This shares my conversation with Town Administrator Jamie Hellen and Town Council Chair Tom Mercer. With the reschedule, we combined our normal Talk Franklin session with one of the series of conversations meant to provide a recap of the prior Council meeting. The combined session also ends abruptly but we’ll have more to talk about in future sessions.

Akin to one of the many sports post-game analysis broadcasts we are familiar with in New England, this would be a discussion focused on the Franklin Town Council meeting of Mar 15, 2023:

• ok, what just happened?
• What does it mean for Franklin residents and taxpayers?

We cover the following key topics

• The ‘friendly 40b’ proposal that failed by a 4-5 vote
• The Town budget as previewed during the Joint Budget Subcommittee

Links to the meeting agenda and associated documents released for this meeting are included in the show notes.

Our conversation runs about 29 minutes. Let’s listen to this combined Talk Franklin and Town Council Quarterbacking session recorded Mar 16, 2023

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The complete agenda doc -> https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/agendas/town_council_agenda_-_march_15_2023_0.pdf

YouTube Video link -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGx3TPCumWw

My notes and the audio of the meeting -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/03/town-council-ratifies-master-plan.html

My quick notes and the meeting video -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2023/03/town-council-whiffs-on-easy-layup-to.html

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial.

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors
• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/ or www.franklin.news/

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

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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