Franklin TV & Radio Programming Guide: 2012

Monday, December 24, 2012

Elf on the shelf

Some Facebook updates over the past couple of weeks talked about moving or forgetting to move the 'elf on the shelf'. This is a vehicle for some families to help reinforce good behavior in advance of Christmas. It helps to set expectations. Do something wrong, the elf will know. Do something right, the elf will know.

Some may quibble about the silliness of the elf, while others are living by it. Either way, setting expectations and consequences for behavior is good. Whether it is the elf or some higher power watching over us, there is a sense of right and wrong that I believe is inherent in humanity.

Christmas is one of many opportunities during the year to pause and reflect on what has happened, good and bad. There are consequences for both. Some of the consequences are immediate, some will play out over time.

In this holiday season, this time of darkness, find a light, even if it is a glimmer of light. I do believe that there is a light and that light will bring hope and love. Hope that neighbors will help neighbors. That the neighbors will become a community, and live in a community of love and respect for one another.

This will be the last weekly summary for 2012.

Except for December, I have summarized the major event of each month as we progressed though the "12 Days of Donating." If you missed those updates you can find them here: http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/12/12-days-of-donating-day-12.html

May you and your family have a great holiday season, and may the New Year bring goodness to Franklin!

12/23

Markham Nolan: How to separate fact and fiction online
What is ALiCE?

12/22

12/21

12/20

12/19

12/18

12/17

Monday, December 17, 2012

Roller coaster ride

The rising high from the successful 12 Days of Donating, the performance of "A Christmas Carol" on Thursday was brought back to earth suddenly on Friday with the school shooting in CT.

Flag at half mast on the Franklin Town Common

The School Department has been busy coordinating with the Police and Fire Departments over this weekend. They provided a couple of timely updates. Chief Semerjian published his comments on Saturday. There was a joint release by Town Administrator Jeff Nutting, Police Chief Stephen Semerjian, Fire Chief Gary McCarraher and School Superintendent Maureen Sabolinski on the preparations for the normal opening of schools on Monday.

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/12/joint-statement-on-franklin-schools.html

Looking ahead to the meetings of this week, the Planning Board continues their discussion on the proposed Stop & Shop gas station among the many items on their agenda. The Town Council recognizes former Rep Jim Vallee with a Citizenship Award. There is a public hearing on the proposed revamping of the site plan review procedures as well as approval of the purchase agreement for the solar energy 'farm' being established at Mount St Mary's among the items on the agenda for the meeting. You can attend in person or view via local cable or web broadcast.

We will survive the roller coaster ride. The spirit of caring and giving in Franklin is alive and well.

12/16

12/15

12/14

12/13

12/12

12/11

12/10

Monday, December 10, 2012

Slowing to the end of the year

The School Committee meeting has a light schedule for its agenda on Tuesday. The Town Council meets again on the 19th. The Planning Board meeting on the 17th may get some attention with the Stop and Shop gas station (among other items) on the agenda.

simple sign of the holiday season along Forest St in Franklin

The Franklin Food Elves will be closing out the 12 Days of Donating this week. The performance of A Christmas Carol to benefit the Food Pantry will be held on Thursday Dec 13. Arranged by the Historical Commission and hosted at the Franklin United Methodist Church, this should be a fun evening.

Folks will be taking time off from work to spend with family around the holidays. For those traveling, please be safe.

As I complete this weekly wrap up, let me remind you that

If you like what I am doing here, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don’t like something, please tell me

You can sign up for the daily dose, the weekly summary or find us on Facebook. All the links to enable that are in one place: http://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html

Dec 9

Dec 8

Dec 7

Dec 6

Dec 5

Dec 4

Dec 3

Monday, December 3, 2012

Next up: Remington-Jefferson school tour, Dec 6 - 6;00 PM

Coming off the Thanksgiving Holiday, one of our family traditions has been listening to Alice's Restaurant. This tradition started many years ago, before we moved to Franklin. My wife and I are native Rhode Islanders and would return for the holidays from our NJ home. The song was one of a standard set to play on the road.

Towards the end of the song, Arlo talks about the movement. How if one person did something, they would think he is crazy. If two people did something, they would think they are gay. How if three people did something, they would be an organization. How if 50 people did something, they would be a movement.

Getting from 3 to 50 to get a movement going is a challenge. You need to catch their attention and give them a reason to act. You are already reading this, so I have your attention. Thank you! The School District has scheduled a series of tours, one school (or school complex) a month for this school year. Members of the School Committee, Central Office and the principal of the school give of their time this Thursday night beginning at 6:00 PM to welcome Franklin residents for a walk through the Remington-Jefferson schools.

