Chairman Mike King of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission has established an ebb and flow to public hearings, especially those where abutters’ concerns are raised and/or the complexity of a project warrants additional time in the “new normal” of remote meetings. King has commented several times during the pandemic emergency that he believes it is important […] Read more »
Old Rochester Regional High School plans a real, live, in-the-flesh commencement, albeit in a less-lengthy, make-shift format to ensure proper spacing and public safety. The target date is 10:00 am on Saturday, August 8, with a rain date of Sunday, August 9, at the football field. Here’s the twist: The Class of 2020 will sit […] Read more »
Upon the retirement of longtime public servant David Pierce from his final role as chairperson of the Marion Water Committee and the Mattapoisett River Valley Water District Commission, the Marion Board of Selectmen voted to dissolve the water committee and take on its responsibilities. The Board of Selectmen in Marion also acts as water and […] Read more »
Marion’s Department of Public Works is preparing to apply for a coastal-resiliency grant aimed at benefitting the town’s wastewater collection system. The grant totals $300,000, 25 percent of which has to come from the town. There is an article on the draft warrant for the June 22 town meeting to provide Marion’s $75,000 portion. In […] Read more »
Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar summarized Town Meeting warrant articles for the Board of Selectmen during its June 1 remote access meeting. The board will hold at least one more meeting before the Monday, June 22, 7:00 pm Town Meeting at Rochester Memorial School. The annual operating budget will see a 1.97 percent increase for FY21 […] Read more »
The Marion Zoning Board of Appeals held its first remote access meeting on May 21, solely to approve the minutes from its March 12 meeting. The occasion allowed members of the board to get a run-through on the Zoom video-conference technology that has become, along with similar online platforms, the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic. […] Read more »
A zoning bylaw was debated and dissected on May 18 when the Marion Planning Board met for the first time in six weeks. The remote-access meeting was set up to approve a proposed change in the multi-residential housing bylaw No. 230-5.3, decreasing maximum density allowed via the number of units per acre from 12 to […] Read more »
The Marion Board of Health and Town Administrator Jay McGrail wish they could hire both of the finalists for the part-time health-agent position that was created with the retirement of Karen Walega as a shared health director of the recently dissolved Marion-Rochester Health District. After May 21 interviews with Anna McEntee and David Flaherty and […] Read more »
The Marion Board of Selectmen approved the FY21 budget to be carried to the Monday, June 22, town meeting, and gave Recreation Director Jody Dickerson a platform to explain the town’s cancellation of its summer programs. According to Town Administrator Jay McGrail, the town’s operating budget for FY21 includes contractually obligated increases affecting only two […] Read more »
It had been hotly debated, passionately viewed as an abomination to primal woodlands, not the right fit for the location, and generally believed by abutters and the Mattapoisett Land Trust as just plain wrong. But on May 22 after nearly a year that saw NextGrid Bowman Road LLC being denied a Special Permit by the […] Read more »