In the minutes preceding its March 15 regular public meeting, the Old Rochester Regional School Committee unanimously voted to approve a FY24 school budget of $20,970,296, as presented by ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber. The total addressing the needs of ORR High School and ORR Junior High was broken […] Read more »
Nils Johnson, owner/operator of the Inn at Shipyard Park, 13 Water Street, has been repairing and renovating the front façade and porch of the historic inn. Work has been ongoing through the winter until issues recently arose when it was discovered that water and gas lines would need to be slightly relocated to meet […] Read more »
The Rochester Conservation Commission Tuesday night revealed that its dispute with the owner of 89 Box Turtle Drive over clearing land too close to wetlands without a permit has yet to be resolved nearly one year after the problem started. Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior told the board the property owner and his attorney had […] Read more »
At member Jon Henry’s request during Monday night’s public meeting, the Marion Planning Board debated the town’s inclusionary bylaw that requires developers of housing projects to include a percentage of affordable units or pay the town a compensation fee as an escape clause from the requirement. Now that Steen Realty has pulled its […] Read more »
The Rochester Select Board Monday night reviewed the 34 articles proposed for the spring Annual Town Meeting and instantly added one more, perhaps the most impactful of them all. Select Board member Brad Morse motioned to add an article that would remove the town as a Green Community, and the board unanimously agreed. […] Read more »
The March 21 meeting of the Marion Select Board was brief but dealt with a serious matter, public health. The board approved Westport’s management of the Southcoast Public Health Collaborative of which the town is part. The intermunicipal, shared-service agreement, joins the towns of Westport, Marion, Freetown, Lakeville, Mattapoisett and Rochester with sharing […] Read more »
Matt Armando, director of Public Health for the Town of Westport, appeared before the Marion Board of Health during its March 2 public meeting to seek the town’s participation in a Memorandum of Understanding for the Establishment and Maintenance of the South Coast Public Health Collaborative. The grant, according to Armando, is $300,000 […] Read more »
During the March 14 meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission, on this night chaired by commissioner Barry Lima, a longstanding Enforcement Order issued to Kenneth Wood, 1 Pinebrook Lane, was discussed. Brandon Faneuf, the commission’s environmental agent, said that he recently made a site visit to the Woods property where he not only found […] Read more »
If voters at Town Meeting agree, a tennis court in disrepair off Point Road will become four pickleball courts by the end of the year after the Marion Community Preservation Committee voted to recommend the Town of Marion Recreation Department’s request for $75,000 in Community Preservation Act funding. The request was one of […] Read more »
The Rochester Planning Board Tuesday granted one-year extensions to two solar photovoltaic system installation permits for projects on Featherbed Lane and Braley Hill Road. The representative for both plans, Greg Sampson of Boston-based Womble Bond Dickinson LLP, said the sticking point is that a group transmission multiyear study for solar projects in the […] Read more »