Town Council - Regular Meeting

Time being 601. Recording in progress. There we go. I call the March 4, 2026 town council meeting to order. Please ask for a moment of silence.

Please stand for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Note to residents, all citizens are welcome to attend public meetings in person. To view the live meeting remotely, citizens are encouraged to watch the live stream on Franklin Town Hall TV YouTube channel or the live broadcast on Comcast channel 9 and Verizon channel 29. To listen to the meeting remotely, citizens may call in using this number 1929205609. To participate in the meeting remotely, citizens may join the Zoom webinar using the information below which I will give you. Meetings are recorded and archived on Franklin TV on the Franklin Town Hall TV YouTube channel and shown repeatedly on Comcast channel 9 and Verizon channel 29. The Zoom webinar details ID number 871 04128201. Any part participants who wish to speak during the webinar must enter their full name and email address when joining the webinar. All participants will be automatically muted upon joining the webinar. In order to speak, participants will need the to

select the raise hand function to request to be unmuted. All speakers will be required to state their full name and street address before commenting. Announcements from the chair. This meeting is being recorded by Franklin TV and shown on Comcast channel 9 and Verizon channel 29. This meeting may be recorded by others. Chair identified we we have nobody participating. upcoming town sponsor uh sponsored community events. We don't have any in front of me. So, citizens comments. Citizens are welcome to express their view for up to three minutes on a matter that is not on the agenda. Compliance with chapter 38 section 20. The open meeting law. The council cannot engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during citizens comments. The council may ask the town administrator to review the matter. Nothing here in shall prevent the town administrator from correcting a misstatement of fact. There anybody in the audience just state your name, address?

Alan Ear, 23 Marvin Avenue, Franklin. Um, I'm chair of the Franklin Historical Commission and I'm here again with some of my colleagues from the Historical Commission to um, again urge you as you set your goals and look toward the year ahead to finally consider setting up a study committee for local historic districts. I've spoken to some of you individually over the years about that and I think over the last two or three years there have been a couple of formal presentations. I think Ted and and chair may remember those. Um, it looks more complicated than it is. It's kind of a no-brainer. And for people at home who may say, "Oh my god, they're going to take over my house and keep me from doing what I want to do with my house." It's not that bad. It's kind of like the Liberty Mutual ad where you get to customize your car insurance. We get to customize this however we want. The first step and the only first step is to set up a study committee. There's no commitment beyond that. the council can end it after that or you can take it further and it always involves input from community members and neighbors and individual homeowners. It's a really good process and I think especially as the town approaches our 250th birthday where we're celebrating so much of our important history, this is a really wonderful opportunity to ensure the the future of the town, the character of the town at no initial cost and really it's kind of a no-brainer. um or if anybody else wants to add to that but thank you and and we would be happy to come individually as a group any way you want to walk you through the process. Thank you.

Thanks you Brandon Carico 24 Anna Road. I just want to kind of concur with what Allan was talking about. Um I'm also a member of the historical commission. Um I previously served on the historical commission down in Sandwood where he lived previously. It was extremely successful. Created a great sense of community. Um really brought uh community members together. Um a sense of pride knowing that they owned a historic home. So I think it's at least worth the effort to investigate it. Thank you guys.

Will Lee 18 Martin a nav. I promised on the last one I hope. Um, I just want to echo some of the stuff they said, but I want to add to um it's something that the state gives towns the power to do um to it's one of the few mechanisms that we have to preserve some historic buildings in town. Um and if we leave that on the table, it just feels like a like a missed opportunity. About a hundred other towns have it. Um they make really good use of it. Uh they they look all shapes and sizes. Hopington I work in, I'm the assistant town clerk there. It has two um and they're both for different things. So, I think we can, you know, set up a study committee and take a look at it. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Is there anybody else?

Hi, my name is Katherine Hartz. Um, I live at 5 Stogaway in Franklin. Um, this is my 21st year as a a Franklin resident. I wrote this before I um knew the agenda, so I think I need to cut some of my things out so I don't talk about what's on the agenda. I think that's the rules. Let me know if I step on anything. I um I don't get to come to the meetings very often because I'm raising young kids, but I really appreciate the access that's given by Franklin TV and Steve Sherlock and anybody else who makes that happen. I do try to follow along and I appreciate that I can watch them on a Thursday afternoon or Sunday night or whenever. I It's important to me. So, thank you for that. And I appreciate all the new energy and eyes that we have in our new town council this year. I I just um as I watch the meetings, I have some concerns and frustrations um that I I don't feel like I'm seeing a lot of infrastructure. We have a brand new town council and I don't see what I I was hoping. Um I know I'm probably not allowed to use the word subcommittee, so I I won't. Um but many of you ran on platforms that were based on fixing the budget and finding the waste and creating new revenue. And I am just unsure of how we move forward if none of those things can be discussed because I see that your meetings are so packed, you know, four hours plus. There's no way to discuss any of the things that I know that I'm concerned about with our budget. I'm really concerned with our budget. Um, you know, a lot of you said we're going to you're going to find new new ideas to bring revenue in, but I don't understand where those conversations can happen if they can't happen here. So, we're at month four and I'm just feeling a little worried. Um, I'm happy to see that some of these things are on the agenda tonight. Um I I think I can't use probably use the word light leaison. So I won't I'll just skip all of that and just say I feel like

we're at a critical junction in Franklin and we need an abundance of transparency, public trust in our leaders and public facing information such as meetings that we can go to or watch and minutes that we can read. Those things are really important to me and I hope that with tonight's agenda I hope that um the council is able to move forward and provide that to the the community. I think it would be peace of mind and I I know as one person in the community I'm watching and I'm waiting to see what solutions um our new members are are hopefully coming up with. Thanks.

Thanks. Anybody else? We'll get to you, Joe. Yeah. Were you in last?

Hi, I'm Steve Darian. I live at 10 Region Circle Franklin residents since 1983. And I'm here to promote the idea of Franklin building on its green community status, which has given us access to grants, etc. A lot of progress made uh to stepping it up to become a climate leader community. Um this would basically bring us to a higher tier of grants that would become available um where the green communities moves towards um 80% uh fossil fuel independence from fossil fuels. The uh climate uh leader program would bring us up to 100% by 2050. Not in the near-term future, but it's a goal to work towards. Um it would require our forming a committee in town that could be comprised of uh people who are on various departments. It could be um residents. Um it could be people on commissions, that sort of thing. And this is just an initial idea that we could start pulling this together and working towards it. Um, again, Franklin's made a lot of progress uh since we're becoming a green community, but I think there's a another tier that we can attain and um I think it would be a wonderful thing to do. Thank you.

Okay,

gave me a four barwood road and I'm wearing a different hat today. I'm coming to you as the chair of the board of health and just wanted to let you know that I am so excited that I am working with such a dynamic health department that really takes the health of our town into consideration. And so I wanted to give you a save the date because on May 20th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm we are going to be holding a woman's health expo right down the street at New England Chapel. And it's basically in order to educate, empower, and support women in taking control of their health. We're going to have local vendors and health care partners to provide information and resources on preventative care, nutrition, fitness, and more. But it's not just that. The real exciting part about it is we have been able to secure the only free mamogram van in the state to come. So, the one from Dana Farber will be at New England Chapel from 7:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. to do free mamograms for 22 women. You're going to have to sign up in advance. The church is also going to provide child care. So, if a mom who can't afford one and wants to have a free mammogram and has kids that will watch the kids while she gets her mamogram. Um, but we are just so excited that they are coming and that we've been able to secure that, but it's it's coming down the pike. We haven't quite finalized everything, but I wanted everyone to do a save the date.

Thank you. Sorry, could you repeat the the uh location? New England Chapel right across the street. Right across the street. And we're going to have the mamogram van right outside the church in the very front so that you'll be able to see it. So hopefully everyone will know. And you said May 20. May 20th, Wednesday. Thank you. That's awesome.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the council. Uh Joseph Evans, 5 Tam Shanner Road. First, I'd like to uh just echo this woman's comments about hearing some ideas about starting to create some new revenue. I know you guys have most of you guys have only been sitting for a few months and I know you've been overwhelmed with a lot of new material. So, we look forward, we all look forward to seeing that as it's it's definitely going to be a necessary conversation. Um uh if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement I'd like to read. Um uh at the town council meeting on January 21st, 2026, the council was asked to ratify appointments to the zoning board of appeals. I raised questions regarding one appointee because of a potential prior connection between her household and a development project that had come before the planning board. My questions were fact-based and limited to whether her husband had any involvement with the 380 King Street project, paid or unpaid, and whether that required disclosure or recusal while she served on the planning board. At the meeting, the initial answer was that he had not. After the meeting, I submitted a public records request. The documents I received include an email dated January 11, 2023 in which Mr. Williams states, quote, "I am working with the owner of 380 King Street to develop the property." End quote. And schedules a meeting with the planning director and zoning enforcement officer to discuss development options. Additional publicly available information shows that Miss Williams has an active role supporting her husband's architecture firm. Public records from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts also show that Miss Williams is a registered manager of Craft Architecture, confirming her official involvement in the firm. Furthermore, records indicate that after Mr. Williams prior involvement with the property owner ended,

he participated in a design review committee meeting on the same project. These facts provide further context for why disclosure of prior involvement allows the public to have confidence in planning board decisions. I want to be clear that my intent in asking questions at the January 21st meeting was factual and information seeking, not accusatory. I value integrity and as a lifelong resident of Franklin and former Franklin police officer, I take my responsibility as a citizen seriously. My goal has always been to ensure transparency and public trust in town processes. I'm not drawing conclusions or making accusations. My goal is transparency and public trust. When a planning board member's immediate family has prior involvement with a project with a company that she herself is a corporate officer of, disclosure ensures public confidence that decisions are impartial. As I entered these chambers tonight, I noticed the frame quote from Benjamin Franklin. quote, "Honesty is the best policy." I believe that principle applies to all of us, elected officials, appointees, and citizens alike. My intent has simply been to make sure the record is complete and transparent. I respect this council, the individuals involved. I'm providing these documents for your review, and I thank you everyone for your time. And Mr. Chairman, if if you wouldn't mind, I just ask that if I'm providing these documents, it would be officially entered into the record. Anybody?

Thank you. Uh Dave Callahan, 30 Plain Street. Uh just given another update from uh the school committee, Franklin School Committee met uh last uh Tuesday virtually as we were all everyone was uh snowed in, but uh where we unanimously approved uh the superintendent's FY27 budget. And again, uh, this represented a 2.5% increase, uh, from our current, uh, budget that we're working with. Um, uh, amazing, uh, really kind of accolades and, um, kudos to Superintendent Gear, Miss Marotti for and their entire team for putting this together. To be able to land at 2 and a half% with inflationary costs as they are, with skyrocketing transportation and special education costs, uh, was a herculean effort. Uh, but, uh, they were up to the task. And um and of course uh this is after and really only because of the uh over $3 million in cost avoidance because of the reorganization that Franklin Public Schools underwent. Uh and while uh this budget I'm incredibly proud to be able to kind of support, it's also worth noting uh that this was after uh the failed override last year where uh the school department had to cut $2 million uh from the FY26 budget. It was all a part of the open conversations. it just kind of like, you know, this was the shared agreement the entire town had. However, with this new FY27 budget, those cuts are they're not uh positions aren't being brought back. Nonetheless, what it does offer is a sense of sustainability and predictability, which is almost priceless. And so to be able to kind of know uh that this 2 and a half% is something that is manageable and we can kind of have that sustained growth as we look forward is absolutely fantastic. Uh the school department uh the school committee also voted on next year's school calendar which can be found right on our website and uh is going out in our newsletter which is probably going to go out any minute now. Um and we also worth repeating kind of talked about at our meeting. I want to give incredible

kudos to uh Brutus to Carlos the entire DPW crew. What they were able to do following that snowstorm was nothing short of a miracle. to be able to get all of our uh kids to be able to get to school safely on Wednesday is absolutely fantastic. And for transparency, I say that as a f Friday trash pickup guy. So despite the fact that I'm living like Oscar the Grouch right now, I'm still singing their praises. They did amazing work. Um and uh that's what this entire community has so many great departments that are out there and employees that are working for and it's always wonderful. I always want to give that opportunity to show that appreciation when they're when they're shining. Uh, so thank you all very much for your time. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Dave. Is there anybody else in council chambers? Anybody in Zoom land? You see anybody? Okay. All right. All right. Now, we'll go to council comments. Steve,

thank you, Mr. Chairman. Couple of thank yous to to notice tonight. Again, echoing Dave's comments on the DPW and the fabulous work they've done all winter, keeping our roads clear and keeping us all safe. Um, amazing work given all the volume of snow and the countless hours they put in. So, thank you. Big thank you to all of them. Additionally, I'd like to thank uh police officers Vicar and Luther. Uh, good story this week about their service and help to a stranded uh elderly couple that needed some assistance. They were snowed in and they managed to help arrange to have the driveway plowed and further checked up on them and were told that they needed some milk. So, they actually went to the store and got them a gallon of milk, which love those stories. That's great stuff. And then, of course, our fire department uh always watching out for us and taking care of us. um had a house fire on Peter's uh lane and uh rescued two inhabitants of the building, took them to the hospital for medical treatment and so forth. So, uh fantastic job um for from all those services this week. It's it's I love those good news stories. Uh two other quick ones. Um, I noticed on Franklin Matters and also on the town website there's a a request to update emergency contacts for for our citizens across town. So, if you haven't had a chance to see that or go to it, be great to be on that emergency contact list. It's important for us. And a big shout out to Khloe Bowser, uh, Franklin High School sophomore, who won an essay contest, uh, which resulted in, uh, her, uh, claiming the the town of Franklin to be named on the new Massachusetts, uh, USS Massachusetts submarine, which will be commissioned in a few weeks. So, I know we'll have a chance to honor her in a few weeks. But, uh, fantastic. Good for her. I read that story the other

night and I just, it made my night. I shut my computer down and I said, "Love this." Good news. Yes. Nothing else is going to happen. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So that's it. Thank you, sir.

Um from from my end, Councelor Mallaloy took a lot of what I what I was going to what I was going to speak to. Um but I think there are two points worth reiterate reiterating and then one new point. Uh first again, you probably saying the same thing as everyone uh here. much appreciated the work that the DPW, the police department, fire department have done um throughout these last few weeks. I I I I'm sure I'm not the only one who's felt like this is this winter has been about 40 years. Um you know, so a day like today with the sun out and some melt has been, you know, has been fantastic. But uh you know, I don't I don't know how we how we manage without um without the support of our of our public services. Now, we still have to figure out how to make sure that they have the support that they need that we're showing that to them as well. And that I think that speaks to a couple of the the the comments made earlier today. Uh secondly, you know, I I you know, concur with councelor Malloy around uh the the uh just how great it was to hear about Khloe Bowser's essay. I love getting good news like that. I will encourage the community to please share that with us. Love to, you know, continue to highlight that. um you know because frankly that's these are some of the things that make Franklin special and it's easy to get bogged down in the things that aren't working but when we have successes and wins like that I I I I think it's it's it's beneficial to allow us to just speak to it. So, um I don't know, shout out to Chloe and um you know, you know, and and and the teachers that have helped her, uh you know, accomplish accomplish this task. Um yeah, so that's I just wanted to, you know, wanted to say thanks there. Wanted to shout out Khloe and just encourage people to let us know with with your

successes. Let's share, let's have the town share that. That's something just to think about and uh you know reflect upon as we go forward here. It's called take the win. Take the win. Exactly. All right. I have no other comments. They have taken everything I was going to say. So just ditto and kudos to all of our all of our towns departments who've done some really really great work and of course to um Chloe High School. So I'll I will not go labor it. council blank.

Uh just a few things. Um the first thing as it relates to the subcommittees um I would say certainly um while we're not on a personal level while there are no subcommittees that does that does not preclude whether it's some counselors or all counselors from having discussions with other members uh I shouldn't say other members but other um people and staff within the town. I myself have had conversations with the planning department uh downtown partnership um uh the cultural um head of cultural and and and growth there uh because everyone knows economic development is certainly one of my things as you talked about. So while a subcommittee is not formed, that's not has not stopped individuals, individual counselors to start laying the groundwork so that when we do have a subcommittee, we'll hit the ground running rather than kind of plotting along. So while it's not visible, there's always work. I I will say this much, I've done more in the four months I've been a counselor now than I did in the two years when I was here 20 years ago. Maybe it's because I'm 20 years older and I a little bit wiser or whatever, but I I can definitely say I've done more behind the scenes than I even did 20 years ago. Um the second thing I do I I know there was a lot of um back and forth around the trash and whatnot. So, uh David brought it up. I I I appreciate the patience. There was no there was no good way to for that all to settle out. So, I appreciate the patience of the Friday trash. I love your thing, Oscar. We're calling them the Oscar the Grouch or whatever. So, I do appreciate their patience. Um, but ultimately, it was a historic storm and I didn't even know until we started getting the emails that there's a limitation to what the drivers can work. So, it's not as if we they

could work six days this week. They can't. They can only work five days. So, um,

so there's a lot of things that laid into that. So, I appreciate uh everybody in town's patience with that. Yes, there were a number of people that were upset. I certainly would be upset if my trash wasn't getting picked up either, but I appreciate their patience. Um I I just want to follow up on last meeting where we were talking about the budget. Um the town administrator uh put out a call kind of to each of us, what do you guys want in the budget? So, as I put my stake in the ground the prior meeting, my I am challenging the rest of the counselors here to give to Jeff what you want in the budget. Whether you want it to be cut, whether you want 2 and a.5% increase, what do you individually want in the budget? I put my stake in the ground and that's what I'm going to stick to when it comes to the budget. So I challenge the rest of you, the eight of you to give Jeff what you want in the budget because without that we are just flailing for the next four months.

You just went back 20 years. You said Jeff. I said Jeff. Sorry. Sorry about that. Just wanted to get Sorry. Sorry. I'll do that. I say that to Jamie all the time. I I'm definitely taller than him, Mike. But other than that, I mean, we look a little bit the same and we speak the same.

There you go. And the last thing is, and this is and unfortunately there's there this is for the now non-residents of Franklin. Um I have a lot of friends that have moved out of Franklin. Um that have moved down south to the warmer weather and they love it, but the one thing they hate to get is the voicemail from Brutus about the trash and all that stuff. The question I have is, so we ask people to get on the list. How do you actually get off the list? Exactly. I can go in and unsubscribe. And most people don't do that when they move out of town. Correct. And the way they usually find out is when they move to South Carolina and they still get Brutus's message and then they email us and we take them off.

Okay. So they can so they either can do it because I literally want to text them back tonight and say go unsubscribe or blah blah blah. So and um and we we purchase through the service we buy. Um most of the data that comes from that is called from uh cable subscriptions. And so um and so sometimes even if someone has that cable subscription it may be a whole if they move we won't get that updated data set for another year because we get it once a year. So sometimes there's a delay and sometimes we miss a few but usually every storm like that we usually get one or two emails from people and we just take them off.

Yeah. This this person has lived in in uh Bluton, South Carolina for nine years now and she calls me every single time. Brutus just told me there's no trash pickup. What do I got to do? So, so do you tell her it doesn't apply to her? Thank you. Thanks, Mike.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, so I guess I would just want to uh I guess use this as the first opportunity or one of the opportunities to respond to citizens comments. Um, you know, I think that, uh, in terms of the structural deficit, which was sort of addressing that, I do feel like we can move more urgently on that and it's it's been it's something that we need to work towards doing more. Um, but I also we have been doing a lot. We have been doing full agenda 4-hour meetings, but I I hear the concern that, you know, this is this is going to be a long schllo to the finish line into how do we fix this? Um, but I think that it's it is something that we need to move more urgently on going forward. So, I hear your concerns. I just want to let you know that I I recognize that. Thank you. You all set? Yeah, all set.

Okay.

