Rochester’s Select Board Monday expressed a lot of concerns as it reviewed the soon-to-be-renewed Inter-Municipal Agreement with the Regional Old Colony Communications Center (ROCCC) that, since 2017, has placed the town’s public safety dispatching services in Duxbury.             What would the Rochester Police and Fire departments do without ROCCC’s services, given that Rochester does […] Read more »

The Rochester School Committee met on Wednesday, June 4 in Rochester Memorial School and began with a recognition of two retirees: special education teacher Bridget Wollenhaupt and speech pathologist Janet Bejtlich. Both were praised for their years of service and dedication to their students. Next, new Rochester School Committee member Kirstin Jimenez was recognized for […] Read more »

The Marion Board of Health met on Thursday, June 5. The meeting began with an update on mosquito control, saying residents could request yard spraying as well as the company checking standing water for larvae and doing subsequent needed treatment of such if deemed necessary. Chair John B. Howard then moved on to a discussion […] Read more »

            The June 9 agenda for the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission looked fairly tame. However, the commissioners were soon deep into a variety of wetland related issues from unpermitted clearing, to after-the-fact filings.             In the category of after-the-fact filings was the Notice of Intent (NOI) filing by Robert Beauregard, 2 Jowick Street. In this continued […] Read more »

            Rochester’s Planning Board Tuesday made progress on the Site Plan Review application to build a 20,000 square-foot commercial building for contractor bays with associated access drives, parking areas, utilities, and storm water management system on the west side of Cranberry Highway.             The hearing was continued to the board’s next meeting, but not before […] Read more »

            The town has spent an estimated $11 million on Lagoon No. 1 lining project but the Environmental Protection Agency is asking the town for more work to limit the output of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other contaminants into town waters, according to legal counsel and other officials.             The Select Board on Monday met with […] Read more »

            At a joint meeting of the Planning Board and the Select Board on Thursday, the two boards decided to form a committee to draft a municipal separate stormwater systems bylaw – also known as MS4.             Officials lauded the fact that town resident, stormwater specialist, and the Buzzards Bay National Estuary Program’s Bernadette Taber, […] Read more »

Since the May Town Meeting when a home rule petition for the expansion of the Select Board from 3 to 5 members passed by a majority, many in the community have been holding their breath. Would the Select Board pass the petition on to the legislature for acceptance? Questions arose as to whether or not […] Read more »

            In a short but well-attended meeting Tuesday, Rochester’s Conservation Commission approved an Abbreviated Notice of Resource Area Delineation confirming the bordering vegetated wetlands boundaries at a new address on Walnut Plain Road for an application from Walnut Plain Road Solar LLC.             Concerned abutters filled the meeting room as project representative Andrew Gorman explained […] Read more »

Coming before the Mattapoisett Planning Board as a walk-in to the regular meeting on June 2 was Mike King, who has been attempting to receive the needed permissions to re-open a farmstand on North Street where locally grown vegetables, meat and poultry have been sold.             As King noted, the night before his Special Permit […] Read more »