"GOV. CHARLIE BAKER will allow more indoor performance and entertainment spaces to open on Monday, but only in communities deemed low-risk for transmission of COVID-19. His decision to continue with the state’s phased reopening comes as some epidemiologists are worried about signs of a potential new coronavirus spike.
Baker, at a State House press conference on Tuesday, said he believes the biggest risk comes from people gathering informally. With cooler weather coming, his goal is to allow people to gather indoors in as low-risk way as possible. “The unsupervised, the unorganized, the familiar being familiar is really where the greatest risk is,” Baker said. “If people are going to go inside, I’d much rather they go inside in an organized, supervised way with rules than in an unorganized, unsupervised ways with no rules.”
The new rules, which go into effect Monday, will let indoor performance venues open at 50 percent of capacity, with a maximum of 250 people, excluding performers. Large venues such as arenas, stadiums, and exhibition halls are not covered by the new rules; they will not be allowed to reopen until the final phase of the state’s reopening plan, which is predicated on having a vaccine or effective treatment for COVID-19.
Outdoor performance venues will be allowed to increase to 50 percent of capacity, also with a maximum of 250 people, up from 25 percent and 50 people now."
