The ongoing effort to create a makerspace in Franklin will try to drum up support, and do some entertaining in the process, at Franklin's Community Day on Saturday.

“We have looked at many places only to have it fall through, or someone wants us to pay a rent that’s five times the previous rent. They want to charge what Franklin will become, not what it is,” said Bill Yacopucci, a member of Concord’smakerspace who has been trying for years to start a makerspace in his hometown.

Members of the makerspace community will be in the cottage at Odell Park during the annual Community Day event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“This is the second year we’re there. The idea is to give people a sense of what a makerspace can be. Each room has a little something  – can’t bring the big things in – like a 3-D printer,” said Yacopucci.

Makerspaces are often described as membership gyms for do-it-yourselfers, providing tools and workspaces to be used by members and the community. Throughout New Hampshire about a dozen exist, run largely or entirely by volunteers. Finding enough space to operate on donation-dependent budgets is often a problem: Concord Makerspace, for example, had to move last year to a much smaller location at 197 N. Main St. in Boscawen.

The Concord Makerspace is in the midst of a phased reopening and is using grant money to hire its first employee, with the goal of expanding classes and community initiatives.

Yacopucci, who grew up in town and graduated from Franklin High School in 1986, says a makerspace would fit well into Franklin’s mill-town history since they can provide introductory training for skills from soldering to woodworking to welding to programming, or act as a place for inventors and businessfolk to try out ideas.

“The idea is how to do stuff at our makerspace and that rolls into a decent job,” he said. 

Even without a permanent home, Franklin makerspace participants have run culinary and woodworking programs at the middle school and summer programs for the town recreation department.  They’ve also collected so many tools that it overflowed members’ garages; they’re now stored in a 40-foot trailer kept at the transfer station.

Yacopucci said he is optimistic that the group will find a permanent home in town within the next year as part of a flurry of renovation in Franklin, noting that they have received a lot of support from the town and individuals. 

“A lot of people want this to happen,” he said. 

For more information, check the website at franklinmakerspace.org.

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