The town is in an excellent financial condition. This is how Marion Finance Committee Chairman Alan Minard started off his state of the town’s finances address to voters during the May 9 Annual Town Meeting.
“It was a tougher year than usual,” he said, with cuts made here and there in order to provide for mostly level-funded budgets throughout.
Town Meeting approved the $21,122,751 total operating budget with minimal discussion before moving onto other articles, most notably the ones that had to do with water and wastewater, which led to the repeated question by some: How will this affect the rates?
Article 3 started the conversation off with the Water Enterprise budget of $2,093,376, (up 4.16% from FY16), prompting residents to ask how that would affect the rates, to which Finance Director Judith Mooney replied saying there would be a 2.5% increase, same as last year. Article 4, the Sewer Enterprise Budget of $2,737,119, (up 1.35%), revealed a 3.5-8% increase, depending on usage.
“I’d like to say it’s one of those easy blanket charges,” said Mooney, “…it depends on the household, how many [people]…. The high end would be the high-end users, the high tier.”
But it was Article 12 that started the real debate.
The article, which ultimately passed the 2/3-vote requirement, appropriates $1.5 million towards the permitting, design, ad modifications of the town’s wastewater treatment plant to meet the new stricter requirements of the EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
“This is a situation where we have very little choice,” said Minard, giving the Finance Committee’s recommendation that the article be adopted. The amount will likely go down, he stated, “Which reflects a growing understanding of the factors involved.”
Resident Barbara Sanderson asked, “Does it feel to anyone but me like people like us … who have been told we have to be on [town] sewer … are carrying an unfair burden for this work?”
The bond for the work would be paid from the Sewer Enterprise Fund, which is funded by the sewer ratepayers.
Selectman Jonathan Henry explained that a law dating back some years made paying for capital expenditures of systems such as wastewater to be funded by the consumers and not the taxpayers at large.
Further into discussion, resident Joseph Zora questioned the other contributing factors to the pollution in Aucoot Cove saying that if failed septic systems were to be blamed for such a significant part of it, where was the Board of Health? Zora argued against the data the EPA used when drafting the NPDES permit and commented that the town should have an experienced environmental attorney negotiating with the EPA, not the town administrator and selectmen.
“Only then should we allow the EPA to dictate to us what our compliance requirements are because as of today, they are using very bad, bad data,” Zora said.
Planning Board member Jerry “Rico” Ferrari said the Master Plan Committee was looking into tentative data on water and sewer and would bring forth information at next year’s town meeting, but he added, “Unfortunately, you have to go with this amount of money to be in compliance.”
There was more talk about regionalization with Wareham and other communities near the Cape Cod Canal, which is currently in the beginning stages of feasibility exploration.
Ms. Sanderson questioned the appropriateness of having 2/3 of the town vote on whether 1/3 of the town, which is serviced by sewer, should pay the cost for this. Resident, and School Committee member, Christine Winters asked what the percentage of non-paying water/sewer-paying municipal buildings was compared to residential, to which neither selectmen nor Town Administrator Paul Dawson could answer.
Article 13, although it passed, faced some opposition as some, including Ferrari, who is up for re-election to the Planning Board, opposed appropriating $630,000 to replace the Mary’s Pond drinking water well, with Ferrari and other advocating for regionalization over the local water source.
Resident Allan Ditchfield posed the question of tapping into Wareham, and Superintendent Rob Zora said the possibility was looked at several times over the years.
“We feel it’s better to reactivate our well field and tie into that,” Zora said, adding that perhaps five to ten years in the future it would be a more viable option.
Ferrari argued that the Master Plan Committee preferred to explore the tie-in with Wareham option, asking voters to hold off until next year for its recommendation.
“Give the team some time,” said Ferrari. “We don’t need it now. Six months, nine months … it’s not going to make any difference….” he said, except to the taxpayers’ paychecks.
Zora said Wareham could wind up charging Marion whatever it wanted to service the town, and he preferred that Marion control its own resources.
“We own it,” said Zora. “We own it now. We just got to fix it. And it’s a good water source.”
The voters agreed with Zora and the article passed.
Article 14 to appropriate $92,500, down from the $120,000 originally stated on the warrant, to develop and implement a Capacity Management Operations and Maintenance (CMOM) program mandated by the EPA to manage and maintain storm and wastewater collection systems garnered some debate as well, but took considerably less time to pass than the previous articles. Article 16, similar to number 14, appropriating $150,000 towards an Asset Management Program, another component of the EPA’s requirements, passed as well.
The only other article that raised some contention was Article 22 to appropriate $171,473 – Marion’s share of the total $603,000 – to fund ORR’s five-year capital expenditure plan.
There was some debate over the difference between the article’s request for a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion rather than a Proposition 2½ override. Dawson and Minard explained that the exclusion would raise the tax levy above 2.5% for up to ten years, while an override would raise the tax levy permanently. Nonetheless, the article passed.
Other items that were approved were $12,265 for defibrillators for the Police, Recreation, and Facilities Departments; $6,194 to fix the beach house roof at Silvershell Beach; $55,000 for two new outboard motors for the harbormaster’s control boat; $81,804 for a ventilation system for Fire Station 1 and $39,905 for repairs; $25,000 for vinyl tile replacement at Sippican School; and $92,400 to replace the asphalt and rubber roof as well as duct insulation at Taber Library.
For Community Preservation Act articles, voters approved $194,700 for the CPA Budgeted reserves; $111,950 to replace and restore the historic windows at the Pythagorean Hall; and $65,000 for Marion’s share (in conjunction with Mattapoisett and Fairhaven who will contribute an equal share on top of grant monies) to protect 114 acres of land at and surrounding the Mattapoisett River, a local water supply.
By Jean Perry