It was not a marathon night for Mattapoisett Town Meeting voters; rather, it was more like a relay race as they passed each and every warrant article (all Special Town Meeting articles and the first 34 articles of the Annual Town Meeting) on the first night.
This first of what will be at least two nights of discussion and debate was dedicated to the Fiscal Year 2016 budget set at $23 million.
That is not to say it wasn’t without its dramatic moments.
Finance Committee Chairman Pat Donoghue was invited to the microphone by Town Moderator John Eklund to outline for the voters the FY16 budget and rationales employed by the committee as they developed the budget blueprint.
Donoghue said the committee had asked all departments to stay within a 2.9 percent increase over FY15, a request made in light of local revenue, tax levies, and state funding expectations. From that starting point, depending on the department or line item in question, the Finance Committee moved up or down, she said.
Road repairs and infrastructure improvements topped the list of priorities for FinCom members, followed by the needs of the Police and Fire Departments. There were new vehicles, additional staffing, and cost of living increases that had to be taken into consideration, she told the voters. Donoghue also pointed to the FinCom members’ concerns over the historic town wharves, now in need of immediate attention, as well as the library whose Sunday openings she said were not only popular but also necessary.
But when it came to the schools, her tone took a decidedly different mood as she called working with the school budgets “very challenging.”
Donoghue said that growing student enrollment, increased costs to upgrade math and reading materials, and more students opting to attend specialized schools in the area as reasons why staying within the 2.9 percent guideline was difficult. She also pointed to the looming specter of retirement benefits like OPEB liability, calling it a “big nut.”
To date, she pointed out that ORR has been unable to set aside any money to pay for negotiated retirement plans.
Later on, as Eklund read the budget line items asking for voters to call out if they had a question on any single item before it was presented to the town for a vote, Cindy Johnson, a new ORR School Committee member, let her voice ring out with a demonstrative “HOLD” when the school budget was announced.
Johnson was invited to speak to the voters by Eklund. She wasted no time sharing her grave concerns that ORR couldn’t live up to the high standards expected of the communities it serves due to budget cuts. She also said, rather than allow the school budget to come before the voters for debate, the School Committee was forced to work with the Finance Committees and administrations for each town causing deep reductions in staffing and programs in the absence of public input.
“How do we sustain and maintain quality education?” Johnson asked the voters, while imploring the three towns for greater support in the future.
Mattapoisett’s ORR school assessment is $ 4.9 million for FY16. Local schools, Center School and Old Hammontown, came in at $6.6 million.
Everything else before the 250 or so voters moved along smoothly.
Capital needs for 13 items topped out at $422,456, with new vehicles for the Highway and Police Departments being the biggest items on the list.
The Community Preservation Fund featured grants for repairs to the Quaker Meeting House for $80,000 and repairs to the wharves at Shipyard Park for $80,000. The 1.1-mile portion of the Bike Path also received CPA funds of $15,000, as well as additional funding from Article 1 of the Special Town Meeting.
Also, $40,000 was approved to conduct an engineering and design study of the Eel Pond forced sewer main. The selectmen, with the support of the Finance Committee, hope to find a way to relocate this weak link in the town’s public sewer system from its current precarious spot – Eel Pond.
The Selectmen also requested and received funding for a grant writer to assist the town in securing funding for the massive repairs required at the town wharves.
The town moderator had already split up the warrant, spreading it over two nights, and Part I of Town Meeting concluded around 9:45 pm Monday night.
By Marilou Newell
Right to Farm Yes, Wetlands Bylaw, No
Mattapoisett Annual Town Meeting Part II
By Marilou Newell
There was no way it was going to be a short night for town officials and voters when Town Moderator John Eklund opened the second night of the Mattapoisett Annual Town Meeting on May 12.
Voters were faced with making significant decisions on new bylaws and amendments from agriculture to wetlands protection, to opening business districts to cluster subdivisions.
