FM #790 - Town Council Meeting - 05/04/22

This session shares part of the Franklin, MA Town Council meeting held on Wednesday, May 4, 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:

• Recognition of Harriet DiMartino on her 100th birthday
• Compliance check failures continued from prior meeting; both 7-Eleven & Liquor World acknowledged and accepted violations, agreed to one day suspension of license effective May 11
• Public hearing for street acceptances held, both ultimately passed via legislation with 8-0 vote (1 absent)
• Congressman Jake Auchincloss, 4th Congressional District, appeared to provide multiple updates and answer questions from the Council and meeting participants. First Federal elected official to appear before Council
• Melanson & Heath presented an overview of the just completed audit results; the results are good, no issues found, nor was a management letter included also a good sign that the financial processes are in good order
• Bylaw to adjust parking fines tabled for 2nd meeting in June, more discussion clearly required on this topic. As reported, there was no consensus among the EDC which brought it forward and there remains no consensus on how to proceed
• Second bylaw parking zone map proposed changes to add a ban on overnight parking downtown. Almost got tied to the other bylaw item (they are separate but related) but did get moved to a second reading
• Update on Davis Thayer provided by Town Administrator. The building is still in School Committee control, confirmation received from MSBA on their awareness of closing and that the closing should have no impact if the Town does decide in future to go for MSBA funding. Not sure why the Council remains “impatient” with this status as they could have started their planning process to determine a future use anytime after the building actually closed. The School District is not using the building for education, another use can start to be determined, it will take time to do so, and likely be still not finally decided by the time the School Committee turns the building over legally to the Town

The recording runs about 3 hours and 35 minutes (3:35)

The show notes contain links to the meeting agenda. Let’s listen to the Town Council meeting of May 4, 2022

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Agenda document ->  https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/agendas/town_council_agenda_may_4_2022.pdf

My notes of the meeting captured via Twitter are shared in one PDF here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fMWY7GtMKVFxIC_v1UtFIWXE7iIrLK4a/view?usp=sharing

You can find the video link here -> https://youtu.be/eTzFFC_N9ds (the meeting starts at 2:50)

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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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