Horace Mann Middle School entrance

If you have children in school, you should participate. Even if you don't have children in school, you should participate. This is a great time to see what is happening in school. To ask questions in an informal setting as the tour goes room to room, around the school. From the front entrance to the boiler room, to the gym, to the cafeteria. You get to see the inside of the school that you wouldn't otherwise see!

Join us Thursday night at the Remington Jefferson Schools, 6:00 PM!

Dec 2

Dec 1

Nov 30

Nov 29

Nov 28

Nov 27

Nov 26

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Time to set the tax rate

We come out of the Thanksgiving holiday into a busy week. The School Committee meets on Tuesday. The tax rate hearing is scheduled for the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Nov 28th. The annual Holiday Stroll takes place on Thursday, Nov 29th beginning at 4:00 PM.

School Committee Meeting
Scheduled on the agenda is recognition for the Girls Soccer Team for their recent State Championship. A presentation on the latest MCAS data, a change in the current school year calendar (the addition of two reduced schedule days for both elementary and secondary students), and a discussion on the proposed Capital Plan for the facilities and technology needs of the School District.

The full agenda for the School Committee meeting including links to several of the key agenda items can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/franklin-ma-school-committee-agenda-nov.html

Town Council Meeting
The tax rate hearing is procedural and based upon math. If the overall Franklin property valuation goes down, the tax rate will go up. It is that simple! Given the recent economic conditions, to see the overall residential property values decline 2% and to see Commercial/Industrial values decline a half percent (.5%), then the tax rate will go up. It is simple math. Even if the automatic 2.5% increase in tax was not included, the tax levy divided into a smaller tax base will raise the rate. Franklin has seen rate increases since the rate bottomed out in 2007. I expect that we'll continue to see something of a rate increase for the foreseeable future.

I have updated my analysis and explanation of the tax rate information and that is summarized here:

Franklin FY2013 TaxRateInfo

The full Town Council agenda will be posted on Monday
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/franklin-ma-town-council-agenda-nov-28.html

Holiday Stroll
Sponsored by the Franklin Downtown Partnership, start at Dean College for the tree lighting and then visit the other businesses downtown to check out their happenings. A full listing of events is available on the Downtown Partnership page here
http://www.franklindowntownpartnership.org/2012/11/more-holiday-stroll-happenings.html

11/25

11/24

11/23

11/22

11/21

11/20

11/19

Monday, November 19, 2012

Good news on the high school front!

It is already Thursday for those in school this week. Thursday? Yes, there are only two days of school, so it is like this is Thursday and Tuesday will be Friday before the long weekend!

Last week was going to be about the high school and it was in a couple of ways. We did get the update on the budget and construction schedule for the high school building project underway. We also heard about the girls soccer team as they won on Tuesday to advance to the State Championship on Friday which they also won! Nice job ladies. It takes great team work to win a championship and to go undefeated as well! Kudos all around!

High school building update:
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/live-reporting-high-school-update.html
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/live-reporting-question-and-answer.html

Girls soccer championship game video highlights:
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/fhs-girls-soccer-championship-game.html

What is up this week? No School Committee or Town Council meeting. The Town Council closes out November with their annual tax rate hearing on Nov 28. I would guess the tax rate will go up again but by less than it did last year given the overall state of the economy and housing values. When residential housing values increase the rate goes down, when values go down the rate goes up. Just be cause the rate goes up does not mean Franklin can collect more money (aside the the automatic less than 2.5%), the tax levy is just spread over a lesser valuation which increases the rate.

I have written about this for each of the past several years. You can revisit the 2012 and 2011 rate hearing info here:
FY 2012 = http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/11/fm-101-tax-rate-info.html
FY 2011 = http://www.franklinmatters.org/2010/12/fm-79-slidecast-tax-hearing-info-for-fy.html

Thanksgiving rolls around on Thursday. Let's pause to give thanks for all we have. I plan on getting my morning run in early and for a good cause. Feed The Need has organized a Turkey Trot 5K Family Fun Run Walk to start at 8:00 AM from the LDS Church, 91 Jordan Road. Registration can be done online or beginning at 7:00 AM Thursday morning. More information on the 5K can be found on the website here
http://www.franklinfoodpantry.org/2012/11/turkey-trot-family-5k-fun-run-nov-22.html

This 5K will benefit the Franklin Food Pantry! We appreciate their efforts to help. I am thankful that Franklin is a caring and helpful community!

This writing is my public service effort for Franklin. I can use your help. How can you help, you ask?

If you have an interest in covering the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and or the Zoning Board of Appeals meetings in Franklin, please let me know.