Okay. Um, couple things. Um, as far as, excuse me, as far as the snow and the trash, yes, I do applaud the DPW for the roads and the fact that we were able to open schools on Wednesday was pretty impressive. I also understand the restraint when it came to waste management with the hours that they can work and with the snow, the delay going from one to two days and so forth. However, there's half of Monday's residents that did not receive pickup. I am a Monday resident pickup. I was picked up on Wednesday. And every person who's a Friday pickup did not get picked up. We pay for services rendered. If they are not getting picked up, waste management should credit the town for the hours of work they did not do and that credit should go to any resident who did not get their trash picked up. That is my opinion. I've heard from countless people, emails, phone go uh my phone going ringing to the point that one person I had to call them back and apologize because my battery completely died from the amount that I was actually on my phone. Um so I think it's something that we should look into. The the giving the two bags is great. Um but as a family of five, two bags wouldn't even fill a day for me. um when it comes to trash and children. Um so while that's a great avenue to try to help, it doesn't undo that man waste management is receiving funds for something they did not do

regardless of why. If they only allowed so many people, then they need to make sure their staff to be able to do the job that they are contracted to do even if delays are in effect. they should be able to do the manpower. Um, and if they can't, then they they owe us a credit. Um, I will say that and um, I'm very bad with names. So, I'm very very sorry, but I wanted to What's your first name again? You know, he's like K, but my my legal name.

Okay. Because I thought I was losing it because I I thought you were K and then you came up with a different name. It's my my name is Catherine, but I I feel like I shouldn't say my name if I'm speaking.

Okay. So, I wanted to touch base on what you said and I want to tell you that I feel everything that you said. Yes, we are doing work and um like with council the blank, he's done been talking to different people. He's been on counsel before. It's it's kind of very comfortable for him to kind of flow into those roles. Um, obviously we have other councils that have been in it. As someone who's new to council and pretty much is learning as I go, I feel lost, too. Um, I don't feel that we're spending enough time really talking about it or going over ideas and I can have a conversation with Jean and then I could have a conversation with Mike and then I could have a conversation Oh, I'm sorry, Councelor Leank.

That's fine. and whoever you are um and so forth. But for me, it doesn't work good that way because I need that group. I need everybody talking, jumping in, cutting this person off, saying, "Yeah, but you ever think about this?" Because that's how I work. So, us not being able to do that is causing me a lot of anxiety on in all honesty and transparency because I don't know how to fix something if we're not allowed to have these conversations and our agendas are so full with things that have to be done that there doesn't leave a lot of room for those other conversations or having residents engage with us. So, um, I agree with you. I think that we need to really focus on it. And I think a lot of some of the other stuff that we do do, even though it needs to be done, we should be trying to have one at least one of our meetings a month is strictly just conversations and ideas and tossing things back and forth. I don't have a business degree. Um, I don't I've never run a business. I'm a homemaker with a hairdressing license with a cobalt education that is obsolete. And I know how to budget, but I have to learn this stuff. And I can't learn this stuff if we don't have the groups to put us together. And I need people who have that experience to share it with me so that I can say where we I think we need should go based on everybody. Um, and that's pretty much all I have for council comments. So,

thank you, J.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And certainly, uh, ditto to all of the comments made. You know, congratulations to that extraordinary young lady on her essay and thank you to all of our departments for their um, work during this this crazy storm. Um, thank you to the public that uh mentioned the historic district conversation. We'll certainly see if we can incorporate that into goals. Um, and also, you know, thank you for bringing to our attention the um the women's health um summit coming up and that the the mammogram coming to Franklin. I think that's really fantastic. Couple of things. Um I know that the uh a lot of parents are a little bit frustrated about the um afterchool options. So I did talk to our friends at Creative Corner Art Studio. They have some openings. So, if there are working parents out there that are looking for maybe it's now, maybe it's for the summer, maybe it's for next school year, um, reach out to them and see about a slot, whether they have stuff for one day or all five day. Um, and they do have some transportation options. Um, also want to encourage everybody if you're not if you don't already have your tickets, um, FPAC online is doing Into the Woods in March. Yes, the Steven Sonheim Spectacular is coming to Franklin with Broadway talent. I'm not the only one that can be excited about this. So, go to FPAC online, get your tickets, and uh, join me at that incredible show. Um, I also want to encourage everybody to go to franklanculture.org. Um because Corey Sheay and uh the team of volunteers from the cultural district

and the cultural council, they're putting together a ton of activities um public art opportunities including uh fairy trails and Franklin tales, which I had to look up what a fairy trail was, but that was pretty cool to learn about how uh kids and adults can form um fantasy um artwork at a miniature scale on some of our public areas. Um, and there is also a public call for um, in partnership with Dean Bank, there's a $1,000 um, stipen for artists for a mural residency project. So, I would encourage everybody to definitely take a look at that. Um, and I did want to just quickly um, apologize for uh, things a few weeks ago. It got a little out of hand. Um, I think, um, we are all human and we get emotional about this stuff and we love our town and we love all of our department heads and how hard everybody's working. Um, and I did reach out to the superintendent to apologize for putting him on the spot uh that night when we were talking about capital. Um, I know that other department heads have heard that from me over the years about using capital money for what should be operating in that whole discussion. And I I could have called out the police department. I could have called out the fire department. I could have called out other things. I chose to only have my comments focused on the schools. Um, and that wasn't my intention. It was more just to bring things to light and to show folks that we do have um some very real budget concerns because there's a lot of things on that capital. It's not getting done because operational things are being shifted and we're going to have to come up with uh those solutions. Um so um again, my apologies to to him and to anybody from the school committee

that I may have offended. That wasn't my intention. Uh, and lastly, um, condolences to, um, longtime Franklin resident Tony Scardino, uh, and his whole family for the loss of his mom, uh, this week. She had a a heroic battle, uh, with cancer, but, um, unfortunately, he passed a few days ago. So, please know that we're thinking of you uh, Tony and family. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, first off, ditto what a lot of people said about the work by the DPW um on the storm and everything that was kind of unprecedented what we ran into. Um wanted to comment that my first job out of college was working for electric boat and I never got to see a sub launch, you know, so now I'm like really excited about going to see the Christy the submarine. So, um so that's really cool. um wanted to talk a little bit about the um the situation with the with the trash. Um you know, we we got a lot of emails, texts, calls um from residents. Matter of fact, there was a resident who uh reached out to me who said, "Hey, what about giving out um you know, free bags for the um for the residents and and I contacted Brutus, let him know that. So, that's great that the input from from that. But people understand is this an unprecedented situation. Um, that being said, now that it has happened to us, I think we should have a plan in place going forward to say, okay, if this ever happens again, if we have to miss, you know, miss a day and we can't get to it, that, you know, we're either going to provide the free bags or we're going to allow people to just put extra trash bags out with their carts or however we want to handle it. I think we should have definitely like a playbook to go to for that. but realized that um obviously, you know, it was a tough situation for the um for the for the DPW and for the town and that we're all wish that it didn't happen. I I just say that um I like the idea

last couple things I'll say. I like the idea of these um citizen committees. I worked on um a couple of different committees. um one for solid waste where we reduce the cost of solid so I always cut the the trash bill in half um and the other one was on um recycling which I spent probably about eight to nine years working on trying to improve recycling these didn't pull town a lot of town resources on the on the solid waste it was a one-year committee we had we had uh one town council I think who who served with us and um we would occasionally ask for information to pull information but I like the idea of this is because I think if we're going to have to solve this these budget budget issue. Um I think it it would be great to to look at seeing if we can pull from our our citizens to help us with this. I I think you know town council has their duties and I'll be willing to serve on that um as part of the town council representative with with citizens but I think you know we have we have the finance committee I know they have the kind of agenda that they have to work on and have to do. you know, this kind of thinking outside the box, um, coming up with ideas on and maybe even presenting it back, uh, to the town council and finance committee where residents, you know, we can open up to residents. I love the idea of that. So, I I'd like to see us consider that. Um, let's see. Last but not least, did you say cobalt?

Yes. Yes. Don't get me started. I used to program in Cobalt. Now I want it's not even language. That's what I was doing. That's what I was doing in electric boat. So just so you know. And uh yeah, that's all from me. Thank you.

Um okay. Um obviously I have been at the airport probably all winter long opening up the air runs and runways and it has been a very very bad winter. I can tell you that. I don't know if I was home seven days, seven nights all all winter. I was always in there. So, ditto to the DPW. I know they did a great job. I was on the phone with Brutus all the time. We always talk because we do the same thing. Um, and I also deliver oil and I've been in some towns. I won't say where, but if I was a taxpayer, I wouldn't pay my taxes because their roads were horrible trying to get through. It was awful trying to get down. So, kits to the DPW the trash. I mean, some towns they postponed it for the whole week. They didn't even not We lost a day. They postponed it for the whole week. they they you know and I don't I don't know Jane but I know that I've done some union contracts and if mother nature is involved with that then we don't have a leg to stand on if that's the way the contract was written. I don't know if it is. I don't know if we have that because the couple ones that I did with trash pickup if mother nature stops it from coming and we don't have a leg to stand on. That's just the contract.

You just have to look at the contract.

No, no, I don't know. I'm just saying um and I have to give uh kudos to the fire department. Um last week, last Wednesday, uh last Thursday, um my uh brother-in-law was having a massive heart attack in Franklin and um called 911. Unfortunately, he's he's fine. They had a med flight him to UMass Worester, but it was a long time to come because the ambulance had to come from Bellingham. So, it was like 20 minutes and somebody's having a massive heart attack. That was that was And it's not the Franklin people. I mean, the engine showed up. They were there anyway. But, um, that just goes to show you that, you know, we we should work to try to get that dirty everyone. because that was that I mean that was a long time especially if you're sitting there you know what I mean so but they did a great job and I thank Chuck and I thank everybody else for doing that because they they were there they we had to wait you know what I mean you got to get medflighted after so that that was pretty scary but uh they did a great job so I commend them uh but outside of that um oh and I'd like to give uh condolence to Paul Compton Paul passed away. He was kind of a he was kind of a a legend in town, should I say. Uh but he passed away and uh he was always good to have a conversation with. So um you know, may he rest in peace. He's a very nice guy. Uh but outside of that, I think we will move on to subcommittees. The only subcommittee we have is the budget subcommittee right now. I don't met.

You haven't met, right? Kendy's Ken's the chair. So, but uh and we will have subcommittees. It's just I got to work with Jamie because he doesn't have enough help to so it's not going to be like every week. It's not going to be, you know, it can't be because he's he's just doesn't have enough help. But we will have subcommittees. I promise you. I'll probably name him next in March 18th, right? I'll probably name him none. Okay. So, just so you know, uh we have been working like everybody else said, but it's it is hard. Uh town administrator report.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Glad Steve could get back to his chair.

Norm. Um you know, uh so a couple updates uh and to follow up on the comments tonight. So, just uh the snow and ice budget this year is now before last night. uh2,167,77. So after last night's near $65,000 double ice coverage throughout town, which was needed, if any of you were up really early this morning, you know, um the uh men and women's hockey teams could have played, you know, probably on many of our streets and in our in our yards. At least my uh driveway could have been a hockey rink. um you know, we're going to hit both the operating budget and also um go through the entire snow and and ice stabilization fund and we're probably going to hit it right at that number. So, we're going to be really close. Um but we won't have any excess money to put into the savings account. And so, um so it's good news and bad news. Bad news is we went through it all. But hopefully with the weather forecast coming up the next two weeks um with a few thoughts and prayers, hopefully we can keep the uh the cold weather behind of us. Uh I'm not going to reiterate all the thank yous to the public works department. Uh they know how I feel about them. They did an amazing job. Um I do want to send a huge shout out uh to the custodial team. Uh most people may not be aware, but our DPW does all the roads. They do the sidewalks. Uh but our custodians do all of our town and school facilities. They do all the walkways. Um they came in uh extra time to make sure that everything was ready for school. Um and I just want to give a huge shout out to our custodial team who do an unbelievable job and oftentimes um goes a little bit unnoticed. And I do want to thank our fire and police as many of you probably saw. Um we were on TV during the first portion of it with a huge power line down. Um and just want to thank them uh for their continual bravery and all the other stories that councelor Mallaloy and many of you know um of their small uh acts uh that they do that u make a huge difference and I

couldn't agree with councelor Mallaloy uh on his comments um you know I'm lucky enough and I hope all of you are fortunate enough um that as your coun as you as you move on as a counselor you'll notice that those acts that our officers and firefighters do um happen every week um and they happen go unnoticed but a a lot of people um you know get a lot of help from our officers. They're an incredible team. Trash. I'm not going to rehash uh what everybody said here. I do want to emphasize a couple points that uh that were not mentioned. One, I do want to apologize to the residents who were impacted by this. Um we appreciate everybody's patience. I think despite a lot of the emails that many of we all of us got, I think there were far more people um that were just doing the best they could to work through the situation. Just want to thank them for their patience. Um, we certainly obviously take all the input uh and emails to heart. Um, obviously responding to a lot of those folks over the weekend takes a little bit of time as well. Um, but for those of you who did miss trash pickup, um, as councelor Grella and others mentioned, you there are bags at the DPW. We did work out a system where people can use their own trash bags so they don't have to go down to the DPW. Um, but I think more importantly, part of the playbook is the recycling center is open for those residents to go down and throw away their trash. Um, they were open every day this week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, uh, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, now that it's Wednesday night and the recycling center just closed at 6:00, um, for anybody that still uh has an issue and wants to uh dispose of the garbage in their house, you can go down tomorrow, Thursday, or Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. And I think, um, as many of you probably are aware, um, most communities don't get curbside trash pickup. Um, and so a lot of communities you have to drive to the town dump or the town recycling center and drop stuff off yourself. We're very sorry for the inconvenience for a week or two that folks may have to do that, but we did provide the recycling center for all

those residents. So, it's not like if you if you don't want the trash in your house, which we fully understand, you know, just drive down the recycling center and the staff at the DPW uh are there to help out. You can bring down all your recyclables. Um, and we're not charging anybody for that extra fee when it's if you don't have a recycling sticker and you were impacted by this, we're not charging you $35 on that at all. Um, we do have a contract with waste management. I will say I don't have it memorized off the top of my head. Um, but to councelor Deloo's point, there's usually an act of God, you know, provision in there. And even if there isn't, um, it's extremely hard because when something like this comes up, it doesn't just it didn't just impact Franklin, it impacted dozens upon dozens of communities all over the place. Um, and so in this type of thing, you're basically into a contractual battle about how to do that. And I would say that um you know hopefully people will have some understanding that this was a historic storm. Um it's going to be difficult to do that type of a credit if not impossible. Um and that there were communities across all of the region and across the state that had those disruptions. So um if I do hear of any other communities that are going forward with that kind of a concept, uh certainly let people know. Um and I would remind people um you know this has been a historic winter. We all know that. Um we've been very lucky to have very few power outages in town, if very very few.

Um you know, this is the first time in over 10 years that there's been a missed trash delay that since I've been here,

and I was trying to get Brutus to remind me. I don't think he's had one like this in his 21 years in Franklin. So, um this is one week where there's one minor disruption. And it's not to try to um say that I'm not empathetic to the cause, but um you know, I think that um you know, these things do happen. Unfortunately, last summer, I'd remind everybody um if people were watching the TV, there was a massive strike from the Teamsters Union um where they walked off the job for about three months and the city of Newton, city of PBD, and about 20 communities on the north shore didn't have trash pickup through their entire city for the entire summer. Um, and so, uh, we can think that this is a tough thing to triage, but when you go back and look what happened last year, that was a very serious public health threat that those communities were facing. So, um, I'm hopeful by the end of this week with the recycling center being open and free for people to throw away their trash, hopefully once everybody gets their trash picked up later this week, uh, hopefully we'll move on. And I'd be remiss to say, I'm sure the 60°ree weather hopefully this weekend will hopefully improve um, all of this as well. Um to address a couple of the of K's uh points, I had this down anyways. Um so next week on March 18th or two weeks from now, uh the council should expect a joint meeting with the school committee. Um on that agenda, the feature presentation will be the department of elementary and secondary education. That's the statewide um uh education office. Um they will be coming to give a presentation and answer questions on um on education form on state aid. Um, I'm sure there'll be plenty of questions hopefully about hold harmless. Um, and we're currently working with the other chair of the school committee and I've talked to the superintendent about how to try to maximize that night and I think a couple of the primers may be how do the council and school committee want to work together in the future. Um, what kind of schedules they want to be on. I think to Kay's comment, many other people um, you know, trying to figure out what some of those solutions are going to be. Um, and also, um, it's not something you still

have to do, but, uh, the superintendent and I are going to try to give an overview of what, um, a strategic planning process would be to try to come up with, uh, community shared values, shared principles, and things of that sort. So, uh, we're looking forward to that meeting because I think it'll be very productive and I think it'll address a lot of the, uh, community concerns. I would note, um, if you go on to the town franklinmma.gov uh and you go to the town budget website um you'll see the town budget link. You can go right down to FY27 and the staff have loaded up the materials from uh that were presented on February 11th. So my memo, the budget model, um some of the things, the changes, some of the concerns. So if people in the community want to start getting acclimated with that information, it would certainly help quite a bit. Um the finance committee just last week appointed their members to the joint budget subcommittee meeting uh to the joint budget subcommittee. So uh Julie and I are going to put out uh a save the date. Um we're looking at March 25th, but I'm not sure that that date may or may not work yet. Um if not, we'll have to kick one of them out to April. So the joint budget subcommittee should be getting started um soon. And also um just to note to the uh comment on subcommittees um you know we will be discussing that tonight. I hope the council comes up with a list of subcommittees. Just for the record, and I'll talk about later, too, I'm not against subcommittees at all. Um, but as councelor DLCO pointed out, I just want to set the expectation that um the subcommittee be able to meet. Um, I'm going to have to disperse some of that work to other staff and just try to coordinate um and how to manage the amount of hours um that staff are out um on uh on subcommittee meetings. So, um hopefully we'll have that uh done later on. Really quickly, a personnel update. Um, a big breather in our office. Uh, Liz Collasian has started. Uh, her first day was the snowstorm. Her second day was the snowstorm, but I was proud of her. She jumped right in. Um, she got on our emergency management calls when we were checking in with the chiefs and the other staff and the superintendent. So,

it was great to have Liz. And it was also great um I I think I knew this, but I didn't, but um Liz had actually had experience in Franklin before uh working at our public relations firm with the schools. So, um, Lucas had some really nice things to say about Liz when she got on the call. It was kind of a surprise for everybody. So, it was a good kind of karma serendipitous moment. Um, also our part-time administrative assistant, Sandy Moore, um, has started earlier this week as well. Hallelujah. For Julie, really more than more than even me.

Um, so it's really exciting to have Sandy in the office. Um, also, uh, facilities, our deputy director of facilities will start within the next couple weeks. So, finally, Kevin will have saw him here earlier. He'll have a full administrative team. He's been down one person for a little bit. As Council Dulo mentioned earlier, the third ambulance, uh, the paramedics will be on. Um, and so that's for daytime peak hours. So, that's a really good um that's a really good thing to obviously have back. And, um, we've had two mental health clinicians on our staff um, uh, leave for Greater Pastures and we were able to fill one of those uh, Danielle recently. Um she starts I believe next week and so it's looking like um our mental health division at the police department is going to pick back up um covering their turf throughout the community as well. Um and finally I want to end on another positive note. I just want to thank the Benjamin Franklin uh classical charter school um for reaching out to a bunch of us um usually on an annual basis they come out for the Reach Out and Read Across America program. Um I went down and read um a book by Miranda Paul called Right Now uh yesterday morning um and in uh to the first graders at the charter school. It was a tremendous uh it was a tremendous experience as they always are. I want to thank Brutus and Ali Ray and I know there's probably some other folks um from town and from our schools and from our volunteer boards that went um but in a very uplifting moment through one of the books if you're familiar with it maybe you're not. There's a point in there where one of the little girls that um was successful in trying to petition for world peace at a tender age of about seven years old. I asked all the students uh who were six. I asked them I paused and I said, "So, how many of you kids believe in world peace?" And I have never seen hands go up faster in my life. They were jumping off off the the ground. Um the teachers uh got a tear in their eye. I did too. Um so it was very heartwarming seeing what we're seeing

throughout our world. Um to see uh yet again children being our leaders right there and saying we believe in world peace. And so that was a really great experience and a really uplifting one in dark times to see um the excitement around something like that. Um so I thank uh them at the charter school for an incredible experience and I know that they do a great job over there. So appreciate the update uh Mr. Chairman and uh I now yield the floor.

