FM #1068 - Town Council Quarterbacking - 09/28/23

This shares my conversation with Town Council Chair Tom Mercer. This is one of a series of conversations meant to provide a recap of the prior Council meeting. Akin to one of the many sports post-game analysis broadcasts we are familiar with in New England,  this would be a discussion focused on the Franklin Town Council meeting of September 20, 2023: 

• ok, what just happened? 
• What does it mean for Franklin residents and taxpayers?

We cover the following key topics

• Three appointments to individual committees were unanimously approved.  a. Council on Aging - Collette Ferguson  b. Finance Committee - Heather Sanscoucy   c. Municipal Affordable Housing Trust - Kimberly Mu-Chow 
• Franklin Elks Riders presented a donation of $1k, the Franklin Elks Bingo donated $10k to the Town of Franklin veterans services
• Council goals review, a long list of accomplishments, a list to be proud of
• The funds previously allocated for purchase of a new ambulance were authorized to be paid to the vendor to hold the contract and avoid a price increase - Resolution 23-54: Ambulance Transfer & Appropriation
• The Council discussed and approved placement of the debt exclusion to fund the Franklin portion of the Tri-County RVTHS new building. The question language approved was as follows: 
• "Shall the Town of Franklin be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition two and one-half, so-called, the amounts required to pay the Town’s allocable share of the bonds issued by the Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical School District to pay costs of designing constructing and equipping a new high school to be located at 147 Pond Street, in Franklin, including the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto?"
• The Open Space & Recreation Plan developed over the course of 15 months, muti[;e meetings and 3 public hearings was approved by the Council. IT will be submitted to the State and assuming their acceptance will also be part of the Master Plan Update now underway
• Town Administrators report provided updates on the migrant housing situation, the demolition delay report and a report on decommissioning a section of Spring Street.

Our conversation runs about 35 minutes. Let’s listen to this session of Town Council Quarterbacking recorded Sep 20, 2023

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The Franklin TV video is available for replay ->  https://www.youtube.com/live/bF13Dgn_6qs   

Town Council agenda doc -> https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/town_council_agenda_-_sept_20_2023.pdf 

My full set of notes captured via Twitter during the meeting are collected in a single PDF for easier reading  -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1khvMQCoANrW3vZxzRHMYP1pPlrpfAfP4/view?usp=drive_link 

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The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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