And as always

If you like this, please tell your friends and neighbors
If you don't like this, please tell me

Without this feedback loop, I can not improve this service.

Nov 18

Nov 17

Franklin High School Girls Soccer: 2012 State Champions!

New dorm scheduled to open in December

Nov 16

Nov 15

Nov 14

Nov 13

Nov 12

Monday, November 12, 2012

Next up: high school project status

Franklin voted on Tuesday, Nov 6th at the high school field house. 17,500 voters came out to cast their ballots an impressive turnout! While the parking lot may have been hectic, there were minimal to no lines inside as things moved smoothly. Debbie Pellegri, the Town Clerk, reported that the machine for Precinct 7 was sticking on some votes but other than that, no issues.

The results were already report here and here so we won't spend more time on those now. I updated the chart to depict the voter turnout for the elections from 2003 through to the most recent Nov 2012 results.

One of the minor complications to the parking lot situation on Tuesday was that the contractor closed off the second entrance to the parking lot during the day. I had parked at Horace Mann/Oak St and walked over to save time going through the parking lot. As I came back in the evening to get the results, I noticed that the entrance had been fenced off.

Awareness of the high school building project schedule is on tap for this week. Wednesday at 7:00 PM in the Council Chambers, the project status and construction phases will be reviewed. Building Committee Chair Tom Mercer has stated that the project manager, the contractor, the architect and the Building Committee will be present for this meeting.

Tuesday evening, you can take in the hunger experience at Dean College. Additional details ate found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/11/dean-college-hunger-awareness-banquet.html

Thursday evening, the Downtown Partnership is holding a networking event at the Six One Seven Studios. They are located at 25 Kenwood Circle. If you have not been to view their production studios, this is a good time to do that and network with other business folks in Franklin at the same time.

Other items posted in the past week include:

Nov 11

Nov 10

Nov 9

Nov 8

Nov 7

Nov 6

Nov 5

Sunday, November 4, 2012

It's time to vote - Nov 6th

Last week the summary was all about preparations for Hurricane Sandy. Franklin was spared considering how hard the folks in NY, NJ and other central Atlantic states fared Granted nationalGrid still needs to improve on how they provide support during the storm and immediate response, but this is nothing like the recovery that will take weeks in sections of NY and NJ.

As one who lived in NJ and worked in NYC for some period of time, to see the devastation there is heart rending.

I do want to shift gears to focus on the election Nov 6th. You are likely as sick as I am of the bombardment of robocalls and incessant ads that this campaign season has brought to us. The point of it all is that we do have choices to make on Tuesday, November 6th. To help summarize the information available to us on the candidates and their positions, I have the following to offer:

Voting for all of Franklin is at Franklin High School.

View Larger Map

The polls will open at 6:00 AM and close at 8:00 PM.

Monday, October 29, 2012

It's all about Sandy!

As much as there is scheduled for the coming week, all depends upon Hurricane Sandy. What track will it take? How much wind and rain will we get? Will our power hold out?

If you haven't subscribed to the alerts provided by Franklin, now would be a great time to do so. They send about one a day with significant updates each time. You are not going to get anything like 's*p*a*m' messages from the this service.

You can subscribe to the news alerts on the Franklin webpage here
http://town.franklin.ma.us/subscriber-news

As for what the past week brought to us and what we may have learned?

I had a bunch of conversations at the Taste of the Region on Tuesday night. Some of them will lead to posts in the coming days. Some of them will lead to additional opportunities for the Food Pantry. There are a couple of networking opportunities coming up. Both happen to be sponsored by the Downtown Partnership, consider going!

The tour of the Horace Mann, Oak St and ECDC complex on Thursday evening was interesting. Unfortunately, only two citizens took advantages of this chance to see inside three schools. I'll have my pictures from the tour later this week.

Friday, the Franklin High School girls soccer team beat Mansfield to remain undefeated. They lead at the half, 1-0 and scored three more goals in the second half to finish 4-0. I wrote about how impressed I was with their play. It is no wonder why they are undefeated when they pass like they exhibited on Friday. It was great to see a good turn out. According to a reliable source, the crowd Friday night was a couple of hundred more than normally shows up to the girls games.

The stores were busy on Saturday and Sunday as everyone heeded to warnings about the approaching storm. School is out on Monday. Most Town facilities are closed. The Food Pantry is normally closed on Monday and the pick up from BJ Warehouse will be rescheduled.

Stay tuned into the alerts and weather.
Stay safe!
Help your neighbors!

10/28

10/27

10/26

10/25

10/24

10/23

10/22

Library Book Sale - Photo essay

Bielat, Kennedy debate U.S. role in the world