Thank you. Uh, thank you, Lieutenant Jamie. Just wanted to update that uh the town of Peabuddy, I work with the chairman of that town council and he's a teamster. So, he had a rough summer this time. He had a rough summer. Uh, okay. We don't have any proclamations or recognitions. Have an approval of minutes from FE for February 11, 2026. So motion to approve. Motion to approve. Second. I have a motion to second. Additions, deletions, any. All in favor?

I opposed. Motion passes. Appointments. Franklin 250 anniversary celebration committee. Courtney Shimemer Shimemer is she here or online? I don't believe so. Um, you want to go read the appointment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an appointment to Franklin's 250th anniversary celebration committee. The town administrator has appointed Courtney Shimemer to serve on Franklin's 250th anniversary celebration committee with a term to expire on June 30th, 2029. The motion is to ratify this appointment by the town administrator of Courtney Shimemer to serve as a member of Franklin's 250th anniversary celebration committee with a term to expire June 30th, 2029. Uh, second. Second. I have a motion and a second. Council, any

discussion? Any discussion at all? Thank you. Thank you. I agree with that. I'll second that. All in favor? I I opposed. Thank you. Welcome aboard. Yes. Thank you, Courtney.

All right. No public hearings, no license transaction. We have a presentation, but I talked to a couple people and I think we're going to move this to the end of the meeting because we're going to move to legislation for action and get the other other stuff done quicker because we really don't want to stay here longer after we have the big presentation. So, we'd rather end on that. So, yeah. Excellent.

Sounds good. So, we have we're going to skip resolution 2610 and move to resolution 2611. The clerk will read the resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Resolution 26-11, the establishment of an ad hoc subcommittee to preview the town charter. Whereas, the Franklin Town Council desires to establish an ad hoc subcommittee to review the town charter. Now therefore, the Franklin Town Council hereby establishes the ad hoc subcommittee to review the town charter as follows. The purpose of the town council ad hoc subcommittee to review town charter here and after known as subcommittee is to have three town counselors authorized and appointed per section 25 of the Franklin Town Council procedure manual to conduct a non-binding preliminary review of the Franklin Home Rule Charter. The subcommittee will consist of three members of the town council, including a chair, vice chair, and clerk. The subcommittee's responsibilities will include conducting a non-binding preliminary review of the town charter, conducting outreach to the community to receive feedback and public input, producing a final report which may include recommendations on next steps and shall be reviewed by the town council to determine the will of the public in altering the town charter. The subcommittee shall be advisory only and will not supersede any formal legal process required or authorized by Mass General Law or within the Franklin Town Charter or the Town Code to amend the Franklin Homerew Charter. And the committee recognizes that to amend the town charter will require a charter commission andor legitimate andor ballot authorization.

Uh sorry, legislative, not legitimate. uh this that this resolution shall become effective according to the provisions of the town of Franklin home rule charter. Motion to approve resolution 2611. Second. I have a motion to second. Discussion. Any discussion? I

All right. Um so I just want to make sure that I'm clear. This committee would then put forth um essentially the same thing we'd be asking a charter commission to do. So, we would be creating a um a subcommittee to put a ballot question out or to decide to recommend to us whether we vote to put a ballot question so that the town can decide whether we create a charter commission. Um does to me that seems like a like a little bit of unnecessary work. um that you know I mean I I feel like this is when we don't have time for subcommittees this seems like a subcommittee to do a lot of work that is going to then have to be done by a charter commission

down the road before before he goes yeah um that's um that's the council's decision right we did a charter presentation I think uh November December

I my impression was the consensus was to go forward and and do something. Um but um I think the the the bigger objective of this card committee is to kind of do some outreach to people, find find areas at which there are issues in the town charter that either the community or other town boards, you know, have concerns about whether not just on the council either by the way you know I know for example many members of the board of health and the board of assessors have asked to not be elected for many years. Um there may be some other areas. So, I think the primary point is to try to get kind of a list of, you know, uh, issues with the town charter that maybe others have and then decide whether or not you're going to go all in. Once you decide you're going to go in on a charter commission, you're correct, Council Griffith, you have to go to the ballot. You have to have an election. A charter commission is elected and then they have full independent autonomy. Um there are other legislative routes through home rules, but I think defining what you're going to try to fix in the town charter is really a big deal and that's step one. Um once you put a charter commission out, then it's it's open season and and then they come back and then there's got to be another ballot question. So I think my impression was at first that the the consensus was to have some sort of activity because I think I was getting the feedback that I think a lot of people in town, different stakeholders were having some different issues around some of the provisions there. not just staggered terms and I know the school committee's had issues with that too. So um that's really the the goal here just to produce a a large report. Um and if the decision is to go to a charter commission then that's the council's decision to put that on the ballot you know at a special election or a regular schedule a regularly a regularly scheduled local election in the future.

Thank you. Is that I hope that I hope that helps through the chair. Jamie, was it there or Mark I thought you had just also described a way that we could maybe potentially make some changes or small changes to the charter without Yeah. So that was the point I was going to make. Okay. First of all is is as as the administrator indicated the important thing is to identify where you believe the deficiencies are that drives what your options may be and then there are several different legal mechanisms available to you. uh to determine how you want to proceed.

Right. So basically what you're saying Mark is that it all depends what it is. We we might not have to go to a chat. I think that's that's what coming up. through you like in um 10 12 years ago the the the community decided they didn't want to elect the treasur collector anymore and the treasurer collector didn't want to be elected anymore and you had to go to the ballot twice but that was just a simple ballot question because it was a limited it was a limited change it was just that one change right

so I think I think that's part of it and and I do want to say I appreciate councel Griffith's acknowledgement of the restrictions on staff and time and whatnot but I think that's in your purview to kind of define as a community as a committee like where do you want the time spent and if the charter commission is not an area of priority that's okay um you know we should focus on some other areas so I think it's it's kind of goes hand inhand with the goals tonight I think so I appreciate that

um just to follow I I agree I think I feel like if not all then most people up here have said that there are things that should be addressed in the charter it was just my understanding from you know previous comments was that to change the charter regardless, we were going to have to do a charter commission. So, it felt like why are we doing a subcommittee to to then put it to the town to vote on a charter commission to then have them do the work that we just spent time for on the subcommittee to do. Um, but if it, you know, if if we can find some things that can be done without going to a charter commission, if that's not unnecessary, then I think that it would be a, you know, a good use of time.

Yeah, good use of time. I agree with you. Uh, anybody else? All right. To vote on it on it. That's resolution 26-1. All in favor?

I opposed 90 sir. Resolution 2612 appropriation funds to borrow to pay for the cost of purchase of a fire truck for the fire department. Will read the resolution. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The following is resolution 26-12, the appropriation of funds by borrowing to pay costs for the purchase of a firet truck for the Franklin Fire Department. Whereas the town council has been advised of a need to purchase a firetr for use by the Franklin Fire Department. Now therefore, be it ordered by the town council of the town of Franklin that $935,000 is appropriated to pay costs of purchasing and equipping one fire truck for use by the Franklin Fire Department and for the payment of all costs incidental and related there too. And that to meet this appropriation, the treasurer collector with the approval of the town administrator is authorized to borrow at one time or from time to time $935,000 under general law section 44 subsection 7 paragraph 1 or pursuant to any other enabling authority and to issue bonds or notes of the town. Therefore, this resolution shall become effective according to provisions of the town of Franklin home rule charter.

Motion to approve resolution 2612. Second. All right. I have a motion and second. Uh so we should probably go to Jamie first and then to the fire.

Yep. Uh through you, Mr. Chairman. So obviously the fire department's here to answer any questions about the truck. I do want to also acknowledge Ryan Lorna who's from the finance committee. Yeah, you didn't get a chance to watch last week's finance committee. They actually uh discussed having a finance committee member come to council meetings when they make a recommendation that if there's any questions from anybody, it's trying to get everybody working together. And I saw George here somewhere. Oh, there he is. The chairman's also a fire guy, so I think that's why he's here. But um uh if everybody didn't have a chance to watch the finance committee meeting, um they had a great discussion about it about a variety of different options. And I think as you saw um you know different members had different opinions which is great. Um and at the end they did come to the unanimous consensus the six members that were there to do a borrowing anticipation note of the full amount leave the stabilization fund with money in it. And um what the ban essentially does is allow us to borrow the money but not in full. So we don't have to do an S&P call. We don't have to do a bond rating call which is a huge deal. Um, and then basically this question of borrowing gets kicked out a full year. Um, there's a small cost in here. If you did the full amount, uh, I think it's like 40 something thousand that would go into the operating budget. U 40, how much is it?

32 32,000 32,000 that would go into the budget um to pay off um the uh basically the interest. Um, so there's a variety of different options that's outlined in the memo and obviously we put photos in here and a description of the whole thing um from the fire chief. So, um, happy to answer any questions. Uh, the CFO is here as well and happy to answer any questions that the council may have. But finance committee did revolve did come to a consensus on a ban for a full year at six to nothing bill. Um, do you have anything? Uh, yeah, sure. I mean, I guess I would just add since you came and address.

Yeah, sir. Ryan Leavia, 58 Lennox Drive, and one of our finance committee members. Um, as Jamie mentioned, we're going to try to send somebody. I think the the goal there is to maybe cut down time a little bit. We saw that you guys were having to make motions to extend past 10. And I think we're having some of the same conversations, right? I think we put you through your paces about everything about the underside chassis of a truck and more than I ever needed to know about fire trucks. Um but just to explain kind of some of the decision if you didn't get to listen to the financing portion of it. We had talked about the stabilization fund. We had talked about a long-term um bond. Those options I'll say we basically voted for a glorified kick the can which most of the time you try to avoid but we think in this case makes sense. So, with a broader budget discussion going on, the the long-term bond, as Jamie mentioned, is just like a lot of process and effort and then costs more money than kicking the can. Um, and this is a a million dollars roughly. It's not worth that money kicking the, you know, to to put through right now for a million dollars. There are much bigger things that if we even if we just, you know, delay a little bit, there will be bigger things the town does need to borrow for that this can be bundled into. And then when we do that, we can choose to use the stabilization fund at that point in time. So it's not saying we won't use the stabilization fund. It's just saying not right this moment because we're not actually going to pay any of the principle of the fire truck. We're just paying interest. Um so that was effectively where we discussed with the decision. I think just I would add we did discuss some of the other, you know, I'll say longer term impacts. We have a whole bunch of vehicles in town. This is just one. I think the fire department maybe has trucks that are in, you know, better shape. This is this is the one and that we kind of talked through some of their longer term capital plan, but uh one of the things that came up that I just want to put back on, you know, this group's radar was we don't have a car wash of any kind for those vehicles.

So, it's some 200 odd cars. I think it was brought up in the past of, you know, maybe we could maintain our vehicles better and avoid some of these capital capital expenditures, you know, in unanticipated ways if we were maintaining those vehicles differently. Um, and councelor Corman Ledger, I think you kind of alluded to this, right? This is a true capital expenditure where ironically, you know, the meeting before we had used most of our free cash for different things. like this is one of the things that we would want to have, you know, free cash in $935,000 around to pay for if we were going to do it that way or stabilization fund. Our options were a little bit limited just based on the budget. Um, but from what we had, we think this is the best choice at the time.

So, happy to feel any questions if you had any for the finance committee. Um, but we did what we spent probably an hour on this. All right. So, okay. Uh then we'll go to chap. What do you got?

Chuck Allen fire chief. I'm joined with deputy chief of operations Jim Klitchch. As uh we mentioned uh briefly uh a couple weeks ago in the last council meeting, we had we have a 2013 Pierce Impel firet truck that has extreme frame corrosion. We had to take it out of service. Uh it's too dangerous to drive. We did identify a replacement. The cost of that is a demo unit. It's $935,000. It's a a kind of a one-time opportunity for us to be able to purchase this vehicle because there's not a lot of these vehicles that are out there available. Um, typical wait time to have one built um is about 36 to 48 months at this point. So, the fact that there one is is available right now and we're in this unfortunate situation. Having to purchase one uh this is a good opportunity for us to be able to get our fleet back uh going. So, be happy to answer any questions you have about the vehicle or the process.

Um Yeah. No, but I'll tell you that from my experience, it has a coming uh ISL9 engine which is very good. That that my personal opinion, that's probably one of the best out there, if not the best. I I'm a series 60 Detroit guy, but they don't make them anymore.

But, uh, that's a very good motor. That's what we have in ours, and we we've had little to no trouble. So, that's a good motor. let everybody know. Um, I mean the car wash would be nice, but a high pressure a high pressure steam is good, too. That's what I do it. That's what we do with all our vehicles at Massport. We steam, we just steam them all out afterwards. I don't know what would work because it's just

we're going to explore our options in the future, right? Looking looking forward to be able to try and steam them after every storm, you know, but then they're still riding around the street. So you guys, you know, it's 601 houses and the other chap you know. Uh any other questions for the Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Chuck, just just for clarification because I remember a couple years ago when we had to appropriate funds for a firet truck because you were doing a purchase order and it was being built and it was coming from the Midwest and there was very few places that made these and it was this big deal and we were lucky to sort of get it. Where's this one coming from?

It's coming from there's a local dealer in North Smithville that ordered this as a demo unit to bring to uh trade shows. Really, most of them, most of these manufacturers will buy one. They'll wait three or four years for it to come in. They kind of stack them that way. Then they release them to the open market. This truck was built in, I think it was, uh, Iowa. It's a toine fire apparatus. I believe that's where they're based. Um, so this is about to be released to the open market, so anybody in the country can pick it up. Just happens to be here locally in North Smithfield. It's a dealer, so they do have it available right now. Um, but that that's technically where it'll be coming from. And they made a deal with us to hold it for a certain amount of time so we could get the money. Is that what they're doing?

Yes. Okay. So, assuming this all passes, how quickly will you have the truck in your possession? I have the truck in our possession within 60 days.

60 days. All right. So, in the meantime, just for the public's benefit, what are you guys doing? Uh like are we utilizing other other towns are having to respond more or what are we doing with that truck? still have our two frontline apparatus um that are both our E1s that we purchased in 21. Um this truck is the truck that that is not usable is the one that rotates into that rotation when those trucks go out for service. Um so right now we're delaying some service on some of those. Um and we're if we had to borrow a truck, we'd have to borrow some from another community if we came into that situation. Typically we we like we've had in the past always a backup if something happens. So what this truck would do is it would go into frontline service. We'll move one of the 21s into a reserve status and that would help us extend the fleet a long time.

Yeah. No, I think that's important for people to know that there is a process in place and you know your responses are still happening. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I actually had a finance question uh regarding the b the is the ban. Um, so you're leaving money in the stabilization account and so I just wanted clarification why we're leaving money in the stabilization account and then if you're going to make other capital purchases in the future with to like wrap everything together, are you getting a better interest rate and um and also like what other capital expendences expenses do you see in the future that you're going to bundle it with? So Carrie CFO um through the chair um so we are not my advice was not to use the reserves at this time because I know there's a future truck that we're going to have to buy in 2033. So I thought let's build up the reserves more so when we make that purchase it's reduced doing a ban. It's a note uh for one and in one year we have a determination of do we want to roll it again and I'm only making an interest payment in the future we're going to have a much larger debt and b borrowing to do. I can take this small amount and put it towards that large one because again there's issuance costs that also get uh built into that. And the last truck that we bought was $45,000 in just issuance cost. So again, doing a ban, there are no issuance costs. It's just one year of an interest payment.

Um, but again, the option is there to use the reserves. It just wasn't my advice. And are you expecting interest rates to go down within the next year? So we're expecting from we have a financial advisor that I work with and currently a borrowing is at 3%. And a note is at 3.5, but that is coming down. So we do anticipate a little bit. Yes. All right. That's all I got. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome.

Yeah. I just wanted to recogn I mean I did watch the finance committee. I wanted to recognize you all for your discussion. Um it was it was helpful and I am certainly for the the method that has been suggested to do the ban. It's basically a a line of credit for you that you'd have on your house. Pay the interest and at some point in time you'll start paying principal. I like the approach. Agreed. Agreed. Just a quick question. So the band is basically like a deferred payment. So you're only required to pay the interest without the principal, but in another year you could do that a second time. Are you is that what I'm understanding?

So you are understanding it correctly. I I'm not going to use the word deferred just because I want to be crystal clear on this. Um so we are going you have an interest payment in fiscal year 27 and at the end when that matures we will be brought I I will speak to Jamie again the finance committee and say we can roll this over another year and just have another interest payment that's the beauty of borrowing against uh it's borrowing anticipation note um so you can do that when we do the bond that's when you have to begin paying principal and interest. Okay, I hope um Oh,

sorry. So, um two things. First, I really appreciate the uh creative approach to solving the problem. I think this I think it makes a lot of sense. Um I do have a question, however, uh around the essentially we're buying a floor model, um which again I think makes sense. Can you can you talk a little bit about how does at least I couldn't find it in in the materials and I don't recall it from the meeting. You know, how does that impact the longevity of the of the new truck? You know, is that how how do we how should we think about that?

We're definitely not buying a lesser firet truck. Um the floor models are really just a they spec them out kind of a basic spec um for a for a vehicle. So, it's going to have the same pump, the same engine, the same chassis. Typically, when a when a fire department orders a firet truck, they might say, I want a cabinet of this size in this location or I want an EMS cabinet, we're we run the apparatus we run now, our standard fire trucks. So, um we would we would try and just get a standard spec no matter what we would do. Um so, this does fit into that into that realm. Longevity wise, this vehicle does have a galvanized hot dip frame rail, so that has a 25-y year warranty on it. The body is a Spartan cab which is extrudeed aluminum and the the uh the cabinets in the back are made out of stainless steel which fits in line with some of the vehicles we have in service now. So the longevity should be there warranty should be there and it should carry us forward for for quite a while but it's definitely not less of an apparatus. We are buying something that will be useful for us. We'll be able to put in the service right away.

Appreciate that. Thank you. uh checkbook just for the public to know what make sure the year of this is this is a 2025 2025 but it's never been in service never been in service never been in service just just for the public to know um now will they do will they paint it while do we have to send it out to get painted right now it's it's red with a white roof which is what we used to be but they'll letter it in that price is is them putting our graphics on it Yeah, stuff like that. I didn't know. Okay. All right. Be the first truck with the new logo. That's Yeah. Uh just one question. The existing truck that's

Yeah. is gone. Um did that have a warranty on it? Yeah. You know, we we've gone through that with Pearson. I know the deputy can speak to a little bit of that as well. A lot of departments have tried to get Pierce Manufacturing to warranty these vehicles. Um I don't know what it came with at the time. Um but

they they call it a lifetime warranty, but they uh they have their outs um with that. Um it is a generation of truck that year. Um for those that may remember from the previous one, we did this back in 21. Uh we had another engine that was a 2007 actually had the same problems. This one is now to the point where that 2007 was back in in 2021 where basically the frame rails are down to what's legally the legal limit that can be on the road. Um so there have been a lot of departments as the chief said that have gone back to Pierce and other manufacturers. It's not just a Pierce problem with these frame rails that were not galvanized. Um and by their own admission they were just poorly built frame rails for all these manufacturers. the content of chromium or whatever that was in them were just much more prone to corrosion. Um, and when it's been brought up to the manufacturers about that, um, they will then claim that, you know, although they say when we bought it that it had lifetime frame rail warrantes, that they use the out of the road conditions we have, they they claim that, you know, they're not properly maintained, that they're not neutralized uh after every trip on the road with some sort of salt neutralizer. Um so there were many departments many very large departments um across the country that have um basically sought recourse from the manufacturers in the beginning of nowhere where there's probably going to still be issues. I know there was an article we saw the other day from Canada. Yeah.

They were they were having some issues there that they were seems like an opportunity for class action. There are several out there now. It's it's actually they've made much Yeah. not much traction with it, but yeah, that there are some out there.

