FranklinNOW editor Mark Maley has come through as promised with the Honor Rolls for the City of Franklin. This feature should be updated on a regular basis according to Mark.  I am a firm believer that academic excellence should be featured in the community just as we praise our students for their athletic and extracurricular achievements. After all, isn't this the key reason we are willing to pay the taxes we do, for the kids.

Third - Congratulations to former FranklinNOW (now solo flying with BULLSEYE) blogger Fred Keller with his effort to get Franklin elected officials to sign a pledge to keep tax increases to under 3%. He has taken some criticism from other bloggers as to the impossibility of this pledge. Yet he is getting members of the Franklin Common Council to sit down and discuss how they might be able to back a tax cutting pledge.

Despite the half empty glass, views of some FranklinNOW bloggers, this positive action by Fred shows that there are Franklin Taxpayers who are willing to go one step further than just talking about how things should be.  As Steve Taylor - unconfirmed (but soon to be confirmed) 4th District aldermanic candidate said at the candidates forum "Almost all the people I talked with have said we need to lower property taxes".

Well Fred is trying to make sure everyone got the message.

This is fresh start, on a new blog, with a new name, that WILL NOT contain the nastiness that has been seen on FranklinNOW in the past.

 I do want to start out with an apology to Greg Kowalski of FranklinNOW, as I know he feels I have offended him in the past with references to his family or person in my past blogs under a different blog name.

• This does not mean future blogs may not be critical of opinions stated in Greg Kowalski’s, Kevin Fischer's or any other blogs on the CommunityNOW. However  I do not intend on posting any hurtful nicknames to those with opposing views. 


• I have learned how to credit other writers when using their writings to stress a point that I wish to communicate to readers.  Some have called it plagiarism; I call it a beginner bloggers error. I will not make that mistake again.


• I still believe in and will blog about, the improvements the School Board needs to make to regain the trust of the Franklin Residents.  In what I write, I hope to encourage fiscally conservative individuals to run for School Board to replace the current members that do not fit these criteria.


• I still believe the current City Council is one of the best we have had in a long time. They are not perfect, but have done much more than past administrations  and the current School Board in trying to keep our taxes in line, despite the issues we face as a growing city.


• I still believe that Franklin has a chance to continue with its development without being dictated to by developers.  But given that developments are money making propositions, Franklin can not throw up too many roadblocks that will send the developers to other communities instead of ours.


• I still believe that what is now the so called Civic Center does not have to be our Civic Center just because we have our City Hall and Police Center in that location.  If we have gotten ourselves into a predicament that we can not legally get ourselves out of, a plan B location should be considered.  


• I still believe that Franklin is a basically good place to live in but has a long way to go.  That we can not waste our time with those who are trying to make us something we are not, “The North Shore” because we are better.


• I still believe there are those that do not live here in Franklin and wish to meddle in our city’s issues. We need to ignore them because they are insignificant and don’t belong here.  I will not tolerate their nasty comments. Hence a delay in posting your comments.

So I still believe there is room for my opinion on FranklinNOW.

Thanks

Bryan Maersch