School vacation comes to an end with another wet weekend and major meetings are on the calendar for the week ahead.
Hopefully folks are fully rested and ready to return. The Finance Committee has its 3 budget hearings set for this week. They start Monday with Education covering the Tri-County, Norfolk Aggie and Franklin Public Schools budgets. Tuesday they get into the details on Public Works (water, sewer, roads, storm water, etc.) and Public Safety (police, fire and regional dispatch). They close out the week on Thursday with General Government, health and debt accounts and the vote to recommend for the Town Council. The Town Council will conduct their 2 budget hearings in May (May 21 & MAy 22).
As mentioned earlier, if there are remaining questions on the need for the override special election coming up on June 3, these three meetings are the time to get those lingering questions answered.
As to why the override is back again? Folks should remember that the steps taken to adjust the budget last year after the override failed used $3M of one time funds to balance that budget setting up for this year. We are fortunate that the school redistricting effort did result in significant savings so we are only facing a $3.8M deficit; yes, only .8M more than we knew last June we would face this year.
As for the remainder of the full week schedule, it is good that Franklin TV did build out the 3rd floor training room as a second broadcast spot (in addition to Council Chambers), as there will be dual live broadcasts on 3 of the 4 nights Monday through Thursday.
- Monday - Finance Committee and Planning Board
- Tuesday - Finance Committee and School Committee
- Wednesday - Town Council
- Thursday - Finance Committee and Conservation Commission
*** The agendas for the week ahead can be found here:
Finance Committee Meeting (Council Chambers)
Monday, April 28 Time:7:00 PM
Planning Board Meeting (3rd Floor Trng Room)
Monday, April 28 Time:7:00 PM
Massachusetts Strategic Health Group (Medway)
Tuesday, April 29 Time: 1:00 PM
Finance Committee Meeting (3rd Floor Trng Room)
Tuesday, April 29 Time:7:00 PM
Franklin School Committee Meeting (Council Chambers)
Tuesday, April 29 Time: 7:00 PM
Cultural District Committee — SUBCOMMITTEE Porchfest Meeting
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 6:30pm
Town Council Meeting (Council Chambers)
Wednesday, April 30 Time:7:00 PM
Franklin Housing Authority - Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners (Remote Mtg)
Thursday, May 1 Time: 4:30 PM
Conservation Commission Meeting (3rd Floor Trng Room)
Thursday, May 1 Time: 7:00 PM
Finance Committee Meeting (Council Chambers)
Thursday, May 1 Time: 7:00 PM
No agenda released at this time
*** Looking back at the week that was ***
The meetings during the school break week were generally quiet. I will bring to your attention the following recordings that if you missed as worthy of listening to:
Town Council Chair Tom Mercer and I condense the Council meeting of 4/16/25 to about 30 minutes
FM #1431 - Town Council Quarterbacking - 04/17/25
Listen to the origin story of BLAST - Bringing Libraries and Schools Together. We talk with Erin O’Leary and Caleigh Keating, the collaborators who start with “Yes” and then figure it out.
FM #1434 - BLAST Fun - 04/17/25
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For all the meetings and cultural events, check out the calendars at Franklin.news where each day, that day's events on posted on the top of the page
Town calendar -> https://www.franklinma.gov/Calendar.aspx
Community calendar -> https://bit.ly/FranklinCommunityCalendar
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