It's actually a crisis in the country with these trucks that are not not lasting from that generation of time. And there's a lot of departments that are in far worse shape than we are that don't have them and are forced to, you know, use other means or or put things out of service. They don't have them back. So, we're we're lucky in that respect that we we had the foresight back in, you know, the late teens, early 20s to be able to replace that last one. Um, this one we thought we could get a little bit more time out of. Um it it was scheduled replacement for 28 uh which would have been it expected lifetimes is a couple years earlier than than we wanted to get you have to replace it but um we did expect it to kind of have this problem. We've been monitoring this over the over the years and unfortunately it got to the point where it was unsafe to drive. We're not going to put any people in it. We've used it to its full life. So it doesn't even have any value as a trade. The uh the the dealership wants nothing to do with it. So we'll have to figure out a way to dispose of it here. I think that does have to do with with Uh the uh DPW will probably get rid of submit or something like that. Somebody will buy.

Yeah. Parts probably. Okay.

Um yeah. So I I know that I've been out to pass and and the place is jammed. I you can't you can't even believe how how busy they are. And they're one of the better companies. I hate to say it. They they really are. Um the problem is that the supposedly what are you supposed to get 10 years in in rural 5 years in in city that's what you're supposed to get. So even if you if you're in within that 10 then pier comes back with well you had salt road so it'll take a couple more years off. They get it out. They they they do they do I know what you guys are going through and I I pity you but that's how they do it. All right. Um, so we have a motion on the floor with a second. So all in favor to approve resolution 2612

2/3 vote 2/3 majority. All in favor? I I Any motion passed? Thank you very much for your support. I do just really want to say I the fire department does appreciate the kind comments. Uh the firefighters at the station uh I'm sure they're listening to this tonight and they so thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Resolution 26-13 parking meters cease appropriation will read.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, this is resolution 26-13, parking meter receipts appropriation. The appropriation of receipts reserved for appropriation from the parking fund. Total requested is $20,000. The purpose is to appropriate from receipts reserved for appropriation parking fund $20,000 for expenses related to the operation of parking permit kio parking payment kiosks at two municipal parking lots. So, the motion be it moved and voted by the town council of the town of Franklin that the sum of $20,000 shall be transferred and appropriated from receipts reserved to appropriation parking fund for the payments of the expenses stated above. This resolution shall become effective according to the provisions of the town of Franklin homero charter.

Motion to approve resolution 2613. Second. We have a motion and a second. Jamie, we'll go to you first.

Yeah. So, three, Mr. Chairman. So, this is the first time we've done this. Uh, Councelor Deloro and Councelor Cormier ledger will remind remember remember the reform we did with the downtown parking lots. Some of you may be familiar. They used to be permit only. Um, and then a couple years ago, the council changed the entire bylaw after the pandemic. Nobody was parking and commuting on the tea anymore. And so, um, they made the lots completely open for everybody to use. um cheap plug. They're free at night, so nobody should complain that they can't find parking when going out to downtown to go out to eat. Um but during the day, there's a small fee that's charged for people who do commute. We're half the price of the tea lot down below. Um and as a result, we put all of that revenue in a special revenue account. And so each year, the council has to appropriate the money. Actually, every two years, the council has to appropriate the money to pay the kiosk company to do the software and all of that. Um, so this is appropriation tonight is for a two-year basically paying for the um for the systems at the kiosks at the depot lot and the Ferraris lot. Um, and then um unfortunately um um there have been some um I guess hooligans trying to bash them in and thinking that there's money in them. So we have about a $900 uh fix that we have to do, but fortunately we're bringing in more money than what the cost is. So there is a little bit of a surplus that we're trying to build in that account for things like this or if costs, you know, go way up. Um and uh and so that's what this is tonight. So this hopefully will cover the cost for a couple years. And um and um hopefully uh hopefully nobody else will try to bash in the kiosks. So unfortunately that's just comes I think unfortunately with public parking this is part of what happens. I don't think this is the only one where people are trying to break into them. So um so that's it. Thank you.

Um, yes. Um, so we're spending $20,000 to put towards the kiosks. What is the cost of the kiosk system per year that we're using? It's about it's about seven about $6,500 per year to manage, you know, for the company to manage all the software upgrades and and um you know, it's it's essentially like any other parking service. We're paying a a Flowbird um to um essentially manage the system. Um the revenue comes into the treasury um you know generally through credit cards but um you know it's about 6,500 a year and is that in line with sort of other services that charge for these kinds of things?

I have no clue. Um I've never done a market basket on like we did do uh when we picked Flowbird um it was the finance office myself uh the police department really led the charge on all this. Um, we had presentations at one point, I think, at a council meeting. Um, you know, I can't I can't recall it was probably three years ago now, but um, we did look at other companies. Um, and um, this is the one that that folks seem to be most focused on to to pick. Um, and and what percentage of the revenue is used for other things and what is going back to Flowberg?

It can only be used for these purposes. It's completely restricted to costs relative to parking. So we're just charging people to maintain the system. Well, the system, you know, theoretically, I mean, because this is the first time, first couple years we've gone through this. I mean, some some modest snow and ice removal and maintenance money could come out of this account if we had a little bit of a surplus and we could fill potholes or do like some, you know, basic things up there. But, um, you know, I mean, the the parking fees are in the town bylaw. Um, so we'd have to go through an exercise about the actual, you know, rates, but, you know, because we're half of what the T is paying down below. Um, you know, it's a pretty competitive rate.

I mean, if it can't go into the town operating budget, I just don't see why we're I mean, I just don't know if it makes much sense if we maybe we should just make the parking lot free if we're just funding. I wouldn't do that, but I mean, we could put and take away the special revenue account. We could put the money into the budget. Um, but then we'd have to pay the expense out of the budget, too. So, it's kind of like it's kind of like, but is all of the money parking going to the special account?

Under statute, we have to parking fees have to be used for this exclusive purpose. We can't, in other words, we can't charge people $10 a day to park there and then supplant and and fund the rest of the budget. For whatever reason, in Mass General law, parking receipts are reserved for the for these exclusive purposes. Probably because towns have come up with ways to try to up parking fees to pay for other services. And people who are parking probably felt like they were getting ripped off, you know, decades ago. I don't I don't know the history. This is really old. So, um, you know, you got to use the money that you collect for that for these services. So, if we vote yes, it'll go to Flowberg. If we vote no, what happens? So we have to stop using

we'll just stop using the whole thing and we'll take away parking. I mean I think a discussion if you want to make the lots free or discuss you know we we do we they're like I think it's from 8 to 6 um right? See it's like 8 to 6 Monday through Friday it's like daytime hours and then on weekends at nights I think it's 8 to 4 but anyways at nights afternoons and weekends are all free. Mhm.

You can't park overnight. So, everybody's got to be out by midnight, as the people who were recently ticketed now know. Um, you can't park over midnight. And there's a point between, I think, midnight and 6:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. where the police go through the parking lot and ticket cars that are parked overnight. So, I think I'm going to vote for it today, but I think we need to revisit it because I think spending, you know, $10,000, $7,000 just to go to just to maintain the meters, charging people to maintain their own fines or fees doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I think that's basically how every other city or town.

I mean, Gloucester, Rockport, I mean, there's dozens of communities that use Flowbird. Um, and it's the exact same, you know, it's the exact same model, right? Otherwise, how do you pay for the software and the service? Otherwise, that comes directly out of property taxes out of the budget, right? So, I mean, Boston, I I don't know any other city or town that doesn't do it like it does. No, I don't. Well, I mean, if we made it free, then every Dean kid would be parking there in a minute. So,

Well, I think everybody would park there. I'd park there, right? I mean, we Anytime you get free spaces, you park. But we tried to make it, I think, in working with the downtown partnership. They were a part of this, too. Worked with Scott Martin. Um, I think they were excited from a partnership level. I mean, they were really working at this with us for a long time because a lot of merchants and other patrons that were going downtown during the day could never get a space in that lot. They were exclusively for commuters.

They were exclusively for commuters and they were exclusively for there were two dozen business permits only. And truth be told, I think there were 24 or 26 somewhere in that middle range. It was like two dozen dedicated spaces towards merchants. But the truth was is one merchant was buying almost all of those u all of those spaces, right? So it wasn't we went out and did outreach to other businesses and they didn't want to pay.

So everybody wanted everything for free. And you know, I mean, I get that, but it it's not really economically feasible. Um, and so, man, you guys, I I think it was councelor Hamlin, there's a bunch of people that went through this for two or three, maybe a couple years. We worked with the downtown partnership and they were excited that at night and on weekends, the spaces were free for everybody to park for anything that they wanted to do uptown during the weekend. So, I think that was like the the kind of compromise, if you will. Well, that's what we because I remember that conversation. Remember me and Kobe had that conversation because of Teddy Gallaghers? That's right.

In the other places over there, remember we we came with the that's what we came up with a with a with a agreement that because I mean people stay there till 12 1:00 in the morning. They can't go and move their car. You know, that's why I think we did the over

the overnight ban. And a lot of the businesses don't want anybody parked overnight because they park right in front of their business and then the customers can't come in and park and get a space right in front of the restaurant or the coffee shop or the shoe store or whatever. And so they were like, "We don't want anybody here in the morning." In fact, in fact, I believe that's how this whole thing got started now that I'm thinking about it. I think there was complaints in front of Hang Tai, in front of the Muro House building, right in front of Bir Birwood, right? remember because of the people upstairs. That's right. The dean students were parking there from I think Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and we're hogging up the spaces of where people were going to the businesses. In fact, that's I think what started it, right? Is that okay? It's coming back. Yeah.

Yeah, me too. It's sorry about that. It's slowly coming back to me now. But so I hope that answers your questions. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. I mean, like I said, I think I don't want to shock the system right now and like go go go forward without a plan, but I do think that it's worth revisiting maybe maybe, you know, because this is this ends up affects, you know, taxpayers bottom their wallet if they we're spending money just to collect money. I I don't think it makes a lot of sense. So, let's revisit it.

So, through the chair Kerry CFO Max, just do you understand we're not spending taxpayers money, okay? This money is revenue from the parking. So, it's co it's a special fund called receipts reserved for appropriation. As my former boss used to say to me all the time, it's in the name, but I have to go forth to the council every year to ask for a certain amount of money to pay expenses. In fiscal year 25, revenue was $24,000. The expenses were seven. So, Jamie gave a number that was only half, you know, about halfway through. So, we will revisit what other expenses we may be able to use this revenue for. So I understand but I just want to be clear on that.

So so like the snow and ice removal I we'll have to determine uh based on you know I have to go through do with how this fund is set up. Um it has to do specifically with the parking. So we will look at whether it's the potholes or paint you know but right now yes they got tampered with and that money to fix these was paid out of that fund. So Matt, you done?

Uh, I think uh Carrie answered it, but my my question was really to uh paying these expenses. There's still a little bit of money left over and you'll come back to us with appropriate uses for those funds that may in fact offset the town having to pay for it through operating is what it sounds like, right? Like if there's a parking lot paving issue perhaps or you know you have to do signage or there's things that would have hit the operating budget, we can use this money hopefully because it's specifically for the parking lot. You said it perfectly, right? Yes. I think I think that was a great council's concern. It's not just a wash that there is some some good coming from it.

Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, thank you. We have fast question. Um, maybe I should know this, but where are these parking meters? I know Ferraras. Yep. Um, right behind Dean Bank. So, if you go to the MBTA station, right above there. Right above that. That lot's the municipal lot down the bottom half is Well, you were talking about more on like 140 or Main Street or whatever. I was going to say, man, I'm in big trouble. I've been parking there without paying for a long time. Okay. Those are free.

That's what I thought. Okay. I was starting to second guess myself. I'm good. Thank you. No, I thought that was the MVT too, so don't feel bad. Um, any others? Okay, so we have a motion on the floor and a second. So, resolution 2613. All in favor? I opposed. Motion pass. 90, sir. Resolution 26-14, acceptance of gifts for the senior center, $6,145. The clerk will read the resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is resolution 26-14, the acceptance of gifts for the Franklin Senior Center. Whereas the Franklin Senior Center has received generous donations in the total amount of $6,145 to be used at the discretion of the department as follows. Donation summary Franklin Senior Center $6,145 donations to be used at the discretion of the senior center through the Council on Aging gift fund to provide services and programs to senior citizens in the Franklin community. List of all donors is included in tonight's packet. Uh if anyone wants to read that. Now therefore, be it resolved, the town council of the town of Franklin on behalf of the Franklin Senior Center gratefully accepts these generous donations to be used at the discretion of the department for the purposes noted above. And this resolution shall become effective according to the provisions of the town of Franklin Home Charter.

Motion to approve resolution 2614. Second. We have a motion and a and a second discussion. Just thank you to all the donors. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh yeah. Vote on resolution. I lost my place. 26-14. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passed. 90 sir. Resolution 26- 15 14.

Sorry, 15. You're right. We are on tech funding approval. You really got me there. We'll read the resolution. Resolution 26-15, appropriation of funds in support of PEG services and programming per mesh general law, chapter 44, section 53 F and 34s. Total amount requested $71,46511. Wow, I'm really going to read it. Okay. Uh, purpose. Usually we wave these uh purpose to to appropriate $71,4 to wave the reading. Second.

All in favor? I. Motion to approve resolution 2614. Second. 15. 15. I'm sorry. 26. Motion to approve 2615. Sorry. Second. Lost my foot. All in favor. I I was going to let Council Court Ledger handle the PE funding. Okay. So, this is the one. So, did it I think every I think it passed, right? I I didn't hear that. Sorry. Okay. Referrals. Okay.

Mr. Chairman, can I just clarify for the public's knowledge that that's that's just pass through money? Yeah, that's money coming from uh you know that people are paying on their cable bills that is then uh coming through us from the cable companies and going back out to public television which is why we typically wave the reading because it's kind of out of our control of what to do with it anyway. So, um but just for the public listening if maybe they're tuning in for the first time. All set.

Yeah. Okay. Uh, moving on. Uh, zoning bylaw amendment 26-948. A zoning bylaw amendment to the code of the town of Franklin, chapter 185. You use regulation schedule attachment two, attachment three, attachment four, attachment seven, and attachment eight. It's going to be a referral to the planning board. had to read. They didn't I I think I missed to refer. So, I just want to make the motion. Charles, should I just read the read this whole thing? I'm sorry. To wave the reading. He's making a motion to wave the reading. Okay. There's a motion to wave the reading. Second.

Second. Motion to raise the reading. Do we have a motion? All in favor? I. So, make a motion to refer zoning bylaw amendment 26948 to the planning board. A second. All right. Do I have a a motion and a second? Uh, so discussion. Where are we going? Quick intro.

Uh, yes. So, three, Mr. Chairman. Um, the next two bylaws are one and the same. Um, as I know many are getting familiar with zoning bylaws. Um, it's a lot of fine print. We're going to make it as easy as we can. Councelor Callaway trip. These are both referrals to the planning board. I would note up here if you look into the documents just to keep people focused. Work with me here. Um you'll see that you'll see some areas in here where there's boxes. Yeah. Does do folks see that down in the middle of the bottom there? The end where there's a darker box around the corner. Yeah.

Those are the areas of the only changes in all of this. Everything else is currently in bylaw. So, we're trying to focus in on just those few areas. Um, if everybody's read the memo, obviously we were uh short staffed uh last year. It's our uh fault, our apology that um while Brian was out on medical leave and the cuts to my office and planning. Um this was a long long project for four years that um that both Ted and Bobby aware aware of. There were and hundreds probably of different sheets that came out and versions of this. The planning board changed some stuff and unfortunately a couple of the sheets got um put in the wrong place and in working with the town attorney we thought that being transparent and clear about what was happening was more important. It also hopefully gives all of you in the public an idea of how our zoning bylaw process works. Um the changes that you're seeing here tonight are house cleaning items. These were um defined and was the intent of what the previous groups, the planning board and the uh council had uh wanted. U but a couple of the sheets got transposed and some of the incorrect number or data got in there. Uh Marina Zlaya is our new director of planning and community development. Um as everybody remembers, Marina's a resident here in town and raising her family here in town. We're excited to have her. She's now been here six months, I think it is. So now she knows a little bit more about what we're doing. Um, and so these are her two first bylaws going through our process too. Um, and as I mentioned, just for the record, uh, the planning board public hearings on the MBTA communities tweaks um, got postponed because of the snowstorms. And so tonight's referral of the planning board is strategic. The planning board intends to hold public hearings on both uh, these bylaws tonight as well as the MBTA community house cleaning items um, on March 23rd. and its anticipated first reading and second reading with public hearings will

be at the council uh in April and May respectively. Um so um as folks will see there's many sheets on here that don't actually have any changes at all. Um that's accurate. Um but Marina is going to go through a few of the changes and just show folks and if anybody has any questions about what the impacts may be, we're happy to answer them um at that time. So Marina, do you want to take it over and just go through the changes?

All up to you, kid. Thank you. Good evening. Moren, uh, planning director. So, um, in the memo and as Jamie just said, a lot of the changes that are being proposed tonight are sort of cleanup changes. If you go on, um, the town's e-code website where the bylaws are all posted, um, you'll see some, um, of the errors present in what we're presenting to the public um, currently. So, um we'll go in through into it as I as I go through each of the attachments, but there's areas where there's um like blank cells, uh where we should have our zoning reflected and it mistakenly got removed. Um and so we're just trying to sort of do a lot of cleanup that's been caught. Um some of these changes um affect the districts that are being uh that have been um approved for the MBTA Communities Act. So, we're sort of having to do all of it at the same time because the previously proposed amendments from back in January affect these same districts, this these changes. So, everything sort of affects each other. Um, but as Jamie just said, these are predominantly cleanup. Um, it's either putting in place what was already there and what was sort of changed because um an error in using the wrong table or putting place um what should have been um uh amended previously. So on your screen right now you've got um attachment two. Um we've got one change here when um the crossing neighborhood went up before um council last uh fall. This option for 1.4D for point D with poultry was not on the um was not on the the use table at that time. So there was no um there's no

zoning um for across the neighborhood regarding the use of poultry. So here we're putting in and a lot of I should back up and say that a lot of the changes that we're making is to um it it goes hand in hand with what's already in C1. You'll see that um CN and C1 tend to match each other. Um and that is by design that it that was the intent when crossing was um was created. Crossing was carved out of the previous C1 area. We've kept a lot of the zoning um sort of matching. Um but actually here we've got nothing.

Next one we've got nothing. Um here we are striking this note. Um it is no longer being used in um these tables. Um but when um when the note was struck previously, it wasn't made clear to the council, it wasn't, you'll see here it folded. It struck through um the table that was used at that time. Just sort of removed it without calling attention to it having been struck. Um so we're just calling attention to it now just to create sort of that um that pattern um and the the the record of it. attachment four. We've got um a couple changes here. Um this was um these the changes that you see here in the LI district. Um this is proposed this was meant to be proposed future amendments. Um and so when um I believe it was when crossing neighborhoods was um subitted when the was created um th those uses were all struck. So it this is one of those instances where if you go online it'll actually just look like boxes. So these changes are just putting back in place what was already there um because it shouldn't have been completed amended previously. Um, same thing with um the ground mounted uh solar energy systems for medium scale um putting back in place what should have already been in there. Um and then here's where we get um a little bit of the crossover between the MBTA communities and these cleanups. Um, so this one I'm including um what was proposed in the January amendments so

you can sort of see just sort of what the whole picture of it looks like. Um, and then the um the big uh sort of thing that we had to deal with here is that the um when the crossing neighborhood was created um this as part of a mixeduse development use was not on the table. Um, so we're just um sort of merging the tables and reflecting it and then adding the zoning for the crossing neighborhood. Um here um residential commercial kitchens which was um an amendment that was approved basically at the same time as the crossing was created. Um crossing neighborhoods didn't have residential commercial kitchens in their table so we're adding the the zoning there. Um again this matches C1. Um, a lot of the same here. It It's It can get really repetitive. Um, I'll go to Um Oh, do we have the

Yeah, it's probably in the other PDF. You looking for

Yeah. Um and um on this attachment nine um the when so this was my error when I submitted um the previous amendments back in January. I actually used the wrong table. Um so across the neighborhood was not included in that submission. So this is um adding it in to um reflect sort of what it should look like. And then it also includes um the proposed amendments um for general residential 5 which had already been um included with the January amendments of the note of um note 16 um which changes the frontage for mixed use and multif family and this is to comply with MBT communities. And then with the new addition of um this note note 17 regarding lot with um changing the minimum lot with again for multif family and mixeduse buildings again to comply with MBT communities. Um so um and then this this striking of with three housing units was already part of the submission from back in January. Um so as Jamie said, you know, a lot of these are just cleanups. It's putting in place what was previously there. It's um clarifying some things that sort of went missing. Um and I'm happy to answer any questions anybody has.

