Franklin MAtters Weekly: 2025

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Tis the season to wrap things up… literally

Many meetings this week are the last of the calendar year with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays coming over the next 2 weeks. Some subcommittees are active this week, especially as the 250th Celebration planning gets underway.

The Town Council meeting Wednesday (6 PM) has a potpourri of an agenda. Recognitions, alcohol license renewals, snow update, Town Charter change process presentation, among others in a full agenda.

Town officials hold their office hours at the Senior Center Thursday morning (8:30 AM). There is a ZBA meeting Thursday evening but the 444 East Central project will be the topic for their meeting on Tuesday the 23rd.

For all the meetings and cultural events, check out the calendar at Franklin.news where each day, that day's events are posted on the top of the page, the TV and radio schedules are on the bottom, and all the other goodness falls in-between.

Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1606-fm-weekly-outlook-lookback-combo-12-14-25/

*** Meeting schedule and agendas as of Town page 12/12/25, 8:00 PM ***

Franklin Public Schools Community Relations Sub Committee Meeting

Monday, December 15 Time: 6:00 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12152025-2050

250th Anniversary Celebration Committee

Monday, December 15 Time: 7:00 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12152025-2061

Planning Board Meeting

Monday, December 15 Time: 7:00 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12152025-2056

250th Anniversary Celebration Committee

Tuesday, December 16 Time: 5:30 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12162025-2060

Design Review Meeting

Tuesday, December 16 Time: 7:00 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12162025-2059

Town Council Meeting

Wednesday, December 17 Time: 6:00 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12172025-2062

Town Council Office Hours

Thursday, December 18 Time: 8:30 AM

ZBA Meeting

Thursday, December 18 Time: 7:30 PM

https://ma-franklin.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12182025-2055

FOFE Meeting

Friday, December 19 Time: 9:30 AM

Council on Aging Meeting

Friday, December 19 Time: 1:30 PM

*** Looking back at the week that was ***

The Franklin School Committee met for their only December session on Tuesday, December 9. The Volleyball team was recognized, the capital budget request was reviewed and approved, Student Services presented on all that they do. The recap, video and audio links are available https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/12/school-committee-recognizes_030419169.html

The Finance Committee finally got their ‘deep dive’ into Technology. It took multiple reschedules but it happened. It is highly recommended spending the time to watch the video replay. To fully & properly fund technology for the required licenses, hardware, software and staffing to keep it all running would be an additional $1.5M per year. Food for thought and consideration https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/12/finance-committee-gets-answer-on-how.html

The Conservation Commission met on Thursday. The video replay is available

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

On the Schools channel:

the FHS Concert Band and Wind Ensemble concert was broadcast and is available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqY8ICpCF5w
the FHS Concert Band concert Dec 11 was broadcast and is available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqY8ICpCF5w

On the All Access channel:

the next in the series of Aging Boldfully shows hosted by Susan Rohrbach is available for replay -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHBjudkBsFk

Town calendar -> https://www.franklinma.gov/Calendar.aspx

Community calendar -> https://bit.ly/FranklinCommunityCalendar

Subscribe for the daily dose of information -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html

Subscribe for the weekly dose of information -> https://www.franklinmattersweekly.org/p/subscribe-for-email.html

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Tax rate hearing closes out FY 2026, here comes FY 2027

The tax rate hearing (Weds 12/3/25) officially tied the knot on the FY 2026 budget which means the FY 2027 budget is underway.

A full slate of meetings for this week. Respectfully, the key ones will be the School Committee on Tuesday, Finance Committee Wednesday and the Conservation Commission on Thursday.

The new School Committee gets into full gear with 2 subcommittee (Budget & Policy) meeting at 6 PM before the full committee meets at 7 PM. A first look at the budget and their capital wish list is among the items on the agenda

The Finance Committee on Wednesday gets to the deep dive on Technology (finally). This should be of real interest to the new Council members as the Technology Department services both Town and School operations. Some think because it is in the School budget it only does that. Akin to the Facilities Dept, on the Town side, the Facilities Dept provides support to both Town and School buildings in a joint and cooperative arrangement.

The Conservation Commission ended up postponing their meeting last Thursday as they were unable to address the 444 East Central proposal. The 444 project team was fully engaged with the ZBA in their session on the same evening. While the ZBA meeting started at 6, it didn’t complete until 10 PM.

Assuming that the Conservation Commission can complete what it needs to do this week; then the Zoning Board of Appeals can meet on Dec 23 to make their decision on the project approval or rejection, including a decision on however many variances are required. Then the timeline to write up the decision and to file within the legal time line (40 days after close of public hearing) should be able to be met.

You’ll have time to stop by the Senior Center on Thursday to take part in the Winter Wonderland festivities from 4:30 to 7 PM before joining the Conservation meeting.

And remember to join the Wreath of Franklin festivities all around downtown and the multiple pop up shows located at THE BLACK BOX on Saturday, Dec 13.

Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1603-fm-weekly-outlook-lookback-combo-12-07-25/

*** Meeting schedule and agendas as of Town page 12/05/25, 6:30 PM ***

Housing Authority

December 8, 2025, 4:30 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12082025-2036

Franklin School Committee - Budget Subcommittee

December 9, 2025, 6:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12092025-2047

Franklin School Committee Policy Subcommittee Meeting

December 9, 2025, 6:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12092025-2046

Design Review Meeting-CANCELED

December 9, 2025, 7:00 PM

Friends of the Franklin Public Library Meeting

December 9, 2025, 7:00 PM

Franklin School Committee

December 9, 2025, 7:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12092025-2043

Finance Committee Meeting

December 10, 2025, 6:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12102025-2039

Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Meetings (Canceled)

December 11, 2025, 2:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_11132025-2004

Charles River Pollution Control Meeting

December 11, 2025, 3:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12112025-2040

Conservation Commission Meeting

December 11, 2025, 7:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/536?fileID=6995

*** Looking back at the week that was ***

The Board of Health meeting on Wednesday discussed adjustments to Franklin’s tobacco regulations to bring them up to current State standard. The vote to approve what has been discussed is scheduled for their January 2026 meeting. Exclusive recording and recap of the meeting is available at Franklin.News. https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/12/board-of-health-reviews-changes-to.html

At Wednesday’s Town Council meeting, the tax rate hearing came second on the agenda due to a disconnect between the Council agenda showing it at 7 and the public hearing announcements calling for it at 6 PM. Town Administrator Jamie Hellen walked the Council through the 5 year revenue forecast in the meantime.

The tax rate was approved as a single rate however, there is more interest this time around from the Council newbies for a split tax rate and some councilors were complaining about their lack of readiness for this discussion. Plans for a workshop and additional discussions are underway before the next tax rate hearing currently set for Dec 2, 2026.

The Conservation Commission met only briefly on Thursday as much of what they wanted to do required the 444 East Central project team which was tied up in the ZBA meeting that started earlier but continued to 10 PM before concluding. The Conservation meeting was rescheduled to Dec 11.

The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meeting spent most of their 4 hours reviewing the draft approval letter for the 444 East Central Project. The last part provided a recap of what was discussed in the first 2 sections of the document. There was an issue with admitting the public participants so the recap was needed to let them know what they had missed. Assuming the ConComm does complete their work at the mentioned Dec 11 meeting, then the ZBA should be inline to complete their discussion and decide at their meeting Dec 23 at 6:30 PM.

An incident report is being prepared jointly with Town Administration and Franklin TV to explain what happened to the Town Council meeting video (it was only available to cable subscribers as audio) and the snafu with the ZBA public admittance process.

Town calendar -> https://www.franklinma.gov/Calendar.aspx

Community calendar -> https://bit.ly/FranklinCommunityCalendar

Subscribe for the daily dose of information -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/p/welcome.html

Subscribe for the weekly dose of information -> https://www.franklinmattersweekly.org/p/subscribe-for-email.html

Saturday, November 29, 2025

Thanksgiving leaves, the countdown to Christmas & year end arrives

Hopefully you and most Franklin folks enjoyed the holiday week. It went by quickly. The Turkey Trot set a record with the largest registrations and the FHS football team lost to KP. No significant Town meetings happened last week with the short holiday week.

However, this first week of December has a couple of key meetings. The Town Council gets to set the tax rate, approving a drop in the rate from $11.62/$1000 to $11.42/$1000. This is due to the continued significant rise in assessed real estate valuations. The average residential single family property assessment has increased from $679,400 to $731,400.

The charts will be updated to show the inverse relationship between the tax rate and property valuations. When they go up, as they have for the past many years, the rate goes down. When the valuation decreased (think recession 2008), the rate increased.

The Council also gets the inside scoop on the revenue forecast for the next 5 years. This was shared in August 2025 and with the new Council on board, is intended to bring them up to speed with this info so they can understand what room for decisions they may have.

For those who thought that the Council vote to rescind their approval of the 444 East Central project would suddenly end the project, sorry that didn’t happen. They should note that the ZBA did close the public hearing at their Nov 20 meeting. The ZBA also recommended for their attorney to draft the summary letter as ‘for approval’. Don’t get too alarmed, logically it makes more sense for a “No” vote against the recommendation to approve than it does for a “Yes” for to deny.

The ZBA will review and discuss the ‘draft’ letter at their remote only session this Thursday, Dec 4. Their next session (Dec 18) should have the formal vote on the decision and on the variances requested. The Conservation Commission also meets remote only on Thursday, and will continue to work on the 444 East Central project.

The decision on the 444 East Central project is on schedule to be filed with the appropriate authorities by year end. At which time, appeals may start. When those will end is open to speculation.

The HO scale train town exhibit of Franklin circa 1932 gets expanded to include the Mill Store and Franklin Paint with the official opening scheduled for Saturday, Dec 6. It is scheduled for display through January 2026.

Audio link -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1594-fm-weekly-outlook-lookback-combo-11-30-25/

*** Meeting schedule and agendas as of Town page 11/28/25, 8:30 PM ***

Planning Board Meeting - meeting Cancelled

Monday, December 1 Time: 7:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12012025-2016

Massachusetts Strategic Health Group

Tuesday, December 2 Time: 1:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12022025-2023

Franklin Cultural Council

Tuesday, December 2 Time: 7:00 PM

https://www.franklinma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_12022025-2027

BOARD OF HEALTH MEETINGS