In Other News

Juneteenth: Proclaiming Freedom

With little fanfare, the Juneteenth holiday has arrived for many. But, hoping to remind us of its true roots, the Franklin Republican Town Committee will be reading the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 from the steps of the Historical Museum (Franklin’s Town Hall at the time of the Civil War). The reading is brief and anyone can attend the gathering is planned for 9:30 am at 80 West Central Street. News, much delayed, of the Emancipation Proclamation reaching Texas, is the origin of the Juneteenth celebration.

Milford Regional Adds Nurse Practitioner in Franklin

Milford Regional Physician Group (MRPG) has announced that Jordan Manzotti, FNP, is coming to Franklin Family Practice, located at 1280 West Central Street, Suite 202, Franklin. Jordan is no stranger to MRPG- for the past year, she worked as an office nurse with Dr. Diego Illanes and his team at Milford Regional Urogynecology. Prior to that, Jordan worked as a registered nurse on the Telemetry unit at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge.Jordan earned her BS in Biology from the University of New England and MSN (Family Nurse Practitioner) from Simmons University. While at Simmons, her clinical rotations provided her with added experience in inpatient medicine and urgent care. Jordan began her career in healthcare as a medical assistant at Brown Surgical Group in Providence RI and currently resides in Uxbridge.

911 Outage Hits Metacomet dispatch center and Rest of State

Tuesday afternoon, the State Police and most if not all local police departments in the state suffered interruption of 911 service. Gary Premo, director of Metacomet, which serves Franklin and other area communities, said the problem was fixed within roughly an hour. No word yet on the cause or whether the glitch had any significant consequences in the area. Multiple states had a similar outage in April. That event was blamed on a contractor severing a communication cable.

Food Pantry Wins Grant

The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), the largest hunger- relief organization in New England, awarded nearly $25,000 to the Franklin Food Pantry to support its ability to empower food insecure neighbors, bolstering GBFB’s network of food distribution agencies and advancing hunger-relief efforts across Eastern Massachusetts in response to the continuing hunger crisis in the state. The annual grant program, originally founded in 2013, has now been investing in GBFB partner agencies for over a decade. This investment aims to strengthen The Pantry’s ability to provide nutritious food to the Franklin community. The grant will be used to fund the addition of a Support Services Coordinator who will enhance The Pantry’s client programs and services, and food procurement and processing systems. Individuals interested in the new position can learn more HERE. “The support The Pantry has received from Greater Boston Food Bank has been instrumental in alleviating food insecurity in Franklin,” said Tina Powderly, Executive Director Franklin Food Pantry. “We’re grateful to receive the Community Investment Grant to strengthen our team and in-turn our community.”