Very simple. So, we're not changing any of the zoning. We're just it's just fixing what accidentally got moved or whatever in the process of doing everything.

Correct. Nothing tonight has any real substantive change. There's no larger housing coming or any of that type of stuff. There's no real major impact from what's going on here. I illustrated a couple of the highest points in the memo of what the crossing zoning really did. As you can see, they added a lot of more um kind of local and boutiquey kind of uses that were kind of futuristic thinking of what things would be in the future like breweries and a whole variety of other stuff. They enhanced the usage in that area and they actually densified that neighborhood where you could have gotten a fourth story by special permit, but we took that down to three stories because the whole goal of the crossing neighborhood and calling it the crossing was to give it that neighborhood feel, that neighborhood vibe um that's so unique down there and especially with all the other stuff coming up with the SNET and the children's museum and um the mill store is going to get redeveloped and the winery. I think everybody thought, you know, the other big issue down there, I note, is parking. Does there is no parking lots down there. Um, we're obviously working with the tea to try to get that spot next there, but even that is going to be a long-term process.

Um, and then the SNET trail across the street will get designed with parking on that side. So, we eventually will hopefully have some municipal parking like in the triangle area of downtown. But I think that was also a concern from a lot of people down there that too many people might lead to too much parking where there really is no place to park um in in the streets and stuff and so there's really no place to go. So I think everybody thought very comfortable bringing the zoning down to a mandatory cap of three stories. So there was some other setback tweaks and some other little things in there, but those were the big highlights of the crossing. So nothing tonight substantively changes anything that's been done. Um it doesn't really change very much at all.

Mike, just to add levity. Well, there is one change. You can't have chickens anymore, right? So, that is a substantial that's a whole chicken. All right. Any other questions? And that being said, and it's going to be refer referral to the planning board. So it does come back to us too. Right. As long as there's no other disturbances at the planning board. Your first reading on these will be on like the MBTA ones as well as these will be on April 1st

and those will be public. Thank you, Mark. Those will be public this will be public hearings on April 1st. Okay. Just just so everybody knows. All right. All in favor of zoning bylaw amendment 26-948 referral to the planning board. All in favor? I opposed. Pass. Thank you. Y Thanks. Zoning bylaw amendment 26-949. A zoning bylaw amendment to the code of town of Franklin. Chapter 185 attachment 9 schedule of law area requirements referral to the planning board. Uh clerk will read the

move to wave the reading. Second. All in favor? Motion. I don't think we motion to refer zoning bylaw amendment 26949 to the planning board. Second. I have a motion to second discussion. All in uh we'll vote on zoning bylaw amendment 26-949. All in favor? Opposed that.

What about goals? We're going to do goals. Come back. We were just um I figured that Max I figured that was going to be a long discussion. So get all this out so we don't have to do it. Yeah. We'll do future agenda future agenda items. Uh council uh none for tonight. Thank you. Council helping me. Yeah. Council, council blank. Uh council

whoever I am. Uh if depending on if it's a goal or not. Um, one of the goals listed is the uh climate uh designated um I'm sorry losing my losing my mind is a climate sustainability related goal. Climate community. Yes. Climate lever. Thank you. Uh so if the goal passes I would like to move forward with having creating a committee for that. Yeah. Obviously. Yes. As an agenda item. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh Jane. Um, I'd like to have the historic commission um do some type of a presentation on the I'm sorry, not the more it's getting late and I'm tired. Um, the historic people doing for the historic district historical district study. Yeah, we should bring the district so we can understand what that's all about and then we can set up a a commit. Yeah, I I get that. So that's it. Absolutely.

Uh the only thing I have, Mr. Chairman, for a future agenda item, I think it's been a while. Jamie, can we get the um fire chief to come in and just sort of do a like top to bottom overview for everybody about the fire department, about um you know, just how it's structured, kind of what they do, the different roles. Like I I got I was embarrassed that I got asked yesterday by a resident what a battalion chief does. Sure. And other than my knowledge from watching Chicago Fire, I

couldn't really tell them. And I'm sure that those people are incredibly busy and do fantastic work, but I couldn't speak to it. So I felt like, well, geez, if I can't articulate it, having been here over four years, I bet others would probably benefit from that as well. Do you want to just do public safety all at once? Yeah, we do police too. Sure. Because I think um one of the things that came up last week to that suggestion was um both departments I mean Bobby remembers this. He's probably the only one but both departments went through massive massive restructuring reforms like redistricting in 2018 19 and 20, right?

Um you know we got rid of overtime money and put it into real police officers. So maybe some background on some of that both would probably be helpful as you go into budget season if that's okay with you guys. Yeah, I mean I think covering their the training and the extensive credits that they get and just all that stuff that have been sort of peaceailed over the years, but I think having everybody hear it would be great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I was going to second what uh Jane said about the um agenda item for historical brought up. I definitely think that would be a great and yeah um yeah the fire department would be good you know a lot of them

uh I didn't realize that but there's a lot of Franklin firefighters that actually teach at the fire academy there's a lot of them so that they do a great job there's like five or six of them teach up there so and that's out of the whole state so you know that's pretty pretty impressive so all right Jamie Let's uh go to the goals,

I think. Um so I uh three, Mr. Ch, just really quickly, I think everybody if they read them, they can see I I put in red a couple of areas that were added or counselors had brought in feedback as you guys instructed at the last meeting. Um and I think there's a list in here. I tried also to you know like finance for example I tried to put in strategic finance I mean you can words smmith this stuff too you can change this is no pride of authorship if people have different verbiage please recommend it I put in like strategic finance goals and then like standard finance goals right there's some stuff you just always have to do but then there's some items that I think all of you heard tonight and and know from the campaign trail um you know um you know I think there's been some just some areas in here I think as I recommended in the memo Um I would note that um you know I haven't cited all of the master planoriented uh numbers in here. I put down at the bottom in planning just to separate maybe economic development goals from master plan implementation. Um and just tried to organize it a little bit more to separate the kind of strategic stuff from the typical stuff. And as I recommended to the chair or council premier ledger, maybe just like we do at budget season, just go through each goal and if anybody objects to it, raise your hand and hold it. Otherwise, just keep going on because then if nobody objects or holds a goal, it would assume that all of you are generally in favor of that goal. Um, it might just help the process go a little easier. Um, I will say when we get to community planning, and you know, councelor Morangello sent a lot of stuff. Him and I have gone back and forth on a few of these. Um, obviously we'll have to talk a little bit about um, you know, if we have the capacity to get all these or or the cost associated with them, but I think we have here a pretty solid list and there's a few decisions to make and and so hopefully everybody can just walk through them and and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Okay, ready for me to start? I would say can I just ask a question first, Mr. Chairman, just in broader terms around expectations for goals? Um, what happens if we don't meet a goal? Do we get sent to our rooms? Yeah. I mean, I I think unelected. Do we have to pay a parking ticket? You don't get a paid job.

Well, I think councelor Mallaloy raises a good question, right? I think the climate leader issue, for example, is is not cheap. Um, and I can almost assure you right now is completely unaffordable. So, like the question is is do you want to invest in that? I think it's a lofty value. I'm certainly in favor of things like that, but with what's coming at the federal government. So, that's a goal that will likely be very hard to achieve given the standards that are associated with the requirements to do that. I think like you saw last session, um there was maybe a half a dozen to a dozen goals that didn't get done because there was no money to do them. And I don't think anybody's going to jail. Nobody's getting a timeout in the corner. I think we just be transparent with the public of why some of these goals weren't met. But I think um the last council I think you guys will do the same thing. Still reach high, right? And

reach high. And also things are going to change in the middle of the year. Like I mean that's another thing is that there's no question that

um the MBTA parking lot next to the Children's Museum is a lot of work. And I think that's a strategic goal. Hopefully we all agree with 300 Fischer Street you haven't even probably ever heard of before. But out of nowhere, the EPA is going to come and do an update this summer on that parcel. And there's some real economic development advantage to that parcel. That's not on the list. But, you know, I can't I don't know. We're not sure exactly what that looks like. So, things will change. And um we usually do a mid-year update somewhere in the fall and just kind of check in. And um you know, I think I think there are going to be goals that won't get done due to time constraints and financial considerations for sure. And that's just the way it goes. Yeah, who knows? I mean, if we get a new governor,

you might wipe out the MBTA community. Well, the legislature will have to do it with them. So, um I doubt it, but you're you're right. They may resend that and and I certainly wouldn't be sad to see it go. Um but, um you're correct. That one and that one's free. That's not anything that costs money. But some of these other ones, uh form-based code is a very is a very time expensive thing. So well that's why I raised it just in terms of expectation just because it's a goal. Obviously we want to try to explore it and I kind of almost could preface all these goals most of them with explore evaluate. It's not a commitment to do everything that all 47 or so that are on this list. Right. That's correct.

I just want to make sure that expectation is understood and that I understood it properly. So I'm 100% in agreement. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. Absolutely. We're not going to get a timeout. That's how it is. Anybody All right, you ready? We're going to start. So, if you want to hold something, just yell hold and we'll put your name next to it and then you can you can

I'll literally go down one by one, everybody. And if there's something that you want, just shout out. Okay. So this is the 2627 town council and town administration goals which was last updated on March 4th which is tonight under the section of general government conduct a town and schoolwide short-term strategic planning exercise which will focus on a common vision values purpose and what are the town and school priorities staff should focus on for the next one to five years. The current status is that they are reviewing a consultant procurement and on March 18th we will be talking about it with the school committee.

It seems like everybody's in agreement with that one. Pretty cut and Okay, good. Next one would be to approve an updated rules of procedure for the town council. That's actually done, so there's no reason to object to it. That's like a freebie, huh? We get that. We're already checking stuff off. It's pretty exciting.

Thank you, councelor Malloy. Get getting that one done. Support the 250th town anniversary committee. The status is anticipated in June. They will make a presentation and update and that will also be the time when the World Cup is happening. Anybody? Nope. I'll think that's a good idea. evaluate alternatives to liquor licensing before the town council, please. But is that I think my is is there are there alternatives? Yes. Yeah. Okay. There are. Yeah. But it's dependent on the form of government and then that depending what the form of government is. I'm sorry. Through the chair.

No. No. Then there are particular alternative per statute per the liquor license statute. Okay. for how for who's going to get delegated as the local licensing authority, right? This was a little bit of a hold over from last session. This was a big topic you guys all talked about quite a bit, but it'd be fantastic to just take it off our plate if if we could.

Okay. uh decide on formalizing town council subcommittees andor liaison and the uh subtopics are joint budget subcommittee, town charter review ad hoc committee. There's a suggestion of a communications subcommittee or perhaps assigning liaison. And there's also a suggestion of an economic development subcommittee or creating liaison. So, first, do people think those two in red should be kept? Because right now they're question marks. So, I definitely think they're going to be kept because we're going to name them next meeting.

Okay. So, I can scratch out the question mark and that means that they can be typed in black next time. So, we all agree that those are good. Okay. review chapter 82 town fees, including but not limited to ambulance receipts, town department requests, and parking and traffic enforcement. Uh the status of this one is it's anticipated sometime in May or June of this year. U parallel to the budget process. Isn't that something we do anyway,

Jamie? We typically do that anyway, right? When we look at fees and make adjustments if needed. I feel like we've done that in the past. We you did a whole rewrite of the bylaw last year. There's been a handful of recommendations from department heads this year um going into budget season. Some very small tweaks in the ALS BLS, but you usually do do those in in parallel with the budget um going forward. Correct. Because the fire chiefs come before us in the past with an argument about ambulance rates going up and things like that, right?

ALS and BLS, we get the middle of the road in the region and then there's a few other small tweaks. And then I think earlier I had heard earlier in the session some folks I think council Griffith council Callaway trip and maybe some others had talked about maybe parking fines. So all of that goes through with the you know basically the goal is to have the staff recommendations and if the council wants to tweak any of the other ones in there you know that that would be the time to do it. Okay. All right. Sounds like people are in agreement to do that one. establish an ad hoc town charter review committee and review committee recommendations. I think we already we just voted on approving it, right? So, we're in good shape now. Yeah, we still have to name people to it, but that's

that's easy. Okay. Uh the next one, uh councelor Mallaloyy's recommendation, uh develop a communication strategy with the new communications director and establish a council subcommittee or liaison. Uh one objective includes adding new modes of communications, methodologies used, and response metrics while identifying a schedule of communications to residents on key town activities and information. And we are currently at the status of the communications director has been hired and this is part of her work plan. Y

So is everyone in support of councelor Malloy's recommendation to make this a goal? Yeah. Okay. Now we move on to uh the topic of finance uh strategic finance goals. The first one, develop a strategy and/or policy to stabilize the town operating budget for FY28 and FY29 through the joint budget subcommittee or similar working groups. The status is committee members have been announced and will coordinate a meeting in April.

Yeah. So Jamie, my question on that one, what about we just kind of assuming FY27? Just we're just going to talk 28 and 29. No, I mean we could um I mean we can certainly add FY27 in there for sure. I I definitely there was a couple different comments from different folks that went over fiscal years, but I think the I think the objective is it's a long-term sustainable revenue choices that are going to sustain budget. Would everybody be okay if we added FY27 to the conversation? It's just more important to start the conversation, right? This says April. You just said March 25th. Are we

I mean, does it matter? I I'm trying to cram in the March 25th. Actually, I can ask a few of you while you're here if you're available March 25th, but um I mean, we can do March 25th, but I haven't pulled everybody yet to see if they can make it. So for the language, do we want to say in March or April? That's just the status. That's just commentary. That's not really the goal. Okay. Okay. Caroline, you okay? Yeah. No, yes. I just Okay. Sorry, Council Griffith didn't. Uh I don't think we've stood on that.

We have. We have, but you know, I'm trying to like bring back the formality, right? Okay. Uh second one, conduct a tax rate workshop prior to the annual tax rate setting hearing on a split tax rate and property tax exemptions. The status currently is we anticipate one or two meetings that will be dedicated to tax rates in the fall. Think everybody wants that one. Okay. Uh, councelor Leblanc suggested develop a 10-year capital plan uh for the FY27 capital cycle. Michael, you want to elaborate on it at all or? No.

Okay. But we'll keep it. Okay. Next one. Council Mangello suggested develop a budget bylaw or policy starting with FY28 budget to ensure a more objective allocation process. Want to elaborate on that?

Yeah. Do you want to? Yeah. So, uh, I did put out a poll with a bunch of residents to try to figure out what their goals and priorities were. The biggest one was around set allocation and going back and forth with the town administrator as to what we can do. Um this is sort of a compromise to try to you know address um sort of how we can make the budget process more objective so that people feel that you know each department um is you know has an object we we decide objectively what each department should get and so um to sort of take the politics out of it um so there's some people uh in on the school side who felt there there might have been more politics in the past and I think we you know we should do what we can to just try to make sure that sole those concern and make sure those aren't present in the future.

I I kind of feel like that is if we're having the the joint budget subcommittee where we're where we're setting out the broader strategy. I I would argue that that I'm not opposed to to to that being a consideration, but I feel like that should be part of that joint budget discussion. It's fine. I'm open to that. So, um, so I would I'd be inclined to take that off of the goal as long as we're bringing it up in the the So, what if we include uh, um, uh, language that is for the joint the joint budget subcommittee goal instead of the actual goal?

I mean, there's going to be more. I'm not opposed to putting if people want to put it in the joint budget subcommittee as a sub goal, fine. I don't think it's necessary because it has to be if if that subcommittee isn't taking a comprehensive look, we're missing we're missing the opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. Like we we just we have to um I'd also be a little concerned about kind of removing flexibility from this council and other councils down the road when there's, you know, this this notion of allocation based on some other criteria. I get the point and I kind of think it makes sense, but

to be fair, there are ways we could factor an allocation and flexibility. But the but the point is I don't I don't know that we necessarily want to set that in stone that we're going to define an allocation right now. I just worry if we don't do it some way or say who's responsible for it, it's not going to happen. That's my fear. Make a quick

I actually agree with all of you. Um and I mean that like I think I think this issue has come up. I've said to council morangello the objective allocation term needs to be addressed because I think there's been a lot of commentary as I think you guys know about this idea and one viewpoint I've had I think the joint budget subcommittee is actually the venue to address this term that's floating around called objective allocation right now the pie is nowhere near as big to be getting into an allocation debate about object you know but I think there are some concerns in the community which I respect about the politics or other values and I've heard a lot about the ejectic allocation the schools want x amount of percentage of the tax levy in a bylaw and stuff like that I to council kjuku's point I think it's I believe it has to come up it has to get addressed because in my view no one has they talk about an objective allocation but I have never seen anybody tell me how to implement that and I can assure you once you know how to implement that, this goal will be off the table because once you see the money and you realize what an objective allocation is and how you go about it, what you're going to end up having is a lot of revenue coming out of other departments and you're going to have it shifted other places and that's going to start shifting the debate again. But I still think this this term has been lingering out there and I think having it with school committee, town council and finance committee members all hearing about this at the same time and discussing it I think is the right way. Maybe we could add I could wordsmith this piece up in that goal at the top. Um and maybe that might at least codify that the joint budget has to deal with

we'll speak to questions through the chair. Can Can we do something like like review or consider this objective policy as opposed to actually developing it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's another way we can make any have have town council review the policy after if if one gets Yeah. after you guys. That makes sense. I like that. I mean, we'd have to do it anyway. But but just call out that we're going to do it. that that way we know it's getting discussed and we'll have to come back to am I am I hearing that you want the word change to review I don't know what the exact language is but maybe you can come back with Jamie

yeah we can we can Jamie if you don't mind you know running with that absolutely so for the purposes of tonight though Jamie what do you want me to put next to that one uh I was just trying to word smith it right now so review a policy Um starting in FY starting in the FY28 budget just to get so not 27 no for this one for that one I think this one I think Max was for council morel I think was strategically thinking FY28 right for for allocation review that one you you don't want to think for 27 you get that be 28 okay so instead of develop we're going to say review and consider review

review and consider review and consider any potential objective allocation process based allocation potential objective allocation process for for FY28 just to be clear this doesn't have to be set allocation that can be right it doesn't have to be that no but that's why we didn't say set like just whatever allocation process we we set you know gets proposed the town council has to Review review and consider any potential objective allocation process for FY28. Yes, sounds good. Okay, sounds good.

Great. Under standard finance goals, uh, review and approve town finance policies. Last adopted 2024 status is the finance committee will review this on March 11th and the council will then review it in May. I have a question about this. are should we be following these policies because like I pulled those up and the very first one says um like don't put standard um recurring expenses in like free cash and that's one of the things that we were talking about before. So like I'm just when we're reviewing how um how strictly should we be following these policies?

That's that's a great question. And I mean that's really up to all of you and like whether or not you know with the changing financial dynamic some of these policies may not be feasible right I mean we've already started to get into that with you know the firetruck and a variety of other things so uh it's certainly a challenge um I would say that with that particular one you want to be there I hope um and whether we can get there or not I don't you know I think to your point is questionable Um, and so it's a good question about how much to enforce them, how much to stay true to them, um, and how to adapt with them as economic conditions continue to change, which are going to obviously happen in the next couple years quite a bit. So, it's a great question.

Okay, so it sounds like everybody wants to keep that one. The next one, review annual financial audit and the OPED actuarial at public meetings. This is confirmed for the May 13, 2026 meeting. We do that every We do it every year. But we do it every year, but it's still a goal. Oh, no. Absolutely. Does anybody feel like we shouldn't do that? No. You guys think we should do it? I think we should do it. I just worry. Um, sometimes I feel like some of the one of the people who did in the past like used a lot of terminology that was kind of obtuse and not obtuse. Not obtuse. I use the wrong word, but it was it was very not transparent like the terminology. They they're not dumbing it down for us enough opaque.

