FM #1150 - Franklin (MA) Town Council Mtg - 02/28/24

This session of the radio show shares the Town Council meeting held in Council Chambers on Wednesday, February 18, 2024. All 9 members  of the Council participated (1 remotely). 

Most of the first 2 hours was spent on a healthy conversation around the proposed zoning change from residential to business for two lots on King St near the Fire station. 

The Council after spending almost 2 hours listening to the proposal (no specific business use was proposed) (the real question was should the lot be residential or business?), the Council decided to take "no action". This move allows them to refer the zoning change back to the Planning Board which while they had a quorum discuss this previously, the recommendation came back with only 3 votes, not the full 5 of the Board (due to the recent election).

Quick recap:

• Brownie troop 64085 led the pledge as part of the work on the Democracy badge
• The minutes for the Jan meeting were approved
• The OPEB financial report was presented and reviewed, we are in a better position than we were previously
• FY24 Capital Improvement Plan was approved
• associated transfers to account for the funding approval were also approved
• The Council voted to support the Pending State Legislation Entitled “The Municipal Empowerment Act”
• The Revised 2024 Town Council Meeting Schedule was approved
• Gift Acceptance - Veterans’ Services Dept. ($2,900), Senior Center ($200), Police Dept. ($50)  were approved with thanks
• Designation of “Special Municipal Employee” Under State Ethics Law were approved for newly create committees not previously covered by this move (housekeeping)
• Cable Funds in Support of PEG Service and Programming per MGL Ch. 44, §53F3/4 actually 2 resolutions were approved. If the "empowerment Act noted above becomes law, this kind of approval would disappear from Council agendas
• Council entered executive session to not return to open meeting for discussion of a matter regarding a real estate purchase
• Joint Budget SubCmte meeting on March 6 will begin work on how to resolve a $10.5M budget deficit across town and school budgets. Agenda and budget details to be released Friday March 1

The recording runs almost 3 hours. Let’s listen to the Town Council meeting on Feb 28, 2024. 

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The Franklin TV video is available for replay ->  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqa0QHtahmQ 

Town Council agenda doc ->  

https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif10036/f/agendas/town_council_agenda_2.28.24.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/1CBubvtPzSJSvQakhmMx1X7M44cCPu7W_/view?usp=drive_link 

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.  

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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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