Seemingly innocuous articles such as discontinuing a paper road seemed to have the voters standing to be heard. And heard they were as Town Meeting ended at late at 10:30 pm.
The “Right to Farm” bylaw passed with a strong 241 votes to 9 that opposed, yet voters felt compelled to add their voices to both sides. The ayes and the nays were debated for over an hour.
Siding with Mattapoisett declaring itself a Right-to-Farm community was Bob Spooner, chairman and founding member of the Agricultural Commission saying, “All we are asking you is to keep farming going in Mattapoisett.”
George Randall, whose family has been farming in town for many decades, said, ”Having a farm is like having a cell tower. Nobody wants one but everybody like to eat!”
Detractors felt that, by allowing more farming, neighboring property values would be negatively affected, making property less attractive to future buyers.
Others felt that smelly, noisy farms were a problem already.
Resident Roland Letentre of Holly Woods Road was especially vocal in his concerns over farming on small two-acre parcels. He said his neighbor started a poultry business that had more recently become a slaughterhouse with the animal material placed in composting piles. Though he applauded the work ethic of farmers, he felt such activities should not be allowed in residential areas.
Town Administrator Michael Gagne was allowed to respond to these concerns, saying there are processes in place to help Letendre and, with the Right to Farm bylaw, the Agricultural Commission would be asked to mediate, along with other agencies.
Gagne said, if the bylaw passed, signs would be posted at the entrances to the town alerting potential newcomers to the community that farms were a high priority.
Ray Andrews, one of the town’s assessors, said people living next to farms could lobby the town for a depreciated home value if it could be proven that the farm next door was a problem.
In the end, however, and after considerable discussion, the voters agreed with the article sponsors, and Mattapoisett is now officially a Right-to-Farm community.
The other article eliciting nearly as much emotional response on the part of the voters was the Conservation Commission’s wetlands bylaw.
Chairman Bob Rogers and the Conservation Commission were hoping to have a local wetlands bylaw put in place that would give them more local control when applicants appealed decisions, including requiring the appeal to be heard in court versus by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection as is now the process.
Rogers and ConCom member Marylou Kelliher fielded questions about the proposed bylaw, while the voters lobbed concerns that the language was too far-reaching or too vague and the costs associated with no longer being able to have the DEP mediate appeals a strain on property owners.
But no one was more forthcoming with reasons why a local wetlands bylaw should not be permitted than Douglas Schneider of Knollwood Drive.
Line by line, he tore through the proposed bylaw, calling the text confusing and saying it would make his job as a professional engineer more difficult. He said it gave the commission too much power and ultimately he made a motion to have the article indefinitely postponed. He sat down to thunderous applause.
The voters agreed with Schneider, soundly shooting down the article 140-22.
The other bylaws the voters faced were presented by Tom Tucker, chairman of the Planning Board, and explained in detail by their author, Brad Saunders of D & E, LLC.
The amendments, all for construction involving cluster subdivisions, would allow for zero-lot line housing designs, use of light industrial lands for open space calculation, and would allow cluster subdivision in the general business district.
Some voters felt they didn’t have enough information to make measured decisions about the amendments, while some were suspicious.
Bill Cantor of Prospect Street, said, “I get the feeling there is some plan behind this zoning change and we are not being told.”
Saunders assured him there wasn’t “a grand plan” and, although he represented clients with interests in or near the Bay Club, these amendments simply made good sense for the town.
And the voters agreed with Saunders. Article 36 passed 203-44, Article 37 passed 182-43 and Article 38 passed 198-24.
Other articles that passed were those to discontinue a paper road (Cecilia Road), petition to accept Northwoods and Deer Run as public roadways, and to extend the Mattapoisett Neck sewer service to lot 27 on Antassawamock Road.
Defeated was an article in support of a petition to Congress in support of bill 3127, and withdrawn were two citizen petitions to amend the general bylaws.