And so I just want to make sure that for the lay person who's on the council, they actually do that. You're not going to get that with a counter with accountants, auditors, and actuarials. Like part of the part of what this is is tough. It's it it is complicated. But I think

if we don't present financial audits and things of documents like that, then I think people make up other stories about our financial status that aren't true. So I think it is very important to make sure that that's documented. But I will say to your point, council morello, like I I would be hope depending on questions from the council. I think you could get through both presentations in about probably an hour tops. I think both of them have been here many years before and they go through it pretty quickly. I think it just depends on the questions that are asked, but within an hour, hour and a half, I think you can get through both of them. I

Jam Jamie, could I just ask maybe to to Council Moren Jello's point? You've always done a good job at those presentations of doing sort of an executive summary. Yeah. That people can understand so we can count on you for that. Absolutely. In the future, right? Just I don't ever want to say dumb it down, but to just to allow people to understand, give the highlight the highbrow stuff in a more easy to understand way. Kitchen. Yeah. Um, it's kind of kind of the same when you're talking to, no offense, Mark, but talking to attorneys, sometimes you guys use terminology.

There's no reason why you you have to just sit there passively. If if there's terms you don't understand, you're probably not the only one. So, feel free to say to the presenter, what does that acronym stand for or what does that term mean? Yeah, it helps educate the community on what we're all working on. And they do break it down after you because I've done that a couple times. I have no idea what you're talking about. Please you say it just like that. I have. You have. I have, Max. I have. We have. We have. I just I mean part of me just doesn't know where they just like putting out all those terms to see if we're going to like call them out on it. Are these real terms? Like

they are real terms, but I think to K's point earlier and others like you know it is a two-way street. people got to get if they want to understand the budget and solutions, people have got to also get into the material and and try to improve on it and work on it and grow into it and

so all right so that one stays approve an annual capital budget for FY26 and FY27 uh the current status is that FY26 capital was partially completed and then there's a word remaining remaining in June I'm assuming that means there's future future stuff to be voted on Anybody have any questions, objectives? Okay. Approve an annual operating budget for FY27 and FY28. Uh status for FY27 budget process has begun and the expected completion is June 10th. That's kind of a given.

We took that one out. We could all go home. approve an annual CPA annual budget and projects recommended by the community preservation committee for FY27 and FY28 status is an anticipated late March or early April 2026 public hearing and um through you Mr. Mr. Chairman, we did we did book the hearing today. It's actually May 18th. May 18th. I'll update that. Yeah, May 18th. May. So, the CPA annual public hearing will be then and that's when all the project lists will be there. So, I know it's a little far out, but um it's hard getting everybody to agree on a date. But May 18th is booked and we're going to put out the legal ads. Does that run into a budget though?

Same week, the Monday the Monday of your budget hearings. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Uh now we get into my favorite topic, public works. Uh these goals are based off the most immediate needs and projects which are currently before the DPW. Uh support the close out of the Beaver Street interceptor project through 2027. Uh if you need a status, you can check out the website. Everybody agrees we got to see that one through otherwise we got a bunch of So where's that unfinished? Right. I thought you were going to say another one. I wasn't going to frankly flowing that. We have beautiful illustrations for that that are people want.

Approve a water rate increase effective in FY28 to implement the water tank improvement master plan, which is approximately $15 million worth of improvements, notably the hillside water tank. Questions? Go ahead. All right. So, I'm going to go a little bit back. We had just well not we but the previous council and DPW had approved a increase over the course of three years 8% for water and sewer total of 24% after 3 years. The sewer increase I understood was because of the beaver street.

Correct. But we also raised the water 8% over the course of three years. Why are we raising it again? because you need to make sure that your hillside water tank stays intact because otherwise you're going to have far greater water problems, water suppression problems, a whole variety of other problems as I think Doug alluded to in January, which is why we did some of those facility and infrastructure presentations early was everybody, you know, we felt working with the chair like just that people needed to know what was coming and what was what was what was, you know, essentially a public safety problem. I think the Hillside tank might be the oldest

iron cast tank or whatever it is in the country.

Um it's similar to the Beaver Street Interceptor where it's like 110 year old pipe. I mean, how many more years can we get out of it? I absolutely know the affordability issue and the water rates are going to be an issue. Um, but it's a discussion for all of you to have about weighing the cost of a water rate increase and paying for that and leaving the water tanks in jeopardy and what that might mean down the line. So, that's not an issue. I don't think that'll be on the docket soon because I think most of the meetings are pretty booked up. So, I would anticipate something like that probably later this summer or in the fall for you guys to weigh. And, you know, obviously if if the council decides they don't want to do a water rate increase to do it, that's absolutely your decision. But we just want to make sure you guys and the public are aware because what we don't want to have happen is the water tank has a problem. It's got to come offline or something and then we're into a lot more expense.

I'm not questioning the tank needing to be fixed. I I saw the presentation. Um so that's not my again I'm not challenging that. Okay. I think the reason I'm skeptical is if you remember I stood up and argued against the last water increases. So I guess my question is why did we raise the water by 24% over 3 years if the sewer was being raised for the Beaver Street project? Why did we raise the water rate to the 8% over 3 years if there wasn't anything going on for that and we knew we were going to have to do something like this? There were things going on for that. Uh the water treatment plant down on Grove Street got reconstructed because it got taken offline because of iron and manganesees

because the federal government and you know council call trip I have been a massively outspoken individual on POS but POS has taken over the country. I know

and now worse this would have been eligible for an SRF lowterest loan. Okay. But they're prioritizing POAS projects and I don't need to say it again, but I will. This all bothers me a great deal. I'm not pro PIFA. I'm not like I want to drink POS, but I think the federal government did not consider and I don't think the state government is considering the impact to taxpayers. I really genuinely believe that. I'm all in favor of getting rid of POS, but not at like a cost of 1 trillion to the American households. Um, the SRF program at the state should be sticking to its basics and we should be being able to borrow for this for a long-term borrowing note at a one and a half% interest rate would be much more financially advantageous to us than having to go raise water rates. If we were able to go borrow and get an SRF loan, we may not have to do a water rate increase. The third reason was inflation went through the roof in FY22 and 23. And obviously I don't need to tell all of you this, it's never come down. Um but in FY22 that rate I believe one of the reasons why that rate went into into effect um was because inflation and driving up the cost of any water main replacement you know any of the basic work was just going you know off the charts and so we needed the revenue to be able to pay all those to obviously pay for all those projects. So water treatment plant, POS plant and to address the inflation were the reasons for those um those costs. Those are the things off the top of my head. There might have been a couple of other smaller ones, but I think that summarizes it.

So, I get what you're saying. So, to clarify on one thing, are you saying that we can't do a loan for that because of the because of all the PAS stuff that's going on?

They're prioritizing the PAS stuff at the state. We we can apply. will get rejected because we won't be any, you know, say they say they have a half a million dollars to expend. They'll get like two billion worth of requests from towns or whatever the numbers are. I'm just trying to illustrate that they're going to get far more requests than money obligated. And because of the federal PAS rules, the state has decided to prioritize PAS remediation infrastructure. The additional piece is the Biden Infrastructure Act. Again, I'm not in favor of this, but they went all in on POS and that bill. And so, they're incentivizing states to use Biden the infrastructure money from that bond bill four years ago towards POS projects. So, I understand the state's view of this. like they feel like if they're getting money from the federal government and they're using local money from the Clean Water Trust, like why not make progress and prioritize those projects because you're ultimately getting a better bang for your buck if you're the state because you're getting all this federal stimulus money.

But as a result for us in Franklin, especially because we already built one of the PAS plants, you know, several few years ago, um you know, we're we're then kicked to the bottom. So, we can apply for an SRF loan, but we won't even come close to even being really eligible or even being close to being awarded one. And I think Doug mentioned at that presentation that they had just, you know, you know, come in, they scored very low on an SRF application for this because we weren't this project has nothing to do with PAS. What's an SRF? State revolving fund.

Okay. which is a um uh in partnership with the Mass Clean Water Trust where there's a pot of money that goes out for low interest loans. So, under the SRF program and it's been there for decades, it's it we did it at our water treatment plant, our Beaver Street interceptors through this program. A lot of projects we've done in the past, you get a 2% standard fixed loan interest rate. Franklin because we're a housing choice community and we we actually get a one and a half% loan. So the Beaver Street interceptor that these folks approved a few years ago actually saved millions of dollars because it was a one and a half% loan through that program. Those projects now are getting are scoring lower because of the PAS priorities. And so it's a state revolving fund program. It's been in place for decades and it's probably one of the best things state government has done to help um local rateayers be able to do these projects um with some financial assistance from the state. Um but obviously that's changed over the last couple years. It's still there. The program is still there. It's just you're not going to get a project like this to score high enough. So the obligation then is on the locality to fix these problems. And um and in this case um private uh well um property owners don't pay into the water funds. So they wouldn't pay for any water rate increases. So about 25% of Franklin doesn't pay into any of this. So they wouldn't see an increase on anything. So they didn't see the increase of the 8%. They wouldn't see any increase on this. Um maybe 30% but it's like 25 or 30% of the public doesn't even pay into this. So be So I hope that I hope that kind of clarifies.

It does. Still doesn't make me happy, but I understand what you're saying. Okay. Yeah. Councelor Callaway, Trip, could I Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but would you be more comfortable with language maybe of uh review and discuss a water rate increase rather than the finite language of approve? I was thinking because I think we there might be other alternatives. I just I can't I can't see in good faith putting another increase on the people in this town after three years of increases. I just can't. And I think Jamie, no offense, but I think using the word approve makes it sound like the decisions already made as opposed to I was going to say the goal here is the water rate increase.

Shouldn't the goal be the water tank improvements? Sure. You know, and and the method is the Hold on. Hold on. is the increase. But what I'm just saying is that the real goal here is to improve the water tank. The water tank. So why don't we just make the goal to improve the water tank and then we'll figure out how we're going to do that.

You you definitely need to figure out how you pay for the water tank before you do the water tank. And I can assure you there are definitely there are very very limited options if any that you're going to find other than funding it within your own town. There I'm just I just laid it out for you. like you you we would have been able to go to the federal government. We would have been able to go to the federal government for disaster assistance for snow and ice removal, but we're probably not going to be able to get federal assistance because FEMA doesn't really exist much anymore. So, I mean, the reality is is there's going to be very few options. I do agree with the review, you know, language, you know, I mean, Carrie and will come out with, you know, numbers and and what it means for the average person. So, um, however you guys want to do it, if you want to take out the water rate increase, I'm fine with that. It's it's a lot, you know, it's your goal. U, but there are not going to be very many. There's not going to be there's no grants of this kind of magnitude we can apply for. Um, you know, it's very limited options.

Perhaps Jamie, we say review and discuss a water rate increase and other strategies. Sure. Absolutely. Would that make people comfortable? Hold on, Max. M. Yes, Mr. Mr. Chairman, um so I I I hear the concern about, you know, what are rates being unaffordable? We do have a community assistance program, which I believe knocks off that is it a 50% discount? Uh yeah, we did. We increased it uh two years ago to a 50% off your water sewer in storm water. Um but bay open if you know if this keeps coming up, we could try to make a second tier as a goal. Um I think that's to the other strategies that council ledger just mentioned too. that language sensor.

I will say I think that's great, but just so you know, I know people and I um that the things that they have in place, they're great if you qualify, right? But some people are just below the qualification and they're the ones that are going to they're the ones that get hit. So what I was was saying is, you know, right now there's there's either you're in the community assistance program or not. But if there was a a second level that, you know, you for people who are like, you know, between two thou 200 and 300% of the poverty level as opposed to just below that. Um maybe we could have like, you know, instead of a 50% discount, maybe it's a 25% discount. Sliding scale. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So your water rate system right now is on a sliding scale.

Okay?

So the higher users pay more than the people who are lower users. You already have a a fairly good sliding scale. So in other words, just to put it bluntly, u people with irrigation systems on their lawn actually pay more for the water than the person who's uh than the per right than the person that's on a 16th of an acre in a in a in a smaller parcel. So, we already have a sliding scale and that's something that the state I don't want to say mandates, but the state in our water management act permit essentially essentially encourages you very strongly to do that and um and you guys voted for um a wider spectrum of that I think a few years ago when you did the community assistance program. So, we already have a we do have a sliding scale on usage based on usage. If you look in the bylaw, if you use a certain amount of water, you pay at a higher premium than if you use less water.

Yeah. So, I think what we're talking about is actually on level there's always going to be people at whatever level you make it, there's going to be people that are under the line or over the line, right? And so, um, we've made that very consistent across all departments that it's based off federal, um, uh, energy assistance for home heating oil. So those are the thresholds. We use the federal government's numbers and we update them every year. So as but I think that the language that council chrommy ledger came up at least engulfs this conversation. I think it it's an umbrella language for this kind of debate to happen when it when it

so for everybody's review right now with the revisions. It says, "Review and discuss a water rate increase and other strategies effective in FY28 to implement the water tank improvement master plan, etc." Everybody Everybody good with that? Yes.

Just just to give you an update on how old that water tank is. When we had that discussion, I went I was talking to my brother. My brother goes, "Don't you remember what dad said?" I said, "What?" He goes, "He used to climb that tank when it first built in when he was like 10 years old. My father would be 111 right now. Just to show I'll give you I'll give you a little bit of a update on how old it is.

Well, the Delarco Estate name it after your uh family member then. Okay. And I'm going to tell my kids to stop taking daily showers because apparently we're paying more in water rates and I didn't know that. So that's uh kids, you got to grow the Y. All right. Um, okay. Next one. Approve and finance a new 5-year water main replacement plan through FY30. Good. I'm good with that. No idea how we're going to fund it, but it's a it's a great one to put on there. Water increase. Yeah.

Develop a develop a strategy for the Beaver Street Recycling Center landfill cap design and financing. So Jamie, that's the long-term thing we've been talking about about like finally giving that place a facelift, right? And kind of bringing it into the new century. Yeah, the land swap was one of your goals that finally went through maybe a year and a half ago. It took 14 years with the state. I was going to say about 10.

Yeah. And we're just starting the discussion on the um we are legally obligated just so folks know like for folks that don't know really quickly if you go down to the Beaver Street Recycling Center and you look left you'll see a hill that hill is filled with the town's garbage for the last from 1940 through 1990. It's just a big pile of garbage in there and it's now the law that we have because the town dumped their garbage in there, we have to line it. Um and so um someday it was going to happen and unfortunately my predecessor wanted this to happen and so now we have to we have to pick up the tab at some point. Okay. But I will say this is a very long-term project and a solid waste master plan is probably going to be required first. So I think it's just trying to

develop a strategy. That's all. Okay. Uh continue to fund and accept public ways. The town has about 100 to 110 remaining private ways in the queue for public acceptance. We usually accomplish one to four of these every two years. Can you just explain that? Yep. So, um, an example would be Cottage Court. If you go down in Cottage Street and you look left and you go down that there's like a dirt road and it's very potholey. That's a private road.

Right. It's a private road. Um there's about a hundred of these throughout Franklin. Um some roads are actually owned by developers like um uh Nicholas Drive over off Prospect Street. Um Daniel Street, part of Daniel Street is actually owned by a private developer. Um not every road is owned by the town. And the biggest deal is about snow plowing. Um and about whether the road is up to code. So, some roads are pretty easy, like little threeunit subdivisions on a culde-sac. Uh, but the town engineer and the town attorney are the two people that work on um almost all of these. And there's a whole legal process that goes beyond them. And most people who live on, not every private road, by the way, but a lot of the smaller roads or roads that were built maybe 30, 40 years ago, um, people thought that they owned the road or the town did, but they didn't. and they find out they don't get plowed, they don't maintain them, we don't fix them. And some areas want to keep it private because they want the potholes or they feel like there's a cheaper way or whatever the covenant the deeds are. Um, but most people in town that live on a private way. Not not all, but a lot of them have always advocated for their road to be accepted by the town.

Um, and so we try to chip away at them a few times each year. Mark looks like he's about to raise his hand. Go ahead. Yeah. So during your explosive development period, there was just more more subdivisions being constructed, roads being constructed uh than the town process could keep up with,

right? And a lot of developers just went in, did the development, and then they dissolved the development entity or they left town or what have you. Uh there was no no money left to to for the town to go in. The first step being that to create an engineered plan called an acceptance plan. Yeah.

Uh typically the right way developers that's one of the things that developers uh have to post shity with the planning board for that has to get done. Uh but back then it wasn't being done. we didn't have the town engineers or the engineering department available for inspection. There's a whole bunch of reasons, but that's when we built up this very large backlog.

And this is not unique to Franklin. This is a trend that goes back to the late 70s when 495 was built and as growth migrated out. Um to Mark's point, there was no resources at the local level. there was no real inspection systems and towns just said we're not accepting the roads. And so a lot of communities up and down 495 have these huge backlogs. The good news is moving forward all of our code and bylaws have fixed all of this stuff. So this stuff doesn't happen anymore um when they go through planning board. So um you know so we just try to chip away a few a year and by accepting these roads we we plow and maintain them.

We maintain them but we get more We get more chapter 90 money from the state because the mileage then goes onto our rolls. Then Brutus when he files for our grant every year, we then get credit for that road. Even if it's like an eighth of a mile, we add it on and then we get reimbursed money. The money never covers the cost from the state to do everything. It never does. Um but but you get you do get your a higher aotment. So it is it is financial. We have to get we'd have to take care of it anyway. So, and most residents sometimes they yell loud enough where just Okay. So,

so nobody has any objection to accepting the public waste bullet point. So, we'll move on. uh develop a strategy to prioritize and finance town infrastructure investments including roads, sidewalks, grounds, parks, storm water, sewer, water, recycling, open space, and recreation. And then Jamie has some additional language with specific emphasis on traffic calming measures, improvement at key intersections, annual accessibility audits, and ADA compliance improvements. It was councelor Mangello's suggestion. I failed to put his name. Oh, sorry. Sorry.

Thank you, Council Morangelo, for those excellent uh suggestions. Um, everybody okay with the bullet with the uh additional language that's currently in red? Okay.

Moving right along. Go ahead, Mark. My I would simply suggest instead of saying with special emphasis, say including but not limited to because a lot of the other things are at least as important. Yeah. What where would you want that mark? Delete the with special emphasis and just put including but not including but not limited to or including just including I mean just just since we stopped this is since this is a call out I mean in theory it's part of the capital plan right? Yeah.

Well not really. I mean, this is like a separate capital plan from like all the other stuff you just reviewed, like facilities. I mean, you can bake it in, but as you saw in Brutus's presentation, this is like tens of millions and hundreds of millions of Yeah. I mean, I would hope that would be in our capital plan. I would hope all this stuff would be in our capital plan. That's what I expect the capital plan to be. Okay. Everything. Just You got it. Just to be clear, just so it's there. That's fine. We can do that. Does this still does this include like complete roads? Are we still doing that? Yes. Complete streets. Complete streets.

Yep. We're still a complete street community. Um, you know, grant funding, we've gotten a couple grants. Um, we've installed them and we've gotten rejected from a couple grants. So, I think the competition's been getting a lot higher. There's more applications and there's leveled off dollars. So, um, but we are still a complete streets community deal and that's that's that's a lot of this. Yeah. So, we could get an ADA grant for 25,000 or 50, you know, we could certainly augment some of this with grant money for sure. That's what we've done in the past. Yeah.

Thank you. Okay. So, moving on to page four. Public property and facilities. Prioritize and fund the rebuilding of the senior center sprinkler system. Status. The FY26 capital funding was approved. Work to commence spring and summer 26. Okay. Next one. Finalize a site design and strategy for the police station building project and/or other associated uses with the former Davis there and Parmentor school parcels. Status is scheduling a visit from the building committee to discuss at a future council meeting. Everybody's good.

Oh yeah. Okay. draft and issue a request for proposals, otherwise known as RFP, uh to sell or lease the parcel at 275 Beaver Street, which is our current recreation department headquarters. Okay. Hire an OPM and begin the design of the Washington Street Elementary School, formerly Remington Jefferson renovation. Jamie, for clarification, that's the roof and other things that you mentioned at a previous meeting, right? Fire alarms, basketball courts, there's a whole list of stuff there. Yep. Mold.

Okay. Anybody have any objections to that one? So, you'll be raising the roof. Yes, council.

