FM #769 - Town Council Meeting - 04/06/22

This session shares the Franklin, MA Town Council meeting held on Wednesday, April  6, 2022. 

The meeting was conducted in a hybrid format: members of the Town Council and Town Administration personnel were in the Council Chambers, some members of the public participated in person, some via the Zoom conference bridge, all to adhere to the ‘social distancing’ requirements of this pandemic period.

Quick recap:

• Fire department achieves ISO Class 1 rating, only one of 9 in MA and one of 15 in New England to do so. Contact your insurance company. Whether a business or residence, there could be a savings with this higher rating on insurance policies. Doc on Fire Department web page to send to company to support the potential savings.
• 2 new hires for Fire Dept sworn in. These are experienced firefighters coming from other areas to backfill open positions with the Fire Dept.
• Three alcohol license approvals were voted on. One to approve the move of Pour Richards, one to approve the permanent set up of outdoor dining at 3 Restaurant, and one to approve a license for the Birchwood Bakery & Café downtown. As a sign of how well Franklin has survived the pandemic, we now have more restaurant liquor licenses post pandemic than we did pre-pandemic.
• Town Administrator Jamie Hellen provided an update on ARPA funds and how they would be allocated. Council approved the allocation which will now be submitted to the County for disbursement of the funds. Some of the $10M allocated to Franklin (approx. $2M) comes directly to the Town, some (approx. $6M) comes through the County.
• The second approval for the storm water utility fee was approved. The fee will first appear in July 2023 (FY 2024). There is time to confirm your impervious coverage area (see the town storm water page) and order a rain barrel to help with mitigation of storm water and save on the potential fee.
• Passport photo fee was approved so the Town when processing your passport application can now provide a ‘one-stop’ shop service. The photo fee is $10 per photo. The fee for the passport is set at the Federal level.

The recording runs under two hours (1:58)

The show notes contain links to the meeting agenda. Let’s listen to the Town Council meeting of April 6, 2022

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Agenda document ->  https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/agendas/april_6_2022_town_council_agenda.pdf

My notes from the meeting  ->  https://drive.google.com/file/d/14KnmcHPUOPMAUQ7TgXS8YMvDbUHTxTGa/view?usp=sharing 

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If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

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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