Lowering the uh allow it. The next one, can tell it's 9:00. Uh, support the King Street Memorial Park rehabilitation through phase one and future phases. And then in parentheses, it says here using CPA funds. Everybody's good. Okay. Evaluate the reuse or sale of the Davis there school parcel by following the Davis there reuse committee's work including options for an RFP is that a little that'sative right

yeah kind of with the bullet earlier earlier bullet mentioned Davidson here I mean I'm fine leaving it the way it is but I think it's saying the same thing I put it twice with the police well in the second bullet Jamie you mentioned Davis there just kind of it's they're related but not exactly the same. It's probably worth just leaving them in. It's such a good project we'll leave it in twice. Yeah. So nice. We're prioritizing it twice. We really need to deal. Anybody have anything else? Nope. Uh other projects that have been included in executive session. Do we need to elaborate for the

word or anything? No, I'm just asking if there's anything else I need to put there. Um, the one thing that I asked uh Jamie earlier, everybody to be added here, I would hope you would support it is continue to explore the location and funding options for the Franklin Community Arts Center. Everybody be okay if we kept that as a goal? Sure. Sure.

Thank you. Okay. Page five, community planning economic development goals. File a local home rule hotel tax legislation to charge an additional 2% on local hotel stays. That was a recommendation, just so you know, from councelor Malloy, and for some reason I didn't put his name there. Not that he probably minds, but um I remember that was in my memo, but I appreciate it. I said, "Why not?" Yeah. Support because we for some reason can't seem to get the legislature to move on this. So

So we can do that one, Jamie, without the uh legislature doing that. We we can I don't I think it'll face tough hurdles because if they do it for us then other towns are going to do it which then begs the question why aren't they just allowing us to do it in the first place but I think it'll send a signal to our state delegation that we're ready to do this and we've probably already missed the vote for the World Cup which is disappointing. Um but okay, you know, but I think I think if we file it, it'll show Rep Roy and Senator Roush and others that you know that's money being paid for people that don't within Franklin. So it's like I don't see why this is so hard, but things get weird sometimes.

World Cup all the hotels were booked anyway. Yeah. And they're charging people more money. So if we had two more percent on it, we'd be making off that hotel stay 2% more just what bucks a night some place, right? So if you're at the hotel now and it's 200 bucks and then they're jacking them up to 800. This was a huge missed opportunity where we couldn't have had this 2% for three months because everybody comes here from around the world for the World Cup stays not just for one game. They stay here for like a month and a half. So um but I appreciate it and if you guys are amenable I'll try to get right it up for the next meeting and this is a very simple home rule to write. So if you guys are okay with that

let's do it. The latest news is not going to approve it anyway. So we didn't miss it. All right. The next one, councelor Malloy suggested coordinate an annual or semianual restaurant week to generate an appetite for Franklinites to eat local and attract visitors to Franklin's diverse restaurant scene. I swear I have no memory of ever saying that, but Jamie says I did. It's such a good idea, Julie. Right. He said it, right? Her and I both went I said it. It was like I remember blurting something out about it.

Doesn't sound like Steve Franklin. Yeah, it's all right. We've done similar things though, Jamie, where we've packaged, you know, nights out with things downtown. But I think the restaurant week makes sense. I think everyone knows that term, right? Restaurant. Yeah, restaurant week or restaurant weeks maybe in Okay. Uh, marketing and branding phase two wayfinding signs. The town completed phase one of the approved marketing and branding master plan and can pause or move forward.

Is this chair? Is this um to decide whether we are pausing or or moving forward or is this to actually do it? Um, I know we've talked about this. So, I'm just trying to figure out what the um intention of this goal is is to decide whether we're pausing this and taking a hiatus or whether we're going to still continue to do work. And just to be clear, and I think we share the same view on this, um, you know, most of this work would end up falling probably on, you know, Corey and Liz, you know, because I don't have a deputy town administrator and I don't have a planner downstairs. So, I think this is one that certainly could um certainly could be paused and very expensive, right? Didn't we talk?

It is. Yes, it is expensive. Yeah, the wayfinding signs are not cheap and getting into all that. Um also, a lot of it can be very divisive because everybody wants the wayfinding sign to go to them, right? It's not It can get it can get very time consuming. It's very expensive and very timeconuming. So, why don't we remove it? Yeah. Why don't I mean can Yeah. Oh, yeah. just strike it all together. But that but that doesn't mean that we're not moving forward with the marketing and branding plan. It just means it's not just means we're not doing the way finding sign. No, I think we're doing away with all of it right now. But we just spent quite a bit of money just for phase one

for Yeah. For phase one's done. I mean, there's a few tweaks that still have to happen administratively, but phase one is done. That was like the letter head and the logo and the shirts and you know some of and some of that 1778 is going to be used by the 250th committee I'm sure. Okay. Um which is great and that was all grant money. Yeah. Um but this doesn't if we strike it that doesn't do away with that. No, it does not do that. This is just phase one is done and then essentially the project is kind of done. Okay. That I'm striking. Well, and this was you hadn't priced it out, right? I feel like we had talked about that a couple weeks ago. We didn't have a firm schedule of money. We had like estimates from other towns that have done it and it's extremely expensive. Yes. Yeah.

Okay. The next goal uh suggested by council morangello, revitalize downtown Franklin by redeveloping vacant, deteriorated, and contaminated properties while attracting anchor establishments that generate foot traffic and economic activity. That's what you I love it as a goal. I mean, some of I mean, some of some of it's beyond our You're very limited in what you can do. I mean, unless you had a redevelopment authority, you could you could support, you could reszone, things like that. But as far as actively getting involved, uh that's beyond your general ability legally.

Legally, right? You can't just go up to something. No, you'd have to set like I said you the only mechanism that I'm aware of other than some voluntary things that are in the law would be a redevelopment authority which is a whole different creature.

The other random thought I had I I do agree with Mark on that was there's like a fivepage um economic development series of action items in the master plan. Maybe the EDC could review all of those action items and those goals and maybe prioritize a couple more economic development ones that the committee thinks are relevant. Now, some of these action items in this master plan, like Mark said, relate to more concrete steps on downtown revitalization as opposed to the umbrella value. So, we could amend that and say maybe the EDC will review the economic development recommendations from the master plan because there's like five pages of stuff here and it's like a needle in a hay stack. I mean, I don't know which ones to do first.

You you could change the grammar to say encourage the revitalization and then, you know, to redevelop blah blah blah, which would basically be leaving it to support others doing it. So I think that makes sense but in the master plan there were more detail the more more specific tasks. So you know Jamie's suggestion to kind to say we evaluate via the master plan might make might be something where we can get some concrete checks if you will review and prioritize the economic development goals contained within the master plan. Y Max I want to hear what do you want out of this goal? That's

so these were these were actually two goals that I merged that were both from the master plan about downtown. So these are both in the ma they're two goals that are in the master plan that I just stuck together and thought fit well together.

Um in terms of uh I think one thing that could be done is just engaging with stakeholders. I don't know if people are you know we have the downtown partnership, we have the landlords. We can't force them to know anything but we could at least talk to them and at least know where they're standing or do exit interviews or um so you're right. We don't have any binding authority, but we could at least um you know, communicate with some of our our landlords more proactively, and I know we do some of that already. Um and I'm I'm open to word smithing it. I'm open to more concrete. If you want to substitute another uh just to substitute another master plan goal, I'm happy with that, too, as long as we're getting stuff done. Um so, Jamie, what was your suggested language?

Review and prioriti. The EDC eventually would do review and prioritize the economic development goals contained within the master plan. It's like a whole section here goes on for six pages, seven 10 pages. Yeah. And I think it's all I think one of M this goal that Max is pointing out is kind of like an overarching value in the master plan and then there's concrete like Mark said like here's a zoning thing you can do, here's this. Yeah. Um, so instead of listing all those out, just reference the master plan, which has EDC should go through these eight 10 pages and go because I think some of these goals too at the EDC level or some of the goals of the master plan are definitely not zoning changes that are going to bring you economic development anytime soon.

And I I hope you're all everybody and I think everybody's very much alert and concerned about the short term here, long term, too. But some of this stuff, I mean, we've changed the zoning downtown for 22 years and it has not made as much progress as we think. So, but there are other items in here that may uh that may peak the EDC a little bit more and I think we should do the things that are achievable to get some progress now. So, I would I would uh in terms of language reviewing the having EDC review the u economic development uh goals, I would be in favor of that as a as a substitution. That there's no no objection to that. Well, would you like me to add Max?

That would specifically No, I have review and prioritize the economic development goals contained in the master plan, but I also heard EDC. So, where economic development? Well, that's going to be in there. All these goals in that planning section, cons led would go to the EDC. Oh, so I don't need to rewrite ED. Okay, I'm just checking. Okay, great. That one's done. Uh, master plan implementation goals.

Uh, councelor Morangello suggested, I think it says TC 2.2, to work with Gatra for a fixed bus route in addition to current ondemand micro transit. Council Mangello, can you elaborate on TC 2.2? Yeah, so that's uh the the number of the goal in the master plan. Um so you could just I think you could just click in and it'll go to the master plan or something. All right.

Um but but this was something that was I think there's a lot of people who are seniors who you know the you have to sort of schedule microtransit in advance and sometimes they book up and then you're stuck. You don't have that reliability uh of the fixed line where you can just hop on a bus and know what's going to be there every half hour. And so there's some people in the community who have uh expressed frustration that it's not as reli the current system isn't as reliable as it could be. Um, so they're looking to sort of u have that as that adding that back in as an option for people and and being able to have the two systems work together efficiently so that people can get to where they need to go.

And I believe the limitations Jamie in the past around that have been the town's contribution. Right. Well, you got to buy a bus, you got to have I mean the vision has always been one a 140 route which I think would make a huge difference. Um um but money for the bus coordination staffing you know all that stuff um okay is the constraint there. Now Jamie a question on that. Would you have to set bus stops and everything like that if we have a fixed route right? Yep. If I remember right from my key days you would have to set up uh and what would that do to the street? Well it depends. I mean we've never really looked into it

gone this far. I think um you've been trying to work with Gatra, but Gatra has limited funding too and their funding is going to get cut from the federal government as well. Again, so um you know um I think it's a really great objective. I think it's something that a lot of people talk about. Oh, it' be great. But it is a long-term multi-million dollar investment for sure. And um can locations be done, Jamie? instead of specific markings on 140, could it be like the municipal building and etc. and just

uh big why? I think you if you saw a route like this, you'd probably have key stops for shopping. I think you know you'd have a stop in, you know, obviously uptown. You'd have a stop, you know, over near Dean. You'd have a stop down by, you know, Fiser, um Fischer Street, basically where the old mill was. You know, you'd okay lay out exactly. You'd go into the village mall. You'd, you know, whatever. So it doesn't have to be disturbing 140 or well what no matter what it's going to disturb 140 because you get the big why you got jaws

it'll disturb 140 if we do what what's laid out here. It's like but you know I I'd be but that's very expensive. I think we can get to this or get something on or at least if we're going to put in a goal, I would prefer it to be a goal that says we're going to look for, you know, explore ways to accomplish the task, so to speak, without necessarily saying we're going to buy a bus and create bus stops. Right? So maybe it's it's it's I don't know if it's exploring a partnership or just some other type of arrangement to enable the type of uh transit that that uh that Max has suggested.

And you we'd have to we'd have to we'd have to get uh we'd have to have them pay for it too. That's the other thing. We to Council Juk's point actually it's it's pretty spot on. I mean, I think FA I think a first part of this might be a small grant through an MAPC or a district technical assistance grant where maybe some transportation planner could actually look at right where are those stops and that would be a great project for the planning office. Um, but I I like the way he's moving instead of trying to we don't want to bite off we can chew, right?

How many stops do we need? What are the intervals? What are the traffic light considerations? All that stuff would get refereed. I mean, we could probably find a small grant amount for a transportation planner. I mean, something like this is probably a $30,000, $20,000 cost for a transportation planning consultant to go through and look at that route and say, you know, Guerllic, you know, Forge Park, like how many stops is it and what is it going to cost for us to implement something like this? That that would certainly be a much more realistic goal and a much more realistic thing, right? you know, and it still fits with where the master plan's trying to go. And it's something that helps from an economic development standpoint because it increases the mobility of some of the seniors in town.

So that's So is there suggested edits to the language or are we leaving it as is,

Max? So yeah, so I mean we could sort of have that sort of study part of it, you know, are we going to study this, look at the things. The other two alternative goals that I was looking at was um you know, we have Forge Park uh you know, having we could have like a you know, Peter Pan have a headquarters there between um you know, Forge Park in Worcester, Forge Park in New York or Forge Park in Providence. Um that having private bus officers, operators is one of the goals in the master plan. and then we they would profit off of it. So it wouldn't necessarily have to be a private public cost. Uh the other option is RIPA and that's a whole headache because I mean they're in Rhode Island. They need special permission to go Massachusetts.

But if they were to get special permission, you know, the amateur they they would want access to our commuter rail. So they could want to provide us free, you know, they might want to provide us free service because they can access to our get access to our rail that way. So just two other options if you want to substitute them. Sorry. So as we think about goals though, maybe the way to to couch that is explore options to enable um fixed route bus fuss. A fixed route bus. That's what a fixed bus fixed whether it's cash or whatever. Fix to Max's point. How do we Yeah. Get a fixed route.

Fix a bus route. Yes. Oh, and the other thing I forgot was Logan Express. I won't even say fixed bus. I would say like, you know, but to your point, something like that. Like, let's let's think about let's think about what we're trying to accomplish as opposed to how we actually do it. Yeah. Fixed transit, you know, increased could be an Uber driver back and forth. It could be somebody

explore options. Yeah, I would just put So, no, Jamie has a Yeah. Explore options for a fixed spouse route for a fixed bus route along fixed transit route, a fixed transit uh route along Route 140. Yes, because that's we we know that's what the vision was. Okay. Yeah, I think it's good. It's great. And you could still Jamie tie it to TC 2.2. I absolutely I'll keep that. I'll keep that.

This is the master plan implementation sections. That makes sense. All right. The next one, um, Max, uh, uh, Council Mangello recommended that we look at S1.1A, uh, pursue the DOER climate leader designation. And Jamie, I think we heard you say that this would be incredibly expensive, but do you want to talk talk through it or leave it as a goal or I think if you wanted to create a sustainability citizens committee, you could. I know that's a requirement of that. Um I know the stretch code is the big one of the biggest iss could we just change it to say explore? That leaves us a lot of wiggle room to

Yeah. Look at it. Think about it. explore der climate leader designation. Yep. Yes. Perfect. Max, you okay with that? Well, uh maybe maybe take initial steps. So, you know, sustainability committee, you know, we don't have to finish it, but at least take the the first steps around looking at it. Um but how's that differ from explore? Explore and take it. Um well I mean at least what I meant by that was and I think you use explore on another one of the one of the goals as well and I like the term because it

kind of sets out some framework of well what would be required if we were going to do this what's first second third how much is that going to cost is this viable maybe we could come up with an alternative or whatever so I just like that word because it allows some focus on the objective without committing to setting up a committee and through Mr. Mr. Chairman, I think to Matt, I think to that point, like how many of you know exactly what it takes to become a climate? Not not audience members. I we we I did read through it and I I don't see that happening anytime soon. But so I think step one is even understanding what's required of it, right? I think is your point, right?

So I will say that I think one of the advantages of it is we do go through all the steps. you do get a significant amount of grant funding, right? Uh with that, um and I know that there's some community who are looking for a sustainability coordinator and that this is something if we do go through these steps that could be used to fund that. Um so, um I would, you know, as long as as long as we're making pro we make progress, I'm happy. I just don't want to I just don't want to leave it on a shelf with the rest of the master plan. But uh Okay. So, I think I heard we're good with swapping out the word pursue for explore.

Yes. Okay. Council Morganello also suggested uh in accordance with H1.5A dedicate annual CPA contributions to the affordable housing trust. Um Mark Mark totally beat me. Mark was out of his seat. So the statute does already permit funds to be transferred to an affordable housing trust of the you know from CPA funds. It's a permissible use. Uh but that's typically done as part of the annual budgeting process with the CPC recommendation and then the legislative vote to approve or on an as needed basis whatever. I don't I don't think you can usurp that process.

Do you Mr. Someone's got to go to the It's not really the council necessarily. Theoretically, you could, but it's atypical for sure. You have to council morangello or a group or somebody would have to go to the CPA committee and make the pitch for this and why. So, um, and they would have to, right? So I don't know if that's actually suggest it may be at the purview of one of the counselors or maybe multiple or maybe you know but but just so we're clear

the trust has some funds but they're very limited in what they can kind of spend money on right it's not like we can just go give out rental programs necessarily or different things so but I think somebody's this goal would in in basically ask the council to go to the CPA committee to ask them to transfer money to the trust for whatever purposes councelor Morangello was thinking. So, it's a it is an awkward it is a bit of an awkward goal in terms of procedure, but the CPA could Jamie they could put in their list of here's the projects we want you to consider for this year. They could absolutely put an amount to the housing trust in that list to us, couldn't they?

They could absolutely, but we just can't mandate that, right? No, that's what you're saying. That's correct. Exactly. So the C the committee the C generally speaking the CPC is like a gatekeeper. They review they must by statute approve or recommend they so they recommend they they look at a project and they make a recommendation. They then will be up to you as the legislative body to implement or not. uh and you're restricted to implementing or not. You cannot take action contrary to what CPC votes. So there's like a checks and balances built in.

Okay. So So I think we're I think I'm hearing that this one's getting struck, but that if councelor Morganello or others wanted to advocate for this, they should go to talk to this. I think we'd also have to understand the CPA committee is going to ask why do you want to transfer money to there and what are you going to use the money on should actually come from the affordable housing trust itself right to the CPC with your support right great point

okay because I believe some of the uh concerns Jamie were about a fixed allocation so they could properly budget going forward and things like that but I understand what Yeah, actually to attorney Serell's point, the trust may want to go ask for something, but they have to first decide what they're asking for. So, I think this goal is is fine, and I know it's in the master plan, but it's a little too ambiguous and broad.

Okay. Well, I think we agreed to strike it. So, um, councelor Morangello also uh recommended in accordance with CSF5.2 Explore regional composting at the Beaver Street Recycling Center. Everybody seems Everybody seems good with that one. Regional. Regional means what are we? Yeah. Be the regional compost center. Yep.

Council Morangelo, was that your intention that this be for outside of Franklin? Oh, that was uh No, I just thought I think they were talking about having composting as a um I think municipal service. So like pickup I don't know if it would be pickup or was it in the master plan, but my understanding is we don't have a composting service right now for just for residents. Is that very very limited? It's very limited. So this would be to expand that for for residents. But just take out the word regional. Yeah, take out the word regional. Expand because it's the goal is already up above. But if you just take out regional, it should be fine. So, can would people be okay with explore additional composting options at the Beaver Street Recycling Center?

Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Next one. Councelor Morangello suggested in accordance with LU5.1 consider formbbased code for DC and C1 districts. So I'll be the first to admit I have no idea what this one is referring to. So can we get some elaboration? Yes. Yes. So formbased coding is you know we talk a lot about the character downtown. So formbbas based code instead of saying you know how much setbacks you have or you know how it basically says what what what's the character of the town this area of town that you actually want and and build to it. I don't know if I'm am I explaining that right Jamie or still still pretty high level but

think high level uh I actually put this in with um on the bequest of um planning board committee Selzer uh who was very interested in this uh proposal. Um but um I I think part of it we always talk about you know how do we make Frank Franklin look like Franklin and this is one of the best ways to do that is to actually they'll have the language actually talk about what you do want in terms of you know the character of the town or what what you know in terms of how things are set up within a zone rather than just you know the current system that we that we use currently and I apologize if I'm not explaining it the best I could

it's trying to I mean I I'll give you examples of you some communities that probably have form-based code are the conquers. So, it's kind of synonymous with what the historical district commission is trying to get at. Um the pluses are to council's point, you you know can kind of create, you know, unique village districts that are within that character like the crossing or downtown. The downside at times is it's highly regulatory about what people can and cannot do on their properties, right? Um, you know, it's not like I I you don't have to choose to be in Nucket, right, where every shutter goes through and door goes through a review committee, but that's a very historic and unique place, right? Um, so you don't have to have all those types of owners requirements. Kind of like what Alan Earl said earlier, it's a little customizable. U, but it does get into granular detail about what you're looking for on Dean Road or School Street or within the Dean Junior College Historical District. So, it is trying to get at vanity. Um, there's one part of it. Walkability is another part of it. Stuff like that. So, like the fence on property lines, things of that sort. I I hope I'm characterizing this somewhat correct, but it's really about visualization and vanity more than um setbacks, lawn requirements, driveway requirements, and things like that.

I would be open to exchanging it to uh well, it says consider already. So, it doesn't mean we have to implement it. Right. This will be an EDC decision probably whether to consider or not and they would come to us with their recommendations like anything else. Right. Correct. Yeah. That would end up in the planning board no matter what. So yeah. Right. Okay. Right. So everybody's okay with that one. Sounds like um the next one council morello change it to consider. It says it says consider but the next one says adopt which might it's late to explore. We're We're almost done. Almost there.

Uh, Council Morello also recommended H1.1C adopt a 40R smart growth zoning overlay district downtown. Council Marello, you want to elaborate?

Yeah. So, I think, you know, we're talking, we've talked a lot about affordable housing. We don't want it in certain places. You know, we don't want it on um uh we don't want we don't want it on Maple. We don't want it on 444. we don't want it there. But I think the the sort of the best place to sort of have, you know, denser, smarter growth that's transit oriented, that's walkable is downtown. And so as part of the master plan, they recommended this. And not only does this have the benefit of allowing sort of affordable development that's um you know, sort of in that sort of transit oriented area, but the uh state would actually kick in some money towards uh educating the students. uh that would be that would be live there so that it doesn't actually impact the town's finances as much. The development doesn't impact the town's finances as much and is more likely to benefit the town in the long run. Um you know I would say you know you know I think there's we've talked about a lot of places that are not best for the development but if you know if not downtown where else really can you have people live? Uh so

okay so so this issue was considered I believe it was with a prior council we actually had a presentation with Mark Babrosski who's the land use maven

uh and uh my suggestion would be change it to uh uh encourage 40R uh has shortcomings to uh if you don't care, basically what it's been explained as is basically legalized spot zoning where you can be very precise in what kind of a development project. So if you have if you're working with a developer, you can you can work cooperatively and come up with something you both can live with. If you don't do it that way, there's shortfalls. One thing is if you if if you design it too loosely, the developer comes through and you could have unintended consequences. On the other hand, if it's too tight, nobody wants to do anything with it. So, nothing happens. So, it it's ideal situation and I know that Mark Robski's worked with a number of communities and developers uh on different size projects. It's it's a tool. It's there, but it's it's also somebody wants to redevelop with their property. Fine. Let's use 40 yard. There's benefits to both of us to do that. So, I would suggest instead of adopt, encourage use of

Yeah. And that's what I was going to say because I think there's a 20% affordable component with the with with the 40 yards, right? Yeah. Correct. But the plus for developers there's no limit on uh uh rate of return as there is with a 40b. See that's what my questions were like how does that work for the economics for the

so that's the winwin component you only get 20%. So if it's you're not going to you only get the actual units credited towards your SHI you don't get a whole project just the actual but the flip side of that is a developer isn't restricted in how much money they can make on the project as they are on a 40B. So it's it can be very much a win-win. I mean I think we should consider my own opinion. I just don't like the word adopt. Again, it's I think it's too uh definitive, but consider it or encourage or what about evaluate evaluate? It really depends on a lot on the property owners there, too. Like trying to encourage them to do some kind of development. And maybe

we reached out. We've reached out to some. We've had this conversation. We need to make them an offer they can't refuse. Yeah. Good luck with that. We can offer them parking meters. There you go. That's really about it. Just you just have So am I hearing that I'm scratching adopt and putting evaluate evaluate? Evaluate was a good word. Yeah. Actually, I don't know if we actually need to have this in here because this is part of the economic development section of the master plan, correct?

Which would be considered there. I understand what Max is. I agree 100% of what he's trying to do, but that's kind of redundant to what we want to do with the economic development committee and that would be part of the actions that they would take to evaluate that process. So, I don't know if this one necessarily needs to be called out. That's so I don't that's would be my only thing here. That's all

you Mr. Chairman. I I would actually agree with that in the sense that 40R is is really at the end of the day if you put an overlay district in then you're wedded to that zoning district. But as I've always mentioned, and this is why the EDC couldn't come up with a recommendation, the first thing you want to do is have a developer willing to do it. And I'm just going to name it, Depot Plaza. Okay, that is a perfect 40DR site. But if you put a thing in place and then they don't like the rules, you've lost your opportunity. To con attorney S's point, you actually want the developer to want to do it and then work with them on what they want and try to come up to some sort of mutual agreement within 40R. So I think um council blank evaluate if you want to leave the goal in is fine or just strike it and let the EDC you know kind of work on this down the line.

What's everybody want? Still got to move on to another whole I just I guess I just want to make sure that we um you know uh I think leaving it in I mean this isn't just for us. This is this is how we evaluate uh Jamie. So I mean we you know this is this is also you know part part of the system is to make sure we you know do the things we as a group that we decide on to do. So I think there is a benefit to leaving something in there whether it's uh have the I mean the economic development committee is a part of us more or less it's a body of us. So I mean I think including it in there would be would be allow them to look into it

and it keeps it forefront council right keeps it on the list. So, evaluate a 40R smart growth zoning over Lake District Town. Evaluate. Okay. Okay. Develop a design for the townowned SNET parcel with the state department of conservation and recreation as outlined in objective 3.5 in the town open space and recreation plan. That's a given to me. Like that's a good one, right? Nobody had any objections, right? Okay, that's a good one. That's the

I mean, the only thing I would say is we're not going to develop the design. We're going to we want to review and approve the design, right? Well, that's all. But that's semantics. So, yeah, I'm not going to worry about too much. And we're a long way away from anything where we're gonna be daisies before. Whoa. God's like, "Wait a minute. Everybody's dying. I'm hoping to walk on." That's last meeting people saying they were dying, too. I'm like, "Nobody's going to be around to see any of this stuff happen." That's what they said when they put the water tank in, right?

Seriously. I'll come back from retirement to see the water tower go up. All right. implement the implement the preliminary phases of the approved master plans for Schmidz Farm and Maple Hill open space parcels as outlined in the town's open space and recreation plan using CPA funds. Love it. Everybody's good with that.

Kind of at the point where we got to start moving with those ones, right? Um, other notable master plan imple implementation goals being worked on by town boards which may include town council and planning board involvement. Design review commission LU5.5A empower the design review commission to be an approving board or otherwise enforce design reviews. LU5.5B would be update design guidelines.

Everybody's good with that one. But these Jamie, just to be clear, these are not our goals or are these what other These are other boards that are taking on these projects because they're either affiliated with the master plan, I think, in most of them. But they all, you know, if design review comes back with recommendations on sign bylaw changes, they either have to go through the EDC and then come up to us. But at some point this may be time on your calendars probably in 2027 um for all of these because it I can tell you I I understand Mr. Earl said the historic district commission is not as hard as it as people think. It is definitely as hard as people think.

It's expensive.

It's super expensive. It is very hard. Um and I will send you by the way a presentation that they did on October 15th at the council meeting. They did a long presentation that night and I'll send it around to everybody. But these are things that eventually the council or planning board are going to have to look at if these boards make that work. So I just wanted as some of these goals were happening over the last month, boards were coming to the staff saying we want to go review all the sign bylaws, you know, we want to look at the deforestation and habitat, the conservation wants to rewrite their code, historical commission, all of them. But eventually, if you guys said, "We're never going to have the time to look at these things," then I should tell them to to not waste their time. Um, I don't think that's what we want to tell them. U, but I think I wanted to acknowledge to all of you, these boards are working on some on some substantially challenging stuff that may or may not come to you guys down.

That's why I just wanted to raise it just in terms of how that fit against what we think our goals are. It's not really your goals, but eventually it becomes because if historical commission comes up with a historic district, you know, plan concept, you know, they can't approve it themselves. They have to create a bylaw around it. Um, and then that's going to require, you know, planning board either hearings or council hearings to look at that, right? Um, so by extension, they are kind of things that you may have to deal with, but I put them in a separate section because they're not really your exclusive goals. I get it. This is work that's being done by other folks. And that that's to the

councelor Grella's point, I think, earlier about citizen committees, right? These are your citizen committees trying to accomplish all this stuff. And, you know, we should try to at least support them and empower them to do it. So, I think the first goals meeting, which was good, I think got other people talking about their areas and what they were going to do. And I just wanted to note that these these items might be coming up to you guys at some point. Okay. Obviously, Council Morangello, the one goal down the bottom is is not one of those. That's kind of what I was just I kind of didn't know where to fit that one in, so I just threw it at the bottom. I was just going to kind of say the way you just explained it. Why don't we instead of you reading every one and us going over it, why don't we just use this as a block, these four ones,

the concept, because their other committee work, they just can stay, right? They can just stay and then we'll go to uh council's last. Sure.

Okay. So, uh, Council Morangello suggested creating a policy establishing a 10-year planning cycle with a regular review timeline for a mission, vision, values statement, strategic plan, master plan, housing production plan, ADA transition plan, comprehensive facility assessment, long-term capital improvement plan, and other regularly occurring planning commitments. So we kind of do that anyway, Jamie, but it's not like formally it's not formally delineated, right?

No, I think that's still I think almost all of that is represented in other parts of this list or at least most of it, but I think it's it's okay. It's okay to I mean, Council Marel, did you want to speak to it further?

Yeah. No, I just I just wanted to like say like there's no I don't know calendar. I just want to make sure that we stay on top of everything. You know, I know there's all these things going around left and right. I know, you know, be pretty crazy being a town administrator with all the things flying all over the place. So, I just want to make sure that we have a calendar that okay, this year we're going to do this. This year we're going to do this. This year we're going to do this. And there's some things we don't do in here. We don't have a mission, values, vision, uh vision, value statement. I don't think we do have a value statement right now. I think there's a mission vision. What was that?

You have the first goal on the list is to try to create one. Well, yeah. Um, so, but being able to tie all that together so we know when we're going to do when, uh, just just to make it easier for us, that's all I want, you know, just make it easy for us to know when we have to do what we have to do. Go ahead, Matt.

Yeah, I just want to go back to the first one, and that's the only one I really want to comment on is that empower the design review commission. Right now they are advisory only to the planning board in the context of site plan special permits um and they have final say on signage so they have two different functions uh I'd be concerned about giving them the final determination so-called empowerment with respect to actual projects and design and all that's usurping the planning board's authority.

And I would add on to what Mark said. I mean, personally, I agree with what the town attorney just said. What's written here is what's in the master plan. And at the end of the day, we need a decision some point. It doesn't have to be in the next two years. At some point the community will either maintain the structure of approval we have or the community will change the structure of it. I'm just him and I may have a different view but that doesn't mean everybody else can't have a different view than what we have to say we want to empower design to do that. But again that's why I put this section here. This is something design review is going to work on for a while. But I just want to note that is a actual verbatim goal in the master plan. Um, even if Mark and I disagree with the goal,

so for the purposes of tonight, we don't have to alter the language. It's in the master plan. It's in the master plan. Okay. Verbatim. And the one about keeping us on the timeline that council morel proposed here at the bottom with the 900 different plans. I will tell you, I will just be honest. There is there is not a shot in any type of orbit that I'm going to be able to come up with a 10-year plan to keep in track on everything. Like I I need more bandwidth. I obviously have made the case for another assistant town manager, but even beyond that and whether that happens or not. Yeah. I just

financing on this is going to be the number one key like the federal, state, local partnerships, econom all this other stuff is going to be contingent on whether you have money to do these things like right if I could I mean I wholearly agree with what Max is going here for, right?

But this is going to go back to what I said at the beginning as my comment. If we want to do this stuff, you have to commit human resources to do this. You just you you therefore it's dollars in the budget to do this. So you can't sit here and say we can't have more people can't afford it. But I agree with all of this stuff here. I would say probably Max what you're looking for maybe and maybe I'm putting a little bit. You just want a timeline. It's not we're not going to you just want we're going to do the capital plan tenure this year. We're going to do the master plan this year. I think that's what you're looking for here. You're not looking to do them right now. You just want a definitive schedule right now that says the master plan was done in 2025, so we're going to do it in 2035. The 10-year plan for long-term uh capital is going to be done in 2027, 2037. I think that if we can get that, that's a start. But I do agree

that to do all this stuff takes a lot of resources and it's truly necessary. So, we better be willing to sit here and fund it. Yeah. And that means coming up with creative ways to fund this stuff. That's all I'm going to say. So, is there edits to the language or is it good? No, I I Yeah. No, I think it should just stay right. What are your objection? Specific objection that we just can't do it. Council Blank actually just did it. He said if the master plan's 2025, the next one's up in 2035. The capital plans are 2037 next. So my I'm being a little saucy because it's 10 o'clock. But yeah, hold on. Go ahead.

Sorry. I just think the thing in here is it's a policy, right? And if if you want one a one pager for me to lay out if you want to when were the last like the housing plan was 2024. If you want a list, I can easily do that pretty quickly. Um, the ones that are hard on here are comprehensive facilities assessments, you know, ADA transition plans or comp like all that stuff. I I don't think I could do that very quickly, right? Um, but I mean, if you want a policy or a schedule, a schedule, we could do a schedule. Create a schedule. Yeah. So, if I could Hold on, hold on, hold on. Go ahead. Okay. So,

I thought we had a schedule. Love the idea. I I get what what you're what we're trying to get where you're trying to go. The issue is if we have a schedule, we have to stick to it. Just kind of echoing what uh council Blancc was saying and because this because this all takes resources and money, it's almost the the likelihood of us being able to stick to a schedule we put out is is is is low. And so if we put out a schedule and then don't stick to it, we're we're what? Cutting off our nose to to spite our face or whatever the saying is. That's that's a nice one I can go with. It it's not.

So if um if if uh if administrator Helen, you know, can give us historically what what's been done, that's one view that might be helpful because I can give you a sense of what things might be coming up in the future. But I I would be inclined to not put projections out there because whatever we do right now, whatever we lay out as as a projection right now with the information that we have is going to be wrong. And when we lay out what we're going to do and then don't meet those meet the timeline, we are I don't even care if we get hammered for it, it's going to impact the town and that's an issue. So, I I like I I I get what you're going for here. I I you know this I I love it. I think it's it's fantastic. I don't think we're there. You know, I you know, we can show historically, hey, this is what's happened in the past, and that might be helpful, but I really strongly recommend we don't put projections out there for what's going to happen in the future, at least not yet.

So, what's the proposed language change? I I don't think we need this. Um Well, I think I think we kill it. I'm fine with that. I don't know who else. I'm fine with killing it. And don't get me wrong, I love it. It's It's a It's great. I want it in there, but I don't think it's a good idea for us to to to to move forward with it. Do we need to poll everybody? Uh um Well, let's let's poll everybody. Um

or the other the other option is to put on here that we want just just so we have it is change it to let's look at our his historically what have when have we done these things if we at least have the historical perspective that keeps us in mind that allows us to think about what the future might be without actually committing to what we're going to do going forward. Is that possible? That's all right Jamie. Can you do that or Yeah, we could try to put something together. I mean, there's some stuff on here that certainly hasn't happened as well as it should over the years, but um your proposal, but you know. So, would it be create a timeline? Create a schedule. Create I think you could do create a historical

historical. I think you could I think the word schedule is fine. I mean, I think half of this I could probably pump out we're talking about projected. Well, how about you just start with like you say historical uh um record of when these documents were produced. Simple as that, right? So, what just somebody tell me what they want me to write, please? Put it together right now. I'm not I'm having a complete brain. No, create a historical

record of of uh Franklin Town planning cycle reviews. Planning cycle reviews. Create a historical record of the Franklin planning cycle cycle reviews. Whatever. Okay. Something like this. That's nice and easy. Okay. All right. Before Before we move on, Mr. chairman and I had one more if that's okay. Go ahead.

I'm actually calling it the Mark Minelli rule because he's here tonight. But we did not put in here anywhere the creation of the actual affordable housing index for the town of Franklin and it's been talked about and we've mentioned that it would be something that would be very helpful to have and I'd like to suggest to the council that we include it as a

to get It's going to take some work, but to actually look at what are the real numbers, not we have a 600 unit apartment complex and 25% are affordable. So, we can count the whole 600. I think Mark's made the point many times to us that we have one number based on state definition and then we have the reality. And it would be nice to be able to point to people to the reality. Ted, I'm fine with that. as long as we say evaluate or explore alternative HSI index. Is there a standard already in place? Well, it's the state standard. That's what I was going to saying

for this but we have to create are we creating our own thing? You are creating our own thing. He's creating his own thing. I think you just simply do review the standing housing index or something very basic because we were Marina and the staff are actually trying to they're basically pulling all that data together right now in the SHI and we were planning at some point to do a presentation at DDC or the council on what units count, what's the formula. Oh, so you were already doing

Yeah, I've had Marina been pulling out all of our building cap, but I I don't want to do the I don't think doing the actual standard housing index is a good idea because it's very subjective and at some point it's just it's almost impossible to go out to 13,000 housing properties in town and find out who's charging less than they should. It's really hard. Um it's also it's also creating something that doesn't exist. That was not my proposal, though. the ASHI. You wanted the actual standard housing index number of actual affordable units. That's how I understood it. Yeah, that's how I understood it, right?

Yeah. So, Mark Mini Kelly, 31 Longfellow Drive. Um, my suggestion was to of the 40B units, right? Okay. to only count the rental units that were affordable, not not not including the private landlord unit. So, and and and we are on the affordable housing trust, we we are working with your staff members to try to pull a number together. So, if you were to put some sort of an objective or goal together, you'd probably have a pretty good chance of hitting it. Um

because we're going to we're going to be developing a number but there was my intention was not to include now there were some private landlords who were saying you know include us that wasn't that wasn't my proposal. I never thought that was I think you were just in the use use the use the inventory the subsidized housing inventory numbers today and subtract out the market the market. It's not it's not a complicated really factor because you've got

the rentals which only have to be 25% and then you get 100%. So that's 75% versus 25% right there and the actual the home ownership ones which only the affordables count anyway. So it's really just discounting on the rentals. Yes. Right. But I'm all about putting goals on here. we can actually attain review the standard housing index. You're already working on it then that's fantastic and then we can celebrate and have something to report out to people at the end of the year. So would everybody be okay with that as a goal? Yeah, but review, right? You want to review it or evaluate it, right?

I think you just want to review the standard housing index, review the SHI because you got to remember the SH we don't have any authority to change anything about the SHI. No. So the action only action you could then take is lobby state government to change the standard housing index. But I don't think that's what Mark's goal was trying to do. He just wanted to know where the numbers all fell. Right.

And he wanted to basically separate if you had 100% units at Grove Street and there's 330 100% of the units get added to the SHI but only 25% of them are deed really actually affordable. And he wants to know how many are actually market rate that should be affordable. My only objective was to know what we really have for affordable units in Franklin. I I know I get you. Okay. So, review the standard housing index in parentheses 40B rental communities only. Is that correct, Jamie? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you everyone. Is there a motion on the floor?

No, we haven't gotten to that yet. Okay. You got two minutes. to a jury. I got it, Max. Then we got the guy. No, I do not have to read the whole thing as amended. No, wait a minute. So, so we do we do a motion to motion to adopt resolution 26-10 26-10 as amended. As amended. And now I need a second. Second. Second, third, fourth. discuss suggest discussion with the as revised tonight as revised tonight.

Okay. Motion to approve resolution 26-10 as revised tonight. With attached goal, whatever it's called with attached as revised tonight. That's revised. March 4th, 2026. Please see attached. Can I second? Uh yeah, second it. Okay. And do you want me to actually read this or no? Motion to wave the reading. Motion to wave the reading. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Wow. Uh everybody second here. I So we have a motion on the floor for resolution 25 26-10. All in favor?

I opposed. Motion passed. Maintain a motion to adjourn. Second motion to insurance. So second second. All in favor. Yay. And we got done.

That was great. I'm going to take my battery back. Recording stopped.